Hello again!
I firstly have to apologise for the long absence. I have had
a very busy two months so I will try to fill you in without too much boring
detail.
Christmas
Christmas in Spain is a very different affair from the
classic British Christmas that we are used to celebrating on the 25th
December. Out here, they have a big celebratory dinner with all the family on
Christmas Eve, and then a lunch on Christmas Day. The traditions are slightly different
depending on the household and how religious the families are. Less religious
families are likely to follow traditions more similar to ours, sometimes having
turkey and doing presents on Christmas Day. More traditionally Catholic
families are more likely to just have a family gathering and a special meal on
this day. For them, the present giving, and the more important day is El Día de
Los Reyes Magos, or the Day of the Wise Men. This is celebrated on the 6th
January, and they all go back to work the following day.
Something that really surprised me, given the Spaniards’
pride in their food culture, is that they do not have a national traditional
feast. While they all agree that the meal is special and they make it a feast,
there is nothing like our roast turkey with all the trimmings. Despite no
universal Christmas meal, they do have some very traditional Christmas sweets. Before
I went to Spain I thought that Turrón was just a kind of sweet treat similar to
nougat, but I have since found out that the only requirement for a turrón is
that it is sweet and its shape – it has to be a block. There are several
traditional types, which includes ‘Turrón Duro’ (Hard Turrón), a crunchy nougat
filled with nuts;
‘Turrón Blando’ (Soft Turrón), a block made of powdered
almonds mixed with sugar that crumbles and melts in the mouth;
‘Turrón de Yema’
(Egg Yolk Turrón), which is like a cross between a dense cake and marzipan;
‘Turrón Crujiente’ (Crunchy Turrón), which is just a block of chocolate with
puffed rice (otherwise known as Rice Krispies).
There are then a whole host of non-traditional
blocks with assorted flavours. The other sweets are known as ‘surtidos’, which
is an umbrella term for a selection of biscuits and ‘Polvorones’. ‘Polvo’ means
powder or dust, so it will come as no surprise that ‘Polvorones’ are an
incredible crumbly sweet made from flour, lard and some flavouring like lemon,
cinnamon or chocolate. They are like a shortbread, but not crunchy, and they
just disintegrate into powder as you bite into them. I think they are a bit of
an acquired taste, but I like them!
January was spent revising for exams so I have not seen much
more than my desk, and I came back to England for the week before term starts
again on the 1st February so I will start writing about my
experiences again soon.
Answers to questions:
Are Spanish people bossy?
“Spanish people” are no bossier than “British people”. In other
words, you cannot just generalise about a whole nation.
Is the Spanish music similar to English music?
While I am in the lab, people often have music on Spotify.
Sometimes this will be a lot of English or American music, but other times it
is Spanish music, which tends to have a different overall feel from the music
over here. The rhythms really suit Salsa style dancing quite often, and if it
is a man singing, I tend to notice the autotune a lot, but I don’t know if it is
supposed to sound like that or not.
What is the best landmark I have seen?
Valencia has some really lovely old buildings in the city
centre, and the architecture there is lovely, but I think my favourite landmark
is just the whole of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. I have posted
pictures of this before, but I can put up some professional ones so you can see
just how impressive the whole complex is.
Thank you for reading! Next month I will write in Spanish
again.