Life Update

I am about to go on a two and half week vacation (longest spring break ever!) so I will not be writing for probably about three weeks! I felt like before I go, I should catch everyone up on the smaller things that have been happening around here.
Two weeks ago, before Jo and I went to Brussels, we had a pie party with the Japanese girls! Brynn the brilliant baker made chocolate and strawberry pies for the girls to try. They had never had real pie made the American way before! That was a fun night, and it just happened to fall on March 13th, the day before Pi day (March 14th = 3.14...) That night, the Pope was chosen, so the bells of a Catholic church nearby started ringing for several minutes and we turned on the T.V. to watch it. Suddenly it occurred to me that it was nighttime in the Vatican on T.V., and it was night time in Spain.... because we are in the same time zone! Crazy to think that we are really not that far away!

Last week I went over to Julie's apartment to eat french food! She and some of the other French students cooked an authentic meal from their part of France! It was delicious.

This past weekend, Hayley's parents came to visit her, so we enjoyed getting to see them for a little bit! They brought us Reeses, marshmallows, and rice crispy treats from America! We went over to the apartment where they were staying and had a little 'Merica party! Unbeknownst to Johanna, an extra guest was coming to the party with Asaf! The girl could hardly move when she saw her boyfriend, Rusty, walk through the door! Rusty has been studying abroad in Austria this semester, and he wanted to surprise her by coming to Alicante for the weekend! We were all so happy that we had been able to keep it a secret from her for A MONTH AND A HALF! It was hard! Her reaction was so worth it though! We loved having Rusty with us for the weekend and showing him around the city.

A few days ago, our OBU gang went to Dominos pizza (YES they have one here) for another little piece of 'Merica! Brynn had gotten a package with a bottle of Ranch sauce in it, so we slathered our (slightly different tasting) Dominos pizza with it and yelled 'MERICA! It was a small piece of home, but it was delicious.

This week started Semana Santa-- holy week-- here in Spain. This is a week of processions and celebrations leading up to Easter Sunday. I was pretty excited to see everything that happens during the week, but now I think I am just ready for it to be over. I had no idea it was possible to take something so full of light and hope and make it so dark. The focus here is much more on the death of Jesus. Every day, throughout the city, there are processions of robed people with funny hats (honestly, they look exactly like the KKK) carrying around big altars with plaster saints on top. A band follows them playing music and their is a consistent drum beat that sounds like a death march. People from the community can walk with the procession too. On Sunday (when they celebrate the day of the Via Dolorosa) we saw them carry out a big plaster Jesus on the cross from a church and parade it through the streets. It is so dark, so centered on death. One of our neighbors told us that now, the robed people have started handing out candy to the children so that they won't be as scared of the processions! It will be interesting to see what they do on Easter Sunday.

We have already had to say goodbye to some of the friends we have made here! Yesterday night, we had a farewell dinner with two of the Japanese girls who have finished their time in Spain. Jo and I also went over to our French friend, Julie's house to have one more pancake night before she leaves to go back to France this weekend! It is unbelievable to me that we are almost to the end. Its a bittersweet feeling to say goodbye to the friends we have made here. Its neat to realize just how many great friends we have been able to make during our time here, but so sad to say goodbye without knowing if we will ever see them again.

On a more positive note-- my parents get here tomorrow!! They will come to Alicante for a few days, and then we will go to Granada and Barcelona! I am so excited to be able to show them around Alicante and share the Spanish culture with them! We have planned this trip for a long time now and I can't believe that it is already here!!

After they leave next week, I will fly from Barcelona to London to meet up with Johanna, Karissa, and Brenna (a new friend we made here) and basically backpack through the UK! I seriously can't believe we are going to do that. I remember being in high school dreaming about taking a trip through the UK when I am older, and now here I am, about to do it! We will spend several days in London, Edinburgh, Galway, and Belfast, which means we will hit England, Scotland, and Ireland! What is even more fun is talking to our Scottish friend, Sarah, who lives an hour away from Edinburgh and getting advice from her about traveling through the UK! Its been so fun to talk to her about it!

After the break, we will return for about three weeks of classes in Spain, and then jet back to the good ole U.S. of A!
AH!! It is all coming too quickly!


Once again, thank you for keeping up with my life! I can't wait to write about my coming adventures in a few weeks!

L A S F A L L A S

Absolutely amazing.

