Pascua, Paella, Processions, & Party Tunes

It is Easter (or was when I began writing this…) and I have just returned from another glorious long weekend.  Last week was Semana Santa, so we had Thursday and Friday off from classes and thus four free days to explore Spain on one of it’s most famous weeks of the year. Warning: this entry doesn't have too many pictures yet, but I will add them as they arrive!

We started the weekend off on Wednesday night with the big Barcelona vs. Real Madrid football game.  This is a BIG DEAL – my host mom made sure that we ate dinner early (something that never happens) in order that she wouldn’t miss any of it, and literally prayed two times during grace that Madrid would win.  After dinner, my friends and I headed off to 100 Mocaditos to watch the game.  100 Mocaditos is our favorite Spanish chain that sells “cervezas,” fried appetizers, and about 50 options of mini sandwiches.  It’s our favorite place to go to on Wednesday nights because everything on the menu goes on sale for 1 euro, perfect timing for the Wednesday night game and our student budgets!  It was AWESOME to watch the game in Madrid.  The restaurant was absolutely packed and the fans were hilarious – some very enthusiastic boys at the front kept getting in trouble for waving the Madrid flag in front of the television and yelling particularly vulgar chants at the Barcelona team.  It is apparently NOT acceptable to be a Barcelona fan in Madrid…the one fan in the bar was almost kicked out.  To top off the night, Madrid won, meaning they got back the “Copa del Rey” cup for the first time in almost twenty years.  I got a text from my host mom telling me I should go to the Plaza Cibeles, where the city always celebrates after Madrid victories.  We took her advice and found literally thousands of young people in the streets celebrating the victory.  Some of my friends even made it onto the news!  However, it turns out that the Madrid team was celebrating so much that one of the players dropped the famous cup from their bus, which the bus promptly ran over and smashed to pieces.   

Here is the link for a youtube video of the cup breaking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezpFrLWOuDs.  It's a bit hard to see, but I still think this is very indicative of the celebratory tone over here in general =).

The bar during the game - notice the concentration!

Admittedly not my picture, but this is what Plaza Cibeles looked like:  

Next morning, my friends and I hopped on a bus to Nerja, a small beach town perched on the Mediterranean on the southern coast of Spain.  It was unfortunately raining everywhere in Spain, but the city was still absolutely beautiful.  The first night, the woman at our hostal recommended a small seafood restaurant, and because we were all starving we decided to go big and order the menu.  My dinner was phenomenal: refreshing gazpacho, fresh cod sauteed in garlic and olive oil, and homemade flan for dessert. 

Nerja: 

The street our hostal was on: 

Or rainy day on the Nerja beach:

The next morning, we found a tiny café perched on a cliff over the water, where we enjoyed delicious baked goods full of Spain’s famous dulce de leche and the fresh squeezed juice of a number of fruits we’d never heard of before.  After walking around for a bit, we met up with one of the girls in the group’s mom, who is married to a man from Spain.  Apparently they met in Nerja, so the two of them and their best man (who still lives there) took us to a local paella restaurant just outside the town and right on the beach.  I think this might have been the best, and biggest, meal I’ve ever had.  They ordered us pitchers of sangria, black sausage (it’s black because it has cow’s blood!), calamari, pimientos (peppers), and tons and tons of paella that they had been preparing for us all day.  Apparently good paella is cooked in the morning and then sits for several hours in order to enhance the flavors.  I learned the proper way to eat jumbo shrimp: break off the head, suck out the brain, and then get your hands dirty finding the other meat.  We spent the rest of the day exploring the beach in the rain and wandering through the little city.  It’s nice to get a little taste of the Seattle weather every now and then.  We were also lucky enough to get to watch one of the town’s religious processions from our hostal terrace.  The entire town is involved – from tiny kids in costumes to the older men carrying the floats of Jesus and Mary – apparently it is quite and honor and time commitment to be involved.

View from the cute cafe we found: 

PAELLA: 

A blurry photo of the procession:

In front of one of the floats!  (it takes a little concentration to see)

On Saturday, a smaller group of us got up to take a bus to the famous Nerja cuevas (caves).  These were also awesome – an enormous hidden treasure that literally feels like you’re back in the prehistoric ages…although the spooky music playing from a CD in the background probably had something to do with it.  I’ll upload pictures as soon as I get my hands on them!      

Caves!

After taking the bus back Saturday night, my friend and I met up for Easter mass on Sunday morning.  I must say, the mass was nice but it feels a bit more like a business here: you say your prayers, get in a quick 1-minute sermon, receive communion, and you’re good to go for a week.  According to my host mom, they’re trying to get more young people to go to church here, because they always go out partying during the week of Semana Santa instead of going to church.  I do like the amount of participation in the mass though, and especially the priest of sermons seem to always be the go out and have fun because God wants us to be happy! 

After mass we went to tapas at Corte Inglés, a gigantic store I still haven’t been able to figure out because it seems to be a Nordstrom, CVS, Safeway, Whole Foods, bar, café, travel agency, UPS, etc etc combined.  My friends tried the traditional torrija (basically French toast soaked in cinnamon and sugar) and I got a tuna bocadillo at the bar.  I think the waiters were bored and enjoying our company, because they brought us a drink called “tinto de verano” and lots of traditional tapas (basically wine and lemon soda).  One of them jokingly asked us if we believe in love at first sight, and then answered “I didn’t either until I saw you.”  We thought it was particularly hilarious that he used the “vosotros” form of you, meaning he was claiming he didn’t believe in love at first sight until we saw both of us.  Funny how pick-up lines seem to sound better in Spanish…until you translate it and then it sounds just as cheesy :).

So I believe that sums up another nice weekend.  I would document my weeks too, but they’re much closer to life at Stanford.  Class in the morning, lunch with our host families, siesta (I have officially learned to nap here), class in the afternoon until about 6-7, dinner at home, and then good old homework.  Okay, so a bit different, but I am finally feeling like I’m getting into a bit of a routine here.  Plus my host mom has finally gotten comfortable enough to yell at us when she’s upset about things like my not closing the blinds at night (and when I say yell I mean scary Spanish yelling), so it looks like we’re finally getting to be family.  At least that is what I tell myself to make myself feel better :).

I promised my brother Will to send him the cool new songs here, so I figured I’d post them here in case anyone else was interested.  Please ignore the strange youtube videos! (My personal favorite song is the first)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrT1YazVXso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFqaz-GP8WM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1bFaawIH8T4#at=40

Thanks for sticking with my again for another looong post.  I’d love to hear what you are all up to!  Feel free to respond here or send personal emails – I miss all of you!

Annie