San Xoan (Midsummer) in A Coruña

The night of San Juan/Xoan is celebrated June 23rd, which goes to show just how behind I am on my blogging! The night celebrates midsummer, and comes with a lot of interesting pagan traditions. But in modern times, the norm is to build a bonfire, jump over it 7 times (in Galicia at least), and eat sardines. We started off the evening with our room right on the beach. Awesome! And definitely useful throughout the night to come home for a bathroom break haha. There was live music all night long, both little roaming bands and dramatic groups on a stage. At around 7, people started wandering down to the beach to claim their bonfire spot. The city provides free wood for the occasion. Also, there's a 2-story piece they burn as the main event at midnight. All the bonfires on the beach really is a site to be seen. It's like a post-armageddon world. Since it was just Molly and me, we obviously didn't build a fire. We picked out a nice place on the beach to sit and enjoy for a while. It was probably 200 feet away from the monstrosity, and when they burned that we had to back up it was so hot! FIIIIRE! As the night wore on, we took advantage of some abandoned fires to hop over in an attempt to get ourselves lucky. It was exhilarating, really! My cousin jumped over way more than me. A great start to our cousinly travels!

Shield your eyes from the flaaaames!!

Arde Lucus

Once a summer, the city of Lugo swells with ancient Roman citizens and the invasive Celts. It's a relatively recent festival known as Arde Lucus, to celebrate Lugo's Roman tradition and how they messed around with the Castrexos (Celtic tribes living in the castros). No wonder the Celts are always violent and scary-looking! Inside the wall (city center) gets packed with Lucenses and tourists alike. Almost all are dressed as either Romans or Celts. Shun the modernly-clad people!!

Why did I even bother dressing up?

The weekend is full of activities suitable for any respectable citizen living 2000 years ago. To commence, the tribes and groups parade in. Friends and die-hard Arde Lucus fans form these groups that spend months preparing for this single weekend. The groups have encampments around the city where they spend the night like real Celts or Roman soldiers. The costumewear in general is enough to make you feel embarrassed about your reused Romanesque dress, because upon seeing these special groups you just feel like they're from the scene of a movie and you are a mere spectator. Then throughout the weekend there are ceremonies such as a Roman or Celtic wedding, where any couple can go get married the ancient way. When we went with our friend, the line wrapped around the gazebo. Part of the tradition included sharing a cookie. We also witnessed a Celtic baptism, but in practice it wasn't as pagan as I expected. Every once in a while there would be a ceremony by the Vestal Virgins, with chanting and the fire of Lugo. There was also a slave auction, which sounds so not PC, but really was a comedy group dressed as hags.

On Saturday was the grand parade with all the encampment groups of Celts, soldiers, and even Roman senators. Evidently, people knew what to expect for the parade and must've camped out way in advanced, because not only was the street was lined with people, but the Roman wall too. That's where I decided to get a good view of it all, but 1000 others had the same idea and the stragglers like myself had to walk and walk until finally finding a teeny space in the endless line of spectators. Really cool to see so many people on the wall though!

Celts ready to attack, as seen from the Wall.

In between activities, it was enough just to stand around eating and drinking with fellow Romans (or Celts, I mean, they're good guys too). There were a handful of food tents like kebabs, tacos, desserts, but with Roman or Celtic designs, which just goes to show how into it people get. There were also a few food tents with tables and benches for eating. These are typical at any Galician festival, but seeing the big chunks of meat cooking over a grill, you can imagine where that tradition comes from. At night there were also roaming performers, like a group of women dancing with fire. Or a group of men including a small band, fire throwers, and two guys on stilts who breathed fire every once in a while.

Compatriots in front of the Roman encampment

Fight fight!

Then there were a pair of special events that required a ticket. And thanks to my friend Nathalia we got the hookup to see the Roman Circus (tickets sold out the week before). It consisted of two sides of the audience (black and white) who thus cheered for their two gladiators. They were on horses for the activities--that is, when they didn't push each other off. They jumped through a flaming ring, and raced chariots. In the end our white team won the challenges. And they decided to kill the losers. It was alarming to hear kids yelling "Kill him, kill him!"

Some fashionable Romans after the circus

So to conclude, it's an awesome festival that takes you back to ancient times (my favorite era) with an amazing ambiance. Also this year was great because my cousin came all the way from America to begin our European adventure. More on that trip soon...

Vienen mis padres!

First major event after the school-year ending was my parents' visit to Galicia. Yupi! Renting a car allowed us to see some sweet sites, even if it was stressful for my padre.

Santiago

In the city of pilgrims, we saw the Cathedral, obviously. We also did some gastronomic exploring, although bear in mind my mom's favorite phrase, "NO ME GUSTA PULPO¨ (I don't like octopus). I took them to a cool place in the forest called Santiso, which uses all-Galician products, and even vegetables from their garden. 

Lugo

Sipping that Galician brew

Most of our time, the walled city was our homebase. Because it's that great! Saturday night they experienced Lugo's free tapas. Then we ended up getting a real dinner of raciones (bigger plates of food shared by everyone) with some of my English-speaking friends jeje. Another day was Lugo's craft beer festival, so my dad and I checked that out. But mom was not forgotten; he got her a donut from the handmade pastry tent. A donut the size of a head. 

Checking out the Castro

We also checked out Castro de Viladonga, the ruins of a Celtic town about 30 minutes outside of Lugo. Apparently it's one of my favorite places to take visitors, seeing as I've been there 3 times in the past 2 months. It's just fascinating to have something so old in our midst. Also the museum helps bridge the gap between the ruins you see and the lives they lived 2000 years ago.

