...Explosiva.

Las Fallas....how do I describe Las Fallas....so many people, so many weird sculptures, so many explosions, so many churros, so much noise, so much madness! All wrapped up in one awesome day in the city of Valencia. You should check it out sometime. :)

This is the first falla we came across. We would later return to see it go up in flames...



There were too many fallas to count, but here's another that we got to see from up in a cool castle thing. (By the way, we drove past at least five castles on the way to Valencia; awesome!)



...Ok, here's the cool castle thing.



This one was probably my favorite.



There were A LOT of people there. No joke. I don't think I've ever seen such a crowd. (What you see in the bottom left corner is a churro stand. There was about one every 15 feet.)



Perhaps this photo better portrays it. :) It was a cozy. We came to this plaza because we heard something was going to explode. Lots and lots of fireworks! And LOTS of smoke afterward.



Later we went to a parade. The first half was nice, with lots of people dressed up in medieval costume and carrying lanterns, and the sun setting...The second half got a bit frightening, as you might conjecture from the photo below. Lots and lots and lots and lots of bizarre demon dudes running around with fire....never seen anything like it. I asked the woman standing next to me why there were so many demons. She shrugged and said, "Meh, it's a tradition."
No further comments at the moment.



And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...
This was a smaller one that they burned around 10pm. One of our friends got to keep a piece of it.



And here's the giant one we saw earlier. And no, those are not stars, they are big hunks of burning ash (which, fortunately, cooled off before falling on us). We got a good spot. It required getting there about an hour and a half early, and listening to the crowd chant, "Fuego! Fuego!" ("Fire! Fire!") while we waited, but it was worth it.



...And here are the firemen ("bombers") putting out the falla.
It was at about this time that someone let off a firecracker that went zipping around our feet, which got some people really mad, and we decided to get out of there.



We took the 2am bus (avoiding the hostel, thank you), and got back around 6am, to find my sister sleeping in my bed! Yes, I spent the rest of the weekend with my family, who happened to be in town. Good times.

Oh, and here's a glimpse of last week's delicious taco salad dinner up on our "terraza" (terrace/roof/upper exterior surface of our apartment).



Off to grammar class!
♥Tracy

...Rápida.

Today is our halfway point.

Yesterday there was a half marathon in Murcia. Rachael ran it! and I did the 10.3K, which was half of it. (In miles those are 13.1 and 6.4, respectively.) It was awesome (and I promise, I thought that for most of the race too, not just afterwards). Here is a picture of some random runners that Tracy took when she and our friend Ashley came to watch. It does a good job of showing what the race was like.

So the race started over on the other side of the river. We got up and walked to the start, picked up our race stuff, and then searched for somewhere to leave our water bottles and jackets. Sadly, there wasn't anywhere official, so we stared looking for someplace to hide them. We went upstairs because it totally looked like other people were... but when we got up there we were the only ones, and a security guy saw us and started yelling. That was a good time to pretend (or... more like excentuate the fact) that we are stupid foreigners. Anyway, we started talking to this other girl who looked like she was trying to find a place for her stuff. She spoke English; I don't think she spoke Spanish though. She was from Kenya. She was really nice. We suspected that she was going to win the women's race, and she did! So I just think it was funny that we ran into her beforehand and talked to her and that even though she didn't speak Spanish she dominated their race.

Four of our American friends from school also ran: three did the 10.3K and one the half marathon. And four (including Tracy!) came to watch. (In case you were wondering if we ever found somewhere to put our stuff... they held it for us.) Let's see. The start of the race was exciting, and it was funny to think about where we were... Usually it's like, "I'm in Spain. Wow." This was, "I'm in Spain... plus I'm doing a race. Weird, but awesome." It was a very flat race. No complaints there. There were some people cheering when we ran along the river. A good portion of the race was two way, so I enjoyed watching the leaders run by. Rachael and I saw each other a few times! There were four or five big packs of guys in green and black. They were sort of obnoxious because they were yelling for most of the race (really I'm just jealous that they can run further and faster than me while yelling...), but Rachael asked them where they were from, and they said they were from Murcia and that they were in the airborne division of the army. So they were one example of the many interesting people in this race. There was also a guy with maracas...

