Music in Santiago, and La Cosecha de Kiwis

Well, because I never stop, the Wednesday after returning from Ourense, I was on the bus to Santiago, violin in hand, madly learning lyrics to sing in a bar in Santiago. Maybe I should clarify. I met a Brazilian singer/songwriter/ Ani Difranco type through a mutual friend, and as my luck would have it, she invited me to play with her in Santiago at a performance of hers. She's been studying here, and is currently off to Madrid to make it big, which I believe she can, because she is quite talented. So, on Monday she invited me to sing any song I knew well (I panicked and chose "Something" by the Beatles), and sent me a link to a song to play along with on violin. Less than 48 hours later, I was ditching my dance class to make sound check. Soon enough, I hope to be the artist headlining, and as soon as I figure out how to focus myself, I'll make it happen. In the meantime, however, this was pretty great. The other band members were Brazilian as well, as was most of the audience, and they played a combination of American, Brazilian and Spanish songs, as well as others from who knows where. It was a blast, and felt great to be onstage again, even though I was only playing a couple of songs. (Must... make... arts career work!)

Here is a link to the pianist's website: his name is Paulo, and he's wonderful:

http://www.myspace.com/paulosilvasambafunkmantra

I have a video of me playing on my facebook if you're interested, but it's only about thirty seconds long. (I was kind of a mess, but I was improvising... so forgive me. Unfortunately I didn't get a recording of me singing, as I imagine that was MUCH better...)

Anyways, Thursday I was back on the bus home to Ferrol, because Friday was the Magosto celebration at school, and I wanted to see it. Magosto is Galicia's harvest festival, in which the Castaña (Chestnut) is celebrated. It sounds strange, but the Chestnut was a primary source of protein and starch for people in the region for years before and during Franco's dictatorship. Galicia has historically been a relatively poor region in comparison to the rest of Spain, as it is cut off by mountains, and has it's own cultural and linguistic heritage, and Magosto celebrates the traditional dietary supplement that is the chestnut. I ate fire roasted chestnuts for days. You're apparently supposed to accompany them with milk, not water, so they don't swell in our stomach, and we were served fresh, preservative-free local milk. (yummmm)

As I was digesting, I watched the kids play all sorts of games in the gym, including some familiar ones, like the ring toss, sack race, and tug-of-war. They do have some distinct recess games I didn't recognize, and the most traditional is one played with small wooden tops that you throw with a string, called Buxaina. Apparently buxo is Galego for boxwood, which the tops were made out of in days past. My apologies that I don't have any pictures of the kids playing, but here's what it looks like:



Because I can't say no to anything, and am an enthusiast for any "cultural" experience, the weekend after touring Ourense, I found myself heading back south to a town called Pontevedra, with three new friends to harvest Kiwis in the rain for a full Saturday. Needless to say, I was a little tired by the end of the weekend, but "vale," it's worth it. Valer is THE word used for almost everything here, in this context, it means whatever. I'll explain more in depth later, I'm already too wordy in this post.

....So, on to Pontevedra!

Luciano, the Galician native who is teaching me Galego in exchange for English conversation, is from Pontevedra, and his father has a Kiwi farm there. The first Saturday in November was the harvest, so he invited me along for the chance to get to know Galicia a little better, and try some typical food at the end of the day that his mother would be preparing for all the workers. How could I say no?

This is Luciano's parents' farmhouse, typical in this area:



It was raining. All day. Not pouring, but definitely raining. We got wet. But, the misty on the hills across the valley was beautiful, and there was an enchanting quality to picking fruit in the rain. Made everything smell fresh, vibrant, and alive. Here's my impressively hip kiwi harvesting outfit. The rain boots I bought definitely paid off! The brown bag unhooked on the bottom so you could empty it when it was full with minimal damage to the fruit.

We spent the entire day gathering kiwis, from nine until four. Around noon, the owners brought us out coffee and muffins on a tractor, and all the workers huddled around for a nice descanso.


So! The best part of the day.... LUNCH! After hours in the rain and cold, all the workers headed in for a home cooked traditional stew called Callos, prepared for thirty people by Luciano's mom. Callos is a very typical Galician dish, consisting of garbanzo beans stewed with some rather appetizing pig parts--- the feet, stomach lining, and sometimes elbows of the animal. I have to admit, the "meat" from the feel was more gelatin than anything else, but the stomach was delicious. Everything is slow cooked for hours, and absolutely savory at the end of a day in the rain. Accompanied by three plastic cups of wine, and half a baguette, it hit the spot.



I discovered this wonderful cardboard box for a Paella Cooker in the barn.... couldn't help but laugh out loud, and I enjoyed explaining to my spanish-speaking friends what was so funny about the typo, and how exactly "paella-cocker" translates. It was a good moment.


Needless to say, we were exhausted by the end of the day, but not too tired to go out! We napped, showered, and hit the bars for some drinks. Pontevedra is all beautiful medieval stone, with a very well maintained historical district. The town just breathes history.



Convent:

This is the cathedral that Pontevedra is famous for. It's s stop on the Road to Santiago, and this church was built in the shape of a scallop shell, the symbol of Saint James. The photo is horribly out of focus, but hopefully you can get a sense of the unique beauty of the building. I plan on returning to Pontevedra, so I can go inside the church and explore a little better. For now, here is my brilliantly out of focus night shot of the church:

That's all for now, slowly but surely I'm catching up!

