Carnaval Carnaval, Te quiero

In various countries in Europe and Latin America there is a celebration called Carnaval and is usually celebrated for a duration of a month or a few weeks. Some of the most famous carnavales are celebrated in Rio De Janeiro (Brasil), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain), and in Cadiz (Spain).

During this time, there are parades pretty much from noon to night and people dress up, ranging from ridiculous costumes like Homer Simpson to simple ones like animals or cowboys. Some people even dress up at school. Every different town or city has their own parade and is filled with tons of people.

I was happy because I had three days of vacation and didn't have to go to school.

The bad part was that on Saturday and Tuesday (the most important days), the parades were cancelled because it was raining and windy. On the bright side, we had one day of carnaval.

The first fiesta I went to was "Feria de Cocido" in Lalin. Cocido is type of Spanish food that is basically chorizo, ribs, pig ears, cabbage, potatoes, chickpeas, and ham cooked in pot of boiling water. It is rich in proteins and a lot of people find it tasty, but I don't really like it. Apart from cocido, there was also a parade and market where they sold souvenirs.

This is our car.

This is what was attatched to the car

During the fiesta, there is a giant parade. People who perform come from different parts of Galicia and even Portugal. After, most people stay in Lalin to eat cocido, but all the restaurants are filled with people and it is also really expensive. Because of this, our whole parade tour went to a different city to eat churrasco. (Cheaper and tastier)

The following Tuesday, it was raining so the parade in Marin, was cancelled. Instead they had a mini fiesta inside the government building.

This is Sergio Pazos, a Spanish actor

The next thing I went to wasn't a Carnaval celebration, but a fiesta called "La Arribada". It celebrates the day when Christopher Columbus arrived to Bayona after the discovery of America. That is the town where the first American Indian arrived to Europe.

Basically, they had a bunch of cool shops, animals, and also displays of antique stuff they used throughout that century. 

Monumento a Alfonso IX

On Wednesday, the day before school started again, we had a giant parade in Marin. It was filled with tons of people around the whole town. There were people of every age participating in the parades: toddlers to old people.

I still don't know what I dressed up as...

At night, they had a festival called "Entierro de la Sardina" which translates to the Burial or Funeral of the Sardine. It is a tradition they do every year on the last day of Carnaval. It is pretty much a bunch of people dressed in black (some people with masks) and crying and screaming over a dead sardine. Someone dresses up in religious Catholic Clothes and reads a speech. After every few line he reads, people start crying. At the end, there is a band that plays music, and we all march towards the river to throw the fish into the sea. It is interesting but ridiculous at the same time, because they are crying about a fish!

El resumen de Febrero

I enjoyed February and March. On the first weekend of February, I went back to Ponteareas to go to another friend's birthday party. There were around 30 people and we did stuff and videogames. (Mostly FIFA and Call of Duty) We had a good time, although I barely slept. It was hard to sleep since my friends put water in my ears and shaving cream in my hair when I was asleep because I was snoring really loud.

The next day, all my friends had soccer games. I went to see it and they won 7-1. I don't understand because many of them didn't sleep at all, and didn't even eat breakfast, yet they still ran really fast and played well.

And after that, we went to a type of restaurant called "Furancho" which is typical in Galicia. It's not that different from a normal restaurant, just a little bit more antique. Out of the whole restaurant, I'm sure we were the craziest. 

Just like always, we go to fiestas after dinner!

En La Boheme

My friends with Henry Mendez, a famous singer from the Dominican Republic

On Monday I went to my host mom's book presentation. She presented her new book at the Casa de Libros in Vigo, an important chain book store in Spain. The presentation I went to wasn't as big or important but was interesting.

Lamprey! It looks disgusting but it's not bad. (They cook the lamprey in its own blood)

Sete Caveiras/Siete Calaveras

Number 2 best selling Galician book in the Casa del Libro (Vigo)

On February 15th, we had our fourth orientacion. This time, we combined our orientacion with students from Asturias and Leon. It was in Lugo, a city 2 and a half ours away from where I live. We did the same things as usual, talk about our life in Spain, our challenges, and stereotypes and some games. At night, we went around Lugo for a paseo.

Brief Translation: A group of students from various countries from Europe, Asia, United States, and Canada who are participating in an exchange program with students from Galicia, Asturias, and El Bierzo, attended a sponsored visit by AFS Interculture. This organization was created in the United States after WWI to promote educative exchange programs for young people of different nationalities, with the goal to follow a better understanding and respect between different cultures, explained by the coordinator in Galicia, Luis Gonzalez Dopaz, who also added that one of the first AFS Spain students was Eduard Punset.

Upper row left to right: Canada, Denmark, Rhode Island, Las Vegas
Second row: Portland, Switzerland, California, New Hampshire, Germany, Spain, Thailand, Spain

At the end of February, we took pictures for our graduation photos. Every year, the graduation pictures are placed in the school halls.

Clase de Filosofia

I also had the chance to go on a fieldtrip to a fish factory that was a 5 minute drive from my school. It wasn't very exciting, but oh well, it's better than nothing. At least it is one of the main frozen seafood manufacturers in Europe....


                  http://www.marfrio.es/