26-2-12 Recap of the trip to Barcelona and Andorra

Our trip started off with getting out of bed earlier than normal, an early breakfast, and of course like any great trip, a nice long bus ride.

Usually, I like to get a seat near the front of the bus. I don't know if that is just because that is where I always sat with my dad on Mesa Grande trips, or if I enjoy talking with the teachers more than my classmates, or if I just like de-bussing first. However, by the time I boarded the bus, the only seat left that I could find was in the very, very back- the very last seat.

The buses in Spain are a bit different than the buses in the U.S.; at least the ones I am used to. In the back, instead of there being two seats on each side and an aisle; the way I like it, there are five seats straight across the back. The seat I got was seat 4 out of 5 which means I was sandwiched between Casey, a much buffer and taller guy than me, and Eric, who was scrunched up against the window asleep for a lot of the ride. Also, the seats in Spain are closer together, which means there is more legroom in the backseat of my brother's Civic coupe than these beauties.

Within the first five minutes of the ride, I quickly remembered the reason I don't like sitting in the back of a bus; claustrophobia and squished legs. I tried sleeping, but when there is a guy sitting on either side of you, your knees are already crammed into the seat in front of you, and your seat doesn't recline at all, sleep is very elusive. With sleep crossed off of my list of in-bus entertainment, I tried for the number two candidate; reading. I read a good 20 pages in very good time, so I thought I would just take a little break before continuing. Taking the break was my worst mistake, because once it was time to get back into the book, I had absolutely no motivation to do it. That pretty much sums up my relationship with  reading.

So, no sleeping, and reading was not fun anymore, so I went to number three on my list; listen to music. Many times when I listen to music, I can find a song really quickly that I want to listen to, set my Zune on shuffle, and just let it do its thing. This wasn't one of those times. Somehow I wasn't in the mood for any of the music on my Zune; out of thousands of songs, I couldn't even find ONE that I was in the mood for.

 Finally, I just decided to put the music away, and just sit. After a few moments, I started doing what I do best; free association thinking. I don't remember exactly what I thought about, but with the amount of time I had, I am pretty sure I covered everything from the Dodgers to why humans drink cow's milk to my favorite Christmas gift of all time to why couldn't they invent better buses.

Just as my self-help therapy session was coming to a close, we stopped at a gas stop where we all ate. This was a funny restaurant because it only sold sandwiches with omelet filings. I paid about 4 euros for two huge slices of bread and an omelet- all smashed together. It wasn't exactly gourmet, but like everyone else, I was hungry, so I ate it and kept my mouth shut.

We boarded the bus again, I assumed my position at the bottom of the sardine can, and we continued. I must have been really exhausted at that point, because about five minutes later, I rested my head on the seat rest of the seat in front of me, and the next thing I knew we were almost to our final destination in Andorra.

Andorra is a really nice place to go, don't get me wrong, but getting there is murder. Andorra is in the Pyrenees mountain range, so not only is it an ever climbing road, but the road is also very windy. Being in the back of that bus took me back to the days when my family would drive up to Pine Springs Ranch for the church retreat, and how we would have to stop every fifteen minutes because we all felt nauseous. One of our chaperones offered us some motion sickness gum, and I took some not really because I was feeling nauseous but because I just wanted something to do. We had to stop a few times because some people were about to lose their omelets if you catch my drift.

Finally, we arrived at our hotel in Andorra. My room was on level 5 on the 6th floor- no elevator. That is one thing that really bugs me about hotels in Europe; when your room is on level 5, that really means that you have to climb up one level of stairs just to get the level 1. I can't wait to come home to elevators in hotels, and when I get a room on the fourth floor, I will go to the FOURTH story. Anyways, after we put our stuff down and got settled in, we walked around the city we were in for a few hours, found dinner, and met back up at the hotel.

The inside of Caldea

In the city where we stayed, there is a spa called Caldea, and whoever planned the trip arranged for us to experience it for 3 hours; I am very grateful to whoever planned that. This spa is absolutely huge. In the picture, you can only see the inside; there is a little "lazy river" that takes you outside to an area with another few spas, another lazy river, and more areas to lounge in- and you never have to leave the water. On top of all of that, they had a sauna, an ice room, another few luxurious ways to heat and cool yourself that I had never even heard of before, and of course, massages for an extra cost. It was a great experience, and I am really glad we did it. It was pretty cold outside the night we were there, but the really cool thing is that when you go outside, you are still in the water that is the same temperature as the inside, so we were still warm even though it was almost freezing outside.

