Being Mimsey.

During high school, I participated in Large Group Speech. My brother got me started doing it, and I really enjoyed it. During my senior year, I was part of a group ensemble. We performed part of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite." The part we did came from the third act.

The third act takes place in a suite at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Roy and Norma Hubley's daughter, Mimsey, is set to be married in the hotel that day, but she has decided to lock herself in the bathroom and refuse to come out. I was Norma, and my friend Alex was Roy. The majority of the scene revolves around trying to get Mimsey to come out the bathroom--involving trying to knock down the door, climbing out onto the window ledge, and doing a lot of yelling. She still refuses to come out. Finally, they decide to get her groom, who is patiently waiting downstairs for his bride. He walks into the suite, knocks on the door, says "Mimsey...cool it!" and leaves. 5 seconds later, she walks out of the bathroom and says, "I'm ready now."

I feel like I've sort of locked myself in the bathroom, refusing to come out--not wanting to think about leaving or dealing with everything else with my upcoming departure. But this morning when I woke up, I read 2 emails (one from my parents and one from Collin)--and suddenly I decided "I'm ready now." I'm not quite sure what they said, but I just had a sort of calm come over me. Chances are that I'm going to "lock myself in the bathroom" a few more times before I leave, but for now I know that I'm ready.


That's it for now. I'll probably write some more later...for now I'm going to rest a bit. I think I may be getting sick...or it's just my allergies starting. I'm just hoping I'll feel better by next Friday!!

Seeking the Grail.

I've been making my last list of things to do before leaving, and I realized that I haven't seen the Holy Grail, nor have I written about it.

The Holy Grail is the cup used by Jesus in the Last Supper, and there are about 5 or 6 places in the world that claim to have the Holy Grail. Valencia is one of these places; however, the Holy Grail in Valencia is the only one with Papal approval and the one most historians believe could be the real thing.

So sometime this week, I will be seeking the Holy Grail--much like in Monty Python--except without the coconuts used for horse hooves. It is located in the cathedral in one of the chapels--but you have to pay to get in--and I always happen to be in the cathedral when that area isn't open. I'm excited for my little quest.
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On another note, I got some great news yesterday! I was offered an internship for the summer with the ACS, and I figured out where I'm living next year at Luther. It was a good way to end the day.
I went out for horchata yesterday afternoon, since there was a Luther guy in town visiting (he's currently studying in Nottingham). It was the first time I had "horchata granizada"--which is somewhat like slushy horchata. It was really really good!!
All for now, must get ready for Phonetics!!

Uff da.

Uff da. It's a phrase that entered my life during my first year at Luther. With one roommate from Minnesota and the other from North Dakota, "Uff da" was thrown around often in our room. Too much homework? -Uff da. Something crazy happen? -Uff da. Anything at all? -Uff da.

Today "uff da" is on my mind, because of everything going on. We have entered the final, FINAL countdown. 13 days and I will be back in Grimes. Uff da.

But enough of that talk, I thought I'd share a bit about my tour of the Lladró factory. I went to the Lladró factory on Friday afternoon with 4 other girls--Jill, Claire, Colleen, and Kaitlyn. We got a little lost, since Google Maps wasn't the most precise at nailing down the location of the factory. We arrived a wee bit late, but they didn't really mind. We got to see each step in the process of making the porcelain, from starting the molds to firing the pieces. The detail is incredible. There are a bunch of people who only make flowers for the pieces. The woman made a rose, right in front of us--and she was surrounded by all the different flowers she had made that day. It was really impressive. I also really enjoyed looking through the showroom...the pieces range in price from 40 euro to 120,000 euro. It's expensive stuff. Each piece is hand-painted, and all of them are beautiful. Now the show room is the place where they are wanting you to buy a piece--I was wanting to buy one, but I wasn't enthused about the price tag. We had hear rumors that there is a "Seconds" room--that is to say a room with the pieces that have "imperfections." We asked about it, and they took us there. It was a giant room filled with pieces--all about 50% cheaper. We only found one visible imperfection. I ended up buying a piece. I'll post a picture of it when I get home. For now, it's living in a box, carefully wrapped up under my bed--and I don't feel like ruining the packaging. It was a piece that I felt fit my personality. It's nice that I now have something uniquely made in Valencia to take home--and it's something I can continue to collect for the rest of my life.

The rest of the weekend has been a mix of working and relaxing. My literature professor decided to give us a lot of work to do over the weekend, realizing that we haven't read everything that she wanted us to read. I've been working away on those readings (post Spanish Civil War short stories) plus working on reading poetry from post Spanish Civil War. We've read a lot of poetry in my lit class, which I wasn't really expecting--but we found out this week that poetry is our professor's specialty. I have a presentation in Avant Garde tomorrow, and then will spend the rest of the day enjoying Valencia. These next 2 weeks will be a mix or work and pleasure--because I will have a lot of school work to do, but I also want to enjoy my last 2 weeks in Valencia. It will be a delicate balance to maintain.

