Los Carnavales: Capítan España contra los Espantapajaros

This past weekend, as I stated before, was Carnival.  I have been to one Carnival before, in Cadíz,  and although I did have a great time two years ago, this Carnival did not disappoint.  The best way to describe this amazing experience is going day by day.

Friday:

Friday we went out to eat a place called Crónicas Carnivoras.  This is known to be a cheap restaurant with great food.  And not just great food, but portions that would blow your mind.  The name means die-hard carnivore and everything on the menu is meat.  I was not anticipating when we ordered three tapas, or small portions, and it was enough to fill up four people.  After eating great food and having a beer, I only ended up spending 5€.  This was the start to Carnival.

After, we went to this plaza to do a botellón, which is when everyone gathers together and drinks in the streets and plazas.  I love this because it gives you a chance to meet people and you aren't in a cramped environment.  Contrary to what I've told you, this night we did not dress up.  It was a start to the celebration so people gathered and talked and sang murgas.  Murgas? you ask, those are songs that groups write that are supposed to be funny and usually take hits at current problems like the government, the crisis, and what have you.  In the gazebo, they played videos of all of the different murgas.  This is only ONE of the competitions that Badajoz held this weekend.

We stayed up until about three and then headed to bed.  We knew that the next day would be a lot more exciting.

Saturday:

This was the first night of costume festivities.  People spend all day preparing their costumes.  Some families with younger children walk around town, go to bars, or hang out in plazas during the day while the youth stay inside and rest.

The real fun started around 11 after we had all prepped our costumes.  I borrowed the costume of a friend and paraded myself as a hippie.  Amor y paz, tío.  People work really hard on their costumes and usually end up spending a lot of money, so I went ahead and bought some glasses and an afro because, because, because Carnaval.  My other friends dressed up as a jester, Batman, an elf, Superman, a sailor, and all other kinds of things.  Really, Carnaval is like Halloween on steroids.



We left the apartment and gathered in one of the major plazas and boy were there a lot of people.  We found a spot and started drinking and talking and looking for great costumes.  I clearly had to take pictures with all of my favorites.  At about 3 AM we went to another plaza where a club had a DJ playing music outside.  We were with hundreds of other people dancing in front of the cathedral.  It was unreal.  We even got lucky with nice weather.  It was in the 50's the whole night.

An interesting thing that I noticed happened around 6 AM.  We were on our way home when I saw this group of drummers.  They played music really loud at 6 AM.  AM in the morning.  I was blown away.  It turns out that this group of drummers isn't the only one and that the next day they would have a competition known as los comparsas.

Sunday:

Although I had had a late night, I really wanted to see the comparsas.  I wasn't entirely sure what it was except that it was a parade of sorts.  There weren't any floats or balloons, but what I saw truly blew me away.

Here we were on the sidewalk and all of a sudden a mini-float passes with a sign that shows the name of the group.  Then, immediately behind it is a group of dancers all wearing the same costume.  Some of them were themed like pavos, turkeys, or Michael Jackson.  These groups were dancing to music that we could hear a little further back.  Next comes a cart that houses all of the drums.  The same drummers from the night before were now playing intense percussion music for the dancers.  It was incredible how good they are.  One group even played their rendition of Animals, a popular club song.


I was honestly amazed at how awesome this was.  There were so many people involved and so many people watching from the side.  Kids were already dressed up in costumes as the clapped along to the music.  Us older kids didn't dress up on Sunday though.  I was so exhausted that I slept for most of the day and wished for Monday.

Monday:

Monday.  Monday was crazy.  Again, the festivities didn't start until the night.  My costume this time was as Capítan España instead of Captain America.  I even made a shield that resembled that of Captain America.

This night was essentially a repeat of Saturday night except that it was really, really cold.  This was the day that I wore the costume with less insulation.  That didn't stop me however.  We went out and went to the plaza.  We met a bunch of different people with the icebreaker, "Hey, nice costume."  It was honestly another spectacular night.  It ended at 7 AM and on the way back we noticed my favorite burger place with an outdoor stand.  We payed 3€ for a giant burger and left with smiles on our face.

Tuesday:

Today has been another recuperation day which I needed so badly.  Now, I'm sitting here writing this blog post and not looking forward to working tomorrow.  Luckily, this is a short week as I only have to work for two days.

