Falla Fiesta

Wow I am blogging quite a bit, huh? Well, yesterday we had a "fiesta" with about 30 of my neighbors (a bit like a block party). It was raining, but we all crammed in this little shed behind our plaza. Lindsay was able to come with me to enjoy the craziness. Maite was definately the life of the party with her "Reina"(Queen) get-up on. Speaking of queens, we ate like them as you can see with the large pot of meat and appetizers. We also had plenty of drinks on the table, none of which Lindsay and I participated in of course :) Needless to say, it may have been raining outside, but that didn't bother any of us! Enjoy the pics.
Above: cebollas (onions) and carne (meat)

Vicen, the Visman, Maria Jose (neighbors)

Vicen is a fisherman. I was chatting with him and it turns out that he spent 3 years in San Diego, California with a group working in some marina-pretty interesting.

Linds and I were a bit scared of Maite. Wouldn't you be!

Quiero presentarle a nuestra Reina.

La Pasteleria

Shoot. I just wrote a whole bunch and it got erased. Short version: I am working in a bakery for my ethnographic study about 2 hours 3 days/week. It's a great experience because I chat with the natives! Susanna is on the right. She is from Pais Vasco (Northern Spain) and yes, mom, she is 32. Vero, on the left, has been living in Denia for quite some time and is mother of 2.

Forn means "Horno" which is another dialect in Spain(Valenciano) for "oven". My co-workers speak in Valenciano (the other dialect), which is quite like French, but I can understand a bit of it. I didn't get a picture of them, but in our store as well is Miguel, the owner, and Cristina (his daughter). I don't get paid, but I do get free pastries and what not--works for me!! Until later.

Aha

Oprah always talks about the “Aha” moments in life—where you encounter something that’s seemingly so simple, yet excitingly profound. I have some extra time on my hands and have been reading quite a bit. This passage from Shauna Niequist’s book entitled Cold Tangerines was one of my “Aha” moments and so I thought I’d spread the wealth.

Everything is interim. Everything is a path or preparation for the next thing, and we never know what the next thing is. Life is like that, of course, twisty and surprising. But life with God is like that exponentially. We can dig in, make plans, write in stone, pretend we’re not listening, but the voice of God has a way of being heard. It seeps in like smoke or vapor even when we’ve barred the door against any last-minute changes, and it moves us to different countries and different emotional territories and different ways of living. It keeps us moving and dancing and watching, and never lets us drop down into a life set on cruise control or a life ruled by a remote control. Life with God is a daring dream, full of flashes and last-minute exits and generally all the things we’ve said we’ll never do. And with the surprises comes great hope.

You’re all saying it eh? “Aha!”

Denmark

What a superb trip. First of all, the travel could not have gone more smoothly. This was a big deal to us because all of our “mama’s and papa’s” doubted we would even make it to the airport in time to catch our plane. Well, we navigated our way through the train system and ended in Arhus, Denmark. Arhus is a little college town on the Norwegian Sea. We arrived at night, so everything was shut down, but we couldn’t wait to see the city in the light—it was adorable.

Friday morning and afternoon, our group split up and Lindsay and I took the scenic path through the city: looking into shops, buying fresh bread, spending way too much money (Linds), scoping out good pizza places etc. We kept commenting to eachother, “How many H&M’s do they have?” or “this all looks so familiar”… It was because it was all familiar and after the third loop around, I realized that they don’t have parallel streets and that we were going in circles the entire day. Oops. Needless to say, if anyone needs a tour of Arhus, Lindsay and I know the city (well part of it) quite well.

For dinner (and lunch again on Saturday) we stopped at a pizza joint. We were thrilled because the pizza was super cheap AND they had ranch dressing (something you don’t see in Spain); we were ecstatic! In Arhus as well, they had at least five 711’s with the slushy machine. One more culture difference we noticed going from Spain to Denmark was that first, they had tall people, and second, all the people were gorgeous. There we sat, 6 Americans, warming up in the middle of the mall, bundled in scarves and mittens and hoodies, surrounded by our packs, while all around us the “fashionable” Danes walked casually in their well planned get up for the day. It was a sight to be seen.

We made it back to Denia at about 2am.

There has been a slight change in the weather—a bit rainy and chilly—but, I won’t start complaining because I know what you are all going through in Michigan! Today I am free from class, but have plans to go to the bakery and do my homework that I have been putting off for some time now. Love you all and miss you as well.


The Pizza was huge and they had RANCH!!

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These strollers were all around. My mom used to push us around with a stroller like this, so I was super excited!

Just to say hi

I am about to go into class right now, but I just wanted to say hey. This weekend I don't have any special plans, but am looking forward to just vegging. I think tonight some of the gals and I are going to go to the cliffs or for a small hike and have a picnic. That should be fun. I had a great LONG chat with mom yesterday and things in G.R. seem to be very COLD!!

New news: Drew found a job in Denver, Colorado!! I am so excited for him. He is living right now with 2 other buddies in a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment :) They have a blog as well. It's grandrapidsrefugees.blogspot.com. Check it out. Okay, I'm late for class. later