The Navigator dijo...
And please tell me you can still speak English...please.
April 30, 2007 1:53 AM
Lizzy G. dijo
UN POCO....Un poco...jeje!
Este fin de semana he intentado pensar, escribir, leer, y escuchar a música solomente (aunque ha sido realmente solo la mayoría del tiempo) en esapañol y creo que me ha ayudado mucho. He cumplido milliones de ejercicios en mi cuaderno de español, he leido mucho sobre la temporado de la Restauración el la historía contemporanea de España, y he escrito paginas sobre la economía actual que hay en España y en la que tendré un examen el jueves. Además he escuchado a la música solomente en Español o con la que no tiene palabras. Te digo que he escrito también unos correos en íngles pero ni eran muchos ni muy extensivos. ¡Me quede aquí solo tres semanas más y quiero aprovechar mi tiempo en esta tierra donde se habla Español!
Monday, April 30, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Trabajo en Traducción
Como… hacer “footing”
Guy Browning
Sábado, 30 enero 2006
La Guardia – Revista del fin de semana
Hacer “footing” es un deporte de riesgo, sin el riesgo y sin deporte. Se considera como un riesgo solo si tu deporte normal es pasear. El hacer “footing” para los humanos es igual que el medio galope para los caballos; ni es andar, ni correr, es simplemente moverse con mas empeño. Sin embargo los caballos no tienen la necesitad de llevar ropa transpirable para correr.
A mucha gente no le gusta hacer “footing” porque lo encuentra aburrido. Heavy metal es aburrido si lo escuchas muy silenciosamente. Hacer “footing,” como Heavy metal, se hace interesante solo cuando esta hecho con una intensidad que amenaza con estallar algo vital del cuerpo (…) Técnicamente, tu velocidad de hacer “footing” puede llegar a ser inferior a la de tu velocidad de andar y tu puedes todavía estar haciendo “footing” siempre y cuando mantengas tus codos separados de tu cuerpo.
Estirarse es vital antes de hace “footing.” Estirar la verdad es lo primero que hay que hacer cuando le cuentas a todo el mundo lo lejos que vas a ir (…) Es necesario para hacer “footing” que los zapatos sean buenos, especialmente el par que llevas cuando te pateas las tiendas comprando todo tu imprescindible equipo de primera clase para hacer “footing.”
Cuanto más te vistes como un ciclista, mas lento eres como corredor. Si te encuentras a ti mismo llevando un casco, mas te valdría coger el autobús Nunca llames a un corredor genuino corredor de “footing.” Un corredor de “footing” se convierte en corredor cuando la ropa que usa para hacer deporte les cubre menos que la ropa interior que se quitaron al ponérsela.
Mucha gente elige llevar música consigo. En 1970 esto significaba 60 libras a la espalda, pero hoy en día puedes llevar un minúsculo aparato que contiene toda la música jamás compuesta. Como solo vas a correr seis minutos esto puede ser mas de lo que necesites. Mucha gente pierde mas tiempo programando su música que corriendo.
Guy Browning
Sábado, 30 enero 2006
La Guardia – Revista del fin de semana
Hacer “footing” es un deporte de riesgo, sin el riesgo y sin deporte. Se considera como un riesgo solo si tu deporte normal es pasear. El hacer “footing” para los humanos es igual que el medio galope para los caballos; ni es andar, ni correr, es simplemente moverse con mas empeño. Sin embargo los caballos no tienen la necesitad de llevar ropa transpirable para correr.
A mucha gente no le gusta hacer “footing” porque lo encuentra aburrido. Heavy metal es aburrido si lo escuchas muy silenciosamente. Hacer “footing,” como Heavy metal, se hace interesante solo cuando esta hecho con una intensidad que amenaza con estallar algo vital del cuerpo (…) Técnicamente, tu velocidad de hacer “footing” puede llegar a ser inferior a la de tu velocidad de andar y tu puedes todavía estar haciendo “footing” siempre y cuando mantengas tus codos separados de tu cuerpo.
Estirarse es vital antes de hace “footing.” Estirar la verdad es lo primero que hay que hacer cuando le cuentas a todo el mundo lo lejos que vas a ir (…) Es necesario para hacer “footing” que los zapatos sean buenos, especialmente el par que llevas cuando te pateas las tiendas comprando todo tu imprescindible equipo de primera clase para hacer “footing.”
Cuanto más te vistes como un ciclista, mas lento eres como corredor. Si te encuentras a ti mismo llevando un casco, mas te valdría coger el autobús Nunca llames a un corredor genuino corredor de “footing.” Un corredor de “footing” se convierte en corredor cuando la ropa que usa para hacer deporte les cubre menos que la ropa interior que se quitaron al ponérsela.
