The life and times of Oscar Marcos Perez-Cytron. Born Thanksgiving Day 11/22/01.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
If you want to add something to Oscar's baby-blog, send an email to megan@alpha60.com and we can set it up so you can post...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
5:01 PM posted by Oscar
Hmm, I think a few of my posts disappeared.... destined for the ashbin of history, I guess (or until my long-term memory of these moments kicks in and I remember these lost weeks).
Today at Oscar's school, the kids put on a little performance. The three year olds "sang" two songs. One in Spanish that I didn't recognize and "we wish you a merry christmas," which I almost didn't recognize through the thick accent of his English teacher. It was very cute. We had to make Oscar a little elf costume.
Oscar got his "grades" this week and he is making great strides--I'll have to scan them and post them--though not in his English class, which is clearly doing more harm than good in his case. Thankfully it is only an hour a week.
Tomorrow the three kings are going to come to Oscar's school on horseback. I can only imagine that these city kids are going to go crazy.
On Sunday, we took the train out to the mountains. It was a beautiful sunny day in Madrid. The closer we got to the mountains, the cloudier and mistier it got. We took the train to Cercedilla and then changed to the "nature train," which went straight up the mountain. We took it to Cotos at the end, got off, felt the cold, wet wind and decided to get right back on after playing in a dirty drift of snow for ten minutes or so. We went back to Navacerrada on the other side of the mountain (which is a ski town a bit later in the year). We climbed around a little, picked up pine cones, sticks and moss (for our belen) and then ate a huge meal of judiones (huge white beans that are a specialty of Segovia), bacalao filled peppers and wild mushroom omelet. Oscar loved the train ride and it was nice to get out of the city. It's amazing how quickly the terrain changes from arid and barren to mountainous and green. We are going to try to take more little day trips.
Christmas in Madrid.
So much to tell, I'll just have to work on it all week. Chestnuts, sweet potatoes, and corn roasting in the streets. An unbelievable bounty of sweet treats like marzipan, turron (Spanish halva?), mantecadas (enlarded ones), polvorones, roscones, etc., etc. Lights all over downtown. The biblioteca nacional (national library) was in charge of coming up with words to put up in lights over Paseo de la Castellana (a main street) and it's quite surreal. The crowds are legendary. Like Times Square on New Years Eve for weeks.
Cortylandia
Ah, Cortylandia. El Corte Ingles is the huge department store in Spain. In Preciados (near Puerta del Sol--ground zero for shopping), they have taken over four buildings. On the back of the flagship store they mount a huge spectacle called "Cortylandia." This year, it is a mouse village and on the hour and half hour the music blares, the mice move around in a relatively limited way (we're not talking about sophisticated animatronics here) and the kids go nuts. The furry animal beggars are there. The balloon guys are there. There's a theme song that gets lodged so deeply in your consciousness that you wonder if you'll ever stop singing it: Cortylandia, Cortylandia, vamos todos a cantar... Of course Oscar loves it. He's laughed, he's cried (learning about the transitory nature of balloon animals). Photos to come.
Belenes
There's also a quite extensive belen on the back of El Corte Ingles. A belen is a nativity scene, but not as we Americans know them. People here divert all of the creative energy that Americans devote to decorating with lights and Christmas trees to their nativity scenes. It is truly over the top. First off, you have to go to Plaza Mayor to buy a big piece of bark from a cork tree. Then you buy some huge chunks of moss. Then you assemble a surreal group of characters who are not necessarily restricted to those from the Christmas story (in fact, there's one guy--the caganer--who is traditionally hidden amongs the hordes relieving himself). You may need to get some battery-operated little flickering lights to make campfires, wood-burning ovens, lanterns, etc. You need to make little bundles of sticks. Adobe islamic looking buildings. It just goes on and on.
Plaza Mayor and Dia de los Innocentes
The other thing going on in Plaza Mayor is the sale of items related to the "day of the innocents." This is the day when Herod killed all the babies. But, of course, that's gotten all mixed up and here in Spain it is celebrated as something like April Fool's Day meets Halloween. People play tricks on each other and generally act crazy. So in Plaza Mayor, you can buy whoopee cushions, fake dog poop, and fluorescently colored wigs. Why the wigs, you might ask. No one knows. Every year it's something slightly different, I think.I started noticing people wearing the wigs about a month ago. I honestly didn't think about it too much, because it happened gradually. Now if you go out in the streets at night, about one in every ten people is wearing one.
Three Kings
Santa doesn't have much cred here. It's all about the kings. Kids get their presents on January 6th. There's a big parade and the three kings march through the city. The kids put their shoes outside their bedroom doors and when they come back there are presents.
I'll have to finish this post a bit later...more to tell and Christian and I are going out tonight to do some shopping...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
