The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Plains!

SPAIN. October 11-22.

This trip was PACKED with laughs, adventure, weird food, and a beautiful culture.

Thursday 11th:

Laynie and I and a few others pulled an all nighter because we had to leave at like three or four in the morning. We got on a bus for about three hours and then a plane for a few more and finally made it to Madrid, the capital of Spain. When we arrived, we all went to our rooms, some of us took a little nap and went into the city to explore and look around. Laynie and I do what we do best: took a five hour nap. I'm pretty sure we were some of the only ones at the hotel haha Anyways, we woke up and walked around trying to find an ATM. Then we had our first encounter with the Spanish culture. First of all, you readers of mine need to know that Spain is a very night life driven culture so they eat supper at about nine or ten o'clock at night, sometimes later. If they get hungry (it's more of a social thing than a need to eat) people will go out and get "tapas" which are like little bitty plates of random food. Basically when you hear "tapas" think of "snack time." You would think "DREAM COME TRUE," but that is not the case my friend. Not. The. Case. Especially when you've only taken Spanish 1-3 (for those of you in my class, you know we probably only took 1 &1/2 years of Spanish) and do not remember a whole lot about it. So, Laynie and I meander into this random pub-esque place. Laynie walks up to the man and says,
L: "Are you serving food right now?" And then man just kind of looks at Laynie and then at me and back at Laynie. Laynie, exasperated, says,
L: "They're not serving food Mallory." And then man then says, "No entiendo..." At that point I of course start laughing and say,
M: "No, Laynie, he just doesn't understand what you're saying."
L: "...Ohhhhh hahahaha" 

I then tell the man we'd like to eat some food and if we could have some menus and water. After he leaves Laynie hits me and says, "You didn't tell me you spoke Spanish!" To which I laughed and said, "I don't! I mean, not well!" We look at the menu and I tell Laynie I only recognize a couple things on the menu. We both end up getting a sandwich, her's with chorizo (sausage type meat) and mine with cheese (I'm thinking grilled cheese). The man comes back with our food. Laynie got chorizo which was this red color and I open my sandwich to find three triangles of hard cheese. That's it. I of course start laughing because it is so ridiculous and we can't even bite into the bread because it's so tall and hard. We end up trading each other cheese for chorizo and use one side of the bread and make some type of meal out of whatever we had ordered. We choked it down, paid the man, and left laughing until our stomachs hurt. It was quite an experience and one that would only be topped later, and not in a good way. To top the night off, we went to the grocery store for some candy. Lo and behold, we found sour octopus, our favorite candy from the states that we cannot find anywhere! They look a little different and have a few additions, but we were very happy with our purchases :) Then we watch How to Train Your Dragon and called it a night! Day one in Spain: SUCCESS.

Friday 12th:

Friday morning we woke up and went into Madrid. We explored the city and came upon a parade! We couldn't see a whole lot of what was happening because there were so many people there, but we did learn that the day was being celebrated in remembrance of Spain's independence from their terrible fascist king years earlier. Then we had to wait a little while for all the people to clear out so we could get to the park!

 At the park we saw tons of little shops, performers, and puppet shows (of all things). We also saw boats. There was this lake in the middle of the park and you could rent a row boat for four people for four euros...so we of course did.

We had a bit of a war and some type of point scavenger hunt, but mostly we just rowed around trying to run into each other, you know, real mature college kid stuff. After the boats, we walked back out of the park and ran into one of those men that dress up and paint themselves and pretend to be a statue. Laynie and I paid him a few euros and got to take a picture with him! I offered him some of my carmel popcorn and he actually ate some! Crazy, I know haha

After the army man, literally right after, it decided to rain. And when I say rain, I mean the kind that is annoyingly hard enough that you can't just walk through it. So my group and I got stuck under a tree waiting it out. On the bright side we got to take some funny pictures as statues.

