So this last weekend was officially the closure of the Christmas season for us Puerto Ricans. It runs from Black Friday to last Sunday. We have the longest Christmas season in the world and to me it is just absolutely painful.
I really think that this festival(Las Fiestas de la calle San Sebastian, SanSe for short) has totally got to be terminated. I appreciate that the mayor was able to have the streets cleaned spotless almost every night but it was a freaking pigsty. This whole event stopped being about tradition and it’s now about getting your alcohol yardsticks, marketing, and buckets of medalla and premade empanadas from Kiquet.
Ugh. I’d rather go to my favorite place where the owner is just fantastic. Last time I went there was pre-SanSe and we had a riot talking about Sharknado. Like, you can’t do that anywhere.
The stage next to my new place was unspeakably loud and the ‘hype woman’ they had from Thursday forward was absolute trash. I couldn’t stand her screaming the same damn phrase over and over again. It wasn’t just pissing me off, it was pissing off my roommate as well.
I saw so many kids that did not look eighteen with yardsticks in their hands. Everyone’s screaming, the streets are cramped suffocatingly tight. Signal is practically nonexistent too. I wanted to buy a cute wooden hand crafted lamp for my desk and there was no reception for me to be able to get it.
Wednesday was unnecessary but this whole weekend was a travesty. I have more footage from Saturday and Sunday that I’ve yet to upload to YouTube and I will as soon as I’m done editing it on my phone. I stumbled into paper cups, gum landed in the sole of my flipflop and I walked with gum on my foot and I didn’t notice it until I got home. Why did that happen? Because Trident was a sponsor of the event and gave out free gum samples!
I had pinchos for dinner practically every night during this whole weekend because I just couldn’t go anywhere else. My supermarket was fuller than usual and people were buying beer right off the bat at ten and nine AM, drinking it right there. In plastic cups btw, it’s a law that you can’t have alcoholic drinks out unless it’s in a plastic cup!
The handcrafted goods are the best part of this whole event but it’s overcrowded and overshadowed by the drinking. I absolutely hate it. I feel like I’m under house arrest for the second SanSe week I’ve been here.
I love, LOVE living in Old San Juan. Las Fiestas de la Calle de San Sebastian are something I can totally live without. Can we just cancel them next year? Or you know, tell Medalla and Gasolina to cut it out? Old San Juan and this event have a rich history that has nothing to do with alcohol…
Michi out!
Michi's World 