You are not mistaken, this is a man pooping ,el cagon in Spanish or "the pooper." In the middle of (well not in the middle of technically) because usually he's doing his business off to the side, behind a bush perhaps... of the holy, solemn scene of the birth of Jesus Christ, the cagon does his business. The tradition of the cagon is from Catalunia (the northeast,, where Barcelona is), and I read somewhere some kind of poetic description of it as representing the cycle of life, of how man comes from the earth, and fertilizes the earth, but I don't buy that! I chalk it up to the Spanish sense of humor, even in the most solemn moments, there is a touch of immaturity!
The day before the epiphany was the cabalgata--the huge parade, where people from elaborate floats threw candy, and of course, all three of the kings made an appearance.
On the Epiphany the three kings leave presents beside the nativity set, and this year I made out with some nice loot. My voice was back so I was able to talk to Carlos' family members and partake in the festivities, which included a huge nice meal and family time. And then before I knew it, well Christmas vacation was over, and I was back to work.
My coworkers asked me to put on a presentations for my students about my home state as an extracurricular activity--a chance to listen to English in an academic context. During my Mississippi presentation, I tried to dispel misconceptions about my home state--emphasizing that Tom Sawyer did not live there and that the Mississippi River is not covered with huge paddle/steam boats. It was a bit difficult to talk about my home state, having to talk about racial tension and being at the bottom of the statistics, but it was a bit redeeming to be able to talk about all of the literature and music that have come out of the state. At the end of the talk, Carlos gave his perceptions of the state so that they could hear the perspective of a Spanish person who had visited.
My birthday was the 24th so we kicked off Branuary with a party at my apartment. We chose a Mexican theme so that we could eat tacos and have festive decorations. My friends came over, some of them with Mexican costumes, one dressed as a Mexican wrestler...
We ate a lot of food, played some games, and then for some reason at some point of the night we all ended up covered in flour...
Afterwards we hit the town and stayed out until morning, finishing the morning/evening with churros dipped in hot chocolate, as is the tradition around here.
All in all, a pretty awesome birthday.
