La Rama de Santiago (The Branch (church members))

Some "Yankis" ,(Yankees) as they call United States citizens here in Spain, came to visit one Sunday so we had a group picture. I´m in the back row, marroon top. The normal number of atendees is about half of the people in the picture. =) It´s small...but easy to get to know everyone!

Hay que Estudiar

So...after months of rain, we are having beautiful weather, with afternoon rainshowers that leave the air smelling so springy and rainbows in the clouds. I have discovered through some accidental exploration (perhaps the best kind!) that there are some really beautiful neighborhoods/architecture here in Santiago de Compostela. Or maybe it´s just my perspective that has changed that makes them appear so. No matter what it may be, I´m finding that time is finally slowing down a bit, or at least enough to really start to appreciate more of my surroundings. Sometimes, one good thing will happen to you in a day, and it´s enough to keep you motivated for weeks. I think there have been times in my life when I took all these ¨motivations¨ for granted because they were a lot more frequent. However, when you have to truly seek out or reflect on the good things of the day, you begin to appreciate a lot more the details once overlooked. Well, enough of this blabbering. I´m content, healthier, and happy, despite the month of Saturdays it´s going to take to get through all the readings I need to finish! But...all things work out in the end, that is if I do my part. =) Hasta liguiño...hope Spring is nice for ya´ll. PS: My address has changed--I´ll be posting the new one soon!

los EEUU (the USA)

Hello...Well, I've been on a long break...I returned back to the US for about a week to surprise my brother Andrew, 2nd Lt. Kolb, for his Marine commissioning and college graduation. It was a really fun week back home, although the travel to and fro I could've done without. I'm in hard-core study mode right now as we are nearing the end of classes and the examination period of approximately one month will begin in June. So, that's the update, hopefully I'll have some more exciting trips to tell about in the near future. I think Portugal is calling.... =) From what I hear, it's beautiful. Until then....

Flower bouquet!!

Mari- a chica from Portland, OR, surprised me one afternoon with this beautiful bouquet of hand-picked fresh flowers. She said she needed a study break! My study breaks usually consist of just wasting time/unproductiveness, what a great idea Mari! =) She said some people were looking at her funny in the park, but that´s ok. =)









Amy with the colorful bunch of flowers that are now sitting on my desk and I am so very carefully trying to preserve their longevity. =) (Kaleb....your picture you drew for me is right behind me...thank you!)

English/Drawing Classes

Drawing a portrait of Nelson....ha...I should actually say attempting to draw with good intentions, but in the end, it really didn´t resemble anybody I´ve even seen before. Yikes! And of course the photographer Flor, snapping away memories of this fond occasion. =)

Shutterfly pics

Hola otra vez
If you are interested in seeing the majority of pictures from the Seville trip photo album as well as some other albums; here is a link to Shutterfly to check them out. Also, sorry about the duplicate entry, I wasn´t sure if it worked the first time and can´t figure out how to erase it.

Seville photo albums: (you´ll probably have to copy and paste these links)

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Sunny day in Santiago photos:

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España album (first month here):

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Kaleb´s Chocolate Store:

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Flores

The beautiful flower arrangements on the religious-themed floats for the Holy Week. I can´t imagine carrying this thing on my shoulders, but they do! Strong españoles! The floweres were so pretty and the insense smelled good too. I´m discovering the smell of spring is finally here, blossoms, fresh cut grass, rained-on-sidewalks...it´s all good, even for someone who barely has a sense of smell. =0)

Standing in front of la Plaza de Toros. I would´ve loved to see what it looked like inside but that´s ok. The outside is quite impressive on its own. It was pretty hot in Sevilla when we were there and this was the day we had to catch the bus back to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. We spent all day sightseeing, taking pics, and catching glimpses of the impressive religious processions this time of year (la Pascua- Easter). One woman said it reaches 40-50 C degrees here in the summers, yaaaooo! That´s scorching hot!




A nice gentleman offered to take our photo and lent us his newspaper to boot! =) Added affects are always nice. =) The picture is kind of dark, but the front page has the image of the Virgin María similiar to one which we saw in one of the processions we witnessed earlier that morning. Flor and I rested on this park bench for a bit, after being somewhat overwhelmed from the huge masses of crowds earlier. There was a long line of benches covered by a viney viranda along the riverside. Ahhhhh.....a picturesque afternoon here in Europe. =)
This is what I mean by ¨Procession¨. There are men carrying this extremely heavy float on their shoulders and they have to walk in a particular manner, sort of like moving from side to side. It´s really cool when they decide to take a rest because once they begin again, the entire float comes to life and flower pedals shower the streets from the rapid movement. They are real roses too! With the insense of the priests who pave the way, and the melodious music of the band in the rear, one can just stand there and soak up the entire experience with a content smile on her face. =0)

In front of the gates at Plaza de Toro......we were thinking of jumping the fence and taking a sneak peak, but decided against it in the end, since it was broad daylight and we would probably woudln´t look very inconspicuous. =) Darn it!

