Last week was my first week back at school from winter break. Our break started on December 22nd and went until the 9th of January. It was the longest winter vacation I have ever had and having the extra week was so nice. I finally got to relax from all the studying and worrying about school for two week.
Over break, we celebrated so many holidays and I ate SO MUCH FOOD. I didn't think I was going to eat as much as I did, but everything I had was so good. Since I'm in Galicia, we are right next to the sea so seafood is the thing to eat at Christmas.
On December 24th, or Nochebuena as they call it in Spain, we went to Silvia's mom and dad's house where we ate dinner. Silvia's mom, Tivi, is an amazing cook. Everything she made was really good, even the seafood I didn't think I would like, I ended up loving. We ate clams, shrimp, oysters, mussels and a bunch of other things I don't know the name of.
This lovely pictures is with the crabs we ate. I didn't like them and they were really difficult to open & eat.
After dinner, we ate the typical dessert of Spain which is turron. Turron is like brittle, I guess that is the best way to describe it. It's normally with almonds and then there are other types that are chocolate flavored without almonds. I tried both types and I'm not sure which one I liked more. I don't really care for turron, but it was something typical of a different culture. Other desserts that are eaten are dried fruits like prunes and apricots. We also ate a Tiramisu which isn't typical but it's what we ate.
Family Picture :)
When we were completely finished with all the eating, the adults exchanged gifts because they did Secret Santa. There was a 50 Euro limit and it was really fun to see what everyone gave everyone. I only knew who Silvia had to buy her gift for, so seeing all the other people's gifts was really fun. After presents we were all just sitting around talking and the younger kids went off to play the Wii. We stayed there until 2:30-3:00 am. Alvaro, Silvia and I went home while Lorenzo and Gonzalo stayed to help clean up a little bit.
While we were unloading all the stuff from the car once we got home, Silvia told me I had to distract Alvaro for a few minutes in the garage because she had to put our Christmas gifts on our beds. So Alvaro and I were downstairs just talking and I was trying to think of any random thing to talk about with him to not make it obvious. Once Silvia had the presents on our beds, she told us to hurry upstairs and get ready for bed. Alvaro asked if Santa came and ran upstairs to look. He got a globe, I got a perfume and Lorenzo got a sweater. Most of the people in Spain believe in the 3 Kings, but there are some people who also believe in Santa too.
Christmas day we went to Gonzalo's mom's house for lunch where we ate a lot of food again. Since I've been in Spain, I have only met his mom one time, so I didn't really know what to expect when we went to her house. Gonzalo's sister Ana was there and one of his brother's and his family. Gonzalo has another brother but he lives in California and obviously wasn't there. After our lunch, someone set up Skype with Gonzalo's brother in California so we were talking with them. And of course everyone was like "speak in English with them!"
We went home at around 9 pm and when we got home I skyped with all my family in Wisconsin. Everyone was at my house for Christmas so I got to talk with all my cousin's (minus one who was in Colorado).
From the 25th of December until the 31st there's nothing special so I don't really remember what we did. But pretty much everyday of break we got up late, watched TV until lunch and then Lorenzo and I went to hang out with friends.
New Year's Eve in Spain is so much fun. It's such a big difference from New Year's Eve in the United States. At my house in Wisconsin, we don't really do anything. Some years I go to a friend's house and we watch tv and the ball drop but we don't go out or anything like the people in Spain do.
The first difference is the families get together on New Year's Eve and eat dinner together. Then the last 12 seconds of the year, you eat 12 grapes. Well you try to eat 12 grapes. Another interesting fact I learned about Vilagarica was it is the only place in Spain where they eat 12 grapes at 12:00 in the afternoon too. I thought that was really interesting even though we didn't end up going to the afternoon grape eating.
Once you eat all your grapes, you say "Feliz Ano" to everyone in your family and give them two kisses on the cheek. We ate dinner at Gonzalo's Mom's house again since Silvia's parents go out to eat for New Year's Eve. Lorenzo and I left at 2:00 am because we bought tickets for a club that was having a New Year's Eve party. When you go out for New Year's Eve, everyone get really dressed up. Almost every guy wears a tux and all the girls wear dresses, short dresses, normally above the knee. Almost every girl goes to the hairdresser to get her hair done a special way.
Lorenzo and I
Bea and I
All Girls
Those are just a few pictures from New Year's Eve, we had a ton of fun, it was so different from New Year's Eve in America. Lorenzo and I were allowed to stay out until 6Am which is really early but something was better than nothing. The next day we slept until 5 in the afternoon, our sleep schedules were so messed up.
This is a really really long blog so I'm going to write a second one about 3 Kings day and other random things I remember from Break.
