Spain: Day 10 - Church

Today was a relatively relaxing day compared to the rest of the weekend (see the previous post for an explanation).  Everyone from our house and most of the other people from World Partners went to a service in English at the church.  The service was beautiful and the message was given by a Brit who is the most eloquent speaker I've ever heard.  He had an amazing way of taking a passage of Scripture and explaining every verse so that it makes sense.  After church we ate lunch back at the apartment.  Instead of taking a siesta like normal, I and two other students decided to hike up the mountain to the castle again.  It was a very hot and sticky day but we made it.  Later that night the church invited all of the Americans to come back to the church at 7pm for a Spanish service and join their choir in singing some songs in Spanish and English.  That service was very powerful.  Many of the families of the children we work with were there, and several of them have never stepped foot in a church.  This was a great ministry to show them that church people aren't weird and that they are loved.  The choir, consisting of both Spaniards and Americans, sang several songs in Spanish.  Then Pastor Pedro gave a message and explained what it means to have a relationship with God.  The moment at which he finished was a holy moment as a member from our team sang My Tribute.  The Spaniards joined us singing in English.  After several more songs, it was time to end the service.  Because the Spaniards have blessed us so much on this trip by being so gracious and hospitable, the Americans wanted to bless them with a song.  All of the Americans went to the front of the sanctuary and sang From the Inside Out.  As soon as we started singing tears filled the eyes of many people in the audience.  This in turn caused a lot of the Americans to tear up.  It was a beautiful moment that I believe helped strengthen the bond between America and this community in Spain.  After the service, the congregation mingled for a while.  Instead of handshakes, the Spanish women like to kiss both cheeks and the men give bear hugs.  Suffice to say, I received many kisses and felt like I had enough makeup on my face to paint a clown.  One of the men, Nando, hugged me, pulled me away, hugged me again, and then cupped my face with both hands and said "God bless you" in broken English.  The love that the Spanish people have for the Americans is unbelievable.  I only hope that we have been able to reflect that love back to the community of Alcoy and my prayer is that many doors are opened because of our visit -- not because of us, but because of the love of God that has been expressed by both nationalities.

Lisa stayed home from church that night to watch the kids.  When we got home, she had prepared a huge feast of bread, 4 types of cheese, melon, oranges, cherries, ham, salami, cherry tomatoes, and gaspatcho.  We all ate outside on the patio and reflected on how much this day meant to us and to the Spaniards.  It was just another day of adventure in the Kingdom of God.

Spain: Day 9 - Beach day!

This weekend has been even more busy than the weekdays.  Saturday was our planned beach day with entire World Partners group of volunteers.  After the late-night fiesta on Friday, we all met at the school at 11am and boarded a bus.  Again, we had no idea of what adventure might await us.  First, we headed to see a  lighthouse in Dénia called the Cap de San Antonio.  The view of the Mediterranean from the lighthouse was breathtaking.  The trails winding around the lighthouse were not marked very clearly and there were no guardrails along the cliffs, which made it all the more exciting.

After spending a few minutes at the lighthouse, we got back in the bus and traveled back down the mountain. On our way down, we saw a car laying on it's side (like, 2 doors on the ground and the other 2 in the air) with the windshield shattered.  The police were there directing traffic and no one looked hurt, so everyone hurried to one side of the bus to get a shot of the unusual position of the car.  I'm sad to say that I didn't get a very good picture of it.  That was only our first run-in with the police that day...

When we got down from the mountain we traveled to a little town called Jávea and ate at a Chinese wok buffet.  Interestingly enough, the Chinese food made me feel like an American again.  I was also intrigued by the workers at the restaurant - Asian women who speak Spanish and broken English; quite an odd mix.

After lunch, we had planned on going to a beach in Granadella with a 15 foot cliff we could jump off of into the water.  On our way there though, our bus got stopped by 2 policemen on scooters.  Even though no one on the bus had heard a sound, allegedly the bus had hit a fence which fell on a car behind us and scratched it. We finally got everything straightened out and were on our way to the beach again.  Run-in with the police #2.

This is a picture of a valley that we passed through on the way to the beach.  Just to put it in perspective, see those scrunched-up pieces of metal that look like popcans?...those are cars that have fallen off the cliff into the ravine below.  And just to remind you, we were in a full size bus with 21 people on board.  It was a bit nerve racking to say the least.