Last Tuesday, I went to Las Fallas celebration in Valencia, which is the capital city of the region where I am living. This fiesta was unlike any celebration I have ever been to. It began in medieval times. It started from the Spanish Father's Day, which was also known as Carpenter's Day, since Joseph (from the Bible) was a carpenter. Every year in the spring, all the Valencian carpenters would throw out all their scrap wood and unwanted furniture into the streets, creating huge piles that they would burn. Over time, it became a festival where people from each street in the city build a huge figure out of wood, paper, cardboard and plaster (called a falla). These huge figures convey a satirical message about society and often portray different stereotypes of people from society. The people from each street of the city spend a good part of the year working on their falla and on the weekend of the festival, they display them on their street corner to be judged for first, second, and third place.
All weekend long, people come from all over to walk around the city and look at the stories-high paper and wood sculptures. However, the most amazing part does not come until Tuesday night. Before midnight on Tuesday, every sculpture is rigged with fireworks inside of it, and when the clock strikes 12, the fireworks go off inside the fallas! The beautiful works of art are blown to pieces and instantly begin blazing with fire! The crowd watches as the huge sculptures (as tall as buildings) completely burn down! For the Valencians, it is a symbolic representation of getting rid of the old and bringing in the new.This tradition is distinctly Valencian. No other region or city in Spain does it. It has always been a working class tradition, and to this day, the people of the upper class leave town when Las Fallas rolls around. It was a very proud weekend for the people of Valencia. Valencian flags were hanging everywhere, and we heard them playing the Valencian anthem quite a few times. Many people in the streets were wearing traditional Valencian working class clothing-- a big baggy shirt, a bandana around their neck, and a straw hat. So, being the tourists that we are, we bought some clothes like that and wore them around!The city of Valencia was also beautiful. It was fun to see the capital of the region where we have been living! There was so much going on this weekend! When we got there, we walked past the plaza de toros and saw that a bull fight was going on! 

To summarize the whole thing- this celebration is all about blowing things up and setting things on fire. Besides the burning of the fallas, we also experienced Las Mascletas. This was crazy- and a little scary. This is a tradition where they set off fireworks and firecrackers in a rhythm that is meant to almost sound like music. They started out with small explosions, but as it went on, the firecrackers they used got louder and much more intense- finally to the point when all noise canceled out and I could hear nothing. The vibrations penetrated my body and I could see everyone around my screaming and shouting and cheering, but I could hear none of it! It was the loudest thing I have ever experienced in my life. I was so afraid that I would touch my ears and see blood on my hands, but luckily that didn't happen! For several minutes, everything around us was engulfed in smoke and I could hardly see the street in front of us! It was INTENSE! It was probably one of my favorite things from that weekend, but I don't think I ever want to do it again!


I took a video from Las Mascletas, and if my wifi will cooperate, I will put insert it in here later, and also put in on facebook. Here is what happens:
In the beginning, you hear the mayor giving the men permission to start the Mascletas. She is standing on a balcony above us with all the young girls and women who were in a big traditional beauty pageant that is part of the weekend. They are all dressed in traditional Valencian dress. Then begin the explosions. After they are over, I love how all the people rush into the street and the Valencian anthem begins playing. We also laughed at all the little girls on the balcony- they were all crying! I am not sure it they were scared from all the explosions or happy to have to honor to be up there! Probably both! I also thought it was pretty crazy when a big group of people started protesting and holding up signs against the mayor. When they started yelling, we decided we should probably leave and go get some lunch.

Throughout the whole day, we walked around the city, ate delicious traditional Valencian bunuelos and also churros con chocolate, and dodged kids blowing up firecrackers in the street. Things were exploding everywhere. Throughout the whole day, we heard BOOMS in the distance or coming from nearby streets! When night fell, we went to go see the streets that had been decorated with lights. At 11:00, the streets that had one first and second place for decoration with lights had a big light show with music. Then at midnight, we chose a falla to watch burn. This was another scary instance (something that would NEVER take place in America!) About a thousand people gathered around the falla that we chose to watch burn. The thing was probably several stories high and I was surprised at how close they let us get to it! At midnight, they set off the fireworks, and immediately the thing burst into flames! After only a few seconds, the heat and flames got so intense that the whole crowd had to move back away from it! About a thousand people all scrambled at once to get farther away from the fire, which was crazy! We were also a little worried about the tall burning object falling into the crowd, but luckily that did not happen either. I just kept thinking about how there was NO possible way any of this would fly in America! The huge falla was burning right there in the middle of a city, sandwiched on a street corner between two big buildings! Super scary but super awesome.
At 3 am, we boarded our bus and made the two hour drive back to Alicante. That was one long night, but definitely the craziest festival I have ever been to in my life. 

