Semana Santa

Easter is a big deal in Spain! Holy week is a massive celebration all across the country, with big processions happening in every town. The most famous ones are in Andalusia, especially in Seville. Our own town, Alcalá de Henares has some of the best processions in the Madrid area, and it was really cool to see the traditions.
The most recognizable thing from the processions are the outfits with the tall pointed caps, capirotes, and long robes. When I first saw these costumes, my first thought was that it reminded me of racist societies in the USA, but these robes are much older and have been part of Spanish culture since around 1300. They are NOT associated in any way with the KKK.

Penitentes

While I don't understand all of the symbolism behind the garb, the people wearing them are called penitentes. They wear the garb as a way to show penitence and seek forgiveness for sins. It's an extra sign of devotion similar to fasting in some Christian faiths. The person's identity is hidden, so they make their devotion still as a personal offering to God. The hat is like a spire reaching up to heaven, seeking grace. Also, these hats are the origin of dunce caps, that children would wear when they did something wrong.

Big brass bands accompany the floats as they wend their way down the streets. In Alcalá, the floats went from a church at one edge of the historic district to the cathedral. Huge swaths of incense cover the streets, and all of the penitentes carry gigantic candles like walking sticks. }

The floats in the processions are carried by people. I counted the number of feet I saw under the float, and it looked like there were about 40 people carrying it. One of the ecclesiastical leaders stops the float, knocks three times on a bar on the side and talks to one of the people in front through the screen in front. They talked for a moment, and then the people inside would pick the float back up, the church leader would knock three more times, talk to them for a second, and then they'd keep walking. It was really interesting! I wish I knew what was said.

On Easter Sunday the festivities were even bigger. There were two floats, and one of Jesus came to meet one of Mary head on, then they turned around and went inside the Cathedral.

My favorite part of Holy Week were the torrijas, which are like a mix between french toast and tres leches cake. They're delicious!

Tenerife

Growing up I always loved puzzle games. Watching Chris and Alicia go through the Myst series and trying to help any way I could (I probably just distracted them), and then later playing the whole series myself, I came to really love the world(s) (ages?) in the games. Well this past week we went to Tenerife, and I found myself in a place that looked just like them (except maybe fewer poison dart frogs). Tenerife is incredible!

It's famous for microclimates- little pockets of varying temperature, elevation, aridity, sun exposure, etc, due to the extremely rugged landscape. Many of the great naturalists either visited or wanted to visit here, and I can totally understand why.

The whole island is covered in gigantic lizards that get up to 18 inches long

 

The entrance to our Airbnb

Our Airbnb was over 400 years old!

 After a couple days in the small village of Masca, we got on a bus to Las Aguas. The environment was totally different. Below is a church from a town where we transferred buses. Here it was coniferous forest on one side and desert shrubs on the other, whereas we'd just come from a tropical paradise.

Here you can clearly see a distinct line where the desert shrubs turn to coniferous forest.
And this is all so different from the town we stayed in!

When we finally made it to Las Aguas, we were in another different environment. The ocean was incredible though! It was extremely powerful with monstrous waves crashing onto giant black boulders. It really felt like a different world we were in. We didn't see another soul the whole time we were on the boulder beach and it felt like we were on an alien planet. The ocean sounded like thunder with each wave since the giant stones were rolling over each other and we kept thinking lightning had struck nearby.

This is probably one of my all time favorite places I have ever been. I would put it as a "must visit" for anyone who gets the chance. 

One last picture of a giant lizard with a big blue throat-- I'd put this one around 15 inches if I had to guess.

Field trips

While here at the school I've also gone on a few field trips! It's been fun to tag along (for free) and get to see some of the things the kids have.
We went to Micropolix once. It was really fun for the kids. Basically it's like an Itz/Nickelcade/ Hinckle Family Fun Center but instead of teaching kids to gamble, it's teaching them to work. The whole place is designed to be a mini city. When we arrived, each kid was given 20 eurix (the currency of their new city) and a passport. They were then allowed to go work (as firefighters where they get to put out fires with a fire hose, ride the pole down etc, as doctors who saved a patient, vets who identified animals, police officers who went to the academy and then got in a real police car, etc)-- where they would earn more eurix-- or they could spend their money on candy, travel, or other activities. There were things like go carts, but first they had to go to Driver's ed and get a driver's license, and other activities like that. It was really cool! I thought it was much more wholesome than American equivalents that are essentially slot machines haha.

Four wheelers- license required

Below you can see where kids with a Micropolix state issued drivers license could go for a spin

The town hall and line for the police academy

 

For the teachers, we were all treated to a nice breakfast, and had time to wander and go to the nearby mall.

 I found a Lindt outlet store and bought a ton of chocolate of all kinds of flavors-- which happened to all be on sale that day.

My favorites were the extra dark (the US dark lindors are 45%, the European darks are 55%, and the extra darks are 70%), coconut, caramel and mint.

I've also been to the Danone factory (US markets it as Dannon), and on a little hike in the mountains. It's been really fun to tag along and learn along with the kids.