London

On March 24 we flew across a little water to Great Britain. We were there to visit our good friend Keith in London. We had some trouble immediately entering the country as we went through customs, we needed to have an address of the place we were staying and, well we didn’t have one because Keith was there to pick us up and take us to his place. The lady was really adamant that we could not enter the country without an address because they would not know where to find us if they needed to. We showed her that we had residence in Spain and she finally let us through, thank God.

Keith was there to pick us up which was really nice. We didn’t have good previous communication about how or where we were going to meet but he was really smart and figured out exactly where he would see us come out from our flight. He was there waiting with bags of goodies for us. All kinds of Cadbury chocolate, a pocket-size London guide book, some water, and throat lozenges for me, since I had been sick every single time he had ever seen me. He then took us to the supermarket to buy some food to get us through our time there, even some ice cream! He was already outdoing himself and we didn’t even know how to begin thanking him for his generosity. He was really happy to have us for company, and we had great conversations with him. We learned a lot about his previous missionary work, and his journey that lead him to where he is now in the church and about all of his studies as he is completing a Masters degree right now through Graceland in Lamoni, Iowa; all the way over in London.

He was very busy with papers and exams, so he wasn’t able to explore London with us the next day but we didn’t have anything in mind anyway other than just to see what we found. He took us to the train station that took us into the city. In about an hour we stepped out into King’s Cross station then transferred to Camden. The only thing we really wanted to see in London was Camden Market. And, it was so worth it. We spent the entire day on Friday (which was the first sunny, and warm day all year in London) strolling through the old horse barns that have been turned into endless little streets of shops. There were cultural sorts of shops from all over the world. And, this wasn’t the typical black market stuff we usually see. Those things were on the outside of the market. Not only were the shops and diverse people really cool to see, there was fresh ethnic food all over. People brought out little stands and little cookers with all kinds of fresh organic food and cooked and served it to you right there. We actually didn’t even buy any because as we walked through, we got so many samples, we were satisfied.

We bought a couple pieces of affordable, but original jewelry. We realized as soon as we got there that we had to be really careful with our money because it didn’t go very far. Prices were twice as much as in the states, AND, the pound is 2 times as much as the dollar. That means a typical 4 dollar item costs $16 with the conversion and price increase. It adds up really fast. Luckily for us we were spending Euros that we already had, and things only cost us double, but we still knew in the back of our minds the worth of our money.

When we were tired of walking we found a nice spot with all kinds of young people like us sitting outside next to a small river by a little bar having drinks. We each had one then decided that we would try to catch the sunset from the Westminster bridge (it said it was a good spot in our guide book). When we got there however, the London fog started to roll in and we couldn’t see anything. We glanced at Big Ben and the houses of parliament, but those typical sorts of postcard images didn’t have any impression on us other that reminding us of where we were. I didn’t even want a picture, because I didn’t want a photo that I’ve seen before. The weather started changing fast and we were dressed for hot weather, so we decided to find a place to eat. This was not an easy task. We just wanted fish and chips, but every place we went was either way too expensive or was completely packed with people and we needed to sit. I think we walked around for an hour and a half before we found some food. It was good, but we were both so tired we were focused more on finishing and heading back to Keith’s. We sent him a text but after that we were never able to communicate…we lost service on the way back. But, somehow as soon as we got to our train stop, Keith was pulling up to pick us up. He has got some wicked intuition, almost as much as a woman which is scary, but really great for all of us.

That night we had some ice cream then were fast asleep. The next morning we woke up to make some breakfast then were back to the city. This day we had no set plans either. We thought about going to the Brittish Museum then decided to go to a café to have a nice warm drink and a pastry to start our day. When we left there we decided that we were just not in the mood to spend the day at that museum and we happened to run into the Natural History Museum, so we went there instead. There was an exhibit of the Sexual Nature of Animals that looked really interesting but once we were inside found out that you had to pay for it (all the museums are free however). So we just went through the entire museum instead. It was definitely worth it. The dinosaur part was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. There were over a hundred dinosaur skeletons. The exhibits were incredible, but the museum itself was almost more stunning. Every inch of it was adorned with moldings of animals and plants. It was like the cathedral of natural life.

The museum took up most of Saturday. When night began to fall we thought that it would be great to go to a musical while we were there since there were so many of them. We went to this ticket office that was selling last minute tickets, and out of the 40 shows that were playing, there were only 3 that were not sold out. We got cheap tickets to a play called Mouse Trap and ran to find it since it started 10 minutes later. It was quite entertaining although our seats were pretty high up and it was hard to hear everything.

We left the play and tried to call Keith and got through once again. He said he’d meet us at the station. We got back late and got on Skype right away to call Pam, Blake’s mom because it was her birthday! It was nice to talk to her and the Argotsinger family, and they all got to meet the famous Keith that we are always telling them about.

We went to our room soon after to pack because in the morning we had to get up early to catch our flight. That night, daylight savings time changed to our unawareness and it caused much confusion the next morning. We got to our flight in time, but poor Keith had to drive back home just to change then head right back out the same direction to do a service that morning. We are so grateful to have had the weekend with him. He is one of the most gracious and thoughtful people I have met. Visiting Keith was worth the trip to London more than anything else.

Community of Christ Madrid

During our time in Spain, we have been meeting with other members or potential members of my church, the Community of Christ. It has been a challenge coordinating the group, not only due to schedules but communication barriers. While English is the most common language spoken in our group, we also speak Spanish and a few speak a Philippine dialect common to one of the islands. It has actually been a lot of fun for me working around these challenges and finding ways for us to worship together. Keith McMillan (our friend in London!) and Richard James have done a tremendous job at helping us get the resources and materials we need to make the group run smoothly. They visit us nearly every month to check in and help answer questions that arise from our discussions and to provide the opportunity to provide further ministry to the group. During the weekend of March 18 we had the pleasure to meet some new church leaders that came along with Keith and Richard. Jim Slaughter, the President of the Apostles (a very high leadership position in my church), and his wife, Jan, visited the group and we had the opportunity to show them around Madrid. We met first with Jim, Keith and Richard Friday night for a dinner out by the airport, close their hotel. Before meeting for dinner, I had called back home and spoke with my dad to find out that he had gone to college with Jim and thought Jim might remember him. Well, as it turns out Jim not only knew my dad but even had some stories about his college days! It never ceases to amaze me at how small the world seems to be. Madrid has become the place for us to meet and make connections with people back home. So back to dinner, we found a restaurant that didn’t serve too much grass (that is what Richard calls salad) and decided on a place where they had BBQ ribs on the menu. You might think ribs are not a very typical Spanish food and I think that I would assume the same thing. But as I have seen more restaurants than not with BBQ ribs on the menu I am confident to say it is a very common food now in Spain, as well as hamburgers. Three of the five of us ordered the ribs and the other two ordered burgers. I told Jim we’d have to try some more “typical” Spanish food when his wife arrived the next day. We all enjoyed our food and the conversation.