This was the falla before it burned. It was huge and beautiful! I can't believe they just burned it!

 

Now here it is burning! Look at how huge the flames are!




Then its reduced to this!



















Waiting for Las Mascletas to start!

One of the smaller fallas for children!

My favorite falla. It was making fun of tourists.


















Came across this guy and his wife making paella in a basement kitchen!






















The Virgin made of flowers! They did NOT burn her!

The first place falla. Arabic theme.

Look at our excited faces! And check out our Valencian bandanas we were sporting for the day!

Between going to Brussels and then to Las Fallas, I would say it was the best weekend ever.

A Weekend with Aunt Leyla

 Brussels

Almost two weeks ago (yikes) Johanna and I went to Brussels, Belgium! We left on a Thursday and flew to Brussels where we met up with a very good friend of my family, Leyla. As we boarded the airplane, neither of us knew how much the weekend would end up meaning to us.
Leyla had worked with my parents to start a church among Turkish believers in Paris, France about five or six years ago. Since the very first time my family met her, she has been a very dear friend. I had not seen Leyla teyze (Turkish for "Aunt Leyla") since I was sixteen years old, when she came to the U.S. to stay with us for two weeks. My most recent memories of her were from six years ago-- going dress shopping for a new dress to wear to my sixteenth birthday party, watching her prepare a big Turkish meal to celebrate my sweet sixteen, laughing as she took pictures of the big yellow school buses that she had only ever seen in movies. When we landed in Brussels, I really had no idea of what to expect when I saw her. We walked through the gate and there she was. We recognized each other immediately. I will never forget what she said when she saw me. She just touched my hands and said "You grew up. You are a lady now." We hugged and I tried not to bawl.
We got in her car and made the hour drive from the airport into the city of Brussels. This is going to sound crazy but.. man, it felt great to ride in a real car. As we drove, we laughed as the weather switched from snowing to sunny to snowing to sunny over and over again. It was completely different from Spain. Though Leyla was sick and tired of the bad weather, it was lovely to see the snow falling on the orange terra cotta roofs of the houses in the Belgian countryside.
There were so many memories from this trip, so I am going to divide them into moments and impressions.

The City

Leyla took us to the Grand Plaza. We saw some beautiful old buildings in the square and walked around the old Plaza. This is the place where they make the enormous carpet of flowers every summer. Here in the city center, we ate the richest waffles I have ever tasted. So good. Believe it or not, the whole city smelled like waffles too. Anywhere we went, we could smell waffles! They were literally sold on every street corner! We saw the King's Palace, the Cathedral, and the Old Palace in the Grand Plaza. I was struck by the architecture of everything. Every single building was unique. Everything about Belgium was completely different from Spain. We also went to a big beautiful park that was were Belgium was founded. We walked around by the fountains, and went into a big war museum that was there. It was crazy to see the history of WWII told from the European perspective! In this museum, there was a huge room filled with old war planes! We also saw Mannequin Pis- a famous fountain with a peeing boy that supposedly ended a war by peeing on the enemy troops. Jo and I laughed pretty hard at that.