We were all happy with our times. Rachael's was 1:45, and mine was 55 min. (Remember :-) she ran twice as far.) No one died. It was good. We got free stuff at the end, which is totally one of the most exciting things about a race. And they gave us each a huge water bottle - 1.5 L.

Ok here's a bit about school. History class is awesome. It is everyone's (I think) favorite. Probably because we have an awesome teacher - Jóse. I don't really know how to describe him. Well, he's Spanish... haha. He is just a good teacher because he knows what he's talking about and isn't boring and is funny, especially when he does impressions of French people or of little girls showing off or pretends to speak elvish.

Last Thursday night we went over to Claudia's apartment for tapas. She is a friend from church. We learned a new card game called Nerviosa, which just means Nervous. It is worth teaching when we get back. After we ate she played the guitar for a bit and we sang. It reminded me of a Roberts party... haha. The next night, (this is going to seem really random) we went with her and some other friends to get Swedish meatballs at the place where she used to work. They had a good sale! What can I say. After that we went to youth group, and it was a very good night for that. Tracy played the drums for a bit, and it looked like she really enjoyed that.

In two weeks we have Easter break for two weeks! Tracy and I are going to Paris for the first few days. Her family is going to be visiting Paris then too. Hopefully I will get to see my friend Hannah who is going to be studying in Paris... We are also going to Madrid and Toledo during the break! Rachael is going to Barcelona with our friend Anna. And for the second half of break we will be here in Murcia for all the Easter festivities... probably, unless we find a cheap ticket to London... The three of us (with two of our friends) are going to Dublin April 15th!!! Yep. That's the most exciting thing in the world :-)

This is a really random blog, so I guess it makes sense to end with this... We made bagels on Saturday. They don't have them here, so we really wanted to try it. They take just as long to chew as bagels normally do, so I think they were a success!
The end. - Betty

...Pintaresca.

This past weekend was SEVILLA!

Starting off, we saw the third-biggest Catedral in Europe:


There were lots of orange trees in the inside area. They use them to make marmalade.


Inside...


We got to climb up the Giralda, which was awesome!!


The view was quite spectacular


This was followed by a trip to Los Reales Alcálzares, a palace-fortress of Al Ramán III.


Horses...


The river, and El Torre de Oro


La Plaza de España! There were also some beautiful gardens in this part of the city. We found some fun playgrounds, too. :)

(They filmed some Star Wars scenes here.)

We finally got to see flamenco! We were in a bar stuffed with probably 200 people, and we had FRONT ROW seats! I literally couldn't have gotten any closer. She came close to kicking me a few times, and when she bowed at the end she almost hit me in the face with her hair. There was also a flute player, singer, and guitarist. They were intense. It was amazing.


We got two heaping plates of paella on Saturday, and we also got to go aboard a replica of an old Andalusian ship. Sunday we went to mass ("misa") at the Catedral. The Catedral was right across from the hostal. We got to climb out of Rachael's window on the sixth floor onto a terrace that overlooked it! But perhaps the most gorgeous sight we saw all weekend was on the bus ride back, when the moon looked enormous as it rose above the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas. No photo, but it wouldn't have done it justice anyway.
Good times.

So yesterday I did something unheard of in Spain...
...I wore flip-flops. In February. Big no-no. But you see, I didn't care, because my sneakers were still soaked from the previous night due to another rare bout of rain. Fortunately our wet trek was well worth it; we went to a friend's apartment for a delicious dinner of cheeseburgers, fries, salad, and chocolate chip peanut-butter cookies. And then we got to snuggle up in our warm, dry pajamas when we came back. Anyway, wearing flip-flops in Spain in February is something you just don't do. There's an unwritten rule that you don't wear summer clothes until June, even though it's gorgeous out today. It has nothing to do with the temperature, just the month. Some of our teachers will admit that it's silly, but it's just the way it is. The word here for foreigner/tourist is "guiri." Sometimes when we walk past people we hear them say that word. Or they'll just come right out and make fun of us. I was the essence of guiri yesterday. And I'm okay with that. It was kinda nice to have people stare at my feet instead of my face. What a funny culture. I still like it here. :)

Today we had our first music class, and it was awesome! Our teacher is hilarious. And he brought in a guitar and played for us a lot.

