December? Really?
Sooo I’m definitely weirded out that it’s the middle of December… how did this happen? There’s only one more week left before until Christmas vacation starts for all the little kiddies (and therefore me too)! Honestly, I’m looking forward to having a break from everything – not that I’m feeling overworked, I think I’m just ready for a change of scene. Fortunately, I have a few weeks of solid vacation, so I have a few travels coming up that should be a lot of fun! I’ll be sure to keep you all posted!
I haven’t been up to too much the last couple of weeks (rain and wind make curling up with a blanket and a book my room too tempting to resist), but here are a couple of highlights:
1) Flamenco show:
The city of Cádiz is pretty good about putting on free entertainment in various fine art forms. Earlier this year there was a theater festival, another week I’m pretty sure there was one for music… anyway, last weekend I went to a low-key flamenco show performed by local groups of gaditanos (the name for people from Cádiz). It was well attended and both groups were quite good, performing a range of flamenco songs traditionally sung during the holiday season. The show-stealer for me though was the little old lady from the audience who simply couldn’t stay in her seat. About halfway through each of the two groups’ performance, she moved to the front of the audience (there was a small open area between the audience seating and the stage) and started dancing like there was no tomorrow. She was clearly enjoying the music and may or may not have been lost in her own little flamenco world. The part I liked best was that she wasn’t gently ushered off to the side and asked to go back to her seat, but instead got invited to come up to the stage and finish up the last number with the whole group!
2) La Granja Escuela:
I got to go on a field trip last Tuesday! WOOOO! We went to a place called La Granja Escuela, a farm dedicated to teaching kids about various outdoor/farm-y activities. The kids got to do many wonderful things such as plant beans in a greenhouse, pick oranges from trees, learn how to bake bread, and even milk a goat! It was really fun to get to spend the day “chaperoning” (aka following groups of 6 and 7 year olds around while a Granja worker taught them everything). Being outside there made me realize just how incredibly much I miss things like trees and grass and dirt and crisp smelling air! Where’s the PNW when I need it most?!? Oh well, as long as it’s still around come summertime, I think I’ll survive. Anyway, back to La Granja. It was really cool and I am very jealous that a Granja Escuela was not part of my elementary school education.
3) The Holidays in general
Tomorrow I’m going to a Christmas cookie baking party! This is a rather festive event for me to participate in (i.e. don’t think I’ve ever been to a party with this theme before), but I’m looking forward to it! It’s been fun/funny trying to round up the correct set of ingredients and supplies (we seriously haven’t found a normal cookie pan to bake them on… hmmm…) and should be a good reason for our group of auxiliares de Cádiz to get together and spend the afternoon together!
Another exciting event is that the city has finally turned on the montón de Christmas lights set up everywhere – on lampposts, buildings, in tree form in some of the plazas… it’s quite the show. They have had the decorations up since around Thanksgiving time, but decided not to turn them on until a couple days ago in order to save money due to the not-so-hot economy (note: electricity is insanely expensive here, so it probably was a smart move on the city’s part…).
Anyway, I can't think of anything else to write about, so that means that’s it for now! Hope you’re all well and busy getting into the holiday spirit!
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