Return of the Reyes

Been a bit quiet on the blogging front of late, lo siento… but believe me when I say, ‘I’m baaaaack!’

After a couple of relaxing, wonderful weeks back in England over the Christmas break, I returned to Spain with my good friend, Carlos, to spend the Reyes weekend in Madrid before heading back to Soria.

View of the famous Museo del Prado, which holds works by Velazquez and Goya, from outside

It was nice to go and revisit some of Madrid’s famous sites: Gran Vía, Retiro Park, the Cathedral, the Palacio…and some new places like the Bernabeu stadium and the Museo del Prado. But the main reason I had chose to fly out earlier than everyone else was to witness the Los Reyes celebrations in the capital. For those that don’t know, Día de los Reyes (Epiphany – 6th January) is the Spanish version of Christmas, and hence when Spanish people get most of their presents – yeah, they get two lots, lucky people!

The day is marked by parades, known as Cabalgatas, in every city and village the day before. Naturally, (one of) the biggest Cabalgatas, and the only one broadcast live on national television, takes place in Madrid so we were excited to go see it. It being Madrid, there was un montón de people there but we managed to get an okay-spot quite near the start with the stage, the choir and, most importantly, the news crews.

The fanciest Post Office building I’ve ever seen! Correos near Cibeles in Madrid beautifully lit-up for the Cabalgata

The atmosphere was just incredible. Just when I thought Christmas was over for another year, the choir were singing carols to the tune of familiar songs from home and the enormous floats were extravagant and ornate (what recortes?). Some people had warned us that it was más para niños [more for kids – they were throwing sweets at us] but it was still a great cultural experience, one to check off the ever-expanding Year Abroad bucket list.

After Madrid was the obligatory Soria tour. It was interesting to see Soria frozen over, it was literally sooo cold. Genuinely feel like we saw everything there was to see… and more. It was a tiring couple of days but worth it to rediscover some Sorian gems on a wintry backdrop.

Other notable events from the always-fleeting-month-that-is January:

>Soria Shore (what the native English speakers of Soria call ourselves) had a weekend in Madrid for fun. Good fun it was, but lost my beloved Blackberry on a night-out. Sad times.

>The language school decided to set us a voluntary 3 hour exam. Most of us did it. Just when I was feeling competent in Spanish again, during the oral part, I said: No me apetece el vómito. [Vomit doesn’t appeal to me.] Must’ve been seriously struggling for content I think. Can you guess what I was talking about? The colour yellow! Flippin’ silly topic, but in all fairness yellow is a yukky colour.

Right, that’s the entire month of January in one blog-post! (won’t be doing that again) Lots of exciting things planned for this new year: in real life and the blogosphere! Looking forward to making the most of the next 6 months in la gloria de España!

Here’s a funny video I stumbled across the other day – this is exactly what I imagined my Year Abroad to be like!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oLyV96Bn1yY

October In Pictures

Time for another monthly picture update! Here’s an assortment for October:

Machado and Leonor looking out onto Soria. This statue was erected on the Mirón in 2007 to mark the 100th anniversary of Machado arriving in Soria, so it’s relatively new. I think it enhances the landscape instead of ruining it; it gives people something to pose against in triumph once they’ve trekked the path leading up to the viewpoint. This is said to be Leonor’s Mirador (viewpoint), and if you look across you can see Machado’s by the Castle – so it looks like they’re forever gazing upon one another above the Soria in which they fell in love. How romantic…

During the Fiestas of San Saturio there were a lot of things going on. Walking past the bull ring we heard a lot of commotion and went inside to see what was happening. A corner was sectioned off and a little bull was made to run around and get angry – prompted by men in red dresses on a crane. Looked like some kind of competition. We stayed for 10 minutes.

We went to go and see a Volleyball game! This was the Final in the Supercopa between Numancia (the local Sorian team) and Teruel (a village near Zaragoza). We lost…but the atmosphere was incredible and the match was exciting, even for me.

Burgos from a distance with the magnificent cathedral at the heart. Photos never do these stunning landscapes justice…

The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage done to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. The popular walk passes through Burgos and so throughout the town, there were these shells on the pavement and the walls to let pilgrims know they were on the right track. I’d love to do at least a day of the Camino at some point next year before visiting Santiago again!

The Story of Almazán

The word ‘fiesta’ is often thrown about in the English language but it does not have the same meaning as it does in Spain, of course! It doesn’t simply mean ‘party’ but that is a big part of what the word actually means in it’s mother language.