There is only one thing I would change about the whole experience; the temperature of the water. The water at this place is all the same temperature; every single spa, outside, inside, everything except the sauna and ice water, was all the same temperature. If I could change just one thing, I would make each of those tinier spas different temperatures, because while the water isn't "cold", it isn't exactly "hot" either- it was lukewarm, which isn't a bad thing in itself, but I don't really consider a spa with cold water a "spa", just a really small pool. 

"Floor plan" of Caldea

Caldea from the outside

 

Outside portion of the spa

On the second day, we left Andorra and took to the mountains of Spain to see the Montserrat Monastery. This drive wasn't nearly as bad as the day before, partly because the view was just gorgeous, and partly because I grabbed a seat towards the front .From the second day onwards, I sat near the front where I "belong" next to Kristy, a girl from PUC that I didn't know super well, but over the course of the trip, I got to know her much better.

When we arrived at the monetary, the view was  absolutely gorgeous, and we were all glad to pile out of the bus. Dario, our history teacher, and for this trip, our chaperone, had studied Latin for quite a while, so as we were touring the monastery, he would tell us what all of the inscriptions meant in Spanish. At 12:00 midday, an all boys choir that is supposedly really famous came out and sang a few songs for us in the basilica. By the way, do you know what the difference between a cathedral and a basilica is? I just learned it on this trip, and apparently, if the sanctuary area is shaped like a cross, it is a cathedral, and if the sanctuary is not, it is a basilica. The boy choir was...cute, and the acoustics were pretty good, but as far as being "wowed", I have heard better at the MGA christmas concert. However, what did impress me was the level of discipline all of these kids had. Of course, doing this day in and day out, I am sure they know exactly what is expected of them. After we heard them sing, we took a little lunch break for about an hour, and headed down the mountain.

This time, sitting next to Kristy, I had plenty of room, and five minutes after we had set off, I was out like a light, and I was awoken later on to someone telling me that we had arrived at our next location. We arrived on top of the mountain known as TIBI DABO. Tibi Dabo is Latin for "I will give it to you". Tibi Dabo is a mountain that has a breathtaking view of all of Barcelona and the sea, and one of the reasons it is called Tibi Dabo is because there is a legend that says that this is the mountain where Satan tempted Jesus, even though that is believed to be in the middle east somewhere. We saw the view, and of course took tons of pictures.

After we saw Tibi Dabo, we headed to our hotel, and spent the rest of the day as free time. I walked around with Jarrel and Elizabeth, and we walked all over the area, stopping in many stores and stopping for food a few times as well. One of them got the idea to go to the movies, then the other one got the idea to just watch a movie back at the hotel on one of our computers. We all liked the second option better, so we headed back, and on the way, we stopped by the market and bought some sweets to enjoy during the movie. The movie was Invictus, and I really enjoyed it, and we all had a pleasant evening together. One of the rules is that when a member of the opposite sex is in your room, you have to keep the door open. Elizabeth was in our room and our door was closed- we forgot. When Loli, our other chaperone on the trip, came by to see if everything was alright, she opened the door, stuck her head in, saw the three of us lying on the bed watching the movie, smiled, asked us if everything was alright, and said goodnight- didn't even acknowledge that our door should have been open. In the morning, Dario thanked everyone for keeping the rules the night before very well; for leaving doors open, puntuality, etc. I laughed a little bit inside when he said that because I had remembered what had happened in our room.

The next morning, we saw some of the works of Gaudi', a famous architect in the Spanish world. First, we drove past a few houses that he designed. I am guessing that based on those houses, Gaudi was the type of guy that didn't like to fit in; those houses looked more like gingerbread houses to me. Nothing on them was in the least bit "boxy" or even really had an edge for that matter, and we learned very quickly that Gaudi liked nature, because he decorated all of his buildings, including the cathedral, with a very naturish look (e.g. with fruit baskets at the top of some of the towers and pillars that were shaped like trees). We then went to a park that had some of the architecture he designed, and it looked to me like it could have come out of Jungle Book or maybe Jurassic Park.