We Got Spoiled
When she met us at the airport, Leyla greeted us with two bags of real Belgian chocolate, and from that point on did not cease to spoil us! Leyla cooked amazing food for us. Not to say that Pepita's cooking is bad, but having Leyla cook for us made me realize exactly how bad I have been eating for the past two and a half months. Spanish food is good but let me tell you something- grease and fats are undoubtably the main factor in every food in this country. Everything we ate at her house was fresh, delicious, and healthy. It was so nice to actually eat wheat bread. I also realized that Spain stinks. As in.. it is a little smelly. It wasn't until we were in Leylas clean apartment that I realized something was smelling a little funny.. and it was me! The first night we were there, something was up with my stomach, so I was spending a lot of good quality time with the toilet. Sweet Leyla called all the members of her family on the phone to pray for me! They all told her different remedies for my stomach. First, I was told to down several cups of Turkish tea. When that didn't work, we switched to coffee. Finally, Leyla ventured out into the snowy cold to go buy me some medicine for my stomach. Turns out that good ol modern medicine won this time.
The weather was pretty cold that weekend, so we spent a lot of time drinking hot tea and coffee in Leyla's apartment. Her apartment was on the third floor and overlooked a street. Two of the walls in her living room had giant windows, so we could see the snow outside. It was beautiful. When we remarked to Leyla about how quiet and calm her apartment was she told us "Everyone who has been here has said that there is a peace here." It was so true. It was quiet. There were no noisy neighbors above, below, and beside us. The sun shone through the big windows every morning and afternoon. There was definitely a peace and a calm that I think both Jo and I needed. Every morning we woke at nine o'clock and joined Leyla in the living room to drink tea and sit quietly. "Like the Italians say, piano piano- slowly slowly," Leyla said every day. We took things slowly, starting our days peacefully, lazing around, talking over breakfast, and then slowly heading out the door to do a little sightseeing. It felt like a much-needed retreat away from big loud passionate Espana. We were quiet, we were calm, we did everything slowly. Everything about it felt restful. Leyla gave us so much love, so many kisses, and so much encouragement. I loved sitting in her living room every day and just talking with her about my life. The last time I saw her, I feel like I was just a young girl. This time, it was nice to have more grown up conversations with her, and be able to share more about my life and personal growth with her, as well as learn about her life. She and everyone in her community knows my family from when they worked on the mission together. My parents had gone to visit her and her family a few years ago, so every one in her family knew my parents. It felt like I was with family. Every person asked how my family was doing. They all said that I looked like my dad. They all told me how they still prayed for my family. Leyla also took us around to places that my parents had visited when they came so that we could take pictures in the same spots. I felt so loved, and it was so nice to be around people who know my family.  I had no idea how much I needed that.

Turkish Culture 
We definitely experienced what life is like in Belgium, but more so, we experienced Turkish culture! Leyla has a whole community of friends and family from Turkey who live within a few blocks from her in Brussels! Around ten years ago, her whole family was living in Turkey when her oldest sister, Fedva felt the call from God to go and live in Brussels. Fedva obeyed, but asked the Lord to make it possible bring her family with her to live in Brussels. Leyla told us how important it is in their culture that their family be together. She said that within several years, her whole family (and even some friends) had upped and moved to Brussels. Leyla talked to every member of her family on the phone every day and took us to see every person in her family while we were there. Every where we went, they offered us food. Leyla told us that it is rude to refuse food even when you can't stomach anymore, so we did our best to go along with this custom. I was pretty glad that I had gotten over my stomach bug pretty quickly! Also, Jo and I got a kick out of taking our shoes off at every house! In their culture, the custom is to take off your shoes before entering someone's house. When you enter, they will offer you a pair of slippers or little shoes to wear inside the house. Jo and I got a kick out of all the little different shoes we had to wear! We also had to change they way we kiss for greetings! We have gotten pretty used to giving the two kisses here in Spain, but in Belgium, I never knew how many kisses I was going to get! The Belgians did one kiss on the cheek, but the Turkish did however many they were feeling! One day, when we went to visit Leyla's parents, Leyla's mother gave us four kisses on the cheek!! By the second one, I thought we were done, but she just kept going!
 Leyla told us that four kisses meant that she was VERY happy to see us! We also drank our fair share of coffee and tea! Both of these drinks are HUGE in their culture! Leyla was so happy to find that Johanna is a big coffee drinker. She told us that none of her nieces like coffee so they won't drink it with her. "Coffee is a drink that you have to share with people," she said. Needless to say, Johanna and Leyla drank quite a bit of coffee together! Leyla and her sister Rima also showed us a funny way that Turkish people tell each other's fortune! After you are done with your turkish coffee, you with have grounds left in the bottom of the cup. You turn your cup over and set it upside down on the saucer and let the grounds drip down on the saucer. After a few minutes, when you turn your cup over, you look at the shape of the grounds left in the bottom of the cup and use it to "read" your fortune. Leyla gave Johanna a pretty big scare when she told her that it seems in a very short time she will be married and have twins! Poor Johanna got teased about that all weekend long!

