Etxean

I suppose I never "wrapped up" this blog because I didn't want to admit that the adventure was ending. Bah.

At the end of May, I said my "gero arte" to classmates, teachers, and host family. It was rough, being there for 9 months. Alright, in all honestly it wasn't so difficult because in my mind I was once again going home for a 1-month holiday, soon to return to Donostia. But in reality the return date is unknown, although believe me when I say I will be back. Going back is one thing that drives me.

Anyways, after departing the Basque Country, I spent some time with my parents in Barcelona, and we met up with my friend Gerard. He was a great tourguide for us, and it really helped make the process of leaving less sudden and lonesome. I even spent time with his family and girlfriend after my parents left for the USA.

When I got back home, I experienced some of that charming Reverse Culture Shock. I had become so used to my life in Basque Country/ Spain that American things were strange to me. They still kinda are, but I'm mostly readjusted.

• When my change was $1 and so many cents, I was surprised to receive paper money
• Way more water in American toilet bowls
• A noticeably more overweight population in America
• Streets and pedestrians

As for the language, I fear I'm losing it instead of using it. No longer being immersed in Spanish makes me lazy to practice. I don't have to bother translating everyday activities. However sometimes in conversation I do have the urge to blurt out a response or comment in Spanish, which in my mind makes up for the slow decline of my vocabulary and conversation speed. Ah well. It's only natural...hopefully when I get back there I will pick up where I left off. :)

BURGOS

Last week we took a school trip to Burgos, about 2.5 hours from homebase. I think I actually learned a lot on this trip! But too lazy to detail, so I'll just post some pictures with captions. WHooopy!

Catedral de Burgos, a stop on the Camino de Santiago and a reason  Burgos is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Ceiling of the sacristy in Roccoco style. Our guide was fun and made sure we learned plenty of new Spanish vocab words

Maqueta, model, of the Catedral. It's a seemingly endless place.

Abuelitos!

Statues.

Kelsey and I decided the orange roofs make Burgos look "Spanish".

We decided to visit the castle and well, unbeknownst to us the tour included going into the tunnels surrounding the well where there were boobie traps over 700 years ago.

La Catedral de nuevo, con mejor tiempo, better weather

El Cid Campeador. We read his tale (in English don't be impressed) last year in a Spanish lit class. He is buried inside the cathedral. 

Me cago en la leche!

For me, today is about as frustrating as a day can get in my current situation. Meaning, keeping in mind the perspective that I am still living the dream in San Sebastián, it isn't such a bad day. But compared to other moments here, I'm just ready to say "aaaargh!"

I had 4 English classes again, my last ones in fact, but perhaps due to the heat I was beat after just 2. Anyways, then I headed to my host fam's for lunch. I asked last week if I could come since I was on a tight sched and the 1st school is right near their house. However, I am out of minutes so I sent Kelsey a msg to double check that it was ok this morning. I rang twice and nobody answered, and I didn't wanna be a pest so I just left. As I was leaving I was a tinge sad to be forgotten about, but I also thought "but...but what if she made me lentejas?" Anyways, I got over that ~pain~ by eatting half of a frozen pizza. Far from home-cooking, but oh well. After the last class I was supposed to meet my friend at the spa to get some "relax" in. Unfortunately she was unable to make it and we were then going to hang on the beach since I already had my swimsuit with me. Walking the length of the beach in long pants, I finally made it to the bathroom/changing areas only to find out you apparently have to pay for that luxury. Frustrated, hot, and tired I just went home. Bahh! Such nice weather and I wasted a siesta indoors.

Anyways, that was only minor frustration, no pasa nada. When it really started to pain me was when I saw the notice that my favorite Spanish band, and truthfully favorite band that currently plays period, is going on tour. In September. Of course, I will not be here during that time. Out of all the months I've been here, they couldn't have decided to go on tour?! Seriously! Estuve pero rabiosa!! WHYYYYYY!?!?! On second thought, at least it is a while after I'm gone and not like a few weeks. If that were the case you can bet I would be in a hurry to change my ticket's departure date jejeje. But really...I just can't even deal with the harsh reality at this moment! Buaaaaa.

