My EVS in Andalusia 9

On New Year´s Eve Renata, Francesco and I were invited to the house of Manolo´s (our “chef´s”) parent´s to celebrate with his family (about 14 people of all generations).

At 9pm, we started eating tapas, including many with seafood and meat and we were offered a variety of alcohol (beer, wine, cider, most and whiskey) which gave us the self-confidence to divulge Christmas carols in different languages. Furthermore, we ate “mantequados” (delicious Spanish Christmas biscuits with different flavours) and “turrón” (another speciality with almonds, a bit like white nougat).

At midnight, the entire family (or better: the entire country) was watching live TV with rapt attention, waiting for the 12 strokes of a bell, broadcasted from another city every year. As a tradition, people eat one grape at every stroke (every second), and on the last stroke the New Year will begin. For the three of us, it was the first time to participate and we could not conceal our excitement. As you can possibly imagine, after such a rich feast and in such a short time, it can be an immense challenge to consume 12 grapes in 12 seconds. One stroke hardly gives you the time to chew and swallow a normal sized grape. After four strokes already my mouth was full and Renata and I burst into laughter, desperately trying to cram the next grapes into it. I don’t know how we managed to regain concentration on the process, but we wondrously made it to the very last grape before wishing each other a “Feliz ano Nuevo!”

All of use then got a wee present (Renata and I a candle and Francesco a mug) and raised a glass of champagne “arriba, abajo, al centro y adentro!” (“up, down, to the centre and into the mouth”).

After a while of watching (singing and dancing) a “journey through Spanish music history” we went to the local pub “Indalo”, where many people were gathered to have a drink and a chat. Renata, who is a dancing machine, danced a long time and we only got back home at about 4am.

The 3rd of January, I participated in the New Year´s footrace, a jolly event during which the distance of about 5km (six rounds) did count far less than the costumes the participants were wearing. Children and adults dressed up as Santa Claus and snowmen could just run as many rounds through the village as they wanted and get free “churros con chocolate” (hot fried pastry with hot chocolate) at the end.

The day that started this lovely wouldn’t get any less thrilling though!

In the evening, we went to a concert of Purchena´s wind orchestra to listen to excellent film and Christmas music.

Later in the night, and oddly enough only a couple of days after I had randomly spoken about my earthquake experiences in Peru (one with 4 on the Richter scale), our house started slightly shaking while Renata and I were sitting on the sofa. We couldn’t believe it and confusedly checked the website of Geographical Institute of Spain. Indeed! It showed us the registration of an earthquake of 3.1 on the scale with a seismic focus centre not far from Purchena.

The following days, the weather changed from 20 degrees and sun to wind and rain and more than three times we had a power cut. But I must say, I am exceedingly happy watching it rain. It can only do good to the dry lands of Andalusia.