Spanish New Year 12-9-08

As an American living in Barcelona, I am constantly trying to con my English students into teaching me about Spanish and Catalan traditions. So basically I get paid by parents to have their kids teach me...but in English.



Today I was in a class with my favorite three brothers who I teach, ages 9, 11 and 14. Background is the 14 year old is always flirting with me...and although I´ve got a good decade on him...I can´t say it´s not flattering. The middle one is shy...which I also capitalize on because he thus listens to everything I say...like ¨sing me a christmas song in catalan in your prepubescent voice¨....he really knows how to hit the high notes; and the youngest is crazy, enough said.



The Spanish New Year, I learned today from my 11 year old student, is not celebrated with a fat smooch at the drop of midnight, rather when the clock strikes midnight for each of the 12 dongs of the grandfather clock bells...they shove a grape into their mouths until, with 12 strikes of the bell, they are playing their version of chubby bunny and I assume they missle the grapes at each other....but now that would be very American.... Bush doctrine of me to assume.



My thought is this... the Spaniards are onto something. The parents teach their kids this tradition to brainwash them into not kissing...or more at midnight so they don´t pass the herp, mono or anything else they drunkenly picked up. Brilliant. I am raising my kids here.