twinsnspain

Oh what a night…

Last night was the good-bye dinner at the church for all of us foreigners (affectionately called “guiris”) who are soon to be back in our countries of origin.  It was a pot-luck of dishes typical of everyone’s respective countries.  We brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  (Thanks for the peanut butter, Brian!)  We met Justine and went to a supermarcado so she could buy Oreos.  We bought a liter of milk to share since both peanut butter and Oreos were involved.  It still seems odd to us that the milk is not refrigerated.  Erin walked to the refrigerated section and only found yogurt and eggs.  She’d walked right past the shelf with the milk in the middle of the aisle. 

Once we got to the church we formed an assembly line to make the sandwiches: Justine spread the peanut butter on a slice of bread, I spread strawberry jelly on another slice of bread and put the two slices together, and Erin cut the sandwiches into quarters and arranged them neatly on a platter.  Then we helped arrange tables and put out all the food that had been brought.  Then we just waited for more people and food to arrive.  April and I took this time to jam.  Then each guiri got a number and the fiesta began.  The numbers were so that people could leave you a message on the big message board by writing your number and then their message on a sticky note and leaving it on the board for you to pick up. 

We ate, we talked, people with talent sang.  April, Amy, and Pedro sang a song that Pedro wrote to say good-bye to all his friends.  Natalie sang a Christian rap song as well.  Jota accompanied her on djembe and Pedro joined in on piano.  There was also a game being play with two clothes pins.  The object was to avoid getting the pins.  The way to get rid of them was to get someone to say “no.”  If they said “no” them they got the pin, but if someone asked you a question and you said “no” then you got the pin.  Jota got me at the end of the night when he ran up to me holding his eye open and asked if there was a red spot on his eye, to which I replied “no.”  That was when a realized that he really wasn’t concerned about his eyeball.  I managed to get rid of it, though.  We were talking with Brittney and Maria and I asked if either of them had ever had one of the pins.  Brittney shook her head but quickly caught on to me and replied “yes.”  Darn.  I turned to Maria.  She thought she was out-smarting me when she said “no lo sé” only to realize her mistake too late.  She tried to back away but being between two pews and a wall it was easy to pin the clothes pin on her.  ¡Éxito! 

It was a blast and it was well after midnight by the time we got home.  And, of course, our family had their neighbors over for drinks so we were greeted with their conversation and laughter when we entered our piso at nearly one o’clock in the morning.  Got to love the Spaniards.

This morning was a late morning, it felt great to sleep in.  After breakfast we studied for our finals, talked about doing some packing but never did and returned to studying.  We ate lunch about an hour earlier than usual (at 1:30) because our senora's son and his wife and their adorable little boy were coming to eat lunch with them and we all wouldn't fit around the table.  They also brought their dog, Ato.  On top of that, two more French students arrived today.  Quite a full house.  I typed most of this in the park, after which Erin and I enjoyed a siesta under the shade of a tree.  Ahhh, tough day, I know ; )

Right now we're at an internet cafe.  Erin just uploaded the pictures from last night, they're in La Iglesia for those interested in viewing them.  Enjoy!
 

Wednesday April 29:  After our class got out at 1, Megan and I practically ran to the bus stop…where we just missed the #33 bus which goes to the bus station.  And I mean “just missed” in the sense that we smacked the back of bus as it drove away.  Fortunately, a nice old man informed us that the next bus also went to the bus station.  Yeah, it went to the bus station, but in a very round-a-bout way.  We made it to the bus station and met up with Brooke and Justine with just enough time to find our bus heading to Madrid that was scheduled to leave at 1:30.  5 hours on a bus, 40 minutes navigating the metro to get to the airport, and then 2 hours on an airplane.  It was about midnight when we landed in Rome.  Another half hour on the bus to the city center and we were actually in Rome.  Then we realized that we didn’t have the piece of paper with the address of our hostal.  No worries, we can ask people, right?  Apparently not.  Nobody seemed to know where the Happy Days Hostal was (and we were talking to people in the hostal business- I think they just wanted us to stay in their hostals).  So Brooke called/texted her uncle and he got us the address.  Then we just showed the address to the first taxi driver we saw.  He dropped us off at the right place, but there was not one sign to indicate there was indeed a hostal there.  That’s when we noticed the little plaque that read Happy Days Hostal-4^th floor.  In Rome I guess businesses have a floor of a big apartment-like building.  Ok. Finally! We got to our hostal!  But if that wasn’t enough, the guy working there informed us that there was a problem with hostalbookers.com and so our reservation had been cancelled, but he could let us stay there for that night.  Great.

