meeting the friends

Over the past few months, my weekends have been more or less dedicated to lunch parties at Jesus’ house in an attempt to meet all of his friends a few at a time. And with him being an absolute social animal who has lived in Madrid for 10 years, he has a ton of them. Plus all the ones from various other locales throughout Spain and Europe who use his house as a hotel. Hostel Jesus, he says.
Well this past Sunday, he convinced me to attend the latest function although I had been down with the flu. Mistake. I’m sure these friends think I’m some brain-dead neanderthal. Its hard enough to keep up a conversation in Spanish over a few hours without going numb above the neck as it is, but add in a seasonal illness and ….. And if you haven’t had the special privilege of witnessing a conversation between Spaniards, let me tell you: they all speak very loudly and all at the same time. I’ve learned to pick a face and concentrate on what’s coming out of it and ignore the others. But that was a bit hard this time as well. But hey, I survived.

Happy St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Day!

Who or what the hell is that you may ask? Until today I was in the same boat. Evidently, he is the patron saint of teachers in the Catholic faith and today is his saint’s day. Of course as a non-Catholic that wouldn’t mean anything to me. But my kids are out of school today because their teachers get the day off.

Actually in Spain, many workers have the saint day of their profession’s patron off from work. Why am I, a teacher, working then, you ask? I’m wondering the same thing. Teaching adults, I generally benefit on the days my students have off such as the for the patron of bankers or salespeople. So today, off to work I go. Guess I need to go teach in a Catholic school like the one my kids attend.

Return of the ‘fat one’

The fat one has returned and this time it sings like a girl. El Gordo or ‘the fat one’ is the Spanish National Christmas Lottery and the prizes are being divvied up today. Millions of euros are on the line. It truly is a national obsession and done only as the Spanish could. Or would.

The proceedings take hours and are broadcast live on on several tv and radio stations. As each number and prize money amount are selected, 2 children from a pool of many sing the number and amount in dutiful Catholic chant style. Traditionally the children were all boys from the San Isidro Church School but this year there were girls as well. Progress is just busting out all over on the peninsula.

And no, I didn’t buy a ticket. At twenty euros each, the price is a bit steep. And the last two years I bought tickets and didn’t recuperate a peseta. This with the huge range of winning numbers.

Rather than a single number being the winning one as with lotteries in the States, the Spaniards select hundreds of numbers. There is a prize amount drawn at the same time and all tickets with that number win a share. And there are many tickets with each number. They are printed in sheets of ten — hence the lottery being called the ‘decimo’ as well — and each sheet is one in a series of ten with that number. Of course the top number was worth €3 million divided between all holders of that number. And there is a way to get back the original twenty euros investment. I believe this happens if the last digit of your 5 digit number match the last digit of the winning number. But maybe it’s the last 2 digits.

Unlike lotteries in the USA, El Gordo is not meant to make any one person rich but to spread the wealth around. That’s a lottery idea I can support. But not at €20 a pop.

Oh yeah, Thanksgiving

Belated happy Thanksgiving everyone. I almost forgot all about it. On Wednesday nite while checking my email I saw a headline that read something like ‘Travelers taking advantage of low gas prices for holiday travel’. My first thought was, ‘What holiday would that be’? Then I remembered. November, must be Turkey day. (Or better, Ham day. But hey we all make our choices don’t we).

With so many holidays to keep track of in Spain, it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember the American ones. Usually one of my students will ask me about any current holiday especially students who work for American companies and are wondering why the hell they can’t reach anyone in the home office on a given day. Today, I have received two — count them, two — Thanksgiving cards from my mama. A day late, but when you are dealing with the postal service in not one but two countries, a day is pretty damn good.

To celebrate, the boys and I went for dinner in one of the American chain restaurants. I usually try to avoid those places. By those places, I mean chain restaurants and in Madrid, American ones. But we had a fairly okay meal at Ribs. Not exactly turkey or ham but the baby backs were okay. But for a bit of added Spanish culture, we ate at 9.30. Still a bit early though but it was a school nite.

Have some leftovers for me and enjoy the sweet potato pie and red velvet cake. Or you could always just fedex me some.