The MaMoose!

Hey everyone! These last few weeks have been so great here, let me catch you up on a few things.

A week ago the whole group went to El Escorial, which I'm not even exactly sure which city it's in, but it's the palace and basilica that Philip II built. It was really big and it was built in a grid formation to symbolize the grill that somebody was martyred on...can't remember who. I liked it, but since some of it is still in use we didn't get to see a lot of it. We also went to Valle de Los Caidos that day. This was a basilica that Franco built during his rule to commemorate those who had "fallen for God, and for Spain" during the Spanish civil war. The only thing is all the republics who had lost the war lost thousands of lives doing labor to built that exact building for Franco...and then Franco himself is buried right in the Cathedral behind the altar and Christ on the cross. It all was so interesting and different, so I liked it, but at the same time I really didn't like it because it just had a different feel to it. It's such a controversial issue in Spain...before going, my Padre told me to turn my back to Franco's grave and not show him any respect. The location of the building is really neat; it's built into a mountain that looks out on this beautiful valley filled with green forestry. On top of it there's a cross that's around 300 feet, and there's a statue of Christ that they say is so big you'd be able to sit in his hand. It all looks really neat, and the inside is filled with granite and marble. It just had a weird feel to it...

This last weekend a small group of us went to San Sebastian and Bilbao. We took a 6 hour train ride to Bilbao, and that actually wasn't too bad. haha, I kept thinking, just add three more hours and I could go back to the states for a visit(my flight over was 9 hours). The four of us, Dani, Emily, Brock, and I all got to know each other really well!

Our first day in San Sebastian was so great! We spent the day hiking all over the place to gorgeous views of the beach and the ocean. We spent some time playing in the sand and water a little bit as well, and made friends with a fisherman there named Alberto. He was a funny old man, and wanted us to take a picture with him, and then send it to him. He was telling us all the good places to go, and made sure to tell us not to go see any of the modern art sculptures there, because it's definitely not art. He also gave us a small geology lesson on how the rocks were formed there from the ocean over time...haha. For lunch we tried some tasty tapas, or mini sandwich things that usually have a type of meat and cheese, or something delicious on it. I had one with raw salmon and some kind of sauce, then a baked cod one, and then one with ham and mango! It was a tasty lunch, and to top it off we found a pastry shop for a little dessert. We were so lucky to have great weather too! It was beautiful all day!

Our next day in Bilbao was also a good one. We spent the morning going through the fish and meat market and found things such as pig heads, whole piglets, cow snouts, lamb heads w/ eyeballs still intact, octopus, squid, eel...and many other great things! We took a nice long walk through this huge park, and then took a funicular, or tram, up to the top of this mountain to look at the view of the entire city. We hiked back down after, and you'd think going down would be pretty easy, but the path we took ended up going up and down a few times, and it was a pretty intense hike! The views were all really good of the city along the river below us. We could see the Guggenheim art museum really well, and it looked awesome! After getting to the bottom, we spent the next three hours in the Guggenheim museum looking at all the crazy modern art. I liked a lot of it...but some of it was too crazy for me...and after three hours I think we had all had enough of modern art.

We topped the day of with some kebobs, and we asked for la salsa picante, because that's the best way to do it...so we thought. We were expecting some sauce similar to what we had had before on other kebobs, but this sauce really was HOT! my lips, my mouth, and my throat were all on fire, and I’m pretty sure my body temperature raised a few degrees, haha. I think the restaurant guy had a good laugh watching us try to eat the kebobs and then down our glasses of water. Needless to say, they were still delicious!

We headed to the airport for our flight home, and that was the end of our trip... and it was so fun! We all had so much fun laughing and making jokes with each other. It was a fun group to spend a weekend with. San Sebastian and Bilbao were amazing too, so I really had a lot of fun all weekend. It was the "MaMoose"... or in other words... really really awesome, maybe even the best.

Tomorrow morning, we all start another trip to Salamanca, Santiago de Compostela, and Leon. It's great, there's almost no time for school! haha, anyway, I miss you all! Have a great day!