 After about an hour of driving through hill and vale, we finally arrived at the beach.  However, the bus driver stopped in the middle of a 4-way intersection when we got there; we couldn't go forward because the road in front of us was a one-way road and we couldn't back up because there was a line of cars behind us.  This caused an inconvenient traffic jam so a few members of our team jumped off the bus to direct traffic. The traffic jam must have been bigger than we thought because the police soon showed up again (to make it run-in #3).  The officers seemed a bit irritated that a bus that large traveled through the mountains and got stuck.  Nonetheless, they, along with a few of our team members, guided our bus through the process of a 3-point turn around.  The road on our right that we were going to back into was probably a 45 degree angle downhill while the road to our left was about a 45 degree angle uphill.  As we started backing up, the people outside the bus started holding their heads and pointing to the front of the bus.  Those of us who were still on the bus soon realized that they wanted everyone to move to the front of the bus to help distribute the weight.  Later, they told us that one wheel of the bus was 3 feet off the ground, which is why they had us move.  Eventually we got unstuck, but since we had stressed out the bus driver too much we decided to skip the beach and head home.

On our way home we ended up stopping in Jávea again to go to a different beach.  Jávea is a very touristy town and the beach was overcrowded.  Myself and few other guys walked about 15 minutes down the coast and found a secluded spot to relax from the excitement of almost dying in a bus (just kidding Aunt B, don't worry.  I'm still alive to tell the story).  We sat by the tide pools for a few hours getting to know each other better and attempting to catch crabs (the kinds with claws that you can eat...not the other kind...).

After winding down at the beach for a few hours, we hopped back on the bus and headed home for reals this time.  The ride home was definitely less exciting than the rest of the day but I did get some amazing pictures of the mountains.

We finally arrived back at the school a little before 10:00pm.  Little did we know that the excitement of the day wasn't over.  Myself and the other 3 students I'm living with walked for about 25 minutes to find a place to eat.  We thought our professor would be meeting us there for dinner but found out that he would be picking us up at 10:45pm at the church down the road from the restaurant.  We ended up waiting at the restaurant for 20-25 minutes before getting up and leaving because the waitress hadn't come to get our order.  The four of us decided to just go to the church without eating to wait since it was almost time to be picked up.  Unfortunately, the only student with a phone forgot to mention that we wouldn't be picked up until after 11pm.  To make a long story short, we waited for a while.  It wouldn't have been so bad if our day hadn't been so eventful and busy.  That said, I am thankful for our bus driver that day, for the missionaries who paid for our meal at the restaurant, for safety while traveling, and for new-found friends.  I must say this was one of the most adventure-filled days I've had in Spain so far and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings :)

Spain - Day 8 - Gandia y "la gran fiesta"

Today (Friday) we had a field day for the kids at camp as an end-of-the-week celebration.  It's amazing how much fun you can have with 25 kids, 4 buckets of water balloons, and 1 garden hose.  When camp was over, the missionaries took all of the workers to a beach in Gandia.  This was my first time touching the Mediterranean Sea.  The red flag was flying so we couldn't swim, but we were still able to wade in the water.

The beaches in Spain are huge and have full size sand volleyball and basketball courts, as well as large beach soccer fields.  I walked along the beach for about half an hour and then played some soccer.  Playing soccer in the sand is very difficult so after about an hour we decided to do some shopping along the strip.  On our way to the shops, we passed by a massive sand castle.  Ten children could literally fit inside this thing.

(Side note: I didn't take many pictures at the beach due to the amount of topless women and old men in speedos...this blog is PG.)

After our time at the beach, we headed back to Alcoy to get ready for a fiesta that the Spanish church put on for the Americans.  We arrived at the party at about 8pm and mingled outside for about an hour.  Then the women who were in charge of planning the party asked all the Americans to come inside.  As we all filed into the large open-air room, the Spaniards greeted us with Spanish music and food as if it was a welcoming home party.

The traditional Spanish dress for a fiesta is over-the-top and extravagant.  Each of the American women were presented with a large red flower and a brightly-colored clip to put in their hair.  The men were presented with  black sombreros (which must be a turn-on for Spanish women because they all wanted their pictures taken with the American men after receiving our hats...they said the hats made us "guapo").  We danced and ate for the next 3.5 hours.

