For My Own Amusement: The Trivial Musings of an Even Less Trivial Muser: April 2013

Yes, Spring is finally here, or at least the weather and my allergies tell me. Sunshine, warm weather, cool breezes, green, flowers, leaves, sore throats, runny noses, congestion, Oh the diversity of Spring. I think the good of Spring out weighs the bad for me, but the allergies have been a bit of a drag. Anyways, let's get started, shall we?

Another nice thing about warm weather here is that clothes dry faster. Yup, that's something I've forgotten to mention, they don't use dryers here because most of the time there's practically negative humidity. They hang there clothes to dry, and (on nice warmer days) are dry within an hour or two, even when hung in the house. The biggest downside is that things then need to be ironed afterwards, and the Spanish iron everything, even underwear. Seriously, ain't nobody gonna be seeing that, why do you need to iron underwear? Another downside is having to wait longer for clothes to dry on days that are rainy or cold, but hey, overall it's not that bad and it saves a lot of energy. Go Spain!

A picture of the apparatus used to hang clothes on.

One other thing before we jump into the week, an instant recipe for making every day better.

Step 1: Set a picture of your most-adorable-baby-in-the-wolrd nephew as the background to your phones start-up screen.

Step 2: See the picture every time you turn on your phone to do anything.

Step 3: Enjoy, smile, laugh, and remember life is good!

So, my week. Tuesday I didn't really do anything but work on my blog and have a bit of a lazy day off.

Wednesday is when the allergies really started with sore throat and congestion (they now (Tuesday, 23) have mostly cleared up). Only a few kids showed up to our English class so we had a more chillax time and had some fun doing draw-over printing, where you put things under the paper and color over it and end up with a print of it. I was surprised that none of them had done it before, but was glad to see that they all enjoyed it.

Thursday Reneé and I went to Madrid for a team meeting with B. and M. But we ended up having a bit of miscommunication because I thought that we weren't particularly traveling together from Hoyo, and we'd both catch whatever bus we caught, but Reneé thought that we were going together and so waiting for the other person. Well I happened to catch the earlier bus, and Reneé ended up waiting for me not knowing I had already got on a bus, and so then because of me she ended up late. I felt pretty bad about it since we do usually travel together, I just had thought that this time we weren't, but I think things worked out in the end ok, I just don't like being the cause of discomfort or confusion or frustration.

At the meeting we mostly talked about our the project we are now going to be doing. It's pretty open ended, it just has to be completed by May 31st, we have to grow through doing whatever it may be, and it has to benefit God's Church in some way. I have some ideas of what I might do, so probably more on that to come later.

Friday was a pretty bad day, not gonna lie. I woke up with allergies doing a bit better, but still with a lot of congestion (with needed lots of tissues/toilet paper) and a sore throat (which meant still no singing, and for those of you who know me, that's a biggy). I then had a quite unproductive morning of pretty much doing nothing and not getting anything done and just going along with the blugh feeling. I had a decent Spanish class, but that's about the only thing that got done that morning.

And then the real kill-joy, English class. The weather was super nice and the kids weren't. They wouldn't listen, obey, be quite, participate, sit down, be respectful, stop complaining. And wishing to be out in the nice weather, which I can understand, didn't help either. The longest hour and a half class I've ever had to teach, it just went on and on. Came straight home and just crashed on my bed.

I got woken up two and a half hours later by a phone call from my host mom asking if I wanted to go get a Kebab for dinner. So dinner was good that evening, but the day as a whole is something I am glad is a bygone.

So Saturday was sort of my recovery day, and as we should all know by now, an Asher Recovery Day starts with a nice morning sleep-in.

After that first step (the sleeping in) I had lunch at my host mom's restaurant, and the food was incredible, as usual. My main platter was roast duck with an orange tangy sweet sauce that was to die for. So I can't really say if I like duck or not because I was too focused on loving the sauce it was doused in.

After lunch I came home and watched most of "The Mask of Zorro" on TV, so nice to relive some great childhood times. Oh Zorro, my childhood is grateful to you, as well as my Saturday self, you provided a great refresher.

After my host mom got off work she called me to see if I'd be interested to go for a short walk, and I said sure, so off we went. We were joined by one of her friends, and we ended up walking for about two and a half hours.

And then to top the day off I had more delicious food at El Vagón.

A great way to have a good day after having a bad day! :D

Some photos of our walk. If you look closely you can see Madrid in the distance.

You can also see Madrid in this picture.

A panoramic that has a bit too much sun.

Sunday was a normal day with Madrid church and people time in the morning and then Hoyo's in the evening. Good day.

Monday, as usual, was the day my host mom has off and so the day we go on an adventure. This Monday we went to Salamanca, a city about two hours car ride from Hoyo. The whole city was gorgeous and had a great uniformity to it. Unlike most places we've visited that have one or two attractions or monuments or histories, Salamanca felt like one big complete monument with lots of little parts that contributed to that completeness. It was all just so pretty, so uniform, so intricate, and just all around lovable.
We went in the Cathedral, but only the "new" addition because we decided we didn't particularly want to pay to see the old(er) part. But it turns out we got to see at least part of it anyway, because we did decide to pay to climb up its towers which included a look into the main area of the old part. We visited the Casa de Conchas (the house of seashells), which was an old building that had been converted into a library and art display area. We also went into the main university there (there are a few, it's sort of university town) the oldest university in Spain, and the Plaza Mayor (Main Square), and saw a Roman Bridge. That's a pretty old bridge, people, Roman. Came home to a restful evening after the long day.
So here are some pictures.

The Cathedral

Oh, I just love the intricacy, detail, and care that is in everything. And there is so much of it to, everything is so big.

I love taking pictures up the pillars towards the engulfing ceilings.

Of all the art mediums, the wood work is usually my favorite. It has such a natural grace and delicate form.

I liked how the light fell mainly just on one frame, so pretty.

There was a mirror near the center so you could get an easy view of the incredible ceiling above you.

And so I took a selfie with it :)

The dome was absolutely incredible. One thing I liked about the whole cathedral was the blue accenting, on the pillars, in the dome, on the ceilings.

Tell me that doesn't take your breath away.

Awesome ceiling.

Close up of that blue accenting I was talking about.

And we're back outside.

I'm not sure what the building in the middle is, but it sure looks nice. The one on the left is the Casa de Conchas, as you might be able to guess by the seashell pattern on it's wall.

The inside of the Casa de Conchas.

The shells on the door.

No idea what this is, but cool :)

La Plaza Mayor, were we had lunch, ice cream, great views, and enjoyed the sunshine.

Me eating lunch.

And me eating ice cream.

This is the main door to the university. Somewhere in all this design there is a skull with a frog on it that is said to give good luck to those who can see/find it.

Oh wait, whats that...

What do you know, there it is. It actually ended up not being that hard to find because there were lots of people looking for it, pointing to it, and what not.

Some random people looking for it.

Inside the University, looking back on the entrance we walked through.

Looking out on the courtyard.

I found this chest really interesting. Try picking that lock.

The university chapel.

The door to the old library. The library itself was blocked off with glass, but it was till impressive to look at.

All those book looked ancient, so intriguing.

Incredible wood-work ceiling outside the library.

A pretty door, that's all.

Another great wood-work ceiling.

And another mirror like in the cathedral for looking at the ceiling, so of course another selfie.

The back of the cathedral as seen when exiting the university. This is the back, and it looks this incredible. Seriously, everything has such care and detail.