The Holiday Post: Part 2

New Year’s:

New Year's Eve came the day after we got back from Rome, and that night we went over to my grandma’s house for dinner and of course, the grapes. The twelve grapes are a New Year’s tradition in Spain. The tradition actually began in 1909, when grape growers in the south thought of it as a good way to cut down on the grape surplus that year. The tradition is to eat a grape on each of the twelve clock chimes before midnight. If you finish them all, you will have good luck in the next year. (I finished all of mine, so no worries). It is also tradition to wear something red, and to start out the New Year with a step on the right foot. Haha. I just realized that could be a pun in English. Get it? Start out on the right foot? In Spanish the pun doesn’t work because it’s just "pie derecho." Anyway…after the clock struck twelve, we all toasted with an “Italian toast” (I won’t explain…it was a very lengthy toast with several comical steps...I'm sure there's a youtube video on it somewhere) and then gave everyone the traditional dos besos and a grand “Feliz Año!”

This was by far the end of my New Year’s. At 1:30 a.m., I had arranged to meet with Nuria, David, Patricia, Mendoza, and Juanmi to go out that night. All the teenagers in Spain buy tickets in advance for discotecas on New Year’s. My group of friends began talking about which tickets to buy in early November. (It’s kind of a big deal). We stayed at the discoteca until around 6:00 a.m., and I crawled into bed sometime around 6:30. That’s Spain for you. Needless to say, I was a bit tired when we had lunch with the grandparent’s the next day.

The "Christmas Card" one of my friends photo-shopped. None of us knows what's up with the weird lights on everyone's faces, but it looks kind of cool!
Tres Reyes:

Tres Reyes is the 6th of January, and it’s traditionally the day when the three magic kings come to give gifts to all of the children in Spain. An interesting fact is that because of American influence, more and more families have also adopted the tradition of Santa Claus (Papá Noel, in Spanish), something my host dad says is a problem in Spain because many kids now expect presents both on Christmas and on Three King’s Day. My host parents told me that when they were little, they had never even heard of Santa Claus, but today it’s more common. However, the Three Kings are still much more popular than Santa Claus in Spain.

The traditional cake for Three Kings Day is called Roscón, and it’s basically a sweet bread filled with chocolate or vanilla crème. Inside, two small figurines are hidden. One is the good surprise, usually a small figure of an animal or something similar, and the person who finds it is crowned king or queen for the day. The other surprise is the haba, or bean, and the person who finds it has to pay for the Roscón. In the three Roscónes we ate this week, I didn’t find any of the surprises. Although half of a Roscón is still sitting in the fridge, and the bean has not been found, so I’d better be careful.


My family's Roscón

On the morning of the 6th, I woke up to frantic knocking on my door and Paula whispering “Paige! Regalos!” (“Paige! Presents!”). We went downstairs to find a pile of presents under the tree. I received a jogging sweatshirt and a really beautiful gray sweater from my host parents, ehem, I mean the Three Kings.

Many people comment on how awful it is that I can’t go home for the holidays this year, but honestly I consider myself lucky to get to experience these traditions with my host family. It is something that I will probably not get to do ever again in my life, and so instead of feeling sad, I feel overwhelmingly thankful.


Un beso enorme y un fuerte abrazo

Paige

The Holiday Post: Part 1

Spain’s Christmas season begins sometime around December 8th (Inmaculada Concepción- the Immaculate Conception) and ends on January 6th (Día de Reyes- Three Kings Day).

My Christmas season in Spain was filled with food, family, more food, and more family. I know the memories from these past few weeks will probably be some of the best from my time in Spain. Of course, it was difficult to be away from home for the holidays, but I took the “once in a lifetime opportunity” approach and enjoyed every minute of it.

Christmas cookies:

The Thursday before Christmas, Stephanie came over to make Christmas cookies with me. We actually hadn't planned to meet up that day...or so I thought. We had talked about possibly making cookies, but in the end I thought we had agreed that due to the bus schedules, there wasn't enough time. However, around 6:00, I was out running when I heard someone yell my name, and I turned around to see Stephanie getting off the bus. Stephanie and I live on complete opposite sides of Valencia, and the sheer fact that she managed to get on the right bus to my neighborhood (which only comes once an hour) really impressed me. It was a very weird moment to see her getting off the bus, to say the least. Apparently she had no idea where to get off though, and when she told the bus driver she needed to get off at Mas Camarena (my enormous elliptical shaped neighborhood/small community), he answered, "The whole thing is Mas Camarena!" Stephanie told me she was about to just take the bus back to the city when she saw me running past the bus stop. Ha! It was a very lucky day.