Mucha gente elige llevar música consigo. En 1970 esto significaba 60 libras a la espalda, pero hoy en día puedes llevar un minúsculo aparato que contiene toda la música jamás compuesta. Como solo vas a correr seis minutos esto puede ser mas de lo que necesites. Mucha gente pierde mas tiempo programando su música que corriendo.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
The Rain in Spain falls mainly on PAMPLONA!
I tell you, its crazy! I was just sweating as I walked up past the hermita to Our Lady of Fair Love to Pio XII where I had to run some errands. I came back down, studied for a while, change into my running clothes and headed back outside already running. I asked Encarnita if Icould leave my good ole´UCLA sweatshirt in the portería while I ran. She looked at me over the rims of her glasses as she stiched some fantasically intricate piece of baby clothing, smile and nodded yes as if to say "Yes, but this is the laaaaast time..."
As I ran out slowly staring at my iPod shuffle to get to the song about coming home to California after hacing caught a plane to Spain that I had just heard on my computer and inspired me to run, lightening flashes, instantly thunder claps, and my streched and wore out William and Mary basketball t-shirt turns into a natural mop! I perservered in my running back up the hill, making a u-ey at the clínica and cutting across the high path to campus. When my feet began slipping on the dirt path and the only other people who I saw running anywhere near me where certainly were not dressed as ones intending to run, I decided to turn back.
By that time, not only were my cloths sopping, but I began to worry about whether my poor little nano iPod blaring Boston´s "Peace of Mind" was water-proof. Wiping my nike watch, I looked at the time: 20:56.
I had been running for 8 minutes! I came back only because I was supposed to meet to run with Ana at 21:00, but for some reason she wasn´t interested in going. These Spaniards.... (just kidding!)
At least in California, one can reasonably guess when it is going to rain at least a few moments earlier. We don`t have this kind precipetous precipitation. I hope that you are all Californians. Though, that wouldn´t mean much, because I´m sure there are plenty in California who would disagree with me about our capabilities of weather forecasting...
As I ran out slowly staring at my iPod shuffle to get to the song about coming home to California after hacing caught a plane to Spain that I had just heard on my computer and inspired me to run, lightening flashes, instantly thunder claps, and my streched and wore out William and Mary basketball t-shirt turns into a natural mop! I perservered in my running back up the hill, making a u-ey at the clínica and cutting across the high path to campus. When my feet began slipping on the dirt path and the only other people who I saw running anywhere near me where certainly were not dressed as ones intending to run, I decided to turn back.
By that time, not only were my cloths sopping, but I began to worry about whether my poor little nano iPod blaring Boston´s "Peace of Mind" was water-proof. Wiping my nike watch, I looked at the time: 20:56.
I had been running for 8 minutes! I came back only because I was supposed to meet to run with Ana at 21:00, but for some reason she wasn´t interested in going. These Spaniards.... (just kidding!)
At least in California, one can reasonably guess when it is going to rain at least a few moments earlier. We don`t have this kind precipetous precipitation. I hope that you are all Californians. Though, that wouldn´t mean much, because I´m sure there are plenty in California who would disagree with me about our capabilities of weather forecasting...
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
The Present in Pamplona
Hello readers,
I´m back in Pamplona and it has been hard settling down here once again but now I have a lot to study so I kind of have to settle down!
Two days ago, I woke up and it was still gray outside so I put my tights and boots on again. When I went into the Oratory for the prayer and mass in the morning, I noticed that Agnes was not wearing dark tights nor boots. After the comida, I was so toasty that I was forced to go back to my room and remove the restricting tights once and for all and put on my chanclas, those are sandals. Since then, my tights and boots have not emerged from my drawer, not do I plan on having them emerge. Even if it is chilly in the mornings when I walk out with my sandals, I refuse to return to the tights because by noon, the sun is shining so brightly that I almost need to put on sun screen to walk around Pamplona! There are tons of dandelions blooming all over the lawns on campus and these other tiny little white flowers too. I like to cross the grass and stomp on them! I´m sorry Debbe, it´s true!
I think everyone in the Colegio gets a kick out of the fact that I have stripped the stockings. The first day that I did, María Fernanda caught me passing by and asked me, "¡O, pero que veraiega (there is some word that means "summery" I think)! ¿Sueles vestirte como así?" (Do you normally dress like this?) And I responded, "¿Como que?" Quickly she shot back with a smile "Tan fresca!?" This means, "Do you usually dress so lightly" or something to this effect.
Anyway, I think everyone more or less had a similar reaction to my chanclas. Just before we said the rosary last night, everyone started attacking me with English phrases like "ggghhhhello, tonight is the eengleez night!" and "You want..no.. We want....no.. I want to espeaka eenglees" and "Dees summer, we go to londres and sOOOO we need to practice eenglees!" And then Marianna said something in "Eengleez" that made everyone laugh and she started yelling "You don´t believe me? You don´t believe in me? Why don´t you believe in me?" I don´t know what she said or what she meant to say when she was asking whether or not we believed in her but we were all laughing so hard that it doesn´t really matter...
