STS: On Good Things

As per usual, I’m writing this before I go to bed.

Because I had all day to do it… but that Sunday nap hits you hard when your room is on the third floor and you just cook while laying in bed trying to read. Then suddenly 2.5 hours of your day are gone?? Drat

Earlier this week, we went to an FHE (Family Home Evening- we get together to play a game or do an activity and share a message afterwards) hosted by some friends from the ward here, and I actually loved the spiritual thought. So I’m going to paraphrase it the best I can here in English. But it’s going to take some homework if you want to get anything out of it.

Read this: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/forget-me-not?lang=eng

No seriously, read it. Stop skimming!

Basically I started reading it and now it’s mandatory. It’d probably just be better if you read that instead of what I’m going to write.

To be short as the message was originally, Christopher told us:

 I want you to think of an error you had this past week. Or a few. Whatever you want.

We had sticky notes and I wrote three things.

1.     I haven’t always loved others around me without any judgement

2.     Sometimes I shortcut and cheat my Spanish development opportunities

3.     I ate the whole chocolate bar (This is a long story but if you know me at all, doesn’t actually need any context)

These are personal bits that mean something to me. But what has been hard about your week? Think on it. Afterwards, he says:

I want you to think of a victory you’ve had this week. Or a few, whatever works. If you can, think of something that went well that others wouldn’t necessarily be able to know about.

And this was actually a lot easier,

1. I’ve had real, comprehensible conversations beyond weather and “how are you” with my host family and people in various cities

2. I’ve been running a lot lately with friends and can feel my endurance building

3. I have housing in the works for fall!

Christopher asked us if it wasn’t too personal if a few people wanted to share a point they have from each, so we gave a few examples and afterwards he says this:

God knows us personally and perfectly. And I know that God is very aware of the errors I’ve made in the past week, and how they’ve affected me. But I also know that Heavenly Father wants us to remember Him, and we can always look for the “no me olvides” (forget me nots) in our lives. The little victories we have to prove that he is mindful of us every single day.

I know we spend a lot of time saying “have an ‘attitude of gratitude’”

                                                              or  “put in in your joy journal”

and other very corny and sometimes cringe-worthy expressions.

But there’s a meaning behind the madness.

I feel like after the last year of my life in and out of school, I could start a bakery that specializes in humble pie; because I’ve been served a lot. No I don’t have a joy journal. Yes I try to be grateful in every day. Because life is just easier being happy. And you don’t need a hand-stiched motivational anything on your wall to tell you how to do it.

If you want to be happy, be.

For me, this is just what helps me to be.

I’m grateful for life!

For family,

For friends,

For little dogs,

For cats that aren’t rude,

For rain,

For warm weather,

for melón,

for peaches,

for nutella,

for my second families,

for chocolate,

for days in new shoes and no blisters,

for the 8 years of dental work I had as a toothless wonder.

I’m grateful for windows that keep the bugs out,

For public transportation,

And for our director’s and profesor’s patience with us.

I’m grateful for the Gospel,

I’m grateful for prayer and revelation,

I'm grateful for the love and example of Jesus Christ.

I’m grateful for the ability to express myself,

And for my health.

And that i don't get as many migraines as i did when i was small. 

And that’s all I could think of off the top of my head in a few minutes. Also socks and sticky notes. Those are good things too.

That’s it for today!

Happily,

Jessie

On Zaragoza

Buenas!!

The Last Day.

I feel like I’ve been writing forever to catch up the last few trips, but fortunately it wasn’t really that interesting of a day today. But here’s the last day on our way home from Barcelona:

Some of us like to run in the mornings in Alcalá before school when we can (at night if we can’t), but it depends on who can roll out of bed and get their butt moving both at home and while traveling. We just do it for fun. A few days ago in Valencia we ran from the hotel to the beach at 6 in the morning, and it’s always really funny because no one is alive and functioning before 8 am unless you’re a street sweeper. So we essentially had the streets to ourselves! But today we decided to use the hotel gym to lift wimpy hotel weights instead. It was great, since I have wimpy Jessie Dean arms anyways, it turned out just fine.

