Final Blog

Sunday March 30, 2008

Today was our last normal Sunday at church and everything was normal except that our group sang “God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again”. We did the first two and the last verse in Spanish and the third one in English. Of course, because I’m such a big baby I didn’t get through the first line of the first verse without breaking up, but I did manage to hold my ground through the song even if I wasn’t much for singing. I’m not sure exactly why I got so choked up about it, I don’t even really know that many people in our ward. I think it’s mostly that I love the people as a whole and so the thought of leaving this place is really hard to fathom. It was really good though, and then after church we came home and ate lunch with Madre, Padre, Abuela, and Javi. We told them all about Barcelona and everything that we saw and did. Brooke didn’t really talk that much, but I talked up a storm as usual. Then Brooke went and took a nap and I stayed downstairs and organized pictures and stuff before taking a short siesta before the fireside for tonight. Anyway, Kathy was one of the speakers and she talked about temple attendance and how important it is, and how that’s one thing that should always be at the top of our priority list. It’s something that I’ve made a priority this semester because I learned my lesson from not doing so last semester. Every time there is an opportunity to go, I go, and I’m going to do the same in Provo, and make time maybe every week and if not that then every two weeks; there’s just no excuse not to when you are five minutes away. The other speaker was a Brother Lopez from our ward who was very involved in the progression of getting a temple in Madrid and he was one of the key architects. He told us about trying to get the land contract and finding a spot, and then when it all finally pulled through and the week of the open house arrived. It was amazing to hear about, and it was a great surprise to everyone that so many visitors came to the open house, over 50,000 people by the end of the week, unbelievable, “increíble”. But here’s the big news for the day. Susie Salisbury has decided to stay and live in Spain for the summer and work as an English teacher here in Alcalá!!! Isn’t that amazing? It was especially special for me to hear about it, because Susie and I kind of decided to go to Spain together and she was the first friend I had in the study abroad group. To be honest, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that she decided to do it, and if anyone in our group would do something like this it would be Susie. I am insanely jealous of her, and if I had the money and the time was right, I would be doing the same thing. However, I decided a long time ago that I will be returning to Spain sometime in the near future. Other than that I’ve just been spending a lot of time talking to Madre and Padre, more than usual, because I’m going to miss them so much. Madre told me that I should come visit them when I come back to Spain, and believe me I’m going to too! Oh I cracked the apple twice today! Bye!

Monday March 31, 2008

For lunch we had meatballs and it was so yummy, and after studying a little bit I walked to the church for religion. Religion made me cry at the end during the prayer (go figure). It never ceases to amaze me how much I have learned from Hermano Lopez. He has seen and done so much for the church in Spain and I feel absolutely honored to have known him. We asked him when he is going to publish his research on the history of the church in Spain and he said it will probably be spring of 2009 because that is the 40^th anniversary of the dedication of Spain for the preaching of the gospel which was May 20, 1969…very appropriate. I’m sure that almost everyone in our group will be trying to get their hands on a copy of it since we know the author of it, I know I will be going to. As we were finishing up the class today, Faustino was talking about how when he decided to become a member of the church he became an “extraño” or foreigner to everyone around him because that just wasn’t how things were done at the time in Spain. But he told us that “if you want to be converted, you have to change your identity”, and that’s really what it came down to for these people in order to have the truth. He quoted something that really has played a large role in my life the past few years “Estamos en el mundo, pero no somos del mundo”, or in other words we are in the world, but not of it. That’s exactly what it means to be a Latter-Day Saint, and the example of Faustino Lopez Requena has showed me that in such a way that there really are no words to fully describe my admiration for him. After class we took a big group photo with him, and some others and I got individual photos with him; after ours was taken I told him how much I appreciated what he had taught us and that I had learned so much, and come to love Spain like a second home, and that I plan on returning. What he said in reply I will never forget “Estaré esperando”, I’ll be waiting. I wasn’t really that close with Hermano Lopez, and I may never see him again in this life, but largely because of him I have a greater love and place in my heart for the people of Spain.

Thursday April 3, 2008

I didn’t have much to write about yesterday, but I have a ton to write about today. First of all, yesterday we ate “cerdo Ibérico” and “albondigas” for lunch. The Iberian pork is the pork/pigs that have black skin, so the taste of the meat is a little bit different. The way Madre cooked it, it was still a little pink in the middle, so I hope that’s okay, but honestly, I didn’t really like it as much as regular pork because it tasted almost sourish-maybe alcoholic-pickled. I don’t know how to describe it, kind of like jerky but stronger. The meatballs (albondigas) were good though, even though we didn’t have potatoes with them again. Madre even gave us a bunch of recipes for the food that she makes for us too. After lunch I just went and studied for my Spanish test, which is totally boring! The only other fun thing yesterday was the dramatizations that we did in conversation class. I can’t describe it all, but let’s just say that we have a bunch of actors in our group.J

Other than that, that was most of what we talked about. One other thing that Kait and I noticed about Spain: all the teenagers have lots of piercings; the older woman are more prone to dye their hair funky colors than the youth; and the fad right now is to wear an outfit of all the same color and it’s okay. I also went and sat in the in the plaza de Cervantes today to read and can I just say, that I love watching the Spanish men in the plaza arguing with each other in their sweater vests and loafers and little dogs and walking canes. They just make me laugh because they are the best of friends, but they have such strong opinions and bicker back and forth. Just like Padre who yells at the t.v. when Zapatero comes on and hates it when fútbol is on instead of “Al Pie de la Letra”. Oh I’m going to miss them so much. When we were cleaning up after dinner, Madre was like “next Thursday at this time I’m going to be alone”. I just wanted to cry, and like I said before, I have no choice but to come back to Spain.

Sunday April 6, 2008

Yesterday most of the day I was in the Plaza de Cervantes studying for the History 202 exam, and I tell you what I got so burned on my legs! I looked like a lobster afterwards, and I made sure to take a picture Anyway, when we got home we worked on homework a little more after having calamari and natilla (jello-ish substance with galletas), and then Brooke and I stayed up talking for a while until about 2a.m. So Brooke and I listened to conference on my iTunes, and then we could hear Madre downstairs cooking lunch so we came down to watch. We had paella so now we have a better idea of how to make it, and I of course have pictures and video while we were making everything. For postre we had flan sin huevo and I like that one better because it’s smoother and not quite as custardy as the flan con huevo, but both are good. And now I’ve just been sitting here in the kitchen talking to Madre about different things, and showing her pictures on my computer. Padre is sitting across the table from me reading the paper out loud. I’m not sure why he does that, but it seems like various days throughout the week he will sit at the table reading the paper out loud like he’s in a trance or something. It’s quite entertaining. Also he ate more than I did today so that was funJ. Javi and Raquel were teasing each other about the motocross on T.V. and everyone was teasing Raquel about how she never wants to eat postre or paella, and Javi said if his driver won, then Raquel had to eat all of his postre. It was just fun family teasing though, nothing harsh. Then in a little bit we are going to the church to watch the Sunday morning session, and then I’m going to try to call my parents maybe.

