Christmas Eve/Christmas

So, as you might expect the holidays are celebrated in different ways than they are in the States. So here is how I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my Spanish family:

Christmas Eve:
I got up around 9 this morning, and at 10 we got into the car and drove down to Madrid. We went in order to see an exhibition about Leonardo Da Vinci. The exhibition started at 11 and it started out with a short 10 minute 3d video about the exhibition. We then went into the adjacent to view the exhibit at our own pace, and it was quite incredible. We spent 4 hours there, which was basically from the time it opened until the time it closed. The exhibit started out with models of some of the inventions Da Vinci drew in his various notebooks. This was probably where I spent the most time looking around. Some of his inventions are incredibly advanced for the age, and it was quite cool seeing all of the models that were built. The next area consisted of a large amount of space given to analyzing the Mona Lisa, but it didn't interest me a lot, so I didn't spend a lot of time there. There were other areas in the exhibition dedicated to Da Vinci's study and his notebooks, and another area with paintings of his disciples, but I didn't spend a lot of time looking at these either. The two other parts that really interested me were the areas dedicated to The Last Supper and the Vitruvian Man. Although the Last Supper area was interesting, my favorite bit was definitely the Vitruvian Man. The exhibit went into great depth about the mathematical elements of it, and that fascinated me. Because the exhibition was temporary, there wasn't pretty much everything was reproductions of the original works, but there was one tiny bit where they had some original drawings by Da Vinci, so that was quite cool. Anyway, I really enjoyed the exhibit.
After the exhibit we returned home to relax a bit and eat lunch. Then at 8 we left to go to the house of cousins on Lorenzo's side. All of his family was there to celebrate Christmas Eve. We ate some normal Spanish appetizers to start. Then, we had salad, followed by big shrimp. After that we had a juicy and tender meat that was quite tasty. For desert we had traditional Spanish holiday treats, such as turrón and polvorón, both of which are extremely tasty. After dinner we played cards for a little while before doing presents. Here, it is not common for a bunch of presents to be opened on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but because the family was all together, we did a small presents thing. Anyway, about 20 presents were lain out randomly on the table. We then all picked random numbers out of the bag. The person who had number 1 then got to pick a gift, but they could only look at the presents, meaning they couldn't pick it up to feel its weight or poke it to see if it is hard or soft. After the first person picked and opened their gift, the second person did the same. The second person then had the opportunity to trade gifts with everyone who picked before them. This went on until all sixteen of us picked gifts. I ended up picking seventh and ended up with a funky candle. After we finished that we watched a small performance that one of Lorenzo's brothers and his wife had arranged. It was quite odd. And I don't really have the capacity to describe it in words. All I can tell you was that it was quite funny but also quite weird. After that we played cards for awhile more before we left to return home around 2:30.

Christmas Day:
I woke up around 1:00, which was by far the latest I have woken up on Christmas (my brother usually wakes me up around 7:00). I ate breakfast, relaxed, ate lunch, and then we did a small gift exchange. Most people here in Spain exchange gifts on January 6th, but because we will be in France then, we did a small gift exchange on Christmas. The rest of the day was calm. I talked with my parents, with my grandma, and with my aunt and cousins on Skype. Other than that I just relaxed. Christmas Day really isn't a big holiday here, and so as a result we didn't really do anything special, just another rather normal day.

Anyway, there you have my Christmas and Christmas Eve days here in Spain. A lot of stuff has been happening in the past week or two, and I started a post before Christmas Eve, so the start of that one might sound a bit off. Anyway, I will try to publish that one on the 30th or 31st, so until then.

León and the Surrounding Area

I don't want to write very much, so here are some pictures from my two-day trip up to León and the surrounding region:

 The huge cathedral in Leon. Its construction began in 1205 and its highest point is 78 meters. It is the cathedral with the second greatest amount of stained glass in Europe, and it has the most stained glass per square meter of any cathedral.

 Cathedral

 Cathedral

 Basilica of San Isidoro. They were doing some construction/restoration of it, so the main entrance was fenced off.

 Convent of San Marcos. Today, the building is occupied by a luxury hotel.

 Convent of San Marcos

 Convent of San Marcos

 

A church in León

  

Sign marking the Camino de Santiago in Villafranca del Bierzo, which is one of the towns the trail goes through.

 The castle

 A balloon that we found in the street and played with for about an hour while walking around the town.

 Some guys building. It seemed like everywhere we went there was a fair amount of construction or restoration going on.

 A church

 Clouds. It was cloudy the whole trip, and all of the clouds were very close to the ground, making them more fog than cloud.

 Otherside of the church

 Another old building

 

A different old building

This was an old house. Unfortunately I can't remember what this type of house is called, but they used to be very common in north-western Spain. Anyway, I found it to be a lot bigger on the inside than it appeared from the outside, which I found interesting. Also, hidden inside this one was a bar and restaurant where we ended up eating lunch, which for me consisted of crepes filled with fried spinach and pine nuts as a first course and pigs cheeks as a second course. Overall, quite tasty.

These would be found next to the houses. They were used to store grain in the winter.

Chestnut trees covered in lichen.

One of the trees close up.

Mushrooms sprouting up from between old leaves and chestnuts

Path covered in fallen leaves and chestnuts

View from the top of a hill above Balboa.

View looking the other direction

View of the whole town from above. As you can see, the town was quite small

The other house.

A chair and chicken inside a museum in town. The whole upper floor consisted of somewhat abstract art made out of wood cut down from around town. It was incredibly intricate and cool.

 

A church in the last town we stopped in. Unfortunately it was dark so we only spent about 5 minutes there and this was the only building that was really lighted on the outside.

Well, that is all. Goodbye

This post will probably be a short one since I don't have too much new to write about. This week is kind of weird holiday wise. We had school on Monday and Wednesday, but Tuesday we had off, and Thursday and Friday will also be school-free, so my family and I are going to take a short trip to Leon, starting tomorrow. Anyway to begin:

I have a couple of things I did these past few days that I haven't done since getting here, so I will write about them. The first was go to a Real Madrid basketball game, which was the first professional sporting event I have been to since arriving in Spain. The stadium and experience was somewhat different than that of NBA games. The crowd was similar, but it was probably a bit smaller, and unlike at NBA games, there was one section of extremely dedicated fans that didn't sit down once during the game. The main difference though was that the stadium consisted of seats and the court, and that was all. No over-priced food or team merchandise. It really threw my off. In my opinion, it just doesn't feel right going to a pro sports game and not being able to buy stadium food. Anyway, the game was fun and exciting, and Real Madrid won.
The other thing that I did was go to a movie in a theater. Yesterday, I went with my host family to a nearby town to watch The Fantastic Mr. Fox in Spanish. Except it wasn't really a theater like in America. Now I'm sure that all theaters here aren't like this, but we watched this one in an auditorium in the community center of the town. Anyway, I enjoyed the movie, although I found it kind of stupid that they listed all of the voices of the English version when the movie was dubbed in Spanish. So even though it listed George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson as star voices, the audience here never hears their voices. In my opinion, it is what the Spanish would call a "tontería".

Well, that is about all. I will try to post some pictures from the next two days on Saturday or Sunday, so until then.