The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Postiguet, the main beach in Alicante.
You can see the Castillo in the background.

         So once again, as with the beginning of my stay here, my days have fallen into a routine of sorts. Class during the day, reading my books and going to the beach in my off-time. The days have been gorgeous lately and any time that we don't have class is spent on the beach. Literally, this week I had two classes cancelled and during the 11-1 time slot you could find me on my towel, tanning. My madre has started calling me 'congita'. For a long time, I just figured it mean someone who was tan, and was a colloquial word that I didn't know. But finally, after my whole family, their friends, and even my teachers started saying how dark I was getting, I asked her. The response? "It means a negro. And you know, they come from Africa, like the Congo." In Spanish, adding -ito or -ita to the end of a word makes it diminutive. Therefore, 'congita' means my little black girl. I really didn't know what to say to that... "Gee, I am flattered."? haha The beach gets sooooooo super crowded! You need to get their semi-early to get a good spot, but normally a lot of Spanish people clear out around 2 or 3 for comida (lunch) and then its just the tourists - and us - left, so you can snag some good sand then too. Tanning topless seems to be a trend as well... obviously I had heard that before, but its shocking to just walk onto the beach or roll over on your towel to see a pair or tits starting you in the face. They can be old, saggy, wrinkly, young, huge, or mosquito bites, but Europeans seem to have a fancy for showing them off haha.

One version of the sculpture of Christ. It can weigh as much as a car or more!

The nazarenos. Their hoods and cloaks can
come in many different colors.

          Despite all of my time lazily soaking up the sun, this week will being a time of celebration in Spain. Easter is in a week, and tomorrow is Palm Sunday. That means that this coming week is Holy Week, or Semana Santa. There are processions everyday, starting tomorrow. They are all different and are done in order to honor the Crucified Christ or a specific saint. However, they are nothing like any kind of parade that we have in the States. In fact, Easter in general is completely different (and completely less commercialized) here than back home. Whereas we have the Easter Bunny, decorate eggs, and have a huge family dinner, here everything is very solemn and much more religious. The frenzy of capitalism has not yet reached this holiday in other parts of the world. They processions are just that, processions. They dress up in costumes that resemble KKK get-ups, but of course, the KKK means nothing to people here. Slavery carries none of the negative connotations in Spain as it does for our country. It is creepy and unsettling to see the cloaked and robed figures, especially carrying a statue of Christ, wearing shackles, or carrying wooden crosses (as penance). But then I remember that they didn't have the same bloody and terrible history with the KKK that we did. These ghost-like figures number the double or triple digits for each procession, and they carry on their shoulders a HUGE representation of Christ or Mary. Each is unique, as is each procession. The most famous here is the one that happens on Wednesday. The nazarenos (the men carrying the statue) actually run downhill on the busy Rambla of Alicante with their huge burden on their shoulders, and then slowly wind their way through the cramped and tiny streets of the barrio.

The mona comes in many forms,
 and sometimes is decorated.

            Also, they don't do eggs, Easter candy, or a huge family dinner. In fact, they really don't have much a tradition at all. There is the mona, or a type of sweet bread baked into a shape with a hardboiled egg in the center. You crack the egg, and then everyone takes a piece of it and the bread and eats it. But this can be with friends, family, or whoever. For my family personally, my madre told me that her kids might come over with their families to have a big lunch and eat the mona, but only if they don't have plans with others. Also, the Easter mass is not Sunday morning - there is one, but its not the most important - but rather Saturday night at midnight. The vigil mass has not lost it's importance here as it has back home. I am so excited to get to see this  new tradition of Easter, however I am also really pumped that the Easter Bunny was able to find me with some candy, even in Spain ;)