A very Riojan day

On Friday, instead of sleeping until noon, I participated in CRA Moncalvillo's (the schools where I teach on Tuesdays) celebration of Book Day by going to Medrano and Sorzano and telling the story of the 3 Little Pigs in English. Kelly and Natalie also participated.

In Sorzano, there is a mechanical nativity scene that I had never seen, so after storytelling, the children and I walked there.

The mechanical nativity scene (Belen Mecanico). It's housed in a cinder block building (see below) and you have to go to a cafe and get the keys from this old woman. And then you just walk in and this 1940s Spanish music starts playing and all the little figurines move back and forth. To the far left is the actual nativity scene, and the rest are anachronistic shops and schools and houses and beauty parlors. The best is a prisoner climbing out of the jail window on a rope.

Me with the children I teach in Sorzano in front of the Belen Mecanico. There are only 7 at the school.

This is one of the views from Sorzano. The little girl is Yura. She's maybe 5 and from Morocco and extremely intelligent. That's Marian's, one of the boy's, dogs.

The school in Sorzano.

The classroom.

After storytelling, Kelly, Natalie, and I walked to a deserted a convent just outside of Nalda. You can see it in the right of the photo with all of the branches growing through what used to be the roof.

We walked to the currently functioning church/convent nearby afterwards and laid out in the most manicured, plush grass I've seen in Spain and perhaps in my life. We returned to the school at about 2:30 for merendola, a giant snack, with all of the teachers from the CRA, and then Rosa drove us back to Logrono at about 3:45. I had my conversation class, and then got ready to go to a birthday dinner with all of my teachers from Alberite. The dinner was in a bodega owned by several couples, including some of the teachers.

The fire that a few of the teachers built to grill the food on. They burn grape vine branches until they are embers and then...

they put the meat over the fire in these things. They cooked chorizo, really thick bacon, and chuletas, or lamb ribs. One of the teachers, Jose Ignacio, was very concerned that I had never eaten chuletas before and kept asking me who do you hang out with that you have never eaten chuletas before?

There were 24 of us for dinner, and food to feed 40. The bread circles that you see are covered in goat cheese and tomato marmalade. So good. There is a tapa in Logrono of this variety.

To the left, see the chuletas.

After dinner ended at 11:30, we had desserts including dark chocolate-covered orange peels that my English teacher, Susana, made. There was a "chocolate" cake that I think perfectly demonstrates the problem with Spanish desserts. It was basically light brown flan. And then we had sorbette, lemon sorbet with champagne, and we started playing pre-planned games.

Semana Santa

Spain being a Catholic country, we had 10 days of vacation for Easter. So we traversed the Iberian peninsula, traveling from Lisbon to the Costa Brava. The trip got off to an anxiety-causing start as Jennis and I arrived at the Madrid airport with 4 hours to spare before our flight which was delayed and delayed and delayed for 4 more hours, so we were in Barajas for a grand total of 8 hours. We ate at McDonald's on 3 separate occasions, and arrived in Lisbon around midnight. My friend David arrived from Madrid on an 8.5 hour bus ride before us.

BUT the apartment that we rented was adorable, on the top floor with a view of the ocean/river (I was never sure which was which). We spent Saturday walking all over the city, Sunday Jennis and I went to Portuguese Easter mass and then we all took the train to Sintra. On Monday, we spent the day walking around and getting to the airport.

Sintra

Sintra

Sintra

Sintra

the view from Sintra

Sintra

From Lisbon, we flew to Madrid and spent the night with David. Then on Tuesday, we went to the Francis Bacon exhibit at the Prado and took the AVE to Barcelona, where we spent one night. For dinner, the best kebab place in Barcelona had reopened (after being closed since January or so), so we ate there. And then on Wednesday, Jennis and I rented a car and drove to Calella de Palafrugell on the Costa Brava where we met Kelly and her boyfriend, Jorge Pep.

The coast was absolutely beautiful and it was nice to just sit on the beach and not feel the need to go anywhere, although the places we did go were also gorgeous. The sun was out for most of the day when we were there, and although it was cold, it was still pretty.

The beach.

He made that.

Kelly, Jorge Pep, me, and Jennis

Easter

I was sitting in my apartment watching football and piddling around on the internet when I heard the distant sound of drum beats. I was kind of excited because it was Semana Santa, and I'd heard that the Easter processions here are particularly dark and interesting. I looked out my window and at the end of my street, a group of people dressed in black KKK uniforms were forming a group (obviously these hooded costumes didn't originate with the KKK, but they're impossible to disassociate). They began walking down my street. I was home alone and terrified. But I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures out on my balcony.

There was a section of drummers keeping a "beat" for the rest of the hooded marchers who were walking as slow as humanly possible down my street (the drummers were also wearing hoods of course). The drums were enormous, and some of the marchers were using mallets. With my balcony view, I noticed circles of red on some of the drums. Indeed, the more devout (I suppose) were using their bare knuckles to beat the drums and had formed circles of blood about the size of a human head on theirs.

With the parade right out front, I saw my friend Kelly down on the street and decided to go down, and we took some more photos. About a quarter of the marchers were children, which was weird to see. The procession would stop periodically and some of the children would lift their hoods and smile for a picture or wave at their parents.

Sergey in Spain II

We flew from Sevilla to Barcelona on Monday, which was about 8 hours of travel (taking the bus to the airport, waiting at the airport, being in the air, taking an hour and 20 minute bus ride into BCN, etc). Whatsmore, RyanAir's color scheme is extremely abrasive and their "in case of emergency" instructions are on the back of the seat in front of you staring you in the face. I was clutching Sergey's arm and asking him "is that normal?" throughout the flight, and yet he still managed to sleep. But the weather in Barcelona was absolutely beautiful. And we stayed close to Montjuic and I got see a lot of things and areas that I haven't seen of Barcelona.

BARCELONA, MONDAY
The beach in tights.

Dinner at our hostal.

BARCELONA, TUESDAY
The view from the park in Montjuic.

The Miro Foundation inside the park.

Sergey and Miro.

BARCELONA, WEDNESDAY
A market in Poblenau

Torre Agbar

LOGRONO, THURSDAY
Jennis and Sergey in front of our favorite window display in Logrono. The store is for the elderly and the skeleton is holding a bedpan. Who would shop there?

Tapas.

BILBAO, FRIDAY
a really cool bathtub

We went to Bilbao on Friday morning at 7:30 am. We wandered around and climbed the same steps to the park that I climbed the first time I was there. And then we went into the Guggenheim which was amazing. There was a Murakami exhibit and some really cool video installations.

The back of the Jeff Koons dog in front of the Guggenheim.

Sergey and the Guggenheim.

A pedestrian bridge.

In the park area that overlooks the city.

Sergey and the city.

A room full of Richard Serra.

Back in Logrono, cooking curry.