Fin de Fiestas

Quite a bit has come to pass since the Pilares ended on Sunday, but the photos from the concluding fireworks were too beautiful to leave out!
The view is from our terrace, of course!
Okay, I know the following isn't fireworks nor very beautiful, but it is a model of the basilica Pilar by the best chocolate shop in the city, so I'm sure it at least tasted good.

After the fiestas, we returned to classes and lots of quizzes and tests. We have finished Song of Solomon in English class and are preparing our essays, whilst my political science class is arriving at Machiavelli and in history, the Arabs have just arrived to the southern coast of Spain. However, in Art History, the Romans are the ruling empire.
On Tuesday morning, I noticed a small ad for Aragonés classes. Aragonés is the local language of Aragón, developed simultaneously with Castilian but in isolated towns in the north. It is similar to Castilian (the Spanish taught in school and spoken in South America and the majority of Spain), similar enough that I can understand it. During a free period, I went to sign up, and was happy to meet amiable people excited that an American wanted to learn their dying language. What intrigued me was the linguistics: I figured that comparing Aragonés and Castilian would be an interesting exercise.
I walked into the class, and suddenly realized that it was an immersion class, that the next youngest student was 26, and that half of the people had been studying Aragonés for at least 3 years.
Although everyone was amiable and very nice, I'm thinking that after one more class, I will drop the activity simply because I feel as though I'm a bit out of place there! Also, I found an art class on the same day of the week.
Of course, there is no rest for the weary! On Wednesday, I was also busy: the school has purchased a season pass to the Auditorio de Zaragoza (the classical music performance center), so a friend and I were able to attend a concert for free. Our evening began with restaurant lauded for their brava sauce – they only serve sandwiches, and only with this Spanish sauce. We got our bocadillos to go and walked to the Auditorio, only about a 30 minute walk. We arrived to a gorgeous building bustling with nicely dressed concert-goers. Our seats were fantastic, offering a great view of the orchestra. The music was wonderful as well - Debussy, Saint-Saëns, and Berlioz, played by the Symphonic Orchestra of the Leipzig Radio, from Germany. The Saint-Saëns piece, possibly my favorite, was a cello concierto featuring a wonderful cello soloist. A lovely evening, despite the fact that I arrived home at 11:00! (Not much time to study for my vocabulary test!)
Every Thursday, I have Joven Erasmus, an extra-curricular class composed of 8 Spanish students and 8 SYA students. This week we discussed the differences in the school systems of each country, which made me slightly homesick because I had to talk about Deerfield but was also really interesting. However, I have decided that without a doubt the American system is better (or at least the Deerfield system, which I suppose is actually very different from the experience of the vast majority of American students).
Today, I’m running home after school to pack for the overnight trip to the Pyrenees, an optional trip organized by the school. We’re spending Friday night in a hostel in Jaca and on Saturday, we’ll be hiking in the Pyrenees! I’m slightly dubious that it will match the wonderfulness of an Elements trip, but I’m hoping I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Barbie and Ken, Aragonés style

Ken dressed in the traditional Aragonés clothing, on his way to perform the jota. (Pardon the bad video, but it'll give you the idea...)

Televisión

I sat down with my host mother to watch a series after the daily news. In three minutes (the review of what happened last week), we see: a bar, a man and woman kissing, two soldiers drinking, another kiss scene, two men kissing, a man fall down a flight of stairs, we discover that one of the men was a priest, and another kiss scene interrupted when the man is shot. Gotta love Spanish television.

Príncipe Encantador

“Abrígate, abrígate!” Carmen insisted that I put on at least two more layers, a scarf, and gloves. We were, after all, going to the “pre-Pyrenees” to the Castle of Loarre. Joking that we’d be on the lookout for Orlando Bloom (The Kingdom of Heaven, a movie starring him, was filmed in and around the castle), we headed out with Carmen’s friend, Paloma.

We first stopped in Huesca (the capital of the province to the north of Zaragoza), for some post-breakfast coffee, which turned into a second breakfast when we bought a croissant-type bun. Since Paloma used to work in Huesca, she gave us a quick private tour of the two most famous churches, one from the thirteenth century.

Our next destination was Bolea to visit the Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor, another pretty little cathedral. I enjoyed applying my knowledge of Roman, Gothic, and Romanesque architecture from my art history class to the various churches.

Finally we arrived in Loarre and drove to the defensive castle, perched atop a small rocky mountain.

The castle was beautiful, a labyrinth of arches, two small chapels, and little towers. The weather was perfect as well: I actually ended up taking off my coat, scarf, gloves, and sweatshirt. The view from the castle was brilliant, overlooking various cultivated fields and little olive groves.

We finished our day trip with a grand lunch in Ayerbe on the way back to Zaragoza. We didn’t find Orlando Bloom or prince charming, but it was definitely worth the trip.