Glory in La Rioja

(Num-num's had catsup...)

Yesterday we travelled to what I´ve just realized is the 4th province in Spain I´ve been to in three weeks: La Rioja! It´s a ver small province that is full of wineries. There was one built by Moneo and another stlyish one from Frank Gheary. We didn´t have time to stop this trip but we will hopefully return in May to see the beautiful bodegas up close!

The reason for the exursion was that one of the supernumerary, Gloria´s, parents had invited us to their house in Haro. It´s about 1 1/2 hours from Pamplona and Ines, Anges, Ester, Lucía, Pelu, and I all went in the Fornaretta (I really can´t rememeber the word for van but I know it is something like "oven" in Italian...). It was a beautiful drive and I took pictures of the best bodegas (like Moneo´s) and as soon as I figure out how to get my pictures on this computer then I will for sure post them here on the blog.

We first went into the old part of town and found a restaurant to have the comida at 3:00 (a little late...even for the Spaniards!). It seemed like Gloria was just directing us to go to any old place but when she told us to stop and park in front of a glorious old church, Agnes looked around and the only restaurant in site was "Nam-nam´s" and she loudly pornounced that we were not going there (because of the strange name I gather). But Gloria diligently lead us quickly into Nam-nam´s upstairs where we discovered a few other families enjoying the great food and the waitress told us that we had all our lunches pre-paid for, wine included! The Spaniards got a kick out of the fact that I wanted to take a picture of everyone at the table with our food, so they grabed my camera and I have some great shots of chorizo, pimientos con carne, and croquetas... and catsup! They thought it was hilarious that I asked for ketch-up (which, of course, Nam-nam´s had) because they served french fries with my pimientos con carne! Whatever! hehe

Then we went to Gloria´s house in the residential part of town and it was just a magnificent day with the sun shining brightly. It was a really picteresque scene, especially with Agnes loudly singing the refrain of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" in honor of Gloria. We had the cafe with her parents and her Dad made some excellent coffee that kept me awake until 11:30. I haven´t even written about Saturday yet, which was a huge fiesta at Goimendi calle"El Día de los Padres" when all the families of the 100 residents come to the colegio to honor the 3rd years students and celebrate the WHOLE DAY LONG, with mass, and awards ceremony, aperativo (appetizers) the comida, a funny show, and the merienda (more food!). After that jalleo, I went to another center called Zudaire for meditation, benedication, and a crazy international dinner that lasted until 11:30! We all sang songs from our respective countries and I fooled a few people into thinking that I knew how to dance Sevillanas. After that, we went to some bars and danced until 3:00. Elizabeth and I crashed at Crispin´s at 4:00 and we were up by 8:30. So, in conlusion (to bring this story full circle), for Gloria´s Dad´s coffee to keep me up until 11:30 pm, it must have been pretty strong!

Now I´m back to studying. I took an economics test today that I hope went well! It was my frist exam at the University of Navarra!

Skiing in the Pyrenees

This past weekend 12 other girls from the colegio and I went to stay at Iñes´house in Jaca (close to Huesca) and we went up to Formugal on Saturday and Sunday to ski! It was a great time. We left on Friday at 6 and it took us about 1 hour and a half to get to Jaca. We had to take two cars: the fornaretta with all of the luggage, and the administration of Goimendi packed Rosario´s new little choche containing all the comida and towels for everyone. After we arrived in Jaca it took a few minutes for the coldness to sink into my skin, but then it did and it was cold!

On our way up to Formigal the next morning it started to rain as we get higher in elevation. Soon the rain turned into snow! But by the time we had our skis on and were ready, the snowing had stopped and we had wonderful day heading down the azul (medium hard) pistas (I forget that word in English for ski trail- oh run). On Saturday, I think I fell down on average 5 times per run. Marianna, a very good and patient skier from Bilboa, was my instructor who would yell at me the exact times to ¨Gira¨(turn) and then ¨sube un poco¨(go up the mountain a little to slow down). And everytime I fell down, or threw myself down because I got going way too fast, she would instantly appear by my side, ¨Has hecho dano, Liz?¨(Have you hurt yourself?) I think by the 20th time she asked me that question and I responded, ¨Noo, noo, no he hecho dano¨she asked me ¨Has visto ¨Los Incredibles? = tu eres Elasteek girl!"

