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.
Monday, March 31, 2008
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!!
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!!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Semana Santa a.k.a. Holy Week
These my friends are what the Spaniards call torrijas, and they are my most favorite thing in the whole wide world. They are basically like French toast only smothered in cinnamon and sugar and you make them from French bread not regular sandwich bread.
Here are some pictures from Semana Santa. Those are the weird hats that were freaking everyone out, and the crosses. I dont know if you can see the chains on the one guys feet but there were a lot of people who did that. The group of kids was weird too, kind of like drones or something. The soup looking thing is potaje, which is made with garbanzo beans and spinach and its actually really yummy. The one word I would use to describe Semana Santa is ¨interesting¨.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Blog 9
Sunday March 9, 2008
Well, like every Sunday I went to church this morning, and to my surprise, I understood about 80% of everything today. After church we had the salsa de ternera with carrots, chicken, mushrooms, and potatoes. I remembered earlier today that I haven’t taken any photos of the food at home except at Brooke’s birthday party and so I’m going to start taking pictures at every meal because that’s one of the most important things of the culture. For postre we had pineapple rings which we don’t have very often so that was a treat. For dinner we had the veggie mix of artichokes, green beans, peas, ham, cheese, and tomatoes. It still surprises me that I eat the green beans with no problem; I still don’t like the artichokes, but I made myself eat like five of them just to be polite.
After I woke up from my siesta, we went to the Shumway’s and one of the things we did was get a little bit more organized for our trip to Portugal on Thursday. It turns out that there are a couple people that have connections with people who either are in Portugal right now or went to Portugal for some reason (i.e. mission). So because of that we have some ideas of things that we are going to do, and it will be better than just showing up and not having a clue what there is to do there. There are 17 people going in our group, and it will be a nice break after the test in History 202. We are going to be so tired after the month of March though since we are travelling so much.
Well, like every Sunday I went to church this morning, and to my surprise, I understood about 80% of everything today. After church we had the salsa de ternera with carrots, chicken, mushrooms, and potatoes. I remembered earlier today that I haven’t taken any photos of the food at home except at Brooke’s birthday party and so I’m going to start taking pictures at every meal because that’s one of the most important things of the culture. For postre we had pineapple rings which we don’t have very often so that was a treat. For dinner we had the veggie mix of artichokes, green beans, peas, ham, cheese, and tomatoes. It still surprises me that I eat the green beans with no problem; I still don’t like the artichokes, but I made myself eat like five of them just to be polite.
After I woke up from my siesta, we went to the Shumway’s and one of the things we did was get a little bit more organized for our trip to Portugal on Thursday. It turns out that there are a couple people that have connections with people who either are in Portugal right now or went to Portugal for some reason (i.e. mission). So because of that we have some ideas of things that we are going to do, and it will be better than just showing up and not having a clue what there is to do there. There are 17 people going in our group, and it will be a nice break after the test in History 202. We are going to be so tired after the month of March though since we are travelling so much.
Monday March 10, 2008
Today was just like most other days except for a couple things. I found out at breakfast this morning what the results were from the elections yesterday. They are always on Sunday, and then you find out the results at midnight, but I was in my room so I didn’t find out until this morning. Anyway, Zapatero won. I was putting my stuff in the dishwasher, and I asked Padre who was the new president, and with a face like stone he said “Zapatero”, so I could tell he wasn’t happy about it, and I don’t think a lot of people are happy about it, but at the same time there are a lot of people that do like him. Something else I found out about what Zapatero has done in the past is he has made it possible for Spanish students to go to school for free, and he has set up a program for widowed and less fortunate to receive stipends/compensation. Those two groups comprise a large portion of the population, so it makes sense that he would get their vote because of the benefits that his presidency has brought to their group. Still though, I know there is a lot of controversy going on right now. I don’t know, elections/politics make people weird.
Besides going to classes and studying for the test on Wednesday, we had a really fun FHE tonight. We ended up going to two of our friends’ house and their Madre (they actually call her Abuela) taught us how to make tortilla de patata and empanaditas. The tortilla is made with mostly only whipped eggs and cut up potato, or at least that’s how she made it. But you can put onion, garlic, or whatever else in it that you want. Then the empanaditas are these fried stuffed bread things that are so incredible, words just don’t do it justice. The filling can also be whatever you want, but this filling was made with tuna, fried tomatoes, onion, peppers, and some seasoning, and then the bread is just a regular bread recipe. You roll the dough into little balls and then flatten it out like a pizza only they are really small and then you put a dollop of the mixture and fold it over like a calzone and then you fry it in oil on the stove. They are really easy to make it seems like, and most of us were in Abuela’s little tiny kitchen wanting to help. I got to make a tortilla de patata, and apparently I flipped it “perfectamente”, but it was funny because I’m a lefty and she’s not, so she looked at me funny when I went to do it with the other hand, but I did it right and it turned out perfect. So that was exciting, and then for dessert she made arroz con leche, which is kind of like rice pudding only with more milk. Basically it’s rice, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, and then she put raisins in too. I ate SO much, and when I got home I had to explain to Madre what had happened and why I couldn’t eat dinner, but she didn’t care, she just laughed when I told her I ate more than everyone. So it was a pretty laid back day, but fun at the same time too. Also, today marks the one month until I leave, which is kind of sad. L
Today was just like most other days except for a couple things. I found out at breakfast this morning what the results were from the elections yesterday. They are always on Sunday, and then you find out the results at midnight, but I was in my room so I didn’t find out until this morning. Anyway, Zapatero won. I was putting my stuff in the dishwasher, and I asked Padre who was the new president, and with a face like stone he said “Zapatero”, so I could tell he wasn’t happy about it, and I don’t think a lot of people are happy about it, but at the same time there are a lot of people that do like him. Something else I found out about what Zapatero has done in the past is he has made it possible for Spanish students to go to school for free, and he has set up a program for widowed and less fortunate to receive stipends/compensation. Those two groups comprise a large portion of the population, so it makes sense that he would get their vote because of the benefits that his presidency has brought to their group. Still though, I know there is a lot of controversy going on right now. I don’t know, elections/politics make people weird.
