Author: Dane Lowell
Submitted by: redadmin

Chapt. 308 - 2 166 words
Columns :: Christmas in Spain – Feliz Navidades a Todos :-)

Somewhere in Northern Spain, December 25, 2010 -- Comments:   Ratings:

Christmas alone – not half bad
Spanish Christmas tradition quite different
A call from Vlad
Druzhka really going back to Moscow
Max, Basil, reply to Xmas e-mails
Speaking of publishing...



Somewhere in Northern Spain, December 25, 2010 -- It’s Christmas Day in the Morning here in Spain – around the world, in fact. But it’s the first Christmas I’ve awakened at 10:30 to realize that I’m completely by myself. No lovers, no friends to chat with, quarrel with, jerk off with.

A couple of thoughts spring to mind: It’s the price one pays for getting old. Second, it ain’t half bad. Since no one’s around, and I have no commitments, I can sleep till 10:30 and wake up to absolute silence. If I turn the TV on, there will of course be Christmas music. And I have my collection of Christmas records that I brought from America 13 years ago that I can put on and listen to – if I want. But the silence is rather nice. I may not break it, even with Handel’s “Messiah.”

Here in northern Spain it’s sunny and not too cold – about 45 degrees F. – about the same as I used to experience in Orlando as a child and about the same as it is in not-sunny – in fact, downright gloomy -- Seattle today, my buddy BB tells me in an e-mail. As when a child in Orlando, I also have a lot of tangerines and oranges I can eat – will eat -- soon for breakfast.

I’ve discovered that Spanish Christmas tradition, though far from Russian Orthodox, is also quite different from American. For instance, today is not the day for giving gifts, although the commercial pressures of Norteamerica and Great Britain have brought some changes there, says my student Carlos. In fact, in Spain there are two days now for giving gifts: the new “norteamericano” Dec. 25, and the traditional Spanish “Day of the Three Kings” on the 6th of January – the “10th day of Christmas” (well, give or take a day – but who’s counting?).

Western Christmas Day, today, Dec. 25, is a rather quiet family day for Spaniards. The children usually get some token gift – maybe clothes or inconsequential toys – and the family celebrates with a big Christmas lunch, then takes a stroll through the town. Where [Druzhka] lives is one of the main streets for walking in our town, so we see a lot of Spanish families taking advantage of the Spanish Christmas tradition.

Last night was Christmas Eve, “Nochebuena (Good Night, or Holy Night)” in Spain, when families get together for a big “Nochebuena feast.” For the occasion, Druzhka’s ex-boyfriend’s parents invited Druzhka, his ex-boyfriend, another old duffer, who is an artist in his 80s, and myself. The meal was sumptuous – appetizers of ham (another of the Spanish traditions), cheese, nuts, potato chips, and candies – polvorones, made of flour, sugar, and ground almonds; and turron, also made of almonds but more like a big candy bar.

I discovered that Christmas in Spain is not Christmas if you don’t eat turron. So I did. This morning, I’m paying for it. I gained over a kilogram and a half – about 3 lb. – at last night’s Nochebuena feast. Part of the tradition, I discovered, is also to watch the king of Spain, in this case Juan Carlos, himself an old duffer of almost 73 (Jan. 5, 1938), utter his Christmas wishes for the monarchy and listening to one of the country’s top choral groups sing excerpts from “The Messiah.”

We also ate cauliflower cooked with cod fish, turnip greens, and roast beef with carrots and rice. I couldn’t be impolite, now, could I? Which explains why I’m three pounds heavier today than I was this time yesterday.

Of course, we also had Spanish red wine and some fantastic French champagne, which again explains why I gained weight. Hopefully, I will lose it again over the next few days.

On the 28th of December is Dia de Santos Inocentes, the equivalent of April Fool’s Day. This is no big deal, but it does come during the Christmas Holidays.

And next, of course, is New Year’s Eve, the 31st of December, “NocheVieja,” old night, which again is celebrated in cities all over Spain by feasts in the home and fiestas in the streets. At midnight, you have to eat 12 grapes as the clock strikes 12 – one for each stroke – to assure good luck during the coming year. I have done this on the streets of Madrid in Puerto del Sol and in Druzhka’s “in-law’s” home here in this northern Spanish town.

Then, on the 6th of January is the Feast of the Epiphany celebrating the arrival of the Three Wise Men, or Kings, in Bethlehem. According to the guide books, “for Spanish children this is the most important day of the year when they wake up to find that Los Reyes Magos have left gifts for them in their house” – the equivalent of Christmas Day in Iowa when I was a child.

The night before, Jan. 5, of course, is the Parade of the Three Kings. I have watched it several times here. Three pretty teenage boys play the role of the Three Kings and toss candy to the hundreds of bystanders – children and their parents – in the streets.

According to my student Carlos, children typically discover at an early age that there are really no Three Kings, as Western children discover there is really no Santa Claus. Life goes on. Don’t forget that children’s traditions are, after all, mostly for the adults anyway.

In any case, on the 7th of January, the day after the Three Kings leave gifts for the children, school starts again for the kids, and their parents go back to work. So there is about a two-week Christmas holiday here – pretty much the same as in Norteamerica.

During the first few days of January there are also great sales when the stores have to get rid of all the stuff they didn’t sell during the pre-Christmas holidays. I’ve bought some great clothes in these sales, including a suede leather overcoat for about 300 euros. I’ll probably buy some shirts and stuff this year – but not much, because a) I don’t need much and b) I can’t afford much.

