Mega Christmas celebration--Spanish style ;)

Merry Christmas to all!! :)

Feliz Navidad and greetings from a Spanish Christmas time...it's not over yet, despite the 25th having come and gone. The holidays here are longer (as with many holidays in this country, hehe) and the most important day isn't associated with Santa visiting, but with the Kings Day (dia de los Reyes Magos--the Wisemen, to be precise) on January 6th. So the children are still awaiting their actual day of magic, beauty and gifts aplenty. :) The tradition of Santa Claus/Father Christmas is making a presence in the country, but with the influence of other countries, and mass commercialism, of course. Ah globalization.....spend spend spend!

Okay, moving away from my rants and sarcasm, I present to you all, my first experiences of a Spanish Christmas--part 1. :)

I was invited to spend Christmas Eve (the big dinner day, rather than Christmas Day) with a big group of people, and decided that I shouldn't go empty-handed. So the day before, I started off baking and made some butter cookies that turned out quite successfully.

The next day, I continued on baking and tried to create little snacky-type cinnamon snails, courtesy of a recipe from Michelle's family favourites. Well for some reason it was all sticky and messy and I couldn't roll the dough as expected (**If anyone can think of a reason why, please let me know.....I don't know how to diagnose baking problems!) so I shoved it all into muffin tins and baked the heck out of them. Here you see the results of the excessive flour and muffins---they turned out to be huge hits with the family though! They were yummy and cinnamony but more breakfast-y than anything.

So on Christmas Eve, I took my baking treats to a posada (guesthouse) that is owned by Rubén's aunt's family, and met a huge group of wonderful people. Below are almost all of them, save two young boys who were off running around, excited and giddy about the expected arrival of Santa, plus a mom and grandma chasing after them. It's a bit complicated to explain who is who, but basically you see Rubén's family, with his mom, dad, brother, and aunt and uncle, cousins and grandparents, and family of the aunt's brother and the cousin's girlfriend. :) It took me most of the night to sort people out with names, faces and relationship.

As you can see, there were tons of food, consisting of plates of ham, big prawns, empanadas, smoked salmon, bread, salad. Then once we cleared most of these plates, along came more. First course, second course, third course......such is the tradition of the culture!! :) There was yummy cod with potatoes and onions, and refills of more wine, and then once that was all done, desserts were brought out. Typical sweets for Christmas include turrón (like nougat, but of various sorts--hard, soft, with almonds, with other nuts and seeds, with chocolate etc etc), polvorones (soft, powdery biscuits that explode into dust if you don't squeeze them together before eating), piñones (sweet marzipan balls coated with pinenuts and sugar) etc. Plus the sweets I baked earlier, which earned applause and put me into consideration as contract baker for the posada (hmmmm....could be a good gig--baking a bunch of things for breakfast for the guests once every few days...). ;)

After all the eating, it was pretty much getting close to THE TIME. The big guy would be coming anytime, and this year, the big guy bore an eerie resemblance to Rubén's dad Marcelino. :) Hmm, wonder why. Anyhow, just a bit after midnight (the big guy was late due to bad weather and traffic problems), there was a bit of an uproar as the kids "smelled Santa Claus" approaching from the back door. The whole family suddenly scrambled to the window and lo and behold, saw the bearded fellow traipsing around by the neighbour's house. They raced around the building, screaming and yanking the kids back and forth to look out various windows and doors, and peeped at Santa to see what he was doing. Someone made sure to reassure me that this was not a "typical" Spanish tradition, but something their "unusual" family invented for fun and giggles. ;) Cool beans. :)

About a minute after that, there was a mad rush into the hallway and lying on the floor were piles of presents left by Santa!!! The kids went crazy as they looked at the packages and shouted out the names of the receivers. Even the dog got a package--Santa remembers to bring one every year!