Skiing on Sunday went much better, as Rosario first gave me a few private lessons (we got separated from the others)! Luckily, my neighbor in the colegio had lent me her bright yellow jacket, so they couldn´t ever lose me enitrely! hehe. We firgured out the my real problem was that I just scared of going to fast and not being able contralar la velocidad, so we worked in that area. Though it was very snowy and very windy at the tops of the runs, it got less windy as we went down. I only fell 3 times the whole day! The last fall was at the end of the last run, when it was already flat (but very icy). This time, when Marianna and Ines came to help me up¨, they didn´t ask if he hecho daño but "How can you fall right here!? My legs were tired and there was an icy river that I was vearing towards, what else could I do but fall? hehe

The following day we were all very sore and had many "agujeros" (I couldn´t really figure out what that meant even though I asked a number of times... but I´m sure that I had them!) But for sure it was very worth while!

You can be published too!!

Haven´t you always wanted to see your writing cemented into the world wide web through HTML?


Well, now you have a once in a lifetime opportunity to see yourself published through this earth on afarinnavarre.blogspot.com! If you write a comment on one of my post, when I check my blog I will publish them below the section you commented on. See below for some of the exciting new entries already published! You could be next!

The Navigator dijo...
Hey, hey, hey! Phototimes. Very nice.

Congratulations, your blog has already received three times the number of comments mine did when I studied abroad. Ah well, you're more loved, I guess, what can I say?

February 19, 2007 2:20 AM


Lizzy G dijo...
Wow! I´m lucky to have poeple who actually read my stuff! I gotta count me blessings...

February 20, 2007 2:48 AM

The past, the Pamplona, and the future

I´m glad that I´m here learner Spanish and I´m really glad to be in the Colegio Mayor. It´s similar to Westfield but even more regulated because there are 100 girls living there and many younger girls too. I just have to make sure I get enough sleep! And I´ve had trouble doing that because I haven´t been doing much exercise to tire me out. I´m going running tonight with Alicia and Paz at 9:15. That means we have a late dinner = 10 pm! Life here is very late in Spain (did I already mention that?).

A few of us are going to Huesca this weekend and then go skiing in the Pyrenees. There are three other supernumerary students, like myself, living in Goimedi and one of them, Ines, has offered to let us stay in her vacation house there. It´s been really nice weather here in Pamplona this week, very sunny, but I´m pretty sure there will be snow in the Pyrenees this time of year! Even though it gets really sunny here in the afternoons, when I leave from the colegio mayor in the mornings for 9:00 class: there is ice on the grass!

Last Sunday we went for an excursion to a beach in the south of France called Biarritz that was very pretty. It was more touristy than San Sebastian but the beach was more beautiful! The waves were huge and broke very far out so they took a long time to roll in and there were many huge rocks for them to hit along the way. We looked around the town a bit and those who had a European Union ID card looked in the Casino on the beach. Before that, we headed over to Bayonne (Bayonna is Spanish) and saw a huge beautiful gothic cathedral and monastery there.

I received my camera today in the mail (thanks Mom!) so I`ll post some pictures soon! In the international student orientation, they took a picture of us all. Then it was put on the unav website and then it got into the Navarra Diaria (the local paper) so were famous! It´s a good pic and I´ll post it when I get it.

A Day in San Sebastain

I´ll tell you a little about San Sebastain meanwhile! It´s called the town of three´s because there are three beaches, three hills, and three of another thing I can´t remember. We went to two of the three beaches and climbed up one of the hills where there is a huge statue of Jesus reaching out to embrace the town. It´s really beautiful and the on that hill, three battles occured between the British and the French so there is a big fortress surrounding the Jesus statue called "The Castillo." It was quike a little hike but all of the international students and I agreed that it was well worth it because the view of all of Donostia (San Sebastian) and the Atlantic Ocean were incredible.

