These past two weekends

Sorry for the wait for another post! I had several big assignments last week and couldn't devote much time to blogging. 

Two weekends ago I visited Aguarón again. We left Zaragoza Friday afternoon, around 6 pm. That night I watched "The Pianist," which was sooooo good!!! If you haven't watched it yet, you really should. I'm surprised it only won three Oscars.  

On Saturday it rained all day, so I stayed inside for most of the day. My host dad and I went to church a little before 8 pm, but the priest did not show up because he had been in a car accident the day before. I guess no one was sure if he'd come or not, so we waited for half an hour at the church. The last time that I was at the pueblo, I discovered a puzzle that my host mom had gotten from one of her daughters. It was 1500 pieces! In the middle are two maps of the world, one physical and the other political. Around them as a border are scenes from around the world that represent different countries. I started the puzzle after dinner, and finished more than half of the border. It was a little after midnight when I went to bed.

The next day when I got up my host mom was working on the puzzle. She loves puzzles she told me. She had pretty much finished the border. Only three pieces were missing. She was working on the scene of the Colosseum, which is located in her favorite city: Rome. After I ate breakfast, I started to help her. Already she had sorted some of the pieces into the different scenes, so I tried my hand at putting those together. Apparently she had kept getting pieces of scenes from Japan and Russia, so she thought it was a sign that she needed to visit the two countries. We worked on the puzzle for a couple of hours, and a little after one she started to make lunch. I continued working for a little bit and stopped to eat. Afterwards I did some homework. Soon we got ready to return to Zaragoza, and we left Aguarón around 6 pm.

Last Tuesday, October 23rd, my host family and I went to see a free piano concert! It was pretty close to our apartment, a little past my school, and the pianist was Hisako Hiseki. She is Japanese and has won several awards as a pianist. This concert was part of the celebration of the 160th anniversary of Gaudí, a famous Spanish architect. I really liked all the pieces that Hiseki played, and for one she only played with her left hand! The concert lasted for about an hour. On our way back to the apartment, we stopped to chat with a friend who was walking his dog. Apparently he's the host father of another girl in SYA! 

The concert hall.

Last Thursday, we all found out which cities we're going to for our five-day mini trip. I'm going to the community Extremadura! It's in the southwest of Spain, bordering Andalucía, Castilla and León, and Portugal. We'll be visiting four different cities: Mérida, Cáceres, Trujillo and Guadalupe. This trip is in two weeks! I can't wait! 

This past weekend, guess what I did? Another trip to Aguarón. I don't really mind going so often, but then during the weekends I don't have the opportunity to hang out with friends and explore Zaragoza some more. However, during the winter when it's colder we won't go to the pueblo as frequently. I think I wrote before that their house in the pueblo doesn't have heat, but I was wrong; it does. 

So we left Zaragoza Friday afternoon as usual. That night I started to watch another one of my host mom's movies, "The Last Emperor." It's about Pu-Yi, the last emperor of China, who was crowned when he was only three years old! The movie follows him throughout his life: growing up and basically being caged in the Forbidden City, being thrown out of the City as an adult, and wanting/trying to regain his throne. One of the last scenes is him as an old man visiting his home and a small boy comes running up and tells him he can't climb the stairs to the throne. Pu-Yi tells the boy that he used to be the emperor, and the boy says, "Prove it." He does by going up to the chair, reaching underneath, and producing a ceramic or porcelain container that looks like a saltshaker that he had hidden there as a boy. He then disappears and the next scene shows a woman giving a tour of the City saying, "Pu-Yi was born in ... and died in ... He was the last emperor of China. He was crowed when he was only three years old." The camara lingers on the throne while she says this. The movie was made in 1987 and won 9 Oscars. 

On Saturday I went to Cariñena, another pueblo close to Aguarón, with my host dad. He had to do some errands and so I tagged along since I didn't really have anything else to do. I found out right away that he knows EVERYONE in that pueblo. Every five seconds he said hello to someone else and they would chat for a little bit. It made the trip seem pretty long to me because I would just wait for him to finish. Although he did introduce me to some of them. One man was named Bernardo. Another thing I noticed was that I was stared at quite often because I didn't look like any of them. I just smiled a little everytime that happened because I thought it was amusing. I assume that Asians are rarely ever seen in pueblos. When we returned to the house, we ate lunch, and afterwards I did some homework. That night Rosa and I worked on the puzzle together, and we were able to finish the bottom (political) map. 

