Spain

It seems I only write for this blog when it has something to do with Spain; that was not my original intent, but eventually that became the name of the blog. A few days ago I received news that I will be going back to Spain, this time as a "cultural ambassador," which in its essence means a person who works with teachers in Spain, helping Spanish kids learn English. Others teach French, but I'm not a French-speaker, so I teach what I know best.

Excitement is the key descriptor here! Relief at finally knowing what I will be doing also plays a key part in how I feel about this decision. Hopefully I will be able to maximize the potential of this opportunity, learning Spanish like a native hispanohablante (or close to it).

I will be somewhere in Madrid, which is exactly what I was hoping for. That's the place to be for me; I can see myself a year from now, watching a Real Madrid match or going to the Prado. An exciting time, for sure!

Valencia, Ghandia y Calpe

The week of exams and fallas turned out to be an amazing week. After the pressure of exams was over, we all felt so much better. I know I did at least. I had three exams, one on monday, one on tuesday, and one on wednesday. After the exams on Wednesday, most of us explored the city of Denia in search of different fallas, which are huge sculptures made out of plaster designed to satirize or criticize different (usually political) public figures. Thursday we went to Valencia to see the mascleta and the fallas there. I haven't been in a crowd that big since new year's in NYC at the end of 2008. The mascleta was a huge fireworks display during the afternoon. The Valencianos really love their fireworks; they were so powerful that we could feel them, not just hear them. It was really impressive. The fireworks were about 50 yards away and the show lasted 10 minutes; ten minutes during which you couldn't hear yourself even if you were yelling. The biggest falla in Valencia was 27 meters tall, according to what the newspapers said. I believe it. Absolutely crazy how much money they spent on it too, about 600,000 euros! The winning falla only cost half that. After we got back from Valencia at five in the morning on the bus, I slept for about four hours and then got up to go to Ghandia to hike with some people from the Iglesia Bautista and three other Calvin students. The hike was great; we saw some rural shepherds herding goats in the mountains and saw some great waterfalls. We met lots of nice people; mostly Ecuadorians and Colombians. One lady, Elva, invited us to eat with her in two days, on Sunday. We all were pumped about our new connection. On saturday a group of Calvin students and the boyfriend and brother of Mieke, one of our group, drove down to Calpe from Denia. Calpe is an enormous rock (332 meters tall and 1 km long) that juts out of the ocean and overlooks the town. It was an amazing view from the top, and the wildlife and flowers that grow up there were beautiful. I would go again for sure. So that was all day saturday. Sunday after church Clara, Kaylee, Courtney and I went to eat with Elva and her friends. I felt like I was in South America, not Spain; all of the people were Ecuadorians and Columbians. We all met at an abandoned house, which sounds weird. They had a few huge pots with this soup (chicken, bananas, yams, potatoes and rice) that they were preparing for everyone. We got to know the people and learned how to play dominoes. Great times. I had no idea how long we were taking until I realized it was 4:30 and we got out of church at 1:00. Then we went to have "coffee" at Elva's house, which turned out to be a code word for "Johnny Walker" (whisky) and learning how to dance salsa. By 7:30 I was all danced out and needed to go home to do homework. I don't think I slept at all this weekend, but it was a really great one. One more week until spring break; I'm really excited for that as well!

Exams and Fallas

This week we have been studying all week, every week. Art history is going to be a tough exam for most of us. 60 works of art to memorize, and dozens of new spanish words we need to describe the works of art. We also have to know when the work of art was created, where it is, and who did it, if the information is available. On top of that this coming week is the week of Las Fallas, the biggest festival in La Comunidad Valenciana. It will be quite a distraction for us. Fortunately, we are done with exams by wednesday, and thursday we are heading to Valencia to see more fallas and a bullfight, which should be pretty great. We just have to make it through this coming week.