¡Hasta la próxima!
♥Tracy

...Ocupada.

Well, sometimes it is. This weekend has been. We are enjoying our diverse selection of new classes. Even the art one, which only Tracy understands. I think it's because all of our teachers are basically amazing. They are funny though. One of them tried assigning homework, but she said, "If you have something better to do, don't worry about it." Um... I promise we are learning lots in class though. And we will have final projects and tests at the end of the semester.

Friday was the beginning of international student welcome week (or something like that) at the university. We went to a brunch at 1:00. The president and a few other important people gave short welcome speeches, and then we feasted on free tapas! We also finalized plans with some of our friends who are coming to Valencia for Las Fallas about a month from now. We will explain more about that after we go. It is a festival that involves burning things... Two of our friends from the Spanish church came over for dinner. We tried to make them pancakes but accidentally used a crepe recipe. The crepes were really good though, especially because they brought lots of ham, beef tenderloin, sausage, and cheese. And tortilla de patatas! which we learned is extra delicious with Ali-Oli. Sorry if I'm not explaining the food well. I'm kind of forgetting which of it I knew before coming here and which I didn't. Claudia and Elena had fun seeing the pictures of friends from home that we have on the wall. :-) We went to youth group with them afterwards. Oh, I almost forgot... Claudia had her bike with her, and Tracy and I got to ride it, which pretty much made our day.

Saturday we had sort of a field trip to Cartagena - another city on the Mediterranean. It has an interesting history involving a lot of Roman stuff. The best part of our tour was the museum where we got to walk around a Roman theatre that they found in the first half of the 20th century and have been excavting:


Yeah... that was amazing. And this is what those ancient Romans saw when they looked at the Mediterranean from their theatre (minus the obvious docks and boats...):

Some of the other stuff we did in Cartagena... walked around/sat near the water, climbed up to a castle (I'm disappointed by the two castles we have seen so far... hopefully the ones in Lorca are better.), got lunch, went to a few other museums including one about underwater archeology (which is an awesome idea in theory, but at that point everyone was really tired). Here is a picture of one of the peacocks that was roaming about near the castle:

Tracy and I tried pulpo (octopus) in Cartagena. I wasn't going to, cuz the idea of the suckers on it scared me, but one of our friends who I like to think is of fairly sound mind had said it was good... and it's always on the menu...

It was strange. I thought the texture would be gross, but it was very nice. I thought the taste would be alright, but it was icky. I thought the suckers would be huge; they were very small. I thought I would be too scared to eat them; I put them in my mouth alone without any of the other meat. So we survived and enjoyed the experience, but it's not one that I'd like to repeat.

That night after the trip there was a party for Carnival at one of the places in the Plaza de Toros in Murcia. Rachael and I went over to a friend's apartment and got some crazy eye makeup that still won't come all the way off! It was fun though to see everyone dressed up. And they played good music, and we danced and got to see almost everyone we know here all together. It was overall a really fun day. So we are excited for next weekend's longer trip with many of our classmates to Sevilla!

This morning on the way to church we finally got churros y chocolate from the street vender. I wish I had a picture. It's sort of like a donut, or fried dough, that they make in a huge spiral and then cut into like six inch long pieces and serve in a big paper cone. And then you can order the hot chocolate too to dip them in. After church, thankfully Rachael and I ran for a long time (well, it was a long time for me - the longest I've run since high school track. It was just one of those days you feel really good and want to take advantage of it!) Some of our friends are going to the bullfight that is in the city today. I hope they have fun, but we decided not to go for various reasons involving the cost and lack of desire to see/support killing animals in that manner even if it is part of the culture... We have other plans anyway :-) Well, it's been fun. Adios, Betty

...Excelente.

