La Ofrenda Floral

Yesterday was the festival day of the Virgen de las Angustias, or the Virgin of Anguish, here in Granada. The cathedral commissioned by the Catholic Kings is the most important church in the city, but Granada also has a basilica, which is where you can find the city's patron Virgin, so named because she is perpetually crying, holding the body of Christ. Now I never knew this, but all of these "Virgins" that pop up in traditionally Catholic countries are all the virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, with different interpretations of her dress and physical appearance, and representative of different crucial moments in her life. I guess I never made the connection that they were all Mary, but really, where else would all of these virgins have been coming from? Anyway, on the 5th of September, the whole city (it seems!) passes by the front of the basilica to look in at the Virgin, and make an offering of flowers. It's a bit like a parade, with each of the city's emergency services departments stopping by with all their vehicles, 500-member families with flags bearing their shields singing with guitars, a troop of traditional Andalucían dancers, and one idiot pilot from the Spanish National Guard who was flying WAY too low in his helicopter. After he dropped flowers out the door for the Virgin, he flew directly over the park where I was having coffee with my professor as part of our class' cultural excursion to the Ofrenda, producing so much wind that I didn't stop coughing until 11 that night because of the dust and draining most of the water out of the Fountain of Pomegranites. Most upset of all were the waiters who had taken refuge inside, who now had to come back out to sweep away the four inches of dust off of their outdoor eating areas and pick up the fallen table settings. It was a little like being in a tornado, or perhaps a scene from Miss Saigon.

These are all small bouquets of about five flowers, brought individually to be placed on the façade.
In other news, I found out that I will be able to take all four (or it might be five) of my classes directly at the University of Granada. Apparently, if I do, everyone will hate me, because no one studying at the University's Center for Modern Languages (where I am now) has ever done that, and the program I'm here with is the only one in Granada who wrote into their contract that, if one of their students wants all of their classes at the University, the Center for Languages will let them go. I'm a little apprehensive about being in classes entirely with Spanish students, but I guess that's why I'm here, and I've heard that Spanish university courses are much easier than at home ;o)