Marina’s timetable for telephone/skype conversation classes in January has been published – Click here for more details and the calendar.
Author: Ben
“A mob of 400 people burnt the house and cars of a Spanish villager known as the “Bald One” on New Year’s Eve”, claiming revenge for seven years of his threats and violence against locals…
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Flickr Pic of the month – December
My favourite image from the Notes from Spain flickr pool this month ties in with one of my desires for the year ahead: to get out and see a lot of the Spain I had no idea was still out there. I knew that Merida was once a Roman settlement, for example, but I had no idea it still contained ruins as interesting as those in the photo above.
The image, of the “Acueducto Romano de los Milagros” (large version here), was taken on Christmas Day by ClintMalpaso.
From pissedoffexpat:
The most insulting acts are against the children in the education system eg my little girl of 8 if late to school is made to wait outside the class however any spanish child is allowed in if late, if the spanish children attack a non spanard the monitors ignore this and if challenged by the parent told that it only looked like a game but if the roles are reversed the non spanish child is punished
I understand why she is pissed off. Racism between children is, while totally unacceptable, not wholly unexpected – they often don’t know any better. But by the school monitors? Incredible. Is this sort of behaviour widespread? Has anyone else had experiences of this type?
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Vídeo Botellón
Despite being declared illegal a couple of years ago, the Botellón (youngsters gathering in the street to get drunk and have a good time), refuses to go away. Nueveochotres, a group of kids from Valladolid, have made a great video about the phenomenon:
A very sad day for Spain. The ETA ceasefire has come to an end as they plant a bomb in Madrid’s Barajas Airport Terminal 4. The bomb was placed in a van in a car park next to the airport, and was detonated in a controlled explosion by police, bringing down five stories of the building. Five people, including two police officers, were injured, though not seriously. Two phone warnings alerted police to the bomb, the second caller speaking in the name of ETA.
It seems incredible that this should have happened again, that another ceasefire should fall apart after less than a year. But perhaps I have always been too much of an optimist. What solution is there for the Basque problem now?
Links:
BBC News
El Mundo
Escolar.net
The Spanish Islamic Council has written to the Pope to request permission to pray in Cordoba’s maginificent Mosque, which is causing quite a stir in the Spanish press. Matthew at the Big Chorizo has outlined everything exceptionally well and I suggest you read his summary of events, but this is obviously a very tricky debate.
The place was built by Muslims to serve as a mosque. The Christians kicked them out and built a hideous carbuncle of a cathedral right in the middle of the mosque. There is plenty of room for everyone and dedicating an area for Muslim prayer would not be difficult. There are certain paranoid parties that are bound to see this as a step towards the reconquest of Al Andalus by Islam.
Personally I think there is room for everyone and it would be a noble gesture to let the faith that originally built the Mezquita share this astounding space. What do you think?
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Happy Christmas to all!
A very Happy Christmas to everyone, we are off to the UK for a few days so things will be a bit quiet around here until New Year. We will still be popping into the forum regularly over the Christmas holidays though, so hope to see you in there.
¡Felices Fiestas! Happy Christmas!
Ben and Marina
Now I feel Christmassy at last! On the TV behind me the children from the Colegio de San Ildefonso Naomí Sánchez y Bryan Lafebreare are singing the winning numbers and prize amounts for this year’s Christmas ‘El Gordo’ lottery. Forget all the other celebrations in Spain this Christmas, this is the big one. There are hundreds of prizes to be picked throughout the morning, but the biggest prize of all, the ‘Gordo’ (3,000,000 Euros), has already been picked, at 9.50 a.m. – see my youtube video below:
Each ticket is divided into participations which may be sold in different parts of Spain, and it seems that this year there are ‘Gordo’ ticket winners in Vitoria, Alicante, Benidorm, Onil (Alicante), Fuenlabrada (Madrid), Santiponce (Sevilla), Almazán (Soria) and Valencia – with the lion’s share going to Soria.
Discuss the lottery in this forum post
Our Notes in Spanish podcast on the lottery can be found here.
Several years ago I wrote an article about San Sebastian (posted in the forum), contrasting the beauty of this outstandingly beautiful coastal city with the urban violence known as Kale Borroka, where young ETA sympathisers with extremist beliefs (or impressionable personalities), smash and burn in the name of a free Basque Country.
People have been saying for some time that the ETA peace process is falling apart, and today’s events in San Sebastian – molotov coctails hurled at a Naval headquaters, a bank, and inside a bus – won’t do much to convince people otherwise.
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 