Feliz Entroido!

Carnaval decorations, Málaga, 2012

One of the many things that Spain has that America lacks is Carnaval (Entroido in Galician). This is basically what Americans think of Mardi Gras, or the last few days before Lent. Depending on where you are, the celebrations can kick off up to a few weeks in advance, with drinking, eating, parades, and costumes. 

In Vigo, things are fairly low-key (for Spain), and the only real way I celebrated was by spending an evening with a group of people all dressed up in this getup:

Can you figure out what it is? If you're not from Vigo, the answer is probably no. I'm dressed as a Vitrasa bus (the local bus system) transformer. More specifically, the number 11 bus, which I take 3 days a week to get to private lessons. So there I am as a human, and when we all "transformed" into buses, they looked like this, with us inside:

It was a lot of work making the costumes, but when we all "transformed" together, it looked pretty cool. If you're my friend on facebook, check it out there! It was quite fun to go out and see all the different costumes (mostly people like us, in groups with a theme). Like a second (better) Halloween!

So Happy Carnaval, everyone! Eat lots of orejas, dress up, and be merry!

Hello from Galicia

So you know that part in Pride and Prejudice (if the answer to this question is no, we cannot be friends) where Elizabeth and Darcy are dancing for the first time and she's trying to make him have a conversation with her and she says "We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the éclat of a proverb." ?

Well, that there is exactly the reason I never publish anything on this blog. I have tons of ideas and I write them down, but they never seem perfect enough to show to the public. And so they waste away until too much time has passed and they no longer have any context or meaning.

So here I am writing an entry with little to no content, in order to not nitpick it to pieces and never actually publish it. Here's what I have to say: this past weekend was nice, with beautiful weather (for once) and plenty to do. I got to hang out with couchsurfing people, be productive, go to a Galician festival where people were drinking wine from bowls which were tied around their necks (also known as San Blas) and watch the Super Bowl until 5am with my roomies and cook and eat an American feast of hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, chili, and brownies. And it was good.

Until next time, try not to be too hard on yourself (and I'll attempt to do the same).

Bagpipers entertaining us at the festival

Pulpoooooo