After breakfast we got on the bus. So fun. So exciting.

We stopped about 4 or 5 hours later in Zaragosa. Zaragosa is an interesting town for the 2 hours I was in it, but I don’t have too much to say. We stopped and saw the cathedral that was there, which is not on my list of “most interesting” or “most beautiful” but I would definitely give it quirky. It felt like a cathedral built inside a capital building. If I find time I’m going to read more about it, because it was kind of confusing. They had a bunch of flags in it, even one for The United States… didn’t take a picture since I figured you’ve seen it. GO MERICA.

The highlight however was definitely the Kebab restaurant. I don’t understand what it is or what I ate, but I'm sorry for judging all things kebab by my one weird experience in Alcalá it was great. Also I had frozen yogurt and somebody is lying because that is not what they serve at Spoon it Up. It actually tasted like yogurt that was frozen. Mixed reviews.

Got back on the bus.

Now we're back in Alcalá.

It's good to be home.

Watch women's conference since I can't with the time difference!! I'm way jealous! 

lds.org   ---  6pm MST

On Barcelona

Oh what’s up homefam!!

We are in BARCELONA. BARCELONAAAAA!! This is my new favorite city.

“I just keep thinking that the days can’t get any better, and they still do you know?” –Alyssa

So we drove. And drove and drove and drove. Drove from the hotel in Valencia, and jumped in until the bus spit us out downtown Barcelona. And Barcelona was jumpinnnnn. Pause momentarily while I reference Wikipedia for this next bit.

So there was a huuuuge festival in town, La Mercè. Here's the wikipedia page for those curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Mercè All the streets were shut down, there was a desfile going through town for I think what could accurately be described as “forever”.  Because when we had free time from 3 until 7 the parade was just going and going. There were giants and dancing and all this craziness... it was one of those weird moments where i went home and checked my phone and saw that Barcelona was featured on snapchat literally the same time I was there (for the festival). I know that's not how you should rate days on their importance or pop culture trivia, but it was weird. That's mostly the reason I was bummed I didn't see more haha, ah well!

To start: I had legit paella in Barcelona!!! I’ve actually had paella in Alcalá, but this was official. As in not chicken and rice.  Paella is a classic Spanish dish (I think I can say that since it is sold everywhere) that is usually seasoned rice and seafood. And delicious. Well okay like I said, my host family cooks it with chicken so there really isn’t anything foreign about it haha, it’s hard to not like rice and chicken. All I wanted to do was be able to say I had real paella, so Alyssa and I split a mixed paella with chicken rice and seafood. The rice? Great. Chicken? Oh yeah. Seafood? …Honestly unless it is straight tuna or salmon it takes just so long to eat seafood. That’s probably why the people here are so skinny. It takes them so dang long to eat their stinking crawdad-lookin things they just give up and decide to go to bed haha. But yeah, I gave my best efforts and ate this little bugger and that was an experience (read: I tried really hard to figure out 1. Where the meat is 2. How to eat said meat but … ).

After lunch, we regrouped and since we had so much free time we went to THE PLAYAAA. As I said, I didn’t bring a swimsuit to Spain, and I still don’t regret that. I went anyway in some running spandex and a tshirt, no pasa nada. It was so great. Not really a fan of salt water over lake water, but it was beautiful. I don’t really have any pictures of us at the beach and I’m sure you’ve all been in water before so I’ll spare you the details haha. Oh wait but I do want to mention why my preference is lake water: I’m from the Great Lakes area and can’t remember the last time I actually swam in an ocean, but the salt water is so sticky. The last time we went to the ocean to swim and I did’t get in everyone was so fussy about it (the stickiness) while we were walking back and I just could not understand why. I take back all of my sassy comments and eyerolling because it is genuinely gross and destroyed my hair haha blehgrrglujefh. I just want to live on Lake Superior, is that too much to ask?

