Hola Festival

Yesterday, I went to the Hola Festival with Taylor Holcraft (She came for a visit!!), Karlee Ervin, and Shivani, a girl in my Spanish class. The Hola Festival celebrates Latino culture with food, dancing, crafts, a parade of nations, and tables with information on each country. I've been looking forward to it for awhile, and I was not disappointed.

What must first be said about the event is the food. Seriously, the sheer amount of it would be noteworthy on its own, not to mention the variety of flavors and options. What most shocked me though, was the fact that everything looked good. Everything! And that's coming from me, someone who only grudgingly accepts Mexican food. This was different, though. Everything was authentic and unusual, and I was feeling adventurous! I wish I had taken pictures of the food I ate, but I only thought about that until afterwards. Regardless, my menu that day consisted of:

• empanada de yucca-  a pastry turnover filled with cheese and yuca, a starchy vegetable
• platanos fritos menos los frijoles- fried plantain with mayonnaise, hold the beans
• horchata- a rice-water drink sweetened with cinnamon
• morcilla- Spanish blood sausage

The empanada de yuca was good when it was hot, but once it cooled the texture was not very good. The platano frito was amazing. It was so good, even when I expected not to like it. The plantain tasted surprisingly starchy, kind of like a french fry, but much more interesting. The horchata was great, but I already knew I liked that. The morcilla grew on me. I got a sweet salsa to go on top, but I liked it better plain. It had rice inside to help keep the meat together, which definitely added to the flavor.

I also bought a few trinkets (of course). I came home with a bracelet, necklace, and handcarved ornament made by women in Peru, and a string bracelet with Bernadette's name on it. They didn't have Christie or Chela (my Spanish name) but they had Bernadette?? I will never understand this.

  

They had tables set up where you could learn about every country. Seeing all the flags and the different artwork from each area was really intersting. Some of them even had costumes. For the kids, they had "passports." The children would take their passports up to each table and get a sticker from each one. Eventually, they'd have it complete filled out. I thought it was a cute idea to get the kids to learn about each country.


The last thing that must be mentioned is the music. There were different live bands playing all throughout the day, which was a perfect touch. Everywhere you went, you could see people dancing to the music. It was infectious. They showcased all different styles too, so you got a taste of all kinds of Spanish music. It was great.


 On an related note:

Today, I'm going whitewater rafting!! While, I'm very excited to do so, it doesn't give me a lot of time to study. Oh well, I'll find some way to. I'll try to check in again today or tomorrow about the whitewater rafting, but I haven't been very good so far at posting when I need to.