Year Abroad: Semana Santa Part 2: Day Trip to Toledo and the horror hostal

            After not much sleep we had to get up early to transfer hotels before catching the train to Toledo.  We took the shuttle bus to the airport and then all the different metros to the centre, before getting slightly lost on the way to the hostal.  Good thing we left early. 

The Hostal Regional was on the top floor of an apartment block and had one of those old-fashioned lifts to get up there.  When we got in to the hostal, there was an instant over-whelming smell of incense.  Then we got to our room.  It was very basic, and not very appealing.  More so than any of the other hostals I’ve stayed in in Spain.  We decided that since we only had to sleep there and would most likely spending all our time out and about that it was cope-able.  So we dumped our bags, and headed for Toledo, making a brief stop to pick up lunch on the way. 

The train to Toledo was full.  It takes around 25 minutes to get from Atocha to Toledo.  The train station is on the outskirts of the town and there are taxi deals to take you to the centre and up the massive hill into Toledo.  The weather had started to take a turn so the sky was very overcast.  We looked through the list of tourist-y things and decided to go to the military museum.  As we went to Toledo on a Monday most of the museums were shut and the cathedral was over 8 euros each.  I object to paying so much to go into a cathedral.  I accept paying 3 or 4 euros as that goes to upkeep and paying staff etc but 8 euros is ridiculous.  I mean it was only like 2 to get into the biggest cathedral in Spain (in Seville) as well as to go up La Giralda bell tower…naughty Toledo. 

The military museum was free for me because I am a student and four euros for my mum.  We opted not to get the audioguide.  The museum is in the Alcazar which was built in the 16^th century was supposed to be the home for the kings of Spain, but before it was finished Madrid replaced Toledo as the capital of the country.  Since then it has been everything from a prison, a military barracks and academy and housed silk workshops.

The building also shows off the old walls of Toledo which have been there for hundreds and hundreds of years.  There is a lift which gives you a view over all the old stone foundations and the wall. 

The museum itself was very extensive.  Showing all the different people who fought and conquered Spain, their tactics, weapons, the outfits that they wore, what everything means ranging from early Bronze age up to present day Spanish military missions.  In fact the museum was probably too informative.  After the first section – the ancient warriors – we were getting sore feet and getting a bit fed up.  We trudged up the stairs to the more modern things but didn’t linger long in any of the rooms.  Photography was forbidden, but I took the risk (and got told off) for taking the one picture I took…I mean I had to take it, when else are you in a room with suits of armour all in battle rows.

"Do your duty!"  Suits of armour :)

Me in Toledo

We ate a small lunch in the museum’s café and then decided to take a walk into the centre and look at the souvenir shops which were full of swords and sword-shaped letter openers.  Toledo used to be where the Spanish weapons were made when Toledo was the capital.  

Model of the Alcazar made from Marzipan.  Toledo is famous for it.

After looking at the shops we saw a little tourist train.  For a city like Toledo which is built on a hill using the tourist train is probably the best way to see it all in a day.  The train in Toledo costs 4 euros, and takes around 45 minutes/an hour to explain the main points of the city.  It had an English soundtrack as well, which was narrated so matter-of-factly that the stories were extra funny.  Toledo has a strange history.  And based on the train ride it seems to revolve a lot around fathers who are getting revenge for their daughters rape by nobles, kings etc.  My favourite story was the father whose daughter was raped by the king; the king wouldn’t marry her or give here money, so the father opened the city gates to the marauding Moors.  That’s revenge for you.

Alcazar in Toledo

Toledo is surrounded by water on 3 sides, and on a hill top...very easy to defend, unless you rape the gatekeeper's daughter.

Toledo

After the train we went to a small bar and had a drink, and then another small wander around the town before it was time to head back to the train station and back to Madrid.

The disabled ramp at Atocha...or a death slide?