I´ve gotten a lot of grades back in my classes and the good news is that I´m doing well in all my classes! Even in History. On the last exam, I answered one question completely wrong but the professor still gave me credit. It´s because I confused the three groups who wrote the constition of 1812 and the three groups who fought in the civil war that occured about that time. But really, Spain has had over 12 consitutions in the recent history and I don´t know how many internal wars (no wonder they could never get involved with world wars) that its pretty awesome that I could remember any three groups pertaining to one of the consitutions or wars! No, I´m just making an excuse for my lack of study in that issue. I have another history exam tomorrow that I´ve already been studying for two days for! Woohoo!
Speaking of Spanish history, I was talking to Chris on Skype today when Inés came in the computer room and asked when he is coming to visit. I told her that he is coming on the 11th of May and she said, (I´ll just translate for you) "Oh too bad, he´ll just miss graduation on the 5th of May!" And then Chris reminded me that there is a celebration on May 5th for the Mexicans: when they became independent from Spain! I told Inés just to make sure she´s know that Chris wouldn´t be missing out on all the fun and to remind her of Spain´s loss in America (hehe), and she said "Yea, and Peru´s is the 29th of July...." I love how the Spanish are such realistic people. haha!
Tonight is the concurso for the cantautores, that means, people who write their own songs and play them and sing them. There is one girl from the Colegio here named Erika who is doing a song and she´s sung it for us here at the Colegio and it´s amazing.
I still haven´t told you about Valladolid and Madrid yet but I will soon. And right after I got back to Pamplona from Madrid, the Clarks came and we went to San Sebastian for a nice visit. And then, the last Sunday, I went with Monica Klem, a friend who visited from her UD campus in Rome and some of the girls from the Colegio, to Vitoria, which is the greenest city in Spain (literally) and in Pais-Vasco. It was beautiful, but I´ve had trouble uploading the pictures to my yahoo acount. Anyway, for now, I just have to concentrate on being here in Pamplona again. It´s good weather now but it´s still good old Pampie, as we, or maybe it´s just I, affectionately call it....
PS In a month from today, I come home to see you!
I´m back in Pamplona and it has been hard settling down here once again but now I have a lot to study so I kind of have to settle down!
Two days ago, I woke up and it was still gray outside so I put my tights and boots on again. When I went into the Oratory for the prayer and mass in the morning, I noticed that Agnes was not wearing dark tights nor boots. After the comida, I was so toasty that I was forced to go back to my room and remove the restricting tights once and for all and put on my chanclas, those are sandals. Since then, my tights and boots have not emerged from my drawer, not do I plan on having them emerge. Even if it is chilly in the mornings when I walk out with my sandals, I refuse to return to the tights because by noon, the sun is shining so brightly that I almost need to put on sun screen to walk around Pamplona! There are tons of dandelions blooming all over the lawns on campus and these other tiny little white flowers too. I like to cross the grass and stomp on them! I´m sorry Debbe, it´s true!
I think everyone in the Colegio gets a kick out of the fact that I have stripped the stockings. The first day that I did, María Fernanda caught me passing by and asked me, "¡O, pero que veraiega (there is some word that means "summery" I think)! ¿Sueles vestirte como así?" (Do you normally dress like this?) And I responded, "¿Como que?" Quickly she shot back with a smile "Tan fresca!?" This means, "Do you usually dress so lightly" or something to this effect.
Anyway, I think everyone more or less had a similar reaction to my chanclas. Just before we said the rosary last night, everyone started attacking me with English phrases like "ggghhhhello, tonight is the eengleez night!" and "You want..no.. We want....no.. I want to espeaka eenglees" and "Dees summer, we go to londres and sOOOO we need to practice eenglees!" And then Marianna said something in "Eengleez" that made everyone laugh and she started yelling "You don´t believe me? You don´t believe in me? Why don´t you believe in me?" I don´t know what she said or what she meant to say when she was asking whether or not we believed in her but we were all laughing so hard that it doesn´t really matter...
I´ve gotten a lot of grades back in my classes and the good news is that I´m doing well in all my classes! Even in History. On the last exam, I answered one question completely wrong but the professor still gave me credit. It´s because I confused the three groups who wrote the constition of 1812 and the three groups who fought in the civil war that occured about that time. But really, Spain has had over 12 consitutions in the recent history and I don´t know how many internal wars (no wonder they could never get involved with world wars) that its pretty awesome that I could remember any three groups pertaining to one of the consitutions or wars! No, I´m just making an excuse for my lack of study in that issue. I have another history exam tomorrow that I´ve already been studying for two days for! Woohoo!
