¡Feliz Halloween!

First and foremost, any society that does not annually celebrate pagan worship on October 31st is not worth my time. How Spaniards can simply gloss over Halloween, my favorite holiday, is beyond my comprehension. Where are the pumpkins? The candy corn? The ghoulish costumes of youth? Oh Spain! There’s so much you have yet to learn!

That being said, I’m getting out of town for the night. María Pepa invited me to visit her hometown with her, and when I say invite I mean insisted. Although I am pretty sure it’s going to be an awkward night of silence, it’s a welcome change of scene. I imagine Halloween night in Granada is a lot like Halloween night in Newark: throngs of inebriated Americans in some club dressed (or should I say undressed?) as sexy police officers, sexy nurses/doctors, sexy pirates, or some other variation on the theme. Meanwhile, I think Ma Pepa’s driving will be horror enough until next October…

Speaking of horror, tomorrow is La fiesta de todos los santos, otherwise known as Nick’s 21st birthday. If you are located in the Greater Cheltenham Area…well, look out.

So yesterday was one of the more humorous days here on Calle Angel Barrios, the street I call home. In an attempt to finally complete that 5K I’ve been talking about for the past four years, I’ve been running in the park after class three days a week. I usually head out around noon when Ma Pepa’s still at work and Alfonzo is in the back room, diligently watching the security camera feed from the first floor of our building.

When I got back, Alfonzo had many questions and comments on my run, thus revealing that he had actually watched the entire thing from his seventh-story window. After that, he sat me down and popped in a 40-minute educational video about Toledo that he has been telling me about for a week now. (He is pretty excited that my group is going to Toledo and Madrid this weekend.) It was seriously one of those middle-school movies that teach you basic information about a city/country of interest. We sat in silence, Alfonzo literally on the edge of his seat and me trying desperately to stay awake.

We didn´t eat lunch until 3:30 that day, which is pretty late even for Spain. When we did, I had an entire plate of French fries and cow tongue (also fried). I ate as much of it as I could, but knowing where it came from made the whole meal a lot harder to digest. Also, about two weeks ago I finally confronted María Pepa about the exorbitant amount of food she feeds me. Since then, she has been claiming that she and I are both on a “regimen” – which seems to be more talk that actual change. Meanwhile, Alfonzo loves teasing us about it. Whenever Ma Pepa offers him peppers, a pear, or bread with his meal he shoes her away, saying he can´t because of his "regimen". It´s pretty funny.

Twice in the afternoon, María Pepa came into my room with chocolates for me, which she had insisted I eat since I ran “so much” that morning. I said, "what about my regimen?" She said that only counts at dinnertime...

In the afternoon, I got my hairs cut. It was much needed. Not only did I get four inches cut off, but I finally got rid of all those unwanted dreadlocks I´ve acquired since arriving here. When I got home with it short and straightened, Ma Pepa nearly died and touched it for about five minutes straight. Then, since she couldn´t decide on an appropriate dinner, she made homemade churros con chocolate. For those of you who don´t know, churros con chocolate are the most delicious of Spanish snacks. The churros are warm, hot-dog shaped doughnuts and you dip them in chocolate, which is hot chocolate as thick as tar. I am absolutely positive that Ma Pepa has never made them before in her life. At first she said we were going to save some for breakfast, but later negated that, saying “mañana no existe”. I have never eaten so much sugar in my entire life, although I considered it a substantial breakthrough when I convinced her to eat the last one.

So yeah, things are pretty silly here in Granada. I´ll be writing again after I return from Toledo and Madrid on Sunday night. In the meantime, for those of you fortunate enough to be living in a nation that celebrates All Hallow´s Eve, enjoy the festivities!