I just finished skyping with my parents earlier, and I got a full tour of our yard. I'm surprised at how green everything is, and it made me excited to get to see everything in person. I'm going to go back to work now--keep on reading and taking notes. All for now.

Jueves.

Hoy es jueves (Thursday).

Life is much the same--just the anticipatory feelings of going home. Classes are fine, it's strange knowing that we have each class 2 more times before we have our finals--and then one final day to get our exams back, chat, and say goodbye. Tomorrow, I am heading to the Lladró Museum with some friends. It should be a lot of fun. Saturday will end up being a beach day, and Sunday will be homework.

This afternoon, I started craving lots of American food--so I made a list of things I want to eat when I get home. The list is growing...quite quickly. I've been asked a few times what I will first eat when I get home....the answer---cottage cheese or carrots--or both!! They are two of my favorite foods. I'm also craving pizza from Breadeaúx and crab rangoon. Plus fruit--here I eat apples, bananas, oranges, and pears, since nothing else is in season--so I'm craving some variety in my fruit consumption.

Not much to report--this is just a bit of a rambling blog entry.

On a side note, Madonna's music is the soundtrack to my week.

All for now.

Martes.

What did Tuesday bring for me? Frankly, not much. Another day of class. In Phonetics, we are doing transcriptions--basically taking texts in Spanish and writing out how they are pronounced phonetically.
For example:
"Nunca dejes de sonreír, ni siquiera cuando estés triste, porque nunca sabes quién se puede enamorar de tu sonrisa."
Transcription (more or less--there are a few errors):
[ 'nũŋka 'ðexez̦ ðe sonr̄e'ir | ni si'kjera 'kwan̦do eș'teș 'triște | 'porke 'nũŋka 'saβes kjen se 'pweðe enãmo'rar ðe tu son'r̄isa ]

Then in the afternoon, I had cine. 3 people gave a presentation over the last movie we watched, and then we talked about why Spaniards don't like Spanish movies, and then we started watching another movie "La noche de los girasoles" (Night of the Sunflowers)--it's a little creepy so far.

Now it's time for dinner, then some homework and job application stuff.
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And I guess I haven't really mentioned the Icelandic Volcano. It's big news here, especially with all the flights being cancelled in Northern Europe. One of my friends, Kelsey (also here for the year), was in Norway visiting a family friend when it erupted and spent 2 days driving with people back to Spain...she said it was a nightmare. We have had a boy from Jersey (island--owned by Britain) here at our house--he was supposed to leave on Saturday, but due to the volcano, he is here until Friday--if his plane will leave then. If his flight is cancelled again, he will be traveling by car to northern France and then taking a ferry home. It's craziness...

Hopefully it will all be resolved by the time I come home. I'm lucky though and my flight is from Madrid to Dallas--then Dallas to Des Moines...18 days.

Lunes.

I figure that I don't really have a lot of time left, so I might as well write little entries whenever I feel like it.

Today the sun finally came out after a week of not so great weather. Since it is Monday, and I only had one class--I went to the beach after class. I relaxed in the sun for a few hours and even paid 5 euro for a 10 minute back massage. It was nice.

I was super productive yesterday and got all my homework done through Wednesday. It's giving me a chance to relax a little bit and continue prepping things for this summer and for next year. I'm in the process of filling out my graduation application for Luther--it's crazy to think that I'll be graduating from college in 1 year. All for now.

All I need...

Sometimes all I need to stay happy is a little classical music.

For some reason, it drives me and soothes me.

Classical music of today: Luther Symphony Orchestra 2009 Spring Concert...
Favorite song: Allegro molto appassionato (great violin line)

Today is a classical music day. It's an easy day to relate to the music.

20 days.

Oh Italy!

The second half of my break was spent in Northern Italy. I spent my Easter morning on a plane from Madrid to Venice with a professional handball team from some Eastern European country. Venice was beautiful--like something out of a picture book...

Once arriving in Venice, I met up with my friends Jenna and Megan. We made our way to our hostel, which was a B&B that ended up more like an apartment. We had our own bathroom and kitchen-y area, and we had a lot of privacy. It was really nice. A lot of the time we just walked around. There are no cars in the actual city, and the maze of streets and canals is incredible. When we walked, we never really had a destination in mind. We spent most of our time exploring, stopping in shops, and taking pictures. We ate gelato every day...so delicious! One day we ended up on the north side of the island and had a great view of some mountains in the distance. For lunch, we would grab a panini or slice of pizza from a café, and for dinner we would go to the grocery store and pick up bread, tomato sauce, cheese, and some dessert. It was a good way to save some money. We also tried lots of different Italian cheeses and sauces--all very delicious. We all bought Venetian masks, and the masks all fit our personalities. Mine is gold with a touch of silver and has sheet music on it. We had a photo shoot with our masks on one night. One morning we splurged and went on a gondola ride. We figured it was worth the expense, since we were there. The gondola ride was incredible--truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. We picked the perfect day to do it--sunny with blue skies. We also went to the Basilica, which had some amazing mosaics. I'm really glad that I got to see Venice now, since it is sinking and eventually will become uninhabitable. The last night we were there, we took a walk after dinner--the city was so peaceful. We just wandered around and ended up sitting on a bench facing the Grand Canal and talking.