Afterwards, we walked back to meet the bus since we probably walked 40 minutes from where we started just to get to the beach. I think I’ve mentioned this before about Madrid or Spain in general, but here’s the thing: anywhere there is tourism or big populations of people, there are always these crazy black market Haitian men selling random things on the ground. No, they’re not always Haitian, but It doesn’t feel PC to say “yeah the crazy black guys selling stuff real shifty-like on the ground ya know” haha. Anyhow, they have these little burlap sacks/tarps laying on the ground and they’re usually selling stuff like fútbol jerseys, nike tennis shoes, jewelry, sunglasses, selfie sticks, little speaker dudes, ugly purses, scarves… collectively: all the things you don’t actually need from Spain. Or life in general. But if you want them… the crazy black guys have got you covered. And will yell at you to buy their things haha. If it surprises you, it’s illegal to sell the merchandise-but also illegal to buy it. The best explanation I’ve heard is because everything they sell is fake, stolen, or both, but I have no idea. They stand around and guard their little tarp of goods and aggressively try and coerce people to just pick one and buy it but the whole time they are holding the corners of their tarp by strings becaaaause they have a lookout man for the police and if it’s possible for something to go down they just sinch up their stuff and book it to a back alley. I just think they’re so funny.

But yeah so we’re walking back to where we were dropped off in the middle of the city, and all the steets are closed for street traffic. And these are big streets! Big streets = big time inconvenience. Because we too, had to reroute… when we finally got where we were to be picked up, we had to walk literally 20 minutes backwards where we came from since the parade took over such a big part of town.

We got back to the hotel, tried to find a little place to eat but the eating times in Spain are so bizarre. In America, a restaurant will open somewhere between 7 and 10 and will close between 9 and 11, generally speaking. In Spain, a restaurant will open whenever the frick it feels like, close in the middle of the day from 3-5, and then reopen and close on a whim some mystical time between 5 and 8. Actually I take that back, I’m forgetting it was also a holiday and they were probably closed for the festival hahahaha. But I still stand by “I genuinely do not understand the ways here” sometimes haha.  Oh man such a struggle.

On the plus side, we found a fruit shop!!! I loooooove fruteriaaaaas. America needs these. Bad. Oh and there were peaches!! Oh baby. I am so sad peaches are going out of season because they’re so stinking good. Okay also it’s like a produce shop, because there are vegetables too. But I’m not going to buy a head of lettuce or other miscellaneous Spanish vegetables to carry around to eat haha. We bought a half watermelon to eat and I bought a peach to eat for the next day, it was great.

End of Day 1 in Barcelona.

I LOVE BARCELONA

Part Two

Barcelona has the two things I for sure for sure wanted to see in Spain. And we did them both yesterday. El Parque Güell and La Sagrada Familia. Yes!!!!!

As a continued tangent on Spain’s languages, in Barcelona they speak 1. Castellano (Spanish) and 2. Catalán. I keep expecting to run into these languages and have it be like “ye olde English” where it’s just spelled weird but is fairly obvious what is being said, but thus far I can read about as much Catalán and Valenciano as I can Portuguese. It’s odd because I was expecting also that it’d be like a small thing that you wouldn’t run into too much, but really almost all of the signs are in Catalan unless it’s an advertisement or something a little more “needs to be understood by everyone”/has a bigger audience. And our tour guide Jordi said that nearly 95% of Barceloneses speak the two fluently. No big deal.

Anywho, we went to the Park first. And oh my freaking heck, I can’t believe Barcelona is a real city! I found a camera store in Alcalá but I’m a huge chump because I keep forgetting to go. So the battery issue is still on hold. I’m super grateful that I have my phone here.  Park Güell is an art park of sorts around Gaudi. I wish I had more cool things to say about it that are factual, except that I was so overstimulated by the sights that I was dipping in and out of actually listening to Jordi. But I can tell you what I know just off my own head with a few bits from Jordi, prepare yourselves haha.