The next day was uneventful. More homework, more eating, more working on the puzzle. But this time only I worked on it for both my host parents were taking their "siestas." I was able to finish most of the top (physical) map, completing all the continents. Now only the oceans are left, and they will be much harder because those pieces are all the same color with hardly any markings to distinguish to which ocean they belong. Actually, one thing did happen: we had to set the clocks back one hour. Daylight Saving Time ended. Anyways, we left Aguarón a little after 6 pm. 

If I haven't mentioned this already, this upcoming Thursday, November 1st, we don't have school! It will be All Saints' Day. 

¡El Castillo de Peracense y Albarracín!

Last Friday, October 19th, we went on another school trip! It was only for the day, and this time we travelled south, instead of north, to the province of Huesca in Aragon. It was scheduled to rain that day, so everyone came prepared with rain jackets, boots, and umbrellas. We left Zaragoza at 8:30 am as usual, and the bus ride took about two hours. It rained a little, but once we had arrived to our first destination, it had subsided. Our first stop was a castle! So far I've seen three castles in Spain: one near my host family's apartment in Zaragoza, one on a different school trip, and this one. It was called "Castillo de Peracense" (Castle of Peracense) and was built in the late Bronze Age. It was located on the top of a hill so that its inhabitants could watch and control the roads below it. The first "room" we entered was the plaza. It was the biggest and it had no roof. We were given half an hour to explore. First, I climbed to the top of a wall on one side of the castle. Next, I crossed the plaza to the other side, where there were more, smaller rooms. This part was quite fun because I didn't know what to expect, what I'd find, and I've never been in a castle before! I went in several very small rooms with very small windows. They were warmer than outside. There was a sort of isolated tower that most of us climbed. On top I had a great view of the countryside. Hills and valleys surrounded us on every side. I wish that it had been sunny out though; everything would've looked more beautiful. I've found this really cool website about the castle that gives you a virtual, panoramic view of it. Here's the link: http://www.peracensemedieval.com/visita_peracense_medieval.htm

We boarded the bus again and headed towards Albarracín, a very pretty pueblo. We were given picnic lunches: a long sandwich of bread and tortilla with potatoes, an apple, a juice box, and water, and another two hours to explore this place. We first walked towards the pueblo's wall which had been built in defense against the Christians during the Reconquista. It was located on a very high and steep hill, and it reminded me of the Great Wall of China! I arrived there after a big group of students, and some were attempting to hike up the left side of the hill to reach the wall. It looked very hard since it was so steep, so I didn't try. I stayed at the bottom with other people who didn't want to do it either. Finally, after waiting about half an hour, we decided to head back down to the center of the pueblo and find a café. The one we found was in this sort of plaza. I didn't buy anything, but two friends bought coffee, which according to one of them was very good. The other friend sat near five Spanish women and started up a conversation with them. Several friends and I joined them and joined in, too. They told us that they were from Santander, Cantabria, a community in northern Spain. When I told them that I play the piano, they said every summer in Santander there's a famous piano concert called Paloma O'Shea. Unfortunately I won't be able to see it in person, but one woman told me that I can watch it online I think! Another woman was named Pilar, which is very special because as I've already told you, the saint, Pilar, is very important here in Spain. We chatted with the women for about 45 minutes, and then we had to get on the bus again to return to Zaragoza. I slept for most of the ride, and once we arrived in the city, I headed straight home. 

From now on, all the school trips we take will be more than one day. I know that one scheduled trip is each student is sent to a different part of Spain to spend several days there. I don't know when it will happen though. It sounds very exciting. I'll finally be able to travel to another part of the country. Independent travel will not be permitted until November, and then the teachers will only give us permission if we have mastered enough Spanish to be able to communicate well. My Art History told my class that this rule is for our safety; the school doesn't want us to have an emergency while away from Zaragoza and not know how to ask for help. I definitely want to visit Barcelona and Madrid -- those are a must while in Spain -- but other places are Andalucía, Galicia, and País Vasco. (These names are in Spanish because I learned them in that language. I'm not certain what they are in English.) I'll have to travel with at least one other person. Well, I hope you enjoyed this entry! I'll post again soon. 