Once in Madrid again it was most definitely dinner time.  We couldn’t remember where the cheap Italian restaurant was, all we remember is that we found in during the protests when they were shutting off all the main streets.  We ended up in a more expensive area, around Plaza Santa Ana, but as the rain was starting we decided to just pop into a tapas restaurant.  We had abondigas (meatballs) and patas bravas (potatoes in a spicy, tomatoey sauce).  Very nice.  When the bill came they had charged us for bread that we hadn’t eaten, so boom, out comes the Spanish and they took it off the bill.  Lingo 1 – greedy restaurant preying on tourists 0. 

Getting back to the hostal we were not looking forward to our night there.  Or the prospect of returning in two days for another two nights.  But we braced ourselves and got ready for bed.  I even had a shower (wearing flip-flops) in the pop-up shower in the room, terrified that I would get electrocuted from the TV which was right next to it…so there we were ready for bed.  And then it happened.  Out from under the bed appears a cockroach.  It scuttled along the floor and the returned to its domain under the bed.  And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  We instantly cancelled our remaining reservations, booked somewhere else and slept, in short bursts, with the lights on.  I’m just so glad that we didn’t look under the bed.  Who knows what we would have found. 

So the next morning, after not much sleep, we packed our bags, left a note explaining that we weren’t coming back and left for Salamanca. 

    

Year Abroad: Semana Santa Trip Part 1 – Madrid and waiting for the mother to arrive

            A week off work for Easter holidays, and since my mum is a teacher in a country where they get two weeks off she decided that it was about time she got to go to Spain for Semana Santa (Holy Week).

            Semana Santa is a huge deal here in Spain.  As it is a Catholic country and Easter is the basis of the Catholic faith lots of traditions have been passed through the generations here but the most visible has to be the processions and the hooded people who march as penance, but more of that later on in the week.

           

            We had a rough plan of action for the week.  I would go up to Madrid on the Saturday, she would arrive late Sunday night, Toledo on the Monday, Salamanca on the Tuesday and Wednesday, back to Madrid Wednesday night and back to Baeza on the Friday afternoon. 

            So on the Saturday morning I set off for Madrid and a day and a half of sightseeing by myself.  I arrived into Madrid around half past one and went straight to my hostal, which was very conveniently located just off of Calle Atocha – right next to the Retiro park, the art museums and only a ten minute walk from the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol.  I set off for a walk in search of food.  After a long while of tramping around the city to no avail…I feel extremely awkward eating somewhere proper by myself…I had to give up and head to McDonalds. 

            During my walk I ended up at the palace.  It was lovely in the overcast light and there was a violinist playing.  It was so peaceful and perfect that I wanted to freeze that moment forever. 

Palacio Real in Madrid

            After my lunch I was still swithering about what I wanted to go see.  Being a student, with student ID, and armed with a Young Scot card – yes this thing actually counts for something here – means that a lot of things are either reduced or free and on weekends in Madrid there are free hours for most of the museums as well.  I walked up to the tourist info to grab a map and to see where I was going to go. 

As it was a lovely day I decided to go to the Botanic Gardens and not to waste the good weather.  The entry was reduced with my student card and I took some of my hayfever medicine and was good to go.  I spent a couple of hours wandering around the different plants and trees, recognising some, and all the time being thankful that they weren’t all olives.  I’m sick of the sight of olive groves now.  They are too similar to each other and the uniformed lines mean that whilst it is nature, it isn’t natural. 

Little ducks

Brocolli plant!!

One of my favourite "false friends"

Tree of Love proves that its on the inside that counts

Tulips

Me at the Botanic Gardens

After the Botanic Gardens I went to the Reina Sofia to see the one painting that I wanted to see in Madrid – Picasso’s Guernica.  Picasso painted this inspired by the aftermath of the bombing of Guernica, in the Basque country, in 1937.  Franco essentially gave the German and Italian forces the town to do some target practice because the Basques have always been outspoken and separatist from Spain.  The bombing happened on market day when the streets were lined with civilians and none of the areas bombed were of strategic importance.  They just wanted maximum casualties to crush their spirit.  The painting occupies its own room, with the rooms around it giving more insight into Picasso and the Civil War. 

