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!