People

Leyla's niece, Debora spent quite a bit of time sightseeing with Leyla, Jo and me. She is nineteen years old and a university student like us. She spoke fairly good English, but I was really surprised and grateful for the effort that she put into speaking English with us when she could had ignored us and spoken Turkish with Leyla, or had Leyla translate for her. Learning Spanish has really made me appreciate people who speak other languages. Rima, one of Leyla's sisters also spent quite a bit of time with us. She could speak a little less English than Debora, but she also made a big effort to use it. Jo and I loved Rima and Debora. Both were so kind and sweet and willing to get to know us. One night, Leyla made spaghetti and invited Debora and her sister, Lydia as well as Leyla's brother and Rima to come over to eat with us. I loved sitting around the table, talking with her nieces, learning about each other's culture (and enjoying the delicious homemade spaghetti sauce). Every night, Leyla would let the living room get darker as the sun set and would turn on one lamp when it got dark. This made the living room have a dim light. That night that we ate spaghetti, she lit candles, so the living room felt warm and calm. We sat around, watched a French movie, and talked about what actors and celebrities were the most famous for being good looking in our countries! Lydia and Debora agreed that in Europe, most women are in love with either David Beckham or Leonardo DiCaprio. It was a fun night. Another nice moment was when Leyla took Jo and I over to Rima's house after church on Sunday. Leyla said that every Sunday afternoon, their family usually makes visits to each other's house. We hung out at Rima's for most of the afternoon. One of Leyla's other nieces and her husband came over to see Rima and play with their kids. They all eventually switched over to only speaking Turkish, so for a good part of the afternoon, Jo and I sipped our tea and watched the sweet family interact with each other. It was so nice to just be in a family setting.

Bernard

Sweet Aunt Leyla is engaged! We were so lucky to get to meet her fiance, Bernard. Bernard is Belgian and lives in the city, so we got to go over to his place twice. I think he may be perfect. The first time we went over, he fixed us some delicious flan to eat, then sat down and played the most beautiful music I have ever heard on the guitar.
That night, we made one of my favorite memories from the trip. After we had visited for awhile, Leyla told Bernard that it was time to go and that we would walk over to a famous monument near his place and then take the metro home. He refused to let us walk, so we took his snazzy car and drove over to the monument. It was pretty cold, so he and Debora stayed in the car while Leyla, Jo, and I got out to look around. The wind was blustery and cold so after only a few minutes, we decided to go home and see the monument another day. When we got back in the car, Bernard was blasting Simon and Garfunkle! I shouted over the music, "I love this song!" and Bernard cranked it louder! We drove back towards Leyla's apartment with The Sound of Silence and Bookends swirling around inside the car. It did not take me long to realize that Bernard was taking a long route home. The music continued to play as we drove past beautiful chalets and tall unique brick buildings. He took us through old beautiful neighborhoods and past a big green park. When he opened up the sun roof Leyla said "Hey, its cold outside!" But Bernard said nothing, just stuck his hand out and let the music play! I know this all probably sounds super cliche, but it was a pretty magical moment. One of my favorites :) On Sunday evening, Bernard invited us back to his place for dinner! It was probably one of the fanciest dinners I have ever been to! He had brought back a wheel of expensive cheese from Switzerland and had a machine that would heat the top of it. When the top was melted, the machine would tilt the cheese over and he would scrape off the top of the cheese onto the food on our plates, similar to fondue. It was pretty much the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.
Jo and I were both so happy for Leyla that she had found such a generous, caring, kind man. We loved spending time with Bernard and laughing at his jokes. He was so kind to us and so fun to be around. We told Leyla that we definitely approve of him!

Church
On Sunday morning, we went with Leyla to her church! We felt very honored because their congregation was moving to a new building and that Sunday was the last Sunday that they would be in their old building! We enjoyed worshipping with them and singing their songs in Turkish! The music sounded much different than ours. There was definitely more of an eastern feel to the music- a lot of minor chords. But Johanna and I recognized several hymns that we sing in English! After the service, the small congregation all gathered together and took a picture in the sanctuary! Johanna and I felt honored to get to be in the picture too! Then we all went down into the church basement to have some coffee and tea. Johanna and I met more girls our age who spoke English and enjoyed getting to know them a little bit.

I loved seeing how relational their culture was. Everyone took the time to sit and talk with each other over a cup of tea or coffee. It seemed like everyone in their church body was connected by family or marriage. All of them were close friends. It was amazing to see a group of people so close, so connected.

On Monday before we left to go back to Spain, the three of us along with Rima went over to Leyla's oldest sister (Fedva)'s house to have breakfast. My mom had always told me such good things about Fedva and I was so excited to meet her. Once again, Jo and I received so much love (not to mention food) from her and her husband. Though we could not speak the same language, I felt like we could communicate so well. I felt like I had a piece of my family right there with me.

I would say that this weekend may have been my favorite since coming to Europe. The love shown to us by Leyla and her family was amazing to me. It really felt like I had gone home for the weekend. It was also encouraging to see the deep faith in Jesus Christ that their whole community had and how it united them. They never stopped talking about the greatness of Jesus and the power of prayer. It was good to just be around such a big group of strong believers. It was also eye opening to be around such strong believers who were not American! It was just another indicator that God is not the God of America, but of the whole world too.

