Valladolid

No pasa nada

Greetings from Europa! Our group just got back from Salamanca and Valladolid, and those pictures are in the process, so this post is intended to be completely random. It is a collaboration of events and random stories that I think you'll enjoy. Keep in mind that, on purpose, they are in no way relevant to anything, nor related. Prepare for length–I'm making up for lots of things that don't entirely deserve their own post. Ten cuidado: Titles below the pictures.

The darling Emma; granddaughter of our parents here.

Aleisha proposed to me in the romantic Jardín Botánico one afternoon in Madrid.

Yet another dessert from Madrid: Una patata de márzapan.

My favorite favorite castle! El Alcázar de Segovia, the supposed inspiration for Walt Disney's castle. PS Mom, I love the rain jacket!

A cute little doorway in La Iglesia de Santa Cruz in Segovia.

A knight in shining armor...and some dorky tourist.

100 years of Gran Vía! This street had an awesome birthday the same day as La Festival de San Isidro. The whole thing was carpeted blue.

Emma and Daniel, the grandkids of our family. And don't forget "Bob Esponga" in the background.

Nothing much, just my future backyard. Okay, so it belonged to Los Reyes Católicos...but I hear it's for sale.

A continuation fascination with bridges–this one from Sevilla.

A Muslim decorative wall in Sevilla. Every wall looks like this!

The 34th of 35 ramps we had to climb in the Catedral de Sevilla to get to the top of the giralda, or the lookout tower. Somewhat like the Empire State Building of the City minus the elevator.

In the Jardines de Sevilla. Like the Central Park of the city plus thousands more palm trees and secret Muslim gazebos.

My best shot of our visit to the Museo del Baile Flamenco–a very passionate and demanding cultural pastime, to say the least.

These are some typical gypsies that we see often. They harass you to buy rosemary, but don't let them surround you or you might lose your belongings.

I figure this wasn't at the Alhambra when it was built centuries and centuries ago.

Granada at night...enough said.

Now for an intermission...My mom sent a package to me with some American food in it, and of course it contained peanut butter, which does not exist here. I put some on bread for Julio to eat, and after taking a bite he looked at me with these big confused eyes and kept saying, "se pega, se pega..." or "it sticks...it sticks." A few minutes later I looked over at him to ask a question and he had just shoved the whole second half into his mouth. He kind of looked at me smiling because he couldn't open his mouth at all–it was all stuck. But worry not, milk cures all. He's fine.

Don't mind me, look at the olive groves in the background. Olive oil and olives everywhere, I tell ya.

Pringoooals!

A shot of my brother, Guillermo, at the Parque de Retiro in Madrid. We rented boats and rowed all around a beautiful lake. Keep in mind that I caught him taking this picture of himself with my camera.

Our rowing crew: Kristen, Guillermo, Me, and Casey. Love them all.

After our boating adventure, the three of us returned to the Plaza de Cervantes for dinner and ice cream. Guillermo made me laugh so hard that I just hurt...we always have fun with him.

We got really excited to come home to dozens of kiwis in the fruit basket...

Hard Rock Cafe in Madrid. Either I'm the only one with personality in this picture or the rest of them just didn't get the memo.

This one's for you Dad. Name that tune?

Ignore that we didn't get the perfect heel click, but we did go exploring to see El Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, where Real Madrid plays.

This one's for you Old Son, just chillin' reading the Spanish news on the way back from Madrid.

In Salamanca's Campo de San Francisco with my lovely group of girls. Would you be surprised if I told you that I set the self-timer and ran?

How dare you think this is George Washington. It's Carlos V.

A pleasant street name...

The Plaza Mayor in Salamanca illuminated at night. I would love to spend my Friday nights this way!

More groupies: Aleisha, Natalie, Maddie and I, Jenessa, and Marissa.

Marissa and I with our almond and cream pastries. It's always nice when our directors buy, even though we know they're just using our money that we already paid.

And to conclude the randomest longest post I will ever carry out, another funny story. This is a picture of part of the Catedral de Salamanca. In every cathedral, there have been restorations so that the site can continue to be viewed by the public. Sometimes you can see the different colors of marble that comes with the restorations, and in this case, there is something else that is easy to identify. If you look closely at this picture, you will see an astronaut in the left top corner, and a creature holding an ice cream cone in the bottom right corner. Obviously this is a newer part of the cathedral, but you'd have no idea if you weren't told. Kind of cool, eh?

If you made it to the end, gracias. If not, you won't see this anyway. ¡Hasta luego!

Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard

Yes, up until this point all my titles have been in Spanish. But I just had to break the trend because I have this song stuck in my head quite frequently. This is one of my best friends here: Julio López Alcalá.


This is one of my favorite pictures from our walk. Julio always looks up at us when he has something important to say, not to mention that Maddie's a good listener, but he's never a burden; only a blessing.


I thought about my family in the crazy Utah snow as I watched this sunset...


Today I stumbled across another blog from a girl in my group whose blog entries are titled, "Day 14," "Day 24," etc. It actually made me feel kind of guilty that I'm not updating this as often as every day. So I apologize that I am not recording every ingredient of every meal that I eat or what time I wake up every morning, but I figure I should be doing things instead of staying cooped up trying to record them. However, after a nice walk with Julio and Maddie, I was again reminded of why I am here.

The López family is incredible. Faustino is an area authority Seventy, as I think I have told you before, and his wife is Consuelo. She is going through chemotherapy right now, but she is still so happy. It is not hard to tell at all that Faustino and Chelo (chay-lo) love each other very much. Today I asked them how they met, and it was the greatest, simplest story--somewhat of an accurate forecast to describe their marriage in total. Consuelo joined the church when she was 22. She didn't know the man who baptized her, neither did she know the man who confirmed her would be her future husband. So I asked her if it was love at first sight (amor a primera vista), and Faustino interjected with his small little smile, "Pues, era amor a primera mano" (It was love at first hand). They are truly an amazing couple.

Anyway, today's walk conversation consisted of more counsel from Julio. Our conversations are usually relatively simple, but never boring. Somehow they always drift back to fútbol (the trainer of Milan is about to sign to be the trainer for Real Madrid–trust me, we know all the details), but he is never afraid to ask questions or tell us exactly what he thinks. I wonder how it would be if everyone was that honest. Julio is one of the most pure-hearted people I've met; he doesn't change personalities for anyone, which is quite refreshing.

Maddie and Julio are my best friends here.


And when you're a good friend of mine, I expect you to make funny faces with me in pictures. Julio passes.


And now here we are at the close of another low-key, relaxing day in the city of Alcalá de Henares.


"And I'm on my way. I don't know where I'm goin', but I'm on my way..." –Simon & Garfunkel