Besides going to classes and studying for the test on Wednesday, we had a really fun FHE tonight. We ended up going to two of our friends’ house and their Madre (they actually call her Abuela) taught us how to make tortilla de patata and empanaditas. The tortilla is made with mostly only whipped eggs and cut up potato, or at least that’s how she made it. But you can put onion, garlic, or whatever else in it that you want. Then the empanaditas are these fried stuffed bread things that are so incredible, words just don’t do it justice. The filling can also be whatever you want, but this filling was made with tuna, fried tomatoes, onion, peppers, and some seasoning, and then the bread is just a regular bread recipe. You roll the dough into little balls and then flatten it out like a pizza only they are really small and then you put a dollop of the mixture and fold it over like a calzone and then you fry it in oil on the stove. They are really easy to make it seems like, and most of us were in Abuela’s little tiny kitchen wanting to help. I got to make a tortilla de patata, and apparently I flipped it “perfectamente”, but it was funny because I’m a lefty and she’s not, so she looked at me funny when I went to do it with the other hand, but I did it right and it turned out perfect. So that was exciting, and then for dessert she made arroz con leche, which is kind of like rice pudding only with more milk. Basically it’s rice, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, and then she put raisins in too. I ate SO much, and when I got home I had to explain to Madre what had happened and why I couldn’t eat dinner, but she didn’t care, she just laughed when I told her I ate more than everyone. So it was a pretty laid back day, but fun at the same time too. Also, today marks the one month until I leave, which is kind of sad. L
Thursday March 13th
This morning we left for Portugal at about 7:30a.m. and our flight left a little before ten, but because of the time change when we got to Lisbon it was almost ten o'clock. When we were on the plane, we were all kind of seated really randomly, and I ended up sitting next to this guy named José Marquéz and he had been living in Spain for six months for a marketing conference, and was on his way back home to Lisbon. We had kind of an awkward meeting though. I was working on my homework for conversation class, and I didn't know one of the words so I leaned over and asked him, but he didn't know. So I leaned over and asked the guy on the other side of me to see if he knew what a “sujetador” was. I thought maybe suspenders, and he said yes, but for women. That totally threw me off, but then he started making awkward gestures at his chest, and I came to find out it's actually a bra. So when I got done talking to that guy, I turned to José, and he was like, “ya that's why I didn't know what it was”. It was super funny, but not awkward really, and we ended up talking quite a bit on the plane, but all in Spanish. He's the one I learned about how the people in Portugal talk better Spanish than English. I thought I would be able to understand the Portuguese pretty okay, but mostly everyone knows English here, and so if there's ever an exchange with a native they just talk to us in English instead and that's really weird since we're used to talking in Spanish. Once we got to the hostel, we left right away to go look around the city, and I ended up going with Dani and Emily for the whole day which was lots of fun. I've never really gone with them before so it was fun to go with someone new, and we had so much fun talking to each other. Our hostel is right off the ocean and so we walked along the water and went and saw this monument, monastery, and we also saw the huge soccer stadium.
Anyway, the other thing that we did to day was try this special pastry that is typical of this region. They are called Pasteis de Belem, and they are apparently kind of like crème brulé, but I've never tried it so I don't know for sure. They are like theses fried bread cups with this pudding filling, and they put cinnamon and powdered sugar on the top, and they serve it warm. Some of the girls really liked them, I wasn't crazy about them, but they were definitely yummy. Well, that was about it for today, and I am so pooped. Tomorrow I think we are going to Sintra which is this little city a little bit outside of Lisbon.
This morning we left for Portugal at about 7:30a.m. and our flight left a little before ten, but because of the time change when we got to Lisbon it was almost ten o'clock. When we were on the plane, we were all kind of seated really randomly, and I ended up sitting next to this guy named José Marquéz and he had been living in Spain for six months for a marketing conference, and was on his way back home to Lisbon. We had kind of an awkward meeting though. I was working on my homework for conversation class, and I didn't know one of the words so I leaned over and asked him, but he didn't know. So I leaned over and asked the guy on the other side of me to see if he knew what a “sujetador” was. I thought maybe suspenders, and he said yes, but for women. That totally threw me off, but then he started making awkward gestures at his chest, and I came to find out it's actually a bra. So when I got done talking to that guy, I turned to José, and he was like, “ya that's why I didn't know what it was”. It was super funny, but not awkward really, and we ended up talking quite a bit on the plane, but all in Spanish. He's the one I learned about how the people in Portugal talk better Spanish than English. I thought I would be able to understand the Portuguese pretty okay, but mostly everyone knows English here, and so if there's ever an exchange with a native they just talk to us in English instead and that's really weird since we're used to talking in Spanish. Once we got to the hostel, we left right away to go look around the city, and I ended up going with Dani and Emily for the whole day which was lots of fun. I've never really gone with them before so it was fun to go with someone new, and we had so much fun talking to each other. Our hostel is right off the ocean and so we walked along the water and went and saw this monument, monastery, and we also saw the huge soccer stadium.