Tuesday April 8, 2008

This morning I went to my last day of Spanish in Spain, and we went over our exams, and I think that my grade will turn out to be a 90 or 91%, so I’m okay with that. At the end of class, Jesús gave kind of a farewell speech, and he told us about how when he first met us we looked so scared, and he was scared that because of all the trips we had, we wouldn’t do the work. However, he was happy to find out that we pulled through with everything we were supposed to do, and that he really enjoyed working with us and seeing us progress. I remember the first couple days of class, no one could understand what he was saying a lot of the time, and I have to admit I was a little frustrated with not being able to ask in English if I didn’t understand, but after three months we can communicate with him and learn the concepts just like any other class would. Before we left class we took group pictures, and Jesús wanted to get pictures of everyone too. I am going to miss that class, and I learned so much from Jesús, you can just tell that he knows so much and is so smart. We were really lucky to have him as a teacher.

Tomorrow after the 202 test we have this little graduation ceremony thing saying we passed the course, and then Kait and I are going to Carrefour because she wants to, and then we have lunch at the Gringo Viejo together with the whole group. The rest of the day is pretty much devoted to packing and spending the rest of the time with my family. I think Brooke and I are going to make something for them (I really want to), and I’m going to try to write in my journal, but no promises, if not I’ll just write on the plane or something. Wish me luck!

Thursday April 10, 2008

I don’t even know where to start, yesterday was so amazing, and so much happened, so this is probably going to be a pretty long entry. Yesterday morning I woke up, and I totally forgot that it was my last day in Spain until about ten seconds after I woke up, and I was immediately sad. I wasn’t really stressed about the test, but I did decide to study on the way to school. I was talking out loud to myself about the terms when this Spanish man who was walking next to me noticed how much I was studying, and he asked me why I was studying so hard and what was wrong. He seemed surprised that I stressed so much about a test, and he told me I shouldn’t worry about it, and I should just go over to his house and have breakfast instead of worrying about the test. He was a funny old man, and it was just the thing I needed to get my spirits up before the test. As for the test, I think it went pretty good and I think my grade is good too. After the test, we had our “graduation ceremony” to get our diplomas from Alcalíngua to say that we have completed the term successfully. Then I went to my last class of conversation, and we had kind of a fiesta because people brought treats to eat during class, and we played games, and we found out what our grades are. We played 20 Questions, and I’d say that my favorite one was when Andrew was up there. The word was “calzoncillos” which is boy’s underwear, but when Andrew was guessing he asked a few questions and then he was like “son grandes?” and of course that sent everyone rolling. We had to leave for lunch around 2p.m., so after I finished emailing we were just hanging out, and I tried to helping Kait find out stuff for her flights, but she couldn’t find the confirmation in her email. Then we went to the Gringo Viejo for lunch, and I guess we paid 12€ for each person to eat. While we were waiting to eat Kait, Missy, Callie White, and Cassie handed out awards for everyone in the group. For me mine was the Hopeless Romantic because I know everyone’s love stories in the group. Everyone’s awards were really funny, and everything fit the person really well, so that was fun. For lunch everyone kind of shared what they got so we could try all the food; there were four options for the first dish, four for the second dish, and about six for postre. As the appetizer, they had little toast pieces on a plate and then you put red peppers with oil on the toast. For the first dish we could have a salad, crema de calabacín (zucchini soup), spaghetti with ham pieces, or cod with asparagus. For the second dish we could have a breaded chicken breast filled with ham and cheese, pork loin with patatas, bacalao (cod) de ajo (garlic), or bonito (tuna) with peppers. For postre we could have a tarta de limón, cream puffs with chocolate, ice cream , tiramisu (I think this is a tarta too, but it had alcohol in it so I don’t think anyone got it), and then I got this thing kind of like a cream-filled cinnamon roll with whipped cream only a lot smaller. Everything was absolutely amazing, but lunch took forever and we ended up being at the restaurant for about three hours, but it also took about 20 minutes between each dish too. I got pictures with everyone in the group during lunch, and of course I cried, I’m not sure why I’ve been so emotional lately maybe just because I love Spain so much. After lunch was over, Kait and I decided to walk around the center of Alcalá since it was really our last time to do that, and we went to Lupe’s, down Calle Mayor, stopped in Madre’s store and talked to Ana and Kait bought something for Blanca, walked around the Plaza de Cervantes. I finally got home around seven I think, and I got going on my packing. Surprisingly it only took me about an hour to pack everything, but I’m going to have to repack because when we checked our bags at the airport this morning my bag was over, but they didn’t make us pay anything so that was nice. Then I was talking to Javi and Raquel, and since Erica Webb was going to go with us we were going to meet in front of the Plaza de Toros, but Javi said that you can’t do that unless you have an actual address to tell them to pick you up at. So I left to go see if there was anything that could qualify as a pick up spot, and I ended up walking around for about an hour when it was absolutely raining cats and dogs, and I never found a spot. So I got home, and it turns out that we could have the taxi pick us up and then Erica which is much easier, but Faustino offered to take Erica to the Plaza so she didn’t go with us. Anyway, I was soaked and I guess everyone was at our house, but I never got to say goodbye to everyone except Javi, Madre, and Padre. But it’s okay, I wrote a really long letter to the family right before I went to bed. Madre made the most amazing tortilla de patata for dinner, and then afterwards we watched “Pretty Woman” in Spanish (of course). It turns out that Madre loves that movie as much as I do so that was really cool. Padre was watching it in the kitchen because he was reading the paper, and Javi even came down and watched the end of it with us. I hadn’t seen it in such a long time, and it was really fun to watch it with her. I also got pictures with Madre, Padre, and Javi and so did Brooke. Finally we went upstairs to go to bed around one, and Brooke was still trying to finish burning her pictures onto CDs, so we didn’t get to make the movie for the family, but like I said I wrote that letter to them, and I’m just going to make the movie when I get back instead.

I woke up at four this morning to call the taxi, and we left the house at about ten to five. Madre got up to tell us goodbye, and I cried when I was saying goodbye to her. She gave me a real hug, like what I’m used to getting from my parents in the states. It was so niceJ. I wasn’t really hungry so I just had a glass of juice, and then we got the taxi, and it was our driver’s first day on the job, and my first time in a taxi, which by the way was almost 10€ so now I am pretty much completely wiped out as far as money goes for Vienna. Oh well, once we got to the Plaza, we got all our stuff in the compartments and left for Madrid after deciding that Amy was going on the next bus. I got pictures from Lisa, and we got to the terminal with no problems. I was overweight with my luggage but they let it slide so that was nice. And now we’ve been sitting by the gate since about 7:30a.m. and it’s a little after nine right now. The plane was supposed to leave soon, but it’s running late so we’ll probably leave in a little while. Vienna should be great, and I’m definitely going to sleep on the plane since I’m going on a little over two hours of sleep.