It was a wonderful weekend and it was very difficult to leave Belgium. Jo and I feel so grateful for everything that Leyla teyze, Aunt Leyla, did for us. Now more than ever I feel like she really is my aunt and her family really is my family.



But! The long weekend did not end there! We returned on Monday, and the next day I embarked on another grand adventure to LAS FALLAS in Valencia! More on this in a blog post coming next!

A Week Muy Tranquilo

We started our third round of classes, which is rather hard to believe! This month, I am taking another Cine class with my same teacher as before. I love getting to have her again. We also are delving deeper and deeper into the Subjunctive tense in my grammar class. I am happy to report to all you Spanish grammar nerds out there that I am FINALLY grasping it! I think that out of all the Spanish teachers I have had, my teachers here have done the best job of teaching it! I have been really impressed with the way they teach Spanish here.

March and April will be a strange months because we get quite a bit of time off from school, starting with this coming weekend! Next Monday and Tuesday are holidays in the autonomous region of Valencia (where Alicante is located) because of the annual Las Fallas festival that happens every year here. This means that this coming weekend is a four day weekend for us -BUT- Johanna and I plan on using our two free class days to extend it to a six day weekend so that we can travel! This Thursday, we will board a plane and jet off to Brussels, Belgium to visit a dear friend of my family who lives there! Jo and I are excited to take some time off from school to explore a new and interesting city!
But our weekend will not end there! On Monday we will return to Alicante just in time to turn around and catch a Tuesday bus to Valencia (the capital city of the region) to go see the famous Las Fallas festival! It will be a whirlwind weekend, but totally worth it.
We will return to school on the 20th, then have 9 more days of class before our spring break starts! Its hard to believe that everything is downhill from here on out!

This past week we did a lot of simple but fun things!

On Monday, our OBU group (along with Brynn and Johanna's new Korean flatmate) gathered in Asaf's apartment to make no-bake cookies and watch a movie. It was a small but delicious taste of America!

Tuesday after school, we had a very late surprise party for Brynn's birthday with our Japanese friends! About a month ago, on the day of her birthday, our friends Midori and Miku, who sit in front of me in class, whipped around and whispered/shouted "BESS! Today is Brynn's birthday, right?! (Yep, they call me Bess. They have a hard time saying "Bethany!") We must throw her a surprise party! But not this week. This week is bad because we are going to Barcelona. Surprise party next week??"  
So every week we tried but it never worked out to have the party until this past week! I think the more weeks that passed, the funnier the whole situation became! So on Tuesday, we all gathered at the Valor chocolate shop with signs and balloons and gave Brynn a pretty big surprise! We sure do love our Japanese pals.

Thursday afternoon, Hayley and I went with Ellen to go get her hair cut! Ellen got a stylish new 'do and we learned some useful hair salon vocabulary!

On Friday, the weather was GORGEOUS. Right after class, we headed to the beach for some sunshine and friends. Our international group of about ten people plopped down on the sand and enjoyed an afternoon of learning new words in other languages, soaking up the sun, testing out the frigid sea water, and learning how to make "sandballs" from the Japanese girls! I think we may have also figured out the art of the peace sign picture pose from all of our asian friends.

Friday was also International Women's Day here.. and all around the world! I got a kick out of this, because every one made such a big deal about it here! It seems like in America, days like these are only mentioned in print on calendars, but throughout my whole Friday, I was wished a happy Women's Day by everyone! Good thing we got a heads up about it the day before, because Karissa and Emily were able to buy flowers for Pepita!

On Saturday, a small group of us took an hour tram ride to a nearby city called Benidorm. I would say that Benidorm is about the european equivalent to Branson. Many Europeans from Spain, the UK, Germany, and Russia go to retire there. You can shop to your hearts content in cheesy souvenir shops, take an aerobics class on the beach, or strut your stuff right into your favorite discoteca. Pepita has told us countless times of how beautiful and preciosa Benidorm is and has also mentioned the many nights she has gone dancing there with her girlfriends. After going there myself, I feel as though I have a have a different opinion than she, but I can definitely see why she loves it! After a short walk down and back to the beach, we hopped on a bus headed to a small town called Callosa d'en Sarria.