The following day Jan flew in around 11 and we met up with them about noon in the Plaza del Sol to begin the tour of the city. It is a fitting place to meet because Sol (which means sun) is the center of the city as well as the country! The bear and strawberry tree is the most common meeting place in the plaza and this is where we would meet as well. As we waited, we were asked if we were meeting there for the tour, I said I was but I was going to be giving my own walking tour. The man who asked me made a comment about me being his competition with a friendly tone, but I assured him I was merely showing around friends. As I spoke with him, I recognized him as the free walking tour guide that showed me around the city 3 years ago! Pretty wild. He even offered me his number to inquire about a position with the company. They were in need of bilingual speakers to lead tours. Maybe next year.

We finally found my tour group, Richard, Jim and Jan wandering around the plaza snapping pictures (Jim is quite the photographer). After introductions we began telling them about Sol and our plan for the rest of tour. We showed them around Plaza Mayor, where a political rally was in action. We needed to find some good food, especially for Jan who hadn’t had much rest in the last two days and was fighting jet lag. Blake mentioned finding some tapas bars, and when Jan thought she heard “topless bars,” she hesitantly said she wasn’t quite up for that questioning the values of the new Madrid group. We clarified our intentions jokingly.
We took them to the place we knew to have the best tapas we’d ever had, San Miguel market. It is an all glass indoor fresh food market that has obviously had quite a bit of renovation recently. It was very busy there and although we could not sit down, we proved that it was worth it to try this food. They were kind enough to give us a little money and let us fight the crowds to get the freshest tapas imaginable.
Caitlin picked up a plate of 12 Spanish cheeses, and another of an array of olives. I found a plate of pulpo (octopus) smothered in garlic butter and mini bocadillos with jamon iberico and chorizo. It was simply exquisite. We enjoyed the street artists and performers as we passed through and headed towards Plaza de Espana, where we topped off our full bellies with a café. We then walked by the Royal Palace. By the time we made those rounds it was high time for a siesta and we agreed to part ways and then meet up again later for a dinner with the entire group.

Caitlin and I had plans to then meet some friends at the park, but after our decision to walk across the entire city to Retiro Park (it was a beautiful day!) we were exhausted and out of time. So we just went home.

That night we went on a wild search for the location of this restaurant one of the other group members knew of that was in the north part of the city. With Metro closures and plenty of miscommunication we found the place an hour later than our predetermined time. So in Spanish time, we were punctual. The restaurant we ate at was a buffet and was quite delicious and expensive. We had a nice time then retired for the night.

The following day (Sunday) we decided to meet at Retiro Park for an outdoor service I was putting together. It turned out to be a lovely day and equal as lovely service. We found a nice place to sit in the grass and I led the service with my guitar. Janice (one of Philippine members) and her sisters also provided some beautiful music singing a song from their hymnbook from back home. Jan gave a wonderful message and the entire worship service fit together perfectly. It was a great success. Afterwards we had a nice discussion about the church and its history and as the day moved on we all had to part ways once again. As we departed we had forgotten to say goodbye to Keith while he was visiting the loo. He called us promptly to see if we were still in the park and since we’d only made it as far as the small lake with the boats we decided to meet there. While we waited a huge parade of ambulances, police cars and moto cops all rolled up with screaming alarms.
We thought something terrible had happened. As Keith, Richard, Jim and Jan came up just after the brigade they questioned us about what was going on. We told them we had no idea, so Keith and Jim (with his large carmea) went off to find out what was going on. They came back with info and pictures about the situation. A young boy had stuck his head through the marble bars that overlooked the lake and got his head stuck. Apparently half of the police of force of Madrid was needed for the situation but as they freed the boy there was a standing ovation from all of the onlookers. It was an exciting end to the day. We said our goodbyes and agreed that there would soon be a sermon using the story of that small boy.
Blake

Oviedo

The first time back...

February 25-27

The Drive

We decided it was about time to get back to Oviedo. We were waiting to find a place to stay for a weekend. We have a few contacts there still and we know that one of them would come through sometime, and sure enough, Blake’s host mom offered her place first. We were going to stay with Doris and her Husband Manolo, their cat Miki and their new student Samantha. We were curious about renting a car, and it was a good thing we looked into it because we found a great deal. We got a car, payed for gas and tolls, and it cost about the same amount as two round trip bus tickets. And, it was so much fun. We got a Ford Fiesta. In the photo, it looked like a brand new one, but we soon found out that is just marketing and we ended up with the decade old version. No problem, should have been expected actually.

We picked it up and got gas (because it comes without gas) and we were on our way. We had few problems getting on the right path north. Our directions that we printed off last minute from Google were alright with highways, but not good in the cities we would soon find out. The drive started out pretty flat until we found ourselves on a very curvy road that we later found out was a different path than the directions were actually telling us. We went through some nice small towns though and followed signs and had no problem getting back to the main road. We stopped a few times to look at nice views and to take in the fresh air outside of Madrid. The tolls of over 10 euro got a little pricy, but overall the trip was still really cheap.

When the land turned from flat to extremely huge mountains, we knew we were coming into Asturias. Once in the mountains, every direction we looked was even more spectacular than the view before, I got nervous when I knew Blake (the pilot) was looking too and there would be tight curves ahead(she had no need to worry! –B). We got really excited when we started seeing signs for Oviedo ahead. We made it. We followed the directions right into Oviedo, then…we got lost. We sort of knew where we were but we only knew how to get where we were going by walking. Driving is a little more difficult because of the one way streets that wind around the city in circles and crazy directions. We got so turned around on one of the round-abouts, we accidentally got back on the highway the other direction and had to go miles to get turned around. When we got back into the city again it took us another good hour to get where we could have walked in 10 minutes. That was frustrating. We were tired and hungry and most of all just wanted to plant our feet on Asturian ground.