Friday April 11, 2008

Okay, so yesterday after I stopped writing in my journal the flight to Vienna was overall uneventful, and we got into Vienna around 3:30pm I think. After collecting all of our luggage, we proceeded to get our vouchers for the hotel and then the taxi to go to the hotel. Our hotel was only about ten minutes away from the airport which was nice for us to be able to get there at decent time, but it was about 15 miles outside of Vienna, so it was kind of a hassle to get into the city because we had to take the train. After getting settled into our rooms, we went and hopped on the train that left at 4:30pm to go see as much as we could in Vienna. The train ride wasn’t that long maybe only fifteen minutes, and we got off the train at the main station in Vienna and Natausha had written down some of the sites in that area in a tour format for us to go see. So we walked around and saw the opera house, where the tombs of the Hapburgs are located, the cathedral there, a memorial to the victims of the concentration camp that was in Vienna (which is also a structure protesting fascism), the palace, and some other little sites. The city itself was really beautiful with lots of trees, flowers, and hardly any trash or graffiti like there was in Spain. As we were walking around, we didn’t look in any tourist shops since we were so low on time, but Vienna is renowned for its chocolate so we did make point to go into this little shop by the concentration camp memorial to try some chocolate. The one that I got was a chocolate that is apparently very typical of Vienna. It had stripes of chocolate and a lighter colored cream, and the lighter cream had a taste kind of like peanut butter, but the girl at the counter said that it’s made with almonds not peanuts. Almost everyone got something different, so I won’t write about all of it, but it was all so yummy. As we were walking around by the palace, we hadn’t heard any Spanish since the flight out of Madrid, so we were really surprised when we heard these two girls speaking Spanish nearby. It turned out that they live a little outside of Madrid, but the one girl is actually German. She knows German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and English!!! Isn’t that crazy, that’s five languages! Anyway, we talked to them for a minute since we could actually communicate with them, took some pictures and then said “hasta luego”. At that point, I really missed Spain, and I couldn’t help but burst into tears at the thought that I had actually left Spain. But I got over it, and we continued on our way to find something to eat. We wanted to get something typical of the region, and so we began the pilgrimage for wiener schnitzel!!! Of course, since they are typical they were everywhere, and so were the doner kebaps, the hard part was finding one on the way back to the train station and one that had decent prices. We ended up finding a pretty good little stand right in the middle of what is the equivalent to Puerta del Sol, that sold kebaps and wiener schnitzel. Meg and Christy got the kebaps, and everyone else got the wieners. I got the “milde”, Dani got the Karsikreiner which was cheese filled, and Kait got the “picante”. All of them were really good (we swapped bites), and afterwards we were so full we couldn’t believe it. After that we hung out in this little area with stone benches and a water fountain where the water formed a “W” for Vienna (W’s are V’s), and the water from that fountain was absolutely amazing. On the way back to the station, Dani wanted some ice cream for the last time from Europe, and Kait found some chocolate for her family, and then we headed back into Fischamend to get to bed. All of us were going on about three hours of sleep so you can imagine how tired we were. When we got back to the hotel, Natausha and I were rooming together, Kait and Christy, and Meg and Dani each had their own rooms. I used Kait’s computer to email my parents and let them know I was safe in Vienna, and then I went and got ready for bed. Here’s the thing though, Kait was using my converter to charge her computer while I got ready for bed, and when I went back to get it I just propped our door open to come back in, but when I got there the door had sucked shut, and Tausha was asleep, so I ended up sleeping in Kait and Christy’s room sharing a bed with Kait. It wasn’t that bad, and I slept pretty good even though we were sharing a twin bed.

Then this morning we woke up around six to reorganize our suitcases, to eat breakfast, and to go into Fischamend for a little while. For breakfast I had yogurt with muesli, some bread and a roll, and a chocolate sweet roll to finish it off. Kait had some rough blisters from wearing her boots yesterday so she didn’t go with us, but Tausha and I took Kait’s letter’s and postcards into town to send them off for her. We only got to spend about thirty minutes there, but while we were there one of the things that we thought was interesting was how everyone seemed to be riding bikes instead of walking and carrying baskets (like for bread or flowers). We even saw a man who had a basket on his bike, and in his basket he had his little dog! Our impressions of the people were that everyone was SO friendly, and even though not all of them spoke English, the ones that did we really enjoyed talking to. Anyway, after getting back from Fischamend we ended up missing the shuttle back to the airport that we had planned on taking, but they came about every twenty minutes so we just waited for the next one, and we were still an hour early once we got through security anyway. Getting tickets for the flights was relatively smooth except Tausha and Dani had a little trouble because originally they had planned on an eight-day layover in Vienna but changed it due to other plans, but the airlines still had the first itinerary on file for some reason, even though their paid-for night in Vienna worked out fine with no problems. But it all worked out fine, and everyone got where they needed to. Dani’s flight went to New York; Christy was staying to travel with her brother, and the rest of us are going to Washington D.C. and then splitting up. Kait and Meg somehow ended up sitting right next to each other but Tausha and I are not next to anyone that we know. I’m in the 14^th row, and everyone else is past the 25^th, so I’m pretty far away, but it’s okay, the people I’m sitting next to are really friendly. There’s this group of businessmen that were staying in Vienna for a conference and I talked to one of them for a while. It turns out his son is going to start his first year of college here soon in Philadelphia, and so we were discussing that and the different options about college. He said that his son is really talented with music, but that he wants to go into psychology, and that he also really loves his car. That doesn’t surprise me much, most teenage boys love their cars.

Sunday April 13, 2008

I think this will be the last time that I write in my Spain Journal. Since I’m not in Spain anymore I figure I should write in my normal journal so I can keep the two separate. To finish it off I guess I just wanted to tell anyone and everyone that reads this blog exactly how I feel about my experience over the past few months. From reading what I’ve written, it’s obvious to me that I definitely love Spain. Everyone that I have talked to since I got back to the states wants to know “how was Spain”. But you know what, there is no possible way for me to explain “how Spain was” because I actually lived it, and that’s not something you can share with anyone. One thing I can say is that by doing a Study Abroad, I got the chance to see another part of the world with a different culture, people, traditions, and people. Being in America is supposed to be the land of opportunity and I think Americans kind of immortalize the American dream into thinking that this is the only place you can be happy. But there are people all over the place that are so unhappy with themselves, and being in Spain made me realize that you can be happy anywhere, you don’t have to be in only America. We get so attached to the internet, money, cell phones, and iPods that we forget the simple things like just taking a walk in the park with someone you love or taking a short siesta before you have to rush off to work again for a few hours before coming home to watch the news or Al Pie de la Letra with your family. Everyone is familiar with the saying “time is money”, but maybe money isn’t the only important thing, even though it’s something that affects everyone of us, but it’s not the MOST important thing. That’s going to be hard to keep in mind sometimes, especially since I’m just a poor college student, but I think that everyone comes to a realization like this at some point in their lives, and I’m just glad that I came to it now rather than later. I cut a lot out of my journal that I would have loved to share with everyone, so to make up for everything that I cut out, I just want to put my philosophy of the world on paper. Everyone has their own thing going on and we make a big deal about being individual and different, and that’s great, but the one thing that everyone has in common is the fact that we are all in the same world, and that means we are in it together whether we like it or not. People are people, and just because they speak a different language or have different customs doesn’t mean they are any less important than you are. Keep that in mind, I know I will. Thanks for reading everyone. Hasta luego.

