Carnaval

This past Tuesday, Katie and I decided to ditch our obligations and soak up some Basque culture, which I truly needed. I gave my 14 year old girls team the night off and rescheduled my Tuesday tutoring session for Thursday.

And why do all this you ask? Car-nah-vahl... carnaval! It´s sort of like the Mardi gras of Basque country but much older and a totally different celebration. It´s sort of like Halloween, but there are specific, historic, legendary costumes. Some kids just go as whatever, and others choose a typical get up. There´s no door to door trick or treating, but a big party.

Katie and I went to Lanz. Here´s a tiny description. As the link tells you, the winter nights were long and boring and needed a bit of folklore and a reason to party. As well, a great way to ring in the spring. In Lanz, they follow the old carnaval legend of Milochin. Milochin was a giant robber, they say. He used to come down from the hills and rob the townspeople of Lanz with his buddy, Silipot (I think is how you say it), and then they would run back up into the mountains with all they had stolen. One year, the townspeople decided to stop him and captured the pair and ran them through the town for everyone to see. Afterwards, they killed them both and had a big bonfire and dance in the center of town. Mom, you should ask Tom Graff if he knows any of this stuff.

So, the town re-enacts this each year when the sun sets on carnaval and it´s so cool. Katie and I went way too early, because someone from my school said we had to. But, Irene and Angel were there an hour before to meet us and they got a better parking spot than we did! Anyhow, we arrived at 4 and waited around and walked around the tiny town about 10 times, sat on an old wall, chatted and had a snack in the car... it was a beautiful day, and crisp. A good one for passing time in a small town. There was just one bar so we had a beer and a coffee and then just perused. Anyhow, once the sun set, the festivities began. Irene, Angel, KT and I stood on the side of the road and all these guys dressed as sort of clown witches and sacks of potatoes came running by and hit the townspeople and threw them all around. I guess they are Milochin´s gang. The sack guys have huge wooden pitchforks and they really get scary with poking you. The witch clowns hit us with brooms. Angel is much smaller than Irene and Katie and I and they grabbed him and threw him across the street, it was hilarious!

Then came Milochin, in capture. He´s a big giant they´ve made out of broom sticks and dressed like the clown witches. Silipot is a big fat guy that rolls along behind him, also captured, and is dressed like the potato sack guys. They walk them all through the town to show they have caught them and they are guarded by the guys who are going to shoot them in the town square and two guys carrying the fire to burn their bodies with. Sounds violent, I know, but all old legends are that way.

So, the whole thing finished in the town square, where the exicutioners waited for the criminals. They shot them, and dismantled them and then did an old Basque dance in a circle for a while. The news was there and Irene said I should have gone and been like, "I came all the way from the U.S..." But I was too shy. I think I could have done it though, the español´s gettin´pretty good.

We headed home after that, but it was a cool adventure. I´ll try to upload my pictures soon.

I hope all is well back home. Talk to you soon I hope!

Parqueso

Hello!

I miss you! Whoever you are… if you are in Spain reading this, if you are from the States, I miss you. Lately, I just want to be around the special ones in my life and say goodnight to work. Probably because I have to change schools and my schedule could go all out of whack again just when it was starting to even out…

This past weekend was Jennifer’s last one here. She’s my Canadian friend who was au pairing for a family here. She got on a train for the long journey back this morning. For the last 4 days or so it’s been all Jennifer, all the time. I’ve been sort of a homebody the last few months, so I strapped it on and took one for the team.

The festivities began Friday, going out the Chinese food, then out downtown until 4. It was really fun and I hadn’t done that in a while. However, I had to coach a game the Saturday morning at 9 and got home at 5… you do the math. I rested up after getting our butts kicked and a big group of us went to a sidreria in Pamplona and went out for a bit after. A good time was had by all. The lack of sleep was totally worth it.

Sunday, I woke up at around 12 and realized I had a test on the whole first half of the year of my Spanish class. I started to study and then got a call from Irene because I had planned to have lunch with her, her dad and her grandma that day. I nervously walked back out the door at 2 that afternoon to meet them to get a ride over to Bene’s (grandma) without my usual helping hand/hindrance, Inyaki, by my side.

Bene has the cutest dog ever named Chiqui (chicky). He’s so good all the time and tiny and doesn’t smell bad and they seem to be the best of friends. Irene and Paco and I sat in the living room with the pup for a few as Bene finished up cooking. Mom, this is the kind of dog you want. He’s got mostly black fur with a little bit of Jack Russell tan coloring in the face. He comes to about my mid calf and doesn’t jump or drool and just reaches up and puts his chin on your knee when you sit near him, so cute. Oh, and your hand doesn’t smell after you’ve pet him.

The lunch was fabuloso. We had a paella and some roasted pork ribs that were delish ish ish ish. She even made a cake that had this creamy middle and frosted it, so yuum. In the middle of the paella, I reached in to serve myself more and Bene said, “I like what you’re doing.” Confused, I replied, “eh?” And she said, “the food is here to eat, never have shame about it, just eat,” or something to that effect. It was great. I told Inyaki about it later because I thought she might have been teasing me. He said she’s never ironic.

After the coffee, Irene looked over at me innocently and said, “wanna play Parcheese?” I said sure, I’d never really played before, but sure. As soon as everything was set up, I realized I had no idea what I was in for. The Mayos are professionals. The only sound you could hear for the first few minutes was the click of dice against the walls of hand sized wooden rolling barrels or Paco and Irene telling me it was my turn. The dice were being rolled so fast I had no idea when to go and when to stop! If someone rolls a 6, they go twice, so sometimes I would roll in the middle of someone else’s turn and they’d get annoyed.

Paco tried to take me under his wing and tell me when to move and which piece and where, but I was a little frazzled and not understanding too well. I think he ended up getting a little irritated at me. It was actually pretty funny because I’d never seen this side of them before, the Parcheese just brought it out of them. I ended up winning the last game so, yeah!

On the ride home, Paco helped explain some of the stuff I needed to study and I ended up getting a good grade on the test. My professor even told me that I’ve improved a lot, which was nice to hear. He always says, “es el amor.” (it’s the boyfriend). To which I respond, “no, es la familia del amor.” (it’s the family of my boyfriend). Inyaki has helped a lot, yes, but one of my big motivations has been not to look like an ass in front of his family and to be able to hold a conversation.

So, that’s all that’s new with me. Hangin’ in here trying to find a balance and think about the future, or at least to plan the next year. Hope to talk to you all soon! Loves!