Reuniting

Well we finally found our way to Doris’ apartment. We parked illegally and hurried with our things upstairs, said a quick hello and left again to go park immediately because the fines for parking are more than we could afford. We had to go park in a mall parking lot a few blocks away, it seemed to be the only option. It was no problem because we wouldn’t need the car until we went back home.

We finally got back to Doris’s and I was introduced to her, her husband Manolo, new student Samantha, and Miki the cat. They were so nice, and of course they really loved Blake, so they were really happy to have us.

We chatted for a while, Doris cut up some Iberian ham, and Manchego cheese, and bread and Blake didn’t hesitate to dig in as if he was still living there. After we were satisfied and had caught up with our stories, we wanted to get out and enjoy the sun and play ping pong, so we headed out. It must have been fate that we stopped and got our ping pong friend Ron Vencedor and Coke and spared just the right amount of time strolling through the streets that when we ended up at my old apartment complex to try to figure out when room number I was in, a familiar voice was calling from behind us. “Caitlin, is that you?” I turned around and standing in front of us was my madre! She saw me cross her path and recognized me. I couldn’t believe it. She looked really different. I was half-expecting to run into her walking her dog Chispa, but I was looking for a different person. Before she had short red hair, it must have been dyed. Now she had new glasses and shoulder length beautiful grey hair.

She invited us up for a coffee. Right away Chispa greeted me at the door and didn’t even bark. She must have remembered me. We sat down and talked about all that had happened since I lived there 3 years ago. She was sweet as always and invited us to come back on Sunday for some homemade Austurian Fabada and more time together.

We left with looks of disbelief on our faces and headed to Parque San Fransisco.

Caitlin

Ping-Pong and Peacocks

As we strolled into the park the familiar meow of the Pavo Real (Peacock) let us know we were home. We took the same path that I took so many times before to meet the guys to play ping-pong night after night. As Caitlin and I meandered down the path, we couldn’t stop smiling as we reminisced on all the fond memories we’d had in the park. I know I’ll say this again but it felt surreal to be back in Oviedo together. Paddles in hand and Ron and Coke following close behind, we claimed one of our old tables and set up shop. Before we started playing, we of course had a wonderful time taking pictures as we posed on and in front of the table. After the photo session, we let the games commence. P-I-N-G. I won’t go into detail about the games but I will say this. Caitlin certainly has gotten better since our last game in Oviedo. She even came close to beating me one game. But not quite… In between games we sat on the table and observed everything around us. Everything still seemed as it was before; teenage lovers getting hot and heavy on the park benches, old couples walking slowly down the paths, dogs chasing dogs and the entertaining sounds of people playing ping-pong. What a fantastic place. When it was time to head back home for dinner, we walked slowly, opening our senses to take in everything and to let our minds remember all the times spent there before.

By the time we got back to the piso (apartment) we were feeling really good and dinner was ready. We all gathered around the table in the kitchen and made jokes about my old chair, which was now Samantha’s chair. She was even kind enough to offer it to me, perhaps because of how much I was talking about it. I told her though it was her chair now and that she should sit there. Doris made us chicken in a savory sauce with potatoes garnished with red peppers. It was delicious and the chicken was tremendously tender. I ate so much. Then Doris offered me more (just like old times) and ate that as well. I got a kick out of watching Caitlin and Samantha sweating from the amount of food they’d eaten and how much was still being dished on to their plates. Even though I was equally as full, I enjoyed stuffing myself with still more food as the plate of delicious ham and cheeses were brought out. Then I had dessert. Aside from the food we enjoyed, we also had wonderful conversation with Manolo and Doris. I figured this was my opportunity to correct all of the false information that I had mistakenly given them at the beginning of my last stay with them. I explained that my Spanish was pretty poor the last time I stayed with them so I made sure to modify previous information given. I think my favorite part of dinner though was talking with Manolo and understanding his jokes. He is the funniest Spanish man I know. I knew he was funny before but now I know why he is funny because I understood his jokes. I shocked him a bit as well when came back with a few jokes of my own.

After dinner, Caitlin and I went for an evening stroll and wound up in Gasgona, the street filled with Sidraias. We walked up and down the street to find a nice table outside but after a few rounds we settled on a table inside. While we waited for our server to come, our stuffed bellies made us sleepier and sleepier. We got our sidra and found it just as we remembered…really not that good. Its more of the experience anyway.

The next day slept in, which was probably a good thing because the morning was cloudy and rainy, a typical Oviedo day. Once we got moving around 10ish, Doris had our breakfast all ready for us and was eager to hear what we had planned for the day. We didn’t have much to tell her because our plans were to just wander that day. When we finished breakfast we headed out to do just that. Wander. It was a great day. We wandered down old paths we used to take and even discovered some new ones. We stopped by the Cathedral and took pictures and felt like tourists of our old home. It was really nice.

Blake

The Good Stuff

When we began losing energy we went back for lunch, this is the really nice part about visiting host families. There was an awesome chicken paella waiting for us and following that, we made chocolate chip cookies with the chocolate chips and Crisco that Pam sent us for Christmas! They were not quite as good as hers, and some ingredients were pretty different, but they were tasty. After we were full to the brim we took a nice long siesta. When we woke up, we went to find food again since it was already night. We ate a light dinner at Yuppy (sort of like a hip Village Inn I would say), and then met up with Luna in one of the main plazas. She lead us to where Paula and Ruben (Paulas boyfriend) were. We enjoyed the 1 euro house wine which surely can not be found in Madrid; maybe that is why we don’t go out anymore… Time passed quickly as we caught up, and shared memories together, talked about how our group was so great compared to others, learned a little about caves from Ruben, the caveman (literally, he is an expert on them), AND got invited to come back to Oviedo to go hiking two weeks later! We of course took them up on the offer as you see later. I was getting tired, being the party-pooper that I usually am, needed to go to bed soon. We departed around 2:30 am and walked by the Cathdral and gazed at it for a while. We then began our usual path that we would walk together on after nights on the town in Oviedo (back when Blake was head over heels for me and I had no idea). We stopped at our favorite Irish Pub and our table just happened to open up as we walked inside. We didn’t spend too much time there since I was about to sleep on the table. We made our way down the big hill and found ourselves at the old church (or maybe I was lead there on purpose?)