La Comida: The Food

I have put some of the foods that I loved the most while I was in Spain, but obviously I have not included everything I ate that would take up too many blogs.
Meatball soup with potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, onions. Very Yummy


Fried sardines: one of my least favorite lunches. You eat it just like it is in the picture.


Veggie salad: tuna, tomatoes, red peppers, onions, cilantro, and spinach.


Marmelade of membrillas. This stuff is made from some sort of herb and it's kind of honey-flavored. They put it on toast mostly for breakfast.


My favorite soup of chicken, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, and...white wine.


Paella: only the MOST Spanish food you could ever possibly eat!


Lentil Soup with sausage, peppers, onions.


Croquets which have kind of a mashed potato filling with ham; mini churros; empanaditas which are kind of like a Hot Pocket I guess only a million times better and do not come in a box.


Calamari rings with bread, one of my favorites.


Natilla: kind of like vanilla pudding with a cookie in the middle. Served cold to eat.


Green beans, ham, tomatoes, and peas. This one grew on me.


These videos are of cleaning calamari and the other one is my Madre trying to get the flan out of the mold and onto the plate to eat. One thing about Spanish cooking is you have to make it beautiful before you eat it

Vienna, Austria (on the way home)

Because Austrian Airlines didn't have a flight directly to the United States on the day we needed, they had to pay for a night in the hotel, and so we got to see Vienna, Austria. There's a lot I could say about it, but mostly the people were really friendly, and even though none of us spoke German we still got around okay. The sign of "Welcome to the U.S." was the first thing we say after we landed in Washington D.C. and I don't think we were supposed to take pictures, but we did anyway just because we were so excited to be back on American soil.

Final Week in Alcala

These are the pics I took with my conversation teacher Angelica, and the other pic is of my Spanish 106 class with Jesus (He-soos) our teacher. Below is also the Plaza de Cervantes on the day before we left to go home.

Here are my final pictures with my padres, and then the video is of making the tortilla de patata.

Madrid

The pictures above are of the Madrid Temple, and I love it so much!!!!


I love the old men, aren't they awesome. And the other picture is at the Plaza de Toros. Even though we never got to see a bull fight, the museum was really neat.

This is my final napolitana...:(
Below is a video I took in Retiro Park the last time we went into Madrid.

Pics from Barcelona

Here is the Sagrada Familia, which is my ultimate favorite cathedral, which is still not finished as you can see, because of all the symbolism that I have already explained in past blogs. Below, the number box that I am "holding" is a mathematical symbol created by Gaudi (I think), and if you add any four numbers (they have to be connected/touching) it will add up to the age Christ was when he was crucified (33). Cool huh?

Below, we have Casa Mila, which was also designed by Antoni Gaudi. All of the walls and whatnot are not straight, and in much of his work, you can see a relation to nature because he loved it so much and that's where he got his inspiration from. The picture with all of us covering our faces...it's not because it stinks. It's because we are mimicking the air vents that George Lucas got the inspiration from for his Darth Vader and storm troopers (or so legend has it).


This is the guy that thought I was Cuban, which I'm not, but it was fun to play the trumpet with him. I think I wrote this in my other blog, but the song he was playing was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz.

This picture with the purple shirt is what I like to call my "Sound of Music" picture because I remind myself of Julie Andrews. This was on the way home from Barcelona, and there wasn't much to do or see in the town we stopped in. The other one is my first time swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, and boy was it FREEZING, but now I can say that I did it. And then below here you can see the beach that was two blocks away from the hotel where I went swimming.

Valencia March 19, 2008

This is Valencia: the home of the Fallas!!! As you can see below, these statue looking things are what people spend millions and billions of money to build all year, and then on one day during Holy Week, around midnight, they BURN all of them! Yes they burn, and that is precisely why we went. Some people call them floats, but really they are made from paper mache and a wooden frame, and they are hollow on the inside. The sizes vary between really extravagant and large and smaller but still intricate. The one with the genie is the one that I watched burn, and we waited in the crowd for about five hours before it burned. There is also a picture below of the crowds around where I was standing, and just from looking at the picture, you can imagine how sardinish we felt. Also below you can see a picture of the little girl in a typical Semana Santa dress; there were lots of little girls and older women dressed like this for the processions throughout the day, and I just happened to get a good picture of her before she walked past.



The picture above of the circlish looking things are churros. The way this stand made them was kind of like squeezing frosting out of a cake decorating tube to form a ring and then it fries in the oil. Below are some pictures of the sculptures burning, and as you can tell they were pretty intense. We were probably about a football field away from the fire, but it still felt like we were standing right next to it.

