5.7.2012

I feel that I must say that in my opinion I have failed to utilize this blog in a way that accurately describes not only what I´m seeing and experiencing, but what I am thinking and how this experience has affected me. Too often I feel this blog has been a superficial recount of my day to day activites. I have also failed to update this blog regularly. So to you, my readers, I apologize. Now, let´s get down to business. It would be an understatement to say that April flew by. On March 30th I took a trip with some of my friends to Barcelona and on April 2nd, Chris (my roommate) and I took a trip Gibraltar. Both were really cool, but both were very different. Barcelona was your typical metropolitan city while Gibraltar was a smaller city with lot´s of tax-free shopping but most of the tourist attractions were more outdoorsy. In Barcelona we saw the Sagrada Familia, a Roman Catholica basilica that to this day has not been finished despite the fact that construction of the church began in 1883. Other sites visited were the Picasso Art Museum, Park Guell, the Cathedral of Barcelona, and an outdoor market. Then Chris and I headed to Gibraltar to explore the rock of Gibraltar and the natural park there. Let´s just say I had never experienced being so close to wild apes that I could touch them. The park also included other sites to explore such as a Moorish castle, a cave, and tunnels that were dug by the British military in the 1700s. Unfortunately, as many of you have already heard, the trip ended on sort of a bad note on the way back to Granada. Upon arriving to Malaga I discovered that my backpack had been stolen from the luggage compartment under the bus. The backpack contained my camera, computer, wallet, clothes, and my passport. I was really blessed however to have great program directors who helped me take care of everything including helping me file a police report and setting up an appointment at the US embassy in Madrid. I was also blessed that my roomate and my parents were so helpful in getting me money and that my dad took care of all the insurance issues (which I am also grateful to have had). All in all, the experience was a huge hassle, but everything turned out ok, even though I my backpack was never returned to me. I was able to get an emergency passport which was a huge blessing as I´ve been able to travel and will be able to go home on my scheduled return date. We returned to Granada from Gibraltar during Holy Week, which is the major holiday here in Spain. It´s interesting that here they celebrate the death/sacrifice of Christ rather than the resurrection. All of the catholic churches participate in the festivites of Holy Week, with each church making a procession around the city. Each church has it´s own "image" that they carry all around the city. The images are usually of Jesus or the virgin Mary. Each image is adorned with gold or silver, flowers, and insence. Many of the processions also feature a band that marches behind the image. Unfortunately, it rained most of the week so many of the processions were cancelled. Here are a few pictures of what these images look like:

The rest of April was pretty uneventful. Life here became even more routine and my time mostly consisted of going to class. I´m continuing to tutor once a week and am continuing to feel more like a part of the community at the church I´ve been attending. The end of April came with a short break at the beginning of May. I took the opportunity to do some traveling both with my friends and by myself. The last weekend of April I went to Carboneras, a beach town here in Spain with a few of my friends. From there I traveled to Madrid to catch a flight to Rome. In two and a half days I saw the Vatican, the Trevi fountain, the Palatino, the Roman Forum, and the Coloseum, and the Patheon. I also went to Pompeii, a free outdoor concert, and ate real Italian pizza and gelato! From Rome I went to Sevilla, Spain where I met up with a few of my friends from my program. We hung out and spent the night in Sevilla. The the next day (Friday May 4th) we went to Lagos, Portugal with a group of students both from our program and with other programs as well. Portugal was beautiful and overall the trip was really fun! I´m finally back in Granada. It´s hard to believe that I only have two weeks of class and a week of exams left in Spain. I know it´s going to go by really fast as the end of the semester class work piles on. I´m looking forward to enjoying these next few weeks and hopefully learn as much as I can. I know this is a very brief summary of all that I´ve been doing, but this will ahve to suffice for now. As always, thanks for reading!