Can't Be a Parade Without Feathers

It was Feb 9th and I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous.  I was about to do a choreographed routine in front of hundreds if not a thousand people.  Not too nervous per se, just unsure on what to expect and if I was going to be judged by officials of the carnival on my quality of dancing, because let's face it, Faith is no professional dancer.  The streets of Igualada are normally pretty quiet.  There is  always someone walking around the narrow streets but it is in no way a "hopping" town.  Carnaval is a whole different story.  We took our spots in the long line of floats.  Each float was blasting their own music and let me tell you, they love gangnam style here.  Our tractor equipped with our own stereo was situated between two very different floats.  In front of us was a board game float with 200 people behind it dressed as board game pieces and dice.  I think this was a school related group because there were many middle school aged children dressed as various colored parcheesi looking pieces with larger parent pieces.  They even had dice the size of large TV boxes that they were tossing around like beach balls.  Behind us, there was a much smaller group dressed as zombies.  Baby zombies, children zombies, and adult zombies were practicing their zombie routine before the parade started.  Then, there we were in the middle, looking fabulous in our white tool with sequins and feathers, white pants and shirt, and of course a colorful mask.  The downside, we did slightly resemble chickens but the fact that our voluptuous sleeves looked magnificent as we did our dance made up for it.  In reality, I was expecting a parade similar to 4th of July Farragut parade.  Come to find out, it was much larger and only got better as we made our way through the streets.  The streets are so narrow that you could high five people as you went along if you really wanted to.  More people than I realized even lived in Igualada lined the streets.  After realizing that Igualada has a population of almost 40,000 people, however, I take that back.  Everywhere was packed and the kids were all lined up in front to see the action.  I kind of felt like a rockette with my poofy arms and everyone watching as we did our routine.  I also realized how tiring smiling and dancing for 2 straight hours is.  Let's just say, while my experience with entertainment dancing was fun for a night, becoming a rockette will not be my plan B as a career.  The other au pairs were in the crowd and ended up getting some lovely footage of our dance.  My "host aunt" was in the crowd also and called my name I walked by.

Large Parcheesi Board float in front of us

Feather sleeves galore!

The crew!

In action!  We had two lines with the kids dancing in the middle 

Other examples of costumes.  Everyone eating dinner post parade.

Post parade exhaustion

The parade ended at around 9pm and for a treat, all the paraders got a free dinner.  It was funny to see egyptians, trees, fish, and all other sorts of costumes standing around eating dinner in the plaza.  Come to find out, we were being judged.  The prizes were announced and although we did not win one of the top places, we did win 200 euros!  At this point it was around 10pm but the night was still young, especially during carnaval.  Therefore, I joined some of the other au pairs at a bar.  This bar happened to be owned by a couple who swims with me each week at the gym so I was forewarned that there would be karaoke.  I came prepared, singing voice ready, and the au pairs joined together to sing, "Dancing Queen" by ABBA and "Wannabe" by Spice Girls.

The bar tweeted our wonderful karaoke! We're famous!

The very busy and fabulous day was followed by the most unproductive day I've had here.  Maybe one of the most unproductive days I've had in my life if you don't count post-op days.  It's one of those pajama days where you only move to eat.  Instead of allowing myself to be upset because I could be doing something productive, I fully embraced my laziness and had no regrets.  The family was gone for the weekend, so I slept in, made myself some meals, and watched movies.

It was great to have a lazy day but I was ready to get back to real life.  Who am I kidding, living in Spain isn't really real life either, just a great way to spend 6 months.  I love it here so really just back to a little more structured life and normal weekly schedule: work with the kids at night helping them learn english and playing, teaching english classes, going to dance and swim class, going to intercambios (speaking spanish half the time and english half the time with a local), and volunteering at a local school.

One weekend, I traveled to Bell Munt with my host family.  Bell Munt, sounding awfully similar to Bay Moon when spoken quickly in Catalan, is an extremely small town of around 200 people, consisting of around 30 families.  I had the opportunity to meet the entire side of my host mom's family and they were extremely welcoming.  We drove around and I learned about the Spanish civil war in 1936.  It was difficult to imagine the beautiful town with characteristic spanish buildings and rolling green hills as a war zone.  I studied more about this and learned that after they lost this civil war, their Catalan culture was extremely oppressed.  There will be more information about this in my history post.  Stay tuned.

