I am going to miss this place so dearly. I have been so stressed out trying to fit in all that I want to this past week. I have been meaning to go into Madrid and go to all the museums and parks and just try and see everything I have meant to for the past 3 months (Luckily, the list isn't very long..I haven't wasted a second here!) This has been really hard to follow up on though because I have been trying to study and get ready for my 2 week extravaganza after Spain. I must say however, I have spent my time more wisely than ever with my family. I had a thought today: I can come back to Madrid and visit again...I can see the parks and museums and cathedrals...but I will NEVER be able to enjoy playing soccer with the local ward boys every week..singing Karoke, eating tapas, and going out dancing until 4:30 in the morning on the weekend in Álcala. I will never be able to play paddle with Santi for like hours upon hours during the day, while making new Spanish friends at the park. I will never be able to spend as much time hearing Gloria say "MUY BIEN" after we successfully speak spanish, and hear her sweet laugh. I will never be able to watch Jesus and Miguel laugh their heads off at dinner because Santi said something rather cruel. I will never be able to ride into Madrid in a car in order to see Bulls being maliciously slaughtered. I will never be able to live and laugh and learn with this family again. For this reason, we have spent the past week soooooooo well. Take a look :)
Last sunday Gloria took us out to this benefit concert for a girl with a rare disease. None of us could figure out what exactly that disease was..but her name was Sarah and she was adorable. Basically, it was a show consisting of all art forms. People were standing and singing and just having a good old time. Definitely an awesome cultural experience. After, we went out for Tapas and to watch some people dance at a bar. Gloria told us the previous week that we don't go out enough, so she wanted to show us what it is like to experience the night life in Madrid. hahahhaa.
The following Thursday we all went in to see "El Rey de Leon" together. We bought Gloria a ticket as a gift, because she has never seen the movie or anything and has always wanted to! I wasn't sure if the music would be in English or not, but I was excited regardless. It turned out they had translated the whole thing into Spanish and I loved every second of it. It was so easy to understand because I already knew the story and music, and it was so fun to see how they translated it. Our mom ADORED it and loved how they added a lot of Spanish humor. My favorite song was "Él vive en ti," or "he lives in you," referring to Mufasa and his promise to Simba to always be there. The music was amazing and the costumes and everything were so clever. It really was, like my roommate Aly says, a spiritual experience!
Friday we mainly just hung out in the house, trying to recover from an exhausting week. We also played soccer once again that wednesday at this awesome giant sports complex. I was a little worried at first playing again, scared I would fall on my face..but nothing happened at it was as fun as ever. Friday night we went out to get tapas and ice cream with a bunch of the girls and a couple boys from church. We stampeded a Karoke bar as well and showed Spain how to sing like an American!
Right before this, I had a moment I will never forget. I already talked about how we bought our dad Santi a new racket and gave it to him right before this night. It obviously put him in a very good mood so our he gave us a ride down to meet with everybody. On the way down we blasted the song, "Danza Kaduro," a very upbeat Spanish song, and just sang and dance the whole way through town. It was this moment of pure joy, love for this country and language, and love for our dad Santi. That moment just perfectly exemplified the strong relationship we have built for him, and I will always think of this moment when I hear that song.
After Karoke, we met up with Gloria, her daughter Susana, and another student from Japan. They took us to this dancing club called the Casco Antiguo, its a dance studio where they instruct Latin dancing. They had a bunch of guys there with shirts that said, "bailas?" on the back, and they taught you how to dance! We learned salsa, chacha, and merengue, and a bunch of fun line dances. All the people there know how to dance soooo well! Me and my roomies are determined to become that good when we get home. We had so much fun just enjoying our time watching young and old and listening to the rythmic music. After 3, the instructors left and the place just turned into this discotec, so we just all danced together in a circle. Let me tell you, Spaniards do not dance like us. Aly and I were going crazy to all the songs and everyone kept laughing at us and looking at us soo weird. This one guy kept coming up to us to try and ask us where we were from, even though it was clear to everyone there we were Americans. Oh how I love the stares we have gotten for the past three months! We stayed till 4 in the morning and I do not understand how Spaniards do that every weekend! I do feel a lot more cultured now though!
Saturday we played paddle with Santi, Jesus, and Pablo once again..but we were so tired from the night before and decided we wanted ice cream..so we dragged Jesus with us down to the plaza Cervantes to the recently opened heladeria. He is such a cutie. We then taught him how to play American football, and of course he was good at it like everything else. We were having so much fun we didn't even want to leave to go into Madrid that night for our Opera.
Did I mention that rollerblading is super super popular in Spain and I have been wanting to do it since I arrived here? Finally, my dream fulfilled :)
Love this girl with all my heart :)
Sunday was our last day at church, which was seriously really hard. I owe so much of my learning experience to my weekly sunday church attendance. Here, I had the spirit by my side, helping me to understand what was being said, literally, and spiritually in my heart. I owe so much of my ability to listen and comprehend Spanish to church and members here in Álcala. Santi and Gloria came to sacrament meeting to here us sing, and everyone was just so nice to them and reached out. Guillermo, our favorite person ever, gave a talk and my mom noted how much she looked up to him and could tell he was a really good guy.
One of the cute boys in the ward, Joan, who is a convert of the church and is now going on a mission, wrote me a letter telling me how good of an example I had been to him and how grateful he was to me for helping him learn some English. He gave me a magnet from Madrid and I told him I would write him letters on his mission. He is such a sweet heart and I look up to him so much for his example and friendship.
