Hiking Part III: The Grand Event

This was one of the most enjoyable, adventurous and exhausting weekends that I’ve had in a long time. I am happy to say that I’ve finally accomplished one of the most difficult things on my Spanish bucket list: hiking the 5-hour long trail in Jávea.

Although Jávea is a very small town, it is known for its beautiful and various rutas de senderismo (scenic routes) that offer great views of the town and a wonderful connection to nature. Some of the routes are quicker and easier while others are a lot longer and more challenging. After doing some hiking in January when my friends came to visit me, I suddenly became eager to do the longer hiking trail in Jávea; not only because I was really interested in seeing some of the places on the route but also because I really wanted to challenge myself physically and I knew mountain hiking would be the perfect way to do that.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at a schedule of organized group hikes in Jávea and I saw that the one hike that I was particularly interested in would be done as a group this weekend. The registration was free and it was open to anyone that wanted to participate. Since I didn’t have any trips planned this weekend I knew that this would be the perfect time to do it. Last weekend I tried to prepare myself a little bit by hiking one of the smaller mountains in Jávea just so that my body wouldn’t be so surprised when I did the longer one. Most of the routes in Jávea were described as having a low to medium difficulty level including the one I did last weekend. The five hour hike, however, was at a high difficulty level, so I was a little worried about that.

Earlier during the week I asked some of my friends if they were interested in hiking with me. One of my friends is planning to do the Camino de Santiago in June (future blog entry) and I knew that this would be a great way for her to prepare for it. Another friend of mine is a frequent hiker and I knew that she would also possibly be interested. Although both were thrilled at the idea, in the end, my other friend couldn’t make it but one assured me that she would come. On Friday morning I went to the tourist office to get some information on the hiking routes. I was given several packets of information along with a couple of maps. This made me super excited about the trip.

Originally, we were going to do the 5-hour group hike that was scheduled for Sunday morning but my friend and I decided that we were better off doing the hike by ourselves on Saturday since we had each other’s company. She took the first bus out from Alicante on Saturday morning, she arrived in Jávea in the early afternoon and we immediately prepared for our hiking trip. I had bought plenty of water the day before along with lots of fruits to snack on and my friend brought some cheese and turkey chorizo. We packed our bags with sandwiches, water and fruit, along with some other things that we would need for the trail such as towels, sunscreen, first-aid items, cell phones, tissue, etc. (I felt like a real hiker). It was a little cloudy that day. I didn’t think that it was going to rain but my friend suggested that we bring garbage bags with us just in case it did to protect our things.

We left my piso at around 1:00pm and set out for our first destination: Els Molins (or in castellano, Los Molinos), old windmills in Jávea. In order to get there we had to first walk up a long hilly road going out of the town. As we were doing this we passed by a big church with a beautiful blue roof. I’d always seen this church from the balcony of my piso but I never knew how to get to it. We stopped at the church and walked around for a little bit and then we continued to head towards the Molins. About 45 minutes or so after walking, we finally reached them. I have been so curious about these old windmills since I’ve been living in Jávea. They sit on a hill on top of the town and although they are very old and most of them are ruined, they are still very beautiful and fascinating. When we finally reached the Molins I felt like I had finally found what had been looking for. The Molins were huge and even more beautiful up close. As we were on top of the hill looking down at the town of Jávea, we decided to sit down and eat some of our sandwiches.

When we were finished exploring the Molins, we decided to head to our next destination, La Cova Tallada. This cave is another scenic destination that I’m sure many people travelling to Jávea don’t get to see because it is very difficult to get to. As you can imagine, because the cave is at sea level and we were far above sea level at that time, we had to actually climb down a mountain to get to the cave. When we first left the Molins, we had to walk down a long road to take the path to the cave. Afterwards, we walked across a long rocky field to get to the other side of the mountain. Lastly, we had to hike down the mountain to get to the cave. This included the use of ropes and chains and some really serious mental concentration. Hiking down the mountain was very difficult, not only were there so many small slippery rocks that would move whenever you stepped on them, but you also had to really concentrate on your next move, making sure that you place your feet and hands in the right places. I slipped a couple of times going down.

Going down the mountain took a long time, whenever I thought that we were close to the cave, we really weren’t. Eventually though, with the help of more ropes, we finally made it down to the cave. Once we got there we realized that the journey it took to get to this particular destination was well worth it. The cave was spectacular. Not only was the inside of the cave so vibrant and multidimensional but we also had such a wonderful view of the sea. Because it was cloudy that day, the water was a different shade of blue and there were many waves. We were surrounded by the sound of water crashing onto the rocks along the edge of the cave. The whole sight was beautiful. While we were there, we decided to take a break and eat a little bit more. I finished my sandwich and I also ate a mandarin.

After a while we decided to leave the cave and head to our next destination, La Torre de Gerro, or The Gerro Tower, a Renaissance watchtower that is a popular attraction not only in Jávea but also in Alicante. Just like the path travelling to the cave from the top of the mountain, the route from the cave to the Torre de Gerro, although different, was also very tricky. After roping our way back to land from the cave, we then had to first climb up many steep steps. We then laterally hiked our way across the mountain. Lastly we had to hike up a different mountain to get to the tower. This was probably one of the most dangerous parts of the trip because there were no boundaries of any sort that would prevent a person from slipping down. There were also many slippery rocks here as well. I not only got a splinter during this part of the route but I also fell.