Anyway, the other thing that we did to day was try this special pastry that is typical of this region. They are called Pasteis de Belem, and they are apparently kind of like crème brulé, but I've never tried it so I don't know for sure. They are like theses fried bread cups with this pudding filling, and they put cinnamon and powdered sugar on the top, and they serve it warm. Some of the girls really liked them, I wasn't crazy about them, but they were definitely yummy. Well, that was about it for today, and I am so pooped. Tomorrow I think we are going to Sintra which is this little city a little bit outside of Lisbon.
Friday March 14th
We went to this little town called Sintra today, and honestly, it was probably one of my favorite places that I've been to so far. The whole city smelled like lilacs and tropical goodness, and it was amazing. It was pretty humid most of the day, and so hot outside! I hiked the mountain up to the Moorish Castle with Emily, Dani, and Callie. On the way up we found some vines to swing from on the trees, and that was so much fun. But the thing I loved the most was that the whole city smelled so good. Later Missy and I broke off from the group and she wasn't feeling good, but then she decided to go back to the hostel in Lisbon, and so I wandered around for a couple hours by myself just exploring, and I went to the complete other side of the city where I could see the castle and palace way far off in the distance. I ended up having to buy another pair of shoes because the ones I had I could feel every rock and crevice and my feet have been so sore for the past three weeks. There was no way they were going to last until the end of the trip, so I broke down and bought another pair. For lunch Missy and I found this little mom and pop restaurant and I bought a full meal of pork, fries, rice, and salad for 4.50€. Talk about a steal, and it was so good too, the lady was really nice. Later when I was exploring, I was talking to the owner of a frutería, and he asked me if I was from Spain. I was flattered to say the least. I told him I was from Madrid, and then a minute later I told him I was from the states, and that kind of surprised him. It was exciting though.
Once we got back to Lisbon, we walked down to the plaza by the ocean and then they wanted to get kebabs so we caught a trolley (so cool) and then we got lost and we didn't know where we were, but then we figured out we were pretty close to the monastery, so we walked down there got food, and then headed back to the hotel. It's been such a fun day, and I'm so pooped, but so completely content. There’s also this guy sitting here that was talking to me who’s from Egypt. I don’t know how we got to talking, but it turns out that he is Muslim, and so we got to talking. He said in Egypt the people are expected to learn Arabic, English, French, and then Spanish. His English is better than his Spanish, but because he has such a heavy accent, it was really hard to understand him. He kept wanting to tell me more about his religion and Muhammed, but I was so tired, so I think he could tell that I wasn’t really all that interested. But he gave me his email, and he keeps saying that he really wants me to email him, but I won’t of course, too risky. Anyway, I'm going to go shower I think, and then tomorrow morning we are going to this market thing and then go home in the afternoon. I'm so glad that I came to Portugal, it's awesome!!!
We went to this little town called Sintra today, and honestly, it was probably one of my favorite places that I've been to so far. The whole city smelled like lilacs and tropical goodness, and it was amazing. It was pretty humid most of the day, and so hot outside! I hiked the mountain up to the Moorish Castle with Emily, Dani, and Callie. On the way up we found some vines to swing from on the trees, and that was so much fun. But the thing I loved the most was that the whole city smelled so good. Later Missy and I broke off from the group and she wasn't feeling good, but then she decided to go back to the hostel in Lisbon, and so I wandered around for a couple hours by myself just exploring, and I went to the complete other side of the city where I could see the castle and palace way far off in the distance. I ended up having to buy another pair of shoes because the ones I had I could feel every rock and crevice and my feet have been so sore for the past three weeks. There was no way they were going to last until the end of the trip, so I broke down and bought another pair. For lunch Missy and I found this little mom and pop restaurant and I bought a full meal of pork, fries, rice, and salad for 4.50€. Talk about a steal, and it was so good too, the lady was really nice. Later when I was exploring, I was talking to the owner of a frutería, and he asked me if I was from Spain. I was flattered to say the least. I told him I was from Madrid, and then a minute later I told him I was from the states, and that kind of surprised him. It was exciting though.
Once we got back to Lisbon, we walked down to the plaza by the ocean and then they wanted to get kebabs so we caught a trolley (so cool) and then we got lost and we didn't know where we were, but then we figured out we were pretty close to the monastery, so we walked down there got food, and then headed back to the hotel. It's been such a fun day, and I'm so pooped, but so completely content. There’s also this guy sitting here that was talking to me who’s from Egypt. I don’t know how we got to talking, but it turns out that he is Muslim, and so we got to talking. He said in Egypt the people are expected to learn Arabic, English, French, and then Spanish. His English is better than his Spanish, but because he has such a heavy accent, it was really hard to understand him. He kept wanting to tell me more about his religion and Muhammed, but I was so tired, so I think he could tell that I wasn’t really all that interested. But he gave me his email, and he keeps saying that he really wants me to email him, but I won’t of course, too risky. Anyway, I'm going to go shower I think, and then tomorrow morning we are going to this market thing and then go home in the afternoon. I'm so glad that I came to Portugal, it's awesome!!!
