Journey to Atlantis

So today was a pretty crazy day from a weather standpoint. I left for work this morning and thought to myself, "hey it's pretty nice out and not cold at all." Although, about halfway to work I noticed that I was starting to sweat and I didn't think I was walking all that fast. Then it hit me. It was probably the most humid day of the year so far and the sky was a weird jungle floor like mist. I had never seen weather like that anywhere really but luckily by the time night rolled around the air finally decided to fully saturate and it rained itself out. I'd rather get rained on and be wet than feel like I'm walking through suspended animation invisible raindrops. 

That wasn't the most important part of the week however as there was no school on Thursday due to a celebration. Well there were no classes to be exact. The kids still reported to school for a day of cultural activities.

The "Festa de Sta. Joaquima" is a celebration of the life and times of the St. who founded the Vedruna family of schools. The schools I work at are relatively new but there are Vedruna schools all over Catalonia, and the roots reach far back into history. As is the tradition, all the kids bring a flower to school and each class assembles the flowers in a bouquet. I thought this was kinda cool and one thing I do like about these schools is even though the kids miss some instructional days due to days like this, they do learn an appreciation for their culture.

A modeling of the class bouquets

After all the flowers were assembled we headed out to the playground for the ceremony. It started to rain and all the kids freaked out so we had to take the ceremony inside the gym. The rain stopped about a minute later too. 

Once inside, all the children got situated and the ceremony could begin. To my understanding it demonstrated some of the kind acts and radical boldness shown by St. Joaquima over her lifetime. After each reading of a text or a song a different class would add their bouquet to the collection.

Before

After

It took about an hour to complete the ceremony part of the morning and afterward we all went to the cafeteria for some hot chocolate and a special bread that all the kids seem to go crazy over. I forget the name and also how to spell the name of this bread but it was pretty good actually. You were supposed to dip it in the chocolate and have yourself a nice little morning snack.

I'll never say no to some chocolate

It was a good day overall and I' glad I got to learn a little more about the history and culture of this area. The amount of time that the schools here put into remembering their roots is definitely respectable. I do think that at times there could be more time for instructional days but I know that this is important as well.