Then we walked down to see two gorgeous churches: El Buen Pastor and Santa Maria de Coro. There was a wedding about to start in Santa Maria del Coro so there was also beautiful music in there and the acoustics in the old church were astounding!

After stopping to shop at Zara because of the great rebajas (sales) that are going on in the month of February, we walked on the main boardwalk surrounding La Concha (the main beach) to el Peine de Los Vientos. I think that Mary and Sam took a picture near those because it seemed very familiar to me. There are these holes in the rock where air shoots out when the tide comes in and you can stand on top and get blown in the face. It looked really fun and so Elizabeth, Crispin, and I each stood on one for about 15 minutes and we didn´t catch any of the wind, so we just sat and looked the scultpures in the rocks and the beautiful ocean for a while. Crispin and Elizabeth took som0e great pictures that they promise to share with me when because I forgot my camera!

And we had pinchos for lunch that were delicious! Apparently San Sebastian is known for its pinchos and so we wondered around the calles a little looking for a good one (there are many) and then we décided to ask a local. He recommened one that was bustling with people and very good. THere we ate with some of the Australian girls from UNAV because they had read their lonley planet guides to come to that place. There were good cheap pinchos and good Sangria, and we were lucky to find a spot to sit down!

We left just as the Real Madrid team left with Beckham! A few of the students got pictures of him. A prostest about socialism was also going to start right after in the main part of town. I´ll go check the papers to see what went down there!

Olivia dijo...

Hey Liz,
Aw your description of San Sebastian is bringing back great memories of when i visited Spain. Its so beautiful over there. It sounds like you having an awesome time! Miss yah!
<3 Olivia

February 13, 2007 9:08 PM
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Lizzy G dijo...

I miss you too, Olivia! Happy Feast Day (2º14). Hey could you send me Carlota´s email and her mom´s email one more time? Your mom gave it to me but I´ve missplaced it and I want to get in touch with them! Thanks Lïz

February 15, 2007 8:41 AM

San Fermín

I´m sorry I miswrote in my last entry. Yesterday I went walking in "El Viejo" the beautiful old part of the town where the torros run! Pamplona´s claim to fame is the running of the bulls, which happens every year on the Feast of San Fermín. I don´t know the whole story of this saint yet, but he was a martyr and is the patron saint of Pamplona. At that time, the hotels fill and the streets are full of people. All the festivities last for about a week in July and for sure Pamplona is on the news then!

The good life in Pamplona

A few days before I left for this grand adventure, I saw a Spanish friend after mass and we fell into a conversation. She told me that I was going to love Spain and told me many things that I would enjoy doing. As we parted she asked "And where exactly are you going?" I responde"Pamplona" and she stopped in her tracks and quickly shot back "Oh that´s boring!" I thought about it only momentarily then because I knew that there was an excellent university in Pamplona that I had chosen to go to. And remembering what my Mom had always told us, I thought, "You know, only boring people are boring."

It´s true that Pamplona is a small and rather unimportant town in Spain. Since the student of the university have been in exams for the past three weeks, after the big meal at 2, we all go to have a coffee and watch the news and I have never seen one mention of Pamplona, nor Navarre (the province where Pamplona is). On my bus ride into the city from Bilbao, I was surprised to find that it is surrounded by snowy mountains in the winter, just as an island is surrounded by water, so Pamplona doesn´t attract many tourist either. It´s seems as though it is an isolated little town in the north of Spain that really has no claim to fame. I was thinking yesterday of what some people said of when they saw Jesus doing miracles, "Isn´t he the carpenter´s son from Nazareth? What good can come from Nazareth?"