Blog 11

Monday March 24, 2008
I have some things that really meant a lot to me today. Like always, on Mondays, we went to our three classes, but religion was one of particular interest not because we did anything spectacular, but just the thoughts I had. Faustino was continuing with the history of the Church from 1973-present, and he showed us a video called “The Saints in Spain”. It was all about how the Church finally got the chance to have a temple right here in Madrid and that it attracted over 100,000 visitors at the open house when there were only 30,000 members in Spain at the time. In the video was an interview with Faustino because he was one of the first members in Spain and was a prominent Church leader at the time. He talked about how he had been searching for something more for some time when he found the missionaries and once he found out what they were all about, he knew the Church was true. That’s right about when it struck me that I have one of the most amazing religion teachers in the world. It’s not every day that you get to meet someone who has seen the bringing up of the Gospel in a country that is completely foreign to anything not Catholic, and to top it off under the influence/reign of Francisco Franco. There have been lots of other countries that have undergone similar or worse struggles, but for me I get to see it firsthand, and it’s really come to mean a lot to me. After seeing all the stuff for Semana Santa last week, it gave me a lot of peace to go to church and sing the songs about the Resurrection, and then tonight to see on the video the Lladró Christuses. Rather than picturing Christ on the cross, we see him as he really is, resurrected and with flesh and bone like us. It’s this type of realization that really reassures my testimony that the church is true, and sometimes it catches me off guard and I get kind of emotional about it. Anyway, the other thing I wanted to write about was what I learned about Madre and Padre. We were talking about marriage because Brooke is going to be a bridesmaid in June for her friend, and I asked about how Madre and Padre met. It turns out that they met in a tourist group that was touring through France. She was living in Córdoba and he was in Murcia, and after the trip ended they wrote letters back and forth to each other to get to know each other better. Six years later, after writing, talking on the phone, and some visits, they decided to get married, and they got married in Córdoba. They don’t really show affection for each other, but I could tell tonight that they really love each other, even if Padre can be a grumpy old man sometimes. I think I said before that Madre was 33 or 34 when she got married, and I also found out today that Abuela is 86 and right now Madre is 60-something, which is interesting because that means that Abuela would have been in her 20s when she got married, and even getting married around 26 is too young for the Spaniards, so it would be interesting to know how/why she was so young and getting married.
After dinner we lingered and talked about not only marriage but also about the trip tomorrow. I guess Padre has been there lots of times, but he said he doesn’t really like it all that much. He also said that he used to surf a lot too, cool huh? He said that we need to be careful when we go in the ocean though because the shore drops off into the ocean and you can’t go more than about 10-15 feet before it will be a sheer drop off into the ocean. It was interesting to hear that he doesn’t like Barcelona because for a lot of people Barcelona is the favorite spot of Spain and I think it’s going to be mine. The one thing (besides the beach) that I’m really looking forward to is the Sagrada Familia cathedral. It’s not like any other cathedral and everything represents something in the architecture of the building. It still isn’t completely finished, but the blue prints were partially lost in a fire so the architects don’t know exactly how it’s supposed to look. The one façade that is finished has four towers and three portals that represent faith, hope, and charity, and in the middle of the façade is a representation of the Trinity. It’s a cross which obviously represents Christ, then this golden ribbon looking thing that represents God, and attached at the top of the cross is a dove which is the Holy Ghost. Also, all together, there is supposed to be 18 towers, with 12 to represent the Apostles, the four in the finished façade that I don’t know what they represent, and then there is supposed to be one to represent the Virgin Mary, and finally the largest of all is supposed to represent Christ. Gaudi is the original architect and because he died before it could be finished that’s the other reason that what they are doing now is some guesswork along with actual knowledge. Gaudi has a lot of influence on the architecture in Barcelona like in the Casa Milá which is supposed to be really cool so I’m sure I’ll have a lot to write about once we get there. We are spending one night in Zaragoza and then three nights in Barcelona. Dr. Shumway said that this trip is the one that the most money goes to because it’s so cool.

Wednesday March 26, 2008
There really wasn’t all that much to se in Zaragoza besides the Basilica and the river. The basilica was cool because the central worship point inside is designated by a dome inside the building and we hadn’t seen anything like that in any of the other cathedrals. It was really cold outside when we went to see the river, but we still got some great pictures and had a good time. After a four-hour bus ride to our hotel outside of Barcelona and grabbing a bite to eat, we decided to hit the beach first. Our hotel is about two blocks away from the beach so we just strolled down there to have a look-see. I was expecting better weather, but it was pretty cloudy, windy, and just plain cold all day, it even rained a little bit. I didn’t get in the water though because I didn’t have a suit with me so I just sat on the shore and watched everyone who was playing in the water. They said that it was really cold, but I don’t care I’m totally going swimming in it before we leave. If I do, then I will have swum in the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean (on the shore of the United States and Europe), AND the Mediterranean Sea. How crazy is that? So I pretty much have to swim in it or I can’t say that I have (duh).
Anyway, after we got back from going to the beach we just kind of hung out until it was time to leave to go into the city. Our hotel is about half an hour from the actual city of Barcelona so we have to take the bus to go in to see stuff. Fernando dropped us off in one of the main plazas and then we walked along this big shopping street called “La Rambla”. All along the street there are artists that will draw or paint you from 5-20€ a drawing, and there are restaurants and shops on either side of the street with little tables that you can sit at and watch what’s going on outside. Right across the street from each other was a Kentucky Fried Chicken and a McDonald’s, how sad is that? America is invading now matter where you go. We only had about four hours to spend in Barcelona tonight, so we hung out around the monument to Columbus which is supposed to represent the successful first journey and meeting with Isabella and Fernando and Columbus. The monument is surrounded by these black lions and lots of tourists climb on the backs of these lions to take a picture, I was one of them. Also in Barcelona is this museum dedicated solely to Pablo Picasso and since we didn’t have a lot of time we decided to go there and check it out. I really liked the museum because it had work from artists that Picasso admired and worked with, and it had samples of Picasso’s work from all the different types that he did. They had sketches, oil paintings, pottery, tiling…and they had the rooms divided into what time period he did the work so you could see the progression and how it changed. Of course they had specific rooms for his Blue Period and Rose Period, but they also had it separated by where he was at the time whether he had been studying in Madrid or Barcelona, or Paris even. We were there for about two hours, which is more than we usually spend but it was totally worth it even though my feet were killing me afterwards. By then it was getting time to head back, and we just kind of looked around and meandered back to the bus.

