My final round of...PAELLA!

On Sunday afternoon my host mom fixed me my ninth and final round of paella for lunch at the beach home. Since the rice just fills me up so fast, a fourth of my portion was saved and fed to Mio, the family's dog, who is so wild. He runs really fast and looks like a tumbleweed or gigantic furball, which he is. Nevertheless, he LOVES to pounce on people and give kissy-licks. When I'm standing up, he loves to lick my TOES!

My ninth round of paella...the ninth round happens to be the final round but it sure doesn't feel that way. In order for the ninth round to feel complete with no other paella platters to come, it would have to be followed by a tenth round, since the number ten feels like completion in such a way. In God's eyes, seven is the number of completion, but when we were kids, we had to learn how to count to ten as one of our first milestones. Ten happens to be the first number with two digits, which makes it seem so important. Just as nine falls short of ten, so my ninth helping of paella, in a way, falls short of being the last one. Maybe this means something: maybe I'll have my tenth round if I come back to visit my host family some day. Pray that God will work something out as I would LOVE to come back to visit and see more of ESPANA!

Reverse Culture Shock

In my opinion, leaving the States for a long period of time is like being temporarily snapped out of your life at home. I feel as though somebody pressed the "pause" button on the video of my life in SoCal. And when I come back, the "play" button will be pressed back into action, and though it will be the beginning of August, in my mind it will still feel like the middle of June! This experience is sort of like what the Pevensie kids go through in The Chronicles of Narnia. They escape into the wardrobe after their cricket ball smashes through the professor´s window. After dealing with their obstacles in Narnia, the kids age a few years before once again coming back through the wardrobe and into reality. Once they come out of the wardrobe for the last time, the kids look exactly the same as when they first went into hiding. Their life continues from where they left off, and must now face the obstacle of confessing to the professor about their ball smashing through his window. Maybe when I come to my host family´s house to spend my last night before flying home, I´ll open the door to my room and find myself back in my own room in California. I will look exactly the same as I did a few days before flying into Madrid, with my long hair and all.

These shoes were made for walkin'...walkin' to the beach and the countryside...ending with my eighth round of...PAELLA!!!

On Friday, the "Mando-Man" took us to visit a couple of shoe factories in order for us to get a taste of the economical side of Spain. The factories we visited were Panama Jack´s (predominately a hiking/recreational boot factory, which hopefully got your attention, DAD!) and Pikolino´s which makes virtuously all types of shoes from the finest materials and machines. We saw a 3-D video (complete with glasses) in the Pikolinos factory which explained the import-export business in Elche (the main city). I found out that the Panama Jack factory in America is known as Panama Joe´s. Have any of you heard of it, by any chance?

On Saturday I went back to Santa Pola via bus at 10:30 am and stopped by the mercadillos (open-air markets; swapmeets) to pick up Alexis´Christmas gift.....shhhhhhhhhhhhh.............I´m not saying another word...................................not until Christmas, so hang in there, baby! We spent the entire day at the beach along with Luciano once again, had lunch, spent the night (pretty much the same routine), but instead of heading home on Sunday we stopped by the countryside to visit my Spanish "extended family" (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, you name it!) of which I took a photo that you all will soon see. There was a swimming pool, so we all took a dip both before and after we feasted on my eighth round of YOU-KNOW-WHAT! The house was so interesting! The cooking facilities were old-fashioned-looking complete with stove and bread oven! There was an olive tree overlooking the pool so again I was reminded of the Man praying in the groves before sacrificing His life for us all.

This past weekend...comedy, tragedy, museums, beach, and SUPERMAN!

