- After our short afternoon in France, I've decided French is actually pretty cool.
- Today we went to the Madrid temple and did baptisms! All the workers there right now were from Bordeaux, France. I read the Introduction the the Book of Mormon in French while in the chapel, and was surprised at how much I understood.
- I have officially decided to learn French again - you know, along with my native Spanish, which will always and forever be my first love.
- I love Spanish very much. In fact, I might cry when I have to start speaking English full-time again. Today I couldn't remember the English word for something. It made me so happy.
- I get to register for winter classes tomorrow - and I'm superexcited for my schedule!
- I started knitting a scarf! But I'm a perfectionist, and I'm going to start again, because I made it way too wide. But I'm super excited - I can knit!
- I think I want to go to spring term this year.
- It's almost 2011 - and that scares me. I can't believe it.
- I've basically stopped doing my hair since coming to Spain - my hairdryer barely works and my straightener doesn't, so, what's the point. Surprisingly, life has gone on as normal. I kind of like it sometimes.
- I have the best host mom of the whole study abroad. The Spanish have officially surrendered in the Spanish-American Food Wars - and now she still loves me even though I hardly ever eat all my food. And she's teaching me to knit, and she likes to talk to me. Love :)
- I'm going to go to the Canary Islands for four days at the end of this program! I'm very excited about this. I have learned on this program that I have a deep love of the ocean.
- I wrote a poem today in Spanish. I'm quite proud of how it turned out.
Random things about Spain you might not have known:
- Grass seems to be pets' litterboxes. People look at you weird if you sit on the grass. They look at you even weirder if you're doing exercises on it. We went running the other day, and worked our abs afterward.
- People live with their parents til they're 35 or married. It's weird to move out. Weird.
- You have to pay for grocery bags at the grocery store, you have to bag your own groceries, basically nothing is free... haha.
- Doggy bags at restaurants? Yeah right. You'll get some suuuuper weird looks and probably a refusal.
- Something like 55% of the people in Madrid are over 50. There's lots of little cute old couples walking around.
I love Spain, Spanish, languages, linguistics, the temple, Harry Potter, poetry, and Nutella.
Life is amaaaaazing!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Forever memories
The sense of smell is the most powerful memory in the human mind.
You never really forget smells. You might forget what they are, but even if it's been years and years, you'll recognize a smell when you smell it again.
Today I was walking down a street in Spain, talking about something with a friend, and suddenly I wasn't in Spain anymore, I was in a tent with the sun shining through the pine trees, using an old foot pump to blow up an air mattress that smelled strongly of plasticky rubber.
Memories attached to smells are so vivid.
Some of my best memories smell like bubblegum chapstick, warm apple cider, wet grass in the early morning, movie theater popcorn, salty ocean air, new suit straight from the store, french fries, and mountains.
If only I could capture it, remember it, hold moments in a bottle, perhaps preserved like cologne, keep them in a closet labeled Scents of the Past, release them only in the desperate moments where I feel like the memories are rapidly unraveling, slipping through the cracks of my mind, keep them from escaping the confines of my heart.
You never really forget smells. You might forget what they are, but even if it's been years and years, you'll recognize a smell when you smell it again.
Today I was walking down a street in Spain, talking about something with a friend, and suddenly I wasn't in Spain anymore, I was in a tent with the sun shining through the pine trees, using an old foot pump to blow up an air mattress that smelled strongly of plasticky rubber.
Memories attached to smells are so vivid.
Some of my best memories smell like bubblegum chapstick, warm apple cider, wet grass in the early morning, movie theater popcorn, salty ocean air, new suit straight from the store, french fries, and mountains.
If only I could capture it, remember it, hold moments in a bottle, perhaps preserved like cologne, keep them in a closet labeled Scents of the Past, release them only in the desperate moments where I feel like the memories are rapidly unraveling, slipping through the cracks of my mind, keep them from escaping the confines of my heart.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Complete and total beauty
Trip 7 (I think?) - Santander, Bilbao, FRANCE, San Sebastian -
Four days of fabulousness. Main focus: beaches. This is the northern coast of Spain, and it is completely gorgeous - beaches, greenery, mountainy hills, all rolled into one makes for total beauty! I'll let the pictures talk for themselves this post.
Santander
Beach in Santander
On the beach in Santander
Cool cemetery outside Santander
Beach in St Jean de Luz, France! It says "I love you" :D
Melanie and I in Biarritz, France
Patisserie in St Jean de Luz, France
Beach in St Jean de Luz, France
San Sebastian - Playa de la Concha (shell-shaped beach - super famous)
The beautiful view of San Sebastian - northern coast of Spain
Four days of fabulousness. Main focus: beaches. This is the northern coast of Spain, and it is completely gorgeous - beaches, greenery, mountainy hills, all rolled into one makes for total beauty! I'll let the pictures talk for themselves this post.