The journey from the cave to the tower was quite long and strenuous. It had also begun to sprinkle at this point. When we finally made it to the tower, we examined its enormity and beauty. We also had a wonderful view of the sea and of the port of Dénia, a town neighboring Jávea. After spending a little time around the tower, we finally attempted to make our way back to where we originally started. If I could guess I would say that it took us about 45 minutes or so to get back to where the Molins were. Walking back was a lot easier because we were finally walking on some-what level ground. We were basically walking in a huge field full of bushes, flowers, rocks etc. It was a very beautiful sight and we also had a great view of Montgó, the huge mountain in Jávea that I plan to hike in the future. This was the closest to Montgó that I had ever been.

When we finally got to where we started, we tried to figure out how to get back to my piso. We thought that there would be a quicker way to get there from the Molins but we weren’t able to find the way so we ended up going back using the same route that we used when we first began the hike. We were back on the long winding road but this time we were descending the hill. There wasn’t really a path for pedestrians, so we had to try to stay as close to the curb as possible. To make matters worse, it was also raining at this point so we were hoping that none of the drivers would hydroplane. We wrapped our cell phones and cameras up in the garbage bags that we brought so that they didn’t get wet.

It took a while to get to my piso but almost an hour later we had finally arrived. In total, the trip time was a little longer than six hours. We were obviously exhausted. We showered, relaxed a little, ate some fruit and that’s when I got a phone call from one of my co-workers…

TO BE CONTINUED

Hiking Adventures Part II

Since today was my day off I decided to get up early and do something that I’ve been attempting to do for a couple of weeks now: re-hike one of the mountains in Jávea. I hiked this mountain with some of my friends when they came to visit me in January and I’ve been wanting to do it again for two reasons: one, to perform a more challenging physical activity and two, to prepare my body for the 5-hour hiking trip that I plan to make next weekend (one of the things on my Spanish bucket list).

I almost changed my mind about the mountain hiking because I woke up a lot later than I had planned to but I eventually pushed myself to go. Not only was it such a beautiful sunny day but I also really needed to work out. Once I woke up I ate breakfast, got dressed, and prepared my bag with things that I would need for the trip like a small snack, a two-liter bottle of water, my telephone and pepper spray.

Starting the Hike

As if hiking up and down a mountain wasn’t enough, I also had to walk all the way to the port to get there, which took about 20-25 minutes to do. I took a different route to get to the port, so it took a little bit longer than it normally would. Once I got there, I prepared myself for the journey ahead and began to hike.

The Rocky Trail

While I was climbing up, I instantly remembered another one of the reasons why I wanted to climb the mountain again: because the trail was so serene, green and beautiful and it also had the most breathtaking views of the sea. Every once in a while I would stop walking and just look out at the sea and think. It was good that I went up this mountain by myself this time because I could stop whenever I wanted to. Occasionally, I also took some pictures.

It took me about 35 minutes to get to the top (which wasn’t bad at all) and once I got up there I sat down, ate my mandarins and then walked around for a while. The last time I was there with my friends we didn’t walk around as much; we mostly sat down, took pictures and went back down. This time, however, I walked outside of the area onto an open road (you can also get to the top of the mountain by driving) and I saw a couple of people walking around and reading a sign.

El Faro de San Antonio

When I crossed the road and read the sign I saw that I was actually at the location of the natural park in Jávea. I’d heard about it a couple of times but I didn’t know exactly where it was. I walked past the sign onto the rocky land surrounded by bushes and saw that I was at the cliff of a mountain. Here you could also sit down and get a good glimpse of the beautiful sea. Although most of the cliff was fenced, it was still quite dangerous.As I looked around I also had a great view of the Faro (lighthouse) de San Antonio, another popular attraction in Jávea. After sitting down for a while and admiring the view I began to make my way back to the mountain that I had come from.

A Beautiful View

For some reason as I was going down the mountain I kept thinking that I was closer than I actually was so my journey down wasn’t as quick as I thought it would be, but it was still fairly easy. Once I finally made it down the mountain and quickly walked the 25 minutes back to my piso, I was famished and exhausted. I’d been gone for about 3 hours. I immediately collapsed onto my floor and stayed there for about 10 minutes. Then I took a shower and cooked myself a big healthy meal for lunch.

Cala Tango

Although I am a little nervous about the 5-hour group hiking trip that I’m going to do in Jávea next weekend, I am still really excited. I can’t wait to see some of the beautiful sights that I haven’t been able to see yet. I’ve heard that most of Jávea’s beauty is hidden, and from what I’ve seen today I definitely believe that. I also can’t wait to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment that will come from knowing that I’ve completed one of the most difficult things on my bucket list. I’m just hoping that I’ll be able to walk when it’s all over!