Sunday March 15, 2008
Yesterday in the morning we went to the flea market in Lisbon, and it was huge!!! It took up probably about six blocks is what the equivalent would be, and there was so much stuff all over the place and people everywhere. There was lots of stuff I saw that I would have bought if I had the money, but I didn’t. Emily got some really cool leather sandals for 18€, and she loves them…I don’t remember what everyone else got though. After that some people wanted to go into this castle, but Emily, John-Charles, Callie, Missy, and I didn’t want to go in so we found this little patio thing and we sat in the sun looking out over the ocean and just basking in the beauty of it all for about an hour. Then the other three wanted to go back to the Belem area to buy some more pastries, and Emily and I didn’t so we went to go explore the city some more. After we got done exploring, we went back to the hostel and waiting for the rest of the group and then went to the airport which was kind of crazy because the buses don’t run the same as weekdays, but we got there okay and our plane ended up being delayed 20 minutes anyway. We got home really late and then we slept the full eight hours before leaving again for church today. Church was good, and I realized today that we only have three Sundays left now! One of those is General Conference too, so really only two in our ward. After church we helped Kathy get the kids home and we had to walk a little more than usual because of the bike race which was blocking the road, and then we had this baked crème of chicken kind of thing for lunch which was really good. Brooke and I both slept for quite a while, but I kept coughing and so I couldn’t sleep as long. Then we went to the Shumway’s and pigged out on peanut butter cookie dough and chatted forever.
Well, that’s about it I think, the next couple days are going to be really busy/boring to write about with me doing homework and running errands and such. Wednesday we are leaving for Valencia at seven in the morning, and coming back from Valencia at about four in the morning because all the hostels are booked, so it’s going to be a very long day. Then when we get back we’ll get to see all the processions/parades here in Alcalá and in Madrid.
Lisbon and Sintra: Portugal March 13th-15th, 2008
My next country: PORTUGAL
This is the boat we found that we fell in love with. The captain said it was okay if we hopped aboard and took some pictures. Above is the big room in the hostel where the nine of us girls slept. Next to that is the huge monument with the explorers all down the side. Below is the view from on top of the monument looking out over the water which leads to the Atlantic Ocean.
This is the boat we found that we fell in love with. The captain said it was okay if we hopped aboard and took some pictures. Above is the big room in the hostel where the nine of us girls slept. Next to that is the huge monument with the explorers all down the side. Below is the view from on top of the monument looking out over the water which leads to the Atlantic Ocean.
The picture of the man getting squished by the door was something found in the metro. Seriously, if you don´t move, it won´t wait for you. I have found this out personally, and the only reason I am here to tell the tale is because my dear friend saved me from the jaws of death at the last moment. Always take a buddy!!
Below you can see a couple pictures from when we were in Sintra. I climbed on the wall, so I could get a better view. Afte we hiked up the mountain, you could see the entire city of Sintra.
The video is of me swinging from the vines on the way up the mountain. Apparently some of the workers below us prevented our friends from following the way we went and told them there was already some crazy tourists that had gone that way who were swinging from trees. Ooops...
Leôn (Santiago de Compostela 3-8-08)
The building with the colored windows is the contemporary art museum that I wasn´t all that fond of, and the plaza-building picture is what is known as a parador. A parador is a historically si gnificant five-star hotel that people pay lots of money at to get the historical and hospitable experience that every tourist wants.
Above are the amazing pastries that we found in Leôn. Look at that chocolate filling and drizzle...
I´m being represented in Leôn by a store! I´m lovin´it...:)
Leôn was a little bit chillier than I would have liked, hence the winter coat, but I braved a couple pictures without it. The one with the clock, ya I couldn´t feel my hand for several minutes after that because the metal was so cold.
This city is famous for its stained glass. We went in the morning to see this cathedral, but it wasn´t all that bright, so we went back in the afternoon as well. This time the light was coming in perfectly and lit up the whole cathedral with beautiful colors.
After we left Leôn we headed home, and the stop we made on the way was to Cocoa Castle (at least I think that´s how you spell it). So we went and played around taking pictures and stuff before we had to get back on the bus to go home. I don´t know, it doesn´t really look like cocoa to me...
Castrillo (Santiago de Compostela 3-7-08)
Castrillo was one of the stops along the way to Leôn. Mostly I included the pics just to show how picturesque it was. The picture of me on the wall...ya, when I sat on it the rocks came tumbling out from under me, this is me being ashamed.Santiago 3-6-08 and 3-7-08
Because Santiago is religiously so important (hence El Camino de Santiago, or the travels of Saint James), one of the things that our group did was walk the last part of the camino. There are certain landmarks along the way like this statue, and also there are little suns and signs that mark the path every so often.
The Cathedral is absolutely massive in every sense of the word, and once we got there we attended the special Pilgrim Mass which is performed every day at noon. Below, you can see that I got the chance to meet some pilgrims. A couple of these guys were from France, and if I remember right the other one was from Germany. The pilgrims aren´t hard to spot because of their huge bags and characteristic walking sticks, and we just walked up to them and asked where they were from and that kind of thing.