Santander
Beach in Santander
On the beach in Santander
Cool cemetery outside Santander
Beach in St Jean de Luz, France! It says "I love you" :D
Melanie and I in Biarritz, France
Patisserie in St Jean de Luz, France
Beach in St Jean de Luz, France
San Sebastian - Playa de la Concha (shell-shaped beach - super famous)
The beautiful view of San Sebastian - northern coast of SpainProbably my favorite part of the trip was visiting France. It was cool being in a country where I really, really don't speak the language. Although we were so close to the border that most of them spoke English or Spanish, so we didn't really have trouble communicating for the most part. It was a cool experience. I love study abroad. Even though there've been some problems, and some disappointments, overall this has been the most amazing and biggest growing experience I think I've ever had. One month left. SAD!!!!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Walls and Skulls and Astronauts and Chocolate
Trip 6 - Avila, Salamanca,
Basically I haven't blogged about this trip yet because it was pretty ordinary and there wasn't a ton to say. But we went first to Avila. Avila is famous for walls surrounding all the old part of the city. While there, we went up on said walls and watched a parade/procession of sorts. It was pretty cool - it was the Day of Santa Teresa of Avila, so they were having a religious procession/festival.
The walls of Avila
Later that day we went to Salamanca. Salamanca is home to the University of Salamanca - the oldest in Spain and fourth oldest in the world. It has a super cool plataresque facade (yes, I did just use both those words AND I know what they mean, go me) and it is also home to Cathedrals (plural). There's two cathedrals connected - one is older than the other by about 300 years. They're both two different styles of architecture, so they're pretty cool to look at.
Old building? I think not... haha. This is carved around the door of the cathedral. The building is old, but this part of the carvings was redone in the 90s, and they carved an astronaut in to celebrate modern science. Another part shows a dragon eating an ice cream cone. Way cool.
This is the facade of the University of Salamanca. Ask me sometime - I can label all the plataresque characteristics for you. (we had a test today, so I know stuff now :P)
Casa de las Conchas
So there was this man whose daughter married nobility - thereby giving him new social status. To show off his new status to the world, he did this to his house. The conchas, or shells, are part of the family crest of the family his daughter married into. Show-off...
We spent the night in Salamanca, and visited Toro and Tordecillos the next day - two small towns with a lot of churches. Suffice it to say, we were ready to be done with the churches by the time we left. I really am starting to believe they want us to come home Catholic, with all the churches we visit. However, we did see the first little bit of Mass when in Avila, which was pretty cool, not going to lie.
Basically I haven't blogged about this trip yet because it was pretty ordinary and there wasn't a ton to say. But we went first to Avila. Avila is famous for walls surrounding all the old part of the city. While there, we went up on said walls and watched a parade/procession of sorts. It was pretty cool - it was the Day of Santa Teresa of Avila, so they were having a religious procession/festival.
The walls of Avila
Old building? I think not... haha. This is carved around the door of the cathedral. The building is old, but this part of the carvings was redone in the 90s, and they carved an astronaut in to celebrate modern science. Another part shows a dragon eating an ice cream cone. Way cool.
This is the facade of the University of Salamanca. Ask me sometime - I can label all the plataresque characteristics for you. (we had a test today, so I know stuff now :P)
Casa de las Conchas
So there was this man whose daughter married nobility - thereby giving him new social status. To show off his new status to the world, he did this to his house. The conchas, or shells, are part of the family crest of the family his daughter married into. Show-off...
We spent the night in Salamanca, and visited Toro and Tordecillos the next day - two small towns with a lot of churches. Suffice it to say, we were ready to be done with the churches by the time we left. I really am starting to believe they want us to come home Catholic, with all the churches we visit. However, we did see the first little bit of Mass when in Avila, which was pretty cool, not going to lie.
Random picture of me in Tordecillo, before visiting a monastery - Lindsey took this and I really liked it. There was a really pretty view of a river up at the top of this street.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
What I'm going to miss the most...
I might miss Spain when I leave.
It struck me as I walked down the street in Salamanca and paused in the middle of Plaza Mayor. It was night, and a beautiful half-moon hung above the 16th century walls. The buildings shone golden with authentic-style lamplight, and people were everywhere, walking, talking, laughing, eating, spending time with friends, just living.
Up above me the first star came out. Yes, I did wish on it.
And I realized this was what I was going to miss most - not the Spanish, not the food, not the cathedrals, not any of the stuff we see on our trips - I was going to miss the friendly atmosphere in the streets. Being out in a city at night has always scared me - but there's a sense of community here, a shared feeling of friendship, to some extent. I love the "street culture;" eat on the street, get together on the street, walk on the street, etc. At home everyone has their cars, their houses, their yards, their cubicles, their fences. We put up walls and push our neighbors out. Here you can hear your neighbor two floors up singing to the radio. You know the neighbor across the street because you walk to the train station together every morning. The owner of the bar on the corner is your best friend - he sells you hot coffee and churros every morning on your coffee break.