We talked about the dream we’d been living, how wonderful every part of Oviedo was just like we remembered. It was raining again but it was a nice rain. We talked about life and how we wanted to live poetically and this was how to do it. I had millions of thoughts going through my head, but before I could process them all Blake said my name, which is actually kind of rare, especially when I am was right there. He totally caught me off guard. Then he said we are going to have a really great life together, and I agreed but still thought he might be getting to something. Suddenly he got down on one knee and I really thought I was dreaming. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes, but that whole moment is kind of a blur now and I don’t know exactly how it went. I know I was crying tears of joy and it took a while to notice the ring on my finger, then even longer for me to really notice how beautiful it was. I was so overwhelmed and happy that he didn’t even get a chance to tell me about the ring until we got back to Doris’ probably around 3:30 or 4 am. I was also so tired at that point that I must have fallen asleep straight away because in the morning I had to have him re-tell me about the story of the ring. I will leave him to tell that.

Caitlin

The Ring

Now let me tell you about this special ring that my fiancée now wears on her finger. I’ve actually had this ring for quite some time, waiting for the right moment to pop the question. I had the ring made while I lived in Guatemala last year. While living in Guatemala, I volunteered for an organization called Mercado Global that produced handmade Mayan goods by women living in the small mountain villages. They created goods ranging from textiles to jewelry. The jewelry aspect of their work was what caught my attention after Caitlin visited me there. The jewelry they created was magnificent and much of that was due to the help of an outside consultant who would come in to help with new methods for intricate work with metals. This man was called Ziggy, the wandering artisan. Ziggy is originally from Germany and has spent the last decade or more traveling and selling his jewelry throughout the Americas. After Caitlin’s visit, I knew Ziggy was the guy who could help me create an extraordinary ring. One day after Ziggy stopped by the office to share some ideas I pulled him aside and asked if he’d be willing to help me on this project. He said he would be honored and asked if I’d meet him the next day to go over the details and so I could share my ideas with him. The following day we met at his favorite restaurant for lunch. We ordered our food and chatted about the problems in Guatemala, the world and the issues that make volunteering challenging. We didn’t start talking about the ring until after we ate and gave his dog the scraps. It drove me crazy waiting so long to start conversing about the ring, but I think he wanted to get to know me better first. Either way, we began discussing my ideas that I had and my hopes for what the ring would signify. I had so many ideas and things that I wanted in the ring it was a challenge to find a way to make them into something so small. We didn’t figure out all the details at that point, but we did get down the basics that needed to be taken care of straight away. He had to track down the gold, the silver and most importantly the perfect stone of purple jade. Purple jade is a very unique stone to Guatemala. It is not commonly found anywhere outside of Guatemala and has great significance to the Mayan culture. It is strong and long lasting. It was used for armor and weaponry during the Mayan civilization. It was also used for the arts. It is a beautiful stone and was highly regarded and treasured by the Mayan people. Strength and beauty, a wonderful combination. So Ziggy went on the hunt for the materials. The silver he didn’t have much problem finding, but the gold and the stone were more challenging. Gold was hard to come by in Guatemala at the time and while there is purple jade around, it is difficult to find a stone with great clarity. For the stone, he knew he would need to visit a friend in Antigua, a town 2.5 hours away. Slowly but surely Ziggy would come up with more and more of the materials. I would run into him on the street and he would give me a quick update. Often he would show me a small baggy of the gold he’d just traded for. I would tell him “great!” but apparently with a look of skepticism (probably because it didn’t like anything that could be made into a ring) because he would reassure that when he was finished with it the ring would be something beautiful. After a few more meetings and a final decision on the design for the band we were well on our way. The band would use a Celtic design that would combine different elements. It would signify the wind and waves, the flow of the harmonious, emotional, and spiritual movement. The continuous movement of the ocean, with its highs and it lows but never ceasing. He thought he could do that for me, even though he’d never done anything like it before and I said “great.” This time certain that he would be able to do that for me. Now we only needed the stone and the time was now ticking. I only had a week before I was to leave for home. I was really getting worried because the ride he was supposed to catch for Antigua fell through and we had little time to find the stone and for him to use all of those materials to make something brilliant. The next day when I was beginning to panic about the ring, Ziggy called me and told me he was in Antigua, he had randomly ran into another old friend on his way to Antigua and gave him a lift. Fate? Who knows. He was there to find the perfect stone. When he brought it back to show me the next day, it was perfect. Perfect size. Perfect clarity. Everything was perfect. Except that the ring still didn’t resemble anything more than a hodgepodge of raw materials. Ziggy told me not worry and to not call him for two days because he was going to be working on the ring and it was best not to distract him. He said if you stress the artist your art will come on showing that stress. It is best to keep the artist happy and calm. I said, “take all the time you need.” I wanted that ring perfect and if worst came to worst (he didn’t finish the ring before I left) I’d figure something out. But take it as it comes. Two days passed and I got the call from Ziggy. My ring was finished. He said it was beautiful ring. We arranged to meet at La Palapa that night. I was so excited, I ran out to meet up with him. When I met up with him, there was not small talk before getting to the ring. He was just as excited as I was to bring out the ring. He took it out in a box and opened it up to reveal the most fantastic ring I’d seen. It was everything that I’d wanted and more. I just hoped that Caitlin would like it too and say yes to my question! The entire next day (and for the next year as it turned out!) I would open the box and imagine would it would look like on her finger. I now get to see it on her finger everyday – and it looks brilliant. Did I mention that I guessed the size by secretly putting Caitlin’s other rings on my pinky finger and memorized how far down my finger they went? And, I did well, it could not fit more perfect.

All Smiles

Now back to Oviedo, the next day we told Doris at breakfast about our recent news. She wasn’t surprised at all. Not that she knew it was coming, she just didn’t understand that it was a big deal. She said, “you are already in love, aren’t you?” We replied, “yes, course.” And she said that’s all that really matters. She was still happy for us though.

We then went to the market and picked up some flowers to accompany my new fiancée for the photo shoot. We went to the quaint little flea market where there is an abundance of flower stands. It is a beautiful little place. Happy people, strolling without hurry, everyone enjoying the day and the warm sunshine. We bought some bright and fragrant yellow Mimosas. Everything was beautiful. Flowers, ring, and, of course, Caitlin! The photo shoot came next. I took pictures of Caitlin in all of our old spots we used to enjoy together. It was a really nice day. I also couldn’t get enough of seeing my FIANCEE! I also loved saying it. I still do.