Speaking of Spanish history, I was talking to Chris on Skype today when Inés came in the computer room and asked when he is coming to visit. I told her that he is coming on the 11th of May and she said, (I´ll just translate for you) "Oh too bad, he´ll just miss graduation on the 5th of May!" And then Chris reminded me that there is a celebration on May 5th for the Mexicans: when they became independent from Spain! I told Inés just to make sure she´s know that Chris wouldn´t be missing out on all the fun and to remind her of Spain´s loss in America (hehe), and she said "Yea, and Peru´s is the 29th of July...." I love how the Spanish are such realistic people. haha!
Tonight is the concurso for the cantautores, that means, people who write their own songs and play them and sing them. There is one girl from the Colegio here named Erika who is doing a song and she´s sung it for us here at the Colegio and it´s amazing.
I still haven´t told you about Valladolid and Madrid yet but I will soon. And right after I got back to Pamplona from Madrid, the Clarks came and we went to San Sebastian for a nice visit. And then, the last Sunday, I went with Monica Klem, a friend who visited from her UD campus in Rome and some of the girls from the Colegio, to Vitoria, which is the greenest city in Spain (literally) and in Pais-Vasco. It was beautiful, but I´ve had trouble uploading the pictures to my yahoo acount. Anyway, for now, I just have to concentrate on being here in Pamplona again. It´s good weather now but it´s still good old Pampie, as we, or maybe it´s just I, affectionately call it....
PS In a month from today, I come home to see you!
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Posting pictures
Amigos y amigas!
Me cuesta mucho tiempo subir mis fotos, como esa,

en mi blog. Por eso, si quieres ver algunas, me dices por correo en elizabeth.amanda.goodwin@gmail.com y te enviaré todos los libros que quieres. Son divididos igual como mis aventuras son divididas, ¿si?
An adventure from Madrid to Toledo
I am going to make this blog post more brief since I have been thinking, writing, reading, and speaking English far too much over the past two weeks of vacation. I have practically lost my Spanish soul entirely! I admire those who have adopted a language other than their native one to live by. This is a task of great exertion, strength of will and mind and heart and soul!
From Sevilla, I left Tuesday afternoon and was supposed to arrive in Madrid at a fairly reasonable hour of 12:00. Zipping along the Andalucian highway I was thinking about how good the traffic situation in Spain is and that, basically, its a perfect country. Then suddenly the highway stopped completely for an hour and a half: there was an accident. I got into the bus station at about 1:30 and to the hostal where Mrs. Clark and Lauren were staying with an extra bed at 2:00 am!
We got up bright an early at 7:00 to go to the tour bus place to get tickets to go to the Medieval town of Toledo, about an hour south of Madrid in Castillo- La Mancha that was a bit pricy but well worth it! Toledo was a beautiful town and most of all the incredible cathedral, that was built over hundreds and hundreds of years. You know, it takes a heck of a long time to upload photos to my blog, so if anyone is interested in seeing them, tell me and I will send you my yahoo photo albums. Or, just wait a month, I´ll be back, and I´ll really want to show them to you then to!
There was a lot of El Greco paintings in the Cathedral and the sacristy and we saw his famous painting in another Church nearby. I got some gifts and postcards around town too. Then the lunch was included in the tour so we went up to this isolated restuarant where the food was not bad, the marzapan cost 1 euro each little piece, and we were serenaded by.... MARIACHIS!?! If only it hadn´t been raining, I would have thought I was in So Cal in that restaurant! But after lunch, we went up to see a panoramic view of the city, which was just phenomenal. Its surrounded by a large river, like a huge moat. And the city itself if up on the cliff, where the river is below.
We came down to go to a steel factory, which Toledo is known for and we saw demonstrations of some workers carefully imbuing some steel with gold lining and welding the hot metal. That was cool! There were a lot of swords and armor all over the whole city but especially here in this factory. I didn´t buy my brothers any armaments, but Lauren and I took some funny pictures for them. Next door, there was a store called "Wine, Steel, and Cheese" or something to this effect and I wanted to go in there to look for a gift for my Mom, but it was closed.
We came back to Madrid, met up with some of the Clarks friends from Germany and went to dinner. Then I took off to an internet cafe to write to you, my dear readers. I slept in a hostal room by myself that night in Madrid and it was quite cozy. The next morning, I woke up and wondered down past the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, past the Plaza Mayor, to the Plaza San Miguel, where the Basilica of San Miguel is, where there are priests of the Work. I took some pictures of the pasos then: they were really beatiful in that Church especially.
I caught the bus to Valladolid at noon and that is another adventure I will tell you about in my next blog!
From Sevilla, I left Tuesday afternoon and was supposed to arrive in Madrid at a fairly reasonable hour of 12:00. Zipping along the Andalucian highway I was thinking about how good the traffic situation in Spain is and that, basically, its a perfect country. Then suddenly the highway stopped completely for an hour and a half: there was an accident. I got into the bus station at about 1:30 and to the hostal where Mrs. Clark and Lauren were staying with an extra bed at 2:00 am!
