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| Nuestra Señora de Angustias |
Today people have off work and some stores are closed for Día de los Muertos. Although it's an official holiday, it's not nearly as big a deal here as it is in Mexico. People take a chill day to catch up on stuff, and visit loved ones at the cemetery. So I guess it's kind of comparable to Memorial Day (except without the furniture sales).
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| San Antón |
On the news during lunch they were talking about how all the shops in Madrid are open today, anyway. The news reporter said it was just as much for the tourists as for the people who are from Madrid. My host mom and her boyfriend were telling me that it is illegal for most stores to be open 24 hours. In Spain there is no free commerce, so the government can control businesses like that. There is a time set by the government (usually 8, 9, or 10 pm) that stores have to be closed by. This is to protect small, family owned businesses. If the big stores that have 100 workers stay open all night (because they can), then people will shop there at night instead of waiting until the next day to go to the store that's owned by only one person and can't be open all the time. This isn't the case in Madrid, though. My host mom and her boyfriend weren't in agreement why, but it might be because the mayor of Madrid is really capitalistic. For pharmacies, there is always one per neighborhood that is open all night, and they all take turns being the one open. I don't know if I would want to wake up in the middle of the night in desperate need of some medicine or something, and trying to figure out which pharmacy is the one that's open tonight. I think it has a special light on, so you can tell from down the street. There's probably an app for that now. Talking about pharmacies with my host family led to me trying to explain the wonder that is the Walgreen's at State and Randolph. I also explained to them how I was surprised that the Walgreen's in Appleton closes at 10 pm, because I thought they all stayed open 24 hours.
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| San Antón |
Lately I've been trying to attend daily Mass at the various churches around me. I started doing this last week when I was just wandering around, and happened to be exploring a church at the time that Mass was starting. I continue going for a number of reasons. For one, I don't like going to the Catholic church on Sundays, because it is way too crowded with pushy old ladies and just does not feel like a worship service at all. Instead I have been going to an Evangelical church with some of my friends, which I like a lot better. So far, the daily Masses that I have attended have been better. At one, there was a tour group coming in right when it was supposed to start, with the guide speaking loudly, in French, which was a little annoying, but the other tourists walking around weren't bad. at another, a lady was talking really loud on the phone a few minutes before the Mass was about to start, and people actually shushed her and told her to stop. Another reason I want to attend more Masses is that I've been trying to give the Catholic Church more of a chance to get me to like it more. I have to admit, learning about how the Church acted during the Spanish Inquisition, the Civil War, and Franco's dictatorship does not make me feel very proud. I'm trying to understand as best I can how religion fits in to the culture of Spain. I suppose there must be a lot of people who are actually religious, but I think a lot more just follow the Catholic traditions for their national/cultural value. Also, it just gives me something to do at a scheduled time, where I can be out surrounded by people, practicing my Spanish, looking at gorgeous artwork and architecture, that doesn't involve spending money or a lot of walking.
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Antigua Iglesia del Colegio
de San Pablo de la Comañía de Jesús |
Speaking of the old people at Church, I figured out why they are all so ridiculously short. During Franco's dictatorship, when they were kids, they didn't have enough food because of rationing, so they didn't grow. Another thing I've noticed about height is that in a lot of couples the woman is way taller than the man, and it seems completely normal and not awkward at all. One reason for this could be that a lot of people come to Granada from other countries and get married, so the taller women might be foreigners married to Spanish men.
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Parroquia el Segrario
(This is the church that is connected to the Cathedral) |
Yesterday we couldn't have our theater workshop, because they were using the building for a Halloween haunted house type event. So instead we all went to this really cool cafe called Bohemia Jazz Cafe. They have movie memorabilia, musical instruments, photos of celebrities, and other decorations like that all over the walls, and they serve all sorts of cool drinks and ice cream treats. It was fun trying to explain how to pronounce "Manhattan," to someone from Madrid because neither the "bat" vowel nor the schwa exist in Spanish. Then he asked if people from Manhattan pronounce it differently, because every place is pronounced differently by the people who live there (like "Madrith" for Madrid, or "Graná" for Granada). I told him I wasn't sure about Manhattan, but this led me to trying to explain the New York accent to everybody. That was a fun linguistic experience, trying to talk about a certain dialect of English to other people in Spanish.
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| Parroquia el Segrario |
Later on in the conversation we got onto the topic of holidays. The Spaniard mentioned that when Franco died, Spain adopted a lot of American things to try and be more international, including Burger King and Halloween. The German said that he liked being in Spain at this time, because in Germany they start selling Christmas candy (such as chocolates wrapped in Santa Claus wrappers) in September. I tried to explain the concept of Black Friday, but seeing as I don't understand the concept very well myself, it was a bit difficult to convey in Spanish. I think what I got across was "You know what Thanksgiving is? (They all did.) Well, the day after, people get up at 3 in the morning to go shopping because there are a lot of sales and everybody goes crazy." (Hey, now that I think of it, Black Friday might be a good enough reason in itself to let the government control what times stores are open.) I also learned that in Spain, most people don't have Christmas trees in their house. Instead, nativity sets are more common. Actually, it's kind of a secular statement to have a Christmas tree. In Russia, people don't celebrate at all on December 24-25. Santa Claus comes on New Year's Eve, and people get together with their families to celebrate January 6. Germany seems to be closest to the United States. On December 6, St. Nicolas comes to put candy in kids shoes. My German friend said that some people go overboard, and give a car or something really extravagant for St. Nicolas Day, but it's usually just candy. My friend from Switzerland said that she isn't religious, so she takes Christmas as a day to just get together with family. They exchange presents on December 24. She also said that her family is from all over the world, so she doesn't know too much about typical Swiss traditions, but she thinks the German parts celebrate it more like Germany, and the French parts celebrate it more like France. While we were having this conversation, "Santa Baby" started playing on the radio. I was the only one who noticed/recognized it. It was really cool to be talking to people from all over Europe about how we all celebrate the same thing in similar, but different, ways.
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Here's another inscription in honor of José Antonio,
on the wall between the church and the Cathedral.
This one also has red pain splattered on it |
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