Wow I have not been as faithful about writing during this trip, here it is Friday and I haven’t written once this whole week! Que terrible. Pues, this trip has been amazing, we left the bus stop at eight Tuesday morning and drove two hours to Avila where the giant walls surrounding the city still remain fully intact. We were able to walk along the walls and have an aerial view of the city. It was really neat, but extremely windy and cold. Avila is the highest point in Spain, and therefore much colder than what I have been used to in Madrid. Every other minute my breath would get taken away because of how intense the wind was. I felt like Pepper when she would put her head out the window in the car and then freak out because she couldn’t catch her breath. We got back on the bus and drove a few hours more to Salamanca. After checking into our hotel we met up with a friend of Professor Shumway’s who had been to Spain over twenty times and was currently staying in Salamanca. He gave us a great tour of the city, and I was able to contribute my small bit of research on the University of Salamanca, which was my site report for Spain. He showed us around the cathedral in Salamanca and was able to give us a lot of information on the architecture and history. On the outside of the cathedral within the very detailed and ancient façade you can spot a small figure of an astronaut. There is no explanation for it, and it is completely crazy that there would be a small carved astronaut in the design, yet there it is plain as day!
It was really neat seeing the University especially because I had studied
about it during the preparation class last semester. I loved seeing the old library full of ancient books and old globes. The old staircases in the library are painted with images of bullfights and other cultural activities. In the past it has been a tradition for the students to sign their names on the staircases with bull blood. We were actually able to see some of the blood stains which was really cool. In front of the University of Salamanca there is a statue of Fray Luis de Leon. This man was a very famous Spanish poet and professor at the university who was greatly persecuted by the inquisition. He was put into prison for several years, but after he was let out he resumed his teaching career at the university. He was reported to have commenced his first class after his five year absence by saying, “As I was saying yesterday…” We got to go into the classroom he taught in and it was just fun imagining what life would have been like studying at the university during that time. Christopher Columbus was also known to have visited the University of Salamanca to discuss his voyage plans with the professors. After our tour we walked around the beautiful Salamanca Plaza and Rachel and Erica stopped for dinner, but I had no need to eat because Ana packed me a bocadillo with tortilla Espanola the size of my lower leg- that is no exaggeration. Oh it was so fun Monday night making tortilla with Ana, she taught me how to make it and I just had so much fun talking with her. She told me that I’m going to make it next time so that I can practice it. Well that night we didn’t do much because it was freezing cold, but we did have some great talks. I love our group, we all have so much fun together and everyone is just so great. Wednesday morning Sarah and I went running, which felt amazing even though I thought my lungs might freeze. We had breakfast and then boarded the bus for the very long bus ride to Santiago de Compostela, the holy Catholic city that thousands pilgrimage to each year to see Saint James’ grave the patron saint of Spain. On the way there our bus driver took us to two amazing beaches along the North-west coast of Spain. When I saw the ocean outside of the bus windows I couldn’t stop smiling! The first beach we went to was a quaint port full of small fishing boats, some of us sat on the dock for awhile just taking in the beautiful sights, sounds, and smells of this darling coastal town. There was a beach to the right of the dock with a surprisingly good amount of whole shells, so I collected a handful and then we headed back to the bus to go to the next beach. The second beach was a famous beach that reminded me of Sunset beach just outside of Santa Cruz. We had to walk over a small sand dune on wooden planks and then when we crested the hill the shore was seemingly endless in both directions. It was about four in the afternoon and the sun was shimmering on the water like Jana’s ring in the sunshine. I hadn’t been to the ocean in so long and it felt so good to breathe in the air and have my feet in the sand. It was not warm, but the air was fresh and felt incredible. We danced around on the beach for an hour, we were literally running and twirling and splashing our feet in the chilly Atlantic for our whole break. Unfortunately we had to leave the coast and head inland and we arrived at our hotel that evening around eight. Sarah, Erica, Rachel, and I went to the grocery store and bought cereal, milk, bananas, plastic spoons and cups and enjoyed the most delicious dinner in our hotel lobby. I hadn’t had cereal in two months and it was amazing! The next morning we were out early at 8:30 AM to start our four mile pilgrimage to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral was beautiful, and it had the most fantastic alter. We went to the pilgrim mass at noon and met a few people who had been walking for a month straight from France to get there. People come from all over to visit the shrine of Apostle James making it the third holiest site in Christendom, after Jerusalem and Rome. We saw the giant rope that holds the five foot three inch, 120 pound incense burner, which is about the same size as me before I started eating all of Ana’s cooking. During the heavy pilgrimage season they break out this giant incense burner and swing it from the ceili