We got up bright an early at 7:00 to go to the tour bus place to get tickets to go to the Medieval town of Toledo, about an hour south of Madrid in Castillo- La Mancha that was a bit pricy but well worth it! Toledo was a beautiful town and most of all the incredible cathedral, that was built over hundreds and hundreds of years. You know, it takes a heck of a long time to upload photos to my blog, so if anyone is interested in seeing them, tell me and I will send you my yahoo photo albums. Or, just wait a month, I´ll be back, and I´ll really want to show them to you then to!
There was a lot of El Greco paintings in the Cathedral and the sacristy and we saw his famous painting in another Church nearby. I got some gifts and postcards around town too. Then the lunch was included in the tour so we went up to this isolated restuarant where the food was not bad, the marzapan cost 1 euro each little piece, and we were serenaded by.... MARIACHIS!?! If only it hadn´t been raining, I would have thought I was in So Cal in that restaurant! But after lunch, we went up to see a panoramic view of the city, which was just phenomenal. Its surrounded by a large river, like a huge moat. And the city itself if up on the cliff, where the river is below.
We came down to go to a steel factory, which Toledo is known for and we saw demonstrations of some workers carefully imbuing some steel with gold lining and welding the hot metal. That was cool! There were a lot of swords and armor all over the whole city but especially here in this factory. I didn´t buy my brothers any armaments, but Lauren and I took some funny pictures for them. Next door, there was a store called "Wine, Steel, and Cheese" or something to this effect and I wanted to go in there to look for a gift for my Mom, but it was closed.
We came back to Madrid, met up with some of the Clarks friends from Germany and went to dinner. Then I took off to an internet cafe to write to you, my dear readers. I slept in a hostal room by myself that night in Madrid and it was quite cozy. The next morning, I woke up and wondered down past the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, past the Plaza Mayor, to the Plaza San Miguel, where the Basilica of San Miguel is, where there are priests of the Work. I took some pictures of the pasos then: they were really beatiful in that Church especially.
I caught the bus to Valladolid at noon and that is another adventure I will tell you about in my next blog!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Semana Santa in Sevilla and then onto el Capital!!
I don´t want to spend a lot of time on my blog now because I have not yet finished with my travels this Easter vacation, but I just wanted to jot down a few things so that you can know where I am and so that I don´t forget where I´ve been!
I got into Sevilla on Monday morning after the night-long bus to Sevilla. I wandered around the city with my huge luggage quite a bit trying to meet up with Jessica Gutierrez before she jumped on a train to Madrid, but to no avail. I eneded up in the internet cafe where I last wrote an entry on my blog.
After that, I found my way to the hostal where I thought I would be staying with some friends, but it turns out, that though they had invited me to come, told me the address and the days they would be there, they had neglected to reserve me a spot. O goodness, and semana santa in Sevilla is jam packed with people so I knew that I wouldn´t have much luck if I looked elsewhere. Luckily, one of my friends from the Colegio was gracious enough to take me in for the night. She´s Aurea and she´s a supernumerary like me!
After I had lunch with my absent-minded friends, I wandered through the city looking for an open church to do my prayer. Amazingly enough, even though there are about 500 million churches in every city in Spain, it´s somewhat of a challenge to find one that´s open if it´s not mass- time (usually 12 or 6 or later). I finally found one in Plaza San Lorenzo, which also happend to be the Church where the paso of the Gran Poder was kept. There was another humongeous line of humanity waiting to go and kiss his hand!
After that I met up with Aurea for mass in a church that was on the street where a paso of our Lady was passing by. There were so many people we could barely push our way through to get to mass on time! Then Aurea´s friend Esperanza and her cousin and another friend Pilar met up with us to see the pasos for the night. Esperanza knew exactly where every paso was passing (no pun intended) and at what time it was passing so we dart around the crowed streets seeing these amazing processions! I will put some pictures up as soon as I can!
The next day, Aurea and I had a delicious desayuno (the Andalucian pistañes are the best I´ve tried yet!) went to mass at 12 (that´s when life really begins in Spain .. hehe just a joke) and then she dropped me off back with my absent-minded friends. I had left my bag in the hostal for the night because it would have been too crazy to try and pick it up with all the people. So I despididod a my absent-minded amigos and headed to a center called Entrepuentes to do my prayer and go to circle. I talked with a friend who I had met in Pamplona in Zudaire at the International dinner named Lolita! It was a funny coincidence to see her again! There was another supernumerary in the circle who was working in Madrid and so they gave me the map of the hotel where I was going to meet Mrs. Clark and of the Basilica of San Miguel´s, which is a church that the priests of Opus Dei take care of because I wanted to go to confession there. That´s an amazing church and I´ll put pictures up of their pasos soon because I was just there again this morning!