After the rain finally decided to stop, we went to city center. Now, this was probably the highlight of my day. We encountered this fat Spiderman. He was dressed up as Spiderman, no joke.

So, my friend Regen and I decide we want to take a picture with him. The rest of our group is like, "No." So my new pal Spiderman literally drags them all into the picture with us and we do a series of pictures. All except Jessica, who literally ran away and hid hahaha It was so funny, I was crying the whole time. After we all went, he made the guys, all three of them, take pictures with him too. By that time, everyone was laughing pretty hard and having a great time.

 After that adventure, we went to a museum of modern art. I love art, but I think I enjoy traditional/old/non-modern art museums. I like abstract, but I love the older stuff. After the museum, Brady, Lyndi, Laynie, and I went out to eat at a Greek place and then headed back to the hotel and slept really good haha Day two in Spain: GREAT SUCCESS.

Saturday 13th:

We made our way to Avila on this day and we were all pretty tired once we got there. This is where we stayed in a monastery. The rooms were really nice and the view was amazing. Spain really does have beautiful countryside. Anyways, we arrived, walked around a little bit in Old City, went to a supermarket, and then headed back to have supper with everyone. That was one of the great things of staying at Avila. They fed us breakfast, lunch, and supper, so we our costs were pretty low while staying there. The only down side was that sometimes (A LOT OF THE TIME) the food was really weird. Later that night a few friends and I went out and explored the city at night which was beautiful.

Sunday 14:

This was a very emotion packed day. The morning started off with breakfast and then a few of us went with the Crackens and Jacque to Mass. It was so strange to be sit in a service that was so reverent, beautiful, have so much being said, and not being able to understand a word of it. The service was still very beautiful though. After Mass we went back to the monastery for a little bit and then headed to the emotional roller coaster of the day: a bull fight. Now, everyone had some expectations of what they were going to see, but for the most part, everyone was pretty optimistic about seeing this side of Spain's culture. We all sit down and it begins. A man comes out on a horse and rides around for a bit, making a show. Then they release the bull. We notice that the bull has already been stabbed at the top of his neck. Then the man on the horse starts stabbing it with festive looking spears that stay in the bulls neck.

  
A lot of people, including Laynie and Lyndi, left during the first bull fight. Little did the rest of us know that there were going to be six bulls killed. I stayed till the end of the second and then felt sick for taking pictures and sick for being there. That's when I left. Which was good because it started to pour right after we left. The bull fight was disturbing for many of us. Later, we'd talk about it in my Ethics class.

Monday 15th:

We went to Mass again the next day which was different than the day before because it was packed and about an hour longer. This was because it was the day of Mother Teresa! They were having a parade for her. It was fantastic. There were these big tall costumes, a band, soldiers, prominent people in the church and their families, widows, and boy and girl scouts in the procession.

 
 Lyndi, Laynie, and I went and had coffee with Jacque to wait out all the people in the square. Later that night, we all had supper at the monastery and then we went to the firework show in city center! It was the best I've ever seen. ACU should take some lessons from them haha

Tuesday 16th:

This day we had that Ethics class over the bull fight. It was very heated and very interesting. Our teacher broke us up into two groups, one for bull fighting and one against it. We both were given a certain amount of time to come up with a persuasive argument and then we battled it out. I, of course, was assigned to the team for bull fighting and I, of course, was chosen as the team representative. It was fun to argue with people and look at things from another angle. We all ended up deciding that America needs to fix their own slaughter houses and the living conditions the animals live in up until their death before we try to point fingers at other cultures...sounds strangely biblical. Oh wait, because it is. After class we had some lunch and then a tour of the monastery. It is very beautiful.

That night was the Spades tournament. Our whole group joined and we had one massive tournament. Needles to say, my freaking awesome partner in crime (Laynie Haley) and I blew the competition away. I mean, just look at our getup. 

