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!!!