Thursday, June 2, 2011

Semana Santa


It's been ages since I've last posted, and I'm attributing this to the stress of classes and trying to get things in order for summer/next semester. So here I am, approaching the end of May, about to write about the high holy week of Easter.
Whereas I am used to spending one day with family and friends enjoying a meal and attending services, the Spanish (especially on the peninsula) have festivals and rituals all week. The university let out that week and many of the students returned to their respective islands/homes to spend the time with their families. Nothing was opened. Nothing was happening.
It is on this week that my lovely friend Christine arrived for a visit. My apologies to Christine...if I had known that literally nothing would be open on any of the holier days, I would have suggested a different time for this visit. We still managed to have a wonderful time and visit the town of Teror which has a beautiful church. Nothing was opened in town when we visited (as per usual) but we still got to peek inside the church for a few seconds and took an amazing walk around the area. The views were fantastic, as was catching up in such a beautiful setting, and we came to appreciate the fact that the ritual significance of the holy days (ash wednesday, maudy thursday, and good friday) is maintained. It was an opportunity to slow down and see friends (and eat out every night when we ran out of food).


For whatever reason the town had some pretty interesting exercise equipment at the outskirts. Why will remain a mystery, but we weren't complaining.