Thursday April 30:  When I woke up, I went to take a shower.  This was when I realized that the hostal’s advertisement of “free towels” was una MENTIRA.  Because we thought we would be staying at a place that provided towels, we didn’t bother to pack our own.  We broke the #1 rule of space travel: always pack your towel!  Oh, well.  You eventually air dry.  So off we went to explore Rome.  We stopped to get some breakfast of, what else, gelati! (hey-it was cantaloupe flavored).  We walked into every church we passed; they’re all beautiful.  We managed to meander our way to most of the sites en route to find a hostal: the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, lots of other fountains and statues, some important buildings, and plenty of Roman ruins.  Eventually we found a place where we could spend the night. Yay!  We dropped off our backpacks and went out once more…to the Colosseum.  We met some Roman soldiers who posed for pictures with us.  It was very fortunate that we came upon a tour group, Romearound Tours, giving their last English-speaking tour of the day.  It was very informative and funny.  Our Italian tour guide used Justine as the example of a virgin in explaining the importance of it in Roman society; he’d yell to his buddies the Roman soldiers, “Hey, who is this?” And they’d respond, “A virgin!”  It also included a tour of Palatine Hill.  That’s where we met our tour guide Elaine.  She’s from Canada and when we asked her how she came to be in Rome, her reply was, “one too many vacations.”  She explained how Rome was founded.  It was by twins!!!  Romulus and Remus.  They were the sons of a king who were ordered to be killed (for some reason, I’m sure), but the man with that responsibility couldn’t do it.  So he put the babies in a basket and sent it down the river.  It safely washed ashore on Palatine Hill, where they were found and nursed by a she-wolf.  Then they were found and raised by farmers.  They got into a little trouble and had to go before the king, where their grandfather recognized them and told them of their true origin.  Upon their return to their village, they founded their own empire and built their palace on Palatine Hill.  It was “vini, vidi, vici” from the beginning.  We returned to the hostal where we were informed that, because we didn’t have a reservation and others did, we would have to sleep two to a bed.  We were totally fine with that (Megan and I more so than Justine and Brooke).  The guy gave us some money back and included breakfast.  I think he felt bad for us because he later came in and offer us (and the 3 Polish girls and 1 German lady in the room with us) free juice and biscuits (cookies for those who don’t speak British English).  He also gave us some wine, some very good Italian wine, for free.  Then we decided we should eat dinner.  We went to a nice restaurant just down the street where I ate spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli and listened to the Eagles.  All-in-all, a very good day.

Friday May 1:  We shopped, visited a Da Vinci museum which had his sketches and replica models that we could play with, and ate at a restaurant that charged us 3 euros for bread we didn’t eat so we put it in a plastic sack and took it with us.  We spent the day roaming around Rome and eating gelati.  We also visited the Pantheon.  Then we went to see the castle of Saint Angelo on the other side of the river.  The bridge was really pretty.  We stopped and watched a street performer while passing through Piazza Navona.  Having been unable to find an available hostal for the night (turned out to be a bank holiday in Rome) we were prepared to stake our claim on one of the benches in the plaza.  Fortunately Brooke’s mom was able to find something online.  Unfortunately it was the Holiday Inn Express out by the airport, not the airport from which we were to leave, however, so we had to take a taxi.

Saturday May 2:  We woke up early to catch the Romearound Tours tour of the Vatican City at 9:30 with Elaine.  We had the taxi drop us off at the Colosseum to save money, so it was quite a walk to the Vatican.  We were tempted into a pastry shop to get breakfast.  We made it to the meeting point, signed up, paid, and then waited for the tour to begin.  This is where it gets interesting.  We all got little radios with earpieces to wear so we could hear the tour guide without having to stand close.  There was a shortage of radios so we had to wait longer until more arrived.  No pasa nada.  It finally got straightened out and we were on our way to the Vatican.  The great thing about being part of a tour is that you don’t have to wait in line to get inside.  Except the tickets they gave Elaine were for 1:00 instead of 11:00.  We discussed our options and decided to go across the street to a café for drinks (on Romearound).  I enjoyed a cold Sprite and we all took advantage of the servicios.  Then we were on our way to the Vatican.  While we were entering the guy in charge of the line cut it off in front of Megan and me and two other people from our group because he had admitted 36 people (the number of people in our group).  Elaine had to argue with the guy that 4 people had been admitted that were not part of our group.  When they were found and escorted back to the line, the rest of us could go into the Vatican State.  We left Rome and Italy and didn’t even need our passports.  It is incredible!!!  The best artists of the time were called in to decorate it.  When the Pope asked Rafael who would be the best to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he said Michelangelo.  Not because he thought he would do a good job, but rather because he thought that he would fail.  Apparently Michelangelo had a really big ego.  Rafael was hoping this challenge would knock him off of his pedestal and make him bearable to live with.  Painting ceilings was not easy because he had to paint the picture before the plaster stuff they used dried.  Proving his genius, Michelangelo developed a new technique.  He would draw his picture on paper, punched tiny holes in it, held it up to the ceiling and traced it.  Then all he had to do was connect the dots.  All within 4 years.  When Rafael saw what he was doing, he was quite impressed.  He went back to his painting “School of Athens” and included Michelangelo.  He’s the one sitting front and center writing, wearing modern clothes, instead of ancient Greek clothes, to show that he is ahead of his time.  The only complaint about Michelangelo’s paintings is that he doesn’t know how to paint women (he obviously never had a girlfriend).  His women look like men with breasts.  I’ve never seen a more buff Virgin Mary.  After the Vatican museum we went to the Sistine Chapel to actually see it.  It is the epitome of awesome.  There are signs posted everywhere that say “no photos” and “please be quiet” but when we entered everyone was talking and taking photos, with flash even!  Flash fades paintings!  It was disgraceful.  I think everyone in our group respected the signs.  Go us!  After we left the Vatican and reentered Rome, Italy we went back to the Trevi Fountain and took video of us tossing in coins.  We had to take separate videos because the person we had asked to take the video thought she was taking a picture, even after we explained what needed to be done with actions.  Oh, well.  We continued to wonder around the city finding all of the fountains and chapels mentioned in the book Angels & Demons (English) Angeles & Demonios (Spanish) Angelios y Demonios (Italian) because I (Megan now) had finished reading the book earlier in the semester and wanted to see them all for myself, especially before seeing the movie.  Unfortunately we could not find the church containing The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.  Noone we asked seemed to know where the church was.  Disappointing, our lovely tour guide Elaine even raved about how beautiful this statue is.  She knew where everything was and even circled them on our map, she wasn’t exactly sure where this church was though so she circled the block where she thought it was.  The only church near there was having mass when we arrived so we could not enter.  Oh well, our feet were throbbing at this point and dinner sounded like a great idea so we found a restaurant.  This is where I ate the best spaghetti of my life.  I enjoyed spaghetti prepared with bacon, egg, and parmesean cheese while Erin enjoyed spaghetti with meat sauce (sooo good!!).  And this time we ate the bread that was put on our table.  After dinner we successfully navigated the Italian metro, caught the bus to the airport, and slept there, along with everyone else who had an early morning flight.

