This past weekend...

This past weekend I got to participate in many activities. It started on Friday when I got to participate in the Dia del Centro at Santa Amalia. This is kind of like "field day" in the US, where there are all these special activities. They had all sorts of workshops like board games, juggling, karaoke, social dance, broach making, etc etc. The first thing we did, however, was have the typical Spanish breakfast of chocolate con churros. Heres a photo of the big vat of chocolate that was served and heres a pic of some of the professors at my school enjoying the breakfast.

Here is a photo of one of the workshops. The students are playing "futbol chapas". Basically the same rules as soccer but played with bottle caps.

After all the students left the professors got to celebrate and eat some pinchos (little bits of food; like appetizers). Here is a pic of the sweet spread of food we got to eat!

It was really fun, and Im glad I got to see it. At the end of the day, all the students and professors got a cap and like bag thing with the Santa Amalia motto.

That night I went to a concert. It was deemed as "flamenco pop". It wasnt that awesome but I do like the strong influence of flamenco music on modern music in Spain. I think it shows how the people want to maintain their culture/heritage.

On Saturday I was going to go with some friends to Santa Amalia (where I teach) to go to the Rumeria. This is the fiesta/celebration for the patron saint of the "campesino" or the farmer. The saint being honored was San Isidro. The other town I work in-- Valdivia was also having a rumeria to honor San Isidro. But anyways... I was going to go with some friends, but in the end they couldnt go, so I was like thats too bad, but oh well. Then one of my american friends somehow convinced me to go there on bicycle. So we did. It was 20 kilometers there and then 20 back. This may not sound like much, but I dont ride bikes often so it was a pretty scary prospect to me. But the road there and back is pretty flat so it wasnt too bad.

We still got kind of a late start so we ended up only having 3 hours to enjoy the rumeria. It was quite an experience. It kind of reminded me of a mix of a football tailgate and a state fair and a reunion. Groups of family and friends set up their own tent where they just hang out and and eat and talk all day. I told the director (principal) of my school that I was planning on going and he said to make sure and come by his tent, so I did and let me tell you they had some delicious food!!! All home made and fresh. But ofcourse they just kept loading up our plates. I was already really full and then they gave me like 5 desserts. But every one they gave me they told me about how this grandma made it from scratch and it was typical extremaduran-- so there was no way I could say "no"! I walked around and say a lot of my students as well. They were so excited that I was there and just amazed. I am so glad I went. But as I said, we only got to stay 3 hours because we had to return on bike before the sun went down, so we petaled pretty intensely back to ol' DB.

The rumeria was on top of this mountain right outside of Santa Amalia. Here is a pic with me and the landscape:

Here is a pic of the general craziness of cars and such at the rumeria. They had one of those blow-up bouncing things. It was a Simpson's one. No surprise there-- they love the simpsons here.

This is a picture of Paco's (the principal) tent and his family and friends:

This is me, Paco, and my american friend Justin right before we head back to DB:

ON Sunday, I went to church like always and then right after I headed out to a small village called Magacela with some friends. This is a beautiful small town that is on a mountain side. Its very close to Don Benito, but I hadnt been yet so it was a good experience. We ate lunch at one of my friend's family's house. Here is a view from the rooftop terrace:
Here we are at lunch. The names of everyone from left to right: Lidia, Eva, Adolofo, Violeta, Me, Becca, and Sarah. Sarah, Becca and I were the Americans, if you cant tell.
So, there is a castle at the top of the hill-- its very beautiful. But believe it or not, I forgot my camera. Que lastima! So here is a picture of the mountain and town and castle from down below after we had left:

Sunday night, Barcelona won La Liga. Essentially, they won the national championship. Just a little background info-- the two most popular teams in Spain are Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. Thus, they are fierce rivals. So, in honor of their win all the Barcelona fans (nickname: Barca) came out to celebrate in the main plaza in Don benito. This includes them all jumping in the fountain and slinging water everywhere. People brought out their car speakers and megaphones and sang, honked their car-horns, clapped and celebrated for hours. And the cool thing is that all over Spain at the exact same time were simliar and many much larger, celebrations. I have a video below.

So, I feel like I had another full and wonderful weekend. I had wanted to go to Portugal, but I am glad that I got to see more of the culture of Extremadura. I am going to miss this place.