I didn't think I would cry, mainly because I am just so used to saying goodbye to people I have come to love, and have just come to terms with the fact that if you love someone, there really are no goodbyes. However, after sacrament meeting and our singing, my cute friend Alicia came up to me, and she was just bawling. She is one of the cute old ladies from Relief Society who I always sat by and talked to about her grandkids who live in Utah. She always gave me advice about learning Spanish and she is just the cutest little lady. I lost it when I saw her crying and it made me realize how the gospel can just bring people together, even if they cannot communicate that well. I got her email address and told her that next time she comes to Utah to visit her son, I want to see her.
My Spanish teacher Teresa also came to hear us sing! Cutest Spanish teacher ever right? We are obsessed with her!
GUILLMERO! We love him.
We quickly ran home to grab Jesus and Miguel and then Santi took us out to this Asian buffet and it was DELICIOUS. It was like mongolian barbeque meets chinese buffet meets Spain. It was a celebratory feast for our departure with the whole family.
We also had tickets to a bull fight that night, and some of the girls who had bought tickets decided they were too scared to go see it, so we brought Glori and Santi instead! This way, we got to drive into madrid with a car which was sooo much nicer than the train. Santi used to work at the Plaza de Toros in Madrid, cleaning up all the blood..so he was really excited. Gloria had never seen a bull fight in real life, so she wanted to see what it was like as well. At first, I was really grossed out with all the blood and the brutality of killing the bull. But then, once I got used to it..I kind of liked it...hahahah
One of the best people I have ever met.
Walk of Victory around the Plaza
This week we have our finals, graduation, one last free day, and then we are out of here. We have mainly been studying (which means we really haven't been studying, but like to say that we have) playing with our family, and preparing to go. Santi keeps on saying how he wants to come to Salt Lake City this summer so he can see all the national parks and go to Las Vegas. We told him if he does that we would show him around EVERYWHERE. He tells us the new prices for plane tickets everyday. It is talks like this that remind me that I will see them again someday, I know it for a fact. I am so grateful for all they have given to me these past 3 months and I have been changed because of them. They are the most open, pacient, hospitable, and selfless people. They love teaching their culture and language and sharing their hearts and homes to the world. I hope to have a family and household just like them someday.
Seeing as this is probably my last blog post in Spain, I want to declare the outcome of this experience:
I have learned to be patient with others and myself..because soo many people are patient with me.
I have learned to embrace another way of life and thinking..the way we do things in the United States is no better than anywhere else in the world.
Laughter is a universal language.
Making good decisions, NEVER leads you astray.
I am loved by people everywhere, and I feel so blessed for it.
Our world is full of history and we have a responsibility to learn about it.
I have learned to live each day in the moment, and not to live each day worrying too much about the future.
I have learned that when you get out of your comfort zone, you always have the most memorable experiences.
Don't murmur, complain, or be prideful. Life is meant to be hard, obnoxious, and frustrating..just embrace it and learn from it.
You can be yourself, even in another country and language.
Love EVERYONE and don't second guess yourself.
I named my blog "A lady in Spain," but I think now, it is safe to say, "Spain has a place in me." I am no longer in this country, the country is in me :)
Our dear friend Guillermo Lopez from the ward sent us this email today and I think it sums up perfectly the experience.
Hi guys! It is I, once more :D How are you doing? I hope you are enjoying to the max this week, and that your finals are going well enough. I'm sure you are doing a great job on them.
I wanted to let you know that I am planning on going to play soccer on Wednesday at 6:30pm, in case some of you still didn't know it. So I'll be there to open the gate and everything. How could I miss our ultimate soccer challenge? :D
"And by the way, you don't need to reply to this email, but I also wanted to thank you for being such wonderful people and have allowed us to be part of your Spanish experience. We all are going to miss you lots, and I specially am gonna miss you. You might think that we are used to it, since many BYU groups have come before you, but I have found that I'm still not. Usually I haven't been able to get involved with you guys to much after my mission because of my architecture studies and my Church callings that always keep me on Sundays busy and running around after our ward's priesthood holders... That's why I just got to hang out with you if I had girls living at home and they invite me. But this time, although there were no students at home, I've been doing stuff with you and enjoying it so much, that now I already miss you, my friends :) I might hide my feelings very well, but yeah, you are such special sweet daughters of God... You have been one of the best BYU groups ever, and I love you guys, and I'm sure the Lord will bless you a lot throughout your lives. In the next years some of you will go on missions, others will get engaged soon... So, only good things have the Lord ahead for you, so don't be too sad, haha. If we endure to the end, we will be all together with the people we love in Heaven, so... we can use that feeling of "missing each other" to motivate us to press forward to get there. Fo sho, my nizzles!!
I'm gonna go to Utah and California some day, so I hope I'll get to see you, if not all, as many as possible. Now I feel more attached to the US than to Spain, because most of my friends are now there, and the dearest ones for me are from my mission and from BYU :) If I don't make it for this Summer, I'll be there in the next couple years for sure. Till then, we will keep in touch through FB and I'll let you know about my life updates. You always will have a special room in your crazy Spaniard-friends' hearts, above most of the students that came previously.
Take care!! And see you on Wednesday and tonight if you go to the FHE. Hugs and Spanish two-kisses ;)"
No comments:
Post a Comment