...Guay!!!

Less than a month to go. The closer we get to leaving, the more Spain seems to grow on me. And yet I know that when it comes time to leave, I will be ready. I like it here, and I like it at home; it's a win-win situation. It will be bittersweet to leave, but we've met some awesome people here that we get to stay in touch with, and experiences that have changed us and have added color to our lives. Thank you, God, for the gift of memory and modern technology.

This past weekend was AMAZING. Ávila and Segovia, two more sweet Spanish cities. Segovia has definitely made it to my top three favorite cities we've visited. Also in the running for #1 are probably Granada and Toledo, but it's a tough call because each city is unique. Anyway, in less than three days I filled up the photo space on my camera. Before we left, I checked the weather forecast and it was calling for cold, wet yuck all weekend. I am very pleased to say that this could not have been much further from the truth. It was gorgeous.

In Ávila we walked along an awesome Roman wall. I took so many pictures of that wall. I thoroughly enjoyed that wall.




I'm short of time, so I'll leave you with a few pictures and a couple random thoughts...


Segovia...!!


I love cathedrals!!!


Castle!


and view from said castle:


Roman Aqueduct!!!


We also found an awesome BOOK! It's a book you're supposed to “read, register, and release.” When you find it, you read it, sign your name and where you found it, and then leave it somewhere else. And it's a contemporary art book in Spanish!!! Very excited.

Some of my favorite conversations are the random ones we have with people on the street or while waiting in line for the bathroom. We meet some totally random and fun people. I also really enjoy talking with the international students in my grammar class. It's so interesting to talk with someone whose second (or third or fourth) language is also Spanish.

Hasta luego!
♥Tracy

...Loca.

I'm surprised it's the first time I've thought of using that title. It's a good thing though. This week needs that description.

Here is a picture of people grabbing stuff from the carrozas that Tracy mentioned:

The next day's parade had lots of floats with flowers:

The people on the floats handed them out to people who went up to get them, and they threw some in the crowd too. We didn't get any, but we enjoyed watching.

After the parade we stood in a line where they were handing out free "pasteles de carne" - meat pies. They are a Murcian specialty. We each got too! And usually waiting in line is terribly boring, but we met some cool people, including a guy who spoke English and the parents of one of our friend's from church (by the way - and this really shouldn't be in parenthesis cuz it is very important, but here it is - we watched both the first two parades with out friends from church, and we spent some time with them afterwards as well. It was awesome cuz I started to feel like we are really friends - like there is a real bond, not just nice Spanish people being really welcoming to us but not having much to talk about. It was probably just me being slow... but I really think something is different now!). Anyway, at the end of the line:

After this, we set out to find "paparajotes." They are another Spanish food, a specialty of the week of Spring festivals. One of our teachers had told us we should try them. Basically, they are lemon leaves covered in fried dough, and they are delicious:

Oh, and I tried blood sausage that we got from the first parade. Mostly out of boredom. It tasted good, but ew. There is plenty of other food that tastes good and doesn't have blood in it :-)

So don't think we have been going to parades all week. It's just that that's more exciting to write about that doing homework, reading, running, cooking, and the other activities of the week, which have been excellent and very relaxing.

Ok the last parade was last night. It was in preparation for "Entierro de la sardina," which is kind of like a falla. It's a sardine one down by the river. Only, we didn't actually stay to watch it burn because the streets were a frightening place to be... We watched the parade from a friend's balcony. It was pretty much perfect! A lot of times we joke about how a certain situation could be perfect. Rachael and I were saying... "I'll bet Haley lives in one of these apartments with a balcony, and we can just go up and watch the parade from there." Vuala!! She did, and that's exactly what happened.

It was different seeing the parade from seven floors up. I had the feeling that we were scientists observing a community of ants. The people looked funny cuz they were so small, and they were grabbing for the stuff that was being thrown from the floats. We went down at the end and caught some stuff. Rachael got a bright orange shirt. I got a deck of cards, which are cool... except they don't have the right suites, just weird pictures. Tracy got a bunch of stuff, including a soccer ball that will be fun to bring to the beach! Murcia is quiet again.

This afternoon we went out on the roof and read for awhile. It is really really nice up there! Haha, not so much the actual roof, but being up there... and the sky:


We are going back to class tomorrow. Six more weeks. Yesterday we were all looking at who was going to be in our classes at Roberts next semester. Haha that was fun.

I am really not a fan of day light savings. Like right now, it is 7:45 and completely light out. I like it when it gets dark early because I am better at going to bed sooner. This is silly, but I have trouble going to sleep unless I feel really accomplished. I should go to bed when I'm tired!

So as not to end this with a random complaint... avacados are delicious. Did you know? If you think they are just good for guacalmole, think again. Get one (I know they are expensive. This is a shame. We should all move to California where we can grow avacado trees in our backyards!), cut it in half, and eat it with a spoon. Repeat as often as desired.

Betty

...Festiva!

So much has happened within the past 10 days! It was super exciting to spend time with my family and Betty in France (and to see Notre Dame and the LOUVRE!!!!). Way too much to summarize in a simple blog, but I'll see what I can do. Admittedly, Betty and I were quite excited to go back to a country where they spoke Spanish (a.k.a. Spain). The day we arrived in Madrid we went to the Prado for free in the evening, which was awesome! We saw so much art last week, and it's too bad we didn't have more time to soak it up, but it's better than not going at all. The next day we went to the Reina Sofía (home of Picasso's "Guernica") and explored the city.