The sunset picture was a ¨mirador¨, or lookout that we hiked up to at one far end of the city of Santiago where we were sitting on a roof watching the sunset. As you can see it was absolutely beautiful!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Comburro (Santiago de Compostela 3-5-08)
This is for all you beach lovers...told you Id find a beach!
Apparently this is one of the unknown little treasures of Spain that our bus driver happened to know about. Personally, these kinds of places are my favorite because they arent as packed with tourists and you get to see more of the real people of Spain. The water was absolutely freezing and I couldnt feel my feet afterwards, but it was totally worth it, or how you say vale la pena.
Ive also uploaded a video. Ive never done this before so I hope it works...
Santiago de Compostela 3-4-08 hasta 3-8-08
Monday March 3, 2008
Today was pretty productive I’d say. I went to class early and my friend was walking around waiting for Alcalíngua to open up, then I got my emailing and blog updating done and went to my classes. When I got home I went running, packed, ate spaghetti for lunch, did homework, updated pictures, and went to religion.
Religion was really really good today. It’s always interesting, but I never realized before how personal the gospel in Spain is to Faustino. When the Spanish mission was first opened up, there was only two missionaries and four members, and in a country that is dominated by the Catholic religion and under the reign of Franco, that is one of the most intimidating missionary settings I’ve ever heard of. Faustino was one of the first members of the church here, and it’s really cool to hear the history from him because he knows what it was like to be a member in the midst of others against him, or like he said to have the light when surrounded by darkness.
After class, we went to FHE and we played this game that was SO fun! You have everyone write their names on a piece of paper and then put it in a hat or something and everyone picks a new name and that’s their name for the game but they can’t tell anyone. Then everyone is sitting down in a couch or set of chairs except for one seat, and when the seat to the left of you is empty you call a name to come sit by you, and the point of the game is to get everyone in your team sitting on the same couch. But every time you get up and move you have to switch your name with the person on the right that you end up sitting next to, so it’s really confusing, but it’s super fun.
Tuesday March 4, 2008
This morning we left for our trip to Santiago de Compostela, and right now we are in Salamanca, but before we got here we stopped in Avila. First item of business, it is FREEZING!! I’ve been bundled up in my heavy coat and scarf and gloves, and I was still super cold. But Avila was kind of fun because we got to climb the walls that go around the city, but only a portion of it. We also saw a basilica too, and the one really cool thing about that is that there is an engraving of the wise men, but one of the wise men is African American, so that was interesting. Then after the bus ride to Salamanca we got to the hotel, and then we went to meet up with this guy from BYU that was doing our tour guide (George). He’s been to Spain over 30 times since he first came to Spain in 1973 (I think that’s the year). That’s crazy to come to Spain that many times, but you can tell that he knows SO much about this country. In Salamanca we saw the Plaza Mayor, the two cathedrals (the old Romanesque one and the newer Gothic one), and just walking around the city a little so far. Tonight we are going to go see the Roman Bridge and look around the city some more. In the Plaza Mayor there’s portraits engraved around the perimeter of the plaza, and Franco had himself put up with the rest of the portraits. This plaza looks so much like the one in Madrid, but this one is so much bigger and more decorated. But anyway, that’s about it for now, and we’re leaving to go walk around soon.
Okay so actually it’s Wednesday now, but only because I didn’t have much to say last night after we got back from going to the Roman bridge. It was really pretty, but once again it was so cold!!! Then after we got back a bunch of the girls came over to our room and we were going to watch “She’s the Man”, but the girl whose computer we were going to use asked if she could check her email real quick so we all just sat and talked until about midnight. It was fun, and it was definitely ‘girl talk’.
Anyway, this morning I got up at seven and went running down to the bridge and back, but I got lost on the way and I ended up being gone a little longer than I planned on. But when I got back, I showered really fast and then me and Chelsea headed down to get breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant (croissants and hot chocolate, yum). After that, since we were all packed up and everything, we went over to the Mercado to take a gander at what there was to see. There were all these little shops with meat, cheeses, fruits and vegetables and I took a little less than 50 pictures alone at the Mercado, just because it was so cool. It smelled kind of funny at first from all the fish and meat, but you get used to it. They also had skinned rabbit, pork legs and feet, and all kinds of stuff that I had never seen before. We tried these fruits called kumquats, and you eat the whole thing, skin and all. The skin feels kind of like an orange but not as thick and it’s really sweet, and then the inside is pretty sour, but they were good. At this little panadería I bought an ensaimada because I had never tried one before, and it was only a euro, so I figured it was a pretty good buy.
Right now we are on the bus on the way to Santiago. It’s been a really fun day so far even though it’s been a really long bus ride. We made a couple stops along the way at a couple of beaches and we got to play in the sand and water. Of course, I took a ton of pictures and videos to prove that there really are beaches in Spain. The water wasn’t as cold as I expected it to be, but it was not warm like the Gulf of Mexico by any means. It’s a little after 8p.m. now, and we are just barely getting into Santiago I think, and we left at about 10:30a.m. this morning, but then again, we’ve taken a while at each stop we’ve made. At the first stop earlier, we were playing tag in this really funny way: either you have to keep all your appendages straight or you can only keep them bent, and if you get tagged, then you have to switch to the one you weren’t before. It’s really funny, and I’ve actually learned a couple of really funny games while I’ve been here so far.