Reading the last blog that I posted and I thought it was funny that I found myself apologizing for writing about all the trips out of Pamplona. I am looking forward to seeing the rest of Spain but not because I want to get out of here. This city has a heart and soul and I´m living in it. The University of Navarre is a beautiful work of God. And the colegio mayor Goimendi where I´m staying with 100 other students is incredible! The schedule runs like part of the military but, meanwhile, there is so much laughter and joking among us that every day is entirely different. Every person is so welcoming that I feel like I´ve been here for years. I have one friend in Goimendi, Esther, who lived in the US for 8 years and so sometimes, when my brain switches back into in English for the day (which doesn´t happen until about 11 pm but life is very late here!), she is a translator for me. She is a translator for me other times too, like when everyone is laughing at a joke that I didn´t quite catch. I mean, I laugh anyways but she is so kind that she can tell when my laugh is a little empty because I didn´t understand....hehe.. so she explains a lot to me.

In the ICLE, the foreign exchange program, I´ve met two very nice girls as well: Crispin, who just graduated from GW Univerisity, and Elizabeth, who has just come from Brazil to so here masters in Pharmacy. We have some classes together and they enjoy to come over to the Goimendi too. We all had a good laugh yesterday as we walked to the CTI to get our temporary contrasenas to sign onto the computers and we were speaking in Spanish. I don´t remember what we were talking about exactly but, Crispin and I got stuck on something for about 5 minutes and neither of us could understand the other. Elizabeth just started laughing and said, ¨Que patientes son! Lo que hubeiran decidido en un minuto en ingles habian tratado decir por 5 minutos en Espanol!" (How patient! What you could have said in 1 minute in English, you have been trying for 5 minutes to say in Spanish!" The truth is, we all speak English so when we are together, we really learn how to be biligual because we switch so many times!

And the university, itself, is just amazing. I still can´t get over the fact that there is an oratory in every single building and at least 4-5 masses each day around campus. Every part of the campus is living and breathing because our Lord is physically present in so many parts. The hospital is very grand and as clean as a lab. The new architechture building has gorgeous greenery inside and many of it´s internal structures visible so that the students can learn from the construction. The gym is welcoming and usable (in contrast with the wooden center). The library is the largest building on campus and they just built a new one that connects with the old. And the Central building is where I have all my classes. It´s the oldest, the muy beautiful, and the totilla de patata en Don Faustino´s cafe is really quite exceptional.

Good thing the scales here are in kilos, eh? I feel like I´ve gone to Pluto where I´m thin thin thin! Sometimes the call the colegio mayor where I live "Gordi-mendi" because the food is so delcious. But don´t worry, I will mendi any gordi-ation that might occur here! (it´s a joke it´s a joke)

I swear, the gym is really welcoming! We went to play basketball last Friday and we had a very heated competition of knock-out where a few girls were almost knocked-out! Those who were not so fierce in the desire to win retreated to soccer after a few rounds...

I return to the subject of the news programs that I´ve watched. With the state of many things in Spain at the moment, I started to wonder today, ¨"Can anything good in Spain not come from Pamplona?" Maybe I´ll have to travel to a few more places to really be able to answer that question. But I tell you now, Pamplona is good!


The Navigator dijo...

Sounds like you got some sleep. Glad to hear you're warming to the Pamp, though I gotta admit, your description doesn't put it at the absolute top of my must-see list. It does sound like a great place to live and study, though.

February 8, 2007 10:40 AM
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Lizzy G dijo...

Pamplona is how do you say ¨tranquila?¨ We like it here, us Pamploneses, that is. It´s the perfect place to learn Spanish and the culture of Spain (at least, Navarre)!

February 9, 2007 7:38 AM
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The Navigator dijo...

Ah, such predictions after so little time! Perhaps you should let Spain seep into your blood before you start claiming general principles....

In other news, has your camera arrived yet? If it has, let me know (via email) and let's make your Flickr account fly...

February 11, 2007 1:56 AM
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Lizzy G dijo...