Benimaurell

This weekend we heading off on our Esteve bus to the small mountain village of Benimaurell, about an hour inland from Denia. We stayed in an old hostel that, along with the rest of the village, was old and quaint; far from the noise of the city. From our hostel we could see the castle of Denia and the mountain Montgo that towers over the city of Denia. On saturday we went hiking through the canyons to the north of the town and ended up at a fantastic waterfall. Sunday we went to what was the first Catholic mass for many of us; Catholics don't do long services apparently. We were out in half an hour. Then some of us climbed the "horse's saddle", which are two mountains that overlook the entire valley and the dozen or so villages that are spread throughout it. It was more of a serious climb than Saturday; we had to climb through a crevice that went through the entire mountain and we also had to use climbing rope left there to get up a particularly steep part of the mountain. The view was worth it though. The whole area around Benimaurell is covered in terraces which have almond trees planted everywhere, and they only blossom for about a week, which is when we happened to be there. It was a good weekend to get away from it all. This wednesday we head out for Andalucia; we are going to La Alhambra and La Mezquita de Cordoba. It will be amazing for sure.

Rain and Marruecos

As it turns out, the rain in Spain falls mainly on Denia, not the plain. We have seen rain every for about a week. I might be exaggerating but that's what it feels like. In class this week it's Roman architecture and Las Rimas de Becquer. The classes are much better than what my first impression had led me to believe. The city council of Pego, a nearby town which happens to be the place to celebrate Carnaval, canceled the celebration that was supposed to take place this last weekend. This weekend five of us Calvin students are off to Morocco, which will be a really great time and hopefully more sunny. We are going to see Fez and Marrakesh, which are two really interesting and old cities.

London

London is a big city. I traveled there with three other Calvin friends this last weekend. We had to take a train to Alicante from Denia, then in Alicante we took a bus to the airport, then we took a plane to Gatwick airport, a train to central London, and finally a cab to our hostel. The city itself is amazing; we walked all the way from Hyde Park to the London Bridge the second day. We did all of the essential London sightseeing: fish and chips, phone booths, double-decker buses, et cetera. The hostel was not the nicest place ever, and it seemed like everyone in the hostel had a keycard that opened our door...I really like the fact that people from all over the world coexist in London; we met people from Sweden, Zambia, South Africa, Italy, Austria, and even Chicago. The Austrian man gave us his card and said that since he traveled as a student in the US, he knew how nice it is to have a place to stay when passing through a country. I'm quite sure that we saw most of the major London landmarks: Big Ben, the Parliament Building, the London Tower, the Globe Theatre, the London Bridge, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgal Square, Hyde Park, the Soho District, Piccadilly Circus, the National Museum, Westminster Abbey, and more. What a busy weekend. This coming weekend most of our Calvin group is going to Pego, a city close to Denia, to celebrate Carnaval. Still on my list of things to do: climb Montgo next weekend if we have time. Some of the group already climbed it last weekend, but most of them want to go again because they enjoyed it so much.

Barcelona and Tarragona

This last Wednesday after class our Calvin group met up with a high school group from a Denia high school called Chavas for our trip to Barcelona and Tarragona. After eight hours on a bus with 30 high school students, I started to realize how far I have come after being out of high school for three or four years. Also, I would say that high school kids are not that different whether they are in Spain or in the U.S. That stage of life has lots of common traits. Barcelona is an amazing city; we visited most of the well-known attractions. Gaudi is the most famous architect in Barcelona, and we saw the Pedrera, Parque Guell, and La Sagrada Familia. The cathedral was by far the most impressive part of Barcelona. The main pedestrian street is called Las Ramblas, and it is by far the busiest part of the Gothic District of Barcelona, which is also the oldest part. We stayed at an albergue, (hostel) which used to be a seminary and now serves as a conference center and school for nurses. One student from Chavas, Vicente, hung out with the Calvin group the whole weekend, and we have hung out since then here in Denia. Later this semester, we have more trips coming up: Granada, Madrid, London, and Marrakesh. The last two are independent trips that we are planning for February.