Major Update!

Oh goodness, it's been almost 3 months since I've last posted a blog. Que vida que tengo! My life has been busy these days with classes, private lessons and all the traveling I've been doing. I've gone to Germany, Salamanca and Lisbon and partook in the Carnaval fun since I last posted.

GERMANY

Sledding = FUN

I know Christmas was a while ago, so this bit is short and sweet. :) Christmas in Germany was fantastic. It was the first white Christmas I've had! My break was very relaxing and it was really nice to spend time with Pancho and his family. I'm so glad they let me stay with them for as long as I did. The food was great and the snow was so fun to play in. We went sledding almost every day and it was so much fun!!! The Christmas market was really cute, even though it was like -10 degrees Celsius (that's like 14 degrees Fahrenheit!) when we went.


SALAMANCA

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, Spain

Astronaut in Cathedral

Salamanca was a fun trip. We went at the end of January, so it was quite cold and rainy.  The bus ride was 5 hours long with one stop. The ride there was really nice, the country side is so beautiful and there was even snow!  One of the other auxiliares, Morgan, studied in Salamanca while she was an undergrad, so she knew her way around. We stayed in a hostel in the Plaza Mayor, which was a terrific location. Salamanca isn't a very big city, but it feels larger than Badajoz. It's a beautiful city that has really pretty buildings, mainly cathedrals. It has one of the largest Universities in Spain, so the fiesta was real good. ;)  We walked around, saw the cathedrals and got a feel for the city. I loved how they have pinchos, individual tapas you can choose when you go to a restaurant/bar. They are delicious and have an assortment of pinchos at every restaurant. At some, if you get a cana (a small beer), your first pincho is only 0,50€! In the new cathedral there is an astronaut and an ice cream cone carved into the front that was done during the restoration. Also, on one of the University buildings there is a small frog carved on top of a skull. They say if you find the frog before a test, it will bring you good luck. So in all of the tourist shops there are lots of small green frogs you can buy or you can buy things with small green frogs or large green frogs on them. I guess it's like their unofficial mascot, in a way.

LISBOA

In mid February, I went to Lisbon with some friends to celebrate our friend Rick's birthday. We had some nice weather on Friday morning and all day Saturday, which was surprising because it always rains in Lisbon at some point in the day. We got there on Thursday night, took it easy and woke up early on Friday. We went to the Castle St. Jorge, I had gone there during the December puente, but the weather was much nicer this time around.
After seeing the castle, we went into a cathedral, and then decided we wanted to go to the beach. So we went back to the hostel, talked with the staff there and bought food for a picnic on the beach. The ride to Cascais was about 40 minutes. As we were approaching the end of the line, the weather looked worse and worse. By the time we go to the train station in Cascais, it was pouring. We stood by the bus station for a good 5 minutes debating what we should do. We decided to move to a covered government building and have our picnic there on the steps. We were all starving so it was the best picnic ever. We had chorizo, cheese, chicken, mustard, bread, doritos tex-mex (it's like nacho cheese but less strong of a flavor), campesino flavored chips that taste like sour cream and onion but are less salty and strawberries. Oh and we bought some boxed wine too.

The weather cleared up for about 15 minutes, so we left the site of our picnic and headed for the beach. We all took off our boots and socks, rolled up our pants and ran to the water. It was cold, but it was so nice to be on the beach, hearing the waves, and digging our feet in the sand. We weren't looking forward to the 40 minute ride back with cold feet. haha. It was fine though and we napped after getting back to the hostel.

Sometime between Lisbon and Carnaval, I made a giant apple pie.

CARNAVAL!

Carnaval. What to say about Carnaval? It was just as everyone had described. The size of Badajoz doubled for a weekend and people were out at all times of day, shopping, eating and watching the parades when they took place. My camera died during carnaval, but I managed to get some pictures before it did. On Friday, there was the children's parade, which consisted of 22 groups from all over Extremadura. They call the groups "Comparsas". Each group was dressed in elaborate costumes and had a small drumline to accompany the dancers parading down the street. There were children dressed in costumes that were watching the parade and there were people selling balloons. There was even a santa claus balloon for sale, a little funny.

She had a good view of the parade.

These groups work on their costumes, dances, and music all year. They practice in secret in the country. The little girl with the lady bug wings was too cute. She had a good view and by mid-parade, I did too because people who were in the front left. On Saturday, there were murgas practically all day. They had been on tv on canal extremadura all week, and were performing live in various locations around town. They wrote lyrics to melodies of popular songs and sang about social and political issues. They were ridiculous and were groups of people dressed in the same costume. On Saturday night, if you were going to go out after midnight, you HAD to wear a costume otherwise people might heckle you. On the website for Carnaval that had the schedule and tips of where to go, what to see, and how to get the most of out Carnaval in Badajoz, it said at least 3 times, It is strongly recommended that you wear a costume if you plan on being out after midnight. The website wasn't kidding. I went out to Plaza de Minayo and there was a HUGE botellon that was on multiple streets, in multiple Plazas. There were so many people of all ages dressed in costume, drinking in the street, and having a good time. The city brought in really nice portopotties. I wish they were around all the time. It's hard to find public restrooms here. 

My friend Stephanie and I were dressed as nerds. I wanted to be able to wear suspenders with my costume. A little silly, but hey, it was Carnaval. When we tried describing nerds to people, they just said, "Oh Urkel!" referring to Steve Urkel from Family Matters. 

Stephanie and I dressed in our nerd costumes. We had great colorful socks with flowers and ked-like shoes, but you can't see them. 

I wish I had pictures from the adult parade on Sunday because they wore the same costumes as the children, only there were about 100 adults in each group with crazy big drumlines. Stephanie and I went to get bocadititos before the parade because we thought it started at 3pm, but we got to the street where it was and there was no one there. The parade started about an hour later, just as we were done eating. Though when we returned to the street, it was full of people. It started raining about 5 minutes after we found a spot to stand, so we moved under the bus stop. You would think that standing under a covered bus stop would keep you dry, but we actually got more wet than we would've if we were standing outside. There were people who had their umbrellas open, but were standing halfway under the bus stop. The rain water would drip down their umbrellas and onto Stephanie and me. No fun! I moved an umbrella a few times, but it wasn't worth it. Why would you do that? Stand under a covered area with your umbrella poking out in the rain? Silly ladies. 

Photo Taken by Stephanie

So we moved by El Corte Ingles (a huge department store) and the rain calmed down enough for us to find a new spot to stand. While we were at our new spot, the cutest little boy was next to us. His dad was holding him and he was wearing a winnie-the-pooh costume. He had a balloon and kept giving us the balloon. The groups were so good and their costumes were amazing. They had a long way to walk/dance in the parade. We saw them towards the start of the parade. The music reminded me of being at football games because it gets you really pumped-up and makes you want to dance. There was one group that played the theme song from "Pirates of the Caribbean" which was really random, but was also really well done. 

Monday night was an even bigger party night. The comparsas were out in the plazas, dressed in their costumes, playing their drums and dancing. My friends and I dressed as ninjas this night. We had plastic swords and nunchucks. Too fun. So I found out that everyone stays up all night and goes to San Roque (a barrio in town) at 8am for the burying of the sardine. It signifies the end of Carnaval. My friends and I did this and stayed out in costume, dancing in the rain until the parade began. We lasted until about 1pm and then made our back to town so we could all go home and sleep. What a weekend!