I went to see a drama on Thursday. It was set around the time of Shakespeare and was pretty dramatic which made it funny. The actors wore period costumes and played musical instruments in addition to acting out a love story in Spanish. On Friday we went to La Luz de las Imagenes in Alicante via train which were some exhibitions displaying various paintings of Christ´s true (holy) face, known as "Veronica" which is the meaning of the lady´s name: "true face" (vero = true; nica = face; I believe the language is Latin). The exhibitions took place in cathedral-like buildings (no photography allowed inside whatsoever; sorry) which also displayed illustrations of certain "miracles" associated with the painting of Christ´s face. One of them was of the painting multiplying itself three times (in front of a crowd of people watching) and another one depicted the "miracle of the tear": While a group of people were looking at the painting, a tear supposedly ran down Christ´s face and moments later it started to rain. Upon hearing this, I realized right off the bat thet the "tear" most likely was the first raindrop of the storm. As for the multiplying of the painting, I think that the group of people had gotten themselves arwy with sauce, cancer sticks (if they existed back then) and other forms of common, popular drugs, or maybe they actually did happen, but I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God only uses miracles sparingly and for the crucial benefits of others, not simply just to show people who He is by being show-offy with His power. I do believe that God does have special ways used in revealing Himself to people, but in very discreet ways. The so-called "miracles" illustrated in the paintings seemed to me like nothing but a magic show, especially since the Catholic Church associates miracles as being performed by their glorified "saints" alone rather than the Holy Spirit working through the saints (those who have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their Saviour). And like I said, when God displays His power, He does NOT show it off like a magician; this is what makes Him unique from all other gods and especially "miracle-workers" controlled by Satan, who absolutely LOVES to show people what he can do in such a manner. So PAY ATTENTION: If you hear of any magic show-like miracles happening in the news, chances are the person performing them is NOT of the true God, and is merely trying to lead people astray from the Truth. Remember what Jesus said about false prophets showing up in the last days! Do NOT be deceived!

On Saturday me and my host family (along with Luciano) went back to Santa Pola beach and spent the night there. We took sand and saltwater baths, dried ourselves off, showered off with freshwater, ate, and Saturday evening we watched the movie SUPERMAN dubbed in Spanish (Luciano is a big fan of Superman, but he fell asleep shortly after the movie started. Maybe he actually was Superman in his dreams and the Clark Kent we saw in the movie was actually him in the future as a grown man.). I told my host mom about the time when my brother dressed up as Superman for Halloween of 1988 (back when I was four and him two) as well as the RED TIGHTS he borrowed from me. While we were trick-or-treating, he ended up falling down on the sidewalk which skinned a hole in the knee so I never got to use my tights again (I was actually happy about that, since they were made of sweater-like material which I absolutely HATED!!!).

YET ANOTHER ROUND OF PAELLA!!!!!!!!

Well, I just had my SEVENTH round of paella yesterday in Santa Pola, this time with carne (meat/beef). I must have been really hungry because I nearly polished the whole thing off!

PAELLA UPDATE!

Wow! I never thought a new update would come this soon, but yesterday my host mom just made me my sixth round of paella for lunch, this time with shellfish! I believe this type is my favorite kind since the rice mixed with the seasoning kind of resembles beach sand and really creates a scenery with the seafood mixed in. Thank God the rice doesn´t taste like the sand, though. I remember going to the beach for a day trip back when I was about four years old. My mom packed me some cheetoes in my lunch (back when I actually LOVED those cheese-covered, rod-shaped nuggets of lard) and I accidently dropped a few in the sand. I didn´t think the sand would make any difference to the taste, but boy was I wrong. If I even described the new taste to you, I probably wouldn´t get this whole entry posted since I would be rushing to the bathroom. After this, I always complained about having to eat on the beach since sand will inevitably turn up in the food (especially if you are a little kid with sand-covered hands). I believe this was the trip with Aunt Mari, a friend of hers (maybe Beverly Johnson), a little girl named Noelle, a younger boy named Ryan, and a baby boy whose name has long been washed from my memory. Noelle and Ryan are the two kids I can definately remember, especially since Ryan was messing with the beads on my pigtails! Tonight I may be going to see a free play in the Patio de las Armas, inside the archaeological museum where we saw the original statue of the Dama de Elche. Tomorrow I will be going to the La Luz de las Imagenes exhibit in Alicante, which is required for my Spanish culture class. More about that on Monday when I have the chance to post another entry.