I got a great Christmas gift a few minutes ago – a call from [Vlad], my “guess what” gift from Druzhka over six years years ago (#2, Sept. 7, 2003). It turned out he and I had met four years earlier, when he was only 15, at a resort beach in Turkey. I had ogled and pined for him. And here he was suddenly my student!

He is about 6 ft. 4 in. and simply beautiful. He and I played sex games in which he promised to let me suck his dick if I won the next game of cribbage, but he always put me off. When he finally got married, he invited me to his wedding – only the second Russian wedding I had ever been to (the first was Basil’s).

He also got me my English teaching job at School # 69, where his mother teachers, of all things, Spanish!

Finally, before I left Moscow, he promised me that on my 80th birthday, 2-1/2 years from now, I could suck his dick! :-)

I spent yesterday sending e-mails to all my friends and relatives for whom I had addresses, including Vlad. He e-mailed me back asking for my phone number, and said he would call me today.

True to his word, he called. His wife is pregnant and he is going to be the father of a baby girl some time in the next few days. He is making good money as a pharmaceutical salesman. His mother has not been well, and she and his father have bought an apartment in Barcelona.

He has not forgotten his promise, and vowed again that on my 80th birthday, July 6, 2013….

It certainly gives me an incentive to somehow make my way through the next 2-1/2 years, and maybe even lose some weight in the next few days :-).

Druzhka is apparently going to return to Moscow, as promised, on the 12th of January; and I am apparently going to fall heir to his students of English, to the tune of somewhere between 500 and 800 euros a month. I will be much better off financially.

I got an e-mail from Misha asking for 150 euros to help tide him over until he is able to come in February or March. I sent it to him. Tomorrow is, after all, his birthday, and it is, after all, the Christmas season, and I am, after all, going to be making about double my present Social Security income.

Druzhka has talked me into playing chess again. I hate the game, because I’m not very good at it, it takes lots of time to play, and it requires you to think. But he is as bad a player as I am and I am ahead of him two out of three games. But when he leaves, at least I won’t have to play chess any more.

I got lots of replies from the 42 e-mails I sent yesterday wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (if I didn’t send you one, consider this it), but two were very special; and one, the one from Basil, made me cry.

From beautiful Max, whom I have lots of fantasies about, I received the following, which only raised my hopes and made me wish harder that he were here – or at least that he can come visit me next year:

Quote
Hello Dane!! I wish you a Merry Christmas!! Hope that in New Year everything will be all right!! I'm now with my parents in Tatarstan, and Alex (his brother who was also a student of mine) join us on the next week..!!

I wish that God blesses you, and allow you to live 50 years more, so that we could became old together..))) I wish you a good, no not good, excellent health, and don't forget me (emphasis supplied)!!

Hope that Santa visit you and bring you something special!!))

Hope see you in 2011!!

Love (you),
Miss (you),
Max


It certainly makes my Christmas Merry.

And the following very touching greeting from Basil made me cry – because of his beautiful kindness, because of my very fond memories of our times together, because of the hopes that somehow, sometime, we can meet again.

To understand it, you have to realize that I am busy writing about my experiences and the people that I met during my 12 years in Russia; and as I did with my memoirs, I am sending them to Basil for his opinion and expert editorial touch. His Christmas e-mail follows:



Quote
From Russia with love! :-)
Merry Christmas to you!

I've read 4th chapter and I like it! It has a very touching story of Misha and, of course, it was very pleasant to read about me :-) Thank you, Dane!

You know, you're very important and dear to me. You've learnt me not only an English, but you're really a role model for me. Yes, you are! Wise, kind, brave, fun, empathetic... great teacher, cook, writer, journalist... and you're beautiful...I remember that conversation. Really... I have somewhere on my computer your poetry web site, which Vit had made, with your photos. Your smile is so shining, and it's true then and now. So I've meant it.

Our meeting these days was like a breath of fresh air for me. Of course, I was crazy about all American, but really needed someone with whom I could be real me. This chapter's given me an idea that we both could be real ones by each others side. And it's wonderful! You're the only one such guy.

I've cryed while read this chapter on my mobile phone in metro, but it's given me such a good charge! So thank you again.

I don't know what to say... I think it's too "cool" for me to read about me something like this. :-)

Merry Christmas! I love you, Dane!


He loves me, as I do him – and not sexually! Maybe I’ll use his letter as my epitaph :-)

So what did I write about him that made him cry on the subway? Well, you’ll just have to wait till my book is published – the second Tuesday of next week! :-)

Speaking of publishing, my buddy BB in Seattle says an agent is now looking at his novel, Sailing to Utah. I’ve read several re-writes of it and it’s a gripping tale. Wanna read it? Again, you’ll just have to wait till – no, let’s hope his publishing success is greater than mine has been so far.
So with that, I wish you the Merriest of Christmases and Happiest of New Years from Merry Old Catholic Spain. :-)

Love,
The Fiesta Queen


See also related pages:
Chapt. #309 - Fighting the bureaucracy alone
Chapt. #307 - Things look up for me; but oil problems for everybody in the long term
Chapt. #2 - A “Guess-What” Gift from Turkey


This day years ago:
2003-12-25: Chapt. #31 - Merry F’ing Xmas from Shurik
2005-12-25: Chapt. #180 - Christmas brings flu, Zhorik’s firing
2006-12-25: Chapt. #230 - Russia: “most important” events of year don’t include Litvinenko