I decided that since I was alone in Madrid that I wasn’t going to go to a bar etc. so I may as well find some food and then head for my hostal.  There was a random little bar on calle Atocha that had a 7 euro menu del dia, and it didn’t look terribly busy or creepy, so I went in (after walking past it several times).  The bartenders gave me strange looks but the food was good and cheap.  I headed back to the hostal, skyped home and called it a night.

The next morning I woke up pretty early, probably in anticipation and couldn’t really force myself to stay in bed.  So I got up and headed to La Mallorquina bakery just off La Puerta del Sol, bought a pastry and sat in the square in the beautiful morning sunshine.  

Pastries from La Mallorquina, best enjoyed in the Puerta del Sol

The bakery is very old but even for being in such a tourist area the prices aren’t dear at all.  I took advantage of the sun to go on a little walking adventure around Madrid, getting lost a few times, having to re-climb massive hills before deciding to head to the Egyptian temple that is in Madrid – Templo de Debod – in the Parque Oeste, up past the palace. 

This Egyptian temple was brought to Spain in 1968 because the site where it had stood through the ages was being turned into a dam and Egypt sold off or donated the temples that were going to be destroyed because of it.  The temple is pretty small but there is enough information available in various languages to make it worthwhile…also it is free.  One of the remarkable things is that when they dismantled the temple they didn’t number the stones so when they arrived in Madrid the re-construction was like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Hieroglyphics 

The Arches...or a time machine?

Me at the Temple

If this is a time machine..is the old lady really me?

Now it was just after 2pm and most of the museums were shutting.  I ate some lunch and then looked through my options.  I opted for the Naval museum because Spain, like the UK, was once a power in the waters.  Spanish Armada was something to be feared…

The museum would have been better if the information sheets were all in their correct boxes.  But the collection of model ships, treasures from the New World and from the Far East, the Muslim weapons and the modern technology were fascinating. 

Ceramics from the Far East

Moorish weaponry.  They do not like it up them sir

Gibraltar...

The Spanish Armada is alive and well

Another time machine?

Once I was done here I took full advantage of the sun, bought an ice cream and went and sat under a tree in the Retiro.  Very peaceful.  And there I waited until it was time to head back to the hostal, collect my stuff and head into the airport. 

I was of course early getting to the airport, even though I made myself wait, not hurry and make sure I had everything sorted for out train the next day.  And then of course my mum’s flight was delayed.  By an hour.  Bloody BA…but eventually, after hours of waiting she arrived.  We caught a taxi to the hotel and crashed. 

We got up early and then prepared ourselves to get back to the city centre, check into the new hostal and then head to Toledo.                

Year Abroad: Highlights of the week 24th - 30th March

Saturday 24^th – Didn’t do much during the daytime as I was still exhausted.  Was playing a short concert in the evening and had arranged to meet up with Jenna afterwards.

The concert went well.  It was another pre-Semana Santa concert but we were playing after a group of dignitaries had “opened” the event.  In true dignitary fashion they ran nearly an hour late so we all had to be prepared but we ended up with an hour and nothing to do.  Spoke to a few people but it is hard to break into these established groups unless they actually want to include you.  

Jenna and I decided to go bar-hopping.  I left my stuff in here flat and then we headed out.  First stop Da Vinci’s, tinto de verano and tuna tortilla, as well as some good chat.  Then Los Arcos.  Then we went to one up near my house, I don’t know the name of it but we have been intrigued by its “venta hielo” sign for a while. 