There were four tables of snacks and appetizers when we first walked in.  The men carving meat would walk around with platters and serve the freshly cured ham.  The main course consisted of blood sausage, spicy sausage, mini hot-dog looking things, and hamburger along with a piece of bread.  The desserts consisted of chocolate covered cookies and small pieces of cake coated in chocolate.  This was the first time the church has ever had a party this big and elaborate.  They really wanted to celebrate our presence in Alcoy and they did a fantastic job showing their appreciation for us.  The fiesta lasted for 4.5 hours and may have gone longer if our bus wouldn't have had to leave at 12:30am.  This fiesta was a great way to get to know our Spanish friends better and experience an exciting part of their culture.  These are some of my new (and old) friends:

Escola Oficial d'Idiomes

Blue Team in Art Class

Our days have been pretty full lately.  During the week, we typically get up between 6 and 7 and have breakfast and devotions around 7:30.  Then we leave the house at 8 and get to the school in Alcoy at 8:15.  Devotions with the whole group start at 8:30 and the camp begins at 9:15 when the kids arrive.  The kids rotate between sports, music, art, and English classes.  The camp ends around 1:30 and we have a catered lunch at the school at 1:45.  After lunch, we head back to the apartment in Cocentaina and take a siesta for a few hours.  La merienda is at 5 which consists of a small snack of bread or fruit.  At 5:30 we load back up in the car and head to a church in Alcoy to teach adult English classes.  Eric, my professor, usually has dinner ready by the time we get back from class around 8:30pm.  Dinner is over by 10:30 or 11 and the rest of the night is free.  When we eat out, we typically have to wait a little longer to have dinner because most restaurants don't start serving food until 9pm.  In fact, you hardly ever see a person on the street until 9 or later because the heat of the day is so intense.  The past few nights have been extremely comfortable and we have been able to open the windows to let the fresh air in.

Art class

This weekend will be pretty busy too.  The entire World Partners group is going to the beach right after camp on Friday (there are no adult classes on Fridays).  The church we are working with is having a big fiesta for us Friday night.  Saturday may be a day trip to the beach in Denia and I think Sundays consist of church basically all day with time for a siesta in the afternoon.

Instead of taking a siesta tomorrow, a few other students and I are going to walk around Cocentaina to see what other kinds of adventures we can find :)

Castell de Cocentaina y el primer día de la escuela

Yesterday after our siesta we decided to hike up a mountain to a castle that overlooks Cocentaina and Alcoy.  We drove about 3/4 of the way up the mountain and hiked the rest of the way.  The road was only wide enough for 1 car, but thankfully no one was coming down as we were going up; otherwise, we would have had to maneuver around the switchbacks in reverse.  Unfortunately the door to the tower was locked so we couldn't go inside but the view was still amazing.

          

 

After our adventure at the castle, a few people from our group walked a few blocks from our apartment to a gelato shop.  The myriad of flavors overwhelmed my senses and included things like Ferrero Rocher, Oreo, and even Tutti Frutti (which is hilarious to hear when said by a native Spaniard).  I eventually decided on half crema catalana ("crème brûlée") and half caramelo ("carmel") -- not gonna lie, hands down the best dessert I've ever had.  Thankfully I don't know my way around the city yet so I can't go back and gorge myself on gelato.

Spain - Day 2

We've finally arrived in Spain!  We landed at the airport at about 6:30am local time (which is 12:30am back home) and met a man who drove us through a mountain range to our apartment.

Spain - Day 1 (Travel Day)

When I woke up this morning I had no idea of the adventure I was in for. Today was the first day of a task force trip teaching English to children in Spain. The trip to the airport was pretty normal, with no wrong turns and minimal stress. After getting through security, I caught up with another student from Bethel and sat to wait at our gate. At first, our flight had a 45 minute delay - no big deal. Then an announcement over the loudspeaker said that, due to high winds, the flight was delayed 1 hour and 20 minutes -- okay, still not a huge deal. We would still have plenty of time to catch our connection in New York. Then the really bad news came -- our flight was going to be delayed for 2 hours and 10 minutes. This would put us in New York 10 minutes before our connection left for Valencia, Spain. Would we make our connection or would we miss it and have to catch the next flight to Spain? The extremely helpful lady at the airline desk assured us that the flight was being rerouted so that it would only take 55 minutes to get to New York rather than 2 hours. This calmed our nerves - we were sure that we could make our connection with plenty of time to spare. However, after we had boarded the plane, the pilot announced that we would be in the air for 1 hour and 39 minutes. Um....what?