ng of the cathedral to cover up the stench of the pilgrims who have been traveling for so long without bathing. Afterwards we wandered around the city, visited the pilgrimage museum and a convent and then came upon a Santa Susana Iglesia. We walked around the iglesia and found a grassy field so we laid down and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. After awhile an old Spanish woman came over and told us we were laying on a cemetery! After our siesta we decided to hike an hour or so up this random hill to watch the sunset over the beautiful cathedral and pueblo. It was so worth it when we got up there. We sat on this ledge and watched the giant sun sink behind the rolling Spanish hills spotted with quaint white houses. We found a restaurant on the way home and enjoyed the tasty Spanish delicacy tortilla Espanola bocadillos, my favorite. Six of us went in on two cartons of ice cream on the way back to the hotel and then watched the movie Meet Joe Black. The movie was different, but I liked it, except the part where Brad Pitt was nailed by two cars within seconds of each other and went flying into the air like Megan on the diving board in the summer. Something like that shouldn’t happen to someone with such a beautiful face! This morning Sarah and Erica and I went for the most amazing run I’ve had so far in Spain. We found our way up this hill and into the countryside, then we started running into this forest, but we saw some tents, probably from some pilgrims, and we got scared so we left. We ran back along this beautiful stream and arrived in time for breakfast at the café next to the hotel. We got ready for the day and then went exploring in this really neat park a little ways outside of the city. I’ve walked so much in the past three days it is unbelievable! My legs keep telling me to stop, but I haven’t succumbed to their pleadings. We bought some fruit, bread, meat, cheese, and digestive crackers and put together bocadillos for the bus ride t
o Leon. We just stopped in this random town a few minutes ago, which was incredible. I think the population there in the winter is probably 17. All of the buildings are the same color of reddish orange stone with green doors, the city was very small and surrounded by countryside like in Pride and Prejudice. I really cannot capture the charm in words so I am just going to stop trying. Well we are about forty five minutes outside of Leon and Fernando our bus driver is blasting some Spanish disco type music. He usually does this when we start to look tired; well I am excited to see what Leon has in store! Hasta.
08/03/08
Leon was great, we pulled in around eight last night and then a group of us headed out to look for something to eat. We found this restaurant called Pizza Latina and we decided to check it out, the waiter led us downstairs because there was nine of us and we were the only ones in the restaurant. Usually this is a bad sign, but it was still only 8:30 and the Spaniards don’t eat until 9:30 or later. Our waiter saw us dancing to the music while our food was being prepared, so he turned it up and we were dancing the whole time we were eating. After our meal he brought us out nine hot peppers and most of us took the challenge and ate the whole thing, my mouth was on fire, but it was fun. As we were getting up to leave, the song we heard at the institute dance came on over the speakers so we all started dancing and I am sure our Spanish waiter was dying of laughter. Today five us got up early and ran and then were at the bus by nine to go to the cathedral. The cathedral was absolutely gorgeous, probably my favorite up there with the one in Toledo. It was unique in that it had tons of huge windows all with stained glass lining every wall. The sight was amazing! It made the cathedral so much more cheerful and bright, it felt like I was looking through a giant kaleidoscope. After the cathedral we walked to the plaza mayor where there was a huge market in progress. I bought a banana and some apples and had the most pleasant time just looking around at all the vendors with their fruit, vegetables, nuts, honey, and cheese. It reminded me of Thursday nights at the farmers’ market in Lodi, except in Spanish. We walked in a few museums and then spent some time at a cool park before grabbing a kebab for lunch and then heading back to the bus. This week has been so great, I love traveling and seeing other parts of Spain. I am excited to see Ana and Oscar, but I am not looking forward to going back to school, especially because we have our History 202 midterm on Wednesday. It is so hard to be studious here, but Monday and Tuesday I’m going to hit the books hard core and get an A on that test. Well only about five and half more hours on the bus, madre mia!
