Day of the Dead
Posted on Tuesday, 6 November 2012
'Los Dias de Muertos' is a huge festival in Mexico that is celebrated on November 1st and November 2nd every year. It has slowly become more and more popular and is now celebrated all over the world by Spanish people. People put altars and shrines for their lost loved ones and people celebrate their lives. Communities come together and have a genuine fun time. I think in more Hispanic communities that are not near commercial and touristic areas, the festival may be a bit more serious but it is meant to be a fun holiday.
For my Spanish homework, I was meant to go and immerse myself in some Spanish culture, take lots of photos and write a diary about it. I wanted to go the extra mile and not just go to the nearby Spanish supermarket so I dragged my friends Laura and Mikey to the Day of the Dead celebrations in OldTow, San Diego. My homework was due on November 2nd so I was cutting it pretty fine but I wanted to do something truly Spanish so going to the Day of the Dead celebrations seemed to be the thing to do.
And wow, I am glad I went.
Firstly, Old Town is like something out of a theme park. Like the 'Texas' are in Disneyland or something along those lines. Everything seemed so different to San Diego or anything else I have experience. White buildings surround a huge green area whilst wooden barns were dotted around the place and large wooden markets were propped up. There were absolutely no tall buildings and everything seemed old and communal. If you watch Vampire Diaries you could definitely compare it to Mystic Falls but in the 1800s.
We walked around for a while and saw quite a lot of small shops and huts before we ended up walking to the 'Old Market' and decided to get our faces painted. It was really fun. We made friends with our face painters who had been doing it all day. The man who did the details on our faces was an artist who sold many paintings and was also a musician who played music similar to Blink 182 and even had three albums on iTunes and a fourth being produced by the producer of No Doubt! It is odd what people you can meet when you just start talking. He was really lovely and did our make up very well. It was so much fun.
We proceeded to explore Old Town and visited the most haunted house in the US. Apparently you can go on tours through it but we decided not to, I am trying to gear up the confidence to go. I had just seen Paranormal Activity. I did not feel like messing with my brain quite yet, particularly on day of the dead.
We went for a traditional Mexican meal at Cafe Coyote. I had Shrimp tacos and my friends had fajitas. We also all had virgin Margaritas! Yummmmmmm!!!!! It was so much fun and I enjoyed it so much. We all bought shot glasses to remember the evening :) However, when we got back to the bus we realised it would be another hour for it to come and because it was so late it would take an hour and a half to get home. I still had to do the photo diary so I told my friend I would pay for a taxi home. We got one and not only did it charge us a bit more than it said it would anyway, the taxi driver didn't have his card reader on him (what is this! ENGLAND!) so he drove to a cash machine on campus (charging us more) and i sprinted to the cash machine. I then stood at the window and he tried to take a tip but I asked for the correct change in return because I was furious at him. No tip for mean people.
So apart from the end, I had a brilliant night.
We proceeded to explore Old Town and visited the most haunted house in the US. Apparently you can go on tours through it but we decided not to, I am trying to gear up the confidence to go. I had just seen Paranormal Activity. I did not feel like messing with my brain quite yet, particularly on day of the dead.
We went for a traditional Mexican meal at Cafe Coyote. I had Shrimp tacos and my friends had fajitas. We also all had virgin Margaritas! Yummmmmmm!!!!! It was so much fun and I enjoyed it so much. We all bought shot glasses to remember the evening :) However, when we got back to the bus we realised it would be another hour for it to come and because it was so late it would take an hour and a half to get home. I still had to do the photo diary so I told my friend I would pay for a taxi home. We got one and not only did it charge us a bit more than it said it would anyway, the taxi driver didn't have his card reader on him (what is this! ENGLAND!) so he drove to a cash machine on campus (charging us more) and i sprinted to the cash machine. I then stood at the window and he tried to take a tip but I asked for the correct change in return because I was furious at him. No tip for mean people.
So apart from the end, I had a brilliant night.
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