Thursday March 6, 2008
This morning we went to the Cathedral here in Santiago after doing the last 5 kilometers of the pioneer walk. It took us about two hours to do the whole thing, but it wasn’t that bad, and we were going a good pace. Then once we got to the Cathedral we waited a little while and then we went to the Pioneer mass at noon. In the Catholic religion, people make a big deal about the “camino de Santiago”, and they start from a certain point and it takes them about 20 days to complete the whole thing. We met a guy today from Germany and he said that coming from Barcelona (I think that might be the starting point) it took him about three weeks. So that was neat, but like the last time I went to mass, it didn’t really mean anything special it was more to just say that I did it. Afterwards, there were some of us that were kind of pooped and so we went and looked around some stores and then made our way back to the hotel for a siesta. We went back out later and looked around by the Cathedral some more and the tourist shops. One of the typical gifts to get is a walking stick with a sea shell on it because of the pilgrimage. We weren’t gone very long because we had to come back to get Natausha, and then we found out that there were some people going with Brock to this lookout place to watch the sunset. Well it turned out that pretty much the whole group was going, and we ended up walking for about an hour before we got there. It was really pretty though and I was glad to have a rest. You can see pretty much the whole city from where we were sitting at, and the Cathedral was nice in the background too. Once we got back close to the hotel, we were pretty hungry and Tina, Natausha, and I went and got kebabs while the other girls went to find octopus. I’ve already tried it though, so I was okay with a kebab. I love them so much, and I really like having them with lamb and that cucumber sauce that they put on it.
Friday March 7, 2008
Last night I went and watched “The Princess Bride” in Spanish with some of the girls and we ate our tarta de almendras, which was amazing by the way!!! I didn’t stay awake for the whole movie, but I finally went back to my room around one in the morning, and then when I woke up this morning, I just put on my shoes and went down to breakfast in my pajamas. I showered and got ready after breakfast, and I went out to go explore the city some more, and Kait, Paige, and I became our own little group. We went back over by the Cathedral and met some pilgrims and went inside the Cathedral for a minute, and then we went to this pilgrim museum which was pretty neat. The museum had lots of pictures and artifacts from past pilgrims that have come to Santiago so that was cool to see. Then we started walking towards this park, but we didn’t have a whole lot of time and so we started heading back towards the hotel, and then Paige wanted to go back to the Cathedral for a minute, and so she left, and then Kait wanted to look for some material and so we did that and found lots of expensive material but nothing that fit was she was looking for. So we meandered back to the hotel, talking the whole way of course, I bought a carrot and pear for about 0.70€, so cheap(carrot was awesome, but I haven’t eaten the pear yet), and then we left for León. Once again I’m on the bus writing, and it’s really bumpy but we’ve got a four hour bus ride ahead of us, blah!
Saturday March 8, 2008
Well, yesterday after we got to León, I didn’t go out anywhere, I just ate dinner in Kait and Natausha’s room, and then worked on homework before going to bed. Then this morning I went running with Amy, and we ended up running with all the “pros” and Amy said we ran for about four miles! That’s more than I’ve ever run in my life, but I didn’t have a hard time keeping up at all. However, when I got back to the hotel, I thought I was going to be sick because I was so nauseous but I felt fine after my shower. Then we went to the Cathedral (which is famous for its stained glass and is absolutely beautiful I might add), and then we walked around León to see a couple museums and such. We went into a Parador, which is like a five-star historical hotel, and a part of an archaeological museum, and a contemporary art museum. Most of the girls didn’t like the contemporary art museum, it was kind of strange and I personally don’t like modern art all that much. After that, people were starting to get hungry and Kait, Paige, Tina, and I went and found this little pastelería and I bought a pastry that was twice as big as my hand with this chocolate crème filling and some sort of glaze and chocolate drizzle over the top for 1.30€, it was amazing. Then we went back to the Cathedral to see the stained glass with the light, and then it was time to leave to go home. I was ready too, I was so tired and well, just ready to go home. It was absolutely beautiful the whole time though which was so lucky. The weather beforehand said that it was going to rain all week and we didn’t see a drop of it, it was just kind of cold most of the time. But in the middle of the day, I didn’t need my coat at all, and was totally comfortable just walking around without it on.
During the trip, I’ve gotten a good start on my study guide, and I think that I’ll be okay for the test. I’m going to work on it more on Monday and Tuesday, and then the test is Wednesday, and Thursday we are going to Portugal. I think that there is a temple appointment on Wednesday night, so that will be good to go to that after the test, it will be exactly what I need. We’ll be in Portugal until Saturday evening, and then the next week is Semana Santa when we go to Valencia from 7a.m. Wednesday until about 4 a.m. Thursday. That should be fun; we’re going to see the burning of the floats (“las fayas”) which is typical of Valencia during Holy Week. Then Madre suggested we go to Cuenca for a day, and the other day we’ll probably go to Madrid to see the parades and stuff. Finally, the last week in March is our trip to Barcelona which should be awesome, and then the first weekend in April is free, and then we leave. It’s going to go by so fast, and I’ll be home before I know it. I’m so excited for the rest of this month, we’re going to see so much, and we only have class a few times really. I’ve got to turn in the fourth composition on Tuesday for Spanish, but none of us know how Jesús grades still. Ahhh!!!