Just about everyone was scared to take us on. And for good reason haha We actually didn't finish our game, it went on for about three weeks, but that's not important right now haha 

Wednesday 17th:

This morning we went and looked at the walls of Avila before we got on the bus to Zaragoza. It was beautiful. Sadly, Laynie didn't come because she was battling death. But, we toured the walls, had a good time, I bought Laynie some crackers and sprite and Dramamine and then we headed back.

 The bus trip to Zaragoza was a little bit longer than originally expected and a lot of people had gotten food poisoning from some strangely cooked meat the night before. Laynie especially. She continued her battle with death with as much help as Brady and I could give her. People were throwing up, the ride was bumpy, and about two extra hours than it was supposed to be. Not good, not good at all. BUT we finally made it to Zaragoza. It was just a stop and spend the night place so we didn't do a whole lot of exploring. We just got supper, went back to our hotel, and went to bed.

Thursday 18th: 

We got back on the bus, took a three hour bus ride to Girona, and made it on time. We walked to our hotel which was adorable and super old timey, put our stuff up, and went and grabbed some supper, and then fell into a coma back at the hotel. Traveling is EXHAUSTING. 

Friday 19th:

This was a little better than the day before, we went shopping (I bought a few presents :) ), Laynie and I had a lunch date, we met with our INTS group, and then later that night my friend Aaron and I had a Spades war against Megan (Polio) and Kaylen (Juicebox). They "went and grabbed some dinner" and didn't see them the rest of the night so we never finished that game of Spades. Probably because we bested them...

BUT Laynie and I played Cracken and Brady later and DESTROYED them. It was so fun. I mean, we were great sports and everything about it. We would never rub that sort of thing in our brilliant Ethics teacher's face or our friend Brady's. Never ever... :)

Saturday 20th:

We got on a bus and went to Barcelona! It was so much fun, this city. We walked around city center, went into the awesome market where there are stands and stands of food and butcher shops and fruit stands and anything you could possibly think of, and then we went on our bike tour. Which was also awesome. We rode all over Barcelona and I got a cool tshirt :) 

After the bike tour we went back to our hotel and I got to talk to my baby girl Clara for a little bit!! That was so great :) It made the perfect day end in the perfect way. I miss them, Cash and Clara and Lindy, a whole bunch. I bet the kiddos have grown a ton since I've been gone. But, I will see them soon! 

Sunday 21st:

We got up, had breakfast, and then Laynie and I hit the beach with Brady. It was stunning. 

After the beach, Laynie and I went back to the hotel and skipped the soccer match we were supposed to go to and took a nap haha We then got up and tried to go shop around, but everything was closed because it was Sunday. We ended up just eating at this Greek food place. Then we went and tried to get Laynie the tshirt I had gotten from the bike tour, but they were closed too. A bit of a disappointing day where shopping entails, but other than that, it was fantastic.

Monday 22nd:

HOME JAMES! We got up early and Laynie and I went and saw the Sangrada Famila Cathedral. It was beautiful.

The guy that designed it got inspiration from nature so a lot of of it reflects things found in nature. For example, the columns holding it up on the inside look like tree trunks and the beams in the ceiling look like tree branches. And the spiral staircases look like snail shells. It was so cool. After we saw that, we went back to the bike shop and got Laynie a shirt and went back to the hotel. Then we all piled onto the bus and went to the airport! Our group got seperated into two groups flying home. I was on the first flight with the first group. We thought our plane had gotten delayed, but it was a fluke and we got home on time. The other group was not so lucky and actually did have about a two hour to three hour delay. So, while they were making their way home, Jacque and Mike and all of us students (mostly Jacque and Mike) made supper for everyone and we all ate family style in the common room once group 2 got home. It was fantastic and felt very homey. These people I am with, the teachers pouring into us, they are all so great. This place and these people really are a home away from home. I will be sad to leave it, but happy to go home to my family. 

Well, that about covers Spain! Tune in next time for a bit of Oxford and Croatia!! Love you all!

Cheers from across the pond,
Mallory Jean