I've started teaching english conversation classes at a local bakery.  While they are not formal classes, I do still need to prepare my lessons.  Though most are not sure exactly where TN is in the US, they certainly know the state.  In case you're wondering about TN's stereotype in Europe it is: full of cowboys, the home state of Elvis, and it is the proud owner of Jack Daniel's whiskey.  Therefore, what better way to start my first class than with some fun facts about my home state.  You should have seen their reaction when I showed them an advertisement for Dolly's one and only Dixie Stampede.  Racing ostriches, eating without utensils, and climbing large logs as fast as you can seemed very far off.  Since then, I've taught classes on differences in food and holiday traditions.

Within the first few weeks, I had noticed certain customs concerning food.  While out to eat I never know exactly what I'm ordering, especially if the menu is in Catalan, so I just make an educational guess and hope for the best.  I've found some of the best food this way and there hasn't been much I haven't liked (but who am I kidding, I'm the least pickiest person in the world).  Tapas are very common here and often, a large group will go out to eat, order tons o' tapas, then dig right in.  Patatas bravas can be described as wedge fries with a spicy mayonnaise type sauce.  There's also green peppers boiled in oil with salt, which are delicious.  Today, I had a pretzel coated in white chocolate with coconut.  I'm hoping to put some recipes up here soon but these will be Faith-level recipes, i.e. soups and simple things.

Back to food.  Don't attempt to drink coffee black.  In the US, I like to think that I am hard core for drinking my coffee black, but in reality I am weak.  Our black coffee from the US is simply watered down and may have some extra flavoring to it, like vanilla.  In Catalonia however, the plain coffee is served in a teacup meant for Barbie sized people and is stronger than anything you've ever tasted.  So, as most everyone does here, I order cafe con leche.  It is half concentrated coffee and half frothy whole milk (notice, not cream) with a packet of sugar (VERY necessary).  So, not the healthiest thing in the world but it is definitely fantastic.

Other lists of foods I have enjoyed: white rice, tomato sauce, with a fried egg on top.  Bread, olive oil, and tomato.  All sorts of vegetables soups! Basically just cut up a bunch of vegetables and boil them.  Omelets cooked with potato wedges (very popular).  Croquetas (a fried doughy type round thing filled with porky creamy stuff, tastes much better than I made it sound).  After cooking a pizza in the oven for a few minutes, crack an egg on top and let it seep into the pizza slightly.  SO GOOD. Let's not forget the incredible amount of pastries they have here, usually a variation of a croissant.

The pastries here are WONDERFUL.  Desserts aren't extremely popular here but if you're craving something sweet after a meal, you can go to one of the many bakeries around.  You can buy one croissant with chocolate or any other filling that your little heart desires: esponjas, which are fried dough that taste like homemade donuts, eclairs with coffee cream and much more.

Breakfast is when you wake up, Lunch (their dinner, the largest meal of the day) starts around 2pm, and supper is around 9pm.  It is extremely normal to eat about 2 or so hours before you go to bed.  When I went to talk about my experiences in Europe and my life in the US to a group of 10th grade girls, I mentioned that we usually ate dinner around 6 or 7pm.  One girl's eyes widened and she stared at me in disbelief.  She then asked if since we ate dinner at 6, do we all go to bed at 7pm?  It's as if we should be starving by the time we wake up because we wait 5 hours after we eat before we go to bed.  Eh, it's what you're used to I guess.

