Febrero

Requena
The second week in February, there was an expo for cured meats and wine (Muestra de embutido) in Requena. I went with a group of friends with an organized tour group from Valencia. It was nice to get out of the city for a day. The train ride was lovely with lots of mountains and trees to see. We met at 9am and were in Requena by 11am. We then walked to the city center and went to see some caves that date back to the middle ages that are under the city. The caves were discovered when a construction truck fell through the ground. They were used as shelter from war and was a place where wine was made and stored. The majority of the people in our tour group were foreigners and some did speak Spanish well. Our tour guide for the caves spoke really quickly and she was asked to slow down. Every time someone asked, she said okay and then didn't slow down.

After the tour of the caves, we walked to the tents where the expo was. Each of us got 10 tickets, a cardboard "plate" that came with a glass wine glass and a plastic bowl. There were lots of people and long lines. We waited in one line and they filled our bowls with at least 8 different types of sausage. We tried all of them, some were spicer than others, some were chewy and some were rather dry, but they were better with a sip of red wine. Our train didn't leave until 4pm so we walked around the two tents, tried all the cured meat and wine we could handle.

Badajoz
The following Friday, I went to Badajoz for Carnaval with Morgan and two of her friends. I had to take the 2:45am bus from Valencia to Albacete. I got to the bus station around 2:30 and sat down to wait for the bus. Around 2:40 I didn't see it, so I asked a bus driver who told me I was waiting on the wrong side of the station. That explained so much. I had to run with all my things and barely caught the bus. It was about to pull out from the platform, luckily the bus driver was nice and helped me put my backpack away. He told me I was lucky and I believed him. At 5am, we arrived in Albacete where Morgan and Harmon were waiting for me. From there it was another 5 hours until we reached Badajoz. Morgan and I went to visit at the high schools we worked at last year. It was really nice to visit with some of the teachers and to see my students from last year.

We stayed with our friend, Alonso, who had an extra seven people staying in his house. It felt good to be back in Badajoz, to walk around the familiar streets and to visit with friends. Some of the friends I had made last year who were doing their Erasmus year came back to visit for Carnaval. It was great to see them and catch up. Though it did feel a bit weird to have the feeling like I wanted to go home to my apartment from last year, even though my home was no longer in Badajoz. We dressed up on Saturday night and ran into friends who were out and about. On Sunday we saw part of the parade with the different comparsas. We also stumbled upon a concert that was given by a group of guys who were in a murga. The murgas are musical theater groups that are usually composed of men. They create songs with commentary about events that happened in the past year. Here's a video of what they performed at the club. It wasn't as elaborate as this show, but they were all in costume. They were semifinalists this year and were really entertaining.




Vicky and Harmon had never been to Lisbon, so we took a day trip there on Monday. The weather was fantastic and we really enjoyed the four hours or so we spent there. We even made a friend from Brazil who joined us for lunch.

We had plans to have dinner with Granada, a friend from last year, on Monday night. So we had to rush to find items for a costume and then walk to Lo Nuestro to meet her. Harmon and I bought colorful wigs and Morgan and Vicky bought colorful boas. When we got to the restaurant it was really crowded because a murga was performing at 9pm. We had no idea there was going to be a performance there when we decided on having dinner there. After the performance, which took place behind the bar, we were able to sit at a table and eat all the tapas we possibly could. Dinner went by too quickly and before we knew it, it was time to go back to Alonso's house and pack our bags. We were leaving bright and early the next morning. So we got dressed in our brightly colored wigs and boas and ventured out to join the crowds of people. We danced a lot, saw lots of clever costumes and even got to enjoy the music of the comparsas one last time.