Dia de Andalucia

Tuesday, February 28th is Andalucia Day which is the day they celebrate our autonomous region. (Here's what I understand about this: Spain has autonomous regions, which are made up of provinces. I live in the Almeria province in Andalucia. Sevilla, Granada, Jaen, Almeria, Cordoba, Helva, Cadiz, and Malaga are the provinces of Andalucia.) Anyway, it's kinda like a statehood day where they celebrate the things that Andalucia is known for.

flags of Roquetas de Mar, Andalucia, Spain,  and European Union

Raising the Andalucia flag while the anthem played

The kids had been working on art projects for the past week or so, but I forgot to take pictures of most of them. (This is what happens when you leave your camera at home.) I did get pictures of the plates the first and second graders made, and they're so cool! Love the creativity...and that it seems like parents did it with their kids. I'm all for an activity the whole family can help with.

Picture's upside down so the projects are right side up.

Sadly, I missed the school market because the buses were on a weird schedule where 3 came right before I walked out my door and then none (that were in service) came for 40 minutes. So lame. But, I did get to have the typical Andalusian breakfast of bread with olive oil (aceite de oliva) or tomato (tomate). I'm sure none of you are shocked to learn that I chose olive oil. I'm not a fan of tomato, especially in the morning. The whole school got breakfast, and they loved it! Some of the kids were running around with seconds and thirds.

My first grade teacher, Ana, had made us both tissue paper roses for our hair, so I got to look like a Sevillana, which the kids, and the teachers, totally loved. It was big, and sat right over my right ear, and all of my little kids kept coming up and telling me how beautiful I was that day. It's the little things in life! But it did make me feel more like a participant in the celebrations, and not just a bystander, so it was awesome!

Each grade performed a poem about Andalucia, and we had some girls from the older grades dance in between, and the first grade also had some girls perform a Sevillana, which is a type of dance from Andalucia. Ana and I want to take flamenco lessons now- it is SUCH a cool type of dance, and I love all the precision of hands and feet.

Some of my first grade girls.

The group.

The rest of the first graders.

The poems were good, but I loved the little preschooler who messed up his line, then caught himself and started over. He wasn't even bothered by it- so typical of little kids. I was pretty excited that I could understand one of the jokes one student told. It had nothing to do with Andalucia, but I understood all of it!

One of the preschool classes. 

English recap: A teacher asks his students to tell him a word that starts with S. (D in the original joke). A student says "yesterday" ("ayer" in Spanish). The teacher says that the word doesn't start with an S (D) and the student says it does because yesterday was Sunday (Domingo)!

3 of my 3rd graders.

....I know....little kid humor. But I think it's funny, and the kids telling the jokes thought it was HILARIOUS.

Some of my 6th graders.

3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade girls dancing.

Overall, it was a fun day, and I got to learn about the different regions of Andalucia. There's a fiesta at the school on Tuesday, so if I'm around, I'll probably stop by that!