Last week was the Fiestas de San Saturio, the local patron saint of Soria and because of that we had the whole week off school! I feel like such a part-timer but this is just how they do it in Spain! I had thought it might’ve been a good opportunity to travel around Spain a bit more, but after just coming back from Madrid, my bank balance was suffering a bit and we figured it would be nice to see a bit of Soria during the week of festivities.

There were concerts in the evening (seemingly attended by the entire population of the capital), parades with giant statues, music and dance performances, firework displays and a general feel-good ambience spreading through the city.

The Cabezitos Gigantes that paraded through the main street on several occasions during the week’s festivities. Men with bags filled with sweets would follow scattering sugary goodness behind them for children to fight over.

The real drama last week, however, came when we decided we may as well take a trip to the second biggest city in the Soria province, Almazán. We had heard so many amazing things about the area since one of our American auxiliar friends works there so were looking forward to seeing what it had to offer.

Being smaller than Soria, there wasn’t a hell of a lot, but what there was to see, we saw! (I do hope that last sentence makes sense…) That is, we saw everything there was to see in Almazán and more: the highest point in the town, the statues at the Miradores (high viewpoints), the Muralla (wall), the various Arcos (arches), the beautiful Plaza Mayor with the Ayuntamiento and Iglesia San Miguel, the main park and Plaza de Toros (bull ring).

Someone had told us prior to the trip that there is a ‘moving Jesus’ – the only one (in the world?) that can be moved. I had no idea what that meant but on asking our amazing tour guides, they looked quite puzzled but on arriving to the statue (below) one of them said, ‘well maybe it moves when you’re drunk!’

The (very stationary) Jesus statue near the highest point in Almazán

#TEAMSORIA loving life in Almazán

After we had genuinely seen all we had to see in Almazán (even our guides were running out of ideas), it was almost time to catch our bus back. 5 hours in Almazán had been sufficient and were excited to get back into Soria.

There are no spaces on the bus back to Soria at this time. The next one is in 4 hours…

WHAT?! You can imagine our collective annoyance on hearing that we had to wait until 9pm for the bus back to Soria. What were we going to do? We’d seen EVERYTHING.

Luckily, however, the time passed quite quickly. I’d invested in another scarf for the winter, chatted with the lovely lady long enough for it to be acceptable to ask for a discount and we all went for a coffee in the Plaza Mayor before sitting on a mound of earth close to the bus station watching some kids playing in the sunset.

All-in-all, it was a nice day trip out of Soria despite the initial worry that we may have to sleep in the park. Would I go back? Probably not (unless there are local fiestas); it had some nice parts, but the actual ‘city’ was quite derelict and made me extremely grateful to be in a place like Soria, which is feeling more and more like home. And on that soppy note, peace out!

Marcha a Madrid

Lessons continued this week. I’m slowly starting to get into the whole Science thing and bits and pieces from my studies at GCSE are coming back to me! I can tell the teachers are desperate for me to do something other than just read passages from the textbook; one has even asked me to prepare an activity on eclipses for next week. A step that I hope the other teachers will take too!

Other than that the only other thing of note that happened in the classroom this week was when a pupil stayed behind after class to explain to me why the Welsh dragon isn’t included in the Union Jack (as I couldn’t explain why during my introductory presentation the week before). He even brought in a book in English and pointed to a passage as he tried to explain. These are the reasons people teach: to stimulate and inspire thought and knowledge. Hopefully there will be more moments like this throughout the year. (For those, like me, that don’t know: Wales is a principality, not a kingdom so they are excluded from the UK flag)

The main source of excitement this week, however, came from our trip to Madrid, mainly in aid of the British Council Orientation that had been arranged for us on the Friday morning but we decided to make a weekend of it. We set off on Thursday afternoon; we were quite tolerant of the 3 hour bus ride thanks to our tiredness and a rather provocative George Clooney film.

I genuinely love underground Metro systems. Having visited Barcelona last Christmas and experienced London’s Tube for the first time over the summer, I really can appreciate the engineering of such networks.  Madrid’s underground system is, according to my well-travelled friends, one of the best in the world and it’s easy to see why. Spacious platforms, beautifully air-conditioned carriages…I do crave a busier, more stressful lifestyle so I can use them on a daily basis!

We arrived at our shockingly-good-value-for-money hostel after some shoddy direction and quickly became acquainted with the local bars and cuisine.