09/03/07
We stopped at the Coco castle on the way back home and took a half an hour break. It was a beautiful castle, supposedly the most beautiful in Spain, and has been perfectly preserved for centuries. It was fun to explore the grounds and imagine what life would have been like living there hundreds of years ago. The ride home went by surprisingly very fast, I got some studying done and had a good talk with Sarah. We were just talking about our plans for the future with graduating from BYU, graduate school, marriage, and our future families. We have very similar goals and views on life and it was great talking about all of the thoughts that have been going through my head recently. Before we knew it we were back in Alcalá. It felt good to see Ana again and we had a nice conversation about our trip over dinner. Church today was incredible, I just love Sundays here. Relief Society and Sunday school were inspiring, I am going to try my best this week to evaluate my life and improve on those things that I need to work on. Sacrament meeting was also awesome, my institute teacher whom I love spoke and the amazing pianist was at his prime today in the hymns. I understood practically everything today, which is a testimony to me of the help God is giving me with learning and understanding Spanish. We just finished a delicious almuerzo of rice with Ana’s homemade salsa, chicken, salad, and ice cream for dessert. Yum!
It was really neat seeing the University especially because I had studied
about it during the preparation class last semester. I loved seeing the old library full of ancient books and old globes. The old staircases in the library are painted with images of bullfights and other cultural activities. In the past it has been a tradition for the students to sign their names on the staircases with bull blood. We were actually able to see some of the blood stains which was really cool. In front of the University of Salamanca there is a statue of Fray Luis de Leon. This man was a very famous Spanish poet and professor at the university who was greatly persecuted by the inquisition. He was put into prison for several years, but after he was let out he resumed his teaching career at the university. He was reported to have commenced his first class after his five year absence by saying, “As I was saying yesterday…” We got to go into the classroom he taught in and it was just fun imagining what life would have been like studying at the university during that time. Christopher Columbus was also known to have visited the University of Salamanca to discuss his voyage plans with the professors. After our tour we walked around the beautiful Salamanca Plaza and Rachel and Erica stopped for dinner, but I had no need to eat because Ana packed me a bocadillo with tortilla Espanola the size of my lower leg- that is no exaggeration. Oh it was so fun Monday night making tortilla with Ana, she taught me how to make it and I just had so much fun talking with her. She told me that I’m going to make it next time so that I can practice it. Well that night we didn’t do much because it was freezing cold, but we did have some great talks. I love our group, we all have so much fun together and everyone is just so great. Wednesday morning Sarah and I went running, which felt amazing even though I thought my lungs might freeze. We had breakfast and then boarded the bus for the very long bus ride to Santiago de Compostela, the holy Catholic city that thousands pilgrimage to each year to see Saint James’ grave the patron saint of Spain. On the way there our bus driver took us to two amazing beaches along the North-west coast of Spain. When I saw the ocean outside of the bus windows I couldn’t stop smiling! The first beach we went to was a quaint port full of small fishing boats, some of us sat on the dock for awhile just taking in the beautiful sights, sounds, and smells of this darling coastal town. There was a beach to the right of the dock with a surprisingly good amount of whole shells, so I collected a handful and then we headed back to the bus to go to the next beach. The second beach was a famous beach that reminded me of Sunset beach just outside of Santa Cruz. We had to walk over a small sand dune on wooden planks and then when we crested the hill the shore was seemingly endless in both directions. It was about four in the afternoon and the sun was shimmering on the water like Jana’s ring in the sunshine. I hadn’t been to the ocean in so long and it felt so good to breathe in the air and have my feet in the sand. It was not warm, but the air was fresh and felt incredible. We danced around on the beach for an hour, we were literally running and twirling and splashing our feet in the chilly Atlantic for our whole break. Unfortunately we had to leave the coast and head inland and we arrived at our hotel that evening around eight. Sarah, Erica, Rachel, and I went to the grocery store and bought cereal, milk, bananas, plastic spoons and cups and enjoyed the most delicious dinner in our hotel lobby. I hadn’t had cereal in two months and it was amazing! The next morning we were out early at 8:30 AM to start our four mile pilgrimage to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral was beautiful, and it had the most fantastic alter. We went to the pilgrim mass at noon and met a few people who had been walking for a month straight from France to get there. People come from all over to visit the shrine of Apostle James making it the third holiest site in Christendom, after Jerusalem and Rome. We saw the giant rope that holds the five foot three inch, 120 pound incense burner, which is about the same size as me before I started eating all of Ana’s cooking. During the heavy pilgrimage season they break out this giant incense burner and swing it from the ceili
