Baby It's Cold Outside

Let me begin by apologizing for the tardiness and even more for leaving things on such a sour note.
Things have, however, been looking up and since my last post I have been great!
First, immediately after the last post came a very fun couple of days where we went to a few different Christmas markets. We loaded up the trailer with four kids (myself included), two parents, some bread and cheese, and two iPods full of music, and we embarked on the journey to a town called Vic. This sounds probably more dramatic than it actually was but confined spaces and this family are not always the best of friends. But this time (and I'm not a big believer in miracles so I will put it down to the Christmas spirit) no one yelled. No one. For more than 24 hours. Anyways, the Christmas markets were, well, Christmas-y, and we had fun wandering around the decked-out streets, tasting all of the free stuff possible.
A couple of weeks later, I had one of the best excursions since I've been here. I went with my school to a football (soccer) game in Barcelona. From the fact that we won 8-1 (I think, I can't really remember), to eating popcorn under a really warm blanket with my friends, to climbing to the very highest point where we could see the whole stadium, the night was just really magical.
Until the next day. We had gotten back at two o'clock in the morning and school was not waiting for anyone (not even the 80% of the student body who were zombies after only sleeping a couple of hours). However, even the sleepiness of the day after couldn't mar the happiness of the previousness evening.
Next up on the list of fun December things is the scavenger hunt/intercultural lunch that we did with AFS in Barcelona. We all met up and split up into groups. They then gave us little clues as to where we had to go to get the next clue. Unfortunately, like most AFS things they sort of lacked organization, and while we ended up seeing a lot of Barcelona and having fun, there was a pronounced lack of motivation towards the end. The lunch was amazing though. Every kid and some families brought a dish that they like from their home country. I brought chocolate chip cookies and biscuits, both of which were gobbled up pretty fast.
After that came Christmas Eve and an awesome (albeit very strange) celebration. Here goes. It starts a couple of weeks before Christmas when the log (called the tió) comes to the door. We then put it in the hallway and every night the little kids put a bowl of food for it to eat over night. It's not a picky eater, anything from the typical apple to popcorn to really whatever works just fine. Then, when the log is finally full and ready to poop (which happens on Christmas Eve) the actual celebration begins. The kids are sent to the kitchen to pray and sing Christmas carols (if they don't do this, they won't get presents), and then when the adults call us back into the living room, we begin to beat the logs with sticks and sing a song. The lyrics are not very poetic, they consist mostly of commanding the log to poop adequate presents and threatening it with an even worse beating if it doesn't. Happy Christmas. But anyways, when the singing is done we open what can only be called a butt hatch and lo and behold, a great pile of presents come out! It is truly as strange as it sounds and I spent the vast majority of the night laughing my head off, but I suppose that's a good thing.
Christmas day is really only a day to recover from the excess of candy eaten the night before (a bit like November 1st in the U.S.).
The next noteworthy event was "cap d'any" or New Year's Eve. Now, one of the most obvious cultural differences between here and there becomes apparent on nights like this where there is an abundance of parties. That is that teenagers (about 15 years and older) have curfews of between 3:00am and 5:00am. It is basically unheard of to leave earlier than that and I when I finally ended up on the walk home with some of my friends who live nearby, we were also joined by parents, and even grandparents who were just coming home from their respective gatherings. What? If you walk outside in the suburbs at 3:30am (even on New Year's Eve) you are most certainly not going to see you 75 year old neighbor walking home. But anyways, welcome to Catalonia!
I actually had a really good time, people are really happy around here, especially on party nights. :)
The next and final fun thing to happen before the dreaded return to school was the 5th of January, the day/night of the Kings.
The procession starts at nightfall, the streets full of eager children and parents. You hear in the distance loud, regal music, and slowly three carriages come into view. Perched on each one is one of the three kings. The kings throw candy to the audience (which kind of hurts if it hits you on the head) and you can hardly walk because there are children crawling everywhere to get the fallen candy. This year, there was a slight snafoo involving the size of the carriage and an archway they had to get through, but in the end they all squeezed through. Then, once in the main square of the town, the kings make a speech and throw some more candy before everyone goes home. But wait! There's more! Once we are all home, a king personally comes to each house bringing gifts! I got a very cool watch, and a bunch of rubik's cubes (for my sister and I to share). They also brought me and my two host sisters matching scarves (beautiful).
That's about it as far as celebrations, I want to reiterate that I am NOT having a terrible time here, the problem is that the urge to write comes mostly on bad days, so unfortunately you guys here more about that then the good. This isn't a very good excuse, but there you have it.
Thank you guys for bearing with me and I hope you all had a really awesome holiday season!!!

P.S. The title is very true here, it is usually in the 30s (farenheit) not counting windchill. The problem is that there is no precipitation so it doesn't snow...