Blog 11

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

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

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