Family Foliada

This week in the teaching sector of Galicia, everyone's looking forward to that mega-long weekend. Since December 6th and 8th are public holidays in Spain, this year Galicia took the 7th as its yearly bonus day off, to create a superpuente. Two day work week! 

This time of year, I am reminded of the long December weekend right before the pandemic when I went to the Foliada da Fonsagrada. A foliada is any gathering to play and dance to Galician folk music. In the village of Fonsagrada, their annual dayslong celebration attracts tons of people from all around Galicia. Won't be going back this year, but this past weekend we went to a little family foliada. It was a surprise birthday party hosted in a stone structure, now used as a cellar, but 100 years ago was likely the house. The five-person band strode in playing, dressed in their Galician garb. The group included bagpipers, drummers, and an accordionist. For hours, they sang and played melodies for the musical guests to sing songs that the band didn't even recognize. In addition to lots of enthusiastic clapping, there was also dancing: with partners or in circles. The whole time I kept thinking how enxebre the evening was. Enxebre is a Galician way of saying typical, authentic, something pure (Galician).

Adding to my delight, I found out that one of the guests went to high school where I was first assigned as an auxiliar de conversación. Obviously, because she was around my age, I knew we hadn't been there at the same time. But it turns out, her brother had been in one of my first classes! I couldn't get over it. It's a small world after all! Then suddenly it dawned on her-- she had heard of me way back when, either from her brother or one of their neighbors. I felt proud. Almost famous.

Rinlo Round 2

 As promised, in good company we returned to A Mariña, to the tiny town of Rinlo's campground. We first went to a cemetery built by indianos (you know, the returned emigrants who made bank in the Caribbean and South America). Unfortunately, we could only sneak a peek from the outside as it was locked. At least the façade was in good shape and recently painted. 

Our friends arrived in mid afternoon, and after settling in, we all went to soak up the sun at the beach. The way down to this specific beach was a bit tricky to find. There was a staircase that looked promising but only led to rocks. The real staircase seemed to dead-end at another rock wall. But wait! There was a small tunnel leading into the wide, firm beach. Very cool! Once we got our towels set down, the two foreigners of the group decided to run to the sea. It was a long ways into the water with low tide. Soon after splashing into the water we heard whistles. The lifeguard waved us over. Now that my attention was caught, I noticed a tiny sign indicating people not to swim to the left of it. Right where we were. Oops. Guiri alert! I didn't last long anyways as the water was a bit cold for me.

Once the beach started getting too chilly/windy, we returned to Rinlo for a drink and dinner. The following morning we had a bit more beach time before lunch. Lunch of course was the famed arroz caldoso. The rice was great, but the service not so much. Honestly, since the whole town with its total of three restaurants is so well-known for the rice, people are going to come no matter what. It seems that they take advantage of the fact and aren't concerned about customer service. Maybe the fame went to their heads...

Arroz caldoso for five

Saturday night the campground had an outdoor concert. The place was packed, although with people mostly masked and practicing social distancing. You could tell people had come from all around the area, because while there are normally three or four cars parked outside the entrance, an impromptu ¨parking lot¨ in an adjacent cornfield was formed by a dozen cars. And to my delight, the music playing was traditional Galician music! A foliada, sans dancers. Since nobody else was dancing (I think in theory you can't dance with non-cohabitants these days), that meant I had nobody to compete with. Rather, there was no one to churn out some difficult steps that I would find impossible to replicate. Had to jump on that opportunity! Far away from the crowd, of course. I'm sad to report, however, that less than two years after abandoning Galician dance class, I could hardly remember how to dance the xota. Moi mal! Regardless, I did gleefully dance a few muiñeiras. My partner did his best to copy me with spunk. I swear, at one point one of the musicians yelled ¨eses bailadores!¨ Nobody else was dancing. That's us! A shoutout!

