I had an awesome time during Christmas Break and I most definitely enjoyed it. The week before the winter break, my host family and I went to A Coruña, around an hour and a half drive, because my host dad had a Conferencia. We spent most of the time "paseando" (walking) and I have to admit that the city is a lot nicer than Vigo. We went inside the "Torre De Hercules", built by the Romans in the 1st Century, and the oldest lighthouse in the world still in operation. It is also a UNESCO Heritage Site.
On the first weekend of my Christmas Break, I went back to Ponteareas to my friend's birthday party. I had to take three autobuses, which took around 2 hours but it was worth it. There, we had a sleepover and played FIFA all night. It was fun, but tiring at the same time because I only had two hours of sleep! The next day, I played a little bit of futbolin, then went to another friend's house. At night, we all went to his Christmas concert, because his trumpet band was playing there. It was at the Gulans Casa Cultural (community center), so there were lots of kids and parents watching. After that, all of us went to a fiesta. The typical order is: Lo Que faltaba, Pub Grolos, Addelio, and finally La Boheme.
The next couple of days, I didn't do too much, except pasear and rest a little bit. On Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) My host family and their kid's families ate dinner at our house. We had a good time and at the end of the night, my host dad lit some fireworks. I don't know how he does it, but it involves lighting a cigar and strapping it to something.
Santa Claus (Papa Noel) exists in Spain and the tradition started recently because of American movies and commercials, but it isn't a big deal here so the kids didn't get any presents.
On Christmas Day, we went to Ourense, the provincia beside Pontevedra. My host mom's son lives near Ourense, so we picked him up and went to my host mom's parents house in Verín. Verín is a small town near Portugal and and hour and half from Marin. There, I met my host mom's two other brothers. One of her brother, Juan is from Andalucia and has a cool Andaluz accent. He had to drive ten hours to get to Verin! Her third brother lives in Taiwan. Apparently, my host mom cooks better than her mom, but I can't decide which one is better because the food that day was delicioso.
The next day I went to A Coruna for the second time, because we went to see Cirque Du Soleil. I've always wanted to see it and now I finally have. The show we saw was called Quidam and the crew had been touring around the whole Europe for a month. The stadium was filled with people and I think it was sold out. It was an amazing show; some parts were funny and some parts displayed cool stunts.
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/es/shows/quidam/default.aspx
The following Sunday, I went to my host dad's grandson's soccer tournament. There were many teams competing where each were all from different cities around the region. (Pontevedra, Marin, Bueu, Cangas, Ponte Cadelas). They were around 10-11 years old, and I think they are probably good enough to beat 14-15 year olds in Canada. I didn't know this before, but in the leagues for younger kids, they mix boys and girls up. Turns out, the two best players on the team are girls! They eventually loss in a penalty shootout, but it was a good game.
On New Years Eve, we went to Pontevedra to pasear and to watch people run a marathon. Every year on December 31st, in all parts of Spain, they have a marathon called "La Carrera De San Silvestre" and more than 1,300 people in Pontevedra joined. There were around 200 marathons on that day. All types of peopl were running: Kids, old people, people in ballerina costumes, rugby players, people dressed up as Santa Claus...
We had the last meal of 2013. In Spain, they have a tradition of eating 12 grapes at 12:00 am. 12 grapes for 12 months of good luck. You have to eat one grape for every sound of the bell. It would be awesome if I could take this tradition back home. At around 2 am to go to a "fiesta". Not wasn't my type of fiesta but it was a unique experience. Normally, nobody sleeps the fiestas en el fin de año because it is the biggest fiesta. It is like the superbowl of the fiestas. The tradition is to eat churros with hot chocolate in the morning. It is a shame that I missed the biggest fiesta, but oh well, no pasa nada...
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| There was a band playing music and around 40 people watching. I'm sure that almost everyone was at least 65 years old and I was by far the youngest. |
On January 6th, it is supposedly when "Los Reyes Magos" arrive which is probably the biggest Christmas tradition. On January 5th, the kids leave their shoes and a little bit of food for them (like Santa Claus), and on the 6th, Los Reyes Magos bring their presents. It was a pretty busy week because I had to buy gifts for people and I had to think of stuff that they liked. In the afternoon, we went to the Centro de Marin (downtown), and watched the parade. Every time the cars passed by, they would throw us tons of candy. There was traditional Spanish music, people on horses, trains, and the Christmas atmosphere was amazing. We went to the nativity scene, where my host dad narrated and his son dressed up.
The next day, there was another fiesta, fiesta de San Julian/San Xulian. It wasn't a big fiesta and nothing special happened, because it is only celebrated in the neighborhood (parroquia) we live in.
And that my friends concludes mis vacaciones!
Hasta Luego!
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