Then, la gota que colmó el vaso: I found out my host madre did indeed make lentejas. Just for me, since she doesn't even like them but knows I do. GOSH DARN THIS DAY. Pedazo de mierda, de verdad! Es que...Kelsey left a message that said I might have to wait 10 mins bc madre was going to the store at 1, but obviously I didn't get it til after the fact. I MISSED THE LENTEJAS! Buuu. On the plus side, I will be going for leftovers tomorrow. :D

And honestly, I realize that all this complaining is illegitimate bc I'm in Spain! It is always a fabulous day here! I haven't posted in a while bc I've been busy. There have been moments when I remembered how extra lucky I am, but you just won't get to read thos. :P Oh, other pain of the day is tomorrow I have 2 papers due: 20 pages on Basque Carnivales and 6 on Buñuel. Nearly finished, so it's a huge relief to me.

Today was a swell day. The weather was de maravilla, the students I worked with were well-behaved, everything was splendid. Yes today was an English teaching day, in fact I had 4 classes rather than the usual 1. The first 3 were at an Ikastola, meaning the classes are taught in Basque. Aw yeah, how exciting! There were even international students--one each from China, Ecuador, and England. That impressed me because these kids came here perhaps not even knowing Spanish (ok, obviously the ecuatoriano did), and now they are taking classes in Euskera, Spanish, and English. Quite amazing! Actually, the British student knows Spanish and Basque for class, and speaks English and Welsh at home. Welsh and Basque! An incredible linguistic combination, really. In addition to these pleasant classes, my regular class that tends to be disinterested in anything I say (it's age-appropriate I guess) seemed more attentive than usual. Jeez, 4 classes is almost like being a real teacher. Haha, almost. To wrap up a tiring day, I took a nap on the beach. C'est ma vie!

Yesterday and Monday were free days thanks to the puente. Since Tuesday was Labor Day, in Spain the Monday is automatically also a holiday. Word on the street is Rajoy (current president) wants to change it. I'd like to see him try, as these folks are loco for puentes! :D I went to Ireland for a few days (post to follow) and yesterday went to the local cemetary. Morbid? Perhaps. There is only one in San Sebastian, so I wanted to investigate. Well, in case you were curious as to differences between a Spanish and American cemetary, there are no grassy pastures in this one. Just rows of ornate tombstones, dedicated to entire families rather than couples. Many of them say "Property of Don Jose Fulano" (example) and then list all of the relatives buried there. I saw one with the oldest having died in the 1890s and then the most recent in the 2000s. A lot of family history in one hole eh.

Semana Santa II: Praha, in the Old Country

Sunday afternoon we arrived in Prague. The mother country! Hooray! The architecture is a delight, just as I hoped. Most of the people do speak English, which is lucky because Czech is for me hard to grasp since it isn't a Romance language. We picked a good time to come-- despite the cold, at least it didn't rain much and the Easter markets were open.

Day 1
Our first meal was in a pretty authentic restaurant. It had tables separated, but all in a long row, and there were a good amount of families there probably celebrating the holiday together. At first I ordered just 3 dumplings, and Autumn did the same. They gave us a weird look. In my family, dumplings are fist-sized balls of dough. In Prague though, they are the size of baguette slices. Can't make a meal out of that! So I ordered it as a side dish for schnitzel, yumm. We also did some money exchanging this day. Czech korunas are at a very different rate than USD, euros, or British pounds, which are all relatively equivalent. I believe 100 euros was worth about 2200 korunas. We're rich!! Not really, bc according to our guide, 200 korunas buys a lunch and beer. For dinner we had kielbasa from a nearby Easter market. Comes with complimentary rye bread. :) Oh, I bought myself a decorated egg. It's life with me would be short: I wore it around my neck for safekeeping, and then leaned against the Charles Bridge. Oops. :\ Our first night we were quite tired, but didn't get much sleep being in an 8-person room with a mad snorer. It happens.