The next day was the day of the conference which was useful…in places. The thing is, being in Castilla y Leon meant we had started ‘teaching’ a lot earlier than everyone else. So we already had obtained our NIE’s, opened our bank accounts and settled into Spanish life. Hearing people worry and ask about every single detail was a bit frustrating but all in all, the day was a good opportunity to meet other assistants and find out more about our role.

…and then it was sightseeing time! Unfortunately the weather was typically British for our arrival and I was not prepared for the rain and cold that accompanied our excursions to tourist attractions. The architecture in Madrid is truly beautiful; from the compulsory Plaza Mayor to the exquisite surrounding Palacios, it definitely has something for everyone.

Plaza Mayor, quite grand and special

The Reina Sofía Art Gallery was also a stand-out moment from the weekend. Seeing Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ was definitely an experience. Having heard so much about the history of the painting and the symbolism, to see it in its enormity (11ft by 26ft) was quite breath-taking. I always feel like I want to learn more about art and artists after visiting art galleries and it was definitely the case after this visit. Now seems as good a time as any to pursue my interest in Spanish art; Picasso, Goya and Velazquez are just some artists that I would love to find out more about.

Reina Sofía from afar, home to Picasso’s ‘Guernica’

We decided the Retiro park was a good thing to do on the last day to nurse our hangovers and it turned out it was the best day to do so. The sun was shining on our pale faces as we wandered through the beautiful park, 50 million times bigger than Soria’s equivalent, La Dehesa. There was a nice pillar feature near the lagoon which was an ideal spot for group photos and to sit, chill and chat. I don’t think we got to see the whole park as our trip was slightly rushed towards the end; it being the last day we had to make sure we caught our coach back to Soria in time, but still it was a short but sweet encounter with the famous landscapes.

Well-pruned trees in the Retiro

Alas, I can finally say I’ve visited the capital of Spain. The constant hustle and bustle, abundance of English speakers and high cost of living does make me partially glad to be in a much, smaller city like Soria but I can’t help wonder what my life could’ve been like if I had been placed there. In a short space of time, we joined a random street party (literally on the street!), helped an American with her bags across the city, came up with an exciting, plausible business concept, bought (and lost) some fake Ray-Bans and found ourselves in the middle of the riots! 29-S, we were there! I definitely intend on visiting Madrid again multiple times; I think the next visit will be in Winter when Spain’s preparations for Christmas begin! Hasta Diciembre!

September In Pictures

I realise my last post was incredibly text-heavy…so here are some pictures of things I’ve visited during my time here:

I live 2 minutes away from this beautiful plaza which leads onto the main street, El Collado. I took this photo when it was siesta-time so that explains why it looks so deserted!

This is me writing in ‘the wishes book’ at the top of the Hérmito de San Saturio. Lots of people had written their hopes for the future; I just wrote how much I was looking forward to spending the year in such a beautiful region.

Antonio Machado’s wife, Leonor, is buried in the main cemetery in Soria. Weirdly, there are signs around the cemetery with arrows that point to her not-so-distinguished grave. Still, it was interesting to learn that Machado isn’t buried with the love of his life. Why isn’t anyone campaigning to make this happen? It would definitely boost the tourism industry here!

The graves looked so grand, ornate and expensive! There was an eerie silence as we walked around and found out things about why things are as they are, such as the trees, chosen because of their pointy shape so it looks like they are pointing to heaven. Along the sides of the cemetery, (probably due to lack of space) there are coffins laid on top of and next to each other to make a wall. I won’t mention names, but someone said, ‘Even in death they are piled on top of each other!’ I didn’t get this at first, but it was referring to how everybody here lives in flats. True that!

I still have little idea exactly what this was but it was a good opportunity to go inside the Plaza de Toros (bull ring). The posters said it was a weekend of ‘Feria Ganaderia’; there were bulls in cages all around the bull ring. I think they were being sold off but I can’t be sure…

On one of our many trips to the Rio Duero, we saw a mysterious creature crawl out of the water and hobble along the path. I didn’t have my glasses on at that point so naturally the blurred vision heightened my alarm and intrigue as to what the beast could be. We were standing a fair distance away and it looked the size of a child. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Someone thought it was a seal but it turns out it was actually a bird. A Buitre Leonado, in fact. Hopefully, a rare sighting in Soria because according to its Wikipedia description, it doesn’t sound too friendly.

One incredible month over! Hope everybody is enjoying the blog! Please feel free to leave me comments if there’s anything in particular you want me to cover. While I’m closing off, I’d like to say a massive thanks to the amazing Third Year Abroad team for featuring Espana In The Works on their Top of the Blogs 2012/13 feature. Thanks guys!