Then we decided to go to Charleston, because frankly time is running out and we hadn’t been there before.  We knew that we could run into our pupils there as the entrance ages in “over 16” but we had both been told that it was a good mix of our age and older as well.  Well we got there, and then Jenna spots some of her gym friends, who had all been at a wedding in the afternoon and the bride (still in her wedding dress) and groom had decided to go clubbing afterwards.  Then we bumped into one of the bar tenders from Budladero whom Jenna knows well and he gave us a sort-of backstage tour of Charleston and told us all about the business.  

The owner of Charleston has come up with a good idea as he allows “Bottellon” to happen in the upstairs part but he charges them more money.  Bottellon is essentially a “carry out”.  But it is slightly more socially acceptable.  They acknowledge that the under age kids will be drinking but they are safer than if they were just on the streets.  

All in all a good night, and if Jenna is around another Saturday night then we are planning on going back.

Sunday 25^th – With the hour change I didn’t get home until just after 4.30 and Jenna hadn’t left until after half 5.  I had left my stuff at her house so in the afternoon she brought my stuff up and we decided to go for a walk around the mirador, grab a roll and sit in the sunshine for a while.  Then we went and got coffee and afterwards I went back to sit in the sunshine.  I have a slight tan line where my fringe was and where my sunglasses were. 

Monday 26^th – I started to feel unwell so I spent most of the day in bed hoping that I’d get over it quickly…

Tuesday 27^th – Lost my voice.  Partly.  Went to school and was all croaky and crackly.  Then my kindle screen broke…wasn’t a great day.

Wednesday 28^th – Had to take the day off of work because a) I had no voice at all and all my classes involved me reading aloud as well as a dictation exercise and b) I had no energy and just felt faint.   

Had to phone Kindle customer services, even though I had no voice, barely a whisper, who are sending a new, free Kindle direct to my house as its still under warranty.  And unless it turns out that it was human damage then I don’t have to pay.

I was this penguin all week.

Thursday 29^th – Went back into school because a Thursday means two meetings and then my 5^th year class, a lot less speaking on my part.  Meeting in the morning was cancelled so I went in at break, ate my media con tomate (seriously best elevenses ever) and then my afternoon was also cancelled.   

Because the holidays are coming up the kids are disappearing and not turning up, which was welcome today because I would have been useless.

Tapas was good.  Left early-ish because I still felt pretty sick.  My chest feels tight, my throat definitely has an inflammation or a lump in it and I’m a bit wheezy.  My voice also just doesn’t exist right now.  Very odd.

Friday 30^th – Had to go into school even though we all knew there were going to be no children.  The atmosphere was good though as all the teachers were looking forward to their week off.  The guy with the amazing laugh nearly deafened me laughing at joke I didn’t understand.  His laugh is infectious though.  

Spent the afternoon cleaning and organising my stuff for the adventures.  Off to Madrid early in the morning and then when my mum comes we will be travelling to Toledo, Salamanca and maybe either Segovia or Avila.  

Well that’s all folks…stay tuned

Days until I finish at Santisima - 63

Year Abroad: Highlights of the week 17th - 23rd March

Saturday 17^th – Long lie.  Watched some of The Tudors.

On the way home from Mercadona I saw a dog sitting perfectly in a tractor.  He looked as though he were the driver.  Ran home to fetch my camera and went and took a picture.  The dog looked right at me, perfectly posed.  Waved good bye to the doggie and headed home.


 

Concert time!  This concert was a warm-up for Semana Santa and we were playing marches taking you through the week starting with Palm Sunday ones, through the more funereal Good Friday ones and finishing with the happy Easter ones.  They are good fun to play and the concert went well.  I even heard my first Saeta – an unaccompanied solo part of traditional Andaluz marches where the singer/soloist sings directly to God.  They are very powerful and of course it was one of those wee old men that you think is about to die but actually has a massive set of lungs on him who sang them. 

 (I'm playing in all these videos...:D)

Then I came home and watched Star Wars Episode IV.

Sunday 18^th – Got up and decided that it was far too nice a day to spend it indoors.  So armed with my book I went up to the Mirador and sat in the glorious sunshine for a few hours.  It was so clear that you could look down over the valley, which is usually foggy, and listen to the birds singing. 