Day 2
We decided to take a Free Tour which was in fact, an excellent decision. We not only saw a lot of the city to get an idea of places to go, we also learned a lot of history. The 20th century was not a very joyous time in Prague. We strolled the Charles Bridge, where we were treated to their jazzy Bridge band, and did some souvenir shopping. We also saw the Infant of Prague, the inside of the church is very elaborate. Strudl was definitely eaten today, can't remember what else. At night, as per recommendation by our guide, Autumn and I went to see a musical performance. It was a string quintet that played a variety of classical pieces. Quite pleasant, and apparently the thing to do in Praga. In our hostel we had a 4 bed room, because that night our friends Diana and Meghan arrived. It was like our own hotel room, dobre!

Day 3

We repeated some of the attractions, now that our other travel companions were in tow. There was light rain while on the Charles Bridge, which made for some cute umbrella pics. Luckily, my strawberry umbrella is just precious. :P Lunch was at an Easter market, and I had what I dub the Czech pizza: fried bread, topped with shredded cheese and ketchup. And the kind sir gave me 2 for 1 since he claimed they were small. Yum! :) Later on in the day, we took another tour, this time in the Castle area of Prague. It's up a bit of a hill, and not only is there the castle but some churches and just another neighborhood essentially. We saw a changing of the guard ceremony, and stood in a place designed so that apparently you hear your voice extra loud or something. (Not sure, it didn't seem to work for me) After the tour they recommended a Monastery with national award-winning beer. Since the Czech Republic consumes the most beer annually, this honor seemed pretty legit. I tried the special Easter Beer, which did magically taste more springlike than the other brews I've had. Afterwards we strolled down Nerudovny Street. Here's a fun fact: Pablo Neruda got his name from a Czech author named Jan Neruda. 

Day 4
We all had lunch at a place with a new friend from the hostel. The tables here have their own beer spout or whatever it's called. On top of that, there is a screen on the wall which says which table has drunk the most beer so far. Clever marketing strategy, eh! The table near us had over 7 tallies (and 10 people, mind you), whereas we had 2. Woopie! Today was nice because we got to split up differently (9 days travelling together...everyone gets a bit annoyed heh). Diana and I went to the lock bridge, where couples put a lock around the rails to represent their undying love. Even I find it sweet! :) We also saw the Lennon grafiti wall, where the day before unbeknownst to us, Autumn had left her little mark within the heart. Other Prague classics we saw were the freaky baby sculptures, and an odd shaped building featured on postcards.

Day 5

Last day in the old country. Autumn and I had a few things on our final to do list for Prague, one of them being walking up a hill to a giant metronome, which represents the Czech people moving forward after communism (if I remember correctly), and also provides a nice view. Bueno, for the first time on the trip the rain really got in the way. My darling Converse have holes in the bottom near the heels, which is not conducive to rain. Being the former girl scout as I am, I was resourceful and put plastic bags around them. Sure, people stared at my fashion choice, but it served me well for maybe 15 minutes. Then I was just carrying around bags of water around my ankles  haha. We scaled the stairs, took in the view for a few minutes, and were then already wet and decided to go back to the hostel to dry off and remain that way until our flight. Waiting in the airport for our flight, there were some people speaking Basque. Although I didn't understand, I sure recognized it, and felt relief. We were almost home. :)

Kerryoke

If nothing else, I feel accomplished after last night. It was a lot of fun, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it "crazy fun." :P

First, I went with Kelsey to Pan Jueves, a little gathering of foods held by her group of friends every Thursday. Afterwards to celebrate some fellow American's bday, we went to karaoke. It was drizzling, and we almost didn't find the place, but finally reached it with success. In total there were 5 Spanish people our own age, 2 older Spanish women, and a dozen Americans from my program. Weird, I have never hung out with so many Americans at once this semester. The song selection was mostly "classsic" Spanish pop, with only 5 English songs. Unfortunately, I am not well-versed in Spanish pop, rock yes, but not pop. BUT ALAS: there was one 80s tune I knew quite well, translated as "Forget me and hit the road." Ah, yes, it's a duet between a man and a woman. So logically I asked one of the fellas in the group of Basques to sing along with me. It was awesome. Maybe it wasn't even that great, but in my head it was fantastic cos there I was on stage singing with passion in Spanish, and gesturing appropriately to the lyrics, with this guy I've never met before. Classic.

Here's the song.

