Happy Holy Week (Semana Santa)! Which, in Lugo, means a vacation from work, but another week of endless rain (at least so far... and the forecast doesn't make me hopeful).
This post is mostly an announcement that: I have started my post about Paris & Madrid! Started. I am not done. I foresee another day at least. But it's coming :-) Also there are some Lugo/gallego things that I wanted to post about, but didn't really think I should clog up my post about Duane's and my trip with them. Now I just have to remember what they all were...
I think the first was that last Friday my school celebrated Día de la Poesía (Poetry Day... not sure if this was a national or international thing). I'd been helping them memorize poems (nursery rhymes for the younger kids) for the past couple months so I went to school that day to see them present. Mostly they made me really proud hehe. In any case it was really cool to hear Fire & Ice and The Road Not Taken being recited in Guntín in Galicia... dunno if Mr. Frost ever saw that one coming. Here are a couple pictures from that:
The 1o ESO kids dressed a pirates jaja.
3o ESO about to do a poem about knights/battle/marching...
...and then reciting Fire & Ice ^_^
So that was kinda cool. My younger kids were a bit more all over the place... but ah well. Nothing can be perfect hehe.
Also, 3 linguistically interesting things I learned last week:
1. The gallego word/expression "maloserá," which apparently means something like "it's not that bad/it won't be that bad." The Galician grocery store Gadis (the store I always go to ;-) ) has a bunch of advertisements that say "Don't worry, que maloserá!" Which is gracioso. My friend/roommate Julia told me it makes sense that gallegos would say this all the time, because when you ask them how something/someone is, they most often say "no mal" (not bad), instead of just "good" or "well". They're a bit wry sometimes, I guess.
2. Another super gallego word, "morriña." It's means homesickness. I get the impression it's the extreme, achy, yearning kind of homesickness.
3. They have an expression in gallego (so of course I can't really remember how to say it, and I never knew how to spell it), that means "it's never rained until it didn't stop" or "it's never rained without end." Another positive, "things will get better/aren't that bad" kind of thing. And of course it has to do with rain. OF COURSE.
Oh, and there was one more thing. They also say "vas a caer" (you're going to fall) a lot, but *after* someone has already fallen. In either a literal or figurative sense. So they're either really wry and sarcastic, or very obvious.
So, that's all kind of fun/interesting. At least for me. Lugo also had a little medieval fair last weekend which I went to on Saturday with a couple friends. It was very different from the ones I've been to in the States, but mostly because Lugo is so small, I think. They had a line of tents set up in the median/walkway in the middle of Fontiñas (a street here), and mostly there were people selling crafts and also some food. There were three guys going around playing music and donkey rides for kids. That was pretty much it, though. Someone told me that maybe they put it there and not in a field somewhere because Fontiñas has a lot of bars/pubs/restaurants lining it.
...and then reciting Fire & Ice ^_^
So that was kinda cool. My younger kids were a bit more all over the place... but ah well. Nothing can be perfect hehe.
Also, 3 linguistically interesting things I learned last week:
1. The gallego word/expression "maloserá," which apparently means something like "it's not that bad/it won't be that bad." The Galician grocery store Gadis (the store I always go to ;-) ) has a bunch of advertisements that say "Don't worry, que maloserá!" Which is gracioso. My friend/roommate Julia told me it makes sense that gallegos would say this all the time, because when you ask them how something/someone is, they most often say "no mal" (not bad), instead of just "good" or "well". They're a bit wry sometimes, I guess.
2. Another super gallego word, "morriña." It's means homesickness. I get the impression it's the extreme, achy, yearning kind of homesickness.
3. They have an expression in gallego (so of course I can't really remember how to say it, and I never knew how to spell it), that means "it's never rained until it didn't stop" or "it's never rained without end." Another positive, "things will get better/aren't that bad" kind of thing. And of course it has to do with rain. OF COURSE.
Oh, and there was one more thing. They also say "vas a caer" (you're going to fall) a lot, but *after* someone has already fallen. In either a literal or figurative sense. So they're either really wry and sarcastic, or very obvious.
So, that's all kind of fun/interesting. At least for me. Lugo also had a little medieval fair last weekend which I went to on Saturday with a couple friends. It was very different from the ones I've been to in the States, but mostly because Lugo is so small, I think. They had a line of tents set up in the median/walkway in the middle of Fontiñas (a street here), and mostly there were people selling crafts and also some food. There were three guys going around playing music and donkey rides for kids. That was pretty much it, though. Someone told me that maybe they put it there and not in a field somewhere because Fontiñas has a lot of bars/pubs/restaurants lining it.
Being in a median, it was hard to get a picture of hehe.
Some of the artisan food there really did look good. Like this bread. God, I love bread.
So that was kinda neat, and different. And then last night Annia and Tina and I attempted to see the procession that was happening (something de la Esperanza... probably Procesión de la Esperanza), but sort of gave up before it got good because it was raining non-stop and we were hungry. Since it's Semana Santa and we've passed Palm Sunday, there are processions every day of the week here in Lugo leading up to Easter. I really do want to see one, for real, so I'll have to try again a different day. Basically all we saw yesterday was the Policía Nacional marching around the Plaza de España, but these processions are usually composed of people in religious costumes (that, I hate to say it, look like KKK costumes) carrying large wooden statues of saints and Jesus. I think I spotted some candles last night too. There's also music, and it's mostly somber and mournful.
Hard to get pictures at night, in the rain, of moving objects with a phone.
More pictures of that kind of thing to come if I ever actually get to see the real procession part of one of these processions. It doesn't really sound like my cup of tea; I prefer to think about the glorious/victorious aspect of Easter, but it is very culturally interesting/different.
I think that was about it as far as everyday Lugo life... Not much will happen in my world this week as most of the people I know are gone, but hopefully this means I see some others that I don't usually get to since we're all on vacation :-) Also it gives me plenty of time to finish that other post! ;-)
I think that was about it as far as everyday Lugo life... Not much will happen in my world this week as most of the people I know are gone, but hopefully this means I see some others that I don't usually get to since we're all on vacation :-) Also it gives me plenty of time to finish that other post! ;-)
Great to read - as usual :)
ReplyDelete:D Hope you're in the mood for more reading!
ReplyDeleteThe one after this is loo-oong... actually, it might be too long. Covering all that stuff kinda made me get lost. I might have talked too much. heh.