Monday 19^th – Read a ton of my book and finished off work for the following week.

Tuesday 20^th – First day of the working week.  Also the first day of Spring….ha!  We have been having lovely warm weather and glorious sunshine for about five weeks now, I was even at the point where I was considering switching to my ¾ length shorts.

 At 12.30 am it started to pour.  And it didn’t stop.  Had to go back to my heavy jacket with its hood.  All the Spanish teachers were excited that it was raining finally…I wasn’t. 

Then when I was in class and the teacher was explaining something in Spanish I was looking out of the window and it started to snow…yes snow…all the kids got really excited and Alejandra let them all rush to the windows to look at the snow.  It continued to snow for the rest of the afternoon and when I left the school I checked the thermometer…2 degrees Celsius…

Give me back winter if this is your idea of spring

Wednesday 21^st  – The weather took a turn for the good and the temperatures went back into the teens.  The classes were alright but I was super tired.  Gloria kept laughing at the way she was saying “take your sheet” because all she could think of was how it sounded like sh*t.    

Thursday 22^nd  – Got to sleep in as I had no class until after the break.  Turned out I didn’t have class with one of my teachers on the Friday but her class were going to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and would I like to join them…guess what one of Fridays highlights is…

Went out for tapas and it turned out to only be myself, Reyes and Chusa.  I got to speak Spanish for a slightly longer period of time but I ended up tongue tied.  Part of my problem is that whilst I don’t translate from English and sort of have a run at Spanish I lack enough vocabulary to allow this.  So my brain will just be searching and grabbing for words. 

After this we headed to Café Central for a little while and watched part of the live music.  The band were pretty good, but when they sang R.E.M’s We Put a Man on the Moon they kept singing Mon instead of moon…it was sort of jarring, but funny and understandable.  It reminded me of the Ken Lee woman from Bulgarian X-factor.

 

Friday 23^rd  - Went to school and watched HP.  Tried very hard not to get too emotional as the last film is pretty intense and upsetting…One of the kids in that class had never read nor seen a Harry Potter book/film…Spain truly is a strange place.

Had band rehearsal and the went to meet up with people in La Pena – the flamenco bar.  Listened to a young guy playing the guitar and a young woman singing.  Was falling asleep by the time they were done.  I do enjoy flamenco, but more the fast paced stuff and not so much the dirges that all eventually sound the same. 

After their concert we went upstairs and were treated to something a bit more lively.  Some old guy in a suit was playing guitar and the boys who work at La Pena were singing and clapping along.  Dave was so drunk that he joined in…

I went home and slept for ages.


Days until I finish at Santisima -  64

Year abroad: Highlights of the week 10th - 16th March

Saturday 10^th – Went to La Puerta de Segura for Matt’s birthday.  Presented him with a can of Irn-Bru, and explained what was meant by a fizzy drink/ginger.  Later on we went to a nearby town where there was supposed to be a good discoteca, epic fail.  We ended up paying for a taxi back and then sitting in a pub watching basketball and eating pipas.

La Puerta de Segura

The boys decided to go exploring...

We were so glad to be going down this hill instead of up

The police station.  

Sunday 11^th – Still in La Puerta.  La Puerta is a tiny wee town with around 2500 people living there.  It is literally one street.  We went to a café near Matt’s school for breakfast, then for a walk above the town.  The town is really pretty. 

Monday 12^th – Had a long lie.  Sunbathed a little.  Weather is now really lovely and warm (for me…).  Made fajitas.

Tuesday 13^th – School was good.  Classes seemed to enjoy the activities – crosswords, fill in the blanks etc. that I’d made.   

Got positive feedback from one of the teachers whom I work with saying how the kids all really liked me and that I was doing a good job.