After the photos, we meandered over to Caitlin’s madre’s apartment for lunch. We told her the news before the delicious meal of Fabada she prepared for us. She was elated. She was so happy for us. Over the fabada we talked about our future plans and the unknown and we drifted into conversation about art and the art that hung on her walls. She had actually painted all the things on her walls. Caitlin was so impressed and said how much Caitlin loved the painting that hung just outside her old room. She told of how she’d always admire it each day as she came into her room. Caitlin’s madre then said, “Oh, you like that one? Why don’t you take it. It will be your first wedding gift.” We couldn’t believe it. We literally took the painting off the wall and wrapped it up. Our first wedding gift! What a great gift. After teary good byes and much thanks for a great time together, we parted ways and headed back to Doris’. There we hurriedly packed the car with our bags, food, flowers, and our new painting. We said goodbye to Doris and were off back towards Madrid as a newly engaged couple. Bellies full and smiling ear to ear, we couldn’t but bask in the thoughts of probably the best weekend we’d ever had.

Blake

Oveido. Again…(this might be more brief) March 11-13

The entire next two weeks we devoted much of our free time to telling as many people as we could the good news, “We’re getting married!” It was a lot of fun, and we were happy that everyone was very excited, especially those who have known it was going to happen for almost a year! I can’t believe Blake had the ring so long, but it was worth it to wait for such a perfect place.

Two weekends after we were in Oviedo, we decided to go back. I am going to stop saying “our old coordinators”… our friends, Paula and Luna, invited us to go on a hiking excursion with the new students from UNI in Oviedo. This time we took a bus and we stayed with Paula.

When we got there we were tired. We went out for less than an hour and before we knew it, we were back in bed sleeping. The next day we got up as early as we could to take pictures, but we were so slow going, by the time we got to the places we wanted to be, (the proposal spot) the sun was blinding. We had no other chance however, so we set up our mini tripod and took our own engagement pictures! They turned out really good except for a little squinting and bright faces.

When we were satisfied with our photoshoot, we hoped over to the bus station and took the 20 minute trip to Gijon. It was cold and windy but the sun warmed us up. We found our common supplies for Pina Coladas that we would drink on that same beach 3 years ago. It took us quite a while to orient ourselves to the correct direction of the water, but we made it. The beach was barren, save for a few sunbathers, their 2 yorkies, and a man doing an intense beach workout in the frigid waters. When we came back to Paula’s we had plans to go out to meet Luna for Chinese food, but I didn’t feel well so we just made some pasta there, then picked up some food for the hike and went to bed early.

Hiking and Carnival

The next day was excursion day. We packed up, bought some empanadas for breakfast and bread for bocadillos later. Paula and her boyfriend took us to the University where we would always meet for our excursions, and all of the University of Northern Iowa students began showing up. We began to feel so much older and wiser all of a sudden, I don’t know what it was. We all piled on a bus and were off to the mountains. We got off to unload our packs and costumes (for later) at the Albergue and got back on the bus. They took us through mountain villages to the other side of the mountain and dropped us off. One girl actually said she was not prepared to go hiking and she only came to stay at the inn. Everyone just started walking because clearly there was no other way to get around the mountain, and if she was that ignorant to not figure out what we were doing she deserved to hike with the rest of us. I would have preferred that she would have taken the bus back however, just to avoid listening to the constant complaining.

The air was cool, a little misty, and sunny at times; perfect for hiking. We didn’t get started very well, as we immediately lost the path and started trekking straight up the mountain through thorn bushes. This part was not fun... Then we got up high enough to see the trail below. We slid down slowly and were finally on ground that we could walk on with bleeding ankles and thorns in our pants.

It seemed like we walked uphill for ages..well we did. When we got as far as we could go up, we began the trek down. This was the hard part. There was so much mud that if you didn’t have feet like a cat to jump and balance on little rocks, you sank your feet in the sticky mud and got caked. We passed back through all of those little mountain villages again; they were so beautiful, but we ended up pick two dogs up along the way… oh yeah, that is why I really didn’t like that girl. She was feeding the dogs and petting them for the last five and a half hours of the hike, and by then those dogs were plenty lost.

It was nice to fill our bottles up in fresh springs, and eat our lunch at a sunny spot with some tables that we found. The entire hike took around 7 hours. Blake and I trailed at the end to take pictures and avoid uninteresting conversation about clubbing, electronic music, and things of the sort. It seemed to us that our group was either very different than this one, or we have really changed.

We got back to the Alburgue and rested a while then a had a huge homemade dinner cooked by the owners. We then got on our costumes, put on some music and had some fun dancing. Blake and I felt even older at this point, as we soon realized that we were totally out of this new party scene, didn’t like the loud hip-hop music, and were ready for bed hours before everyone else. We also felt REALLY bad for those two dogs outside, now tied up with no shelter until the owners could be found and it was cold and raining outside. At this point that girl that lead the dogs here was enjoying her time at the party a little more that she had concern for whatever happened to them.

Well we did try to go to bed as well as some of the other girls did on the bunk beds that each had one blanket and no sheets. We were lucky we brought sleeping bags. The thumping bass and screaming of awful lyrics were below us and didn’t stop for what seemed to be hours and hours. Not much happened the following morning, everyone woke up late and we had some toast biscuits and jam for breakfast. We tried to figure out exactly on the path where the dogs’ homes were and explained to the hosts so they could get them back to their proper owners. This was not going to be an easy task for them we knew, and yet that girl still had no sense of caring one bit.

We were back on our way to Oviedo by 1:00 pm. The bus driver took us straight to the station and we made our way back to Madrid

Caitlin

Show and Tell: The Blood Sausage

January 20, 2011

Show and Tell: The Blood Sausage

I had an interesting moment in class just the other day. I came into the 3^rd grade classroom, sat down at the desk to prepare for a day of reading when a student came up and wanted to show me something. “Look, Blake!” she said with loads of excitement and a proud look. I peered down into the bag at unidentifiable objects with string tied to some dark forms. Confused about what it was I began to ask what it was but just as I was finishing the question I knew what it was. The smell hit my nose. Morcilla – the Spanish blood sausage. The teacher then comes up and tells me how the student had gone to the farm to hand make this Spanish delight. “OK, class” shouts the teacher. “We are going to listen to a very special experience Maria had this weekend. Something I would love to do but must be invited to do and which no one has invited me to do yet…” The student stepped up and begins to explain the process of making blood sausage. The process is not uncommon to making other sausages, just bloodier. During the time she was explaining this, she holds up the final product from strings and the class goes wild. “Give me, give me!” “Mmmm, yum yum!” Everybody wants the sausage. The teacher informs me though the sausage must dry out for a while. Still too bloody. The student then starts walking around the classroom to show the prized item. She walks from table to table and the students, going wild over it, pull the sausages toward their faces and inhale deeply taking in the fresh aroma of…blood sausage. I was not the only one in the classroom who was slightly repulsed and astonished by the ordeal. The brightest student in the class shared my feelings. She had a horrified look on her face and would raise her hand and say, “What about the pig? Poor pig…” She did not sniff the prized meat as it went around. After the meat made its way around the room the teacher says, “Did you give Blake a chance to smell the Morcilla?” I told her it was not necessary to bring it back to me. I had seen enough, thanks.

