Carneval Te Quiero!!

Before I start telling you all about Carneval I would like to share with you all this delightful picture of Carmen immitating my father Neil (at my request obviously!). The rather tasty things Carmen is holding up as my fathers ears are 'Orejas' (meaning just that) made out of flour, sugar and eggs, typical Carnevalian pastry. The smile she is demonstrating is a typical Reeve smile (defying logic...a smile with no teeth).

Anyway, this weekend I celebrated Carneval for the first time in my life. I have always associated Carneval with stupid Dutch songs ('The is a horse in the hallway', amongst other light classics) and drunk people wearing mildly funny suits. This thought was only partly confirmed as Carmen and I once again headed for the coastal region of Galicia.

There we met up with the traditional rain and Carmens family. It is always nice in Galicia and especially during Carneval. Not many of the drunk Dutch people in the south of Holland realize that Carneval is actually a celebration of meat (Carne). It is the last week before Easter (which is about 40 days away) during which you can eat unlimited portions of meat (very important in Galicia...they like their food). After the week of Carneval you cannot eat meat on fridays and some opt not to eat meat at all until Easter.

During the actual celebrations of Carneval-saturday we went to the Pontevedra Parade where we could witness half-naked men and women dance through the streets as well as people making satirical political statements - an odd, but entertaining combination. Later that evening we joined in the fun by dressing up as clowns (payasos). In total we were 11 clowns (with 11 trumpets) but we met much more in the streets of Pontevedra as you can see in the pictures.

To finish off I would like to inform you all that the other day I received a complaint (from the other side of the world) that my blog 'was not funny enough'. I took this attack rather seriously and for this reason I have published some of our Carneval photos. I slightly suspect that this person (who I assume wishes to remain anonymous) will fail to realize the humorous character of these photos. All the others I invite to enjoy...

Thomas saves the world and the visit of Maiko!

I am back again to the writing fold with over a month's of experiences to tell. This is slackness at its best (or worst).

Most of you know that I have finished my internship at Just Landed by now and have started work at two NGO's: Centro Hispanico-Colombiano and CEAR (Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado). At 'El Centro' I am teaching English at the moment to groups of migrant children (mostly from South America). This is very rewarding work although I have to admit that I need to pollish up my English grammar. The other day the smartest of the bunch asked rather casually 'could you please explain the conditionals please'. Taken by surprise I hesitantly replied 'we will do that next week...today we will do colours..'. After class I quickly looked up what the hell conditionals actually do. Needless to say I am hoping that fending off difficult questions like these will not be so easy in the future.

At the second NGO (CEAR) I am responsible for making contacts with other NGOs and forums throughout Europe. By translating CEAR publications into English and by distributing them to other NGOs we are realizing stronger cooperation. CEAR is a much larger NGO dedicated to helping refugees in finding the correct documentation and sticking up for their rights alltogether. Both jobs are highly satisfactionary and a very good learning experience.

Now for the fun stuff!

Two weekends ago we had a visit from our friend from Japan (yes, another Erasmus mate!) Maiko and her boyfriend Hikaru. It was very nice to see them again and we made some nice trips through Madrid (as you can see in the pictures below) and beyond (we went to the small villages of Alcala - the birthplace of Cervantes - and Guadalajara).

On saturday we had another small Erasmus get-together at our flat and afterwards we went out in La Latina to the ever-rewarding nightclub Vendettas! For the Erasmus crowd reading this: Fred and Julie (Kumshamra) both also made it to Madrid which made a grand total of 7 former Erasmus students.