Shortly after the Santa excitement, about 10 of us got into two cars and drove to the monastery of Somo, because someone said that it'd be interesting to see La Misa de Gallo (rooster's mass =midnight mass), so heck, why not. We arrived late, around 12:30am due to the aformentioned excitement, and the people that were there (about 7, plus about 5 nuns and the priest) looked at us "knowingly" (that we weren't faithful punctual followers of the church, ahem) but beckoned us in. We continued on listening and standing and sitting as requested, but religious terminology hasn't made its way into my Spanish repertoire yet... Closer to the end, the priest decided to pick on young Nico and asked what Christmas meant to him, and what he liked about the mass. Oof. He answered very well, very diplomatically and said it was about family and that he liked the music. :) Then the priest asked for his dad, and asked him the same question. He answered honestly, saying that they are not used to going to these sort of things, but that he agreed and said it was very interesting and good experience for his family. Well done. I sat there, close to the front of the room with my head down, hoping that he wouldn't call on me, as I definitely stood out as not being a Spaniard!! :) There was bread and wine for whoever wanted to go up, and some carols sung and prayers, and then by 1pm it was over. Not sure what to make of it, but the family was in hysterics afterwards in the car and back at the posada as a lot of them were trying hard not to laugh and interrupt the mass. ;D Lol. Lots of nods and whispers about leaving, even from the older members of the group, who didn't feel comfortable either!

To lighten up the mood again, someone decided it was time for some good old-fashioned gambling. Rather than money, the family opted at first for dry macaroni and then changed to the dependable standby of beans. :)

Fun for all ages! :)

Observing the card game from the sidelines

Yes--cheering on the cards!

Looks of concentration on father and son....

One happy face amongst the serious ones....guess we can tell who has good cards!

Christmas Day is not as big of a day in Spain as the night before, and usually involves a special lunch, but of a smaller scale. Since we had all gorged the previous night, it was a lighter affair with only Rubén, his brother Davíd and their parents, Marcelino and Rosa Maria.
Of course having said "smaller" meal, it is all relevant and still included various courses! :) Their mom is a really good cook and even made flan, which she attempted to tell me the recipe of, but which I have since forgotten..... (eggs, condensed milk and regular milk in a bain marie, but I forget the proportions and times....). It was delicious as you can see! :)

We all sat around, chatting and relaxing after another big meal, and enjoying the sunshine that had made an appearance that morning.

Kitchen experiments of late :)

Recently, we've been on a roll and been having fun trying out new recipes and improvising in the kitchen. The other day, we made the pizzas that were lovely to look at but not quite crispy enough. Still tasty but not quite perfect. Then Rubén suggested we try making béchamel sauce for stuffed eggplant, and I said, hey, why not, something new. Having never made it, and not knowing what it is supposed to be like, I hopped on the all-knowing internet and found an easy recipe on Epicurious. Carefully following the recipe, I made bechamel for the first time, and according to the judge, it was pretty perfect consistency! Yay for beginner's luck! :) We made nice stuffed eggplants on Saturday and saved some of the sauce for Sunday's experiment.

We attempted to try our hands at a popular Spanish dish--croquetas, usually with some bits of ham, but we just used cheese since we didn't have any bits on hand. We had to make more sauce, but this time the consistency needed to be thicker for the croquetas. Turned out relatively well, though texture wasn't quite perfect, but hey, edible and decent in appearance. :)

For some reason, here in Spain if you order lasagna, they usually give you a meat one with béchamel sauce, so they are used to very minimalist lasañas. I had never put béchamel in my lasagnas, but since we had leftover, threw that in with my usual roasted veggie and minced meat creation. It turned out quite well and the sauce was pretty good--leftovers for emergency frozen dinners too! :)

These next few days involve a bit of a break to meet up with some friends, and then NYE will be part 2 of super-Spanish-holiday-partying, as we are going to celebrate with friends, dinner with more of Rubén's family and then continue on toasting and champagne-ing into New Year's Day. :) When the clock strikes 12 times at midnight, it is tradition to eat 12 grapes, to the beat of the chimes. May have to practise before going, so that I don't choke or miss the beat! ;D Lol

Where will you all be when 2010 rolls around? Post a comment and share! :)

The end of the trimester....and a walk in the Cantabrian valley

Welcome to the end of trimester 1--hoorah!!! Yesterday Dec 22nd was the last official day of classes, even though Monday and Tuesday were really just Christmas activities and such.