Here We Go Again... Travelling Alone Part II

Ever since I spoke to some of the teachers a couple of weeks ago about travelling alone (click here to read part I) I’ve become more and more obsessed with talking to Spaniards about this topic. More specifically, I’ve become really interested in exploring the cultural differences that are so evident between Spaniards and Americans.

Yesterday I told one of the teachers about the trip that I will be taking to Italy in a couple of weeks. She was so amazed by it that she in turn told all of the teachers about my trip when we were in the conference room today during almuerzo. The teachers were also pretty impressed and talked about how “lucky” I am. They then began to ask me questions such as “how much did you pay for your tickets” and “how many days will you be there.” Then, the inevitable question came: “¿con quien vas?” (Who are you going with)? After hearing this question I immediately thought about the conversation that I had a couple of weeks ago with two other teachers when I told them that I would probably go to London alone and they looked at me as if I was insane. This time there were about 10 teachers in the room and again I admitted that I was going to go “sola.” I prepared myself for the responses that were coming my way.

I once again got bewildered facial expressions from everyone. One of the teachers even stopped chewing her bocadillo as soon as I said this. This time they didn’t ask me why I was going alone but they did ask me if I felt comfortable travelling without another person. I told them that I did feel comfortable travelling alone because I am alone all of the time in Spain and I am very accustomed to it now. I heard one of the teachers saying that she wished she could do that but I wasn’t sure if she was referring to going to Italy or to travelling alone. This conversation lasted for about 10 minutes and when the bell finally rang I felt like everyone left the room with some kind of new opinion of me; I just didn’t know if it was a positive or negative one.  

After the almuerzo break I asked the other English teacher if everyone thought that I was crazy for travelling alone. I was very curious to know what they actually thought about this topic since a lot of them were having side conversations in valenciano. She told me that they were actually thinking the exact opposite; they looked at me more as an inspiration rather than as a crazy person. She told me that everyone admired the fact that I had no problem travelling by myself, not because it’s a dangerous thing to do but because I feel as though I don’t have to be accompanied by anyone to have a good time. She said that she could never see herself being that independent.

“I have to be with someone everywhere I go,” she said, “I wouldn’t even go to Madrid alone.” She then talked again about how living in London for a month to study English was the most difficult thing that she had ever done. She told me that she cried almost every night that she was there because she really missed her friends and family (by the way, London is a very quick and inexpensive plane ride away). Then she told me that she, as well as everyone else, didn’t know how I could live here for so long and still seem so happy and unbothered about being so far away from my family. She talked about how brave and independent I was and how she wishes that she was the same way.

This is where the “American” vs. “Spanish” mindset once again comes into play. Since I’ve become more interested in this subject, I’ve been thinking more and more about just how dependant most Spanish people are (again I don’t say this as a bad thing). I instantly think about the fact that all of the teachers at my school go to their home towns on the weekends to be with their families and about how, when I go out in Jávea with one of the teachers, it’s always me, her, and her boyfriend, and how, whenever I tell someone what I did on the weekend they immediately ask who I was with. I also get a "Do you miss your family?" question every single week, sometimes several times a week by different people. It must have been so shocking to them a couple of weeks ago when they asked me if I was ready to go home and I told them that I missed my family but that I also  didn’t mind staying in Spain for a little while longer.

As an American, it’s so interesting for me to see how attached these people are to their friends and family because, although family is very important in the United States, there are still so many people that live far away from their families and friends. People move to different states all the time for school, work and even love. Most college students even make calculated decisions to get as far away from their homes as possible after graduating high school. I feel that this is almost the complete opposite in Spain. Although I think that there are positives and negatives about both cultures, I am really happy about the fact that I have an “Independent American” mindset because I feel like you can miss out on so much in life if you are always thinking that you need another person to be there with you.

After talking to the teacher about travelling “sola” and admitting that I’m not really bothered by it, I then asked her whether or not she thought that it was very dangerous. I told her about how angry my father had been to hear about my solo trip to Italy.  I believe that travelling period can be risky, whether you are alone or with a group of people, but I wanted to know what she thought about the subject since she lives in Europe and travelling to other European countries is quite common here. Surprisingly she admitted that she didn’t think that it was very dangerous at all. She said that she thought that it could actually be more dangerous if you are travelling with another person because people are more likely to do riskier things when they are with other people.

It was refreshing to hear her answer and it was also quite amusing to think that she and the other teachers were more bothered by the fact that I was travelling alone because they were worried that I would be lonely rather than the fact that they feared for my safety.

From "Londres" with Love

Today was the first day back to school after the Easter break. We did the usual, “I haven’t seen you in two weeks” Spanish greeting which included exchanging hugs and kisses, sharing stories about each other’s “vacation” and talking about how no one can wait for the semester to end. I also received a lot of “did you go home” questions from the people that didn’t get a chance to ask if I was going home before the break. I told everyone that I mostly stayed in Jávea and did work. Half of them looked at me with a pitied expression while the other half tried to figure out what kind of “work” I had to do. Other than that today was a normal school day. Classes resumed as if there was never a break and most of the students in our classes were given a date for the next unit exam.

My T-shirt from "Londres"

There was one really exciting thing that happened today. One of my fifth-grade students went to London (or Londres in Spanish) with some friends for the Easter break and brought me and the other English teacher back T-shirts. I was stunned. I remember her asking us both what size shirts we wore the week before the break but neither of us paid it any attention. I didn’t even know that she was going to London. I’m not sure whether she gave us the shirts because we are her English teachers or because we are her favorite teachers but either way I thought that it was the sweetest gesture and it definitely made my day.

After school I went home to have a snack, met with my intercambio for about an hour-and-a-half, went to aerobics class and finally came home for good. I am exhausted!

Intercambio

Today was my last day of “Easter break” and in more ways than one I am so ready to go back to school. Although my break has been somewhat productive, it has also been really boring and I’ve been pretty lonely. I am ready to be on a schedule again, to have people to talk to and to see my four-year-olds (I really miss them). Most importantly, I am ready to finish my last couple of months in Spain off with a bang. There are less than two-and-a-half months remaining until I return to the United States and I am hoping to absorb as much of Spain (and Europe) as I can before its time for me to depart.

Today I met with a man who I was going to be giving private English lessons to. We had been emailing each other for a couple of months now, and although he already takes English classes, he wanted to have some extra lessons because he has to use his English a lot for business. Fortunately, he lives in the same part of town as I do so we met each other in the town center and decided to sit outside of a café and have a cup of coffee. The day was beautiful.

I didn’t know what type of person to expect. From the emails I had concluded that he was a nice guy but I didn’t know his age, what he looked like or anything else about his personality. Once I met him, I was very impressed. He’s a younger guy (maybe around 30) and he’s very interesting and talkative. I found out that he's from Madrid (thank God a madrileño!) but that he and his wife had moved to Jávea a couple of years ago because they wanted to raise their son in a more peaceful environment (well they picked the right place). We started talking about why he was learning English and about the experiences he’s had with English-speaking people and I also talked about my experiences in Spain. He admitted that he loved my American-English accent (British-English is the norm here) and I was impressed by how easily he could understand it. We had a great conversation.

The guy told me that he had once joined an intercambio group in Jávea but that he had left it because the people were old and the conversations were just too boring. After talking about this, I immediately suggested that we have an intercambio instead of doing the private English lessons. An intercambio is a language exchange. Two people who don’t share native languages meet together to practice speaking in each other’s language. He told me that he would love to do it and asked me if I was sure, and I definitely was. Although I would have been happy to give him private lessons, I figured that this way would be beneficial for both of us. Besides, I wasn’t going to become rich with the amount of money that I was going to charge him for the private lessons anyway.

I am super excited to have an intercambio partner because I feel like it’s something that I’ve been missing out on. Although I speak Spanish everyday to almost everyone that I come in contact with (except my students) I still feel like I need a language partner to bring my Spanish to the next level; especially when it comes to word pronounciation and perfecting the castellano accent. I would like to have someone to critique everything that I say for 30 minutes or so (even though that’s not the way that most intercambios work). Besides, this guy is from Madrid which means that his castellano is more natural and I don’t have to worry about valenciano words creeping into every conversation that we have. Most of the Americans I know living in Spain have intercambios. In the bigger cities, it’s so easy to find people who are interested in having them. In Jávea; however, it’s not so easy because there are no young people.

Both of us agreed to start the intercambios and see each other twice a week if possible. Our conversation today was sort of an intercambio. For the first 45 minutes we spoke in English, and for the last 35 minutes we spoke in Spanish. Afterwards we gave each other suggestions (although there weren’t many) and we talked about what days and times we were going to meet. Our next intercambio is tomorrow and I am pretty excited.

Rain, Rain… WHERE ARE YOU?

I never thought that there would come a time when I would passionately write about my frustration with the lack of rain, but here it is…

Living in Jávea, a town in the Costa Blanca, I knew that I probably wouldn’t be exposed to rain that often. The Costa Blanca of Spain is an area known for its white, sandy beaches, clear blue water, and wonderful sunny weather.

One of the few rainy days that we've had in Jávea

 I can appreciate a beautiful sunny day. Almost every time that I have been outside lately the weather has been beautiful, especially since winter is over. I can walk to the beach, sit outside and read or even go out for a walk or jog. And I absolutely love the fact that it is so common to sit outside of Spanish cafes and restaurants and enjoy the day while you are sipping your café con leche and chatting with friends.

However, too much of anything is never good. Although sunny days are great and they give people a good energy, they are so overrated sometimes.  I think that rain can be very beneficial. In my opinion, a good rainfall every now and then is great for the world.  Besides the fact that our environment needs rain to survive, people also need it to slow them down. When it’s sunny outside people are always concerned with go,go,go, But whenever it rains, especially in Jávea, people are more likely to live life more slowly and just relax more.  

I have always loved rain. I love the sound of raindrops falling on the roof as I am sleeping at night, I love the aroma in the air after it has rained for a very long time, and I love to sit in my living room in Jávea and watch the rain fall throughout the town from my balcony window.  But most importantly, I love the fact that I have an excuse to be a little lazy and relax. My favorite thing to do on a rainy day, when I am not working, is to lie in my bed and watch movies. Lately I’ve been so busy and I’ve been thinking about so much that I’ve literally been giving myself headaches. I think having a couple of rainy days here would help slow me down.

I can understand if other people are not as thrilled at the idea of rain in Jávea as much as I am because this town doesn’t handle rain very well. Although it does not rain here often, when it does rain and Jávea, it rains a lot. This town has a very bad problem with leakage and flooding. In fact, 2 days, of maybe 6 days that it has rained since I’ve been here, the schools were cancelled because of the flooding.  

Can you see the rainbow?

For the past week or so, the meteorologists in Spain have been threatening rain and thunderstorms in Jávea and in neighboring towns. It was supposed to thunderstorm last Wednesday and Thursday and I was so excited. And then it never happened. Earlier this week, it was also supposed to rain and although it was cloudy, it didn’t. Yesterday, it was very cloudy when I woke up and I thought that the day would finally come. Hours went by without any rain. And then finally, in the early evening, it started to sprinkle. I was so excited! I went to take a 10 minute shower and when I walked back into the living room the sun was out, the rain had stopped and there was a rainbow in the sky. As beautiful as the rainbow was, I was livid. 10 minutes is all I get?

Although it does not rain very often in the Costa Blanca, one of the rainiest regions in Spain is Galicia. I think I will have to make a trip up to the north very soon.

My Love-Hate Relationship with Ryanair

I have been much more productive then I actually planned to be during this break. So productive, in fact, that I haven’t even went on any day trips like I had planned to in the beginning. So far, I’ve spent most of my days working my butt off on my resume and personal statement, getting caught up on blog posts, running errands, and planning. I’ve also occasionally gone on some walks around town, cooked some dishes and watched a little TV with my roommate. Although I haven’t travelled like I planned to in the beginning, I am still excited about one thing that I managed to do: book my flight and plan my 5-day trip to Italy that I will be taking in a couple of weeks.

I am so excited that I am finally able to cross a few cities off of my list of places to travel in Europe, even though I haven’t travelled to nearly as many places as I would have liked to. Right after Paris, I knew that Italy was the next place that I had to go to; just because it’s ITALY. During the first week of May we happen to have a day off of school because of a national holiday, and then the schools in Jávea have the next two days off because of a local holiday, and Friday is my day off; so I knew that with 3 extra days this would be a great time to take a trip.  I plan to spend a little time in Milan and Florence and then spend the majority of my time in Rome. I am dying to see Venice but I don’t think that I will have enough time to travel to that part of the country.  Maybe I’ll save Venice for a future trip.

Anyway, as I talked about here, one of the reasons why I love Europe so much is because, compared to the U.S., it is relatively very cheap to travel between different European cities. One of the reasons why it is so cheap to travel is because there are different budget airlines available such as EasyJet, Vueling and the airline that I have a love-hate relationship with, Ryanair.

Ryanair is a low-cost Irish airline that was founded in 1985. In the last couple of years Ryanair has rapidly expanded and it has become one of the most popular airlines in Europe, especially among younger travelers. Ryanair started off as an airline going between Ireland and England and it is now an airline that operates in more than 25 European countries and over 100 cities.

The reason why I love Ryanair is because, if booked at the right time, you can get a one-way ticket for as low as 10 Euros (or 13 American dollars) which is amazingly cheap. My tickets from Spain to Italy ended up being less than 50 Euros. For this price, I couldn’t even buy a plane ticket to get anywhere in the United States. Of course every ticket isn’t that cheap; some can be as high as 300 Euros, but if you book a ticket to the right place at the right time, it can be very reasonable.

Although I love the prices of the tickets, that is about the only thing that I actually love about Ryanair. There are a handful of things, however, that I hate about this airline. The first thing that I hate is the waiting time. Ryanair prides itself on having the most on-time arrivals and departures of all the airlines in Europe. In my experience travelling with Ryanair, this has been true (expect on my flight back to Madrid from Paris) bus this is because passengers are told to be at the gate a whole 2 hours before each flight! I have never been a patient person and the idea of having to be at your gate for almost two hours before your flight just to sit there and wait annoys me. In addition to this, there aren’t any reserved seats on Ryanair (unless you pay an extra fee to reserve your seat online) so if you want to get a good seat, or if you want to sit with your friends or family members, you have to arrive early to get a spot in the front of the line. The seats are literally first come, first serve.

Another thing that I hate about Ryanair is the baggage allowance. On Ryanair you are only allowed one free carry-on item that has to coincide with the weight and size requirements that the airline states. If you have a purse or umbrella you have to place it inside of your one carry-on item. And, unlike most airlines where the flight attendants look at your baggage and are able to tell whether or not it will fit in the carry-on compartment at the top, Ryanair most of time has the passengers test their luggage by having them place their backpacks, or small suitcases, in a box that isn’t really even representative of the space in the overhead compartments. This is also done right before, and sometimes even during, the boarding.

