Halloween

I know this is a little late, but I was waiting for pictures from some friends (I didn't bring my camera out into the rain), and I was otherwise occupied with writing papers and reading Terry Pratchett (I don't mean to say that reading for pleasure is more important than keeping people informed about what I've been up to, although, if you haven't read any Terry Pratchett, I highly recommend him).
So Halloween...
The day before Halloween, IES organized a spooky tour of Salamanca for us, and we learned a lot of obscure, interesting facts about the city. We went to the Cueva de Salamanca, which is associated with a legend where the devil taught classes in witch-craft to 7 university students in exchange for the soul of one of them, but he was eventually tricked by a clever student. We also visited the cathedral and learned more about the "victor" which is the symbol that PhD recipients get to paint on the walls in their facultades. In the good old days, when the university was housed in the cathedral because there wasn't any university building yet, students who passed their exams and got their degrees were expected to throw a huge party afterwards, complete with bull fights (they used the blood of the bulls to paint the victor). However, this was fairly expensive, so poor students would say that a family member had died to avoid all of the hubbub and cost. This eventually lead to a rumor that getting your PhD at USal would lead to the death of your family members. We also visited the Casa de los Muertos (House of the Dead), which was the house of an old Salamantino family that had on-going feuds with another local family in a manner that strongly reminded me of Romeo and Juliet.
On Halloween, there is a tradition where a man climbs outside the Cathedral to the highest bell tower and plays a flute and drum and sings and releases a dove. This tradition started in 1757 after the earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal, during which the tower of the cathedral cracked, but the family that lived there to ring the bells always rang the highest bell in the tower for All Saints Day, but they couldn't get up there because the crack in the tower broke the staircase. To fulfill their obligation, one member of the family climbed the outside of the tower to ring the bell. Later, the tradition moved to October 31, so it wouldn't conflict with All Saints Day celebrations.
Here are some pics (that I mostly got from other people), and a video of the guy on top of the cathedral.
Our pumpkin, which won the pumpkin carving contest is the rana.

I dressed up like a mouse, with a tail and whiskers.

The cathedral climber on a balcony.


On top of the cathedral, sitting on the weather vane.

Here's the link to the Mariquelo playing and singing from the top of the cathedral:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOIZF1oHa_A