Well it also happens that yesterday was also the BIG day here in Spain, for the national Christmas lottery. If you have never heard of it, or seen it, it is definitely worth checking out. It is not "just a lottery"--it's a full day of draws, with two huge spheres rolling out the winning numbers and the prizes. The tradition calls for some singing/chanting of the numbers by children from a specific school, who place the little balls on sticks mounted to this tray. I feel sorry for them, as they have to call quite a few and quite quickly too. The grand prize is 3 million Euros, which isn't the biggest lotto winning ever, but it's a big day with lots of tradition and highlights of people celebrating in the streets. Part of the culture here and pretty fun to watch. Check out this video on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1JkYoIDdbo

On Friday night, we went out for a staff dinner at a local restaurant, called La Bodega de la Montaña and had lots of drinks and raciones (shared plates) and relaxed and chatted.

Cristina, (who helps us keep the school nice and wonderful and clean), Paloma (reception and backup teacher) and Camilla (teacher)

Part of the British teaching contingent--Amanda, Graeme and Joe

William (owner boss-man), Merche, (head of admin) and Jessica (teacher)

Me, Craig (teacher), Urien (director of studies/teacher) and Cristina

Afterwards, we went to this local billiards place and I watched and learned to play pool for the first time. It was quite a big place and we took up a few tables, though some were more hardcore players than others. Then a few of us headed to a regular bar in the city centre for more chatter and better music, and by the time we called it a night, it was the wee hours of the morning.....the bars supposedly shut down around 6am..... Wasn't my goal to hit that marker, but we almost made it to closing...yikes! ;)

So Saturday was a bit of a washout, since Friday night/Sat morning was so long, but Ruben and I ended up experimenting and making two lovely yummy pizzas at his place for dinner, despite it taking forever since he doesn't know how to operate his oven. ;D

Homemade pizza!! Yummy but still can't get it thin and crispy...Desi?

Sunday turned out to be a lovely sunny one, so we got off our butts and headed out for a drive and more sightseeing for me. First stop, to visit the famous Nestle factory where Ruben spends his days analysing UPC codes... ;D (Or at least for the moment, he says...)

The Nestle factory in La Penilla

Then to some other towns in the area, to check out the beautiful surroundings and take in the lovely scenery and breathe in some crisp mountain air!

Typical Cantabrian-style home--with an arch at ground-level, and a nice wide balcony spanning the width of the house.

Who couldn't love the spectacular views from the valley? We met a local lady who was very village-like and lived in one of the small houses, and spoke with a gruff, and very distinct accent. Didn't understand all of what she said, but the gist of it was clear. She had never seen us before, and when asked about her house, reassured us that it was big and had heating and electricity and a fridge too--by golly gee! :D Lol. Also, she kept her cows and everything inside... I didn't want to be rude and take a photo, but was hoping she would invite us in to look around. No such luck, so I can just imagine how it must be a 6 story mansion dug into the side of the slope... ;D Lol

If it weren't for the different style houses, I'd swear this was part of the photos I took in Switzerland! Rain, snow, lush green slopes, mountains--or maybe you'd think this is Scotland!

Looking out into the Cantabrian valley from Esles

Snowy hills of Esles, with the sheep grazing on the green pastures....

So the holidays have begun for me, with work not in sight till January 11th--yay! In the meantime, the vacation period entails meeting lots of people, listening to tons of Spanish (and hopefully understanding most of it..), eating tons of food and celebrating amongst strangers. ;) The next few days will involve lots of baking and tidying around the house. One of my flatmates is going home to Tenerife for the duration of her vacation, and the other doesn't benefit from the extended days off, since she works in a supermarket that is open almost every day except the actual stat days....how sad.

Well here's to a few weeks of decent weather (crossing my fingers really tightly...), good company and fun (overwhelming too) experiences!!

Super long-weekend down south

Two weekends ago (Already! Delayed posting this time....sorry!) was a wonderful 5-day long holiday, because of the 6th and 8th both being holidays, making Monday an extra one off. Usually on Fridays we have meetings with parents, do admin and prep work, but instead, we had the day off, so it was lucky and wonderful!

