Spanish Holidays!

After a very exciting and festive Saturday, I had a very boring rest of the weekend. We had a 3-day weekend here and I took full advantage of Saturday and Sunday to relax! Here (Europe in general) they don't use the word 3-day weekend, and instead they say holiday. So, Monday was holiday and we didn't have to work :D They say the same thing for vacations - like you wouldn't say where did you go on vacation, you would say where did you go on holiday - I am still getting used to it!

This weekend was filled with holidays- both Saturday and Monday. Because these two holidays are always spaced one day apart, you always get the day in the middle off as well. Sadly, that fell on a Sunday! Wouldn't it be awesome to have holiday on Monday and Wednesday and then you get Tuesday off as well?!

Saturday was Día de la Constitución - always the 6th of December. This is the day that Spain officially became a democracy because the Constitution was drafted. When Franco (the scary militant leader who ran Spain for many years) died in 1975, a new King was put in charge - Juan Carlos I. He had promised Franco that he would uphold all of his militant strategies while ruling, but Juan Carlos didn't really support them and threw them out. So, in 1977, King Juan Carlos did the unthinkable - he gave up all of his power and requested that the people of Spain hold a free and open election for a President. After this HUGE transition, the President formed a team to write the Constitution and on 12-6-1978 it was signed and is now a big holiday! Juan Carlos is still the head of state here in Spain, but the head of government is Zapatero.

Monday was also a holiday - Inmaculada Concepción (Immaculate Conception) is obviously a more religious holiday and is always celebrated on the 8th of December.

Really, I have not accomplished much - but I think it was good to relax. This was our first day off since the start of the school year so it was nice to be a bum. I think the highlight of my weekend was deciding to go out to dinner with my girlfriend Lotte, and then we just ended up at McDonalds (only the second time I have eaten there since I moved here) and ended up eating ice cream on the street in 40º weather. We were crazy!

I hope you had a great weekend :D

Besos!

Amanda