Oh, cultural differences.

Barcelona

February 18, 2011

Journey

(January 14-17)

It has taken a long time to write this blog. Getting really sick for a couple of weeks along with planning trips has put this one on hold once again. But, here goes.

On Friday January 14 we rose at 3:30 am grabbed our bags and made it to the bus stop at 5 minutes to 4 am. An angel that smoked a large cigar was there to tell us that our bus wasn’t coming for another 45 minutes, the one we were supposed to make must have come early. Ugh. We knew we couldn’t wait that long, so we got a taxi to the next bus stop on our route. We caught the night express to the airport just as it was leaving. We were frantically trying to decide which terminal our flight was out of. It was really confusing because there is a stop for terminals 1, 2, and 3, then another for terminal 4. When we arrived at the first stop most people got off and there was a big sign for departures, and one that said arrivals on terminal 4. We took this as the place to get off. We were wrong. And, our bus had already left. The only lady it seemed to be in the airport at 5 am told us there is a free bus outside that will take up to the next terminal. We went out… and it was not coming for 50 minutes. We needed to be boarded by then. So we asked a taxi driver. There was a line of them waiting to pick up fools like us all charging 16 euro just to take us to the next terminal! We didn’t have that much money to spend on a taxi. We stood there, decided to just wait for the bus, when suddenly another express bus like the one we came on rolled up. We showed the driver our ticket from the last bus and he let us come on his bus to take us to the next terminal 8 kilometers away. Have we mentioned that things like this happen to us every single day. Like someone is just testing us all the time. Maybe it happens to everyone, but things would just be nice if they went the way they are supposed to.

Anyway, we got to the correct terminal number 4 and went to the Vueling counter. There was no one else in the airport yet. We didn’t check any bags, so it was a quick and easy 2 minutes with the attendant. We then went to the only place open in the airport; McDonalds. We got a Sausage Egg McMuffin. It was pure bliss, those things I am convinced have addictiveness poured into them and absolutely cannot be reproduced outside of the restaurant. After we ate them however I felt sick. The same way I always feel when I don’t get my sleep. Parts of my body just don’t work that early, I literally turn into a zombie, and probably sound like one too.

We got on the plane, and less than an hour later we landed in Barcelona. It was about 8:30am. By the time we found our way out of the airport, it was 9:30. Then, we found our bus with ease and on the metro with no problem. We had to go 17 stops on our line to the area where Blake’s aunt and uncle Mark and Penny were residing, waiting for us. We took a wrong turn out of the metro station but where we ended up was so unbelievable beautiful, we could not believe we were still in the same country. It’s funny though because Barcelona is in Cataluña, and this area thinks it is its very own country anyway, with its own language and all. It’s similar to the Castellan Spanish that we know however with French and Basque influence, so we had no problems communicating. While we were lost we ran into an info. center. We got a map and figured out where to go. We weren’t far. On our way to the apartment we were looking for, we saw this amazing rock store, it had all kinds of stone beads; we knew we had to come back but we wanted to see Mark and Penny. Right when we found our street, low and behold, there was Mark! We ran right into him. He wasn’t too surprised, he kind of expected to find us wandering around. It was great. He lead us back to the apartment him and Penny had rented for their week in Barcelona. We went up a LOT of stairs to get to their place. I was not in shape to deal with these stair all weekend, and I must say that I was very sore the entire next week from them. Anyway, I finally was properly introduced to Blake’s uncle Mark, and his wife Penny. They turned out to be some of the most wonderful people I had ever met. And, I immediately realized that Mark resembled Blake in so many ways, but even stranger I found so many similarities in myself with Penny. We got along really well.

Meeting Barҫa

Our bodies were telling us to rest, but we were so excited to get out and dig the big beautiful town. We first went up on the roof to check out the view from there. I regret not ever have taken my camera up there. It was really cool. We could see the Segrada Famila, we were RIGHT next door to a cathedral which had bells that rang on the hour all day and all night. We could see all above the city. We then went back down all those stairs to explore. We first went to pick up our tickets to an FC Barcelona game that Mark and Penny treated us to. We knew this was going to be the best weekend we had so far on this trip to Spain. We walked by the ports with hundreds of sailboat, and yachts, and cruise ships. We came upon the huge statue of Christopher Columbus also known as “Colon” in Spanish. Mark and I tried to snap pictures of flying seagulls while we walked on a bridge over the water. We had a lovely time. Blake and I were trying to figure out a way we could quit our jobs in Madrid to move to this magical place. We had found a really great fresh food market too where we bought some salmon and asparagus, and potatoes. We made it all that night; it was delicious of course. We then played a dice game until we all had little slits for eye openings. We didn’t last too long before we were all pretty tired. We decided to make plans for the next day, and hit the hay.

I slept like a rock that night. I didn’t move once, it was the first time in my life I think I woke up in exactly the same position I fell asleep in. This also could have been because we had about 20 pounds of covers on us since we couldn’t figure out the heating that night. It was also a very inefficient very OLD place. But, it was fabulous. I should say a bit about the place we stayed. Mark and Penny found this place on a great website called www.airbnb.com. People can post their homes, apartments, or rooms on this website like bed and breakfasts and anyone can pay to come stay. It’s exactly what my mom does except it’s contracted online. We stayed in a couple’s apartment, where they themselves also lived and had extra rooms. Everything was shared. The living room, bathrooms, kitchen… we could just stay there and treat it like we all lived together. To our advantage however, for the weekend, the couple was gone and we had the entire place to ourselves. Blake and I were a little disappointed to not meet them, they must have been really cool people judging by the way their place was so incredibly decorated. We only knew that one of them was Australian and the other was German. Mark and Penny met the man that lived there later and said they were wonderful, and he was the guy that owned the yellow mini-cars that you can take tours of the city in!

