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

Tres platos

"It's really so much better if you eat with your hands..." –Sabrina

So you may be wondering how I survive here when it comes to eating. Well worry not, I am more than surviving, it's more like super living! I just spend the week in the south, the closest to the coast that we've gotten up to this point, and I thought I would share some of my delicious thoughts on the typical meals that we eat. Spain is famous for their seafood, which I have actually not had so much of. But, confession. My new favorite saying: No, no. Let's discuss this over a plate of swordfish.


Pretty isn't it? I was shocked that I liked it, actually. It doesn't actually taste that fishy, it's more of a light meat–really easy to cut, etc. Not like steak where you have to chew for 3 years before swallowing.

Food presentation is wonderful here. Colorful and enticing, and yet there aren't any inedible garnishes because there is no need. The food looks and smells good enough to eat without having to decorate it beforehand.

My lunch crew at Meson Andaluz. We have a great group!


This is me eating revueltos con setas y gambas in Sevilla. Translated, that equals "scrambled eggs with mushrooms and shrimp." It was pretty heavy, but good. I couldn't eat it all because there was so much.


And just to show you a few more of the typicals, these are fried zuccinni (SOOO good!), paella (notice that the critter still has head and legs intact), a typical dessert plate, and my arroz con leche (which might I add was to DIE FOR).






Now I'm sure you can see the reason why the first week I was here, I decided to run every day that we weren't traveling (3 to 4 times a week) so that I could actually eat here somewhat more guilt-free. I didn't think about the fact that I would also be more hungry every day after exercising for an hour; hence the cycle continues. But the food here is unreal. It's so much easier to eat vegetables, we aren't argentinian carnivores, but there is a lot of bread. I really feel like I'm in rehab after my first two years of college because I'm eating so well, sleeping very well (and more), and exercising. Moderation in all things.

But as for me and my house...pass the flan!

La casa del rey--El Palacio Real

"They say you think morals are pictures on walls and scruples is money in Russia." --Sabrina

Today I found myself in the Palacio Real, the Royal Palace in Madrid. We saw it from the outside a few weeks ago, but today we actually went inside. The quote from Sabrina is there solely because I wish to express that apart from Linus Larabee, I definitely can appreciate the architecture of this palace and the artistic elements therein.




Being as grandiose as it is (it is a palace, after all), of course it contains various touches from different countries and eras. For example: "...and to the left we have a beautiful chandelier built in the Rococo style..." or "...and this door frame was made from several different types of wood imported from France..."

But I have also decided that I wouldn't mind the idea of having one room for putting my silver, another for putting my crockery and chinaware, another for billiards (love that word), another for lounging, and even the longest dining table I've ever seen–with approximately 80 chairs. (Hey! Can you pass the bread???) However, I DEFINITELY would not mind having one room to display my 3 Stadivarius violins and my 2 Stradivarius cellos. Ash and Jess, I took a picture for you even though I wasn't supposed to. I apologize, but it was just too magnificent. I think the date on this one was 1709, but the other was from 1696. Several million dollars in that room, I imagine. Anyway, if anyone is offended by the illegality of my actions, you can talk to my father about the Anne Frank museum in the Netherlands.


And I just had to throw one in of Maddie and I in the metro station.


Although I am far, far from expert, I love visiting places like this because although I am very small, it makes me feel a part of something so much bigger.

Cielos

I've been thinking a lot lately about the word cielo, which directly translated, means "sky," whereas el cielo means "heaven." Our sky today was quite blustery and overcast (cielo cubierto), but we persevered to travel to Segovia and Ávila, southwest of Madrid.


However, if you were to say cielo raso, it means "ceiling." As we've traveled around, I've been particularly enamored with the ceilings in the castles and cathedrals. So how are all these variations on the word connected?

It's simple: look up. Look up from the ground, you're not going to trip. Look up from your problems, they're quite miniscule. Look beyond your own abilities to a power far beyond your own. Look up.

I like to think that the artisans working on the design of these religious structures and elaborate fortifications had this metaphor in mind. If you don't take the time to look up, you might miss what could possibly be the best part. But then again, if you don't know that it's there, maybe something will always be missing for you. So with the help of a blog that finally decided to let me show you pictures, I will show you the cielos of the past few days. It doesn't really matter where they're all from, but ¡cielos! (good heavens!) I assure you they're all beautiful.

Ser o no ser estudiante

Although I am galavanting in Spain, I am still a student. I am required to take 2 classes: Spanish 321 (3rd year grammar, reading, and composition) and Spanish 345 (Iberian Civilization). We started classes this week, and so far they're going really well. Sometimes I forget how much I like to learn--of course, it's easy to forget when I'm studying for finals or when I don't even have enough time to eat in the day. But I do love to learn.

I like the diversity of things there are to do here. Since Maddie and I are taking the same classes also, we basically spend every waking moment together. We study together, eat together, help with meals, hang out with Julio, take walks, ride the bus to class...but we're also very much in favor of other Spanish traditions such as the famous siesta after lunch, or tapas in the early evening. Yesterday we had tapas in a famous Alcalá bar called Indalo. In short, tapas are meriendas, or little snacks, kind of like sandwiches, that Spaniards eat between their lunch and dinner. They are usually served with beer or wine, but no worries Mom, I don't even drink carbonation. :) And usually they consist of seafood, but I wasn't feeling quite as daring as I should have for the first time yesterday, so I just got one with pork and red peppers, and it was deliciosísima.

