Last Week

This is it... the very last week here independently. My parents will be here next Monday! I can´t hardly wait, but then again I have mixed emotions... especially after such a good day.

Today my friend Marta asked me to eat at her house. We started walking in the wrong direction and I was like what´s goin on. She told me we had to meet another friend in a lil bar-restaurant. So I just went along. Upon entering into the bar I saw like half of my class seated at a long table ready to eat. I just figured they were eating out together when Marta turns to me and says ¨It´s for you!¨ I was totally surprised. It took a minute to register. They were all there for me as a farewell party type thing.

I didn´t know what to say. When you´re surprised you automatically are a lil short on words... well in a foreign language it´s that much harder. I felt bad because I wasn´t saying much. I just said ¨oh thank you, thank you, what a surprise.¨ They thought I knew about it, because I guess people had been talking a lil loudly about it in class, but I don´t really interest myself in side-conversations... it takes enough just to listen to the teachers talking right at me.

So anyway... I assured them I had no idea whatsoever, and that I really appreciated it. They gave me a ¨pañuelo¨ or a hankerchief that says Pamplona on it. Then we passed it around and everybody signed it. It´s gonna be such a keepsake. They really have no idea what that meant to me!

We ate a good lunch. And at the end of it I stood up and said ¨Antes de volver al colegio, quiero deciros muchas gracias. Lo agradezco muchísimo.¨ Which means, before going back to school I want to tell you all thank you very much. I appreciate it so much.

They all started clapping. I had actually prepared like a whole lil speech, but obviously I speak to slow, and couldn´t hold their attention! Anyway... I had fun showing off my lil pañuelo during the afternoon classes. I showed it to my spanish teacher, Joelle, who I seem to look at as more of a support-figure here. I always tell her things that are going on, and she listens and comments. Es muy agradable. ¨It´s really nice.¨ Then I showed it to my other spanish friends in Chloe´s grade... all of Laura´s friends.

Wow, I´m going to miss speaking spanish. I´m also going to miss the city a lil bit, and the people that I´ve made relationships with. Although I haven´t honestly made any extremely close relationships with the spanish people. They will hold a special place in my memory and heart, but I think the person I really will miss is Chloe.

We´ve really had some good times together. She´s a lot of fun. And I haven´t really had a best friend for a long time, since Hailey moved. So it´s really been fun having almost a constant companion. Chlo... I´ll miss ya! We´ll be in touch.

In fact, we´ve already decided that we´re going to Mexico over spring break or in the summer some day, to practice some spanish and stuff.

It´ll be interesting what else I miss when I get back there. I look forward to hanging out with Laura for a lil while when I get back though and talking about all of our lil adventures in each other´s lands!

Well, I will probably see you all pretty soon. I´ll be back in U-town probably by the 8th of May! I´m looking forward to it! Adios por ahora!

Happy Birthday Dad and Natalie

Today my sister turns 26! I can hardly believe it. And 2 days ago my dad turned, well, maybe that information should be disclosed! :D HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU BOTH... I love you guys! You are the best... no no... not just the best... but... THE BEST! I absolutely cannot wait to you you all.

Today has been a nice relaxing day. We are still on spring break this whole week. I stayed the night at Chloe´s last night. I always like staying the night over there because her host parents don´t care how long we sleep in til. Here in my house I feel bad if I sleep past 10:30. Anyway... we didn´t do much. We watched a lil TV, Chloe talked to her parents and family on the phone and that was about it.
We slept til 11:30. I came back to Zizur in time for lunch at 2:30, did a lil planning for when my parents get here, wrote an email to my sister, then went and had a conversation in Engish with Eduardo. It was nice. We talked a long time in English then later we switched to Spanish for a bit. I really like talking with him because he´s not intimidating. He gently corrects me when i make mistakes and I correct him when he makes mistakes. Since we both know what it feels like it´s easy to talk. Then we can ask each other questions about the other language really easily since we both speak both more or less.

I just got back from that and now i don´t have any plans for the rest of the day. I think it would be fun for all the americans to get together again sometime soon, but I don know if that´ll happen. I really enjoy hanging out with them. And now that my time is slowly ending I see how much these relationships mean to me. There will be many things that i miss when I come back.