Sagrada Familia

Well I should get on with the day. We decided to first go to Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. Gaudi, if you are not familiar is the best architect that ever lived according to many people, and would have to agree. His work isn’t like anything else in the entire world, if you know his style, you can pick it out anywhere. The Sagrada Famila is something everyone that has a chance should see. It is a Catholic church that commenced construction in 1882. It stands now about half way complete but is still being built. It is so huge and so complicated that after Gaudi’s death in 1926, architects and builders have progressed slowly deciding how every square inch would have been designed by Gaudi. There is speculation that it may be complete in 2026, but I highly doubt it with the financial situation of Spain. This is a place at least worth reading about if one never gets the chance to visit.

When you come to this place and see it up close, you really begin to start thinking about how in the world something like it could have ever come to be. There are no corners, no straight lines, and every single inch has intricate, organic detail. We were blown away. We saw people getting in what we thought was the right line. There seemed to be lines all over, and they went around the entire block. We chose the right line, but I think we really budged unintentionally. We passed thousands of people that we should have been behind. Well, we got in, no problem. It was also completely free; I couldn’t believe that. When we stepped inside we all couldn’t say anything for about 10 minutes. It was like we went through the doors to heaven. I think that is what Gaudi wanted it to feel like. The light that shown in through the incredibly huge stained glass windows shot beams of bright light everywhere like God was inside. There were reflections of color all over the floor and people too. The pillars must have reached 250 feet from floor to ceiling. The spires which all had spiral staircases were over 500 feet tall! When the church is complete, there will be 18 spires! 12 for the apostles, 4 evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and the tallest of all, Jesus Christ. 8 spires stand now, and I can’t fathom in my mind what it will be like if it is ever really finished.

Casa Batllo

When we left the Segrada Famila feeling like we reached God somehow though Gaudi, we wanted more. We went straight to Casa Batllo afterwards, another one of Gaudi’s most famous works. Casa Batllo was the house owned by the Batllo family in the 1800’s until this day. The Batllo’s commissioned Gaudi to remodel the house in the heart of Barcelona and the transformation was magical. The family decided that the world must see the work of Gaudi, so they let the public come through with all the proceeds from the entrance fee going straight back into the house for upkeep and restoration through the years. The house was clearly inspired by ocean life; there is a sensation of being under the sea when you are inside. There were beautifully curved banisters leading you up the stairs that you just had the urge to feel. And they really did feel amazing, as the wood had been so smoothed over the years from so many people doing the same thing. They winded up and at the top they resembled the spine of a mysterious sea dragon. There were curves everywhere, beveled colored glass that looked like water, spiral ceilings, and blues that started very light at the bottom and grew darker each level you went up in the middle if the house so that the light from the sun would filter through perfectly.

Paella Scavenger Hunt

After the couple hour house tour, we were famished. We went to a typical Spanish bar/café that served tapas, and had a late lunch. We took a detour on the way back to the apartment to check out the beach as the sun was setting and when we made it back we all were exhausted once again from a long day of fun. We went back to that fresh food market with a list of ingredients for a paella recipe Penny found in a cookbook at the flat. We had so much fun rushing around like we were on a scavenger hunt trying to find everything. One of the ingredients, sherry, we had no idea how to find. I think in total, between all of us, we went to 7 stores trying to find it. It helped when we looked online for the Spanish translation “Jerez.” In that research we also discovered that sherry wine actually comes from Spain! And, people in Andalucía love to drink it. We found that it was way too strong to drink, and I am not even sure what it does to the food other than cook off. Anyway, it was a mad search. We went back home put the findings away (for the next night), had a light dinner, and went to bed.

Playa and Picasso

Blake and had planned on waking up a 5:30 am to go back to the beach the next day to see the sunrise. Well, we didn’t wake up until 8, but we still went. When we got there, there was a huge wall cloud across the entire span of the water as far as we could see. We both had never seen anything like it. We later would learn that it is a common thing in the morning on the water. It was really cool. And, the sun was still behind it, just peaking over as we were walking on the sand. So, we got to see the sunrise after all. We collected rocks that were perfectly rounded by the sea for about an hour then headed back so we could make breakfast for Mark and Penny. After we ate, we went to the Picasso museum that was close to the flat. It was a very large collection of his work that went back all the way to when he was a very young child, about 10, when he became interested in art. By the time he was 15, he was doing remarkable professional work. He did not ever stop painting and sketching until the day he died! He did tens of thousands of works during his long life. Penny and I made our may through in no time, but Mark and Blake decided to stop and read every single panel by ever single work, so they dragged a ways behind.

Parque Guell

We then headed off to yet another Gaudi site, Park Guell. When we arrived I heard the call of the green parrots I’d been seeing all over in the previous two weeks. I looked up in the trees and there they were, sticking branches in their tails to build nests in the palm trees. The park is so big, and colorful. There are giant spiral columns the angle inward holding up a large terrace around one path that leads you to the patio with the famous mosaic benches. This place is a photographer’s paradise. There were wedding couples, models, and kids all getting their photos taken with the awesome backdrops in every corner. When we had taken in as much of the park as we could, we went back to the flat to start the paella, so we could eat before we went to the game that night.

Paella

Blake played sweet melodies on Marks guitar while the paella aroma filled the air. Since the guitar bug got back in Blake’s system, he had really been wanting to find a guitar to have all the time, but I’ll let him tell you about the search for one later. The chicken paella with artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, red pepper, and leftover asparagus turned out to be the most scrumptious of all paella I have ever had. It wasn’t a typical Spanish recipie… that’s probably why it was so good- I think it may have been a Moorish dish. Whatever it was, we ate the entire pan, every last grain of rice. We were feeling really good by the time we had to leave for Camp Nou, the football (or maybe I should say soccer to not confuse you) stadium. As I seem to be on a long roll right now, I am going to let Blake but in to tell about the game.

Caitlin

Football game

Barca! Barca! Barca! What an experience this game was (at least for me!). We had the privilege to watch Lionel Messi, coming off a recent hat trick and being named “Best Player in the World” in 2010 and the majority of Spanish national team (World Champions) put on a display of why they really are the best players in the world. I was absolutely in awe of the ease and precise control of their touches as well as the movement of the team. I could continue talking about the quality of play for some time but being that this is already a lengthy blog, I will let you ask me personally if you’d like to know more. Needless to say, the level of play was incredible. FC Barcelona plays in the league called La Liga (The League) which is the main league in Spain.