Friday March 28, 2008
It’s been such a long day, and it’s already almost midnight right now, but I’ve got to write about today and yesterday or I will not be able to go to sleep. Yesterday morning we went as a group to the Sagrada Familia cathedral which is the one that I’ve been wanting to see the whole trip. Its original architect was Antoni Gaudi and the whole city of Barcelona kind of worships Gaudi because there’s a lot that had his hand in it. The cathedral still is not finished today and they estimate that it won’t be for at least another 50 years. But the interesting thing is that Gaudi knew that it wouldn’t get finished in his lifetime and he encouraged those who followed after him to not follow his style but to do their own thing and do whatever their inspiration was. So some of it looks nothing like the older stuff, but it’s still really cool and there’s lots of religious symbolism which is really neat. Anyway, because there really wasn’t all that much to see we didn’t stay all that long, and we tried to go to Casa Milá but we ended up not having enough time and so we went to the free exposition on this painter Zoram Music and his work was a lot of war images. After that we came back to the hotel during siesta and I slept for a while, and then we went back into Barcelona in the afternoon. Once we got into the city we weren’t sure if we were going to have time to go to Casa Milá or not and so we went to the market, the old cathedral, and somewhere to go to the bathroom before it was time to go home. I got to try cactus flower fruit at the market with some of the other girls and it wasn’t like anything that I’ve ever tasted before but it was really good. The outside is hot pink and spiny and the inside looks like kiwi only white. When we got back to the hotel I offered to braid any of the girls’ hair that wanted me to and I braided Brooke’s, Susie’s, McKell’s, and then a couple others today. I did a zigzag braid in McKell’s hair and it looked so awesome!!! However, because I was doing that I didn’t get back to my room until one in the morning, blah!
This morning I got up and went running with Tina along the road that runs along the beach, had a wonderful breakfast and then we headed back into Barcelona. We went to Gaudi (Güell) Park and saw the ceramic iguana that Barcelona is famous for. Like most parks there was several venders trying to sell jewelry and other similar things, and there was also several musicians seated around the perimeter or the viewpoint. One of them was playing on a trumpet, and he was playing “Over the Rainbow” so I went over and put in a little bit of money for him. He stopped to say thank you and we got to talking and he asked me if I was Cuban. I can’t tell if people keep asking me if I’m a certain nationality because of my accent or how I look. I’ve now gotten asked if I’m Spanish and Cuban, and I don’t think I look like either of them really, but whatever it was fun to talk to him. He was telling me how he heard on the news that over 60% of Americans speak Spanish and that within the next few decades Spanish will most definitely be the second language of the states. That wouldn’t surprise me since they teach it in so many of the schools and because of the immigration factor. Then we went to the old hospital and that was really cool for me and Kait to see. When we were walking up to the front of the building there was a guy sitting out in front with this puppy and we sat down and played with him for a while, his name was Cookie because he was black and white. Then we finally went to Casa Milá and that was really neat mostly because we got to see what a typical apartment would have looked like at the beginning of the 20th century and the roof is really abstract so that was neat. Then we went back to the hotel and there was only six of us and some Shumway’s that went back, and the six of us went to the beach and I finally got to go swimming in the Mediterranean Sea!!! It was absolutely freezing but I did it and even though I only stayed in for about ten minutes I can now count it on my list. We rushed back for a quick shower before heading back with only five of us on the bus with Fernando to Barcelona. We wanted to finish some shopping and see the fountain show but Kait, Paige, and I only got to go shopping. I am going to sleep in tomorrow and work on homework on the bus since we have about eight to nine hours on the bus tomorrow I will have plenty of time to do that.