After Sevilla, I went to Madrid and met Mrs. Clark and Lauren and we went to Toledo for the day! Then I went to Valladolid to visit Mercedes, my old roomie from Westfield. I will write more about these days because they were great and because I want to show you my pictures. Now I´ve left Valladolid and come back to Madrid to visit Irina! It sounds like she has done even more travelling than I have recently. She just just got back from driving through France, Monaco, and Italy. Today after we had the desayuno, I went into the city by myself for mass and exploring. I like Madrid a lot and it is a very beautiful city. I walked along the Calle Mayor and Calle Alcalá and saw tons of grat edificios. And then at the Plaza Cireles, I caught the 27 bus up Paseo Castellana to find the center where I´m going tonight for circle. That was like taking a tour bus of Madrid (but my only guide was the good bus driver who helped me find 124).
Now I´m back in Gatafe and Irina´s in class. When she gets out will head back to the city, where she wants to show me the Parque of Buen Retiro (I think)! I´ll write about the adventures in between Sevilla and Madrid soon.
I got into Sevilla on Monday morning after the night-long bus to Sevilla. I wandered around the city with my huge luggage quite a bit trying to meet up with Jessica Gutierrez before she jumped on a train to Madrid, but to no avail. I eneded up in the internet cafe where I last wrote an entry on my blog.
After that, I found my way to the hostal where I thought I would be staying with some friends, but it turns out, that though they had invited me to come, told me the address and the days they would be there, they had neglected to reserve me a spot. O goodness, and semana santa in Sevilla is jam packed with people so I knew that I wouldn´t have much luck if I looked elsewhere. Luckily, one of my friends from the Colegio was gracious enough to take me in for the night. She´s Aurea and she´s a supernumerary like me!
After I had lunch with my absent-minded friends, I wandered through the city looking for an open church to do my prayer. Amazingly enough, even though there are about 500 million churches in every city in Spain, it´s somewhat of a challenge to find one that´s open if it´s not mass- time (usually 12 or 6 or later). I finally found one in Plaza San Lorenzo, which also happend to be the Church where the paso of the Gran Poder was kept. There was another humongeous line of humanity waiting to go and kiss his hand!
After that I met up with Aurea for mass in a church that was on the street where a paso of our Lady was passing by. There were so many people we could barely push our way through to get to mass on time! Then Aurea´s friend Esperanza and her cousin and another friend Pilar met up with us to see the pasos for the night. Esperanza knew exactly where every paso was passing (no pun intended) and at what time it was passing so we dart around the crowed streets seeing these amazing processions! I will put some pictures up as soon as I can!
The next day, Aurea and I had a delicious desayuno (the Andalucian pistañes are the best I´ve tried yet!) went to mass at 12 (that´s when life really begins in Spain .. hehe just a joke) and then she dropped me off back with my absent-minded friends. I had left my bag in the hostal for the night because it would have been too crazy to try and pick it up with all the people. So I despididod a my absent-minded amigos and headed to a center called Entrepuentes to do my prayer and go to circle. I talked with a friend who I had met in Pamplona in Zudaire at the International dinner named Lolita! It was a funny coincidence to see her again! There was another supernumerary in the circle who was working in Madrid and so they gave me the map of the hotel where I was going to meet Mrs. Clark and of the Basilica of San Miguel´s, which is a church that the priests of Opus Dei take care of because I wanted to go to confession there. That´s an amazing church and I´ll put pictures up of their pasos soon because I was just there again this morning!
After Sevilla, I went to Madrid and met Mrs. Clark and Lauren and we went to Toledo for the day! Then I went to Valladolid to visit Mercedes, my old roomie from Westfield. I will write more about these days because they were great and because I want to show you my pictures. Now I´ve left Valladolid and come back to Madrid to visit Irina! It sounds like she has done even more travelling than I have recently. She just just got back from driving through France, Monaco, and Italy. Today after we had the desayuno, I went into the city by myself for mass and exploring. I like Madrid a lot and it is a very beautiful city. I walked along the Calle Mayor and Calle Alcalá and saw tons of grat edificios. And then at the Plaza Cireles, I caught the 27 bus up Paseo Castellana to find the center where I´m going tonight for circle. That was like taking a tour bus of Madrid (but my only guide was the good bus driver who helped me find 124).
Now I´m back in Gatafe and Irina´s in class. When she gets out will head back to the city, where she wants to show me the Parque of Buen Retiro (I think)! I´ll write about the adventures in between Sevilla and Madrid soon.
Monday, April 2, 2007
I was in Alicante with Meg
Monica dijo...
I was at Mass in St. Peter's square on Palm Sunday and saw the elaborate palms you are talking about. Pretty neat- and some of them were huge! I was pretty close... And we saw the pope again today- even closer!! Wish you were here... but see you soon!
April 2, 2007 3:47 PM
LIZ DIJO:
Hey hey! That´s awesome! The palms were spectalcular in Elche and I bet in Rome they were too. I forgot mention that we went into the basilica at Elche and among many chapels, there was a statue of St. Josemaria there! And below there was spot for his prayer cards in about 10 different languages.