View of countryside right after I got off the bus. (The
castle is to the right.)

Heading up to the castle.

Inside the castle. The plaza.

Me with Elizabeth.

Left to right: Jordan, Madeline, Meg, and Alex(andria).

Left to right: Claire, Madeline, Meg.

Me with Claire and Sydney.

On top of the castle.

Kira.

Tower built on a rock.

Albarracín.

The wall that reminds me of the Great Wall of China.

A pretty steeple. 

Gloria.

The steep, left side.

People attempting to climb it to the top.

Some funny looking trees.

Me with (left to right) Julia, Elizabeth, and Sydney.

Walking down a street with (front) Nate, Caroline,
(back) and Kira.

El fin del Pilar (The end of Pilar)

I think I'm more happy than sad that the festivities of Pilar are over. Why? Paseo Independencia and the Plaza of Pilar are MUCH less crowded now, and surprisingly, those four days of "vacation" felt much slower than expected. It probably has to do with the fact that I didn't have a book to read for fun. But I passed some time (not including hanging out with friends) watching movies on YouTube and listening to music. 

Saturday night, I saw the Rosary of Crystal (Rosario de cristal), which is a parade that begins at 7 pm and has what could be considered floats made out of colored glass. They contain lights inside, so the effect when it's dark outside is very beautiful. The streets were blocked off, and the people in the parade walked between the metal fences, carrying candles and the floats and singing. You could only cross the street maybe every five minutes, which means that the sidewalks would get filled with people, then when they were allowed to cross, you were squished between like twenty people going both ways. I'd never been in anything like it.

On Sunday, one of my friends called me and asked me if I was still interested in going to see a bull event. From what a woman had told her, the event was about men jumping over cows for points. I wanted to see it, so I said that I would go. I met her at the SYA school about 11:15 am, and we rode on bus 21 to the ring, called the Plaza of the Bulls. It reminded me of the Colosseum! I got to pretend I was in Rome for a few seconds. We bought the tickets there, and I also bought some salty dried corn to snack on during the event. On the tickets it read "Vaca del Pilar," which means "The Cow of Pilar," so that was the name of the event we were going to see. We entered the ring, and the first thing I saw was the big hole in the roof. The sun shone through, brightening the apparatuses in the arena. In the middle stood a rectangular platform with a ladder on top. On opposite sides on the platform were two staircases, two square metal fences, and two metal pyramids. My friend and I sat about half way up, so we had very good views of the whole ring. Soon a booming male's voice filled the air, scaring me at first. Then six men entered, dressed in white shirts and pants with red stripes on the sides. The crowd cheered, and the announcer said each man's name. Then they got capes and flags, preparing themselves for the first cow. It came charging into the arena, and I had a momentary thrill of fear and excitement, trying to imagine what it would be like to be one of those men in the arena facing an oncoming cow. Using the capes and flags, the men tried to provoke the bull to make it climb one of apparatuses. The first few cows didn't fall for the bait, so it was a little boring, but afterwards the cows grew more aggressive, making it more exciting. Whenever one of the cows did climb an apparatus, the crowd would applaud and hoot and whistle. I could really see how much the Spanish love the bull events. During the event, three men got injured, so they were taken out of the arena. At the end, the three remaining men left the ring, and a table with trophies was set up. I expected one of the participating men would win one of them. However, it turned out that the trophies were awarded to the owners of the best cows. The third place winner was a man, second place winners a man and woman, and the third place winners two men. My friend and I left the ring and rode back to the school on the same bus as before. There, we said goodbye and went to our homes. 

One thing I did like about the fiestas of Pilar is the independence. We got to choose what to do and where to go. It's very different from anything I've experienced before. 

One of the floats in the Rosary of Crystal.

The Plaza of Bulls.

Third place winner.

Second place winners.

First place winners.

Me in front of the Plaza of Bulls.