Un finde fantástico

We interupt your Spring Break broadcast to recap this weekend, since it's fresher in my memory and was just splendid. My mom, aunt, and uncle came for a visit, which was sweet although confusing at the same time...family from home but I'm in Spain...hard to wrap your head around.

They got here Friday afternoon, and the weather really was not cooperating. It was rainy, but stopped just long enough for us to start walking to their  Pensión...five minutes later we were caught in the pouring rain. Gee whiz! So Friday was mostly a travel day for them, but we took a little walk around the town and had Kebab for dinner/lunch. It was early even by American dinner hour standards, but filling enough so that a Spanish hour dinner was not required. My aunt got me some cool purple shoes as a fashionable bday present.

At night I went to a concert with my bro and it was a great time. Berri Txarrak, my favorite current Basque band. Well...technically it's the only band I know that sings all in Basque. Of course I didn't know the lyrics, but I recognized some of the melodies at least. Also, I would like to note beforehand the lead singer was outside a bar approximately 10 feet from us, but we were too shy to ask for a photo I guess haha.The venue was bigger than a bar, but small enough to be personal. And it was packed with Basque youth. YEAH! Afterwards, I had the post-rock-concert-partial-deafness as we headed to a hamburguesería for a late night snack. Oso ongi!

Saturday my family went to Lourdes, France, so I  got some stuff taken care of around here blah blah blah. At night though, we all went to eat at a pretty fancy restaurant, where one of my Spanish Club friend's dad is the chef/owner. I ordered txipirones en su tinta, squid in its own ink. Classic Donostiarra, right there! Sometimes I forget that not all of my fam understands Spanish. Because the waitress/chef would talk to us and I would respond without thinking of translating to English. But anyways.

Yesterday was the summation of their visit--lunch at my host family's house. Man, I was looking forward to that for a while, and it was as grand as I had hoped! :D We went over around 11, my mom, aunt, host madre, Kelsey, and I went to the kitchen to commence preparations. My uncle and host padre took a walk, despite the crummy weather. It was so pleasant, all of us cooking together and gesturing or translating. At the end of 2.5 hours of prep, there were 2 chickens with stuffing, dumplings, jamón serrano, salad, tomatos, and of course pan. ñaaaaaaaaaam! In all, there were 9 of us at the table, chatting in Spanish, English, and a mix. Pero qué divesión! I was really happy to have both my families together at once, minus my daddyo unfortunately. We were allowed a post-lunch siesta, and then the 6 of us went on a walk of San Sebastián. We saw a good part of town, and even stopped for churros y chocolate. Then near the beach the Spaniards bid farewell to the Americans, and later that night I said goodbye to my family. By now they are in Barcelona. It was a short but pleasant visit, I do declare.

Semana Santa Parte I: LONDON CALLING

The first 5 days of Autumn and my spring break vacation were spent in London and thereabouts.

Day 1

Down at the (rebuilt) Globe.

We started at Notting Hill, as per Autumn's request, since she loves a movie of the same name. It is a posh neighborhood, and therefore nice to look around. Then we went to Portobello Road Market...couldn't stop singing the song about it from "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." For lunch, we found a little international food market. I had empanadas, mostly spicy chicken flavored. Mmmm! Then we saw some typical London tourist attractions: St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge (not to be confused with the dinky London Bridge), and the Globe Theater. We took an informative tour inside. Apparently in Shakespeare's time, they really packed them in on a regular basis. Since there wasn't internet, tv, cinema, etc, people went multiple times each week. At only 1 penny for the standing section, it was quite a bargain I'd say! Also we found out this summer they will have all of Shakespeare's works, each in a different language. Neato! That's one cool thing about London: the variety of cultures and langagues. It was nice to still overhear castellano. :)

Argentine empanada mmmmmmmmmm!

Tower Bridge

Day 2

Included a daytrip to Oxford, where Autumn's friend works in Christchurch Cathedral. It was great because he is a local, and super knowledgeable so we learned a ton about Christchurch. Oxford was the old, prestigious campus that I had hoped for, and we only saw 2 of the 30- or 40-something colleges. We had a yummy, proper English meal of fish and chips, mashed peas, and ale at a nearby pub, where Bill Clinton "did not inhale." Woohoo, famous landmark!