Blog 10

Friday March 21, 2008
Wow, I decided not to write in my journal for a couple days because there wasn’t all that much to write about and then suddenly it’s Friday and I haven’t written in almost a week! Well, on Monday there really wasn’t all that much that happened. Besides the normal stuff for Mondays, we had a birthday party for everyone who has had or is going to have a birthday during the study abroad. Emily got everyone to donate a euro and she bought galletas (which are basically graham cracker cookies with chocolate filling), pretzels, whipped cream, and a cake. It was so much fun, even Hermano Lopez came and had some. Afterwards, some of us stayed and played cards, and we played BS and a couple other games.
Tuesday was our last day of class before we got out for Semana Santa, and after Spanish I went and updated my blog all the way from Santiago with pictures and everything, and then I came home and went running. When I got back I decided to rest for a while, and I ended up sleeping for two hours! Brooke had gone into Madrid with some people, so after my nap I worked on some homework and then went to Keri’s and we watched “The Man From Snowy River”, she had never seen it, and that was the only movie we had at our disposal. When I got home, Brooke was still gone, but she got home a little after me and then we went and had dinner. Because it’s Semana Santa all the mercados closed down for the week and Madre bought everything in mass quantity; after dinner she was getting food in containers, and one of the things she was doing was cleaning calamari, and I asked if I could help. You have to break the bottom that has the eyes and tentacles off of the head, and then take out the spine and insides, and then peel off the skin. You eat the tentacles and the head without the skin and insides, both of which are really good. My hands smelled horrible afterwards though! It was fun, however, I don’t think I’m going to make a habit out of it. Then since Wednesday was Father’s Day in Spain, Brooke and I made a card for Padre, and it was awesome! The outside just said “Felíz Día de los Padres” and had a picture of a toro, and then on the inside we drew the whole family and wrote a letter to him. It really was a great card, and since we were going to be gone all day in Valencia we left it on the table for him the next morning. He hasn’t said anything about it, which is okay, he was actually in kind of a grumpy mood all day yesterday, so hopefully he won’t be today.
Then on Wednesday, we left Alcalá at about seven in the morning, and it was a four-hour drive to Valencia. I tried to sleep on the way, but my head kept flopping around. Once we got there, Lisa’s dad (Juan) had offered to show us around the city because that’s where he’s from. First of all, I could not believe how many people were there! All over the place there were the little tiendas on the sides of the street selling everything from wooden roses and soaps to clothes and jewelry and food. Oh the food…places to buy churros y chocolate and paella were everywhere. Paella comes from Valencia so that’s why it was so popular. Okay then, so the floats. When I heard “floats” I was thinking kind of like what we have in the states with an overly large Winnie the Pooh floating over the crowds or something, but no, that was not what they were. They are actually more like massive paper meché sculptures that are located all around the city and there’s only one in every spot by itself. The officials put metal fences around the fallas/floats to keep the crowds away and these come in really handy when they burn so no one gets hurt. So after we got off the bus we went to find a bathroom and the only place we could find right away was at the train station, and I tell you what I have never smelled a bathroom that smelled as bad as that one. I seriously thought I was going to be sick from the smell. Yuck. Well, after that we could either go to see Juan’s district of town or go see the fireworks by the train station. Little did we know that if you wanted a good spot for fireworks you have to get there sooner than 20 minutes beforehand and we had to fight our way to even get where we did, and we still couldn’t see anything where we ended up. I’m kind of an optimist-progressive person and I just wasn’t okay with standing there smushed in between all those people, and Missy and Cassie felt the same way so we determined to get out of the mob. I took the lead and they hooked on behind me. I never knew that all those days of fighting through the crowds in high school would come in so handy, but I just dived through people to get through the crowds. You had to push through people and seriously squeeze in between everyone. Most of them didn’t really do anything but one guy got really annoyed with me and elbowed me in the side as I was passing. Whatever, anyway after we finally got out of the crowd we decided to go to the market place to look at the tiendas. Missy got a wooden ring, Cassie got these really cool swirly wooden earrings, and I finally finished my souvenir shopping. Honestly, most of Wednesday was wandering around following someone else, and if I had to compare it to something I would say it’s like being at the State Fair for WAY too long. I’m not a big fan of the fair anyway so this was definitely not one of my favorite trips. After going to the market place we met back up at the train station, and we thought we were going to the beach, but I guess there was a breach with my source because we ended up just walking around to see more of the fallas. So after wandering around Valencia for about seven hours, I was really ready to just fall over. Plus, because of my souvenir buying, I had run out of money and I didn’t bring any credit cards for fear of pick-pockets (which still hasn’t happened to me, knock on wood). However, Christy didn’t want to eat all of her paella and I gave her the euro fifty that I did have leftover and we shared it, and then I had some crackers and an orange later to eat. Finally, after everyone had had a sufficient meal and bathroom break we went to go get spots for our falla of choice. Ours was with this huge genie, panther, and other related objects. One thing about the fallas, most of them were really bizarre and risqué if I do say so myself. I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say they were weird. Anyway, we got to the falla at about nine, and it was set to light at one. Yes, we waited four hours to see this thing burn. In the meantime, there wasn’t much we could do except wait, I had a book so I read for a while, but we ended up talking most of the time. At one point while I was sitting down, this little girl started talking to me in Spanish (her name was Gabriella but she goes by Gaby and is six) and we were chatting about the fallas when her mom leaned down and asked me if I was from Australia in English. Well, it turns out they are from Brazil and the mom’s family lives in Spain so they were visiting, and the mom has been trying to learn English for a couple of years now and Gaby is starting to learn too. The mom told me that the little girl was talking to me in Portuguese, but it didn’t really sound that different from Spanish. The mom also said that Brazilian Portuguese is much smoother and prettier than Portugal Portuguese, so that may have been why it was easy to understand Gaby. The mom said that she had been trying to understand us since she’s trying to learn English but that we talked to fast for her to understand most of the time, which is funny because that’s how it is for us in Spanish. Anyway, we talked for about an hour, but when she found out the falla wasn’t going to start until one, she and Gaby decided to leave. It was so cold anyway so I wasn’t surprised that they decided to leave. Finally at one they started it off by setting off a ton of fireworks like we do for the Fourth of July, and because we were right in front you could feel it rumbling and pulsing through the ground. Then what they do to set the falla on fire (haha) is they have attached wires all over it and they light the whole thing up at once. Now, I thought maybe it wouldn’t really do much, but when they say it’s going to burn, they really mean it’s going to burn. We were a good two hundred and fifty feet away but once it started burning, you could feel the heat as if it was right next to you. The fire and smoke went above the buildings and the whole time there was fire fighters on hand if anything went amiss. Also, at one point during the night within about ten minutes, we saw ten people go by on stretchers who had passed out from being so drunk. It was so bad, that’s why I say it was like the fair, with the mobs, the drunks…everything reminded me of the fair. Well, after about a half hour, it was pretty much done, and we were supposed to leave at 3a.m. so we just kind of moved into the crowd like we were herding cattle-sardines, made a bathroom stop and then headed back to the train station to wait until it was time to meet at our meeting spot. It’s incredible how much pain you can be in from just walking around all day; my feet were so sore and I was kind of limping because it hurt so badly. Everyone was really sore though, so I wasn’t the only one. We actually didn’t end up leaving until a little after three because we were missing people, but once we got on the road, I didn’t have any problem sleeping and the only time I woke up was to go to the bathroom halfway. When I went in the gas station, after I went to the bathroom, I decided to stretch my legs by walking around the store inside, but then I couldn’t figure out how to get out, which may have been from lack of sleep. You go in through a revolving gate, but it doesn’t go the other way, so I ended up just pushing my way through because I was too tired to find some other way.
When we finally got into Alcalá, it was about 7:30a.m., and the sun was just coming up. It was absolutely beautiful with the pink, red, and orange, and I’m pretty sure I’m about the only one on our bus (besides Fernando the bus driver) who saw it. When we got off the bus, I was so cold I just wanted to get home as fast as possible, but Brooke wanted to see what everyone was doing later, so I left without her. I was just too cold to wait, but she caught up to me a few minutes later. When we got home we had a snack, and then changed and went straight to bed. I didn’t bother setting an alarm, and we slept straight through from 8a.m. until one thirty. After we woke up we showered and had the most yummy lunch! It was caballa which is mackerel with potatoes, sopa de mariscos, and for postre we had a Semana Santa specialty. They are called torrijas, and they are actually like French toast, except they are covered in cinnamon and sugar, and are made from slices of French bread dipped in milk and eggs and then fried before putting on the cinnamon and sugar. After this, you put some of the milk mixture over it and you are supposed to eat it cold. It’s amazing, and I love them so much. They know I love them too, so it’s kind of funny. So after lunch we decided to go into Madrid to see the procession, but beforehand we went to this free museum which was okay, but it didn’t really have that much just some modern art (blah) and religious paintings. The procession we went to was by the Plaza Mayor, and it’s definitely not like the parades in the states. From Angelica, we learned that the processions Wednesday through Friday are focused on the death of Christ and are sullen and somber, and then Saturday and Sunday are dedicated to the Resurrection and are more festive. Well, she was right, that’s exactly how it was last night, and it was actually kind of creepy I thought. The people where the long cloaks like the Catholic priests do, only purple, and they were wearing the pointed hats that look like the KKK. Some of them were walking barefoot and carrying person-sized crosses, and I even saw one who was wearing chains on their ankles. There was also a large group of women dressed all in black like a widow would be who’s in mourning, and there was several idol looking Christuses. It’s definitely not a time for messing around and no one was talking really, and some people were crying. Because our religion doesn’t really focus on the death of Christ it was weird for us to see, and we don’t really understand it, but it was interesting for sure. Anyway, the procession moved really slow and because it was so slow, we left around ten to get home in time. The metro was a nightmare going there but not to bad on the way back so that was nice. Nothing exciting when we got home and nothing today so far, Brooke’s going to Madrid and I’m going to the procession in Alcalá. Everyone was still asleep when we woke up at nine, it’s 11a.m. now and I think Javi is in the shower. I think they sleep in since everything is closed so they don’t have to get up for anything special.

