:D

TRIP PLANNING!!!

personally, i love planning. Im one of those people who loves to plan, but after the main skeleton of a trip is made, and adhered to, i enjoy an adventure to the fullest with security which is necessary for me to have a good time.
One trip that almost killed me was christmas break, which as three weeks of planning/not planning. very interesting stuff.
Recently my friends and i have decided to go to Alicante for spring break. it is a small town under sagunto, only heard of it, i know its by a beach (check)!
it will be very nice to get out of sagunto/the school for a little bit and recharge for the final stretch of school.
planning is going on for next year, including housing and classes. hopefully i will be able to graduate next year...ok, not hopefully, I WILL graduate, hopefully i will be able to graduate with what i want to graduate with :)

Rain

Common knowledge dictates that rain has a renewing element in it's presence. 

Lord of the Rings cites it this way:

"Éowyn: The city has fallen silent. There is no warmth left in the sun. It grows so cold.
Faramir: It's just the damp of the first spring rain. I do not believe this darkness will endure." 

Today we had the dampening of the first spring rain. With thunder AND lightening, both of which i have learned to appreciate more that i have appreciated in the United States. 

Darker days are behind me, the sun is coming out!

Transition, 12 March-25 march

Pause...rest...carry on

12-15 March: A few of weeks ago was the last week of the second trimester. Finals were not very hard, which was a good thing, but i believe the one thing that really got me that week was the amount and the exactness required. Usually if youre writing a paragraph for history class, you know the answer, but you dont say it in the exact words the teacher gives the answer, the credit will still be given because of the jest. This was not the case for this history final. There were several paragraphs we had to memorize and if they were not given in the exact words, points were definitely taken off. I believe i got most of the questions of this manner correct. I suppose i shall see in a couple of days. 

Grammar and Conversation was, meh, could have done better...well, scratch that, i did my best! I owned those tests. Especially when i wrote on my conversation test that i learned more conversation tools in grammar than in conversation class. Its all good. 

Taking finals was an adequate price for the week that followed. 

16-23 March: We had this week off for the festival in Valencia called Las Falles. Many of Spain's different cities have different festivals that they are known for such as Pampalona is known for the run of the bulls.

Las Falles is made up with different elements. The main attractions for Las Falles are the Ninots. Ninots are statues of different themes/characters made out of a hard foam material. Themes range from the protests/unemployment to Jack the Pumpkin King to scantily clad women to Steve Jobs and other apple related points in history. These figures range from 3 feet high to the height of a small building. 

There are a few specific events that is vital to attend if you are to attend Las Falles in Valencia. 

    1. Mescleta: this event is located in the main square where the "town hall" is located. There is a whole big area that is fenced off and a field of fire crackers are placed in a specific order to go off to make a whole show of it. These arent your run-of-the-mill fire crackers. The majority of the fire crackers are all sound and no show. Boring? Far from it! These fire crackers are the LOUDEST things your little ears will hear...unless you have been in a war zone. Then that would have the equal decimal. The mescleta usually lasts for about 5-6 minutes of teeth shattering booms. 

   2. Fireworks: forget all the fireworks you have seen in your lifetime. All you need to see are the fireworks in Valencia and your firework life would be complete. The process to get to the fireworks was a little less impressive. Valencia at this point in time was naturally full to the brim, but have an event in one fixed area and you will see a real european crowd. "European crowd" meaning people all grinding up each other just to get a good space, rolling joints in the midst of the crowd, blowing smoke into your face, and finally couples making out in all directions. Don't get me wrong, i enjoyed myself fully (not under any influence of anything mind altering)! and the fireworks, although seen only partially was a show i will never forget!

 Earlier that night my friends and i attended a little Flamenco event by a singer and a spanish guitar player. The event was very enjoyable, spanish culture at its finest! i dont always listen to screamo, but when i do, its Flamenco. Following Flamenco we went to a spectacle in the Plaza de Torros. There was a contest between two teams, green and blue, to see how many times they could coax the bull onto different obstacles set in various places in the sand. This was my first time in the gladiator-esque colosseum. I was really excited and i was not disappointed! 

  3. La Crema (fire night). You would think that after making all the ninots, after all the skill that was put into them, the ninots would be saved, or go to a undefined place for hoarding purposes. well you thought wrong! On the final night of Las Falles all the Ninots, small and big, are set out throughout the city of Valencia and 10pm and after get lit up and demolished faster than you can sing a hymn. The smaller ninots are burned up before the big ones, which start to occur around 1am. After all the hard work, BAM, gone! It is very entertaining to watch all the onlookers doing their thing until you here fireworks at the Ninot you are standing at, (it is impossible to see all of them get burned, so you have to pick one and pray you got a good spot to make the 2 hours standing there worth your while) and then everyone's attention pulled to the blaze in front of you. AH so exhilarating  I heard a rumor that "la crema" symbolizes the protestants being burned at the stake. Makes sense, but i dont fully believe this theory. Spaniards are just dramatic like that. If you dont believe me, youve never seen a spanish soap opera. 

The trains are a popular form of transportation, this is a fact in Europe (even though they are hella expensive). On the way back to the school on the firework night was a business and a half. Thankfully the girls i was with hustled back to the train station before the crowd, but on our train back to Sagunto, that was the fullest ive ever seen a train here get. People were standing every which way and that, kinda like the metro in Washington DC during rush hour, but in Europe :)

This past week: The start of the third and final trimester. those words are like honey on a ritz cracker. OH so beautiful. Don't get me wrong, i love europe, i especially love spain, and i want to create a life here, but i have a huge hole in my heart for my people. 