From Venice, we went to Milan, where we visited the cathedral and spent the night before heading to Lake Como. We met up with Allison and Estef at the Milan train station and caught the next train to Como. Lake Como is in the shape of an upside Y. The main town, Como, is on the lower left branch. We arrived in Como, and it was beautiful. However, our hostel was located in Menaggio, about a one hour bus ride from Como. We thought Como was beautiful--but Menaggio was more beautiful. The bus ride to Menaggio was delightful. We drove through Laglio, home of George Clooney's villa--no sightings of him...darn. Menaggio was picture perfect. The combination of the mountains, the lake, and the charming town made it a great place to be. I could have spent my entire break on Lake Como, and I never would have gotten sick of it. It just has this quality about it that makes it incredible and breathtaking. We took lots of pictures, and we ate the best gelato EVER there. As a group, our favorite flavors were peach and pistachio. We played cards that night at the hostel and then went to bed. It was really hard to leave Lake Como the next day to head back to Milan. It is definitely a place I want to go back to and explore. That last night in Milan, we just hung out at our hostel and made a big pasta dinner. Then went to bed and headed to the airport the next day.

Overall a fantastic trip filled with beautiful places, and I got to travel with some really good friends. It was a good trip to have for my "last" trip here. I made some great memories.

El Sur.

I've decided to split my blog up into each part of the trip--it will be easier to read than a super long entry (easier for me to write as well).

The first part of my trip was spent in Southern Spain--the majority of my time was spent in Málaga, but I also took a day trip to Sevilla. Marli and I traveled together in Málaga. We visited the cathedral, the Castle Gibralfaro, the Alcazaba, the Picasso Museum, and the nearby Cuevas de Nerja (Nerja Caves). All of those were really interesting. The view from the top of Castle Gibralfaro was incredible--just looking out over the Mediterranean and the rest of the town. The Nerja Caves are about an hour to the east of Málaga. We took a bus and enjoyed seeing the little town along the Costa del Sol on the way. I wish I would have had more time to visit all the little towns. One of the reasons we decided to go to Málaga was because it was Holy Week. Holy Week is a big deal in Spain, especially in Southern Spain.

Here's what wikipedia says about Holy Week in Málaga...
"For more than 500 years, Holy Week of Málaga has been constantly present in the religious and popular feeling of people from Málaga. The Holy Week religious celebrations in Malaga are famous countrywide. Processions start on Palm Sunday and continue until Easter Sunday with the most dramatic and solemn on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Images from the Passion on huge ornate "tronos" (floats or thrones) some weighing more than 5.000 kilos and carried by more than 250 members of Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza, shape the processions that go through the streets with penitents dressed in long purple robes, often with pointed hats, followed by women in black carrying candles. Drums and trumpets play solemn music and occasionally someone spontaneously sings a mournful saeta dedicated to the floats as it makes its way slowly round the streets.

The Baroque taste of the religious brotherhoods and associations and the great amount of processional materials that they have been accumulating for centuries result in a street stage of exuberant art, full of color and majesty.

Every year, the Passion Week in Malaga takes out to the streets a real festival perceptible by the five senses: processional thrones carrying images that are swung all along the entire route, thousands of penitents lighting and giving colour with their candles and robes, processional marches, as well as aromas of incense and flowers filling the air as the processions pass by and thousands of people crowded to see and applaud their favorite tronos.

Holy Week in Malaga is very different to that celebrated in other Andalusian or Spanish places, and those who go to Malaga for the first time will be surprised, as the Passion Week there is not lived with meditation and silence, but it is full of happiness, noise, cheer, spontaneous saetas (flamenco verses sung at the processions) and applause as the images pass by.

Some tronos (floats) of Holy Week of Malaga are so huge that they must be housed in other places different from the churches, as they are taller than the entrance doors; real walking chapels of over 5,000 kilos swung by dozens of bearers. There are also military parades playing processional marches or singing their anthems along the route. All of this does not imply a lack of religiosity, but it is just the particular way that people from Malaga live their faith and feeling during the Holy Week."

The processions were amazing. We got really close for a few of them. Pics are up...so take a peek. Here's a quick photo from a procession...

You're probably wondering about the outfits...they've been used since the medieval period for penitents. The hoods are that way so the identity of the wearer is known only to God.
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I also made a quick trip to Sevilla on Friday. I saw the cathedral, which was beautiful, and I also just wandered the streets. I met up with my friend Sam, who was in Valencia last semester and chatted with her. It was great to see her and catch up.

Next up...Italy! Hopefully I can get that entry done soon!!!

The Final Countdown!

I'm back from traveling, which means I am entering the final countdown until I go home, since I am not leaving Valencia until I leave.

As of right now, I will be home in 27 days.

27 DAYS....I had to repeat it.

That's less than a month....and less than 4 weeks....incredible.

Blog about the trip will be coming soon.

The nice part about coming home to Valencia was that the weather was beautiful today, and I spent the day at the beach...so nice. All for now--I will write more later!