Rinlo at a distance, by Chris

On Sunday the men woke up early to go fishing. The regular fisherman acted as a father figure, reminding them how to fish since it had been years. Then we did a repeat of what we had done the last time we camped at Rinlo, essentially.  Drive to Illa Pancha. Walk to Ribadeo. Have lunch in the center. Walk back to Illa Pancha. Head home. 

A Fonsagrada: The Highest Town in Galicia

Driving on a cloud, near Fonsagrada

December is underway with a ¨typical Spanish¨ long weekend. Well, it's always a long weekend for me, but this time everyone else was also off on Friday. So my traditional dance class buddy and I took advantage to check out Galicia's highest and most expansive region: A Fonsagrada. The name means ¨holy fountain.¨ It's a curvy one hour drive from Lugo, right on the border with Asturies. The proximity with Asturies is evident in the architecture and accent. While in the rest of Galicia, the suffix -iño/a is used to make something small (or cute), in A Fonsagrada and Asturies, they use -ín/-ina. (FYI: in Spanish -ito/a is normally used for the same purpose). The region also has Asturian-style hórreos. In the rest of Galicia these typical granaries are rectangular; the longer they are, the wealthier the family was. In A Fonsagrada and Asturies, however, they are a lot bigger and square.

A giant mouth harp!

The main reason we went to A Fonsagrada this weekend was the fifth-annual foliada taking place there. A foliada is an evening of traditional Galician music and dancing--and we were ready to practice! But first, I signed up for a mouth harp class. There are tons of variants of the mouth harp throughout the world. In Galicia, it's made of iron and steel. A Fonsagrada is well-known for them, probably because the region was always known for blacksmithing. Back in the day, a set of bagpipes could cost as much as a cow. So obviously, many families couldn't afford such a musical luxury. A cheaper alternative was the mouth harp. It doesn't have as many notes, but it's still entertaining for kids and adults. The introductory course only lasted a few hours, and after what seemed like forever I was finally able to make some noise with the mouth harp! Woohoo! The sound reminds me of Australian didgeridoos.

After the class, in the center of town bars were packed with musicians and dancers. After swaying to the music a bit, we went to the tent where the main concerts were taking place. There, people were listening to the music as well as dancing in small groups. Finally, time to practice! There was a group of older women who were also beginners so we danced with them. In Galician dance, you line up in two rows facing each other. Then one person picks a dance move, performs it, and the group copies. That's what's most difficult about dancing for me. Having to see it once and be able to make my legs do the same (specifically, mirroring my partner's movements). Of course there are a lot of people who have been dancing most of their life and it's impossible for a clumsy newbie to keep up. So it was great to practice with others who aren't such pros!

We gave it our all Friday night. But apparently, Friday was just a warm-up. Now we know for next year to save some our enthusiasm and stay for the whole weekend.

Ancestral dances and Galicia's Enchanted Forest

In Spain, every city, town, village, and hamlet has a saint. This is especially true in Galicia, since if you look at a map of place names including ¨Saint,¨ Galicia is covered in them. And for every saint, there must be a celebration! This past weekend was St. Sebastian's day. After living in Donostia-San Sebastián for a year, this feast day now holds a special place in my heart.

The tiny fishing village of Aldán in Galicia also celebrates San Sebastián day, but in a very different way. Compared to the 24-hour drumming of Donostia-San Sebastián, they have a low-key performance of what was called ¨ancestral dances.¨ After Sunday mass, the dancers prance and hop around the church to the beat of a bagpipe and a drum. This traditional dance is over 300 years old. Apparently it started as an offering to the saint to protect the villagers against the plague. 

Due to imperfect public transportation schedules, I missed the original dance around the church. But luckily for me, they repeated the dance later in the afternoon, near the church and again on the village promenade. The dance itself was made up of five female dancers, 10 male dancers, and one guide. The young women wore giant hats of flowers, and the men (most a lot older than the women) wore suits with a sash and played castanets. The dance itself was a simple swaying with some hops and swirls in between. The most impressive was that in the swirling, the women's massive hats never fell off.

