In Catalonia Christmas is not that big of a deal here, so I was quite surprised when my host family told me that we are only doing secret santa (or "amigo invisible" is what it is called here), but I went along with it. It was nice that I didn't have to rush to get a bunch of presents, and when the 25th came we did our secret santa and then when off to my host grandmothers host for the big lunch (lunch is the big meal here). We ate a big meal and it was good, we had soup and roasted Chicken. After eating we went around the table and the kids (my little cousins, my host sister, and I) sang songs or recited poems. I not knowing any Catalan or Spanish Christmas carols sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" with my host cousin, Berta. After that we did something really unique to Catalonia. It is an activity called the "Caga Tio"
The Caga Tio
As you can see it is this log with a face drawn on it, and has a blanket covering it's whole body. What we did, and all the other children in Catalonia did, was hit the log while sing a song that is asking the log to poop out candies and presents. I am not kidding, the last line of the song is "Caga sisplau" which translated into English is "poop please". After we sung the song we went to another room and sang a Christmas Carol. This is when the parents put candies and presents underneath the blanket that is on the log, then we came back and sung and hit the log, we checked under the blanket and there was the presents/candies, and we did this 6 times. It was quite an interesting experience.
Another cool tradition here is the "Caganer", which is the little pooping man that they put in nativity scenes.
The Caganer
I've asked why they put this in the nativity scene, but thus forth no one could really tell me why. I just think this is really funny.
After Christmas I went to Torrevieja, Alicante in the the South of Spain to visit a friend I met in Canada.
Torrevieja
It was a lot warmer than Barcelona, and was very beautiful, though the town was kinda dead because it is a summer town. While I was there visiting we went to Cartagena, Murcia, and La Manga. La Manga was really cool, it is a town that is surrounded by two bodies of water.
La Manga
It was also like a ghost town, again a summer city.
When I returned from my trip, I discussed changing schools with my host family and going to a school close by that offers an art program which I'd really like to do, and right now I'm not very happy in my current school. I'm really hoping that I can switch because I know I'd be A LOT happier if I was doing something I love like art in school, but right now we don't know if it is ok for me to switch schools.
Also speaking of art, I've been doing quite a lot recently, here:
Audrey Hepburn
Billie Piper
Emma Watson, and my personal favourite
Mulan
Jenna Louise Coleman