Today I emailed my parents with a few lil phrases that I though would be good for them to know when they are meeting my host families and things here. Phrases like ¨Hello¨ ¨Pleased to meet you¨ ¨It´s been a pleasure¨ ¨Goodbye¨. I gave them translations and pronunciations. I told them they should repeat the phrases daily before coming so that they will not be totally mute when they are here. We´ll see how they come along with them.

I´ve got all my things all packed up to go to my new house, but we are not moving until Wednesday, which is the 30th of March, which means I will only be in my new house for 19 days. I don´t know whether or not I should even unpack everything.

Yesterday was Easter. It hardly seems like it. No egg dying, chocolate bunnies, easter baskets or hide and seek with the eggs. It was kinda disappointing. They don´t have the easter bunny here. The people that aren´t religious don´t celebrate Easter at all. And the ones that are religious go to mass, which is what I did. Choose for yourself whether or not this is the way it should be. IT´s hard telling. One thing I can tell though is that the church needs some kind of revival over here. It´s so traditional. People can´t relate with it. It´s just boring. The family that i live with now is very modern, young, and not traditional. Because of this they can´t hardly be a part of the church. Eduardo and his family too. Although Tomás and Eduardo were brought up in a very strict catholic home.

The Spanish people are really in a rebellion right now though. They are trying to get away from EVERYthing that the Franco regime represented. It was a very harsh dictatorship through the years of the second world war. The people were very repressed and the country was nearly isolated from the rest of the world. Most movies were banned from secular messages or cleavage. People were encouraged to have large families, yet there was not enough food to feed the country. I don´t know a whole lot more about Franco´s regime. It´s really interesting and I would like to study it some more. But, my point of bringing the subject up is that the Spanish people have pulled themselves away from the church. Franco was hardcore catholic and made sure the rest of the country was too. Now that they are free to choose most of them do not practice, some, like my host dad, seem to have a titch of hate towards the church.

In the times of Franco, families would have like 10 children and they would dedicate one of 2 to the church. They would send them off to a convent or a monastery where they would spend the rest of their lives, whether according or against their will. And the rest of the children would be brought up in rigid catholic schools.

Alright I´m out of thoughts right now. Sorry I´ve just kind of rambled. I seem to do that a lot. Whatever comes to mind I type! Anyway... read the parts that interest you and skip over hte others! I´m out for now. Adios por ahora.

Lil Fact

This weekend while Chloe was in Guadalajara with her host family, a girl that she met there was selling, get this, lighters.... as a fundraiser for her high school class for their end of the year trip.
Of course, she was not selling greenery, magazines, or candy.... NO... LIGHTERS, because we are in Spain. This is so typical for Spain. That gives you a lil glimpse at the difference between the conservative America to the liberal Europe. This goes for smoking (among teens, mothers, everbody) nudity, drinking, prostitutes, and porn.

It´s a whole different world over here when it comes to those things.

Happy Easter

Wow... the time is really dwindling down. I´m so excited for my parents to be here. I have to force myself to stop thinkin about it so that it doesn´t go terribly slow.
Today was easter. I couldn´t really tell. They don´t do easter eggs, chocolate or anything of that sort. Although I think it was commercialized a bit (I haven´t been in the stores much) Everything has been closed since last Thursday. I have a package at the post office to pick up, but they haven´t been open this whole break.
Wednesday was our last day of school, for all schools in Spain. This week is called ¨Semana Santa¨ or ¨Holy Week¨. There have been events going on at the Cathedral every night this last week, and then there was supposed to be a big ¨parade¨type thing on Friday night, but it got rained out. I was really looking forward to it, as the Holy Week processions are fairly well-known, especially the processions or parades in Sevilla.
A bunch of people participate in the processions. There are many religious fraternities, or ¨Brothers of the Faith¨that wear costumes that resemble those of the KKK, although there is no relation whatsoever. They are big pointed masks worn to hide one´s identity, and theoretically the one behind the mask is supposed to be in mourning for his sins. They are supposed to relate to Christ and his sufferings. Some people even carry wips to hit themselves on the back, or make crowns of thorns to wear on their heads. As my host mom put it to me, it can be kind of fanatic.
Along with the men who carry these costumes they´re are many men who carry these ¨floats,¨as you might call them, down the streets. They are very very heavy, and the big ones can take up to 20 or so men to carry them. This is their act of sacrifice to God, at least in theory, once again. Chloe´s host dad helps carry the ¨Dolorosa¨ or the ¨Suffering Virgin Mary¨every year, as a family tradition passed down from father to son.
Last night I went to mass with one of Tomás´s brothers. There were two baptisms, both babies. They read a lot of scripture leading up the the death and resurrection of Jesus. It´s just like the catholic church in the US, except the all the churches here are absolutely amazing.