The picturesque  little town was built on a hill and was a fun little place to visit. We hopped off the bus, found a restaurant that was serving American style hamburgers and stuffed our faces with the meaty goodness. The whole time we were eating, we kept hearing a marching band somewhere close by. We asked the lady who owned the restaurant if there was some festival going on and she told us "Oh, they are always finding something to celebrate in this city." I thought that sentence summed up the whole country of Spain pretty well. She told us that she thought that it was some women's club who was celebrating themselves that day, and sure enough, the parade turned down the street that the restaurant was on, and we saw a rag tag group of brass musicians lead by ten women wearing matching sweatsuits.

 Just outside of this town are Las Fuentes del Algar- big beautiful waterfalls in the mountains. We got directions to the falls from the lady at the restaurant and started walking! And walking. And walking. Finally we realized that the falls were not quite as close as we had thought! But the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. I felt like we were hitch hiking! We walked in the middle of the road, following the hills up and down, taking in all of the orange and lemon trees growing through the valley and looking up at the big green mountains. I had not realized how much I needed to get away from the city until that moment! It was beautiful. Finally, we reached the falls. 

We climbed up the tall stairs and looked out over the valley. 
The waterfalls were clear and blue, and the rocks were big and white. It was so beautiful. When we got as high as we could go, we all chose a rock to sit down on and stick our feet in the water. We all sat around in silence for I don't know how long, just staring into the blue water and enjoying being away from sirens, mopeds, traffic, and people! It was wonderful. 
We explored a little more and then caught a bus back to Benidorm. 
We all agreed that the day at the falls was exactly what we needed.

Sunday, we went to church and enjoyed the children putting on a small presentation for the congregation about the Bible, because as it turned out, Sunday was National Bible day in Spain! I love our church here. On Sunday afternoon, I got to just sit out on our balcony and enjoy the amazing weather. I can't believe how warm it has gotten here. Also hard to believe that when we arrived here, it was frigid January! Look how far we have come!

Tonight, Jo and I went out and got ice cream with our French and Scottish friends. Our friend from France,  Julie, will be leaving to go back home in just three weeks and we want to make the most of the time that we have left with her! It is sad that in almost a month and a half, I will be leaving all of these great friends that I have made here in Spain. I am really thankful to have had this opportunity to build relationships with people from all over the world.

That's it for this week! Be on the look out next week for a huge blog post about Brussels and Las Fallas! Thanks for reading!

And now... the many picture poses of Asians.. starring..... Miku!

The Japanese gals said that kids in Japan make "sand balls". They were pros. We couldn't figure out how to make one without it falling apart!

We took a sister picture with Emily, Karissa, Wendy, and me! The Pepita Girls!

Beautiful scenery on the way to the falls.

The water was SO blue!

Benidorm in a nutshell-- Aerobics on the beach. Hilarious.

Halfway There

Yesterday marked the eighth week that we have been here in Spain. That means we are halfway done with our time here. How it has flown. I really do not want to count down the days I have left, because I know that once I get back to the States, I will feel nostalgia for my time in Spain. My desire is to make the most of my time here while I still have it. I have come to realize just how much this is a once in a life time opportunity to be here.

However.

I do miss some things about the U.S. They are few and they are simple, but here they are:

1. Central heating/air. They don't have it here. It can get pretty chilly in the apartment and definitely makes any changing of clothes NOT fun. I will confess that there have been days that I have not showered because it meant stripping down in the cold air of our huge bathroom.

2. Carpet. I guess it never really occurred to me that not everyone in the world has carpeted floors. Here in Spain, everything is tile, which makes sense because the temps rise to crazy degrees during the summer. However, when I was telling my French friend about how much I miss carpet I was surprised to find out that not many houses in France use carpet either. She said "Isn't carpet kind of hard to clean?" It made me stop and think.. oh yeah. I guess compared to tile or wood floors, carpet would seem a little... dirty? Still, I miss being able to just lay on the floor. Here, if I lay on the floor I am liable to get frostbite.

3. Driving. There are times when (as strange as it sounds) I miss that long drive to OBU! I just miss being alone in my car, turning up the music and just being alone to think.

That's it.

Two things I have liked doing differently while I have been here:

1. Showering less. Yep, I know what you are thinking-- ew. But I have found that Americans have this strange obsession with cleanliness that is just not always necessary. Europeans definitely don't shower as much here, so.... I don't always feel like I need to either! And last week when the hot water heater broke for several days.. I definitely was walking around feeling pretty ripe. Anyways, not showering every day has become.. a little liberating? Still I don't think I will ever go as long as I did without a shower when the hot water heater broke :)

2. Walking. I love using mass transportation and walking everywhere! I know that above I said that I miss driving my car, but at the same time, it is nice not to be tied to gas prices and parking spaces. If I want to go somewhere, I walk or swipe my bus card. Easy peasy.


