El Rocío, una locura verdadera

"Oh what a world, we live in...why am I always in a plane or a fast train? Oh what a world my parents gave me..."-Rufus Wainwright

I had an incredible weekend at El Rocío. It was really nice seeing everybody dressed up in sevillana dresses and the men with their "Cordobes" hats. Donna, Roberto and I left on Saturday evening and prepared ourselves for a night of dancing, drinking and eating...





There were soooo many different "hermandades" (brotherhoods of all the different villages) parading throughout El Rocío, showing off their oxen/horses carrying tributes to the Virgin Rocío. Unbelievable. There were also firecrackers/rockets going off every few minutes, with people shouting: "Viva la blanca paloma, viva la virgen Rocío..."

El Rocío can be a maze, and we walked through the deep sand for what seemed like hours, trying to find Roberto's "Hermandad". Somehow, we didn't seem to care though. It was great walking around and seeing everybody so happy and in a festive mood. There were people dancing and singing in every house.

We were offered drinks at every house we went to. It was great. It was a good thing that we ate an ENORMOUS dinner (best pork everrrrrr) because I might have been writhing/spazzing on the floor after all the "copas" we had that night.

We didn't sleep at all that night. At around 3 a.m., perhaps from being slightly delusional or from wanting to master the art of the sevillana dance, I announced,"Let's just not sleep." It seemed like a wonderful idea. I danced like an imbecile around the other great sevillana dancers, trying to imitate them but ultimately looking like a fool. Yikes. Even Donna was doing it better.

At 7 a.m., the night was still going strong. Taking our copas with us towards a little park, we walked around for a little while, taking in the sunrise and breathing in the cool, crisp morning air. I felt like I was walking in a dream. It was all so surreal. Then Donna decided to go cuckoo on us (lack of sleep? too many copas? I'm still amazed at how well I behaved myself...somehow) and announced to the world all the promises that she would keep in her lifetime. It was awesome. Comical girl. She made me promise some things too, and I did say some things which I will never forget. The only thing Roberto would promise was to finish his copa and to push her into a river if she didn't shut up.

Priceless. I've even got a video of Donna sitting in the middle of the road, yelling gibberish to Roberto and me yelling something back along the lines, "I love you, Donna!" Then Roberto asks her to marry him, lol. Then he tells her to shut the hell up and to make promises to the virgin Rocío and not to him.

Now, at 11 a.m., after going for more than 24 hours without sleep, you can imagine my condition. Roberto had an unbelievably painful idea which wouldn't have been so bad on a normal day, but given our lack of sleep, was quite torturous: "Let's attend Mass!!!" This being El Rocío, the mass should have lasted 2 hours. I only succeeded in staying awake for about 20 minutes. For shame.

The mass was held outside in the hot sun, to make matters worse. We were all given free fans, and I somehow managed to fall asleep, sitting down, with the fan over my face to shield my shamefull lack of devotion. I just couldn't stay awake. My eyes were made out of lead.

Roberto finally woke me up, and we decided that it would be best to just take the bus back. Unfortunately, we had to wait for the bus, and rested in the park for a wee bit. A man took a picture of me sleeping, apparently. I'm sure my mouth was wide open and everyone could see my tooth fillings.

So there you have it. It was really fun. I'm glad I went :) People were all very welcoming and friendly. It was worth it.

This weekend we are (hopefully) going to Lisbon. Angel has been sick these past few days, so we'll see if we do go in the end. I really hope so, but won't be too disappointed if we go another weekend in June. Oh man, there really isn't that much time left. June will be very busy and will go by in a flash. The kids' shows are coming up...thank goodness I've finished most of their masks. I'll try to take some pictures of that as well..we'll see if I post them on my blog.

Ok lovelies, miss you all

xoxoxoxo H

Where in the world...?

Searching through YouTube for some funny, original videos, I came across a gem today. "Where the hell is Matt?" It's about a 30 year old guy who decides to quit his job in Brisbane and travel all over the world. The video shows him dancing in some of the remotest, most beautiful places on earth. It made me smile.

It's not just the goofy dancing, it's his attitude and risk-taking that really inspired me and brightened a cloudy Sunday. I searched for more info on him and across an interview, where he says things like,"I used to be a video game designer, but I wasn't happy. I decided to quit and travel all over the world until my last penny ran out. I guess the hardest part of the trip was actually deciding to go. Once you've decided to actually undertake a big journey, the rest is much easier. You'd also be amazed at how safe and cheap the world can actually be."

He's still travelling. Of course, his video made him famous and everything, but he is still not rich and only works part-time as a video gamer and website designer, to make ends meet.

wherethehellismatt.com is a cool website, where he describes his travels in details. I envy him. There are still so many places that I want to see, someday.

If you watch the video, the most touching scene is where he is dancing with little kids in Rwanda. I don't know, it just seemed like such a simple, happy moment.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hope to never stop travelling. The good thing with being a teacher is that I can pretty much count on having super long holidays for the summer, so I expect to see a little more of the world, bit by bit.

Travelling is like a drug, really. It gives you such a high to be in a different part of the world, to discover new foods, smells, sights, etc. It's a rush. Once you've been bitten by the travel bug, you can't stop moving around (at least I can't). I know I'll be sedentary in Canada for a while until I finish Teacher's Ed and get a good job, but I'll be booking those tickets as soon as I've got some moolah and a few days off.

Speaking of travelling, I just remembered that I need to get a Lonely Planet Guide for Italy.

H xoxoxoxo

Mar Adentro

Sand, sand everywhere. I close my eyes and take in the sounds of crashing waves and people happily chatting away.
I grab a broken seashell lying next to me and start scooping the sparkling brown diamonds, finding more broken seashells underneath like some sort of forgotten, buried treasure. A black beetle angrily scuttles away, having been discovered in its cool, moist lair.
"Let's go for a walk," I say.
The wind whips at our dehydrated skins deliciously, and the dancing sailboats wobble from left to right, right to left in its grasp.
"It's great that the seashells don't hurt our bare feet, isn't it?" says my friend.
Our white toes clash painfully against the earth's tanned floor. However, if we just let a few sand grains swim onto our skin, it seems as if we've been granted a few specks of gold. That, or ghastly freckles.
"What's that?" we both ask, suddenly.
An enormous, bloated white jellyfish lies in the sand, seaweed clinging to its bulging corpse. It is clearly dead, and may have been so for a few hours.
It seems so fragile, yet so strong at the same time. Its clear, rubbery body glistens in the sun and its head is about the size of 1.5 large dinner plates.
I gently touch it with a big seashell, wanting to know its outer body's resistance to harder objects. It's extremely firm and flexible at the same time.
"Fascinating creature, and one that hasn't evolved much throughout mankind's time", I think to myself.
We walk on, and spot various families and old men trying to find little coquinas (edible oysters) in the shallow sand. Swish, swish, they go...twirling and twirling their feet in the brown, heavy earth.
At this point the wind starts getting harsher.
"Let's head back", I advise.
After struggling with sandy flip-flops, shorts and t-shirts, I turn back towards the water and breathe in.
I'm smiling.
H.

Why, you little...

It's trying, being a teacher sometimes.

God help me.

There are about 3 students I want to exterminate out of 56.

Too bad that bad apples always abound...