Shortly after returning from my pleasant stay in Lyon, I ventured back to France. This would be my third (but definitely not last) visit to Paris, with new company in tow.
I have an undeserved feeling of possession with this little gem of a city. Unlike a good amount of Americans, I have no feelings of hatred toward the French...but then again, I have no feelings of hatred towards people of any nation.
The great thing about this visit was that the friend I went with, Mark, had never been to Paris. On my first visit, I came with a friend who just like me, was seeing Paris for the first time. We were two pairs of neophyte eyes, seeing everything for the first time together. My second time in Paris, I met up with Lauren, right before my journey into Spain. Lauren had already spent some time in Paris as well, and I felt relieved to be able to visit the city without a tourists' agenda.
This time around I was a bit of a tour guide, but the best thing about Paris, like most big cities, is that there are always new things to discover. I made sure we both saw a few things for the first time. Traveling with someone who hasn't been to a place you know also allows you to see things through their eyes, for the first time again. It's sort of like when you have new guests come over to your house, and as you give them a tour of the rooms and such, you realize that you are looking at everything with a more observing eye, as if you as were seeing everything for the first time, too.
I had three main goals on my list:
1. See Monet's water lilies
2. Go inside the Centre Pompidou
3. Visit my favorite tree
(3 1/2. Eat another nutella crêpe, or two, from a street vendor)
My tree has never looked so cold!! He needs a scarf!
Of course, we did the obligatory Eiffel tower, Louvre, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame run around. There were lots of things that I wanted to do, but we only had three days (Dec. 14-17), and on top of that, it was much colder than I would have liked (33 degrees F/ 2 degrees C). There were some things that were just not possible, like having a picnic on the banks of the River Seine.
All in all, we had a great time. The only part that I didn't get around to was the Centre Pompidou. I had misread the days/hours during which they opened, and thought it was weird, but convenient, that although almost all other museums in Paris are closed on Tuesdays, the Pompidou remained open-- wrong!!
I'm putting it on my next to do list for Paris.
Oh and then there was the part about us missing our flight back to Spain...but I don't want to talk about it. Let's just say it won't happen again and that I have a new found sympathy for anyone else who has ever had to endure the pain and agony that comes along with missing a flight.
Rue de Castiglione- all dressed up for christmas
Right by the ritzy Hotel Le Meurice
The louvre
Jason Mraz walked in this fountain while singing a song!
Watch the video of my future husband
Best view ive ever had from a hostel in paris.
Champs-Eylsees with lots of lights, and cars
GPS
me encanta!
Comidas
After Paris, I only had to work for two more days. Work in December was a joke. I got paid for a whole months work, but I only spent eight days at work.
I kinda feel bad about it...oh, wait... no i don't!
So for one of the last days of school, we had a christmas concert with all of the kids. It was crazy because the parents were all trying to get inside the theater, and there wasn't enough space for everyone to sit. It turned out really well though, and the kids were so cute!
I spent more of my days eating and celebrating traditional Catalan holidays during December. It was absolutely wonderful. These are the things that I was really excited to experience here. I embraced every custom with open arms and I tried every type of new food that I was offered. I have to say, everything was delicious, and I even liked the escargot!
The holidays in December are as follows:
December 8: Santa Immaculada Concepció/ La Puríssima
Although most of Spain is "Catholic", most people aren't practicing Catholics. Thus some holidays like this one are National holidays during which just about everything is closed, but no one really does anything. These three days weekends are usually just an excuse for people to take a short weekend trip somewhere.
December 24:
No explanation necessary...we all know it's Christmas Eve.
I spent this night at the home of one of Teresa's sisters, with the whole familia. This night was one of my favorites because of the peculiar tradition of the oh-so-wonderful Caga tio. This is an awesome custom sort of reminiscent of a piñata. All you need is a log, a blanket, some sticks, and some kids. The idea is that the kids hit the log to make it shit some presents for them. It's kind of amazing. For a more detailed explanation of the tradition, read this : Caga Tio.
Taking a few whacks at the caga tio:
Then uncovering the presents
After a very long and pleasant dinner, Lluis, Marc, and I headed out to a bar for drinks with some friends. Then it was off to a club where the bartenders were dressed like Mrs. Santa Claus, only more fulana-looking. Maybe it's just me, but I don't ever remember hearing of anyone partying at a club on Christmas eve back home. Am I crazy?? I usually just fall asleep with a full stomach and a big smile on my face.
Regardless, I had a really good time. Maybe too good. Keep reading.
Outdoor market in Barcelona that sells christmas-related goods.
The infamous caganer himself.
December 25:
Christmas!!
So I got home at about 6 A.M., after a typical night out dancing and what not. I knew that I was supposed to go to a Christmas lunch with Susana, another teacher I work with, but I stayed out late anyway, thinking that I would be fine the next day. Not true.