THE WALL.

Another quick excursion from Lugo is the Ancares, aka the area where I (and my best friend) teach. O Cebreiro is about an hour away, and it's the first stop in Galicia on the Camino Francés de Santiago (the French Way to Santiago). But more than just pilgrims pass through, because it's a lovely town known for it's pallozas. Pallozas are the traditional, circular, Galician dwellings made of stone with a thatched roof. I'm not sure if people still live in them or they're just for show. But when we were there someone was repairing the roof of one. And on the way back home we drove by my school to check it out, but since it was a Sunday there was no one around.

A Palloza! In the sun!

The North Coast
Of course the highlight of a visit to Lugo's coast is the beach of As Catedrais. The tide was higher than expected, but after eating it went down far enough to walk around a bit. But we still couldn't go far enough to see the famed arch from the beach. We did, however, get to see it from above, on a cliff.

As Catedrais, not so much sun. 

Asturias

Cudillero

Since we were already at the north coast, the master vacation planner (me) decided to take them to Asturias which is similar to Galicia and can be really quite charming. Our first stop was the town Cudillero, which has a port surrounded by a hill and houses going up. Wouldn't want to live at the top! Here we enjoyed ice cream sundaes (well, Dad missed out and stuck to coffee).

Our stop for the night was Oviedo, the capital of Asturias. There's really a big difference architecturally between Lugo and Oviedo. So fancy! Also nice because we visited my friend who is "super Asturian" and knows a lot about the city, so let's just say he makes a much better tourguide than me haha. For dinner we went out to a sidrería, a typical Asturian cider house. Here's a fun fact I never knew, in most places the waiter is supposed to pour it for you every time, not just the first time. And it's rude to ask for more (no matter how thirsty you are), he's supposed to be aware of how long it's been since he's last poured it for you. By the way, the sidra is poured from up high so that it airs out. They only pour you a little bit at a time because you're supposed to drink it all at once. And also glasses get shared; you leave a tiny bit for the waiter to toss out and thereby "cleaning" it. It was definitely cool seeing them pour back to back from such heights. And for food, I'm sure my parents got something hearty, but for me the main attraction was the HUGE tortón (fried bread made of corn). We split it between the two of us, but realistically needed a 3rd person to help out. Seriously, look at the size of that thing compared to a hand! :O

And that really concludes my parents' adventure in the North. They went down to Madrid for a few days, but I passed on that since it's not really my city. Now to start planning new, interesting places for their next visit!

End of the School Year

While the school year in Spain ends in mid-late June, for me it ended May 29th. I received quite the send-off, even though I'M COMING BACK NEXT YEAR! Yep, I am very lucky to be headed back to the same awesome high school in the fall! So anyways, my last week of school 2014-15 was even funner than usual. With my oldest class we sang karaoke, since I won't have them next year. Only some of them were willing to sing in English, but it ended with us all singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" together. Aw! In some of the other older classes I made a fun (in my humble opinion) game with song clips which in some cases left them really puzzled haha. The younger teens got me gifts: one girl drew an awesome picture of yours truly, the youngest group got me a rose to apologize for misbehaving, and a small class all chipped in to get me a huge box of chocolate. How sweet!

Bolos Celtas / Celtic Bowling

Hola! My computer was down for the count for a while and then I went on a long trip, which is why I haven't been blogging up til now. But there are stories to tell, so I'll get right down to it. Starting with a fieldtrip way back in May with my youngest students to try Celtic bowling...

There are actually a few different types of bowling still actively played in Galicia and Asturias. Well perhaps not so "actively." We went to a town near Navia where they have a type of alley set up in the street, and they play it during certain festivities. In this version of Celtic bowling, the balls are made from wood, the size of a coconut but denser. Then there are 10 pins made of branches. First you stand a few feet behind the pins, and throw the ball however you can to knock the pins down. It's more of a toss/bounce rather than the rolling of our typical American bowling. How ever many pins you knock down is how many points you score. The catch is, after knocking down the pins your ball has to go past a certain line probably 5 meters away. If not they say "te cagaste," you crapped yourself haha. Also, upright on the middle of that line is a little stick, which you get bonus points for knocking over. But if the ball doesn't even go past that line, you aren't able to make a rethrow, which is from behind that line towards the now far-away pins.

When it was my turn to represent Ohio, I only knocked down one. And since the ball passed the line I was able to throw again from further away. And I actually knocked one down!! Ole! I was the only person besides another teacher to knock any down from a distance. Granted, the students are 13 years old, but still, it feels like some sort of accomplishment. On another try, my ball didn't even pass the line, so one of my talkative students called me constipated, because of the crap yourself terminology. Little punk! But it was all in good fun, even if they all repeated the few phrases I said in Spanish for the next weeks of class (this is the class that always tries to get me to speak Spanish, and since it was a fieldtrip and there were other non-English speakers there I had to do it in their presence).

After Celtic bowling, we took a stroll around Navia de Suarna, which has a Medieval bridge. Cool. And a park where I got to ride the see-saw with some students like back in the day. Then we took a very short hike in the woods, accompanied by some dogs who followed us from their house. Oh also this trip was the source of the greatest student quote of the year. Translated into English: So your family speaks English? And you understand them? Wow, that's so cool! Later on I realized I had confused her by saying I live in Lugo, but since I've been the American the whole schoolyear, I thought she'd've known the difference...