Sunday May 3:  At about 5:00 we ate breakfast; the bread (haha).  Boarded our plane, flew to Madrid, and then took a bus back to Granada.  We arrived around 5:00 (17:00) and had enough time to shower before going to the afternoon service at the church.

Saturday we went on una excursión de senderismo (hiking).  We walked up and past the Alhambra; up, around, and back down the mountain.  The scenery was incredible!  The pictures can vouch for that.  Taking some of those pictures resulted in Megan, Audrey, and me falling behind the rest of the group.  We followed the path and then up ahead we saw the group…but the path turned to the right and wound around some rocks.  The much shorter route was to cut straight across the grass.  We chose the path less traveled by.  Only to discover the reason why…a ravine.  Oh well, a little dirt never hurt anybody, and it wasn’t that steep.  So down we went!  Megan went first and discovered that the ground was not as stable as it seemed.  Audrey went second and knocked away the rest of the loose dirt (the seat of her pants can vouch for that).  I, going last, had the advantage of forewarning and easily traversed the ravine.  We felt quite adventurous after that!  When Megan and I returned to the piso, our Señora had prepared a big lunch.  We were quite hungry and so we ate the whole thing.  Also feeling quite sore and exhausted, we took full advantage of the siesta.  That night there was a runión de jóvenes (youth meeting) at the church.  The topic of discussion was whether or not it was alright to date someone who wasn’t a Christian.  It was interesting to hear other people’s perspectives about something which I had never considered to be a problem.

Sunday was la Marcha por la Solidaridad (Walk for Solidarity).  It was a big event for the church because it was the first time an evangelical church had ever participated in it.  It was a lot of fun.  Everyone met in a plaza on la calle Gran Capitán.  We couldn’t find the street on a map, so we asked Pedro where it was.  He showed us…it’s actually the same street on which we live.  It’s called Emperatriz Eugenia for a few blocks (this is where we live), then the name changes to Gran Capitán, then the name changes to San Juan de Dios (I just love the European street-naming system, as if we need help getting lost).  So everyone gathered at a plaza on this many named street and the event got started.  A guy played the guitar and sang, the hip-hop dance group from the church performed, and a school group performed una obra de teatro (a play) about the Earth, who asks for help to fight against the pollution villains from the superheroes Recycler, Solar Energy, Captain Solidarity, and Captain Planet, who was out of shape and had to go through training while the theme from Rocky was hummed in the background.  A slow motion fight scene followed that had the entire audience laughing.  The step dance group from the church performed, every participating group was introduced, and then we took to the street.  Every group had signs and our group had brought hand drums, so we walked down the street with rhythm.  The djembe had a strap so I could carry it myself, but Jota had to get Naomi to hold his drum while he played.  I later traded with Megan so she could jam on the djembe and I held up a sign with Maria.  Then it started to rain.  Warm and sunny all weekend so naturally it had to be cold and raining on the day of the march.  Our sign eventually got wet and started to fall apart, so we tossed it into the next trash bin we passed.  We began to shout “Viva la marcha!” (Long live the march) and “Viva los zapatos mojados!” (Long live wet shoes) and singing “Un poco de lluvia, no nos moverá!” (A little rain will not move us).  We finally reached our destination of Palacio de los Congresos where we could get out of the rain.  Then it stopped raining.  Go figure.  But we didn’t care, what could possibly be wrong when you have flan in a cup!