Everyone says this trimester goes in a flash. I can understand why, seeing that we had a week of school, and we have school for a few more days and then we set off on spring break, or Semana Santa (Holy week [Easter]). right after we return from spring break we are off to our Madrid trip with the school for another week. Then add all the "end of the year" parties. 10 more weeks. I need to, both, take full advantage of my time here and start organizing my life in the United States so when i get back i dont fail at life. That is at the point i am at right now. So far i have all my classes lined up to graduate next may, by God's grace and mercy, and who knows what will come afterwards. 

i hate to play favorites, but...

favorite lady singers

Liza Minnelli
Barbara Streisand
Natalie Cole
Shirley Bassey

favorite gentleman singers

Frank Sinatra (duh)
Dean Martin
Nat King Cole
Beatles

favorite movies

500 Days of Summer
LotR and everything that comes with it



favorite musicals (a part of movies)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Moulin Rouge
Yentl
Cabaret
Les Miserables
Fiddler on the Roof

my whirlwind

The way this school works is that each person has to help out in the cafeteria one Sabbath out of the year, to help the lunch ladies not have such a heavy load for the specialness of Sabbath  Well, this was my Sabbath. cafe duty meant being there for each meal to help serve the food and then clean up afterwards. no taxing at all after what ive done in the past at the Highland View Academy cafe, the Mount Aetna camp cafe, and then finally at the Deli at Southern. It actually kinda brought me back to good times. we got to wear awesome aprons and hair nets! teehee, greatness! Thankfully i was able to do it with a dear friend of mine so it wasnt so boring :)

I havent really published anything about this at all, but after i got back from cafe duty for breakfast, i came back to a text from my mom saying that my grandmother past away the previous night. My grammy was living in a assisted care facility under the careful watch of my grandfather, aunt, uncle, their other grandchildren, and whenever my parents and the other "kids" were able to make it. my grammy had a very full life. she got to see children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. I believe God took her into his care so she would not have any more pain and sorrow. This is what i posted on facebook that i feel is completely fitting for this time. We (at least Adventists) believe that the dead are only sleeping, only to awake what feels like 5 minutes to Jesus' face in the clouds.

"11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him."

John Chap 11:11-15 NKJ


Jesus is coming soon, and when we all go to heaven we shall eat yummy fruits, walk the streets of gold, and my personal favorite, sit on Jesus' lap and hear stories :)

CASTLE
After lunch duty, my friend and i walked back to our rooms and went off on an adventure with some other friends to the castle in our little town. As we are walking down a little old man comes up and we say "hola" and all and then he starts telling us about a festival to kick off Las Falles. (Las Falles is a festival in Valencia, which it is famously known for). It was really cool to talk to a random local that imparted an awesome piece of knowledge to a random group of Americans :D! We still had three hours until we had to be in the town so we continued up the streets to go into the castle.

There are two main parts of the "castle" and we had only gone to one of the parts, so we were going to go to the other part. The trail was very scewed. Multiple trails going this way and that, Megan and i decided to scale the mountain that was daunting us while the others took a seemingly easier route.
Our experience climbing the mountain and storming the castle was unforgettable!

The castle is on a hill. The hill is covered with either grass, rocks, or cacti. If your not on one youre stepping on the other, and you hope and pray that youre not about to step on a cactus leaf or stepping wrong on a rock (which i did a couple of times and scared megan :p) A few cacti got me and i had little red dots on my legs, definitely not acne, so the cacti seemed to be the culprit. The castle walls were huge and tall. We were trying to fine a secret entrance , that we thought would be there, so we can get INTO the castle. but after a while, we came across what looked to be one, but it was all closed off....not so secret i suppose :) other discoveries included a well/pit that we assumed to go down into the dungeons. there was no way of getting back up if there was no hole on the other end so we decided not to risk it and kept walking. At first we tried to follow the walls right up against them. But when there was a drop off at one of the walls we decided to go down and walk further away from the castle. We had a wonderful view of Sagunto that we dont usually see including sketch parts of town and the sea closer than normal! 

We ended up circling the whole entire castle! it was getting time to head back for cafe duty (dinner) so we headed the direction of the main plaza. We didnt really know where we were going, but we just walked and hoped for the best! On our way we went down a street and found a cat! It totally jumped on me and started to purr and nuzzle my hand, like my late Daisy would do, AH, so exhilarating. We had to leave it, but i knew Serena would be totally jealous :p We went down a street which megan commented that was really cute. It was!! if someone actually took cafe of it (no one was really inhabiting it) it would be one of those romantic/cute "calles" (streets) you would see in the photographs! We walked on further and found a puddle of blood...sketchy...

When we got to the main plaza the parade was still going on. there were a good number a people there, the different "floats" were such as an owl and a big purple...thing!
We walked back to the school with some help on the final climb to the school (thank God because we were almost late...we werent tired or anything....lies)

Right after dinner duty there was a talent show for los americanos and los espanoles.  Acts included cup games, Lion King medley by Eloise and Jonathan, Im Feeling Good (cover of Michael Buble) and New York (cover of Frank Sinatra) who won? New York...OF COURSE! it was beautiful, and everyone loved it! Im not really sure what was happening, but i think the judges were copying judges from a famous Spanish game contest, but they were very similar to American Idol, (including a Simon wanna-be).

By the end of the day i was plum tuckered out, i got to my room, watched 5 minutes of my favorite show and zonked out.
ZZZZZzzzZZzzzzzzzzZz

Overall, even though my grandmother dying put a damper on my day, like it should, shes my grandmother afterall, Jesus helped brighten my spirits and kept me at peace. I wish i could be with my family at this time, but there will be other times for fellowship and celebrating life, which i will save for later, buenas noches a todo el mundo!

besitos! (kisses)