I was talking to Montse, my host mom, about how extravagant all the churches are here, and how in the US, most of the time there are just mere buildings. She told me that if you were to take all the gold out of the churches and all that is valuable it would be worth billions, enough to end world hunger. The church has a lot a lot of money here. She said it´s really not meant for show. Actually it is the result of so many wealthy people giving donations.

Anyway, it was a pretty interesting conversation. She was asking me about protestantism. She was wondering if Jesus was God, and very basics like that. The truth is that very few people understand Christianity the way that most do in America. It is the same God, but a totally different perspective and manner of worship.

Andalucia

The trip was ¨genial¨(awesome). I had such a good time. I wish I was still there. It went so crazy fast. I think my favorite place was probably The coast, ¨La costa del Sol.¨It was so gorgeous. The mediterranean sea, the mountains in the background, a bunch of exquisite tourists´houses, the sun, and a nice hotel. It was marvelous.
Sevilla was one of my favs because of it´s building. The world´s fair was held there in 1929 therefore there are a ton of beautiful buildings, I guess you would call them Pavilions. Anyway... there is one there that belongs to the United States, other to Chile, Argentina, Brasil etc. Also the Cathedral of Sevilla was pretty impressive. It`s the 3rd largest in the world after one in Great Britain and Saint Peter´s in The Vatican ( I think that´s what it´s called).
The only thing I didn´t like about Sevilla is that there are soooooo many Americans there. Someone told me there was some 70,000 american students studying there. We ran into a lot just the 2 days that we were there. We heard English all the time walking down the streets. We went to Starbucks a couple of times. I think it was like the American hangout. We talked to a couple of girls there. One was from Ohio and the other I can´t remember. They both went to Boston University and were over here studying abroad.
For that reason I would hate to be in Sevilla for more than a weekend or so. There´s too many tourists. Ronda was the same way. A TON of americans, australians, canadians. We talked to an Australian woman who was on a 6 month vacation!! I don´t know what kind of job she had but I´m gonna have to find out. She was going to all over the place. She had been to Africa, Portugal, and she was going to go through Spain and most of Europe I think!
Granada wasn´t quite as bad with the tourists. I really enjoyed our time there because it was so warm. We got to tour the Alhambra ( muslim mosque), probably the most famous piece of Arquitecture here in Spain, mostly due to Washington Irving´s book ¨Tales of the Alhambra¨. It was pretty impressive.
Chloe and I soaked in the sun from our hotel balcony for a lil while. Then we went to the Turkish baths for an hour and a half. That was wonderful. We sat in a really big ¨Roman-style bath¨ with warm water and good smelling oils. We got about 15 minute massages each. It was all with an arabic atmosphere. It was one of my best memories of trip. Later we went to a Flamenco show for only 5 euros. It as really good. They were really talented. I really enjoyed that too.

Alrighty, well I´ve been in the house all day long. I need to get out and do something. And I need to STOP snacking! Until next time.

No school for 12 days... AMAZING

Welp today was the last day of school for me for the next 12 days! I´m so excited. I got my report done and handed in, and my spanish tests done. Now I¨m home free!! I got a box of stuff all bundled up and ready to be sent off. I brought way to much stuff with me over here!! So now I´m having to send some of it home so that I can get home without paying fees the whole way for excess weight!

Anyway... someone sent me a package in the mail and I´ll get to pick it up tomorrow. I´m pretty excited about that. It´s not from my parents or my grandma or Sarah so I don´t know who it could be from.

Today was my host mom´s mom´s birthday. We went to celebrate with her. But just yesterday she was diagnosed with the onstart of Alzheimer´s disease. They new the diagnosis was coming, but it´s still gotta be pretty tough.