I had planned a while ago to head down and visit Ramon and Isabel in Granada, so off I went on Friday morning, catching the 7am train down to Madrid. It was a comfy ride, despite it being about 5 hours, but at least they had a movie playing. :) Luckily, Ramon and Isabel were just coming back from a roadtrip to the south of France with some friends, and stopped to visit their daughter Mabel in Madrid. So we had arranged to meet all there and that saved me from a long bus ride by myself down south. Instead, I met up with them and we drove down slowly, stopping for lunch on the way at a truckstop-hotel/restaurant, which had decent, quick, and large-portioned food. :) Further along, we went to Guarroman, a village in Jaen, to buy some famous hojadres, a local specialty sweet. After a three course lunch, I was totally stuffed but had to try the famous delicacy! ;D

We arrived in Granada around 8pm and of course proceeded to have some dinner an hour or so later.....I knew this was the start of a few days of busy eating!

Granada means pomegranate in Spanish--and these ones are fabulous because you can eat the entire thing rather than just the fleshy bits around the small seeds!! Unlike the ones we find in Canada....

Ramon, Isabel and their son Raimon

The family plus Isabel's mom, who came for lunch one day

Other member of the family--Ketta

Isabel preparing another yummy meal

The next day, we woke to a day of nice sunshine, but brisk temperatures--welcome to the wintery streets of the Spanish mountains! People always think that southern Spain is all about warmth and summer, but Granada is surrounded by the Sierra Nevada, so the altitude is noticeably colder.

Look, there is snow up in the mountains!!

I was prepared with my winter jacket, though in the sunshine of the day, it was quite nice and not super chilly.

One of the narrow streets in the Albaicin, the Jewish neighbourhood

Over the weekend, we took advantage of the daytime sunshine and walked through the beautiful old areas of Granada, last stronghold of the Moorish kings before they were pushed out by the Catholic royalty way back in the time. A wonderful variety of Arabic treasures such as:

the ever-charming and amazing Alhambra

the local mosque

and remnants of past times hidden in the streets, as well as the Jewish quarters pictured above. The locals and tourists flooded out into the streets to head into the old town to take advantage of the perfect weather, and traffic was pretty crazy, despite it being a Sunday afternoon....

It always amazes me how these taxi and bus (the red thing at the back of this photo) drivers navigate the narrow streets, coping with tight turns, bumpy roads and pedestrians left, right and centre..... I only bow in admiration as they fold in their side-mirrors... ;)

The city centre was buzzing as well, with shoppers, diners and others hanging out in the streets. In one of the main squares, they had set up a Christmas market with various kiosks of artisans, and a tent showcasing a big nativity scene (very typical here in Spain).

One evening we decided to do something other than walk around town, and headed to the local mall and went bowling. Here, Ramon is not super pleased about getting his butt-kicked by us. :) He was missing out on getting the strikes that we were lucking out on!

Tuesday I caught the bus super early at 7am, to arrive in Madrid by noon. Met up quickly with a friend from Salamanca, who is now studying in Madrid, and we caught up a little bit before I took the train back to Santander. If only every weekend was a 5 day one.... ;)

And now, some miscellaneous photos from Santander.....

Sunrise as seen from our flat....this was around 8am. It always surprises me that the sun rises later here than back home...just like the people's habits! :D

The main building of Banco Santander all lit up at night

A Christmas tree in the middle of one of the main squares

The cathedral (which I still have to visit...)

So last weekend (the one that just passed) I explored a bit more of Cantabria and got to know two places close by:

Number one, Santillana del Mar.....

The cathedral...

Look at the cute little old-style Banco Santander!! :)

What is it eating?

Number two little town, Comillas.....

Always surrounded by the sea--one thing that makes Cantabria oh so wonderful! :)

One of the upcoming-best places to study Spanish in the country

El Capricho, another work by the country's pride and joy, Antoni Gaudi, created in the early 1880s, in Neo-mudejar style. Now a gift shop and restaurant, which unfortunately can't be accessed unless you are a paying customer....

The days leading to Christmas are being filled with exam creation/giving/marking, report cards, Christmas activity planning, some shopping and get-togethers, and vacation planning! So lots to do and not enough time before it all comes down to the end!

Dec 22nd is the day of the national lottery "El Gordo" (literally the fatty....the big one....)--I hope to win it all and start the new year with a bunch of Euros in my pocket, updating my blog from around the globe... ;) Travelling can be expensive at times, but dreaming is always free!!