My favorite part of the whole experience was that the waiter won't come bring you the bill, you have to ask for it. Not only do Spaniards believe in eating, but taking their time while they do so. A waiter won't bring you the check like in the States as a subtle hint for you to leave; you can stay there as long as you want after you're finished eating. So we did, and it was very nice. I'll let you know when I try the calamari one...

It's crazy to think that I've only been here a week. I LOVE it here. Their speed of life seems slower, less rushed. Of course, I'm not saying no one is ever in a hurry, but at least to me, it seems like they take better care of themselves as far as their physical health is concerned. Granted, I am a college student, and I haven't eaten this well since my mom last gave me leftovers. :) And like I said before, I'm still a student, so my homework calls. But I'm not just learning from my books. In the words of my director (keep in mind he has a British accent), "Remember, Spain is your classroom."

Si le vemos, lo sabremos

After traveling through the night, we went to La Plaza de Cervantes (prounced la pla-tha they ther-ban-teyss with a spanish accent) to meet our families. They were supposed to be there at 2:00pm, but many arrived after. Maddie, my roommate, and I waited and waited. Families came to pick up students, but we were left there until probably about 2:20 or so...probably one of the longest 20-30 minutes of my life. It was like we were waiting to be picked for a sports team in elementary school, but much, much worse. It was more like we were orphans and we were waiting for someone to come adopt us.

However, it gave us sufficient time to notice that the host families matched their students perfectly. So we got to the point where we would see another anxious Spaniard come to collect us Americans, and we could tell if they were there for us. Si le veremos, lo sabremos. If we see them, we will know, we said. And we did. Up walked Faustino López, and we knew he came for us.

He has quite the apostolic feel; he doesn't talk very much, but he is very nice. He is very helpful around the house, especially since his wife, our madrita, has breast cancer. She's been going through chemo and I can tell she's very weak often. I can't believe she still volunteered to have students in her house again (they've done it recently before). Their house feels very similar to mine, I feel very at home. We come home at the end of the day exhausted and all I want to do is stay home. It feels good.

Our activities as of late have been hanging out with Julio, their 23 year-old son who is in a wheelchair. He has cerebral palsy, but not to the point where he can't eat, speak, or change channels on the TV. He speaks slowly enough that Maddie and I can understand him perfectly, which is awesome. Guillermo is their other son, who is 25. He is studying architecture in a University in Madrid--he travels 2 hours every day to get there, and 2 hours to get back. This is his 7th year of college--school is different here. But he served with one of my friends from drumline, Craig Conder, in Riverside California. Craig was his district leader, so it was interesting to make that connection. It's a very small world when you're Mormon.

Volé con las aves

So I apologize that it has been so long; I got really frustrated because I spent about an hour trying to get pictures to post here but it didn't work, so you're just going to have to put up with a pseudo-journal.

I flew with the birds. So we got on the plane at 12:10 pm Utah time and flew to Dallas. There we hung out for a while, meeting up with nuestras amigas and about 11 of us flew to Madrid together. I remember watching people get on the plane thinking, wow, that lady has awesome stretch pants...yep, my plane buddy! as I later found out. She was probably 55 years old, and she works for the US Department of Defense. She was going to Sevilla to do therapy with the families that live on the military base there. Interesting, no? We talked a little bit off and on, I was mostly asking her questions. Goal met=I even got her to smile a few times. Little did she know that I totally won our dinnertime competition. The competition entailed utilizing the space on your tray table to the best of your abilities--putting certain napkins in other containers when you're finished...cutting your plasticky but still semi-normal-looking chicken with a spork (haha, kidding Ty--I wasn't even in the middle of 9 people like the Brian Reagan skit)...eating your brownie with the fewest crumbs...whatever it entailed, I won it all. :)

Anyway, the flight to Madrid wasn't even that bad...yes, 9 hours is quite a long time, and we even left an hour late, which meant that we were on the runway for an extra hour. Americans are very impatient. I don't want to be a typical American--especially because I know that sometimes I have the capacity to wait for things for probably less than negative 2 seconds because I'm always in a hurry.

I kind of slept, kind of didn't, but mostly kind of didn't. The thing that interested me the most was to watch the little video of where our plane was, what time it was in Madrid, and what time it was in whatever place we were flying over. The coolest thing was to fly through the night...I could see the sun setting behind us while the night crept upon us. All of a sudden, we were leaving the night behind while we flew into the morning. If I were to time it, I think our darkness lasted 5 hours or so. Talk about weirding out your internal clock.

I had a cool experience on the plane though, there was a guy, Eugenio, from Austurias, which is in northern Spain. He said that he lives in California because he came to the US and fell in love. And now, he just goes back and forth sometimes (he's a doctor, therefore not exactly lacking). He was very patient with me in trying to speak, and it was a quick thrust back into Spanish, which was very good for me since I haven't used it for a week or two since school's been out. Yep, made him laugh too (thanks Dad :) He told me that I have the face of a little conniver, more or less, so I told him that in all reality I was an angel--I don't like to lie. But he was awesome, to say the least.

We got off at Madrid-Barajas and didn't take any wrong turns (¡Que milagro!) for 40 minutes, including getting our bags and taking a bus to the right terminal. And most importantly, we had two excellent landings that we could walk away from. Actually, I lied. The most important thing was GETTING A STAMP IN MY PASSPORT. It's so beautiful. What a way to start my adventure; I flew with the birds--or felt as free as one, at least.