Wow, I wrote a lot.  This should tide you guys over for a little while.  I hope you can see just how much I love this holiday and how much I love Spain.  Again, you see this sense of community and friendship between Spaniards.  It's incredible.

Until next time, ¡Hasta Luego!

Propósitos en El Nuevo Año

Wow, it's been a while since I've written anything.  So several things have happened since we last talked:

My family came and visited me.  We spent a week traveling around the south of Spain.  I think they enjoyed, but I know for a fact that I did.  We went to Toledo and bought swords, we went to Granada and saw the Alhambra.  We went to Gibraltar, although they didn't let me in because I forgot my passport.  Then we went to my city of Badajoz.  Now, Badajoz doesn't have much to offer.  It is known for being a strategic city that has been through a lot.  It lies practically on the border of Portugal and has been fought over for centuries.  This means that a lot of the buildings and monuments were destroyed over the years and sadly what remains isn't much.  Well, that's the city I live in.  Fortunately, they say one positive thing about Badajoz, Aquí, se come muy bien, or here one eats very well.  Their food has some Portuguese influence and obviously a lot of Spanish influence, so I made sure that my family got to try some of the local cuisine.  Obviously they were not disappointed.

I did go home for a week and that was probably the best decision I've made since I've been here.  I got to see all my family and friends and it reminded me all of the good that America has to offer.  I can't wait to see everyone again this summer.

Then I returned to Badajoz and resumed my life as it was before.  I went to the elementary school during the day and did my private lessons at night.  Some of the classes remained 20 minutes in one direction, fifteen in another, and half an hour for the class that paid the most.  I didn't like all of the traveling, but I endured it for the money.  Well, just as luck would have it, an academy was looking for a new employee to work about 8 hours a week.  An academy is an after school place where they give classes in English.  It was called Britannia and they gave me a chance for an interview.  They have a very interesting style of teaching which comes at students from all sides: grammar, vocab, reading, writing, listening, and conversation skills.  They had a teach leave and they needed a replacement.  I knew that if I were to take this job, I would have to drop the rest of my classes, but because they paid really well and they were in a central location, I took it and now I couldn't be happier.

This job is much more like a teaching position that the teacher's aid position in the schools.  I have to plan a one hour lesson for each class every week and focus on listening and dictation skills.  I've had them make commercials, listen to Mumford and Sons, and even find out the difference between football, football (soccer), and rugby.  Doing this job has made me like teaching.  Furthermore, it's with older kids and adults, the age group that I really wanted.  There's another American there and we are the complete opposite because she likes the younger kids and I like the older ones so it works out perfectly that she gets the younger kids and I got the older ones.

Right after I accepted this job, I went to a town/city called Almendralejo for an even called the Candelas.  Essentially, different groups come together and make these floats or dolls that they end up burning at the end of the night.  They do this to clear all of the bad things from the city and also as an excuse to drink and eat fresh, from-the-pueblo food.  Spain does not disappoint with it's parties and this one was a blast.  What I love about this country is their sense of community.  Everyone of all ages gets together to watch something burn and then the go and hang out in the streets for hours.

(Side Note: One thing I noticed here is that people will talk to everyone.  If you're in an elevator or running on a treadmill people may come over and start a conversation.  Not a chummy conversation, but they talk as if you are best friends.  The people here are so friendly that they talk to complete strangers.  If my dad knew Spanish, I'm sure he would love living here.)

Community is so important to them that it makes me rethink how individual and closed we are in America compared to here.  Not that it's bad because sometimes we need our space, but the fact that everyone in the city comes out on one night is just incredible.

Finally, last week I went to Las Grutas de Aracena with my friends.  This is an underground cavern full of stalagmites and stalactites.  Now, I had been to a cavern before, but this one was so much bigger and so much prettier.  It had underground lakes and so many rocks in different formations.  It was awesome.  Then we stopped in a castle on the way back, but it was closed.  We walked around the back and to our surprise, it was open.  So we broke into the castle and took a few pictures.  Though very well preserved, this castle served as a protective stronghold that would warn other castles if invaders were coming.  Inside, there was not a lot to see, but it was still really neat.

So that's my quick summary of these past few months.  Right now we are celebrating the festival of carnaval.  Carnaval was one of my favorite experiences from study abroad so I am sure I will have a lot to say about this event.  Badajoz is supposed to be in the top 5 best carnavals in the world and I've been excited to see it ever since I found out.  Here's a little taste of things to come.  A toddler dressed up like Edward Scissorhands: