Burn, Old Man Winter!!

Dearest Beloved Readers, thank you for following me on my journey. It is amazing how easy it is connect in real time with people on the other side of the globe!

I will start this post with a story about a celebration I happened upon this week, and then get organized by explaining my life in Cáceres, some exciting events, and my plans for the future.

On Friday morning I caught the bus down to the university to hand in some paperwork and get registered for some more classes. I walked back to town, a few kilometers distance, since it was a beautiful sunny day. I walked through the old city to get home. As I started to enter the old city, I walked right into a swarm, a river, of small children all dressed in traditional Spanish peasant clothing. They were so cute! I would guess that the crowds that I walked through were between the ages of 5-7.

When I got to the Plaza Mayor there were several other groups of children all dressed up. Each group had a banner with the name of their school. I asked someone what was going on. They told me that this was a festival of the flag. I didn't understand but I decided to stay.

I found a spot where I could watch and tried to take some pictures, though my camera's batteries were dying. An older gentleman came to stand next to me. I asked him how soon the festivities would start and we started to converse about the celebration. I learned that they were going to bring a straw man in on a donkey and burn him. The festival was started by the women of the town years ago. In February the woman had to wash the clothes in cold water and started the festival to make the warm weather and the rains come for a plentiful harvest. So, the little girls were dressed as those washerwomen.

 It is a festival of spring, celebrated to end the winter and to bring to good weather so that they would have food for their families. It was also a day that the women could take a break from their work. I struggled to get a few pictures with my dying camera. Here you can barely see the donkey carrying the straw man-

This year they had several straw men because each school had made one. They set them all up together and lit them on fire. They burnt quite well. The last photo that I could coax out of my camera was towards the beginning of the burning, but you can see the flames-

Before the burning I had an enjoyable conversation with the older gentleman about Cáceres, Extremadura, festivals happening in the region this spring, and places that I ought to visit. It turned out that he was actually Italian, his wife was from Cáceres, and he had retired here. He was at the festival to see his granddaughter, who was one of the school girls.

I love Cáceres. It's a small city, 95,000 inhabitants, and the center of the city is quite walkable. For example, I live on one end of the city, and can walk to to the other end in about half an hour. I have not taken many photos yet, but I will take a class about the history of the old city. So, I will take a lot of pictures then, and will be able to explain the pictures well.

My classes started last week. I am taking three full university courses. All of them are History of Spanish Art, together they will cover Spanish Art for the last 1,000 years. The classes are "Spanish Art in the Lower Middle Ages", "HispanoIslamic Art", and "The Renaissance in Spain". I am also taking a Spanish for Foreigners class, and I will take two short courses to fill the credits I need. The first one is Baile Flamenco, and the second is called "Know your City" (Conoce tu Ciudad), in which I will study the history of Cáceres and we will take several excursions around the city.

At first the classes were extremely difficult for me. I had to take notes on lectures given at a university level in Spanish! But, by the end of the first week I was catching almost everything. I am sure it will continue to get easier for me and that I am going to learn a ton. What an adventure! It feels a bit strange to attend classes in Spanish, but I am gaining confidence daily.

I started classes at a private Flamenco academy. I love it. I also went to a nearby city this weekend for the Carnaval festival.  It was intense. The streets were packed with people wearing costumes. I spent the day with other international students from my university. I am very happy to be making friends. They are from all over the world- Brazil, Turkey, Belgium, Slovenia, Italy, France, Gabon. Our shared language is Spanish. I delights me to communicate with people from so many places. It reminds me of how similar people are all over the world. I have been thinking about how language separates us, and how easy it is to communicate and connect with people.

I have a room in an apartment with a Spanish girl, Silvia, and an Irish girl, Jade. They are sweet and I am happy to live with them. They both work, so we don't spend too much time together. But, as I mentioned in my last post, all of Cáceres shuts down every day between 2pm-5pm. So, we come home each day at that time to eat lunch a relax together. It's lovely.

I have gotten to know most of the major grocery stores, though I do a lot of my shopping at smaller shops. I have a butcher (carnicería) that I prefer as well as a frutería where I buy my produce. Bit by bit I am creating a life here. I have been in Cáceres more than two weeks now, and I have four and a half months left. El tiempo pasa volando!

I need to wrap up now so that I can go buy a bicycle before the shops close for siesta. Then I have Spanish class tonight. Tomorrow I hope to ride my new bike out to a wildlife park that is about 20 kilometers from town. I also have Flamenco class tomorrow evening.

I will try to upload some more photos to my albums this week.

Os cuidad mucho, hasta pronto! Take good care!