it has only been two weeks since i last posted, but i feel like its been months. christmas time (aka hanukkah time for us judios) has been very event filled (eventful?) for me. in fact it has been so eventful that i can only really remember a few of the things i have done! (will recount events later)
this christmas time has been very special to me. although i do not technically celebrate christmas, i do celebrate the happiness and family time that comes along with this season. unfortunately, being in spain, I was unable to spend time with mi familia. this is actually the second year in a row i have been away from home for the holidays (promise ill be home next year), because last year i was volunteering in belize at an orphanage. working in an orphanage really made me appreciate the things i do have. so although ideally i would have loved to be home for the holidays, i am extremely grateful for the people who took me into their homes so i wouldnt spend christmas eve/day alone.
on christmas eve, i ate dinner with ismael's family. his mother or father, not sure, cooked a delicious typical spanish meal. there were plates para picar: jamon, cheese, another kind of jamon, olives (i think), and some form of pork as the main course. i made latkes to share a little judaism with the family. although i consider myself quite a terrible chef, i think they came out well. at least ismael's family was polite and told me they were good. also, i found applesauce in corte ingles! so mixed into this typical spanish meal, we ate latkes. of course, in typical spanish tradition, we ate them as a tapa, as in each latke was cut into 4 and picked at with a toothpick. not a bad idea, no wonder spanish people stay so skinny. whereas we are at the table eating 3 too many latkes per person, the spaniards are tapeando (tapa-ing)
i think this was in fact my very first christmas dinner, anywhere in the world. in my mind, im not exactly sure why, i imagine families sitting around and singing christmas carols while getting drunk on christmasy beverages. i dont recall any villancicos (cool spanish word for christmas carols) being sung, although they were playing on the radio. but i do recall beverages being drank/drunk/drinked? (yes, i am here teaching english)
on christmas eve night, after dinner with ismael's fam, i went out with my spanish amiga isabel. we went to a bar/club in a part of sevilla i havent been to yet (good to know sevillanas). i had a lot of fun, i met her friends and danced and drank until 6 in the morning.
the next day, christmas day,(which was actually the same day i went to sleep) i woke up and went directly to another christmas celebration. this time it was with the family of another friend, pilar. i met pilar through some auxiliar friends that live in the same building as her. pilar was very sweet to invite me to spend the day with her family. i went to her house around 2:30. turns out lunch wasn't actually at her house but in the apartment across the hall, that of her aunt/uncle/cousins. (jennie if you are reading this, i hope one day we live across the hall from each other)
well, spanish families are typically pretty big, and pilar's was no exception. when i walked in the door i was introduced to about 20 people. everyone was super welcoming and friendly. even though im jewish and american, i didnt feel out of place at all at this spanish christmas celebration. again, we had the typical feast. there was jamon and cheese and stuffed peppers and some meat i couldnt identify to start. by the time the main course came out, i was already stuffed. but i was told by various family members that i had not eaten anything...same thing happened with ismael's family. i guess you havent eaten enough unless you feel physically ill and can no longer put food in your body. well i didnt feel physically ill, so i ate the main course, didnt want to be rude.
at 9:30pm, after watching elf in spanish (awesome!), i was about ready to go home. i had very little sleep the night before and was going to madrid the next day and hadnt begun packing. i went to say goodbye to everyone, and they said to me "you can't leave, we haven't eaten dinner yet!" dinner! yikes i was still full from the 5 hours of eating i had recently finished. but to have the true christmas day experience, i stayed for dinner, which was mostly just leftovers from lunch. no one really ate that much, i think everyone was as full as i was. we all eventually migrated to the couch, where there is a coffee table with a heater under it (genius) and watched el diablo viste en prada (the devil wears prada). i really like watching movies i have seen 100 times in spanish because i feel like i actually understand what they are saying even though its more likely that i just have the lines memorized.
there was also a christmas lunch at school which in the sequence of events actually happened before the other two meals, although i am writing about it last. we ate at a restaurant in pilas. i think we had the whole restaurant to ourselves. there were about 100 courses and lots of drinks included. after the lunch we went to a "club" in pilas, and danced and drank some more. it was really fun partying with my coworkers. i feel like i know them (some at least) much better. it was a really good time and a great way to start my vacation.
so it turns out i havent actually been doing all that much this christmas season, just eating a lot! but isnt that what the holidays are for afterall??
lots of love from madrid!
felices fiestas
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