Beben, y Beben, y Vuelven a Beber

(this blog post is packed with goodies! videos, pictures, and my incredible wit. Merry Christmas!)

So Christmas has come and gone. That is a little bit impossible to believe.
I'm happy to report that I am still living, that I made it through my first Christmas away from home relatively unscathed. (Except for that minor major freak out I had about a week ago!) And I wasn't even that "homesick" on Christmas, thanks to the invention of skype, and the recently acquired webcams of various family members. :)

To be completely honest, Christmas Eve had to be one of the coolest days that I have ever spent in Spain (and not because the high temperature was only 5°C). I consider myself blessed to have had the opportunity to be here. I'm not sure about the rest of the country, but here in Toledo on Christmas eve (and New Year's Eve), all of the bars give out free tapas, most notably migas. Apparently, the festivities began around 11:30am, though we only wandered out around 3:45. Obviously, being the holidays, there weren't too many foreigners around, so we were out having cañas and delicious tapas with hordes of Spaniards in the freezing cold. As far as I know, this is a rather recent tradition, but it is so awesome. You go out to spend the day with your friends, have some drinks, eat some good food, and then you go home at night to have dinner with your family. What more could you ask for?

Out for Migas

 So after migas, (which we never actually got to try anyway), I went to make chocolate chip cookies with my friend, and then went to have dinner with my coworker's family. The dinner was PHENOMENAL. I mean, truly the best meal that I have had in Spain. And I'm even having trouble thinking of anything I've eaten in the US that is comparable... but I digress. We first had lobster and langostinos, which are very unshrimpy shrimp. (And by that, I mean they are huge.) Then we had capón. In English, we call it capon. (Go ahead, read what it is!) It tasted a lot like turkey, and was cooked just perfectly, with dates and some kind of stuffing inside. Amazing. We had a different wine with every course, and each one was fantastic. I really lucked out with this meal!

I took some gingerbread cookies that I had made, and everybody was loving on them, (except for one guy, who didn't like them because he could tell that they were made out of butter). We also had traditional Spanish desserts, like turrón and other delicious things (that I can't remember the name of). So good! And best of all, it was really great to just hang out with a family... even if it wasn't my own.


Here are some pictures of the gingerbread men! I was pretty proud. All of this with makeshift icing and a plastic baggie. It's okay, you can be impressed now.

Yes, that is Darth Vader.

 

Oh, and here is the belén that we were working on last week. (I had no part in how awesome it turned out.. I only helped by slathering it with plaster!)

So anyway, after dinner, I met my friend and we went to the misa de gallo, (literally, mass of the rooster), or midnight mass at the Cathedral. It was gorgeous. There was hardly anybody there. And it was freezing. But it was beautiful. At some point during the mass, I was reminded that this is what it's all about. Despite the fact that the traditions are different here, and that my family is so far away, we are all celebrating the same thing... the birth of Christ. And really, that's more important than any Christmas party you can throw.

On Christmas day, we took it easy. I hung out with an American friend. We made a pancake brunch, opened our packages together, skyped with our families, made some more cookies, had dinner, and watched Love Actually. It was a really nice, relaxing day! (And not a bad night either.)

Of course I was missing my family a bit. And I was missing my own traditions. But I think it's kind of cool that I got to spend a Christmas here. After all, the goal is to live here, right? I feel like I'm seeing a side of Spain that not many foreigners have the chance to experience.

I definitely had a Feliz Navidad, and I'm bound to have a Próspero Año Nuevo, if only because the King wished it for me during his yearly Christmas address. His approximate quote was, "I wish a Happy New Year to all of the extranjeros living with us." And we all know that kings get everything they wish for, right?

Now I'll leave you with one of my newest favorite villancicos. It's called 'Los Peces en el Rio', (or, The Fish in the River) and the title of this blog comes from the chorus. It has got to be the most curious Christmas Carol I've ever heard. .. Something about Mary combing her golden hair. Something about her washing rosemary. Something about soap. And something about fish in the river drinking water. And they drink, and they drink, and they drink some more.