There are other things that I hate about Ryanair, like the fact that you must print out your boarding passes before getting to the airport, the fact that most of the airports partnering with Ryanair are farther away from the center of the cites (you sometimes have to take an hour-long bus ride to get to the center) and the fact that you basically have to pay for everything while you are on the flight; but I suppose these are some of the things that come along with travelling on a low-budget airline.

Although the amount of things that I dislike about Ryanair far surpasses the one thing that I do like, I will continue to be a Ryanair customer for as long as the tickets are cheap. Ryanair and I will just continue to have a love-hate relationship with each other.

Semana Santa: Holy Week in Spain

The first time I realized that Easter was a pretty big holiday in Spain was in January when I talked to some of the teachers about my recent trip to the U.S. for Christmas break. One of the teachers asked if I was also going to go back to the states for Easter and I looked at her with a perplexed expression on my face. “Why would I go all the way back home for Easter?”  I thought to myself. I told her that I wasn’t planning to and she also looked at me with a puzzled face. This was before I realized that we had an almost two-week Easter break from school and it was also before I realized how big this time of the year is to Spaniards.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I began to talk to one of the English teachers about Easter traditions in the states and those in Spain. Although I grew up in a Christian family, we never did anything spectacular to celebrate Easter. We did go to church on Easter Sundays, but we also went to church every Sunday and Wednesday; so this was no different. Whenever I think about Easter in the United States I think about how crowded the church became on Sunday, full of people who I hadn’t seen in a while. And everyone on Easter Sunday was always dressed to impress in their new “Easter outfits."  Perhaps after church we would go out to eat as a family or my mother would cook a big meal and invite people over; but that was it. Sadly, my biggest Easter memory was on the Sunday before my 13^th birthday, when I was so upset that all of the stores were closed  because of Easter and I couldn’t buy a new birthday outfit.



Valencia, Spain
(Alberto Saiz/AP Photo)

Although my family was never really big on buying Easter baskets and things, I did tell the teacher about some popular Easter traditions in the states for kids, like going out on an Easter egg scavenger hunt, receiving baskets and candy from the Easter bunny, painting eggs and eating Peeps and jelly beans.

The teacher then began to tell me about Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Pascua (Easter) in Spain and after hearing about all of the Semana Santa processions and Easter traditions performed by the Spaniards, I was blown away by the information she shared and eager to experience Semana Santa in this country.

Opening Procession in Alicante

During Holy week in Spain, street processions are organized in most city towns each evening from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. In the processions, men called costaleros carry around statues of saints on floats or wooden platforms. These men are joined by musicians and surrounded or followed by men dressed as Nazareños, people from Nazareth. The statues represent the fall and rise again of Jesus Christ. The processions on the first days are dedicated to the mourning of the death of Christ. The last day, Easter Sunday, is a day of celebration, when the people rejoice in the resurrection of Christ.

According to the information that the English teacher shared and from what I found out on my own when I researched this topic, here is a summary of what happens each day of Semana Santa:

Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday): Domingo de Ramos is the first day of Semana Santa. It is when most people go to church to celebrate the day when Jesus went to Jerusalem and was welcomed by people laying palm leaves on the ground in front of him. When people go to church on this day they carry a palm branch (ramo means branch) with them and the palm branch is blessed by the priest. Boys carry a plain branch and girls carry decorated branches.

This is also the day in which the processions begin and the costaleros carry around the floats, or pasos, of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

Fortunately, I was in Alicante during the first day of Holy Week, Palm Sunday. As my friend and I were walking along the explanada  we came across one of the first processions of the day. I was immediately drawn to the men wearing costumes reminiscent of the uniforms that the Ku Klux Klan members in America wore. I knew however, that these costumes were not derogatory by any means (I remembered a scene in the Da Vinci Code movie where Professor Robert Langdon talked about them). During this procession, a group of men walked around slowly carrying a float on their shoulders containing a statue of the Virgin Mary (Watch the video).

Lunes Santo-Jueves Santo (Holy Monday-Thursday): throughout the entire week processions are held in the evenings in the town centers. There is a different theme each day and the Nazareños wear different colors based on that theme. On Holy Thursday, all of the church bells are tied together so that they remain silent. They don’t ring again until Easter Sunday. This silence is done to remember the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

Madrid, Spain
 (Dani Pozo/AFP/Getty Images)

La Madrugá: This is the series of processions that begin on Thursday night and run all through the night until the next morning. This is one of the most popular nights of Semana Santa. Most people aren’t able to watch all of the processions of this day because of its duration.

Viernes Santo (Good Friday): On Friday, the Nazareños are dressed in all black. Also, the people do not eat meat, so the dishes on this day are made with fish and vegetables.

Zamora, Spain
(Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP Photo)

Domingo de la Resurrección (Sunday of the Resurrection/Easter Sunday): This is the happiest day of the week. On this day, Easter Sunday, the hoods that have been worn throughout the entire week are taken off to celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the costumes are white.  One of the processions this day is called “Cristo de la Fe y del Perdón” (Christ of faith and forgiveness). I was told by the English teacher that the city performs an act of forgiveness by selecting one incarcerated person who doesn’t have a long jail sentence left and releasing him or her early. The procession on this day begins in the morning and finishes at the church in the center of the town. After the procession is over, many Spaniards go out into the streets to celebrate with beer and wine.