On Friday night, I left rainy Pamplona at 11:00 pm on a bus that was to arrive in Alicante at 8:30 in the morning. We were supposed to leave at 10:30 so I thought that the bus would arrive at half hour late too, at 9:00. So I hopped on the bus, wrote Meg a text message that I´d be late, but in my industrial ear`-plugs that I use to sleep at Goimendi, and fell asleep at 12:30 or so. At 1:00 I was awaken by the whole bus stampeding off to the bus stop for a 20 minute break. It surprised me that even though we had left late we were taking such a lengthy stop. Anyway, we got back on the bus and managed to fall asleep again while listening to Phillip Glass´s Mad Rush, a 13 minute piano solo of the minimalist composer. At 3:00 I awoke with a jolt as the bus pulled into another stop and the driver announced we´d be here for a half hour!! I was totally disoriented and I got up from my seat and went straight up the driver and asked him whether "el bus suele para tantas veces cuando sale tarde?" (if the bus usually stops so many times when we leave late). He assured me that we´d arrive in Alicante on time.
So we drove again and at 7:15 am the chatty lady next to me woke me up by claiming that we had just passed the Alicante bus station! Somehow we managed figure out that we would be going back and when I got up to look for my paraguas (umbrella), I couldn´t find it anywhere. She likewise helped me to search and we were dumbfounded about where it could be. Then her helpful sister in law sitting in the seat in front was enlisted in the search and suddenly she thought to look in her bag. And, low and behold, my umbrella had somehow found its way into her bag!
By the time I figured out about my precious umbrella (so desperatly needed in Pamplona), I was so relieved that I just got off the bus and called Meg that I was here and hour and half early! And in Spain, 7:30 is REALLY early. It´s almost an embarrassing time to do anything but sleep (unless your in the Work....hehe). I totally forgot my bag in the bus and didn´t realize until it was well on it´s way to Torrevieja. Meg came and got me and the lady at the bus stop just told me to keep calling all day and they would get my bag back to me.
So then we went and had the desayuno and cafe with host parents who are very gracious and kind. And the host mother is a very good cook, I don´t know if that blurred my vision about their graciousness, or actually, they probably go hand in hand! Anyway, then we went out hiking up the montaña up to an old Castillo that overlooks the whole city. We were hiking steadily but talking faster than we could intake the appropriate amount of oxygen so we paused a number of times to take pictures that I will post soon. Or, maybe Meg has already posted some on her blog: www.meginalicante.blogspot.com.
And, as many of you know, it is a challenge for me to talk and walk at the same time, so sometimes, if we started talking about something that takes a lot of mental energy, we would just have to sit for a while and discuss. There were even some public benches for lying down and sunbathing on! We only took funny pictures there, I promise you that we did not even think about wasting our time sunbathing...
Then we headed back down through the barrio, passed the public aquarium that is like a big fish tank in the middle of the city, to the Church of Gracia Divina for mass at noon. Then we went for a walk by the beautiful beach where there was an awesome sand scultpture of the Pieta. I took a picture of it, but only from the side behind a palm tree so that I wouldn´t have to pay. Oh shoot, now I´ve told you everything!
Anway, then we found out the the center of Opus Dei was really near her house so after a delicious comida with her house parents, we headed over there for benediction. It was a cool little piso right about a little parish nestled among the residences. Everyone there wanted to practice their Enlgish with us!
And now, I don´t have enough time to write about our awesome Palm SUnday in the awesome capital of palms in Spain, and I think in the world! At least that is what Meg´s host dad told us: they send these palms everywhere, including to Pope Benedict to use in his processions. There were incredible and intricatly designed palms and tons of people. THere was one paso that came out, Jesus riding on the donkey triumphant into Jerusalem. It was interested to see that even the mayor of the town was a prominent figure in the procession. It is remeniscent of how Spain used to be a confessionalist country I think.
Later yesterday evening, Meg and I went to mass back in Alicante and then saw three more pasos going through Alicante that were beautiful! Then we had a cafe and went pack so I could pack to take another night bus to Sevilla. That´s where I am now and I will be here until tomorrow, when I will take another bus to Madrid to meet Mrs. Clark (Meg´s mom) and Lauren for the day. I´m going to post pictures of Meg and I´s (?) visit as soon as I get to a computer that I can. Oh, I got my bag back in Alicante at 8:00 pm when the bus was returning from Torrevieja. Today, I asked my guardian angel to especially help me to remember it when I arrived in Sevilla. Gues what? I walked up the escalator and almost out the door of the train station before I remembered! Luckily the bus was parked there for a while, so I have my big fat bag with me now!
I was at Mass in St. Peter's square on Palm Sunday and saw the elaborate palms you are talking about. Pretty neat- and some of them were huge! I was pretty close... And we saw the pope again today- even closer!! Wish you were here... but see you soon!