Saturday March 22, 2008
Yesterday after I went running and ate potaje and fish for lunch, I left to go see if anyone was in the Plaza de Cervantes for the procession. There wasn’t anyone there when I got there, so I waited a while and then ended up finding Callie and her parents’ friend Danny and then we waited around for the others to show up. The procession didn’t even come around the Plaza until about nine and it was about the same as last night in Madrid. We didn’t stick around long, but right before we decided to leave, this guy that was behind us asked us why a bunch of Americans were at the procession in Alcalá. It turns out that this guy was from Arizona and served in the Air Force in Spain back in the day, and then met a Spaniard, got married, and has been living in Spain since 1990. But now he has kids who are living in Spain with their spouses and grandkids here, so it would be really hard to leave and go back to the states, but he said that he would like to someday. He was stationed at Hill Air Force base for some time and I mentioned Grandpa Brooks to see if he recognized the name, and he said that it sounded familiar but couldn’t remember for sure. Once we got home, Padre’s family was here, but Brooke and I kind of got the feeling that they were having a private conversation so we ate in the kitchen with just us two. After dinner, there were these pastelitos that Madre told us we could have some of, and those were yummy but they were drier than the cookies that we are used to from the states. Actually there was this one that was really soft and fluffy like Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are, and Brooke and I both really liked that one. After swapping some photos, Brooke went to bed and I went to so put my bottle in the fridge and Madre was eating the cookies like it was the end of the world when I walked in and then she apologized about dinner, it was just as we thought, but everything is fine.
Later…Oh my goodness, today was so much fun, and we didn’t really even do that much. I was up really late last night (2:30a.m.) looking at pictures, and that always makes me lose track of the time. So I ended up sleeping in until about 10:30a.m. and then I caught up on my notes for History 202 and figured out my classes for the next two years. Anyway, after that exciting task, Brooke got back from going into town and we went to go buy food for Barcelona after lunch. (We had spaghetti for lunch by the way.) Then after a short siesta, and bundling up for the cold, we went into Madrid. It had been raining, so it was definitely one of those days that you would rather be inside reading a book with a cup of hot chocolate and a blanket wrapped around you, or making cookies with a favorite movie playing in the background. But it was okay, and we met up with four other girls so that was fun. Kait and I talked the whole way into Madrid, and once we got there it was raining its butt off so Kait and I shared my umbrella. I didn’t mind the rain too much, and it wasn’t all that cold so it was nice to walk around just talking in the rain. Some of the girls had to do some souvenir shopping and there’s this store called “The Toledano” that has a bunch of stuff that is supposedly from Toledo. I’m really glad I bought all my stuff beforehand, it’s so much cooler, but it was fun to see what everyone else was buying. Brooke got some earrings for her sisters, and Kait got a ring for one of her sisters. After that we went to the Puerta de Sol because some people wanted napolitanas, and so we did that, which is the ritual now. I didn’t get one, but I had a bite from Tina, and Kait got a palmera with this sweet glaze on the top and kind of a lemon taste and that was good too. Then, Rachel McDonald told Tina about this little old English used book store, and so we went and found that. It’s down this street that you would never go out to find on your own anyway, but I guess Dr. Shumway told Rachel about it. They had all kinds of books that I wanted to buy, but there’s no way I could have bought them or brought them home, so I didn’t. However, because I’m all done with all my homework and even ahead in some cases, I was hoping to find a cheap read for Barcelona. Well, it just so happened that I found “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown for one euro! I have been wanting to read that since my junior year in high school, so now I have something to keep me occupied on the trip and I can’t wait to read it! I’ll just sit on the beach reading my book and eating my Muesli crunch cereal, ah yes this is the life.
So after we got back from Madrid I dropped by an ATM to get some money real quick and then we ran into Dr. Shumway and Ricky on the way home so we stopped and talked to them for a minute, and then we got home to shower and had leftover spaghetti for dinner (and torrijas for postre, yay!). It was just me and Brooke again for dinner and we ended up playing kind of a game that was really fun. We compared opposites of things like “brownies or cake” or “crunchy or smooth peanut butter” to see which one each of us liked. After lunch earlier when we were talking to Madre I mentioned that I noticed we only have 20 days left, and she got kind of sad. It’s true, I’m going to miss Spain so much, and it’s gone by so fast, it’s unbelievable, but I definitely don’t regret any bit of it!

Sunday March 23, 2008
This morning started out kind of bumpy since we had to run to catch the bus, but other than that it’s been a pretty decent day. Before we left for church, we ate breakfast like usual (I had toast with cream cheese and apricot jam, so good) and I realized how much I’ve come to like Abuela. After getting to know her a little bit better this week since she’s been staying with us I can see where Madre gets her little quirks from. Every day, Abuela comes to the door with us when we’re leaving and makes sure we have coats, umbrellas, and anything else we might need for the time that we’ll be gone. She always asks where we’re going and how long we’re going to be gone and that kind of thing, and she’s just really cute. But today when we were leaving for church I didn’t have my sweater on but I had it in my arm and Abuela was talking to me and she said to close the door and put my sweater on before I left. Well, as soon as Madre heard what Abuela was telling me, she came running over and made me shut the door so I could put the sweater on. She just about put it on for me, and once we got outside it wasn’t even cold so I took it off. It’s just funny to me that they are both so motherly about that kind of stuff.
Anyway, today at church Dr. Shumway was one of the speakers in Sacrament meeting and the other one was Beatrix from Puerto Rico who has the daughter Samira. I liked both of their talks, but the one by Beatrix was especially good I thought. Obviously the theme was Easter since that’s what today is, and Beatrix was talking about the customs that we are seeing right now in Spain due to Semana Santa. One of the huge differences between our religion and others is the focus on the cross and how we don’t have that symbol in our churches. Beatriz put it very nicely: “No tenemos una cruz porque Dios vive y no está muerto. Nuestras vidas tienen sentido a Dios; el dolor es temporal y va a pasar.” In other words, we have the knowledge that Christ rose from the grave and is no longer dead, so we don’t focus on the death of Christ. We know that he suffered to take away not only our sins, but also our pain, and so we need to keep that in mind during this time. Dr. Shumway’s talk was mostly a history of him and his family and a little bit of how he gained a testimony of everything up to this point, but my favorite part of his talk was when he mentioned John H. Groberg and the Tongan people who “no tienen nada, pero tienen todo” (had nothing, but had everything) because they had the Gospel. I think that we tend to take the Church for granted sometimes because we are used to having the knowledge of the truth and we forget that there are still those in the world who don’t know about the truthfulness of the Gospel. Look at the people celebrating the processions, they understand that Christ died and was resurrected, but they don’t believe that everyone will be resurrected and so it doesn’t have the same significance for them as it does for us. I don’t know, it just makes you look at the big picture.
After church we got home and lunch was already ready for us. I guess a friend of Padre’s passed away and so he and Madre were away at the funeral, so it was just us and Raquel and Abuela, but they were waiting to eat until later so only me and Brooke ate. I didn’t realize this until today, but during Semana Santa we didn’t eat any meat, only fish and today we had cocido which has meat in it (pork and chicken and the garbanzo beans). Brooke pointed it out that Madre explained the other day that potaje is typical of Semana Santa because it doesn’t have any meat in it and so it’s more popular and then you have cocido after it ends to signify the change. Interesting. So that was yummy, and then since no one was home for Easter, we decided to go to the Prado since we still hadn’t seen everything and we thought that that was a fulfilling Sunday activity so now I’m done with the Prado and I’ve seen it all. One thing real quick, Easter/holidays are not nearly as commercialized here as they are in the states. You see chocolate bunnies every once in a while in the stores here in Spain, but in the States, that’s what Easter is all about is the goodies and the Easter bunny and people tend to forget the real reason you are celebrating Easter. We figured that our family would be having a large meal today because of Pascua/Easter, but when we got home, like I said there wasn’t really anyone home. We also asked Raquel about it and she said the same thing, that Easter/holidays really aren’t all that big a deal here in Spain. So yet again…another difference between Spain and American culture.
Well, that’s about all I think, tomorrow is Monday again and it will for sure be busy especially because I have to pack for Barcelona (poor me huh?). Hopefully the weather will be wonderful so I can play on the beach!!