There was a cool terrace area on the third floor of the Reina Sofía:


Cool Egyptian ruins up on one of the hills:


We met some interesting people at our hostel and the next day we went to Toledo!!! Definitely one of my favorite places we've visited so far.




There was so much to see! The architecture throughout the city was spectacular. It was a gorgeous day and we saw the cathedral, monasteries, convents, churches, a basilica...We also tried "judías con perdiz," a traditional Toledo bean soup with partridge. We spent the afternoon walking along a path by the river, which involved some fun stops along the way.








It's tempting to put up 20 more pictures, but I'll move on. We arrived back in Madrid that day in time for the Good Friday procession, pointy hats and all.


We took the midnight bus back to Murcia. Our week-long adventure abroad was wonderful, but it was very good to be back in Murcia. Remarkable how much a place can grow on you the longer you spend time there. And it didn't hurt that upon our return the trees were bursting into blossom. :)


Easter was a fun day. We got up to see the sunrise before heading out to church (and stopping for churros con chocolate on the way). Betty had also hid chocolates in our apartment for Rachael and I to find, and we did a small gift exchange. There was lunch after the service and then we headed back to get dinner ready before one of our friends came over. Good times. :)

Yesterday was Bando de la Huerta! The Murcians dress up in traditional costume and go out to celebrate the spring. It was a fun sight. We met up with some friends and went to the parade. There were a lot of fun things to see there.








The craziest and most exciting part was the "carrozas." Over 20 trucks came by with people throwing/handing out a bunch of stuff - teacups, chorizo (sausage, which I ate more than enough of), candy, wine, lemons, bubbles...people came running into the street to grab things. It was nuts.

Until next time,
♥Tracy

...Extranjera.

Before I get to our wild and crazy travels, here are a few interesting things we did March 25th and 26th.

The 25th was our last day of class before break! That night Tracy and I went to a youth orchestra concert across the city that our music teacher had given us tickets for. We got there a little late, but the first song they played was from Pirates of the Caribbean, which was pretty awesome. The concert was good, but what made it really cool is that for some of the later songs the musicians got up and danced while they played. They also did a lot of swaying and used some cool indigenous South American instruments. It looked like they were having so much fun :-)

The next day was my birthday and we went to the beach with Laura and Beth. We had been wanting to go for ages, so it was perfect! And it was warm enough to swim for a little while! We were a little cold sitting on the beach, but it was March, so whatever. We feasted on kiwis, garlic bread, sweet tea, and Principe (well, store brand) cookies. It was excellent. And we watched Pirates that night after having been inspired by the concert.


So the travels were intense. Like camping. But everything worked out amazing well... except for this first bit...

In order to get to the airport in Alicante we took a bus from Murcia. Our friend Kathleen was on it, so that was unexpected and cool. Anyway we went through security at the airport and then waited to board the plane. But they wouldn't let us on cuz we hadn't gotten our boarding passes stamped... something about being from the US. They basically just said, "You can't pass. You need the stamp. You have ten minutes." So... I thought we weren't going to make it, but thankfully it's not a huge airport, and the lady was nice and still stamped the passes, and we were rude and cut in front of people at security, and I sprinted back to the gate, and we made it. We looked just like the idiots we were, but very thankful idiots. So you probably didn't want to know that, but I couldn't leave it out!

We survived Ryanair... the cheap airline, even though they kept trying to sell us stuff and there was not even water for free. Tracy got some really good pictures from the flight!

The Paris airport was about an hour from the city, so we had to take a bus in. We met up with the Newton's at the bus station and they took us to the hotel, which was very snazzy. And it had free coffee every morning!

Sunday morning we went to Palm Sunday mass at Notre Dame! We don't know any French... but we could sort of follow cuz everthing was written in the bulletin and we know the story. And they had one reading in English, which was cool. We got some lunch after that and then met up with Hannah! We ate ice cream with her and then she took us to the Eiffel tower.

Monday we went to the Louvre! We walked around it a lot... and we still didn't see everything. Every now and then I had to stop and look at something in detail. There is so much there. I didn't know Hammarabi's code was there. That was pretty sweet. We got some dinner after that, which involved delicious crepes!

Tuesday was Versailles. There were really long lines, which was unfortunate, but Tracy and I got in both there and at the Louvre for free because we are studying in Europe! We got audioguides at Versailles which were really interesting. Here's a picture of a really neat globe that was in one of the rooms:

It was raining, so we didn't walk around the gardens very much. We were also really tired and hungry, so we went back into the city to get some food. Oh, one thing this trip taught us (besides the fact that you shouldn't drink too much coffee... even when it's free) is that the Metro is amazing. It's so simple, but it looks complicated, so it makes you feel smart :-)

Well... I really didn't write that much considering... maybe these details are of interest: there was a thunderstorm, I wrote some postcards, French people practically all speak English and it is really hard to tell if they are making fun of you or not, Tracy and I found some really good bread at the grocery store that we ate for breakfast every morning and we went through a whole jar of jam in four days...

Tracy is going to take over now and write about Madrid and Toledo, but I'll put in a few more pictures.

An eye for an eye.

Green room!

Betty