A tale of three sisters

Lorena, the middle daughter in my host family (who happens to be my age) is already in Paris working at Disneyland. She knows five languages: Spanish, French, English, Italian, and Catalan (a regional dialect similar to Spanish, but also a little different). I believe this is a summer job for her, since her career is in translation (she translates books into various languages). Her family will be visiting her in Paris, but not until long after I´m gone (boo-hoo for me since none of the other family members know French). As for my own career, I still don´t have any idea what I want to do, but Lorena´s job of translating books gave me the idea of actually translating some of Jackie´s romance novels (but this is all just wishful thinking; I believe she already has a translator and I´m not fluent enough to actually begin translating at least for now.). The other two daughters, Maria-Jesús (24) works at a shoe store and has shown me a pair of Flamenco shoes which are similar to those used for Mexican Folkorico, only they apparently run smaller. I only get to see her during lunch break when she comes home to eat with us and during the evening when she comes home for dinner. Her novio is named José and she will be getting married to him next summer in the same church where her mom was married back in Sept. 1979 and where her baptism took place as a baby. We both have been looking at different styles of wedding dresses together and I have drawn her some styles that I may like to wear if I am ever to make such a commitment in the (FAR) future. Zaida (16), the youngest daughter is with us all day except for when she goes shopping and baby-sitting Luciano. She´s the typical annoying teenage girl who likes to argue with her mom, wear the latest style of clothing (which I would NEVER be caught dead wearing), and hang out with friends and novios at the Centro Comercial. As for Jesús, the father, I only see him at dinnertime since he works at a gas station late in the day until closing time. My mom, Encarnita, works at home sewing and altering formal dresses and other types of clothing. She´s the one who is there to converse with me most of the time and is in the same age group as my friend Jackie. Although she´s the only one there to talk Spanish with me most of the time, it will be sad for me to leave all my host family members. However, we made promises to keep correspondence and the opportunity to visit if I am ever to return to Spain (maybe during my break time if I end up studying abroad in France for a year; but it won't likely be until after I graduate). Sometimes treasured moments bear a hefty price tag!

PAELLA UPDATE!

Before leaving for Barcelona (sometime last week), my host mom made me my fourth round of paella for lunch. Yesterday when we had lunch at the monastery, I had my fifth round which was kind of soupy. Armando told me that the soupy version is popular in the Catalan region. I´ll be posting more paella updates every time I sit down to dine on that dish once more.

BARCELONA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK ´I´m back to tell you what happened this past weekend. On Friday morning, we met at the park to leave for the big, beautiful city of Barcelona. As soon as we arrived, our first touring site was the Codorniu wine cellar where we again saw vineyards, wine caves (and LOTS of them!), and even a chandelier made out of green wine bottles! We even mounted a tram which took us around certain caves (and BOY was it like a Disneyland ride; Alexis you would have loved it!). I "stayed and tasted my first champagne" (against the wishes of Liesel's father in Sound of Music) and it tasted like the sparkling cider you drink around Christmastime, only it was bitter and lacked the marvelous apple flavor I always look forward to every year. Champagne is the main type of wine they make at the Codorniu. After the toast, we visited Parc Guelle, where the architecture looks just like the candy houses in Willy Wonka, Hansel and Gretel, and the kiddie game Candy Land. I found out that the last name of that particular architect was Gaudi, which is where I believe the adjective "gaudy" comes from to describe something that's way too much. And "too much" those houses were! The Sagrada Familia Cathedral was way over the top! It had steeples that were much too high and a facade that was much too wide with statues all over the place! I tried to get a quick picture of the impressive facade as the bus drove by it(we could not go inside; construction was underway) but it came out crooked. It will still look impressive to the eye, however. Speaking of statues, by the way, there were a couple people around the church wearing steel and copper coloured clothing and makeup that looked like the real thing! Since they were standing on pedestals, they looked like actual statues until I saw them move, which made me jump out of my skin! Armando took a picture of me with one of them and when you finally see it, you will NOT believe that the man I´m posing next to is an actual person! I also took a picture of a woman dressed as a copper statue of the Virgin Mary holding her child. We then toured a couple of art museums which illustrated the history of the Catalan region (where Barcelona is located) as well as some Picasso and Miro museums. The Miro museum was pretty silly because he believed that in order to be a good artist, you had to go "back to the basics" and paint like a child again. I even took some pictures of his childish works of art in front of which you will laugh to the point of not being able to stop! Unfortunately, no form of photography (including taking pictures without flash) was allowed in the Picasso or Catalan museums, so I bought some postcards of my favorite Picasso paintings. The funny thing about Picasso was that later on in life he was running out of ideas, so he started painting his own interpretations of previous paintings made by other artists. His own versions of Velasquez' Las Munecas were funny to look at since they look something like the characters in The Nightmare Before Christmas! The Seminary (which was actually a monastery) was beautiful because it looked something like the gardens of the Alhambra outside! Once I am able to download my pictures, they will definately tell you more of what I saw!