So Gaudi is an artist known for his architecture but mostly the curvy quality of his work in pretty much every way imaginable. There’s an overlook of the city we went to see, it’s incredible. But if you want to see why you should probably google it because I have a picture of me, but it doesn’t really do it justice. Thus you see my plight haha. It was funny because it’s such a highly trafficked area that I’m pretty sure we had to pay ahead of time to go as a group and we only had 30 minutes to take a few pictures and have Jordi tell us about it. Like they actually had a line we had to wait in to walk to see the city. “Oh yay, just like Disneyland… nothing gets the blood pumpin’ like waiting in lines...” –Jake

As an artist, I’m not really a fan of the curvy architecture and always thought it looked silly. But after seeing it in person, my heart may have softened just a tinch. It’s just so different. And now I just really want rounded benches.

After the park, we jumped back on the bus and were spit out at La Sagrada Familia.

Every thing I write from here on are understatements of the century.

La Sagrada Familia is incredible.

I’m not a nut for architecture or old historical things,

but I could go back again and again and again.

It is quite literally: stunning.

New life goal: one room in my house modeled with the mosaic windows.

So I have some photos, and I’m sorry that they’re just average cell phone pictures. I felt pretty lame not having my nice camera, but I know even if I had it with me it wouldn’t’ve done what I wanted. SO I’m happy with what I have to prove I was there for just a second, and I have the memories! But yeah when I’m a millionaire I’m going to rent the whole thing out, La Sagrada Familia. And we’ll either have a wedding or a service, but I just cannot deal with these tourists. I totally acknowledge that I’m no better and am also a tourist trying to get the same photos that already exist in millions of places online, but Spain is full of 3 things:

1.     1. Asian tourists

2.     2. Selfie Sticks

3.     3. Asian tourists with Selfie Sticks

The only way I can deal is by laughing. Because it just blows my mind. Mostly their commitment to the selfie stick and some of the poses they make both taking the picture and having a picture taken of them. But forreal, Madrid? Check. Segovia? Check. Burgos? Check. Valencia? Check. Every city! BAM. Asian tourists!! How is the continent of Asian surviving if half of it’s population is in Spain?? Madre mia…

                              

Haha oh man, so after La Sagrada Familia we went to a legit tapa bar!!! Tapas in short are little plates of food. Not like a china saucer and three little weinies, but a small bocadillo (sandwich) or some egg tortilla (which is egg and potatoes) or something like that. Actually it is almost always a sandwich-it’s just a small amount of food that isn’t a Texas Road House meal. BUT this place was sweeeeeet. The tapas are super random and there were literally 50 of them to chose from for €1.95 !! Haha except it was such a struggle to feed 13 people 3 different tapas each so by the time I got mine I inhaled them.  And then I ate my peach since the tapas were pretty much as filling as a gust of wind. Imagine like three, perfect, professionally made.... triscuit-sized things. That's what I ate. Woman s'gotta eat too, y'all!! That is not real food. Which is why it's popular to go "tapa-hopping" from bar to bar. A little here, a little there.... drink here, drink there... goodness.

After lunch we split up because some wanted to go see the National Art Museum and Olympic something or other (Barcelona held the Olympic games in ‘91 I think? Somethin like that). We wanted to go shopping.

Shopping in Spain is actually really fun because there are a lot a lot of options, but it’s also overwhelming some times. And if it isn’t overwhelming by the sheer amount of things there are to buy, it should be overwhelming by the amount it costs to own said things. So to say I went shopping meant we walked into a lot of stores and touched a lot of things. And then we kept walking.

Lastly before we jumped on the bus we went to (haha…guess) this darling little cathedral!! Okay no jokes, I’ve seen a junnnkload of cathedrals in the 4 weeks I’ve been in Spain, but this is one of my favorties. Besides La Sagrada Familia because that can’t be topped. This one was little and quaint and honestly felt like an actually spiritual place. Most cathedrals we’ve seen are beautiful, but feel more like a landmark or a museum- this one had the ambiance and just the right amount of charm. Perfect end to a great day!!

We came back to the hotel, went out to get something to eat, and then went hotubbing. I lasted about 25 minutes. And either the salt water or the hot tub water has successfully turned my black shirt brown haha oh dear.

So that is a play-by-play of Barcelona. I’m impressed if you’ve made it this far.

Love you all, I think about you every day! Pray for ya too

Peace,love & peaches

Jessie

On Valencia

Hey fam!

