Pilar in Zaragoza 2009!

First off, I have to apologize: my grammar seems to be getting worse by the week, so pardon any glaring errors! also, i will post pictures as soon as my new computer comes in the mail.

Today ´sthe last day of the weeklong festival of Pilar. Pilar is a religious festival celebrating Spain´s saint, the virgen pilar. (any pictures you´ve seen of zaragoza probably include a huge church, the church of pilar.) The entire country comes to Zaragoza to celebrate and partake in traditional activities (such as the parade in which people bring flowers and completly cover an enormous metal skeleton of a pyramid) while wearing traditional dresses and hair styles. For a lot of the people though (younger people), its a weeklong party with concerts (free and prepaid tickets) and street vendors (waffles, cotton candy, art).
     for me, it was a chance to meet spanish kids and hang out with different american kids. through a friend whose part of the after school program/exchange with my school and a few local schools i met a group of spanish kids. on the first friday we all went to the free Boney M concert. (youtube boney m, it is hilarious. it is a very 70´s black man with a parted afro, sparkly leotard under sparklier--very tight--bell bottoms, who sings in english.) we spent the next four days with them and enjoyed a much later toque de queda (curfew) of 2 AM, which was still a bit of a hinderance seeing as the spanish kids had curfews of between 4 and 6 AM.
    one of the highlights for me was the bull fight. it´s one of those things that is really easy to say how horrible it is, whether or not you´ve seen one, but after getting over the initial shock of watching the bull taunted and killed, you can really start to see what an art form it is. the costumes are phenominal, and the way the maestros move is almost a dance, with elongated, exagerated gestures and poses, as well as they seem to ¨play¨ (i cannot for the life of me think of a better word, though this is clearly the wrong one) with the bull. one of the many things that surprised me was that it was very apparent which of the bull fighters were more skilled, as they were the ones who were comfortable enough to play up the crowd just as much as they could the bull.
       if physically possible to wake up at 7AM any morning during Pilar (and it very well may not be, for the only reason i could get up so early was because i´d only been asleep for an hour when my alarm went off, and half the crowd had yet to go home after the last night´s festivities) it is well worth it to head back to the bull ring. here, the audience is given the chance to enter the ring  (in 2 hours i only saw one girl in the ring; the rest were 16-30 year old boys/men) and run from a (small, horns capped) bull while trying to pull a hoop from its horn.
     the free conciertos are a really fun way to pass part of the night (there are always at least 2 free ones, one in the plaza de pilar and one on the blocked off street Independencia) and a way to see some of the culture. two of the three nights i went to concerts were my best nights so far (for many reasons, one being that it is impossible to avoid being surrounded by spaniards and the culture of spain).
     throughout Pilar, i was reminded of how lucky i am to have Ana as my host mom. from what a lot of the kids say, i think most families are pretty strict, which i don´t think is something i could handle very well. Ana and i talk a lot, and from that i think she trusts me a lot more than some of the other families do. an example of this is if i call around midnight to ask/notify her about a curfew change (such as a sleep over at a friends who lives closer to the bull rings, or an emergency that will make it impossible for me to get home on time) she asks me a question or two and gives me the green light.
    as with anything like this, there were highs and lows and high school drama, but overall, there is no other way to remember it as anything other than amazing.





this is really not very relevant to Pilar, but i´m finally starting to figure out the food here! for Pilar, i found amazing street waffles and fresh cotton candy, as well as a crepe and smoothie restaurante close to school. the best day since i´ve gotten here (as far as food goes) was friday. i went with a friend to a pasteleria (bakery) that we´d found the day before to buy a ham and cheese croissant but realized that we could buy an entire baguette for half the price of the croissant as well as a wedge of cheese (also less than a croissant) and gelato. we found a grassy patch and had the cheapest and best lunch since starting school.