So to pick up where Caitlin left off with the fantastic paella, we headed out to catch the metro and joined an increasing mass of red and blue clad fans heading to the stadium. We got off the metro and followed the masses towards the stadium passing vendors and pubs along the way. As we made our way into the stadium I became anxious with anticipation to see game ahead. All of my teachers at school (even though they are Real Madrid fans, huge rivals!) said that being inside the stadium was an unbelievable feeling. We came into the stadium and it was wonderful. I was giddy with excitement. The pitch had a slight fog over it giving the players the appearance that they were something out of this world. We found our seats, which were unfortunately separated in pairs across the aisle. We spent some time snapping photos of us in front of the field and then of each other of across the aisle. As the game became closer to start we noticed that the seats by Mark and Penny were still unoccupied so we decided to sit there until the owners of them showed up. They never did show up so we were able to enjoy the game sitting next to our enthused entourage. As the game commenced Mark and I were blown away and kept chattering back and forth about observations we had. We enjoyed every minute of the game and I think even captured Barca’s 4 goals on the camera (nice work, Mark!). FC Barcelona came out victorious over Malaga 4-1. It was an incredible experience. Thank you Mark and Penny for letting us share that with you!

-Blake

Adios Barcelona

The next morning we had a nice breakfast and one last chat about life with Mark and Penny. We then made a quick trip to that stone and bead store and stocked up on some cool beads and rocks. I discovered a new blue rock with hints of turquoise and swirls of metallic called Crisocola (I can’t find the English translation). We got some beads made from coral, wood, jade, mica, amber, and pearls with plans to start making cool jewelry. We spent more time there than we planned so we had to run back to the place to get our bags say a quick goodbye and head back out to catch our flight back to Madrid. On our way back out Blake was yearning to get an FC Barcelona inauguration ball, so we flew in and out of a store to get one on our way. We made it in plenty of time, the way home was much easier than the way there.

Back in Madrid we had a typical week and school then Mark and Penny made their way by high speed train to the not as wonderful city.

Caitlin

In Madrid

For Mark and Penny’s last leg of the trip they came to the city where we have been living for the last few months, Madrid. We had an incredible time in Barcelona and absolutely loved the city, a much different feel than what we have in Madrid. We were curious to see if Mark and Penny held the same beliefs once they explored Madrid a bit.

We were to meet up with them Thursday after we finished with our classes and explore a little bit during the evening. It has been some time since all of these events took place but I believe this was the night when we had an apartment malfunction. As we were preparing to leave to go exploring, Penny stopped in the bathroom quickly before we left. As Mark and I chatted Caitlin noticed that it sounded like Penny was having trouble with the door. It wouldn’t open. We tried from the outside and still had no luck. For some reason, the lock on the inside had gone bad and was not allowing the latch to release. Oh boy. We grabbed what tools we had and got to work. We spent the next hour or so working the door to free Penny from her captivity. It was a ridiculous ordeal. We did free Penny with minimal damage to the door but the latch was done for. No more shutting the bathroom door! We still headed out for a little bit and we walked around Sol and the Gran Via area and showed them the cool areas we had found, which seemed unimpressive compared to the great sights we found in Barcelona.

The next day we received some bad news that our Aunt Charlotte had passed away and it took us all by surprise. I took off work that day because I knew that Mark and Penny would not have gotten the message since they had no internet. So I went to their place in the morning bearing the bad news and bringing my laptop for them to communicate with the family back home. This was a hard part of the visit.

Later that day Caitlin and I stopped back to go find tapas with them but Penny had come down with a bad migraine and wasn’t feeling up for going out. We left Penny to rest and took Mark out to find the perfect tapas restaurant around Plaza Mayor. We didn’t find them. We walked around in the cold with no luck finding the perfect place until we were cold enough to get pulled in to a restaurant by a guy promoting it on the street. It was a good deal and a variety of tapas but the tapas were mediocre and not what we had hoped for. We still had nice conversation and I was a pleased to get to spend time with Mark and Caitlin. After the tapas, we took Mark to our favorite little cinema where they were showing Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It was the best part of the evening and a fitting movie for our recent visit to Barcelona.

The following day we met up again for a day in Retiro Park followed by a dinner at our apartment. I met up Mark and Penny first while Caitlin prepped some food at the apartment for the dinner later on. It was a cold, sunny day but we enjoyed seeing people out and strolled around for a few hours. Caitlin also met up with us at the Park after a while. We departed and met up again a couple hours later for dinner at our place. We made a salad with a homemade vinigarette by Caitlin, apples, pears, walnuts, raisins, cranberries, blue cheese, and brie. We the made an arrangement of vegetables called Pisto which included eggplant, onions, zucchini and tomatoes with red wine vinegar topped with Manchego cheese. It was delicious. We also made langoustines and a pesto pasta. It was all delicious. It was also a great time cooking and eating our own version of tapas, which in my opinion are better than the majority we ate out! We also had a great Chapman mini project after dinner when Mark noticed that our fridge door opened the wrong way. We all got involved and had food out everywhere and where unscrewing and flipping plastic pieces left and right. It actually took longer than the first estimate but let me tell you…the benefit of having the fridge door open the right way has been tremendous. It’s a wonder how you can spend so much time with something working so inefficiently.

On Sunday, we took them to El Rastro which is a huge flea market in the area of La Latina. We had a good time discovering Spanish flea market goods and observing mobs of older women around a 5 euro fur coat bargain bin. After we got our fill of overpriced junk and found a few good souvenirs we explored the area for afternoon tapas. This time we had better luck with a restaurant that served better quality of food and was not a tourist destination. We went down in the cave-like basement of a restaurant and had a wonderful variety of tapas from wine cooked chorizo to extremely strong cheese to baguettes topped with delicious salmon. It was a very nice afternoon. That evening Caitlin and I came back over with our Christmas present from home, the ingredients to make Chocolate Chip Cookies. Since we don’t have an oven we seized the opportunity at Mark and Penny’s place. They were delicious. We also made home made croquettas (croquettes), which also turned out nicely. We had a great last night together talking, cooking, playing guitar/bouzouki and practicing our juggling skills. It really was a treat having Mark and Penny visit.

Blake

Mark and Penny












The apartment









The fresh food market









Segrada Familia


























Casa Batllo











































Colon and the harbor
















Camp Nou











Paella











Park Guell

























Sunrise at the beach











Changing our fridge door