Being a part of the international department here at the the U of Alicante,  I have gotten pretty good at recognizing different nationalities before they utter a word-- including Americans.

If you ever want to NOT look like an American while abroad, stay away from these things:

North face Jackets
Vera Bradley backpacks
Nike
Teased hair, straightened hair, dyed hair
Girls wearing makeup
Bright colored clothes
Tshirts
Dresses/Skirts without tights or leggings

Want to look Spanish? Its simple.

Girls: Wear skinny jeans with boots, a leather jacket or a blazer, and a scarf wrapped up tightly around your neck. Let your hair fall naturally without doing anything to it. Wear very little makeup.

Boys: Leather jacket, boots, and cut your hair short on the sides and long on the top.

Boom. You're Spanish. Usually helps you fit in more if you have dark eyes, light skin, and brown hair as well :)

Things I did this week:

I watched the El Clasico game between Madrid and Barcelona with Johanna and Asaf. We completed the cultural experience by eating tapas in a cafe while watching it. It was a small experience, but one of my favorites since coming here. I like how everything stops when a game is on here. Its definitely a different feel than American football. You can walk through the street and see crowds of people in different places on the street crowded around TVs in windows and cafes, watching the game. Anytime something big happens in the game, noise erupts out of every single cafe on the street. You can hear it throughout the whole city. When you are watching the futbol game on TV, you can also hear the crowd in the stadium chanting together throughout the whole game.

This week I went on lots of walks to the beach. I will miss that when I return to Arkansas.

I went out for tapas with my grammar class. Its always fun hanging out in a big group of people from all over the world.

I studied for exams at KFC. Never thought I would ever do that, but the KFC here is two stories and really nice. Who knew?

I took my second round of exams on Friday. I now have earned eight hours of credit! To the right is a picture of my grammar class this last month. We are sad because we have had the same grammar teacher for the past two months, but now we are moving up to the next level, so we will change teachers!

I made two trips to the Mercado with Pepi and watched her intense (and often scary) bargaining skills.

After our tests on Friday, we went to the school library and picked out some movies. They have a great movie collection at the school and they are free to check out with a student ID! We then went to the Mercado Central, picked out lots of fresh cheese, meat, and fruit and headed to Brynn and Jo's apartment for a nice long afternoon of lazily celebrating our finished classes. We did it OBU style-- we took Brynn's mattress and put it in front of the couch. The rest of the day was spent lying "in bed" in front of the TV (AKA Brynn's computer), eating food and watching Penelope Cruz do an amazing job acting in La Nina de Tus Ojos, one of the Spanish movies that we rented. It was a GOOD DAY.


Yesterday, I went to Elche with two friends from school-- Julie (from France) and Sara (from Scotland). Elche is a city that is about thirty minutes away from Alicante. There is no greater feeling of independence than walking to a bus station with two girls that you have known for about month that are from other countries, buying a bus ticket, and getting on a bus headed to some random city you have just heard of. It was an adventure. We had a lot of fun and got to see Europe's largest garden of palm trees!
It was beautiful. We spent the day walking around the city center and looking in cool shops. We also went to an Irish pub that really wasn't very Irish (Sara was just excited to see something that was named "Flaherty's"), and paid two euros to tour a display in a big beautiful church that ended up being a creepy display with a big porcelain model of the patron saint laying on a bed. That will definitely be a funny memory.

A friend from OBU, Trevor, who has already graduated and is currently teaching English in a different part of Spain, made the trip to Alicante to visit us this weekend! Last night, he and our OBU group, as well as our Japanese friends all went out to eat at our favorite Pakistani restaurant! By the end of the night, my face and my brain were hurting from so much laughing, and speaking Spanish! Those Japanese girls are a hoot and it is so fun to be able to communicate with them via Spanish. I am so glad I have gotten to know them.

Today, we went to church. I am loving attending this same church every Sunday, seeing the same familiar faces each week, getting the know the people of the church body. We took communion today, and it was really neat to do it in a different culture and language.

Each week seems to go faster than the one before it! It is insane to think that we have been here for two months already! We are now starting to gear up for our two week spring break that begins at the end of this month! We are making plans, booking hotels, and awaiting the arrival of our parents! I am very excited to get to show my folks everything that I love about Spain when they come.

I can't wait to see what this coming week has in store.

I ask that you continue to pray for our group. The Lord is working here in Spain.

Hasta pronto!