Stairs apparently used in a Harry Potter film, Oxford.

Dining all of Christchurch College, with portraits of noted grads

Day 3

Just casually walking into Platform 9 3/4, on my way to Hogwarts

Autumn's American friend joined us these days, which was a nice way to spice things up. We headed to Camden Town Market fairly early in the day to get to work. I didn't buy much, but enjoyed browsing. Might be my favorite place we saw in London. The shops and stalls seemed limitless: mostly jewelery and clothes, along with some souvenirs. Another sweet part of Camden Town is the shall we say "food court." So many international food stalls, if I lived in London I would eat a different cuisine for lunch everyday! Yummmm!! The first food stand I saw was appropriate: Peruvian. So for 6 pounds I got to try a bowlful of Peruvian cuisine in honor of my friend the cocinero peruano--yellow rice, flavored chicken, and flavored vegetables. Although usually I dislike veggies, these were very tasty. For dessert I bought a piña colada in the pineapple, just for the photo op jeje. Other nationalities represented include: Venezuelan, Jamaican, Spanish (!), American (served by a man with a British accent, pah!), Italian, Thai, and on and on. After dining and shopping, and a bit of haggling on Autumn's part, we went to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station from Harry Potter. We rode up top a double-decker bus to take photos near Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Parliament House, and Westminister Abbey. At night we went to M&M's world, which really is its own little world of chocolate and color.

Piña Colada in Camden Town

ñam ñam lunchtime

"posing" by the London Eye

British M&Ms World

BENNY. BENNY, BENNY, BENNY, & The jets

Day 4
Last full day in London, so we did anything else we missed out on. We saw Buckingham Palace where some youngster yelled in his little British accent, "WHERE'S THE QUEEN?!" We also made a return to Camden TOwn where I knew I could get some specific shirts for 2 pounds cheaper than in the city. Hey, every pound counts when they are worth nearly $2 each!

Then in order to catch our 7:30am flight (who booked that?! oops, me), we woke up at 3. Urrrg. From there we all walked a bit to a bus stop, took the bus to the main bus station, and an hour-long bus to the airport. There was quite a bit of drama on that ride. First, our ticket that we had printed from online didn't have a time or date. How does that happen!? Luckily they did let us on. Whew. Luego, the bus filled up after a few stops, even though people had tickets to get on. It's a flawed system, bc they sell a certain number online, yet ppl can buy tickets right there. Very nerve-wracking, and the busdriver had to decide who received the last 3 seats. :S

Also, randomly while in London I saw THREE people wearing Indians hats. Mindblown. The first encounter, I freaked out and asked the guy "But, how do you like them!? I'm from Cleveland!" He is a Londoner and visited the USA once, and ended up with an Indians hat. Took a picture with him as proof haha. Another girl was Dutch and said she bought it the day before because she loved the movie "Major League". How fun is that.

Fellow Tribe fan in London!

 En suma, we saw a lot of stuff in London, but that's because there is so much to be seen! It is a ncie place, but not my favorite. Too big for little old me.Next stop was Prague. To be continued....

Galicia

Just took an hour-long trip to Galicia, imagine that! In reality, it was just a visit to the little Galician Gastronomic Fest they are having in the square near my house. Galicia is the north-western autonomous community of Spain, with its own language gallego. Therefore, I assume Basques are on extra-pleasant terms with them since we both have the second tongue. Anyways, a main point of interest in Galicia is Santiago de Compostela, where people make a pilgrimage. San Sebastián is on the official Camino de Santiago--Way of Santiago. Galicia also seems to have some Celtic roots, although their language is more smiliar to Portuguese. Therefore there was a group of bagpipers out at the little Market.

