Halloween in Spain is nothing like it is in the states. For starters, it didn't feel like it was time for Halloween. It was too warm (sorry Ohioans :) ) . None of the leaves had fallen yet. It just didn't feel right. In the school where I teach, all of the classrooms have calendars with pictures of leaves falling in October. It's just wrong. Nothing felt right about Halloween. Hardly any stores sell pumpkins. You don't see pumpkins on peoples porches. There are very few stores here that have costumes. VERY few. And hardly any of the students at my school dressed up. Also - Spaniards think that all Halloween costumes must be scary. The kids that did dress up at school were terrifying. Most had some sort of food powder smeared all over their faces and big dark circles around their eyes. You didn't see any pumpkin outfits, or minnie mouse, or buzz lightyear. Just witches and beasts and dead things. Kind of scary actually. We had November 1st off for All Saints' Day so Monday night we went to a Halloween party. It was at the house of a few girls that we work with. I dressed up as a witch...not too exciting, I know. I just couldn't get into the spirit this year. After drinking at the girls' apartment for a little while, we went to bar called Bombosa. It was pretty fun. They played our favorite Spanish songs for us and some good American ones too.
This past weekend we went hiking. A couple of my roommate's teachers had invited us to go with them. There ended up being a group of about 10 of us....my two roommates and I, and then the teachers and their friends. We left at 9 on Saturday morning to meet up with everyone. We split up into 4 cars and drove 1.5 hours north up into the Sierra mountains. It was both a beautiful drive and a terrible drive. I've never been one to get motion sickness but the drive up into the mountains was terrible. I've driven through mountains before, and while I didn't like it, it also didn't make me feel as bad as the drive here in Spain did. The road that we drove on was a ridiculously curvy highway and we drove through it like we were being chased.
Actually, I've been feeling motion sickness a lot here in Spain...during the bus rides to/from school mostly. I don't know if it is in my head (mom no comments please) or if perhaps it is from all of the roundabouts. I've never seen so many roundabouts. And roundabouts while riding a bus are awful. I've grown to think that it is impossible to tip over a bus...because if it were possible, we would've flipped many many times by now.
After we arrived to the town in the mountains, and I was able to stand on stable land, I felt fine again. Hiking was interesting. It was cold the majority of the time. We started out going downhill most of the time. Which, yes, means we went uphill the majority of the way back to the car. In total we spent about 6 hours walking the trails...including a lunch break of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my roommates and I (I think the Spaniards thought we were crazy). During the hike we saw an abandoned house, ate berries and chestnuts picked from trees, and saw some wild mushrooms, pigs and horses. The views weren't really spectacular, as we were surrounded by trees the whole time, but it was amazing to be outside exploring the hillside.
The night before hiking, we decided we would have an early night since we had to be up so early for hiking. So instead of going out, we went to dinner instead. We ended up eating at La Mirta. The place with the amazing provolone cheese baked with oil and spices. Yummmm! We had lots of wine and of course the provolone cheese again. We also had red pepper stuffed with a shrimp/cod blend. That was delicious. We had "patatas bravas". Not sure what the translation is but they are little chunks of potato with a delicious sauce drizzled over top. Our final dish was black rice. Be advised that I did not pick this and would definitely have not agreed to ordering it had I known what it was. Black rice. Rice with pieces of squid in it. What makes the rice black? Squid ink. Not okay.
Not this coming weekend, but the next, we'll be headed to Morocco. It's a trip organized by a program out of Seville. First we're swinging by Gibraltar for a short visit. To see caves I believe. Then we'll take a ferry over to Ceuta, Africa. The two cities we'll spend most of the weekend in will be Tangier and Tetouan. In those towns we get to see more caves and go on a camel ride. Pictures and stories to come!