Hola amigos! Betty has alerted me that it's been over a week, oops. On that note, a review of this past week...

We started real classes on Wednesday! During our time here, we're taking: Historia de España, Arte español (!!!), Literatura (!!), Política y Sociedad, Entorno geográfico (Geography), Escritura (Writing), Música (!), Expresión oral, y Medios de comunicación. We'll start evening Spanish classes Mondays and Wednesdays starting next week. And there are no classes on Friday! yesss

I think it was the day before that that I got a book at the library. I asked the guys at the front desk if they would recommend a book for me, to see what would happen. I think they thought that was pretty funny. One of them brought me straight back to the novelas and pulled "Sin noticias de Gurb" off the shelf. He told me(in Spanish) that it was a fun book about an alien who comes to Barcelona disguised as a singer. I read the first few chapters to humor him, and it was cute, but I didn't feel like finishing it. I think I'll ask my lit professor to recommend something for me.

Friday we went to Alicante, about an hour's bus drive to the coast. It was beautiful!
Lots of palm trees...



A climb up to a castle...



The view from the castle...





And yes, we went to the beach. That's the Mediterranean! Admittedly, it was a bit on the chilly side, but we'll go back when it's warmer.



It was a good time. :)



We got back and went to Mary and Rafael's to pick up a package(thanks, Mom!). (They've been receiving our mail since our address doesn't seem to be working...) But, being the wonderful family that they are, we ended up staying for coffee and cookies and then eventually dinner, long story short, before going to youth group. Their hospitality blows me away. I can't begin to say how much they mean to me.

Saturday we went to the mercado and got some awesome deals. I personally got eight tasty apples for just under a euro! Each week I permit myself to buy something from a vendor who sells cheap delicious things like pastries and cookies. This week I got a "delfín de crema," which was essentially a long pastry with custard. Rachael asked to buy one cookie, but then the vendor gave her two for free!

Sunday there was a big potluck lunch after the church service, and it was delightful. We got to eat a lot of good food and talk to a lot of people. After lunch I got to play ping pong, which was especially exciting. :) Later we had some friends over for ice cream and a movie. Yay for cappuccino ice cream!

Coming soon: Weekend trip to Cartagena

♥Tracy

...Un regalo.

Happiness... We are happy here. This is going to sound ridiculous, but sometimes when I am happy I try not to express it too much to certain people who seem to be annoyed by happiness. (I don't even know if they actually are! I might just be imagining it.) Sometimes I am annoyed by other people's happiness... which probably means I am jealous. Oh, and there are also people who tell me that I never seem happy, which I don't get. Psalm 127:2 says, "It is vain for you to... eat the bread of sorrows." I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it's something to the effect of GOD WANTS US TO BE HAPPY. Right? Of course there are some things in the world that we should be sad about, but in general...

Another week has passed. This is actually our one month anniversary in Spain! I could analyze whether it seems like more or less time, but I'd rather try to accept the knowledge that time always passes at the same rate - contrary to the way it seems.

Top ten lists are fun, so here's one for this week (top ten things I can remember plus that I am willing to write about here):

10) When you think of Spain, I hope one of the things that comes to mind is markets... delicious, fresh, inexpensive, local food! And not like grocery stores. Markets either outside or in huge buildings with dozens of different vendors. You can walk around and compare prices for a bit before deciding what to buy. You find the stuff you need and of course also see tons of new things that you want to try. Yesterday we went to the two main markets in the city. And basically, they were amazing. Just like I described.

9) At one of the markets we bought two huge yams. We were going to make sweet potato pie, but we were a bit concerned about the lack of brown sugar here. Rachael found a recipe for sweet potato enchiladas. If you think they sound good, they were even better. And if you think they sound gross, you are just wrong :-) Amazing. Cook some sweet potato; mix it with cream cheese and taco seasoning. Stuff the tortillas and pour tomato sauce over them. Sprinkle on the cheese. Bake for about twenty min. I like them even better than chicken enchiladas.