Maybe it's just me and I'm overly optimistic about Spain, Alcala, all of it. But even if I am, it's still true at least to some extent - and I think that's what I'm going to miss the most.
It struck me as I walked down the street in Salamanca and paused in the middle of Plaza Mayor. It was night, and a beautiful half-moon hung above the 16th century walls. The buildings shone golden with authentic-style lamplight, and people were everywhere, walking, talking, laughing, eating, spending time with friends, just living.
Up above me the first star came out. Yes, I did wish on it.
And I realized this was what I was going to miss most - not the Spanish, not the food, not the cathedrals, not any of the stuff we see on our trips - I was going to miss the friendly atmosphere in the streets. Being out in a city at night has always scared me - but there's a sense of community here, a shared feeling of friendship, to some extent. I love the "street culture;" eat on the street, get together on the street, walk on the street, etc. At home everyone has their cars, their houses, their yards, their cubicles, their fences. We put up walls and push our neighbors out. Here you can hear your neighbor two floors up singing to the radio. You know the neighbor across the street because you walk to the train station together every morning. The owner of the bar on the corner is your best friend - he sells you hot coffee and churros every morning on your coffee break.
Maybe it's just me and I'm overly optimistic about Spain, Alcala, all of it. But even if I am, it's still true at least to some extent - and I think that's what I'm going to miss the most.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
"Culture"
Think about it.
The Spanish arrived in South America and called the natives uncivilized and without culture because they were bloodthirsty and primitive.
But the Romans had gladiator fights, and somehow that's "culture."
And the Spanish have bullfights.
I'm actually more than 95% ashamed of myself for going - however, the 5% appreciation is because it solidified in my mind that I'm 100% against it. Culture or not. Six bulls died last night for absolutely no reason at all, and I paid money to go in and watch.
It's true, there's a lot of "technique" involved. It's supposed to be a showdown between the man and the bull, a place to prove the courage and valor of each, in essence, a representation of the age-old struggle between man and beast for domination.
Man wins in the end. It's a bittersweet victory - and for me, it makes them as "primitive and uncultured" as the indigenous peoples in the Americas.
So maybe I'm a strong supporter of animal rights. Maybe I'm unappreciative of cultural traditions. Maybe I'm just religious.
Moses 3:19:
"And out of the ground I, the Lord God, formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and commanded that they should come unto Adam, to see what he would call them; and they were also living souls; for I, God, breathed into them the breath of life..."
If God gave those bulls the breath of life, who are we to take it away?
I'm not saying it's never okay to kill animals. I instead side with the Native Americans - whose belief was that when man took the life from a fellow animal, it was never without a purpose - and they prayed for the soul of the animal to rest peacefully and to forgive them. Then they wasted nothing.
Somehow I don't think "cultural traditions" are going to be on the list of acceptable purposes at the end of the day. It was a waste - a waste of a beautiful life, a beautiful animal, a beautiful spirit - now in a better place than this rather messed-up world we've got down here.
The Spanish arrived in South America and called the natives uncivilized and without culture because they were bloodthirsty and primitive.
But the Romans had gladiator fights, and somehow that's "culture."
And the Spanish have bullfights.
I'm actually more than 95% ashamed of myself for going - however, the 5% appreciation is because it solidified in my mind that I'm 100% against it. Culture or not. Six bulls died last night for absolutely no reason at all, and I paid money to go in and watch.
It's true, there's a lot of "technique" involved. It's supposed to be a showdown between the man and the bull, a place to prove the courage and valor of each, in essence, a representation of the age-old struggle between man and beast for domination.
Man wins in the end. It's a bittersweet victory - and for me, it makes them as "primitive and uncultured" as the indigenous peoples in the Americas.
So maybe I'm a strong supporter of animal rights. Maybe I'm unappreciative of cultural traditions. Maybe I'm just religious.
Moses 3:19:
"And out of the ground I, the Lord God, formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and commanded that they should come unto Adam, to see what he would call them; and they were also living souls; for I, God, breathed into them the breath of life..."
If God gave those bulls the breath of life, who are we to take it away?
I'm not saying it's never okay to kill animals. I instead side with the Native Americans - whose belief was that when man took the life from a fellow animal, it was never without a purpose - and they prayed for the soul of the animal to rest peacefully and to forgive them. Then they wasted nothing.
Somehow I don't think "cultural traditions" are going to be on the list of acceptable purposes at the end of the day. It was a waste - a waste of a beautiful life, a beautiful animal, a beautiful spirit - now in a better place than this rather messed-up world we've got down here.
90 minutes in heaven, well, just about
Trip 5: Valencia, Toledo:
Thursday, October 7 - reunited with the now-very-familiar bus and headed off to the mysterious land of Valencia.
