Somos gigantes

The day I first had the thought to even begin trying to convince my parents that I wanted to come here, I set this picture as the desktop on my laptop.


And today, I lived it.

These are the molinos de viento, or windmills, of Don Quijote. This is a picture from the opposite direction, but isn't it beautiful? This doesn't even seem to be one of the most extravagant things that we've seen, but it meant a lot to me.


The coolest part of the experience was that I got to read a section of Cervantes' text to our group. What can we learn from Don Quijote? Although I have to admit that I haven't read it in total, it's on the list. If you are not familiar with the story, Don Quijote is a traveling knight who has read many stories of real knights and their adventures. His companion/squire is Sancho Panza. I could go into a lot more detail, but I just want to tell you my favorite parts of what we read together today.


Don Quijote sees the windmills on the hill and wants to fight them because he thinks they are giants. These are those windmills! Only one is original, but they are all beautiful. My favorite is Sancho's response: ¿Qué gigantes? What giants? Don Quijote tells him, "Ellos son gigantes, y si tienes mido quítate de ahí y ponte en oración en el espacio que yo voy a entrar con ellos en fiera y desigual batalla." In short, they are giants, and if you are scared, go over there and pray while I enter into battle with them.


Sancho watches while Don Quijote charges the windmills. Obviously he is defeated, and comes away exhausted and weak. However, Sancho still stands by him. So what is the purpose of this story? To me, there are two important things we can learn. One, Don Quijote has a good attitude. He says, "Si no me quejo del dolor, es porque no es dado a los caballeros andantes quejarse de herida alguna." Again, in short, knights don't complain about any wound. In my mind, this is easy to apply because sometimes I have a very low pain tolerance. But I also think there is a difference between physical and emotional pain--the former of which I usually complain to the world, the latter for which I have a high tolerance because I keep it private.

But Don Quijote doesn't complain about either. The second thing we can learn from the segment we read today is that although there will be many "windmills" in our lives, we have to choose how we want to face them. Some people are forced to go up against windmills, some search for them, and some just watch the windmills from a distance. Regardless, with each windmill, each battle, comes a lesson. What will we learn from them? Don Quijote decides soon after his unsuccessful encounter with these "giants," these windmills, that he will now search out another adventure.

"Toda aquella noche no durmió Don Quijote, pensando en su Señora Dulcinea, por acomodarse a lo que había leído en sus libros, cuando los caballeros pasaban sin dormir muchas noches en las florestas y despoblados, entretenidos en las memorias de sus señoras." And all that night Don Quijote didn't sleep, thinking about his Señora Dulcinea, and what he had read in his books, when the knights continued on without sleeping for many nights in the groves and uninhabited places, entertained by the memories of their women...


And finally I return to the response of Sancho Panza, the trusty companion of Don Quijote. "¿Qué gigantes?" Although this remark initially could be taken as a "you're crazy" comment, the more I've thought about it, maybe it isn't. Maybe Sancho's reaction wasn't one of disbelief and embarrassment that Don Quijote thought the windmills were giants, but rather one of assurance to give confidence to his faithful master that the windmills weren't unconquerable. We are the giants; we are the ones that can defeat the windmills.

So that's what I want to remember whenever there is something seemingly insurmountable in my life. ¿Qué gigantes? Like when I try to have a calling, go to school, and have a social life at the same time. ¿Qué gigantes? Or when finals week seems like it will destroy me. ¿Qué gigantes? Or when I have to start an intense exercise program when I get home because I know I've eaten so many Spanish pastries. ¿Qué gigantes?

Or when I have to leave this country that I love. ¿Qué gigantes?

Qué pena.

I spent the day in the Prado with Velázquez and a cold. More updates later.

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

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!