After our bus tour of the park and the houses, we saw the grand finally, La Sagrada Familia, a cathedral also designed by Gaudi. This cathedral is unlike any other cathedral in the world; it is actually gives off a "happy" vibe. First of all, it is very well lit, and all of the stone is white so it has a very warm feeling to it instead of the dark somberness of most cathedrals. All of the artwork, including the pillars, is modeled after nature, and all of the stain glass windows are very brightly colored. On top of all of the stained glass windows, there are also a lot of regular windows as well, so the whole thing is very well lit. On top of being very well lit, everything is  very brightly colored from the windows to even the tiniest decorations.

It was indeed a very different cathedral, but that doesn't make it my favorite. It was very busy decoration wise inside; very busy, and the outside was busy as well. It was impressive, but it wasn't classy. Sometimes, the beauty of a cathedral comes from its symmetry; sometimes from its size, sometimes from its classiness. The things that impressed me about this cathedral were the size, the inspiration, and the colors. Even though it isn't my favorite cathedral of all time, I am really glad we saw it.

Random facts for the day; Gaudi was killed by a train- not suicide- in 1926. La Sagrada Familia is funded only from donations of residents of Barcelona- or so they say. La Sagrada Familia is expected to be finished in the next 20 to 50 years; no one knows for sure.

For the evening, we went to a Picasso museum. I am not one for art museums, but this one was pretty interesting. The paintings were in chronological order, and it starts off with gorgeous portraits, scenes, and landscapes that were all very lifelike. As we continued, the portraits started getting a bit more abstract, and eventually, the paintings were all just boxes and squares- still representing some of the same people, scenes, and landscapes. I would like to venture a guess that Picasso went loco at some point in his life, and it kept getting worse as his life progressed, because towards the end, I felt like I could paint a better portrait using just the skills I have now than some of his works.

On the last day, we walked the streets as a group with Dario as our leader. He took us to a few old buildings, including some Roman ruins and a cathedral. After that, we had free time until the afternoon when we would embark on our journey home. I hung out with Kristy, Jarrel, and Alfried for the afternoon, and we all had a fantastic time together. Jarrel goes to La Sierra and lives about an hour out of Nashville, Alfried is our only ESDES student who is not American; he is from Germany and he already speaks English, French, German, and now he is learning Spanish. Towards the end of our time together, Kristy and I got to talking, and it turns out she is in the honors program at PUC, and her and Brittney, another ESDES student who is my dance partner in Flamenco class, went to Italy this last summer with Alex, one of my very close friends. Of course we had a big aha moment when we found our connections. Alex had told me of a girl who made up 10 words for her class project, and Kristy told me it was Brittney. I thought I would have a little fun with her, so the next time I talked with Brittney, I slipped one of her own words into the conversation, and she gave me a look of almost disbelief. She even asked me to repeat what I had said just to be sure. Of course the whole story came out, and we all realized just how closely connected we all are. We're Adventists, what can we say?

All in all, it was a great trip, I only wish it had lasted longer. In just about three weeks starts our "siesta spring", or so I call it, because from the 15th of March until about the 15th of April, we are on non-stop trips and breaks. The finish line is in sight, and it seems like we arrived here yesterday- what's up with that? I guess the old saying "time flies when you're having fun" really holds water here. Well, until next time...

2-12-12

I am going to change things up a little bit right now; I am pretty sure I have started off every single blog post up to this point with the word 'well'. Right now, I believe it is time for change; change is a good thing.

So, it is now 1:00 am my time, but since I took a three hour nap this afternoon, I am pretty sure that I will not be a victim of  narcolepsy before it is due time to go to bed. It has been a while since I have written anything, and that is not because I didn't want to blog, or that I forgot. OK, I will admit, I kind of did forget, but that is because these last few weeks have just flown by. We haven't had any huge "adventures" very recently, but that doesn't mean we aren't still having a blast.

Our next big "adventure" is a trip to Barcelona and Andorra in about a week and a half. After we go to Barcelona and Andorra, the next big adventure that I am looking forward to is when my dad, Ms. Mumper, and Eric's parents come out at the end of March during their spring break (just days after Las Fallas, a festival in Valencia that we get a week off for). Not even a week after they leave, we have one of our spring breaks, and a group of us are planning on going to London for a few days. The day after we get back from London, we go on a trip to Madrid and Toledo for another week. Basically, starting March 15, we have about  a month of break/trips with the exception of about a week and a half of school scattered in-between. After our trip to Madrid and Toledo, it will be about April 15 or so, and we will only have about a month and a half or so left before it is time to pack it up and return to the U.S.