Today was pretty productive I’d say. I went to class early and my friend was walking around waiting for Alcalíngua to open up, then I got my emailing and blog updating done and went to my classes. When I got home I went running, packed, ate spaghetti for lunch, did homework, updated pictures, and went to religion.
Religion was really really good today. It’s always interesting, but I never realized before how personal the gospel in Spain is to Faustino. When the Spanish mission was first opened up, there was only two missionaries and four members, and in a country that is dominated by the Catholic religion and under the reign of Franco, that is one of the most intimidating missionary settings I’ve ever heard of. Faustino was one of the first members of the church here, and it’s really cool to hear the history from him because he knows what it was like to be a member in the midst of others against him, or like he said to have the light when surrounded by darkness.
After class, we went to FHE and we played this game that was SO fun! You have everyone write their names on a piece of paper and then put it in a hat or something and everyone picks a new name and that’s their name for the game but they can’t tell anyone. Then everyone is sitting down in a couch or set of chairs except for one seat, and when the seat to the left of you is empty you call a name to come sit by you, and the point of the game is to get everyone in your team sitting on the same couch. But every time you get up and move you have to switch your name with the person on the right that you end up sitting next to, so it’s really confusing, but it’s super fun.
Tuesday March 4, 2008
This morning we left for our trip to Santiago de Compostela, and right now we are in Salamanca, but before we got here we stopped in Avila. First item of business, it is FREEZING!! I’ve been bundled up in my heavy coat and scarf and gloves, and I was still super cold. But Avila was kind of fun because we got to climb the walls that go around the city, but only a portion of it. We also saw a basilica too, and the one really cool thing about that is that there is an engraving of the wise men, but one of the wise men is African American, so that was interesting. Then after the bus ride to Salamanca we got to the hotel, and then we went to meet up with this guy from BYU that was doing our tour guide (George). He’s been to Spain over 30 times since he first came to Spain in 1973 (I think that’s the year). That’s crazy to come to Spain that many times, but you can tell that he knows SO much about this country. In Salamanca we saw the Plaza Mayor, the two cathedrals (the old Romanesque one and the newer Gothic one), and just walking around the city a little so far. Tonight we are going to go see the Roman Bridge and look around the city some more. In the Plaza Mayor there’s portraits engraved around the perimeter of the plaza, and Franco had himself put up with the rest of the portraits. This plaza looks so much like the one in Madrid, but this one is so much bigger and more decorated. But anyway, that’s about it for now, and we’re leaving to go walk around soon.
Okay so actually it’s Wednesday now, but only because I didn’t have much to say last night after we got back from going to the Roman bridge. It was really pretty, but once again it was so cold!!! Then after we got back a bunch of the girls came over to our room and we were going to watch “She’s the Man”, but the girl whose computer we were going to use asked if she could check her email real quick so we all just sat and talked until about midnight. It was fun, and it was definitely ‘girl talk’.
Anyway, this morning I got up at seven and went running down to the bridge and back, but I got lost on the way and I ended up being gone a little longer than I planned on. But when I got back, I showered really fast and then me and Chelsea headed down to get breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant (croissants and hot chocolate, yum). After that, since we were all packed up and everything, we went over to the Mercado to take a gander at what there was to see. There were all these little shops with meat, cheeses, fruits and vegetables and I took a little less than 50 pictures alone at the Mercado, just because it was so cool. It smelled kind of funny at first from all the fish and meat, but you get used to it. They also had skinned rabbit, pork legs and feet, and all kinds of stuff that I had never seen before. We tried these fruits called kumquats, and you eat the whole thing, skin and all. The skin feels kind of like an orange but not as thick and it’s really sweet, and then the inside is pretty sour, but they were good. At this little panadería I bought an ensaimada because I had never tried one before, and it was only a euro, so I figured it was a pretty good buy.
Right now we are on the bus on the way to Santiago. It’s been a really fun day so far even though it’s been a really long bus ride. We made a couple stops along the way at a couple of beaches and we got to play in the sand and water. Of course, I took a ton of pictures and videos to prove that there really are beaches in Spain. The water wasn’t as cold as I expected it to be, but it was not warm like the Gulf of Mexico by any means. It’s a little after 8p.m. now, and we are just barely getting into Santiago I think, and we left at about 10:30a.m. this morning, but then again, we’ve taken a while at each stop we’ve made. At the first stop earlier, we were playing tag in this really funny way: either you have to keep all your appendages straight or you can only keep them bent, and if you get tagged, then you have to switch to the one you weren’t before. It’s really funny, and I’ve actually learned a couple of really funny games while I’ve been here so far.