A well-known Galician dish is pulpo, octopus. That's why under the little tent with bar, you could often hear the server shouting "pulpo!" because assumedly most ordered it. Other meat options were some kind of sausage and ribs. Although I didn't buy any, I basked in the warm, barbecue scent for quite a while. They had a fire going with a spinning grill to cook the ribs and sausage. Near that was a barrel of liquid, where a man put in the octopuses to soak. When they came out they were a deep red and given to a man to chop up. Mm, tentacles! They also had the "world's biggest octopus dish", with free samples--many people crowding around. By the time I got to it, there was only potatoes left. But hey, I enjoy potatoes so I'm not complaining. Too bad my camera was broken at that time. :| There was also a stall of pastries and one of cheese. The cheese didn't interest me as much as the bakery, obviously. Man, people get impatient waiting around. Let's all take a deep breath, because the 2 people working the bakery booth are running around all day trying to tend to customers. In my opinion, they are the ones who should lose their temper instead of customers who only had to wait 5 or so minutes. Tranquilo!! I am not one to get in their face, which usually means I have to wait quite some time. However thanks to the woman next to me, I was noticed after a bit of patient waiting. And my reward was the baker guy calling me "la chica joven y hermosa" jojojo! But that's probably because I was in a sea of old folks, like pulpos wrapping themselves around the ship aka the bakery stand.

The offerings were big slabs of cakes--and there was definitely something that could be tuna filled or bacalao filled. I avoided fish cakes and opted for a piece of chocolate and what I assume is a Santiago specialty cake. 

Mendian eta Gauako Neskak

Yeah, probably didn't say that right in the title, but I meant to say At the Mountain & Girls' Night.

Yesterday Atún, Kelsey, y yo fuimos de excursión a la montaña. It was a pretty steep trail at times, and as I mentioned, I may be thin but I can't hold my own body weight. Buff, out of shape! But after all the effort, the view was definitely worth it. We walked on a main trail, and a few smaller trails in order to get to the tip of a cliff. There we found the ruins of a fortress type thing. It was really neat, because there were some tunnels underground and such. However, I was a bit hesitant to explore for the fear of running into someone homeless or the like. All in all, we were rewarded with a splendid view of both the ocean breaking below, and the beach of Donostia, and the city itself. I am very pleased that lately I have been wandering and exploring neighborhoods of town I haven't yet seen. I've gone for walks now in Gros, Egia, and Mt. U-something. This weather has been fantastic, and very conducive to strolling around town. It feels like a crime to be on the computer more than an hour, which is why my posts stopped for a bit. ;)

Last night we also had girls night again which was pleasant. Meghan made enchiladas which were the bomb essentially. Then we decided to have a little haircutting party provided by Atún. She definitely has skills. She cut the bangs of Meghan, Diana, and Kelsey, and trimmed Meghan and Diana's. I just watched and played some stand up comedians, since I just recently got my hair cut by the professionals jeje. It was a solid way to commence Semana Santa trips, since the whole gang won't be in Donostia again until afterwards. My trip with Atún to London is quickly approaching. After a few days in the London area we head to Prague, the old country, where I shall feast on dumplings and chicken paprikash. Mmmmm!! I'm getting really excited for the Czech Republic in particular, just cos I feel a certain bond. =) Although linguistically it'll be the trickiest of my travels since this is the first time I've gone to a country without a Romance language as the national tongue. I'm sure my heritage will be useful...I know how to say jerk, butt, and shit hahah.

Then after the vuelta, mom, tío, y tía vienen de visita. Yupiii! Got a lot to do before I go.

m29

Today was a national strike in Spain. It is in reaction to the recent labor reforms, which from the imagery used by my host madre, is strangling workers. Cutting salaries, benefits, while costs rise. Something to get angry about. I am impressed by the union of Spaniards regarding this--especially since they normally are divided and separated by autonomous community. Anyways, in our city every store was closed. There were some rare places open, but they surely didn't have costumers. On the news in cities like Barcelona and Madrid, picketers wouldn't let anyone go into open stores.

I had lunch with la familia, and there was a pretty heated discussion related to the protests, government, reform, etc. They usually take it easy, but in general tensions were high today. Even I was getting riled up because some tonterías were being said.

There were also several marches of protest. This morning there was an enormous amount of people in the streets, the line snaked around for blocks. And later in the day, after laying at the beach with friends for a while, I ran into my host madre again. We marched in the protest together, it was much smaller in the afternoon. They chanted things such as "Mariano Mariano, no llegas al verano" (name of new president, you won't last til summer). It's nice that when the people dislike what is happening, they protest in lieu of just complaining. Power to the people!