Hey Hey! The Pamplona blood is running through my viens! I can feel myself becoming more a part of the Foral kingdom of Navarra every day... hehe I just got my camera today and I´ll try the flicker when I take some pictures, yea?
Hasta luego!

February 15, 2007 8:44 AM

Navarre: first impressions

Today I began classes. It´s only the first day of classes and I´m already struggling to think in English and construct good sentences. I guess that´s a good thing...hehe.

Agnes (the director of the Residence where I´m living) asked me last night in the get together if I was nervous about classes today and I arrogantly responded that I hadn´t even thought about them! I have been thrown into the fast past schedule of the residence and I hadn´t really thought about anything other than getting the warm cloths and comida I need. So I guess I became a little anxious about classes and woke up at 4;15 this morning. After struggling all morning to stay awake, I finally got up from my third class this afternoon and went to the cafe in the Central building called Faustino´s. I politely explained to the barista that I had left my wallet in the classroom but that I was in dire need of a cafecito so that I didn´t offend the teacher of the class when I was falling asleep in the front row. I should have just taken one after lunch at the residence (everyone gathers in another room, plays loud music, and drinks little cups of coffee). But don´t be fooled by the size of the coffee because now, it´s already 7 and I am WIDE awake! I hope to sleep some tonight...

Well, I missed a chance to go to the South of France yesterday because some chicas of the residence had an excursion there. But I had recollection in Alcacea, the retreat house where the Father (the Bishop Echevarria of Opus Dei) had been staying for the past month! He just recently left... but he told his daughters there that he would see them before the summer! That means only one thing: that I will get to see him here before I leave! (A dream, but my fall short anyway)

The good news is that they are organizing a trip to Madrid next weekend because the UNAV (University of Navarre) is just finishing their exams on Thursday. THere will be an international student orientation that weekend too but I think I´m pretty oriented since they took me all around Pamplona on Saturday. So hopefully I can go!

And the following weekend: to the South of France again to go skiiing! I´m definitely signed up for that trip!

I´ve made two friends in the ILCE program that I´m doing: ELizabeth from Brazil and Crispin from Virginia. Theý´re very good and we communicate in English, Spanish, and Portugues (well, some of us speak Portuguese.... actually, one of us...hehe)

It´s not so cold as I thought it would be! I recommend Navarre to any and everyone. It could sound like I´m trying to get out since I´m telling you about all these trips we have planned but that is not true at all- there is a whole mar adentro en this place! Over and out, roger roger.The Navigator dijo...

Yes, you are rapidly losing command of English. I'll start learning sign language so we can communicate on your return.

February 8, 2007 10:35 AM
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Debster dijo...

You said: "I recommend Navarre to any and everyone."...after decrying to be a place of no importance!
I think you are contradicting your self a bit...and confussing us a LOT!
So, tell us what you HAVE done and we'll tell you what we have done. No "misticas ojalateras", but a reality check...he he

February 8, 2007 5:55 PM
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Lizzy G dijo...

What have I done? ¿Qué es lo que he hecho? Buena pregunta, amiga mia. Ayer me levanté para rezar y ir a la misa. Desayuné y fui a la universidad para las clases hasta las dos. Comimos y luego tomé una siesta porque es imposible dormir hasta la madrugada en el colegio. Fui a comprar un tarjeta de llamadas para hablar con mi Mama, regresé al campus y escribé unos correos, estudié por dos horas. Luego rezé el rosario y hice mi oración y fuimos a correr a las nueve en pantalones cortas (porque no me gusta correr en los larges) en Pamplona y te digo que hacía un pooooccooo de frío. Comimos a las diez y era una reunión mandado en el cole a las 10:30. Hablabamos por una hora después, cogé mi ropa para esqiar hoy y ya, me dormí. Eso es un día en la vida del estudiante Navarrense. Quería escribir algo un poco más emocionada en mi bog....jeje!

February 16, 2007 2:23 AM