Books and roses

What a lovely day. Today Spain celebrates the book, especially in Catalunya where the day of Sant Jordi (Saint George) is filled with books and roses gifted between people in love. Sigh...how cute. A perfect combination. The tradition is to give a book to the men and a rose to the women and it all comes from the legend of a dragon, a princess, and Sant Jordi. To appease a violent dragon, a small town had a drawing sending one person a day to the dragon's cave as an offering. On April 23 the princess went voluntarily to the cave to appease the dragon...but she didn't suffer...Sant Jordi arrived and killed the dragon, spearing his heart from which out of the blood grew a rose. The books come into play because in 1616 on April 23 Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) and William Shakespeare both died. Two of the most important writers in th western tradition whose words have shaped our daily language and literary cuture. So, now you know...celebrate Sant Jordi with books and roses with the people you love.

Fancy flowers

Galicia is very green- and filled with hills and stone and white houses with little plants growing out of the sides. Spring has been very lovely, flowers and trees are blooming everywhere, and in a little stone and white house right by my bus stop there is a little wild looking garden filled with calla lilies. In a mini forest next to my house there is another huge calla lily growing. And in the summer and fall the roadsides and parks are lined with Hydrangeas (called Hortensias here). These flowers that we consider so fancy, that cost a ton in the states, and that are so wedding worthy are the most common, basic, flowers growing next to bus stops and freeways here. It's quite lovely.

this just in...

as seen on the news today: a young mas was arrested this weekend for drunk horseback riding on the roads of Pontevedra. He had decided he was not going to take his car after drinking, too risky with the many police check points...so he got on his horse...only to have disgruntled drivers call and report his risky riding. He was facing the judge today.

PD: his father was in the news recently too for being kidnapped, and evidence supporting he played a part in his own kidnapping recently came to the surface.

interesting family. no?

Madrugá

Ps...late last night I stayed up watching the Canal sur from andalucia to see the start of the procession of the Macarena...I know I'm a total dork, but man, I love the ceremony and tradition and decadant culture of the Semana Santa in Sevilla and had to relive the old memory, the music, the incense, the movement of the paso, the calls from the crowd, and the saeta. Sigh. And yes, it was broadcast live last night at 1:30 am and re-broadcast this morning on national tv.

J'taime

i found that with windows movie maker you can get an effect on videos that is similar to a super 8 camera...

and I'm thinking Diego and I need to make a video of Santiago to share in Michigan inspired by this little video in Venice. We'll probably choose a different song...

Presidents Abroad

The European public has been buzzing about the appearances of the Obamas in Europe. Michelle has been in the spotlight for her queen hugging and fashion and I couldn't help but compare their popularity abroad to that of the Kennedys fifty years ago. Jackie was especially popular for her fashion, charm, and ability to speak to the public in their own langauge. All Michelle needs to do now is learn to speak another language, here is Jackie speaking Spanish in Spain in 1962.

He loves and she loves

It's officially Semana Santa! Having spent my first Spanish Semana Santa (holy week) in Sevilla, the meca of all Semana Santa celebrations, the celebrations here in Santiago will be much less exciting, but I am looking forward to the down time to read, get plans done, and wish I had stuff to decorate my apt with, sigh, ;). Looking at design blogs there are so many cute little DIY things I could fill empty spaces with, but I have yet to find the Spanish equivalent to a Jo-Ann Fabrics or a Micheals. So, for now I'll just dream.

And while I'm relaxing this week, maybe I'll watch one of my all time favorite movies, Funny Face. When I went to Paris I couldn't help but hum "Bonjour Paris", and occasionally when walking down stairs I think, "take the picture, take the picture!", so you can only imagine that when thinking of weddings, this scene comes to mind...