Lunes de Pasqua (Easter Monday): This is also one of the biggest days of the week. On this day, families go to the beach, park or other open area and have picnics. This is when most of the families eat the mona de pascua (which I talk about here) and also indulge in other typical Easter foods, like hornazos (a pie filled with pork, eggs and ham), cordero (lamb), paella, pestiños and torrijas. All businesses on this day, as well as on Friday and Sunday, are closed.

Cordoba, Spain
(Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)

Although all Spanish towns and cities have these processions during Semana Santa, the most popular Semana Santa celebrations take place in the region of Andalucía Spain, particularly in Seville, and people from all over Spain and the world go there to participate in the celebrations.  

Although I am not Catholic, I am extremely moved by the dedication that the Spaniards show during Semana Santa. The costaleros carry around heavy floats on their shoulders for hours at a time. In preparation for the Holy Week processions, they practice carrying the floats around months in advance so that their rhythm and speed is perfect for the processions. Although it’s more common for men to participate, many women and children also participate, which I’m sure is quite exhausting to them as well. The participants are very much devoted to their chores and the audience, for the most part, is very serious and reflective during the processions. To me, this is very admirable.

I must admit that it's also refreshing to see more of a religious side to Spaniards. Most of the Spaniards that I have come in contact with are religious; however they have openly admitted to me that they don’t practice their religion. I also believe that tradition plays a huge part in these Semana Santa celebrations. Although many Spaniards (that I've met) do not go to church often, or even pray often, they still prepare for Holy Week because it is a traditional and cultural norm; it’s something that they always did. Whether the reason is traditional or religious, one thing is for sure: Semana Santa is such a big part of Spanish culture and when I go back to the states, I will never look at Holy Week, or Easter, the same way.

Easter Break

As I mentioned before, I am now on Easter Break, which I suppose is Spain’s version of an American Spring Break. The only difference is that Spaniards celebrate Holy Week and Easter a lot bigger than we do in the states, so most people have more days off of work for the Easter holiday. The children and staff at my school don’t have to return until the 17^th of April!

Some of my friends are taking amazing trips across Europe for Easter, but because of a lack of planning, the need to get a lot of things done and the desire to stop spending so much money, I’m planning to fill this break with a lot of productive work as well as a couple of fun day trips.

I haven’t completely ruled out travelling in Europe, I might still join my friends on their trip to Munich, but I’m so tired of looking at flights online that I just completely gave up my search. There are still some places that I absolutely want to see in Europe before I return to the states (London, Rome, Berlin/Munich, Lisbon and Athens) but I still have some time to see these places. For me, the most important thing is to plan my trips to these places now, while I can still get good deals on flights and accommodations.

Anyway, there is a lot of work that I need to do that I have been saving especially for this break. The most important thing is revising my resume and applying for jobs/programs in the states. I return home in less than 3 months and I would really like to have a job already lined up for when I get back. I am very much an organized person and this is the first time in my life that I don’t know exactly what’s next in my life, which kind of frightens me. I do plan to study for the MCAT when I return and apply to medical school next year, but I would like to also be doing something productive (and making money) while I am doing this. I would love to find a job doing something medical-related, language-related or related to education.

Another important thing that I plan to do on my break is to plan my sister’s bridal shower and bachelorette party. She is getting married in less than 4 months and although her bridesmaids and I have a lot of ideas, I really need to start thoroughly planning everything. Hopefully this will be a more fun job to work on.

In addition, I still plan to find some Equatorial Guinean literature and do some research. This may be a little tricky because I’m not able to find a lot of literature on this African country in Jávea. Maybe I can take a short trip to Madrid or Valencia and find something. Even If I don’t carry out this research as I planned in the beginning, I would at least like to bring back some literature with me to the states, because it is very hard to find there.

If I don’t make an international or domestic trip (I really want to see Andalucía) during my break I plan to explore the Costa Blanca a bit. I may possibly take a few day trips to neighboring towns, like Dénia, Altea, Gandia, Benidorm, and Ondara. I also really want to visit the Zoo in Valencia, so I may do that.

If there is one thing to be sure of, it’s that through all of the productive work I plan to do and trips that I plan to make during my break, I definitely shouldn't be bored!

Festa de Pasqua

Today was a very lovely day in the colegio. It was the day that the school celebrated Easter (or Pasqua in valenciano) and it was also the last day of school until the 17^th of April. I have been looking forward to this day because I am in desperate need of a vacation. This week in school, we did a whole lot of nothing. As we do before most holidays, the children mostly colored Easter pictures and did word searches and things. I did, however, make a presentation about my trip to Paris and I presented it to my 5^th and 6^th graders this week. That was about the only productive thing that occurred.