Ourense

So, the next series of posts is just going to be a semi-hectic pinning together of the last three weeks. I can barely keep the timeline straight in my head, but will try to recount my experiences in the most coherent way possible.

The week after I went to Cedeira, I classes resumed to normal, with the kids adjusting ever more to my accent. They're finally beginning to regard me as a professor, and are definitely settling down, which has been great.

Every week, I buy whatever groceries I can at the local covered market. There are actually two markets, one in the street behind my house, and the other closer to downtown. The mercado that is close by tends to close earlier, as it is mostly farmers from the small towns right around here, and people leave to eat lunch at home. The other market (which I will get a photo of eventually) has set stalls, is indoors (very helpful lately with the succession of storms we've been having) and tends to stay open a little later. The stalls are full of fruits and veggies, meats, dairy, baked goods, spices, and a few other random groceries. I already have specific vendors I go to for different things, and last week I bought local organic honey for three euro from an incredibly nice woman who gave me countless samples of delicious fresh cheese. There is a second building that contains all local fish, and I've made friends with one of the women there, who tells me not to worry that I don't know how to cook yet, because when I have to cook for my husband, I'll learn quickly. She's a riot. She also gutted and boned two cod for me, and then ate a tiny piece of the fish raw to show me how delectably fresh it was.

Anyway, here is what I bought last week for about 7 Euro. There was also an avocado, but I forgot to put it out:


Ok, enough with the vegetables, on to my adventures!! That weekend, (some time in early November... the specific dates escape me) my Sheena and I went with one of my colleagues and his wife, Rita, to Ourense, an inland province bordering La Coruña, where Rita was born.

The region was breathtakingly beautiful, and though there was quite a bit of fog on the coast, as the morning hours waned, and we moved more inland, the fog dissipated as well, and we ended up with beautifully clear skies. We stopped first in a village called Allariz, a small Medieval town with narrow stone streets, and a lot of charm. We wandered around taking in the fresh autumn air and the sights, and stopped in a small bar for some tea to warm up. The walls were covered with old black and white photos, and antiques, including a display case of bottle openers of every age and design imaginable. As I found out later, the bar tender is actually the cousin of one my coworkers. Small world.

here are some highlights of Allariz:










We also stopped in to the toy museum, which had everything from three hundred year-old wooden tops to barbies from the states. There was a small room with carved dollhouse furniture from all over the world, which was really interesting.

I also learned that the original Fooseball table was invented by a Gallego man. It was obviously quite a different game originally, but it morphed into what we know and love today. Thanks Galicia! This is one of the original games. I unfortunately don't remember when it was invented, nor do I remember the name of the man that the bottom picture is of, the one who reformed the original design into the more contemporary style with armless, soccer playing paddle-foot little men...


After the game museum, we bought some specialty cookies that are typical of Allariz. They were almond macaroons, made only with almonds, sugar, and egg whites. Oh, and there were some dipped in dark chocolate. Absolutely heavenly.

Needless to say, the cookies roused our appetites, and we set off to the Castillo (castle) of Maceda for lunch. (That's right.... we ate lunch in a castle, overlooking the countryside of Ourense. And our amazing hosts treated us. I couldn't believe it.) The countryside in Ourense had beautiful fall foliage, as the region has fewer non-native evergreens, like the eucalyptus and acacia that are everywhere along the coast in La Coruña. Castañas (chestnut trees), Robles (oaks), and sycamores are octóctonos (natives) here. Here are some views from the castle:




Oh, and our delicious lunch (or at least one of the dishes). It was venison stew, hunted that morning. I know, I know, deer. It was my first time, so I figured I would try it, because I trust the quality of the meat, know it's local, and it was in season. The stew was simple, delicious, and hearty. Not too gamey, either. We also had a "revuelto," which is basically an egg scramble dish, with mushrooms, peppers, and nettle greens. It was amazing, but the photo didn't come out.

After lunch, we headed up above the town to see the small village where Rita was born, and went to a viewpoint to overlook the valley. Here are some random old stone things.... (articulate, I know)



After taking in the views, we descended otra vez into the valley, and stopped at a local ceramics shop. I bought a small bowl for "caldo galego," the typical, and VERY delicious stew here made with turnip greens, potatoes, and of course, pork parts. The style with brown and yellow is typical of Ourense ceramics.


We then headed to the region's capital town of Ourense, and walked around at night. Another beautiful stone town, with bridges and water. This one also has hot springs!!! They're scaldingly hot, and wonderful. Here's the town's central cathedral:


...and the overwhelmingly ornate chapel in which there was a funeral taking place:


...A beautiful building in the old part of town:


And a gorgeous old pharmacy:


Last but not least, the most typical tapa here. "Orejas," or pork ears. I tried it enthusiastically, but had to make a concerted effort not to grimace while chewing the simultaneously gelatinous and crunchy combination of pungently pig-flavored ear fat and cartilage.



It was a cultural experience, to say the least, but I think I'll be pretty content if I never delve back into the world of pig ear.

That's all for now, tomorrow I will try to get up the following weekend's activities in Pontevedra!

Ciao!