First stop: Lladro factory. Lladro (accent on the O) is a very prestigious brand of porcelain. We stopped at the factory and took a tour and saw how it's made. Very, very cool. I would definitely have the patience to do that for a living - for about three and a half minutes. Then chuck it out the window, I say! The detail was amazing.
After the tour, our group spent a rather LONG time in the "seconds" store - meaning they had all the "flawed" statues at a "discounted" price. I put these words in quotes because the flaws were completely invisible... as were the discounts... no, they were cheaper than the perfect stuff, but seriously, $200 for a porcelain statue? Please. I can find statues I like better at Hallmark in the mall.
Obviously, I have not developed a taste for the prestigious and exquisite.
Nonetheless, here's some of the pretty stuff they had in their showroom:
Hello Kitty grew up and got married
This piece - about 2-3 feet long - took two years to design and complete. It's the most expensive piece Lladro has ever done - I believe it's about $120,000, if I remember right. It's Nefertiri's boat on the Nile - Charlton Heston, go ahead and let your jaw drop, they didn't give you anything this cool in The Ten Commandments movie.
This piece did speak to my heart a bit.
As did this one. If I would have bought anything here, it would have been this statue. I feel they captured the missionary spirit really well.
After Lladro, we went on a walking tour of the city at night (thank you Dallin, for being our tour guide). It looked basically like all the other Spanish cities, so I won't bore you with pictures. However, we then arrived at our dinner destination - a fabulous paella restaurant. Paella is one of the best dishes ever invented. I refuse to come home from Spain without learning how to make it.
Friday morning: We went to the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias, a fabulous modern museum near the harbor in Valencia. It looked like something out of Star Wars. We only went in the science museum part - it had a bunch of cool interactive exhibits.
There were pools of water all over. We all wanted to swim in them. Which is probably what prompted us to speed through the museum and go to the BEACH!!!
The seven of us who swam in the ocean - the others only waded a bit.
Thursday, October 7 - reunited with the now-very-familiar bus and headed off to the mysterious land of Valencia.
First stop: Lladro factory. Lladro (accent on the O) is a very prestigious brand of porcelain. We stopped at the factory and took a tour and saw how it's made. Very, very cool. I would definitely have the patience to do that for a living - for about three and a half minutes. Then chuck it out the window, I say! The detail was amazing.
After the tour, our group spent a rather LONG time in the "seconds" store - meaning they had all the "flawed" statues at a "discounted" price. I put these words in quotes because the flaws were completely invisible... as were the discounts... no, they were cheaper than the perfect stuff, but seriously, $200 for a porcelain statue? Please. I can find statues I like better at Hallmark in the mall.
Obviously, I have not developed a taste for the prestigious and exquisite.
Nonetheless, here's some of the pretty stuff they had in their showroom:
Hello Kitty grew up and got married
This piece - about 2-3 feet long - took two years to design and complete. It's the most expensive piece Lladro has ever done - I believe it's about $120,000, if I remember right. It's Nefertiri's boat on the Nile - Charlton Heston, go ahead and let your jaw drop, they didn't give you anything this cool in The Ten Commandments movie.
This piece did speak to my heart a bit.
As did this one. If I would have bought anything here, it would have been this statue. I feel they captured the missionary spirit really well.After Lladro, we went on a walking tour of the city at night (thank you Dallin, for being our tour guide). It looked basically like all the other Spanish cities, so I won't bore you with pictures. However, we then arrived at our dinner destination - a fabulous paella restaurant. Paella is one of the best dishes ever invented. I refuse to come home from Spain without learning how to make it.
Friday morning: We went to the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias, a fabulous modern museum near the harbor in Valencia. It looked like something out of Star Wars. We only went in the science museum part - it had a bunch of cool interactive exhibits.
There were pools of water all over. We all wanted to swim in them. Which is probably what prompted us to speed through the museum and go to the BEACH!!!
We spent about an hour and a half on the beach. The day was perfect, the weather was perfect, there was basically nobody there at the beach, the water was just barely chilly but still great, also super salty. I went out farther in the ocean than I have before - okay, so I haven't actually ever been out that far, this time, we were out where we could touch and sort of bodysurf the waves. It was a super clean and smooth beach. Basically, it was amazing!!
The seven of us who swam in the ocean - the others only waded a bit.Saturday: Toledo
It couldn't have been more of a contrast - cold, wet, rainy, gloomyish... did I say cold?
It couldn't have been more of a contrast - cold, wet, rainy, gloomyish... did I say cold?
Toledo is famous for it's mazapan, a kind of candy (marzipan? not sure) and also it's swords/blades. It's also famous for another cathedral, a painting by El Greco that hangs in a church there, and a large weapons museum. 
Store windows. Mmm.
Store windows. Mmm.
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