Alright, I made it! Yesterday (5 Jan) was the day of Los Reyes Magos (the magic kings). This means that all the main streets are closed for the Cabalgata (king’s parade). The parade consists of floats carrying the three kings and other people dressed up as slaves and other characters, such as Spider-Man and unicorns, all of whom are throwing lollies to the kids that line the streets.
I was successful in finding a host family with two girls through the school I’ll be teaching at. Thankfully, they came and picked me up from the Málaga train station and drove me to their farmhouse. The area has plenty of avocados and mangos, although I saw olives and almonds as well.
We arrived to the house at about 3pm, and I was served Gazpachuelo, which they translated to ‘mayonnaise soup’. I was skeptical at first, but it’s essentially just a white soup with potatoes and egg…very yummy and only made in Málaga.
At 4pm, they brought out some fried fish with some slow-cooked veggies. When I was in Australia, the family had asked me over email whether I was vegan, and I replied something like ‘no, but I’m open to it’. This whole time I had thought they were vegan, but it turns out they were just making sure that I wasn’t! I had even bought them a vegan dessert recipe book in English as a gift, so we had a big laugh over that.
After fish, we had a doughnut-shaped desert called Roscón which is essentially brioche with cream in the middle and candied fruit on top. You are supposed to cut it into pieces for everyone and one person will receive a small toy in their piece and someone else will get a black bean in theirs. The person with the bean has to pay the person with the toy. Roscón is only eaten on the day of Los Reyes Magos. When I was in Madrid, I noticed about 4 shops only selling it.
I assumed the soup was like a late lunch and the fish was an early dinner…I assumed wrong. For the next few hours, we chatted and watched a movie, I was getting pretty tired and about to go to bed when they brought out a ‘guiso’ (stew) at 10pm! I could barely keep my eyes open at this point, so went to sleep.
I woke up to the sound of screaming children at 8.30am. The Magic Kings had left presents for everyone, including me! In Spain, Los Reyes Magos are bigger than Papa Noel (Santa)!
Notes:
- I was asked my weight and whether or not I had a boyfriend on Day 1 in front of the whole extended family, so be prepared for intrusive questions haha.
- Andalusians don’t seem to pronounce the ends of words. They say ‘adió’ instead of ‘adiós’ (and sometimes they even skip the middle as well such as ‘Adela’ instead of ‘Adeslas’ (the name of my health care))).
- Light switches and window blinds are different here.
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