Festivales y Ferias

What an awesome weekend! There was a ton of fun stuff going on in our neck of the woods. The festival of the virgin of the anguish, the city's patron saint was in full swing all weekend. There were tons of fresh fruit, pastry, candy, nut, and dried fruit stalls. We had some delicious toffee almonds and pastries. It was lucky that we didn't have much money on us or we would have gone crazy and bought all the pastries and candies in sight. There was also a roasted chestnut stall, but those have never been my favorite fair food, too healthy:). My favorite thing we bought was salt bread. It tasted like focaccia bread, I could have eaten more than one for sure. Aidan bought a watermelon flavored rope candy. Ian bought a giant candy pacifier. Emma didn't buy anything because she didn't have any money:( We also looked around at the chocolate festival, but there were way too many people to really get to try anything. There was also a carnival going on at the park behind Palacio de Congresos. The kids rode a roller coaster called Gusano. The carny running the ride was smoking a cigarette.You could actually get a lot for your money there. When you bought a ticket for the ride, you got a noisemaker and at the end of the ride you got a punch balloon. They also went on a Simpsons bouncy castle and a giant inflated slide. The carny lady running the slide let them have a turn that was ten times as long as a regular turn. There was also a stage with flamenco dancers. The music was SO loud and Collin and I both heard a swear word in one of the (English) songs . . . . at a children's fair! It was a really fun night for everyone (and not just because of the swear word:). There were a couple of ecofriendly carousels. They looked normal except that they were powered by a man riding a stationary bike, he also passed out lollipops to the kids on the ride. I would love to see one of those in Lewisburg at the Wooly Worm Festival. They are really into preserving the environment here, one of the major grocery store is getting ride of plastic bags altogether. I would love to see more of that in the U.S. too (outside of San Francisco anyway).

On Sunday we went to the procession of the virgin to watch them carry the statue of the Virgin Mary holding a crucified Christ through the center of Granada. We tried to walk up Carerra de Genil and it was so crowded that soon we were trapped and couldn't walk any further. We all started to feel claustrophobic and couldn't see the procession from where we were anyway so we tried to go back the way we came, against the current. At one point, an older lady told us that we couldn't pass so I stopped where I was, then she said I couldn't stand there because she couldn't see. Finally, Collin told her that we just wanted to get out of the crowd and she let us through. We had to walk up a side street and then again, we couldn't get through the crowd. Collin went across to the stalls to buy more salt bread. We stayed put and waited for him and watched the procession go by. There were guilds and priests and the statue itself carried by a lot of men dressed in black suits. The statue had flowers all around it and silver cherubs with pomegranates. As the virgin went past I could hear everyone around clapping and shouting, "Mira, la Guapa!" Unfortunately, my camera battery ran out of juice so I didn't get pictures of the men dressed up with huge feathers in their caps and military garb. We kept waiting and waiting for Collin to show up with the bread. The sidewalk got more and more crowded. Finally, he walked within a few feet of me and I reached out and touched his arm. We got out of the crowd and started eating the bread, which was not salt bread, but pan de la virgen: an oily, sugar covered loaf of bread filled with raisins and caraway seeds. It was very very good.

It turns out that when Collin went to the other side of the street with the stalls and bought the bread, he couldn't get back through the crowd. He took a side street and came to our side, but couldn't find us. He looked frantically around and even stopped a policeman to ask him if he had seen, "an American lady with three loud kids." Collin kept standing on benches trying to see us through the crowd. He even went home to see if we had gone there. All sorts of crazy thoughts went through his head as to what could have happened to us. He came back and tried the same area again and that was when I touched his arm and he found us. It is the WORST feeling in the world, thinking something horrible has happened to your family. I have felt that same feeling many, many times and it always takes a long time for me to recover from it. The kids and I were standing in the same spot as before, but since the crowd had grown and Collin got disoriented from having to go around us (and we are so short), he had a hard time finding us. Afterwards we went to a cafe to have a soda, the free tapas were potato croquetas, pisto and bread . . . . so yummy! I am going to have to look up a recipe for pisto because I love it! It reminds me of something Mercedes made for us in the Dominican Republic. Right now, tons of fireworks are going off to celebrate the city's patron saint.

I had to do the sharing time today at church. It was hard to make myself understood and the younger kids couldn't write stuff on their own, so it didn't go as well as it could have. All I did was have them sing Follow the Prophet and then tell me things that the prophets have told us to do as families together. Then the kids just have to fill out a BINGO sheet and use it while they listen to conference next week. Then we went into the chapel to practice the primary program. We have got our work cut out for us. The kids can't seem to listen or know when to stand up or sit down and only my kids can carry a tune. On a good note, Collin's lesson went really well. The Primary Presidency and the kids all love having him as a teacher. Ana Maria, Sara and Nuria all kept going on and on about how their kids love coming to Primary when he is teaching and how the general behavior of the kids has improved since he started teaching. I know he doesn't love having two callings, but they sure love having him in Primary.

I have a new conversation partner. His name is Juan Carlos and he is the husband of my Spanish teacher. We talked a lot about religion, Spanish customs and racism. The tone and topics were very different from what I usually discuss with my female conversation partners. Juan Carlos is a policeman in Granada. He told me that the Sacromonte area is actually safer and has less crime than our area of town (great). Juan Carlos said that the Sacromonte area has a bad reputation because it is mostly populated by Gypsies. He said he was too tired to speak in English and I was thinking, "Then what are you doing here? This is supposed to be an INTERCHANGE!" Whatever, my Spanish will get better anyway. The kids were TERRIBLE during this particular language exchange. They kept running in and out of the room, fighting, teasing, crying and screaming. Juan Carlos and Rebecca don't have any kids and if they continue to come over when our kids are misbehaving, I think they just might put it off even longer.

Yesterday Collin and I were supposed to go to a Primary leadership meeting. We showed up dressed very casually, wearing jeans and flipflops because thought that it was just a meeting for our ward. When we arrived at church we saw that everyone was wearing suits and dresses and that it was a STAKE PRIMARY leadership. Neither of us wanted to go to the meeting dressed like hoboes so we turned around and went home (SHAME on us!). Later, Sara called and asked if we were okay because we weren't there and I told her what had happened. I know we should have gone anyway, but I couldn't make myself when I knew I should have been wearing church clothes. At church I got a letter from the Stake Primary Presidency thanking me for my doing my calling. It was addressed to "Mc Kinney Tara Domínguez." (I guess Dominique is not a common name here in Spain.)