Christmas with el Coro

Today we had a choir concert to celebrate the lighting of Alcala's Christmas lights for the season. We sang both English Christmas carols and traditional Spanish Villancicos, and finished up the concert with Silent Night in English, Spanish, and German. It was quite nice, although I may have screwed up some of the lyrics in a couple of the Villancicos (since we never practice them! Rar!).

Afterwards, we went to a reception for the whole audience and the choir, where they served us large cups of chocolate, churros, and pan frito, which I hadn't tried before. It's like a cross between french toast and a donut, and I will definitely make some when I get home. After eating, a few of the choir members and I wandered around town.

Alcala's Christmas lights are beautiful. They hang between the buildings along all the major roads, and then the Plaza de Cervantes is tiled with net lights. Plus, there is a huge belen (nativity scene) in the central gazebo.

Our Gay Apparel

Funniest pair of culture shocks today:

While walking to choir, I nearly bumped into a man wearing stiletto heels, plaid pajama pants, a leopard print shirt, a fur vest, and sparkly purple eyeshadow. No one else on the street batted an eye at this ensemble.

During rehearsal, we sang Christmas songs from around the world. One of these was Deck the Hall, which, due to its Olde-English lyrics, was a bit difficult for the Spaniards. When we got to "Don we now our gay apparel," what came out was "Don't we know our gay apparel?"

Why, yes you do, Spain. Yes you do. I can only assume what they must think Christmas is like in America...