Thank you for all your prayers everyone! This past week and
a half went a lot better.
I feel as if I was riding my bike up a really huge hill and
last week I was at the hardest part, but I finally reached the top and now I’m
gliding downhill. Not that everything with the kids is easy now, but it is not
as difficult because the kids have finally become attached to me! A couple
weeks ago all I could think about was how much I missed home, but now that I’m
over the 1 ½ month slump, I feel perfectly content here. I realized that here I
am living in this care free paradise, where I don’t have a lot of friends,
therefore I don’t have a lot of problems, and then I think about going home and
how I will have all my friends and family back, but I will be back to reality,
back to the problems that everyday life entails, back to studying 24/7 for
school, and dealing with all the people that I do not wish to deal with. When I
think about that I realize how truly blessed I am! Most of my friends at home
have been great! My best friend from college even sent me a package with a
little birthday present!
Now for some fun facts about Spain!
-These facts are only about the south of Spain because the
north and the south consider themselves completely different. Those from the north
who live in places such as Barcelona and Bilbao don’t like to consider themselves
from Spain, they consider themselves from Bilbao. In fact they even speak
another language called Catalรกn on top of Spanish. I have been told
that eventually Barcelona wants to become independent of Spain. Just a little
Spanish politics if you’re interested.
-Almost everyone in Spain is named after a Catholic Saint. I
know about 5 Ana’s, 4 Maria’s, and 3 Pablo’s.
-Because everyone is named after a Saint, everyone gets two
days to celebrate themselves. Their birthday, and their Saint Day. For example,
a couple of weeks ago was the day of Saint Ignacio. They don’t receive presents
but a nice dinner is normal.
-They don’t use air conditioning. It is awful. I am always hot. I have only taken two hot
showers since I have been here, all the others have been cold showers. When I
explained to them that in California we always use air conditioning, they
looked at me like I was crazy, "So you like it being cold all the time?”
They asked. They explained to me that air conditioning was very bad for the
lungs…I tried explaining to one guy that he probably wasn’t coughing because of
the air conditioning but because he smokes a pack of cigarettes a day….but
apparently I was wrong(sarcasm).
-Something that continues to surprise me is the difference
in religion here. In America we have two main religions Catholicism and
Christianity. The two are not vastly different and for the most part have the
same core values. But Catholicism here is just weird. They don’t really even
have Christian churches here. The only one I have seen was in this village we
went to where a lot of people from around the world lived. It was called the
international Christian church. Ignacio my host family told me the other day
that he didn’t believe in Adam and Eve, but believed in Darwinism. I thought
that was very interesting and found it even more interesting when he told me
that many Catholics shared the same belief as him. When I told them I felt it
was important to save sex for marriage and that the Christian church strongly
believed that, they looked at me like I was crazy. It’s in the bible I said.
“No it’s not! we have never heard of such a thing” They said. The Irish girl
(who was present at the time) told me that she has never heard of such a thing
either. Whattt!? I mean even if your not religious Abstinence is something a
lot of parents want for their kids so that they don’t get pregnant of anything.
It was just strange.
-This fact isn’t about Spain, but the Irish girl (Jessica)
told me that in her country they only have two churches. Protestant and
Catholic. Almost everyone is catholic, but those who are protestant apparently
only go to church once a year because the protestant church only opens once a
year. I have realized that living in America we have a completely different
view of what religion is like in the rest of the world!!
Sunday I went to my first Catholic baptism. It was for the a
cousin of the family. It was great seeing the extended family. They are awesome
and I really do feel like I am part of their family!
Imagine having your baptism in this church… it was pretty
cool.
After we went outside the church, which overlooked the whole valley, there were these people there with a pet raccoon and a wide variety of exotic birds (I mean I thought they were exotic). Totally normal to have a pet raccoon. I mean totally normal.
After we ate at this bar with the family, all of the women
pulled out their fans, and there was some guy walking around playing Spanish
music on his guitar I felt like I was in a movie. Until I tried using a fan to
fit in and it took my five minutes to figure out how to smoothly open it.
At the end of the meal the cute 19 year old cousin came over
and talked to me. Unfortunately he didn’t speak English so I could only talk
Spanish. The whole family was just standing in a circle around us, trying to
wingman him. It was pretty awkward. I think he asked me to hangout sometime,
but I really have no idea. I’m pretty sure I said yes. But nothing has come of
it other than we’re Facebook friends. I can always use more of those.
Continue to keep me in your prayers and thanks for reading
my blog. I hope your enjoying your In-n-out California, I sure do miss it.
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