There are lots of birthdays coming up! My mom´s is in 3 days, (I´ve already sent her a vase that says Pamplona on it), tomorrow is Melissa Brown´s birthday (I have to remember to write her), then Derek and Penni Smith, then later at the end of March is my dad´s and my sister´s. I´ve already sent my sister a lamp that I bought when I was in France. It was pretty cute and she likes it, but I mostly bought it just to say that it was from France!

I talked to quite a few people yesterday on MSN. It sounds like everybody is transfering to Kstate next year! That´s cool. Kelsie Trotman , Ryk Belt, Zach Anderson, Brad N., and I can´t remember who else. Kelsie is getting ready to go on a mission trip to Guatemala with a group of college students in a couple of weeks. That´s really cool. I hope you have an absolutely incredible trip T!! (Kelsie´s nickname since forever because for the longest time Brady would say T in place of Kelsie)

I miss seeing everybody. Hope you are all doing great!

Got her done

With a lot of help from Eduardo, (my host dad´s brother that i have english conversations with) I was able to finish translating the report on the Romans. We worked on it from 5:15 until about 10 at night. Next time I get an offer to translate something I think my answer will be no in english and no in spanish :D.

So... I think I forgot to mention that I have joined a hip'hop-funky dance class. It´s pretty fun. I´ve only gone once to the trial class, the real classes don´t start til like next week I think. Anyway... I enjoy it and it´s a good way to get some exercise.

It snowed all night and it´s freezing today. I was actually planning on running tonight but if there´s water everywhere it kinda ruins your motivation.

My mom and Derek told me that the ski trip was a good one. I heard the plumbing was down in the big cabin! Fun!! They told me about watching Napolean Dynamite together too. That´s pretty funny. I can only imagine Jason King´s imitations :D Wish I coulda been there for that one.
Alright well it´s Tuesday so I´m off to school again for the afternoon. Then Chloe and I are going to the bus station to change the time on our bus ticket for on the way back because Rotary emailed us and told us that we needed to stay in Madrid until 6 in the evening. I have no idea why, but anyway... until next time

ONE WEEK TIL THE TRIP!!

Ahh... I´m so excited! It´s gonna be so great. I get to miss final exams this trimester too! It´s perfect timing. Last time they were pretty stressful, the exams. School is sooo much more difficult over here. They study so much.
Right now I´m translating a paper over the Roman Theories on Law for a friend. I have 6 pages to translate by Tuesday! It´s probably not going to happen. He has the other 6. It´s difficult though. It´s a crazy assignment. It´s hard for me to understand it and it´s in English! I don´t know what this teacher is smokin, but it´s way to hard for this guy to translate in a week. ¡Qué barbaridad! As we say here. (How barbarious!)

I´ve been working on that all day. And thinking about how my parents and half the church is in Colorado skiing! How lucky. I wish I could be with you all! Hope you´re having great weather and lots of fun!

Last night Chloe and I went out to eat with 2 of the other american girls. We ate chinese again, my choice. It´s SOO good. I think I´ve had my fill of it though now. I ate so much. Then Chloe and I went back to her house and watched Matrix. IT was pretty late though and I kept falling asleep. Anyway... I had to catch the night bus at 1 in the morning to come back to Zizur and I was kinda freaked out when this lil mexican dude came by while I was waiting at the bus stop and was like ¨hola señorita how often does the bus come by here... and more details about the bus. Then he was like ¨ how about we go to a lil bar over here to get out of the rain and wait on the bus¨ I was like no thanks. And he was like ok I´m inviting you but I guess you just don´t want to. I was like I have to wait for the bus and it´s coming any second.

Anyway I was really relieved when he started walking away and didn´t come back. It was a lil freaky though. He was a lil guy though, I coulda taken him if I had to :D

I´m sitting here listening to some good ol songs from a while back. They bring back so many memories. Ever since I have been here I´ve been like a flashback freak. Everything brings back a good memory, especially songs. It´s pretty cool though.

Tomorrow it´s back to school... and i still haven´t gotten that report written. I have the header on the final draft and that´s about it! Ahh.. I´m never gonna get it done.