We had a fun night making sugar cookies in the shape of the U.S. and Wisconsin (thanks to some very adorable cookie cutters I brought to Spain) and exchanging our Christmas presents to each other. The cookies turned out great, and my host family loved them, although despite the fact that I told them numerous times they are sugar cookies, they have named them "butter cookies." Hardly any butter is used in Spanish baking, and apparently the amount of butter in the cookies really stood out to them. I was told they taste like "those really buttery Danish cookies." I was going for the classic American sugar cookie, but that works too I guess.

Frosting a U.S. shaped cookie with Nutella

Wisconsin shaped sugar cookies!

Valencia exchange students!

Christmas Eve:

On Christmas Eve, the whole family came over for dinner. If you’ve kept up with my blog, I’m sure you know that “whole family” means my host family, mi abuela (my dad’s mom), los yayos (my mom’s parents), mis tíos (my dad’s brother Fran and his wife Ester), and mi primita Julia (Fran and Ester’s daughter). We spent the afternoon getting the house ready, and by the time everyone came it was perfect. Dinner with the family was wonderful, and for dessert we enjoyed a variety of turrón, Spain’s traditional Christmas nougat-type sweet.


my grandma, Ester, and Julia

at the dinner table with my yaya

assorted turrónes and other candies

After dinner, it was time for presents. In Spain, presents are usually reserved for Three Kings Day, but since the whole family was over, we did presents on Christmas Eve. A funny story about my presents: in Spain, it seems that everyone wears slippers in the house. I never wore slippers in the U.S.- my house was carpeted, and if I was cold I put on socks. However, my host family continually commented on my lack of slippers. My host mom told me one day she was worried I would “hurt myself” if I didn’t wear them. So for Christmas, I wasn't all that surprised that my host mom gave me a pair of slippers. The funny part came when I heard both of my grandmas whispering after I unwrapped them. “Oh no! I bought her slippers too!” And the other grandma: “You bought her them as well? So did I!” Apparently the news of my bare feet had spread beyond the immediate family.


presents under the tree

Everyone stayed until around 2 a.m., when we finally said our Buenas Noches and Felices Navidades and I climbed the stairs for bed. It was a wonderful Christmas with a wonderful family.

Roma!

Last week, my host family and I went on an incredible vacation to Rome. We went for four days, which was the perfect amount of time to see basically everything. And believe me, we saw everything. I won’t bore you with a day-to-day rundown, but basically it was amazing. The ruins were breathtaking, the driving was insane, and the pasta was to die for. I’m so thankful to my host family for this trip.

What was funny about being in Italy was that I realized that when I was comparing things, I compared them not to the U.S., but to Spain. I found myself noticing that they eat dinner “early” in Italy, and then had to remind myself that there was a time when I too, ate dinner before 9 p.m. The thing that stuck out the most to me was the language. I feel like most Americans have this notion of Italian being an incredibly beautiful language. (I know I did.) But after being immersed in Spanish for so long, Italian suddenly sounded almost harsh. I mentioned this to my host dad, and he said that most of the Spanish don’t like the Italian accent. (Although Paula and I did have fun saying “Grazie! Prego! Bonjourno! and Ciao!” to every waiter, cleaning lady, and museum worker in Rome).

So, without further ado, here are some pictures. Enjoy!
El Coliseo!

The fountain we ended up at when I was in charge of reading the map....bad idea...

me inside of the Colliseum

Mmmmm...Italian food! I would like to give a special shout out to this pizza, the cappuccinos at the hotel, and the chocolate cake on the last day.

Swiss guards at the Vatican!

Making a wish at the Fountain of Trevi. I made three actually. (Hey there's no limit!)

Capilla Sistina...breathtaking. We weren't actually supposed to take pictures, but I managed to sneak a few.

Me with Rome in the background

Which marble head looks most like Ambrosio?...