La Castanyada...or...Chestnut Day?

As I mentioned before, castanyas (chestnuts) are a big deal in Catalunya. October 31^st is the official Castanyada celebration, and the typical things to eat are boiled chestnuts and small cakes (about the size of a donut hole) called panellets. I was in Valencia on the 31^st, but I did get to celebrate la Castanyada with ALL four schools in the ZER Conca on the 29^th. The four schools get together during certain times of the year, and this was the first time I was able to see everyone together. There are 190 students total, and if you include about 30 teachers and some parents, you can imagine how big this event was! We met in a village called Vallclara, and most of the teachers and student rode in large buses. However, the “specialists,” meaning the English, Music, Religion, Physical Education, and Special Education teachers, rode separately.

As Laura and I pulled in the parking lot, I was reminded of my fist day at the schools. Students from the two schools I haven’t been to yet (Barberá and Solivella) peered curiously and excitedly at me. I felt like a mixture between a zoo animal and a movie star. :-) Anyway, as we walked over to the kids, the younger ones (1^st and 2^nd graders) from Pira started chanting my name. The whole village echoed with “Sa-rah! Sa-rah! Sa-rah!” Haha! I was a bit relieved when they started chanting Laura’s name as well. That was just a liiitle too much attention for me!

I spent the first part of the day with Ramón (the 5-6^th grade teacher in Pira) and his students (since my main focus is to always be with the older groups). It was a little boring at first because everyone was just waiting around for something to happen. The girls started playing a game and later included me (a counting game of sorts), and I was so happy to see some of the quieter girls try to explain the game to me in English. Yes! Sometimes being outside of the classroom and just being a person really helps the kids want to practice English and open up to me more.

Later, all of the students were broken up into two large groups: the younger ones and the older ones. Both groups sang several songs about the Castanyada, and eventually, the “Castanyera,” an older woman dressed in traditional clothing, came to pass out chestnuts to everyone. You could just FEEL the excitement from the little ones! The older ones spent most of the time guessing who the woman was (she was the grandmother of one of the students). Javi escorted her around as she gave away chestnuts stuffed in newspaper cones, and I ended up with soooo many chestnuts! First, several of the students (ones I know AND ones I don’t know yet!) let me try some of theirs. Then I had my own official cone of chestnuts. Then Sergi, one of the older Pira students, gave me two more cones (apparently he doesn’t like them and wanted me to have them). They’re okay (definitely better cooked than raw!), but there’s just no way I could eat all of those. They later went into the trash with the ones I picked earlier. :-) Panellets, however, are amazing. Little cakes of goodness. Mmmm…

After singing and eating, we broke up into smaller groups (random ages and schools this time) and did some treasure hunting and games in various parts of the village. It was during this time that the whole “pretend-you-don’t-speak-or-understand-Spanish” thing became ridiculous. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before or not, but I’m supposed to tell the students that I ONLY speak English. The concept makes sense, but I find it deceptive and pretty hard to pull through. I mean, 90% of the other teachers don’t speak English, so if I’m with them, we talk in Spanish. Such was the case with Ramón. He explained what we had to do, and it wasn’t long before Sergi (the one who gave me all of his chestnuts) picked up that I understood and was speaking Spanish. :-) I finally told the kids that I knew a LITTLE Spanish and that since today was a special occasion, we could use it. However, in class, it’s English only. :-P That seemed to work, but I’ve had kids ask me ever since if I understand Catalán or Spanish. Heh.

The games were fun, and we all had a good time meandering around the village. A cute cat was up on a terrace, meowing at us and wanting attention, and Ramón actually lifted up one of the students to see if he could get the cat down for us to pet. :-) They couldn’t reach it, but we did pet a dog and look at some bees later on. It was another beautiful day just to go out and enjoy nature. After the event, several of the teachers met for lunch at a restaurant (what we do every Friday), and the rest of the school day in Pira was spent outside playing games organized by the older students. They did a great job! I mostly stood around talking with the other teachers, but I did play a few games later on. :-) It was a good day. Different…but good. :-)