Band like usual.  Found out that we had a concert on the Saturday to warm up for Semana Santa.  I’d only seen two or three of the pieces ONE time before.  Got Martin to photocopy them for me so that I could practice before the concert.  They were all processional marches.

Wednesday 14^th – Got some positive feedback about how I was doing in the art classes.    

Thursday  15^th – We did a class about homosexuality and famous lgb people in general.  Had to resist the urge to sing and dance along to the Beatles (Across the Universe uses I Wanna Hold Your Hand to show a lesbian teenager) and Queen (FREDDIE).  One of the more conservative boys was very shocked when he realised that the girl was singing to another girl and not to the quarterbacks. 

Got a text around 5 from Leah saying that she was out tapasing with some tecahers and people from Ubeda and would I like to join her since there was a man who had lived in Scotland for over thirty years.  Off I went and spent a few hours talking with a Spanish man who has a broader accent than me.  We talked about everything from The Big Yin to how he has met Sean Connery three times.  He works as a tour guide based in Edinburgh during the summer and works in Ubeda the rest of the year .

Tapas as always in Pedritos. 

Friday  16^th – Emotional times in the staff room.  More positive feedback.  I still don’t want to leave!  Just make the next few months a bit longer please, although I know they will fly in…L

Me and Geni...

 

Tapas with some of the teachers/my friends…Reyes, Geni, Paco, Gonzalo, Mercedes and Jenna.  We tried the tapas especial of El Trillo.  It was foie gras, some weird apple, potato and meat thing and coleslaw…a bit weird.  After this we went to a coffee shop and they drank coffee and we all ate some cake. 

Rehearsal in the teatro.  Nearly two hours without a break.  These pieces are big blowers and I was already so exhausted.  Was sort-of fun in a masochistic way, especially when Martin lost his temper at the trombones and we had to keep playing the same passage over and over.  

Then I met up with some friends in Torreon.  Had a drink there and then went to La Pena.  Poor Gonzalo got stuck with some guy who wouldn’t stop talking – habló por los codos.

So all in all another good week.  Roll on many more.

Days until I finish at Santisima - 76

Year Abroad: Highlights of the week (3-9 March)

So now that time has inevitably marched on and I am almost reaching single figure in terms of number of weeks until I stop at Santisima Trinidad I wanted to start highlighting the best little bits of every week so that I don’t forget.  And whilst not every week something huge and profound happens it’s that the little things that stay with you.

Saturday – went out for tapas with Meghan and Sarah.  We got two stamps on the ruta.  Los Arcos was pork in a dry fruit sauce, brilliant and the one in Burladero was ham on hard ochio bread.  Spoke to my kids and found out that band was back. 

Sunday – my Aunty Mary and mother sang down Skype to me.  Got to speak to my Aunty, not using email, for the first time since the Christmas holidays. 

Monday – drank one of my four cans of Irn-Bru.

Tuesday – People started jack hammering outside my bedroom window at half past 8 in the morning…they should be disposed of.  Gloria and I joked about how my second lesson is always better because I’ve listened to what she has said to the kids (I know nothing [John Snow] about art so the lessons tend to have a lot of the actual teacher doing work).

The afternoon lessons were funny as we teased Manuel about having a girlfriend.  Also one of the kids who used to never speak out has started to ever since I made him answer one question out loud…now his hand is up for everything

Band started back, or at least it did for me.  Martin welcomed me back with open arms and has said that he will burn a CD of the Christmas concert that I missed with Lupe singing.

Wednesday – Wednesdays are the dark days…we do not speak of them…not much happened. 

Thursday – had to take some my 5^th year class alone because the teacher was doing an exam with the others.  We did a crossword, which they claimed was impossible until the actually started to read it, and two of the girls who hardly ever speak in English were getting very involved when it came to describing the people in the magazine.  I learned a little about the Duquessa de Alba and about some guy who is in trouble for calling the Andaluz people lazy.  The Communist boy was telling me that the Duquessa has a bad reputation that she doesn’t deserve, but that she pulls a lotof strange faces because she is old and ill…

Tapas in Pedrito’s.  Then Jenna, Dave and I went to Al-Bayyassa for another of the tapas especial – black pudding in a thin batter – basically like a black pudding Bhajya.  We chatted for a bit, Jenna and I are trying to plan a trip to the beach, and then she went home.  Dave and I went to Palacio Salcedo and had the migas.  We then had an hour long conversation ranging from US politics to where Dave had applied to for next year.