Intauriak // Carnavales in Basque Country

I know--it happened in February. The following paragraph was written Tuesday 21 February 2012.

Where to begin? In Euskal Herria, Carnavales is una locura. It began on Thursday and ended today. The first Carnavales festivity I saw was Friday in a shopping area of Donostia: there was a troupe of about 20 pairs and a band performing. The dancers were dressed in 1850s attire with fake flowers all over their dresses and suits. They did a few circle dances.

...Alright that is all I wrote during Carnavales. My memory is now a bit foggy, but hopefully some images will help. On Saturday we began our participation in Irún's carnavales. About 10 of us American students marched as cabezudos (big heads). We each had a character head and costume, and a broom to beat children with. Of course, children don't see cabezudos everyday, so for some of them it was scary. On top of that, this big-headed person coming at them with a broom?! I enjoyed walking behind my friend Autumn because she made a few kids cry haha. Some of them would provoke us to hit them; a few even shook their buts at us so we whacked them with the broom. I was cracking up inside of that big head because it was such an amusing experience. Most kids I just poked at instead of swatting. Later, our teacher told us that some people commented that the cabezudos this year were very friendly, and almost pushovers. That came as a relief since some of the parents and children acted like we had scarred them for life!

Before I go any further, I should make the comparison of Carnavales to Halloween. When we marched all of the children were dressed up watching the parade. Many of the adults were too. There were also many group costumes among teenagers (with their cuadrillas, undoubtedly) such as packs of Harry Potters, Robin Hoods/Peter Pans, Mexicans, etc.

Although we were the  most interactive part of the Irún parade, there were other groups too. We were after the joaldunak, a traditional representation of Basque carnavales. They are dressed in sheepskin, with a big copper bell roped to their back. They move so that their bell clanks to the beat. We saw them suiting up for this position: not something you'd want to do after eating. To make sure the rope is nice and tight, whoever is helping you into it puts their foot into your side as you kneel. In the olden days, the joaldunak wouldn't eat for days, because they would always be tied to the bells and would parade throughout the town, trying to wake up the dying sun with their ruckus.

We came before the jentiliak, giants. The main giant this year was a bunny coming out of a magician's hat. (We were fortunate enough to interview its creator back at the beginning of February). There were 4 other jentilliak, about 12 feet high. They were moved by a person who acted as their legs, carrying a jentilia on his/her shoulders and prancing around, hidden by the jentiliak's clothing. Further behind them were dance groups of schools, who had different themes and coordinated dances. There was a giant group that danced to Sister Act--funny to see about 200 kids dressed as nuns.

After the parade Saturday we were invited to the Gastronomic Society  of basically the chief of Carnavales operations: Manolo. We definitely made buddies with this guy, he is very Basque, knows a lot of people, and enjoys sharing the culture with "las americanas". Eating at the Society was an experience and honor in itself. Such a great ambience, I will not soon forget their hospitality. We were also invited to lunch the next day, before marching as buruhandi/ cabezudos again. That was a stellar Carnavales experience--to actually participate in the festivities instead of merely watching.

Monday some friends and I crammed into the train with many other Donostiarras to Tolosa! Essentially it is known as the capital of Basque carnaval festivities. It was entertaining to see a group of old ladies dressed in matching costumes on the train--everybody participates in Carnavales around here! What was even better was that she was joking around with a teenager dressed as a goth with creepy contact lenses haha. Tolosa had a great ambience, as we were told it would. Everybody was dresssed up. Everyone. There was a parade, a row of vendors, and Carnival attractions (rides, fried food stands, games with prizes). Also there were a few bands that marched around, and anyone could join in on the mini-parade. I barely remember the rhythm, but there was a song where everybody ducked for a bit and then jumped up. Oleee Carnavales!!


Tuesday Carnavales ended. There was a funeral for it, really. It was called burying the sardine. They had a big model of a fish  which they processsed to its death. The people in the procession were dressed in black and (fake) sobbing. At the end the crowd was led to an opening where the sardine and the jentilia from before were burned. While it was up in flames, a group started to dance in circles around it. And that concluded one heck of a holiday.