8) Running in Spain. It helps that it is so warm here. The past three days it has been in the high sixties and low seventies. Rachael has started running with a guy from school, so that is good because I had been running with her, but I'm nowhere near as good. Although, the two of us had a very good run today, combined with a deep conversation, which generally makes life more interesting.

7) On Thursday afternoon we watched Rent. That seems like a weird thing to do in Spain I suppose, but after that morning (see next point), we wanted to stay in and relax. Anyway, I had seen the show at Proctors in Albany, but never the movie, and I was just really glad we watch it because it made the whole plot a lot more clear. It was a good time.

6) What we did Thursday for class was basically a field trip. They took us to the outdoor market that is only open on Thursdays. It was one of those 5/365 days that it rains in Murcia (We actually think it's more like 25/365...). Shoppers with umbrellas are dangerous! After the market we went to some sort of museum. Then a lunch break. They showed us some other points in the city. Honestly I don't remember much about the tour; I just remember that is was awesome because I had good conversation with several different people from our class as we walked through the rain :-)

5) The Superbowl is tonight. Starting at midnight here... Rachael is going over to another apartment to watch it. So, that should be a lot of fun. It's a shame I don't like watching football.

4) Yesterday, we had paella. We found a mesón with it on the menu of the day. Five of us went for lunch. Menu of the day is great because you get a drink, bread, three dishes, and dessert all for a reasonable price. We first discovered it at a Chinese restaurant in Granada, but I guess they have them everywhere. Anyway, it was chicken paella, which is probably the most tame kind, but it was very good, and we were excited about finally trying it.

3) Monday afternoon we went to a picnic at a park across the river. We lugged a bag of oranges way over there! Delicious oranges. And it was good that we had them because everyone else brought either sangria or cookies. Actually no; one of our friends brought tortilla de patatas, which was excellent (my goodness. I really do write about food too much. I should try to do that less.) So besides the food :-) the reason this picnic was so much fun is because we made friends with three Polish students. We just talked to them for a long time... until it got cold and we wanted to go home. They were really friendly, and we made plans for later in the week too.

2) Yesterday morning, we got to say hi to Lydia and Greg on skype because they were up writing a play for the 24 hr. show. I haven't gotten to read it yet, but I'm really excited to! If you are ever up at 4:00 a.m. it's 10 here, so give us a call :-)

Drum roll please...
1) Our third lunch at the missionaries's place after church. Ten students came today! Nine of us knew each other from school, and then we met a new girl who is doing an internship with Mary and Rafael. Her name is Jessica. We all talked for a while after the meal (while we kept taking more pieces of dessert...), and she told us this great story about forgiveness. I'll try to summarize it. So, she went to Liberty, and she had this one class that she didn't like much. She had skipped it a few times because there was a much harder class afterwards, and one day, she was late for a test that they had. The teacher seemed annoyed when she came in. He asked where she had been, but let her take the test. Even though it was easy and she was done with it in five minutes, she kept going over it until she was the last one to turn it in because she was hoping that would keep the teacher from being angry with her. When she went up to turn it in, he asked her where she had been, and she confessed that she had been skipping because of the other class afterwards. She apologized. The teacher accepted her apology and said something like, "It's just good to see you here." and she was overcome by the forgiveness, which she knew she did not "deserve." And if that kind of forgiveness is possible from a fellow human, how much more extraordinary is that which we receive from God!

Betty

...Espectacular!

So we went to Granada this past weekend. And it was amazing. And it's going to be hard to pick pictures for this because I have so many!

Climbing up...




...tada!




the famous part:




Check out the ceiling!


I like this picture. :)


the gardens...


Complete with friendly (and hungry) kitties.


And to finish off the day, kebabs and baklava!


Final destination: la Catedral...


WOW.


Buenas noches,
♥Tracy