Guess where I am? YOU GOT IT

On the bus.

…I hate the bus.

I am going to give it to you straight: there is next to nothing I enjoy about traveling by bus. Mostly because I am a wimpy thing and it takes anywhere to be 35 and 60 minutes for me to get sick. Usually less. SO in my attempt to keep it real with y’all I will not sugar coat my discomfort. So every time I mention I’m typing from a bus you can just sigh and say “ay…pobrecita” like Gloria would if she were here. And could read English haha.

So we went to Valencia yesterday!! The landscape in Spain is insane. I was talking with our tour guide telling her it’s crazy because in the United States every state is a little different obviously, but mostly you think of it in coasts like east coast/west coast, Midwest, south… and they’re all very different geographically. And it’s the same with spain but in a country so so much smaller? That blows my mind. I guess actually mostly I am just surprised when I see palm trees. And I’m pretty sure they’ve been in almost every city haha… love you Mom.

Valencia was kind of a struggle. I know you are already aware of my love for the bus, but I will expound just a little bit more on the struggle that was being on a bus from 8 am to 2 pm. So the buses we rent are way nice coach buses, don’t get me wrong. We travel comfortably. But I don’t know if the roads to Valencia are paved with broken bones of a Spanish War’s past or what because that was the bumpiest ride ever. And I know that sounds like a very small thing to care about, but it is impossible to sleep through and I was sick almost immediately from it and thought this is gonna be it, this is the day I’m going to puke on this bus. Oh freaking no. Good thing I’ve got this cereal bag.  Haha . We had to run out the door at like 7:50 am to meet the bus at 8 so Kat and I grabbed a yogurt and dry cereal and threw it in these plastic bags that were essentially one step down from a target bag. Where is a Ziploc when you need one…

Anywhoooo

Other odd things that are probably normal outside of America: so we have to stop every two hours legally with the bus driver, but the issue is we normally have to buy something or pay to use the bathroom. Not always, but enough.

We got to tour Valencia and it wasn’t really my favorite city. It was still cool to see, but I honestly was struggling to think of what we did because all I can think of is being on the bus. All the dayz. It had some sweet street graffiti though! And the tour guide was really fun to talk to. We walked the city for a while, but the other half of our tour was with her (with a mic) while being on the bus sooo…. . . 

We also got to drive past the science museum downtown! Which sounds like an average time, but it was cool because it was built by the architect Santiago Calatrava which is something I can only remember because of the Art Museum back home.

We finished our tour, got back to the hotel, really wanted to go to the playa but it was too late at night and it was a 30 minute walk to a beach you can’t swim in after sunset, so I got indian food in the middle of Spain. It was great. Went to bed. End of day.

Sorry it looks like I’m such a tiquismiquis today haha. But life is good!

Count your blessings! Look for light! Appreciate not being on a bus!

Pease, love, and fresh air,

Jessie

Oh shoot I totally forgot I wanted to mention this as a tack-on tangent to what I wrote previously about Spain & it’s languages: In Valencia, the people speak a different language called Valenciano. This one makes a lot more sense than Basque; Valenciano is close to French, but closer to Italian. I can tell you that I noticed this  (with my French expertise from 4 months of French 101) because all of the restaurants use this “ d’ “ in the same way Spanish uses “del”.  End of astoundingly insightful comment. It blows my mind, a lot of people here are trilingual. As in fluent in Spanish and Valenciano, and then usually a bit of English. Although not American-english, “ingles britanico” (like UK English). So if we’re not getting a few laughs at our Mexican-sounding Spanish, it’s our super American English. I love America. America rocks. Oh right right!

AND

We found a store right by our university called I think… “American Store?” or “American Shop?” something like that. It sells all these things I didn’t even realize weren’t in Spain. Such as but not limited to:

Dr pepper

Pancake mix

Fondant?

Certain potato chips

A lot of candies

..like mint M&Ms

Pretzel M&Ms

Reese’s Cups

Jif Peanut Butter

Poptarts

Marshmallow Fluff

So you know, the American essentials.