Medieval Aqueduct

To take full advantage of the two bus rides to get there, I also explored the Enchanted Forest of Aldán. Before you even get into the forest, on the side of the road there's a cute mini-bridge and typical clothes washing station. The forest is like any other Galician forest-- they all seem magical. But this has the bonus of a huge Medieval aqueduct and the façade of a small castle. From what I gather, it was part of the land belonging to a small palace (pazo) nearby. The little castle was going to be ¨just for fun¨ for the owners. But it was never finished, and when the road was built right between the pazo and their yard, the forest became a charming park.

Little Unfinished Castle

All in all, it was a nice way to spend a Sunday (when there is often little to do but stay home). Some alone time in nature followed by a bit of Galician traditions to remind me that Entroido (carnival) is right around the corner!

Excursión: Excelente, un 10

Recently I went on a week-long trip with my 15-17 year-old students. That was an experience, to say the least. Summed up in two phrases we repeated during the trip, it was "Excelente, un 10" because "en Estados Unidos eso no pasa!" (that doesn't happen in the USA!) Something unexpected happened every day. The trip was almost surreal at times. Chaperoning is a loose term here: because of the age we tried to promote independence. For example, a lot of these kids have probably never been on the subway before, so we taught them to use public transportation. Also, we'd go around in a group for the cultural visits in the morning, and then set them free with a time to meet back with us in the evening to make sure they were alive.

Salamanca
We only spent a few hours at our first stop. Everyone told me how much I'd love the city, so I guess it fell short of my expectations. It was nice to look at, and I'm sure it's fun to go out in since it's a big university city, but it didn't blow my mind. We got to go up the Cathedral, which was very cool but also nerve-wracking. We went up so many winding steps, all the way to the bell tower. Great views of the city though. We also saw the cathedral and university walls which are covered in elaborate sculptures, and you have to find the hidden astronaut and frog. Then we had lunch and were off to...

Mérida

The theater, where they still hold plays in the summer

I loved it, and although some of my students would say they hated it, that's only because there was no nightlife ON A TUESDAY. Jeez, what did they expect? But also they'd be lying if they said they had a bad time by the end of the night--after walking around for an hour we finally found a karaoke bar. There was just one man there, plus our group of ~20. The kids had a blast singing Spanish pop hits together. I even learned some catchy tunes (si hay que ser torero oléeee). But the best part of Mérida is the Roman presence. It's like Lugo, except more like Rome or Athens. In the middle of the city there were random Roman ruins. Not to mention the glorious and pretty intact theater and amphitheater. Why pay hundreds on a flight to Greece when you can see some great ruins here in Spain? Also Mérida has the national Roman art museum. Very cool, even if we didn't have time to see it all.

Mosaic in the museum

Temple of Diana, in the middle of a plaza

Lisbon
I guess you could call it the main attraction of the trip, since we spent 3 nights there. We saw the typical things: a cathedral, the port, a castle, and that great Portuguese tiled architecture. With the other teachers I

Super Chaperones in the
 Castelo de San Jorge

saw the Café A Brasileira and an overpriced fado show. It's a trap! One day we took the kids to Belém--a neighborhood or suburb 20 mins away--when the bus drivers just happened to be on strike. Despite the fact that when the bus pulled up it was already standing room only, we manged to cram our group of 32 onto the bus. Uncomfortable, for sure. When we drove by stops people were indignant at the amount of people on the bus, and yet tried to cram in with us. I was basically sitting on the dash for part of the trip. In Belém we saw the necessary Monastery, Monument to the Discoverers, and Belém Tower. Of course I also deemed it necessary to get custard pastries from the famous Pasteis de Belém.

Here comes a surreal episode: One of the nights we all had dinner in this elegant ballroom. It was just our group, but people would walk up to the door to take pictures, that's how glam it was. Anyways, then the other two chaperones (a priest and a middle aged woman) started to waltz. The students were flabbergasted. Shortly afterward, the priest started singing the "Vals de las Mariposas" and about 5 pairs of students got up to dance! I couldn't believe my eyes! But wait, it gets better--one of my students asked me to dance! I don't know how to waltz! But I tried anyways, with my two left feet. For the rest of the night I didn't hear the end of it. "Americans can't dance! You need to learn how to dance. Dance is the language of love" Hahaha. Strange and amusing times.