Water shots

Yeah. We didn´t really heed this sign...=) It was falling down so we didn´t technically see it until after we were off the dock. =) Ha ha, and when and fisher(getnle)man pointed out that we had taken enough pictures and needed to leave now.












This is Spain! It felt so European-ish here in Seville. This river behind me is where Christopher Colombus sailed when he´d bring back all the gold and silver from the Americas.

Más fotos de Sevilla

Sevillian Sunset. Need I say more? It was beautiful here.







Plaza de Toros. This is where they have the bull-fights. We weren´t able to enter but the bull fights beging this week, during la Fería, another Spanish holiday.


L-R: Amy, Señora, and Flor.
We asked this nice woman if we could get a picture with her. On Santa Xueves (Holy Thursday) a lot of women dress in black and wear these head dressed like the one shone here, to demonstrate their mourning of the cruxifiction of Christ.










La Torre de Oro. The Golden Tower. I took a ton of pictures of this tower, just because I thought it was so distinct and unique.

Spring Break in Seville!

Plaza de España, Sevilla. This picture sums up the belleza (beauty) of Seville. The rainbow, fountain, antique architecture, the works! It was such a fun Spring break! I am here posing with what I call my diaper bag. =) But it´s actually a purse made in Pakistan I purchased from a 16 year old boy named Islam, from Cairo, Egypt. There are so many people from so many places and I never get tired of meeting all the new faces and learning of the backgrounds. In this plaza, my friend, Flor, and I met such a nice couple from southern France and we all practiced our broken French/Spanish with one another. Facial features and gestures go a long way, but a smile and laughter say the most.
Pose for the camera! Flor snapped this foto of me trying on the Señorita hat and holding the banner which reads ´ESPAÑA´ (Spain) while the vendor looked on curiously. Hee hee.
Flor and I became regulars and familiar faces at this resturant in just the two days we were there in Seville. This waiters were hilarious and always willing to pose for a foto with the two camera-crazy foreigners! They were good sports! Flor and I were the only women in the resturant and fascinated by the daily operations of everything from the orange juice machine, to carving an entire pig´s leg with a butcher knife. I think the guy like the audience. =0)
Front view of the Plaza de España, a must-see if ever in Seville. It´s quite impressive!
Here is a tradition very typcial of the Spainish culture that can be found from Galicia to Andalucia (north and south provinces). The guy gave Flor and I samples because we probably appeared so curious as to how this process worked. It´s pretty tasty too.

¡Regresamos!

What a trip! We, Flor (my friend who lives in Pocatello) and I, just got back from an awesome spring break in Seville, aka Sevilla in español. The city is everything one would imagine Spain to be like. It was hot, the people were so friendly, the food was great, and the sights were amazing! The architecture with the Arab influence is stunning and all the tile work was probably my favorite aspect about Sevilla. We took a bus from Santiago de Compostela and traveled further than the entire length of Portugal! Yeah, it was a long bus ride of 15 hours with stops here and there. But it made for a good way to see some other cities, towns, and countryside of España. We took roughly 800 photos and lots of videos of the world-famous processions that occur in Seville during the Holy Week (Semana Santa) celebrating the passover and resurrection of Christ. It is quite impressive all the preparation that goes into making the float-like structure that is transported throughout the streets merely by manpower! And there are priests dressed in different colored robes and head covers holding large candlesticks and incense. The priests and float-like structure depicting various religious scenes/people are then trailed by a band comprised of trumpets, flutes, trombones, and percussion. I loved it when the trumpet would have a solo. I heard some of the prettiest music and it was such a surreal spectacle to be in the midsts of a sea of people, all hushed to hear the heavenly music. It was a very overwhelming and powerful sensation.
Sleeping on the trip is an entire history in itself. Let´s just say that it didn´t happen as much as one would´ve hoped for. The last night in Seville, Flor and I decided to just wing it and so we returned to the youth hostel pretty late because we had left our bags in the luggage room. We were hoping to just crash in the t.v. room instead of having to rent an entire room for just a couple of hours of sleep. Before we even had to ask, the receptionist suggested the idea, to which we were greatly relieved! Finally some sleep! But after about 2 hours of finally getting some shut eye, we were awaken by hordes of noisy guys who apparently thought it´d be a fine idea to have their little party in the t.v. room. Finally after 2 hours of trying to sleep through the noise and smells, Flor and I gathered our things and left. Not even 20 minutes after our departure, I went back to check for any forgetting items and only 4 guys remained. Ahhhh!!! What a night, it´s funny to laugh about though. Well, I could go on and on but need to go sleep some more right now. Pics and more stories to come!