While many of these things I noticed within the first few weeks, I noticed something new within the past week.  While I was at a school for English day, each of the teachers were taking a snack break and having fruit.  The fruit was on a plate accompanied with fork and knife.  I watched as each teacher used their fork and knife to carefully cut off the skin and cut off appropriate sized pieces before eating them.  A banana was no exception.  The knife cut along the edge of the banana peel and then the banana was cut in bite sized pieces.  I have never seen such a formality with fruit but I respected it.  In the US we tend to rush eating and are quite informal, eating a bagel on the way to class or eating lunch while walking around.  If there's a stereotype about US food here it's our inclination to eat fast food.  While I have not gained the patience necessary to eat a banana with a fork and knife, I have come to appreciate time spent while eating.  It is based on quality not quantity and enjoyment rather than convenience.    Rumor has it that Spanish meals can last ages and that can be true.  Meals are a time to enjoy the food slowly while socializing with friends and family.  This is mostly true for meals outside the house on the weekends or special occasions when life is not so busy.

You may notice that I have been using US instead of America.  I was talking to one of my students and he mentioned in the politest way possible, that it is a little strange for the US to refer to themselves as America.  Not even considering South America, the US is only part of North America.  I simply have never thought about it that way before but he is right.  He said, if someone from Brazil said they were from America, that would sound completely normal.  For example, before the new pope was selected my host mom predicted that he would be American.  Indeed, as a native of Argentina, he was.  In the US we are taught that there are 7 continents, 2 of which being North and South America.  In Europe however, many students learn there are 6, with North and South combined as "America."

The first Sunday of every month, many museums in Barcelona are free.  While many of our friends were on a skiing trip in Andorra, we decided to travel over to Barcelona and take advantage of free things because let's face it, money should be spent on important things like cafe con leche.  It was a gorgeous day to be in Barcelona.  We could feel spring approaching and I couldn't wait for it to get here.  I only brought one winter coat abroad and am ready to put it away for a few months.  We decided to visit the museums, MNAC and the Placa del Rey.  As true with many museums, the architecture of the building can be just as impressive as what's inside.  This is no different for MNAC.  As you approach the museum from a quarter of a mile away, you can see it sits on top of a hill and is magnificent.  It's a gorgeous castle with trees and fountains lining the hill.  The MNAC looks over all of Barcelona and has an absolutely gorgeous view.  It comes with a price though and that is the stairs to get up.  Have no fear oh lazy ones, escalators are provided if you so desire.  At the top, we looked out at the grand city of Barcelona while listening to a typical spanish genre of music from a guitar.  There's something about street music on a beautiful day that I just absolutely love.  It's kind of like living in a movie.  The music from the soundtrack of a movie always adds to the emotions of the characters and really relates to what they are feeling.  Ever wanted to be an actor? Just go down the streets of a big city and…BAM automatic soundtrack to your life.

Walking up the steps to MNAC

I apologize for the randomness of ideas that I have thrown at you but I've learned bits and pieces of information as I've been living here and want to share it all!  One interesting fact: within the last year, the city of Barcelona has started to regulate who is allowed to play on the streets.  Each musician must apply for a musical street license and if they are deemed to truly be musically talented, they are allowed to ask for money on the streets.  It seems like a strange idea, but apparently it was necessary because the amount of musicians was causing quite a hubbub of sound for the tourists and it was not pleasing to the ear.  Now, walking through the subway or in the park, you can hear full bands, people playing/singing rumba, and others and it is quite enjoyable.  Many are in the plaza so you could be having a nice coffee outside when all of a sudden a man with an accordion comes up and serenades the whole restaurant.  If you want to get a taste of rumba, typical spanish music, you can download a free album here: La Pegatina Free Album   In order to download the free album you have to share them via some social media outlet, let it be Facebook or twitter.  Completely worth it.

More about musicians.  If you want to be a local musician, it seems that Catalonia is the place to do it.  When you go to a bar to hear a band, the entire bar becomes quiet once the music starts.  In the US, the music is more of a background however, here, you are expected to stay silent and enjoy the music.  A little inconvenient if you came with friends but very respectful toward the musicians.

Even though I've been here for 2 months, I still learn something new every day.  While the rebajas (sales) had been going on since I arrived and just recently ended, I didn't realize that they were government regulated.  It is illegal for a store to have sales outside of the official sale period.  They can give discounts, but large sales are prohibited and this is to protect the small boutiques as they are an important part of Spain's culture.

Alright so sorry this post was all over the place but hope you enjoyed.  More to come later!