In Lisboa I also learned to accept the Spanish hands-off approach to chaperoning. Like when we told the kids to meet us in the lobby at 2 AM. Then we'd go out for some wine. But we definitely had our kids under control compared to another group (there were 5 school groups in the hotel at once. I feel bad for any adult guests trying to have a nice getaway). The other group threw a bed out the window. Do you believe that?! I'm telling you, it was an unexpected trip.

Porto
Our last overnight stop was Porto. I can't really tell if I like it better than Lisbon. Since it was the last night, by that time I was pretty much mentally checked out. The weather was excellent, and we had lunch on the docks where they were having a little street fair. Some students were attacked by seagulls haha. We also saw a cathedral where they stored some bones, but frankly it was disappointing--you just looked through a small hole in the ground to see a few bodies worth of bones below. At night I know the kids were hoping to go out with a bang, but unfortunately for them, Porto's abundant nightlife is full of adults. People my age! I did feel bad that they were left so disappointed on the last night, though. We all went out together, then gave them a curfew of 3 am. Oddly enough, when we returned to the hotel at 2:30, all of the kids were back already. I also imagine they were tuckered out after a week of sleeping probably 2-4 hours a night! Ah, youth.

Tiles in the train station São Bento

Galician Coast
On the way home we drove along the west coast instead of the freeway. Lovely views! We then stopped in Santa Tecla, a huge Castro with amazing sea views. Then we went up to Vigo where we spent the afternoon on the beach. I didn't bring my suit, but did enjoy a nice nap in the sand. The kids got in the water...I dipped my toes in and it was freezing, so I dunno how they did it. I was also happy to see them playing volleyball, since we teach that in gym class and often they're a bit uninterested. So Vigo concludes this trip of unexpected moments. Glad I was able to go and bond with the students.

Feasting Season

My director wasn't lying when he said the pulpada kicks off feasting season around here. Since then I've been dining with groups more often than usual, which of course is no problem. To paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, "Don't make no difference what nobody says/ Ain't nobody like to [eat] alone."

For starters, the top 10 tapas from Lugo's September competition were available again last weekend. So in addition to the two I tried during the contest, last Thursday we had a fun-looking one served in a halved Estrella Galicia (beer) bottle, and a little hamburger. Also during the week my roommates' group of friends came over for dinner. But apparently it doesn't even count as our "Cena de bienvenda." Typical Spanish: we started at 11 and ended at 1 AM...on a school night!

Then last weekend was a birthday dinner for a friend. I was stuffed before the main plate even came out. I whispered to my friend, "Are they still bringing the meat out? I'm full, can't I just cancel it?" Too late. I didn't realize there were going to be so many appetizers--bread, tortilla, fish on shells-- on top of the giant steak with fries. Oops. I had to refuse dessert, sadly. Next time I'll be sure to fast a few hours beforehand. It's all the fault of the free pintxo and tapa we got with our pre-dinner drinks!

Ok, some had labels

Last week was also Magosto at school, which means chourizada (chorizo meal) for the profes. Olé! Chorizo is starting to grow on me. [Help! Get it off!] For a moment the profes almost had a meltdown because they forgot to order bread. But how will the Galicians eat without bread?! It arrived in time for dessert, basically. Pan y vino. Because the red wine got finished fast, they pulled out mysterious and unlabeled alcohol to ease the digestion. Then we went out for the kids' festivities. There were plenty of roasted chestnuts (no me gustan) and some cakes baked by students. There were traditional games and dancing. One of my students pulled me out to dance. I excused my poor skills by saying "I'm not Spanish! I can't dance!"

Let us not forget, American Thanksgiving is right around the corner, which will be followed by another birthday dinner and the "inauguration" of our piso. Ya era hora!