Last weekend was the festival of Saint Blaise, patron of the wool trade and protector against throat ailments. People bring anise donuts and cookies to church for a blessing and then eat them to ward off illness. Anise is a traditional remedy for coughs, and these confections usually have enough anise to make you feel as if you are exhaling organic solvent, so they can't hurt. The festival of Santa Yageda falls shortly afterwards, which was once the day when soldiers would deploy, so they would go out singing the night before and collect food to make a going away feast. Our evening Basque class was crashed by 30 singers who were observing the holiday in baserritar outfits (19th century farming clothes). One guy was playing a drum and a flute at the same time (naturally the drum was wrapped in plastic because duh, it was raining) and there were three bertsolariak (spontaneous verse singers) who made up elaborate new rhyming song verses on the spot, which is impressive even when you don't understand them. They participate in a serious and respected art form with its own special training schools. Additionally, Carnaval has just begun. Last night a large group of people dressed as a wedding party passed our building while loudly singing Andalusian songs. The brass bands are out in force, and just a few minutes ago, a big group of kids dressed as a zombie wedding party (much better than an actual wedding party, I think we can all agree) blocked the street to perform the Thriller dance, which was broadcast from a rickety makeshift float pulled by a tractor. There is a very serious obsession in this part of the world, especially among kids born during the early 2000s, with Michael Jackson that I cannot explain. It is very difficult for even grumpy cat to stay grumpy, which is most appropriate at this moment as people are stuck at home with the flu, unemployment is inexplicably rising even higher, and the weather forecast mentioned a "truce" for today, which so far means that hail is not alternating with rivers hurtling from the sky. Happy Carnaval!
There are so many delicious Spanish scandals at
the moment, which one, which one shall we choose? The Urdangarin scandal has been covered extensively by English-language outlets. Then
there was the case of Olvido Hormigas (which is not only a lady's name but also
translates literally as "I forget ants"). Seriously, don't google
her. A city councilwoman in the province of Toledo, she was pressured to
step down when a private video of her was released on the internet. Her
response was that she did nothing wrong and she would not resign. Yay on her
for refusing to be shamed, for not being bullied, supposedly by a rival party
member who released the video, right? After refusing to bow to her detractors,
she resigned anyway, in order to appear on a reality t.v. show on Telecinco (which
is roughly the equivalent of Jersey Shore + TLC). Probably the biggest and tastinastiest scandal is the Barcenas case, which probably gives the most leverage to independentists
in Catalonia and the Basque Country. The ruling party of the moment is the conservative Partido Popular, or PP. Luis Barcenas was the party's treasurer until 2009, when he was caught up in the Gurtel scandal, 
which involved tax fraud having to do with illegal payments. His annual income added up to an excess of $200K in a place where the per capita income (assuming you have work, which is not the case for 6 million people) is about $32K, with much less income inequality than we are accustomed to in the U.S., and he continued to receive a generous severance following his dismissal, which is required by Spanish law. Just last month, a secret Swiss bank account tied to Barcenas was discovered, and top PP members including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy were accused of receiving undeclared payments (and more importantly, untaxed payments, at a time when taxes are being raised on many goods and services, and wages, especially for public employees, are being cut in an apparently arbitrary fashion) in unmarked envelopes. None of this went over well and 
Rajoy-as-Gollum images were posted on walls everywhere and the PP's Facebook page was inundated with images of envelopes. Carnaval revelers dressed as giant envelopes. A graphic artist quickly developed a "corrupt script" based on Barcenas' handwritten ledgers (maybe he would've escaped scrutiny if he used Excel like everyone else?). The opposition party called for Rajoy's resignation (maybe he should go on reality t.v.?) Even after the press had harangued Barcenas and his family to the point where his wife called the cops on the press and Barcenas himself lost his cool and flipped the bird (or "the comb" as it is called in Spanish) to a bunch of journalists, a bunch of Twitter users made parody photos that were quickly compiled on the Spanish version of HuffPo. I personally must retain my status as Switzerland in the face of all this, but whether you i.d. with the Spanish nationalists or one of many separatist groups vying for autonomy, it is pretty clear that whatever loyalty the PP had before is not going to hold.