Apparently, on the day before Easter break, most schools in Spain spend the day at a beach or park outside of school. I’ve heard that a lot of schools didn’t do it this year, because of the financial crisis in Spain, but fortunately our school did. At the beginning of the week the teachers and administrators were very nervous because it was supposed to be raining and thunder storming all week, and although it was cloudy this morning, it didn’t look like it was going to rain immediately so we decided to go to the park.

The park was a little far from our school so we took about 4 buses there. One by one, each grade level loaded onto the buses. Even infantil came along, wearing their hats and colored handkerchiefs so that they would be easy to identify.

My Mona de Pasqua

Once we got to the park the children were free to run around and play. There were, however, designated areas to play in for each grade level and the infantil classes played inside of a fenced area of the park.  I watched along with some of the other teachers as the 4^th and 5^th graders attempted to climb the monkey bars. Eventually, some of the children persuaded a couple of the teachers to give it a try. So some of the teachers tried it, and they weren’t very successful. For about an hour and a half the children played. Then, a couple of the parents came to bring the Easter monas for everyone to eat.

An Easter mona (or mona de Pasqua) is a traditional Easter treat mostly eaten in the Catalonia and Valencia regions of Spain symbolizing the end of Lent. The typical mona is a round or doughnut-shaped treat made with eggs, flour and sugar with one or more hardboiled eggs embedded in the surface. The egg in the mona symbolizes the resurrection of Christ. Traditionally godparents (padrinos) make or buy the monas and give them to their godchildren (ahijados) on Easter Monday and they eat them during family picnics. Also, according to old tradition, people normally crack the boiled eggs of the mona over someone else’s forehead. Although the traditional monas still exist, nowadays, many monas come with chocolate eggs to eat instead of the real hard boiled eggs and sometimes there is a small treat in the middle of the chocolate eggs.

After we gave the children their monas, we then set the table for the teachers to have their “breakfast.” This was basically a small traditional Spanish feast that we have had many times before at the school. We set the table with potato chips, nuts, chorizo (Spanish sausage), mussels, olives, mini pizzas and other stuffed pastries and we also had different carbonated beverages, water and beer. Normally when I am at a Spanish table setting like this, I am usually trying to figure out what the heck is in each item so that I can avoid the seafood. Spanish people really love anchovies and tuna and these things are always in a lot of the items that they cook. There were two types of pizzas, one had different vegetables on it, and the other one was decorated with anchovies. There were also different types of pastries, one was stuffed with spinach, one had tuna and some other stuff in it, and I didn’t bother to ask what was in the last kind.  The teachers ate, drank, and socialized at a table in the middle of the park while watching the children. I mostly ate a lot of nuts and chips and had a vegetable pizza and a spinach pastry and I was very full at the end.

After eating, there were plenty of monas left so we each had one. It was my first time having a mona and to me it tasted like a donut. The funny thing about the monas that we had was that they were decorated with Disney’s High School Musical theme and when you opened up the chocolate egg, there were High School Musical stickers inside. Apparently that movie is still very popular in Spain.

When it was 12:00pm (we stayed at the park for 3 hours) we packed up all of the things, lined up the kids, got on the buses and headed back to school. We got back to school just in time for lunch so I went home, as well as some of the other children and teachers, and returned to school at 3:00pm.

The teachers originally planned to spend the afternoon having game sessions outside with the kids, but because it had just started to sprinkle, the games were cancelled. Therefore, most of the children just watched movies in their classrooms or played board games for the hour and a half that we were at school. The infantil English teacher and I had been planning an Easter egg hunt for the 4 and 5-year-olds to do that afternoon with their homemade Easter baskets that they made in class. We decided that we were still going to do it since it was only sprinkling.

I would barely call this an Easter egg hunt; it was more of a “Pick up the chocolate” game. The teacher had a small bag of chocolate and we just dropped the chocolate on the ground. We didn’t want the “hunt” to take too long because of the rain so we didn’t bother hiding the chocolates. We took each class outside one by one and told them to pick up only two chocolates. We also said that once everyone had two chocolates then they could go back and pick up more.  Because we are their English teachers we gave them the instructions in English. The classroom teacher then asked one of the 4-year-olds what we said to them and the student repeated everything in valenciano. The teacher was amazed at how easily the 4-year-old understood what we said in English. She didn’t even understand it.

Because the children are so competitive, they immediately ran to pick up the chocolates and placed them in their Easter baskets. They were so excited about it and I must admit that it was the cutest sight ever! Although there wasn’t much chocolate, both classes got their candies and happily went back to their rooms. Later the English teacher told me that she would have bought more chocolate but she wasn’t sure how much she could buy because of the tight school budget.

Eventually, 4:30pm came around and as soon as the music started playing I gave everyone a Spanish kiss and said goodbye. Everyone asked me if I was going back to the United States for Easter break. I told them that I wasn’t going back to the states but that I also wasn’t yet sure what I was going to do. I then went home and studied a little for my valenciano class. As soon as my roommate came home from school she cleaned her room, packed her bags, and told me that she would see me on the 17^thof April.

Later that day, I went to my valenciano class, came home and had a glass of wine to celebrate.

My Easter Break has finally begun!