Even though there haven't been any big "adventures" lately, that doesn't mean that stuff hasn't been happening around here. As I said in my last post, I have become very involved in the music, and over the last few weeks, there have indeed been plenty of nights full of music practice and performance, and I have been loving it. My little music group on Wednesdays have been going very well, and once it starts warming up around here, I would love to start doing it outside. Speaking of being cold, when I am in Walla Walla and it is 36 degrees outside, I walk around in jeans and a jacket. Here when it is 36 degrees outside (something I thought would not be possible in Spain), I do the exact same thing and many Spaniards constantly are asking me if I am cold- of course they are all bundled up in gloves, scarfs, beanies, etc. I guess the Spaniards and the Californians have more in common than we originally thought. Anyways, back to the music; last night and this morning, the praise band/choir performed for church and vespers. Half of our choir is away on a camping trip this weekend, so we have been few in number, but still doing just fine. One of the other ACA students here asked me to accompany her in a song for special music, and I readily agreed. The song was "His Eyes" by Steven Curtis Chapman, and we arranged it so that she sang the first verse, I sang the second, and we sang the third together. This morning, I am not quite sure what it was, maybe is was because we had some technology issues, maybe it was because I wasn't focused all the way, or maybe I just didn't know the song well enough, but for whatever reason, let's just say it wasn't my finest hour of performance. Of course, I felt like walking out of the church with my head buried in my hands, but even though in my mind I screwed up royally, many people told me how much they enjoyed it, and how much it meant to them. Today has been a great reminder that God can still work through us, even though we ourselves are nowhere near perfect or adequate.

Another subtle thing that has been happening for me is that I can definitely tell my Spanish has been improving. I can now think in Spanish at about the same speed that I can think in English, my vocabulary, speed, and overall flow during conversations has been improving, and I can understand many more people now than I could even a month ago. About a month ago, I could only understand about 10 people perfectly- most of them were my teachers and other ACA friends. It is much easier to understand someone that you are accustomed to hearing. Now, I have noticed that wherever I am, I am understanding the checkout person at the supermarket better, little by little, I am starting to understand the people with thick Argentinian accents, and even as I am just walking down the street, I am starting to be able to pick out little pieces of conversations of the people who are walking by. It is definitely a cool feeling to know I am improving, but as always, there is always more to improve on.

Today in Sabbath school, there was a couple visiting from Scandinavia; one went to school at Southern, one grew up in Ohio, and both are now living in Madrid... it's a long story. Anyways, one speaks fairly decent Spanish, and one only speaks English. Normally during Sabbath school, every last word is in Spanish. Today was very different, and very awesome. I got a chance to do a fair amount of translating, and that was cool, but really the best part for me was how we were "strongly asserting our opinions" (in other words, arguing), about the content of the Sabbath school lesson, and it was really great to have half of it be in English- and half of the people had not a clue what was going on, and the other half was in Spanish- and the other half didn't have a clue as to what was going on. We were arguing so quickly that we literally didn't have time to translate anything. It was definitely heated excitement. At one point, one of our guests made a point that I strongly agreed with, and one of the others strongly disagreed with, so when she had finished, I gave an example to defend the point the guest had made. I was talking to the guest who only speaks English, and Igor (one of my good friends; studies theology here and is from Portugal) was translating for me, because it is nearly impossible for me to say one thing in Spanish, and say the same thing in English, because many times I say things like, "I was caminando down the street this past semana and I turned the esquina to look for my zapatoes". Anyways, I was speaking in English, Igor was translating, and one of the Spanish speakers answered back, I heard the Spanish speaker respond, and with literally no thought; no extra effort, no nothing, unconsciously  my brain made the switch back to Spanish, and I was so focused on what I was saying that by the time I caught on to what just happened, I had already spoken about two and a half sentences to my English friend in Spanish. I now have a slight fear that when I get back to the states, I will be able to speak two languages: Spanish, and Spanglish.

That is sadly just about all I remember about the week, and sadly I am slowing giving in to the need to recharge my batteries all over again. Happy Sabbath and happy week.
Until next time...