April 2, 2007 3:47 PM
LIZ DIJO:
Hey hey! That´s awesome! The palms were spectalcular in Elche and I bet in Rome they were too. I forgot mention that we went into the basilica at Elche and among many chapels, there was a statue of St. Josemaria there! And below there was spot for his prayer cards in about 10 different languages.
On Friday night, I left rainy Pamplona at 11:00 pm on a bus that was to arrive in Alicante at 8:30 in the morning. We were supposed to leave at 10:30 so I thought that the bus would arrive at half hour late too, at 9:00. So I hopped on the bus, wrote Meg a text message that I´d be late, but in my industrial ear`-plugs that I use to sleep at Goimendi, and fell asleep at 12:30 or so. At 1:00 I was awaken by the whole bus stampeding off to the bus stop for a 20 minute break. It surprised me that even though we had left late we were taking such a lengthy stop. Anyway, we got back on the bus and managed to fall asleep again while listening to Phillip Glass´s Mad Rush, a 13 minute piano solo of the minimalist composer. At 3:00 I awoke with a jolt as the bus pulled into another stop and the driver announced we´d be here for a half hour!! I was totally disoriented and I got up from my seat and went straight up the driver and asked him whether "el bus suele para tantas veces cuando sale tarde?" (if the bus usually stops so many times when we leave late). He assured me that we´d arrive in Alicante on time.
So we drove again and at 7:15 am the chatty lady next to me woke me up by claiming that we had just passed the Alicante bus station! Somehow we managed figure out that we would be going back and when I got up to look for my paraguas (umbrella), I couldn´t find it anywhere. She likewise helped me to search and we were dumbfounded about where it could be. Then her helpful sister in law sitting in the seat in front was enlisted in the search and suddenly she thought to look in her bag. And, low and behold, my umbrella had somehow found its way into her bag!
By the time I figured out about my precious umbrella (so desperatly needed in Pamplona), I was so relieved that I just got off the bus and called Meg that I was here and hour and half early! And in Spain, 7:30 is REALLY early. It´s almost an embarrassing time to do anything but sleep (unless your in the Work....hehe). I totally forgot my bag in the bus and didn´t realize until it was well on it´s way to Torrevieja. Meg came and got me and the lady at the bus stop just told me to keep calling all day and they would get my bag back to me.
So then we went and had the desayuno and cafe with host parents who are very gracious and kind. And the host mother is a very good cook, I don´t know if that blurred my vision about their graciousness, or actually, they probably go hand in hand! Anyway, then we went out hiking up the montaña up to an old Castillo that overlooks the whole city. We were hiking steadily but talking faster than we could intake the appropriate amount of oxygen so we paused a number of times to take pictures that I will post soon. Or, maybe Meg has already posted some on her blog: www.meginalicante.blogspot.com.
And, as many of you know, it is a challenge for me to talk and walk at the same time, so sometimes, if we started talking about something that takes a lot of mental energy, we would just have to sit for a while and discuss. There were even some public benches for lying down and sunbathing on! We only took funny pictures there, I promise you that we did not even think about wasting our time sunbathing...
Then we headed back down through the barrio, passed the public aquarium that is like a big fish tank in the middle of the city, to the Church of Gracia Divina for mass at noon. Then we went for a walk by the beautiful beach where there was an awesome sand scultpture of the Pieta. I took a picture of it, but only from the side behind a palm tree so that I wouldn´t have to pay. Oh shoot, now I´ve told you everything!
Anway, then we found out the the center of Opus Dei was really near her house so after a delicious comida with her house parents, we headed over there for benediction. It was a cool little piso right about a little parish nestled among the residences. Everyone there wanted to practice their Enlgish with us!
And now, I don´t have enough time to write about our awesome Palm SUnday in the awesome capital of palms in Spain, and I think in the world! At least that is what Meg´s host dad told us: they send these palms everywhere, including to Pope Benedict to use in his processions. There were incredible and intricatly designed palms and tons of people. THere was one paso that came out, Jesus riding on the donkey triumphant into Jerusalem. It was interested to see that even the mayor of the town was a prominent figure in the procession. It is remeniscent of how Spain used to be a confessionalist country I think.
Later yesterday evening, Meg and I went to mass back in Alicante and then saw three more pasos going through Alicante that were beautiful! Then we had a cafe and went pack so I could pack to take another night bus to Sevilla. That´s where I am now and I will be here until tomorrow, when I will take another bus to Madrid to meet Mrs. Clark (Meg´s mom) and Lauren for the day. I´m going to post pictures of Meg and I´s (?) visit as soon as I get to a computer that I can. Oh, I got my bag back in Alicante at 8:00 pm when the bus was returning from Torrevieja. Today, I asked my guardian angel to especially help me to remember it when I arrived in Sevilla. Gues what? I walked up the escalator and almost out the door of the train station before I remembered! Luckily the bus was parked there for a while, so I have my big fat bag with me now!
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