Dia de Sant Jordi

Yesterday was a great day to start student teaching in Barcelona. It was Dia de Sant Jordi (Saint George day). It is much like our Valentine’s Day. The tradition is for the girl’s to buy a book for the boys and the boys buy a rose for the girls. At school all of the girls in my classroom were dressed as princesses and the boys were dressed as knights or dragons. For those of you who do not know the story of Saint George I will explain it. Once upon a time, a dragon went to a small town that had a big castle. This dragon was very hungry so he ate many of the town’s animals. The townspeople begged him to stop so he did, but his price was he wanted to eat a girl. All of the girls in the town had to enter their names to be drawn. The name that was drawn was the princess'. All of the townspeople were sad, but the princess was brave and knew that she had to go.  Saint George arrived and told the people that he would save their princess. When he slayed the dragon roses began to grow. He gave one of the roses to the princess and they lived happily ever after. This is where the tradition comes from. While at school we went to the theatre to watch some of the teachers perform the story of Saint George. After the performance we set up our own market for the children to buy and sell items they had made. Our class sold dragon, knight, and princess masks. Other classes sold crowns, bookmarks, shields, and bracelets.

This took up a majority of the day and it was a lot of fun. The only problem is I cannot understand my students. They are in P4 so they are just now beginning to really learn English. They understand English, but they speak Spanish. Many times today they tried to talk to me, but I did not understand what they were saying. After school I took the metro by myself and found my way home on the first try. When Cristina arrived we took the motor bike to the city center, so that I could see what it was like on Saint George day. The street was closed so that people could walk. There were booths set up everywhere selling books and roses. It was almost impossible to walk.

(This is at the city center near La Ramblas)

After we left the center we went to visit her parents. I met her sister, brother, sister in-law, parents, grandmother, and nieces and nephews. Javier, Santi, and Blanca were also there. We ate snack there which consisted of hot chocolate and many sweets.

(These are some of the things we had yesterday that I found in a shop today. I cannot even begin to explain my excitement about this food.)

I feel like I haven’t stopped eating since I arrived. In Barcelona we eat five times: first breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. Lunch and dinner are both two courses and a dessert. Yesterday morning we had toast for breakfast and breakfast again at school. For lunch I had chicken with potatoes and a salad. We had a two hour lunch break so some of us decided to explore. We found a place that sells Gelato, so of course we had to try some.

(Dulce de Leche es delicioso)

Hopefully, all of this walking I am doing will keep me from gaining weight while I am here. I have already fallen in love with this city and the people in it. Everyone I have met is really friendly and will try to help you with anything. I had a very nice surprise when we arrived at the house last night. Javier and Cristiana both got me a rose for Dia de Sant Jordi.