Friday – Didn’t have my 8.15!  Had fun with the Cell song with my 2^nd years.  And then my last two classes were cancelled.

Band again and I found out that we have a concert next Saturday and that I get to play at least once during Semana Santa.  Fran (non-bilingual 3/4th year in Vandelvira) came in, sat down and said "hello" in English, I asked him "que tal?" he responded first in Spanish and then in English.  He had never done that before.  The he was laughing about how he was a brilliant bilingual.  Made me smile anyway. 

Year Abroad: Why I bloody love the banda of Baeza.

                So I’m a trumpet player in my free time.  I have been since I was eight.  Pretty much all of my closest friends, with a few exceptions, were made through playing in different bands for years.  So when I found out that I was going to a small town in Spain I decided I’d take my trumpet with me and find a band to join. 

                And find a band I did.  I went to a concert in a park the second weekend I was here.  It was a glorious sunny Sunday and the band were playing a whole mix of pasadobles and other Spanish style music, I later found out that they just about only play music by Spanish composers and a lot of their stuff was written by the director, Martin and his brother.

The band welcomed me with a little apprehension, mainly because at the beginning I didn’t understand their accents, and made them point at the notes or from where they were telling me to play, but Martin and the kids that are in my classes at the school made me feel at home and the music (whilst it is different in harmonies/rhythms etc. than what I’m used to playing) is mostly within my ability and of course the music doesn’t need to be translated!   

I have played four concerts with them so far.  The time the lights went out, the mass in the Cathedral, Constitution day and the make-up Santa Cecilia concert.  They all went well, even if for the Constitution day concert I A) hadn’t seen ANY of the music before we had to play it, B) I didn’t have a lyre (the thing marching bands have that holds the small music for moving) so I had to look onto someone else’s (not easy since the music was tiny to fit the small stand and the kid was smaller than me and kept bending down so I had to re-find the place!) and C) I was in the middle of the really bad flu (the part where I’d been ill for two weeks, then had four days of wellness and this was the day before I basically had a proper high fever, and was essentially dying of the “Spanish” flu).

The band had a break over Christmas, but no-one thought to tell me that they had started rehearsing again…one of my kids told me that she’d tell me when they started back, and never did, so I finally asked them and they were like “uhh Tuesday”…so back  I went.  Martin (the conductor) welcomed me back as the lost daughter of the band and then pulled up the kids as to why they didn’t tell me that they had rehearsals.  So I missed one concert (which I wouldn’t have been in Baeza for anyway). 

We have now started our rehearsals for Semana Santa.  It’s all processional marches and funeral marches and I’m loving it, even if they are big blowers.  One of the pieces is called Semana Santa in Baeza…and it is exactly what you’d expect it to be.  Just a ton of NOISE.  Baeza is truly the loudest place I’ve ever been.  Every day all the bells in all the churches ring out in a cacophony, every day the Guardia Civil practice marching to big beating drums, there is always music from one of the many bands and music groups here and people are always setting of firecrackers….

I was worried that I wasn’t going to be around for any of the Semana Santa concerts, or that I might have had to change my travelling plans.  But it turns out that I will be here for the Easter Sunday one and depending on the time the one on Good Friday as well.  I am so excited.  How many foreign people can say that they’ve played in a Semana Santa procession?  And another good thing is that my mammy, who is always in my audience, will be able to see me playing in Baeza, with all my band mates.  Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly! 

I don't have any new ones yet, so I'll just refresh the memory of my uniform