I was ridiculously tired...., okay and slightly hungover. I don't know about you, but I don't have too much of an appetite in times like these. Mostly just thirst.
Susana picked me up from my house at around 1:30 P.M., and then we headed to the home of her suegros. The food looked great, but I wasn't in the mood for anything, unfortunately. The company was good though! They had a lot of questions for me about California, and why I wanted to come here, and how I liked Canet, etc, etc. Although this was only a lunch, I had learned by then that this usually means that it will be a 7 hour ordeal, at the least. This is fine by me, as all we really do is eat, talk, drink, eat some more, drink some more, and then have coffee with another side of conversation.
In reality, these are all of my favorite things, so it was great. Oh yeah, and in between the second session of eating, the only child in the family opened some presents. Susana has a two-year old son named Aleix ( pronounced : a-lei-sh ; the "x" in Catalan is pronounced like a "sh") who is currently obsessed with Mickey Mouse. With Susana's family, the tradition has been to open presents on this day instead of the 24th, so we went forth and beat Caga Tio with a stick, just like I had learned the night before.
Aleix's Caga tio.
Aleix, his grandma, caga tio, and a whole bunch of shit--i mean presents!
By the end of the night I was felt a whole lot better. I got home at around 9 P.M, and was ready to just hit the hay. I had to prepare my body for the next glorious, long day of eating ahead of me. That's right, the fun didn't stop here, I still had a long way to go.
Snowflakes
This year has been crazy, weather-wise. It usually isn't that cold here during the winter time, and it's definitely not common for it to snow. There have been a few cold-waves since I've been here, and it's not fun. By cold, I mean the temperature has dropped to 0 degrees, which is not normal here. It has hailed a few times, and there was even a day in January when it snowed!!!
It was pretty, and only lasted for about 5 minutes, but nonetheless, it officially snowed.
When it happened, I was at a bar with some friends watching a Barça soccer game. All of a sudden one of the girls got a phone call and ran outside. Then we all realized that she was going outside because it was snowing, so then we all ran outside too. Its the first time I've actually been outside when it has been snowing. The only other time I saw it snow was about 10 years ago when I was in Big Bear.
Barcelona :(
So for new years I went to a big potluck dinner with some friends here. It was a lot of fun, and we all got pretty drunk before we headed out to a club to dance the night away. The father of one of the guys here owns a restaurant in town, and he let us have the dinner at the restaurant, which was really convenient seeing as there were like 20 of us. We drank, ate, and did the whole count-down with 12 grapes thing at the restaurant. We took off to go to the club at around 3 AM, and we danced until about 7 AM. When we went inside the club, I didn't want to take my purse, so i put my small little wallet in one of my boots, and my ghetto cell phone in another. Ive done this before when i go out to dance....but i guess this night, i danced a little harder, or drank a little more than usual.
My new phone is better than the last, but i had to change my phone number, so that sucked. What would i do without facebook??
Out with the old, in with the new!
Reyes!
The day of the three wise men, or three kings, holds about the same, if not more importance than Christmas. I loved it because it meant that I didn't have to go back to work until the 8th of January.
The actual holiday was on January 6th, but the kings are supposed to arrive at night, so the celebration starts the night before. Every town, no matter how small, has a parade with the kings, music groups, and kids in costumes. It was really funny, mainly because of this:
Since when are the Simpson's a part of holiday parades?
And wall-e?? Well, regardless, you have to admit they did a good job on both!
Afterwords, I went to a dinner with my adoptive Spanish family, where the kings also made a special appearance. (Since the town is small, you can sign-up to have one of the kings go to your house with some prearranged presents)
Gaspar is in the background, and here are his helpers. Just so you get an idea of how small this town is: the girls in the picture are two of my private students, and Gaspar, yeah, that's their father.
The following day, we had the last lunch of the holiday season. It was once again, very delicious.
All in all, I'm incredibly grateful for having been included in all of these festivities with so many families. I ate so much yummy authentic Catalan food, and learned a lot about the traditions here. Oh, yeah, I also gained about 5 pounds.
Balthazar
Gaspar
(And i couldnt get a picture with Melchor, :(. Next year!)
More of the Parade:
One of the floats was made to look like a big wagon filled with coals, and they gave them out to the kids whose parents said that they had been bad, haha!
I had to take one!!
Teresa & me at the parade
A New President
On January 20th, I was sooo happy. I watched almost all of the inauguration live via cnn.com, and like most people, was teary eyed during most of it. It's interesting to be out of the country at this time; being able to hear the reaction and opinions of people here is great. It's completely the opposite than from when i was in Chile after Bush got re-elected. Things are looking good so far, and I have hope.
<3>
