CATALAN XMAS

MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

To make it a little bit catalanish... i'll explain you something we do here, annalisa knows it already and i think she liked it!

However, please, try to put some imagination on it okay?


So... this is what we call EL CAGA TIÓ and there's no translation for it... maybe "The Tió that shits??"



So, this is....maybe you are thinking as Annalisa thought " a wood with a face?? crazy catalan people!" and i would say...yes! but let me explain.


This trunk is supposed to be alive, so that's not just a piece of wood, it's something very special. Usually, two weeks before christmas, you take it from wherever you have been hiding it the rest of the year, and put him in a confortable place, probably next to the christmas tree and cover him with a blanket, as we don't want him to get a cold, we want him to shit presents!!


So, every night, before going to sleep, the kids of the house put next to him some food, biscuits, milk, fruits.... and surprisengly, the next morning the food is gone!! ( i think my father ate a lot because of that!), so it's like fedding him for two weeks.


And then the day come!! Well, it depends on the family weather you do it on the 24th night or the 25th. I'll explain exactly what we do in my place.


We meet on the 24th evening. We take some little trunks, ou umbrellas and hit him (softely) while singing special "caga tió" songs. After that we go to another room where we have a piano and also a small representation of Jesus birth, and the kings (look at the pic) .... there we sing 2 or 3 xmas songs... (while my mother puts the presents under the blanket) and then the kids run and discover all the presents for all the family!! it's so great!!


Look! Even in this representation of Jesus birth called "pessebre" by the way, there's a small caga tió!!



we do it several times, and....how can we know when the tió is not going to "shit" more? well, on the last shit, instead of presents, the tradition is find some sweets, chocolates or so, and also some sugar coal. The coal is because on the 6th we do the kings day (I'll explain it) but if you want to get presents, you have to behave well, otherwise you will get just coal!! So the TIO gives some coal the remind us that we have to be very nice childs!!



By now, you probably think we are crazy, but I promise you that when you are a child, and you believe that it's more than magic....waiting for that day seems too long!! However...the day when you are 7 years old, and you start suspecting and for some reason you discover it...it's quite sad... then you will always miss being an innocent child!

So, that was my piece of catalan knowledge, I hope you were interested and that you liked it!

I LOVE YOU!!!

Sad

Hey guys...

i'm just writing because i need it.

I hate xmas, i hate this christmas. I'm living such a horrible days...you can't imagine. I'm not a happy smiling girl anymore. I'm noone anymore.

Most of all is because of Marc. We broke up 1 month and a half ago, and I've been quite okay, he was not here, so I didn't think at all. But now..he arrived on friday, and I wasn't expecting him to call, and he called yestarday, and it wa so nice. I really feel like seeing him, and talk and I don't know. But yestarday I was supposed to with some people to go to a demonstration, so I told Marc I couldn't meet. And yesterday everything was a mistake. I went to a demonstration which i I didn't want to go and met people I didn't want to meet. The result, I ended up at home, alone, with nobody to hug me, with nobody trying to help or understand, hating me, hating this days...hating the world and crying for more than 2 hours.

I feel so alone, you know, xmas is maybe okay if you have people around you, or an interesting life, but it's not when you just have to meet family which you don't want to meet, just because you have to. Nobody can meet, they are happy with their families, studing or going out with friends you don't want to go with. I used to spent xmas with Marc, and this year it won't be like that. And it turns out that nothing makes sence.

And i'm feeling so depressed. I don't feel like doing anything. I could be at home alone crying for days. At the moment, xmas for me means: lonelyness, sadness, unhappiness, deception, boresome, no mood to do anything, insincerity, behaving well and smile because I have to, hopeless...

I just want christmas to be over. I don't want presents. I don't want to meet nobody. What i really would like is to disapear.

I'm sorry for worrying you, but it's just that I need to tell someone, I need to write that I don't know how to reach the end of this kind of depression and... I can't stop crying...

look at my eyes... they look horrible and my family is coming home to have dinner tonight... what the hell can I do??



There's someone out there? because I feel so alone...

SMTH YOU HAVEN'T SEEN FROM BARCELONA

Well guys...

we enjoyed Barcelona a lot...and we walked through wonderful parts during de night...but...logically, very early in the morning we were asleep...so...that's how "La barceloneta" the part with the towers, sea, beach...looks like at 8 am.

Ursula has been doing practicals in a Hospital there, so those are her pictures. I've never taken so ggod ones, although i've been watching a sunrise more than one time...








OH, let me add something: it's about a web, www.googleong.com it's a finder, the same as google, but using this one you are giving money to an ONG, so I think it's worth and we just have to add it as our predetermined finder... Now you know!

For those who don't know what an ONG is, is a Non governamental organisation. THey collect money, clothes and lots of things to help the thirld world. THe do acticities to collect money and provide them with food, education...well...you know... it's a way to help.

My LAB MATES!!

Hello guys!!

As taking pics inside the lab is forbiden...i'll show you some of my lab mate here! We were celebrating the birthday of "Jose" (first pic) and we went to Jose's house and we talked, eat smth and played sing star!!

So, first pic: JOSE
He's really nice, we have plenty of jokes togheter and it's one of the most easy oing person i've ever met!




2nd pic: SUSANA "SUS"
She's marreied with JOSE, and they are a wonderful couple! It's amazing because the have a 24hours relationship, as they work togheter, i mean, sitting one next to the other, they eat togheter, breath togheter, you now, everything ogheter! I probably couldn't!

Behing you can see a girl: MIREIA. She is gorgeous! A part from clever and slightly crazy she's great because it's like she lives in another world. She loves India and mystic things...like that energy power called "Reiki", it's a way to move energy from a body to another and it can be used like a therapy or smth like that. I'm learning a lot about this!

And the boy is NORBERT, but this guy is a friend of mine whom was doing practicals as me. Now he has already finished but we were in the same lab for a long time!
In this pic you can see:

First: JOSETE (which is like LITTLE JOSE) basically because is Jose's and Susana's son. He's really sweet, when i first met him, he didn't want to know anything from me, he was shy youknow, but then i started playing a little bit with him and then he stayed with my most of the time!!

Second: ESTEL. She is my real Lab mate. She is the girl I'm working with, she's becoming a docotorate, working with gene therapy, which is for me one of the most important and interesting work camps. She's 27 and well, i thing is the first time i'm becoming a friend of somebody that older than me, and is fantastic! She's fantastic. I'm learning lots of things in the lab because she really takes care of me, and she explains everything. But a part from that, i discovered that i like a lot talking to her, i don't know...well, you knwo somethimes you have a connection with people whereas with other people it doesn't exist, so that's the fact. At the beginning i though she was different than she really is, you knwo, everybody does this, the first impression of somebody can be completely wrong! and although i liked her from the first mment, i though she was completely different. And now, the more I know her,the more I like her. I'm quite sad because i will finish my practicals on christmas...and i'm not going to see her everyday anymore...but i hope to see her sometimes, go and eat a "gofre" or chocolate con churros....!!!


And now again ESTELwith my CROCHES and SUS!!
Well guys! that's all i guess!!

Talk to u soon!!