ng of the cathedral to cover up the stench of the pilgrims who have been traveling for so long without bathing. Afterwards we wandered around the city, visited the pilgrimage museum and a convent and then came upon a Santa Susana Iglesia. We walked around the iglesia and found a grassy field so we laid down and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. After awhile an old Spanish woman came over and told us we were laying on a cemetery! After our siesta we decided to hike an hour or so up this random hill to watch the sunset over the beautiful cathedral and pueblo. It was so worth it when we got up there. We sat on this ledge and watched the giant sun sink behind the rolling Spanish hills spotted with quaint white houses. We found a restaurant on the way home and enjoyed the tasty Spanish delicacy tortilla Espanola bocadillos, my favorite. Six of us went in on two cartons of ice cream on the way back to the hotel and then watched the movie Meet Joe Black. The movie was different, but I liked it, except the part where Brad Pitt was nailed by two cars within seconds of each other and went flying into the air like Megan on the diving board in the summer. Something like that shouldn’t happen to someone with such a beautiful face! This morning Sarah and Erica and I went for the most amazing run I’ve had so far in Spain. We found our way up this hill and into the countryside, then we started running into this forest, but we saw some tents, probably from some pilgrims, and we got scared so we left. We ran back along this beautiful stream and arrived in time for breakfast at the café next to the hotel. We got ready for the day and then went exploring in this really neat park a little ways outside of the city. I’ve walked so much in the past three days it is unbelievable! My legs keep telling me to stop, but I haven’t succumbed to their pleadings. We bought some fruit, bread, meat, cheese, and digestive crackers and put together bocadillos for the bus ride t
o Leon. We just stopped in this random town a few minutes ago, which was incredible. I think the population there in the winter is probably 17. All of the buildings are the same color of reddish orange stone with green doors, the city was very small and surrounded by countryside like in Pride and Prejudice. I really cannot capture the charm in words so I am just going to stop trying. Well we are about forty five minutes outside of Leon and Fernando our bus driver is blasting some Spanish disco type music. He usually does this when we start to look tired; well I am excited to see what Leon has in store! Hasta.08/03/08
Leon was great, we pulled in around eight last night and then a group of us headed out to look for something to eat. We found this restaurant called Pizza Latina and we decided to check it out, the waiter led us downstairs because there was nine of us and we were the only ones in the restaurant. Usually this is a bad sign, but it was still only 8:30 and the Spaniards don’t eat until 9:30 or later. Our waiter saw us dancing to the music while our food was being prepared, so he turned it up and we were dancing the whole time we were eating. After our meal he brought us out nine hot peppers and most of us took the challenge and ate the whole thing, my mouth was on fire, but it was fun. As we were getting up to leave, the song we heard at the institute dance came on over the speakers so we all started dancing and I am sure our Spanish waiter was dying of laughter. Today five us got up early and ran and then were at the bus by nine to go to the cathedral. The cathedral was absolutely gorgeous, probably my favorite up there with the one in Toledo. It was unique in that it had tons of huge windows all with stained glass lining every wall. The sight was amazing! It made the cathedral so much more cheerful and bright, it felt like I was looking through a giant kaleidoscope. After the cathedral we walked to the plaza mayor where there was a huge market in progress. I bought a banana and some apples and had the most pleasant time just looking around at all the vendors with their fruit, vegetables, nuts, honey, and cheese. It reminded me of Thursday nights at the farmers’ market in Lodi, except in Spanish. We walked in a few museums and then spent some time at a cool park before grabbing a kebab for lunch and then heading back to the bus. This week has been so great, I love traveling and seeing other parts of Spain. I am excited to see Ana and Oscar, but I am not looking forward to going back to school, especially because we have our History 202 midterm on Wednesday. It is so hard to be studious here, but Monday and Tuesday I’m going to hit the books hard core and get an A on that test. Well only about five and half more hours on the bus, madre mia!
09/03/07
We stopped at the Coco castle on the way back home and took a half an hour break. It was a beautiful castle, supposedly the most beautiful in Spain, and has been perfectly preserved for centuries. It was fun to explore the grounds and imagine what life would have been like living there hundreds of years ago. The ride home went by surprisingly very fast, I got some studying done and had a good talk with Sarah. We were just talking about our plans for the future with graduating from BYU, graduate school, marriage, and our future families. We have very similar goals and views on life and it was great talking about all of the thoughts that have been going through my head recently. Before we knew it we were back in Alcalá. It felt good to see Ana again and we had a nice conversation about our trip over dinner. Church today was incredible, I just love Sundays here. Relief Society and Sunday school were inspiring, I am going to try my best this week to evaluate my life and improve on those things that I need to work on. Sacrament meeting was also awesome, my institute teacher whom I love spoke and the amazing pianist was at his prime today in the hymns. I understood practically everything today, which is a testimony to me of the help God is giving me with learning and understanding Spanish. We just finished a delicious almuerzo of rice with Ana’s homemade salsa, chicken, salad, and ice cream for dessert. Yum!
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