st. jordi's day. a video post.

my 9-year old student's response to hearing we were going to have a regular class day today, on la diada de st. jordi:

if you're going to live in catalonia, you have to treat today like a holiday, as we do.

little crumb snatcher does have a point. yesterday was la diada st. jordi, or st. george's day. the biggest day in catalonia. both paseo de grácia and rambla catalunya were lined with little white vendors' shacks and positively jam-packed with people. the sun in full force seemed to have brought even more people to the street that usual. it's like valentine's day, except the gift-giving is circumscribed: women receive roses. men, books (i'm guessing for some reason that has to do with stories and legends). not fair if you ask me. i'll take a book over a rose any day. then why i was so excited that a student walked in with a big fat beautifully fragrant rose wrapped in a catalan flag just for me? i almost overlooked the fact that he was 20 minutes late. in the spirit of things, later that day, the juniors and i interrupted our regularly scheduled program to giggle through half 'the story of st. jordi', in english. wikipedia the rest.