Christmas Vacation Warm up

In Spain the holiday vacation starts and ends about a week later than in the US because here they celebrate the arrival of the three kings on January 6th as well as Christmas. So all of the students and teachers were in class through the 23rd of December. It was weird to me that my first day of break started on Christmas Eve.

But before Christmas break started the holiday season was kicked off by comidas, meals, with coworkers and friends. Spain's holiday celebration is kind of out of control, from December 16th to January 7th people party and eat beyond the limits of health. Americans as a whole are pretty unhealthy, but during this period of the year I am sure that Spaniards are unhealthier than Americans. So starting on the 16th everyone starts going to meals which include eating way too much food and then going out afterward. People usually attend two to three comidas during the week before Christmas.

My school had a comida on the Friday before break started. All the other teachers (about 40) and I went to a nice restaurant to eat and we did a secret Santa present exchange. It was really fun to be able to spend time with all of the teachers outside of school - everyone was cutting loose and having a great time. Without the students around we behaved similarly to them - laughing, yelling and creating chaos. The assistant director of the school asked me to hand out all of the gifts during the gift exchange, so I snuck a Santa suit in my backpack and put it on in the bathroom and surprised the teachers by entering the room yelling Merry Christmas and laughing like Santa. It was a ton of fun! Every time that someone opened a present everyone chanted either "Que bonito, Que bonito" or "Eso quiero yo, Eso quiero yo", which mean "How beautiful" and "I want that". It was really fun. After the dinner about 17 of us went to a dance club, where there were many other parties of workers celebrating after their own comidas. It was great to go out with my colleagues, everyone had great time singing and dancing together and most of all being able to hang out without hundreds of wild elementary students around. .

Two days later I had another comida with my housemates and all of our friends. We went to a house outside of Malaga and cooked a mountain of paella. I have always wanted to see paella cooked in a large pan because it is a very typical Spanish dish. Before we ate the paella we spent about two hours snacking on olives, cheese, salad, bread, morcilla (blood sausage), chorizo (more sausage) and chips. Then we ate a ton of paella. I was stuffed. The comidas are always filling because of the snacking before the actual meal. I eat enough to basically count as a meal before the actual meal is served. Then the main plate is so delicious that I don't want to stop eating so I keep going. By the end of the comida I am unable to do anything but sprawl around the house.

The next week during the classes I talked to all of the students about how Christmas is celebrated in the US. On the last day of class before break I dressed up as Santa for the students and went around to all of the classes to pass out candy. It was really fun. The younger students thought that I was the true Santa Clause and were completely mesmorized by me. It was pretty hilarious. After school was over I took a bus to Granada to celebrate Christmas with my friend Paco and his family.