Thursday March 6, 2008
This morning we went to the Cathedral here in Santiago after doing the last 5 kilometers of the pioneer walk. It took us about two hours to do the whole thing, but it wasn’t that bad, and we were going a good pace. Then once we got to the Cathedral we waited a little while and then we went to the Pioneer mass at noon. In the Catholic religion, people make a big deal about the “camino de Santiago”, and they start from a certain point and it takes them about 20 days to complete the whole thing. We met a guy today from Germany and he said that coming from Barcelona (I think that might be the starting point) it took him about three weeks. So that was neat, but like the last time I went to mass, it didn’t really mean anything special it was more to just say that I did it. Afterwards, there were some of us that were kind of pooped and so we went and looked around some stores and then made our way back to the hotel for a siesta. We went back out later and looked around by the Cathedral some more and the tourist shops. One of the typical gifts to get is a walking stick with a sea shell on it because of the pilgrimage. We weren’t gone very long because we had to come back to get Natausha, and then we found out that there were some people going with Brock to this lookout place to watch the sunset. Well it turned out that pretty much the whole group was going, and we ended up walking for about an hour before we got there. It was really pretty though and I was glad to have a rest. You can see pretty much the whole city from where we were sitting at, and the Cathedral was nice in the background too. Once we got back close to the hotel, we were pretty hungry and Tina, Natausha, and I went and got kebabs while the other girls went to find octopus. I’ve already tried it though, so I was okay with a kebab. I love them so much, and I really like having them with lamb and that cucumber sauce that they put on it.
Friday March 7, 2008
Last night I went and watched “The Princess Bride” in Spanish with some of the girls and we ate our tarta de almendras, which was amazing by the way!!! I didn’t stay awake for the whole movie, but I finally went back to my room around one in the morning, and then when I woke up this morning, I just put on my shoes and went down to breakfast in my pajamas. I showered and got ready after breakfast, and I went out to go explore the city some more, and Kait, Paige, and I became our own little group. We went back over by the Cathedral and met some pilgrims and went inside the Cathedral for a minute, and then we went to this pilgrim museum which was pretty neat. The museum had lots of pictures and artifacts from past pilgrims that have come to Santiago so that was cool to see. Then we started walking towards this park, but we didn’t have a whole lot of time and so we started heading back towards the hotel, and then Paige wanted to go back to the Cathedral for a minute, and so she left, and then Kait wanted to look for some material and so we did that and found lots of expensive material but nothing that fit was she was looking for. So we meandered back to the hotel, talking the whole way of course, I bought a carrot and pear for about 0.70€, so cheap(carrot was awesome, but I haven’t eaten the pear yet), and then we left for León. Once again I’m on the bus writing, and it’s really bumpy but we’ve got a four hour bus ride ahead of us, blah!
Saturday March 8, 2008
Well, yesterday after we got to León, I didn’t go out anywhere, I just ate dinner in Kait and Natausha’s room, and then worked on homework before going to bed. Then this morning I went running with Amy, and we ended up running with all the “pros” and Amy said we ran for about four miles! That’s more than I’ve ever run in my life, but I didn’t have a hard time keeping up at all. However, when I got back to the hotel, I thought I was going to be sick because I was so nauseous but I felt fine after my shower. Then we went to the Cathedral (which is famous for its stained glass and is absolutely beautiful I might add), and then we walked around León to see a couple museums and such. We went into a Parador, which is like a five-star historical hotel, and a part of an archaeological museum, and a contemporary art museum. Most of the girls didn’t like the contemporary art museum, it was kind of strange and I personally don’t like modern art all that much. After that, people were starting to get hungry and Kait, Paige, Tina, and I went and found this little pastelería and I bought a pastry that was twice as big as my hand with this chocolate crème filling and some sort of glaze and chocolate drizzle over the top for 1.30€, it was amazing. Then we went back to the Cathedral to see the stained glass with the light, and then it was time to leave to go home. I was ready too, I was so tired and well, just ready to go home. It was absolutely beautiful the whole time though which was so lucky. The weather beforehand said that it was going to rain all week and we didn’t see a drop of it, it was just kind of cold most of the time. But in the middle of the day, I didn’t need my coat at all, and was totally comfortable just walking around without it on.
During the trip, I’ve gotten a good start on my study guide, and I think that I’ll be okay for the test. I’m going to work on it more on Monday and Tuesday, and then the test is Wednesday, and Thursday we are going to Portugal. I think that there is a temple appointment on Wednesday night, so that will be good to go to that after the test, it will be exactly what I need. We’ll be in Portugal until Saturday evening, and then the next week is Semana Santa when we go to Valencia from 7a.m. Wednesday until about 4 a.m. Thursday. That should be fun; we’re going to see the burning of the floats (“las fayas”) which is typical of Valencia during Holy Week. Then Madre suggested we go to Cuenca for a day, and the other day we’ll probably go to Madrid to see the parades and stuff. Finally, the last week in March is our trip to Barcelona which should be awesome, and then the first weekend in April is free, and then we leave. It’s going to go by so fast, and I’ll be home before I know it. I’m so excited for the rest of this month, we’re going to see so much, and we only have class a few times really. I’ve got to turn in the fourth composition on Tuesday for Spanish, but none of us know how Jesús grades still. Ahhh!!!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Avila and Salamanca (Santiago de Compostela 3-4-08 hasta 3-8-08)
These are pictures from our first two days in Avila and Salamanca which is in the northern part of Spain. The pictures with the castle looking stuff is in Avila and this is where we climbed the walls that used to surround the entire city. The picture of the bridge is in Salamanca, and that is a Roman Bridge. The Cathedral that you see is also in Salamanca and there are actually two: one Romanesque one and the other newer Cathedral which is Gothic. Below that is a typical ¨mercado¨that was right by our hotel, and this is where you can find all kinds of specialty shops. There was lots of fish and meats, but also fruits, veggies, and dessert shops as well. I didn´t know this but the scary looking fish is what they call merluza, I thought it was barracuda, but it´s not.
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