Midevil Festival in Santo Domingo de la Calzada

A group of us went to a midevil festival, which completely blew my mind. I mean look at these guys, they are awesome, and they let me hold thier flag. I'm not sure where the third muskateer is, but I bet he is around there somewhere.

This is the afore mentioned group: Alexis, Bronwyn, Marina, Eunice, Hanna, Nadja, and me. We are waiting for the bus. Pure excitement I tell you.

This was the midevil bride and here wedding. I didn't get very good shots of the ceremony due to the hoards of people, but it was pretty cool, with gypsie dancers, jesters, monks and even a leper.

This is the midevil stable boy that is actually a very pretty midevil stable girl in a sweet dress.

And a midevil donkey pulling an even more mideviler cart. I don't know where the midevil mule skinner escaped to while I took this photo, but he was dressed up pretty cool as well.

If anyone wants to get me a Christmas present, I would like a life size chess board and a trio that place a little diddy everytime one of the players is captured-which is what is going on in this video.

This is quite possibly one of the coolest things I have ever seen...ever. It is called La Danza del Torre (Tower Dance). Pretty much these two thrill seekers decided to dangle down the side of the cathedral tower and do some dancing. The dance probably lasted 15 minutes or so, and kept getting more and more awesome. I would guess these people were close to 100 feet off the ground at this time. Amazing.

Food and drums

I forgot to flip this photo. This is a huge pork burger (I was kind of dissapointed that it wasn't beef) that I got at a restaurant called the drunken duck. It was quite delicious. Still not quite the same as an American burger, but it was good just the same.

Thanksgiving in Logroño. I made a chicken (without an oven mind you), and it actually turned out pretty good. The chicken in this photo was made by my pal Arden, because mine was already cut up and half eaten. We had about 15 people from several different countries come and see how we celebrated Thanksgiving. Nobody seemed to complain about a holiday where you eat as much as you can.

I went to a percussion workshop where I learned stuff about the drumset, African and Iberican (Spanish) percussion, and how to make percussion instruments. At the end of the day we got to watch the pros go to town and rock out. It was amazing! Below is a video I took of it.

Nájera

Well, a group of us went to a little town called Nájera, which is about 30 minutes from Logroño. Nice little pueblo up next to the mountains. I was surprised by how green it was, and also how much the landscape resembled Southern Utah. It was like taking a trip through St. George.

Dang tourists are everywhere. This is Arden, Katerina and Nadja. They're the ones who came with me.

We visited a monastary, which contained a few tombs of kings and queens. I couldn't find a year on any of them, but judging by the condition of the stone, I'm guessing they lived within the last 2 or 3 hundred years.

The massive gold altar in the cathedral. I seriously want one of those in my house.

Another important dead guy. I'm sure he was important for some reason.

Cool open walls with cool carvings. If you look a little left to the center of the picture you will find a statue of a guy on the wall with no head. That seems to be common with statues here. Either they sculpt them headless, or someone has a giant room filled with stone heads.

Back in good old Logroño, I went walking through the streets and got to watch a sweet Christian concert. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...of course, it could have been the hot chocolate as well.

Laguardia

A group of us decided to visit a little place called Laguardia, which is up in Basque Country. It is a little town that is built within some old castle walls. Surrounding the town are vinyards that go on for miles. Right now they are absolutely beautiful because the leaves are all changing color.

The entrance to a cathedral in Laguardia.

We decided to grab a bite to eat in one of the local bars here...

I got ham and cheese-wrapped asparagus (I know it has a better name than that, but I don't remember what it is)...

and a devilled egg with shrimp. It's not an American-style devilled egg, but it was delicious.I couldn't help but stop in a little cake shop and get this little piece of heaven. It is more or less a piece of cheesecake. It took me a while to start eating it because I couldn't stop admiring its beauty.

Someone decided to make a statue of metal shoes. I have no idea what the significance is.

San Millan

Our class went to the Monastary of San Millan, where the first written Spanish was found. Unfortunately the first written spanish is no longer there, it is in Madrid. We did get to see a few neat things though. For instance this is a thousand year old box that is holding some saints' remains. The little stone carvings are beautifully intriquite, and tell a story of the saints life. Basically the 10th century version of a comic strip.

This is a copy of the first written spanish. Not as cool as the real thing, but still pretty neat.

This is one of the chapels inside of the Monastary. I was blown away by the incredible artwork and sculptures. I loved how it was white as well. Most chapels are very dark.

This is kind of hard to see, but it is a picture overlooking the monastary from up a little higher on the mountain. It was really quite a beautiful place.

This is fuzzy because they wouldn't let us use a flash inside. Those tall book looking things behind me are a bunch of tall books. They are each about three feet tall, and are made out of animal skins. Usually lamb or goat, but occasionally they used dog as well. It takes one skin to make a page. The pages are very ellaborate and have quite a lot of color on them. Good job monks.

Nothing too exciting

This here is my roomate Taku. The other day, I heard a loud noise from the shower. Apparently he had slipped, and grabbed the shower curtain as he fell. Its pulled the curtain rod right out of the ceiling. We both had a good laugh about that one.

This here is in the city of Logroño, in one of the roundabouts. The don't have too many stop lights here, just roundabouts, and they seem to have really cool fountains and monuments in the middle of them.

This is a massive stone bridge that crosses the Ebro river. I thought it looked pretty cool at night, so I got a picture of it.

Trip to Zaragoza

These are a couple photos from our trip to Zaragoza. It is festival time there for the Dia de Spain (like independence day) as well as the Dia de Pillar (or something) which has some religious significance and a sweet story that talks about Pillar healing a guys leg in a vision who had his leg amputated years before. In the photo you will see Taku-my new roomate from Japan who speaks very little Spanish or English, yours truly, Manuele-She's from France and is the one responsible for my 1st French Kiss-which is what I call the greetings that French people give you when they kiss you on each cheek, and Jennie-who has been here before and who pretty much has to show me where everything is. Arden-who I graduated with but never met before, also came with us but he doesn't like being in photos.

This is the Cathedral of Pillar, which is absolutely enormous-Seriously, this only shows barely the top half. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside, but there was some of the most exquisite art work I have ever seen in there. There were probably 4 or 5 chapels inside as well. It was absolutely incredible.
So, there were a few guys dressed up and just standing there. I honestly thought he was a statue, and then someone put some money in his hat and he came to life. It was really cool, but also kind of creepy to see a statue stare at you with real eyes.
This is me chillin outside a castle. I guess this was made by the arabs back in the 6th century. A lot of the inside is pretty modern, but they have preserved a lot of the architecture from the original construction. They also filled the mote with a lawn and trees. I would have prefered alligators.

I think this is what Robin Hood does in his spare time. I was mostly just impressed with the guy playing the spoons. I have never heard anybody who could actually play the spoons, but this hombre was rocking it up.

Logroño

you may have to turn your monitor sideways on this one. Its also pretty fuzzy, so if you get some overpowered eye glasses it may help to compensate and make it show up clearer.

These dudes are more than lifesize I would say. They are from around the 1500's, and I believe they are also the apostles.

I wish I had a point of reference to give you an idea how big this thing is. Lets just say that the fountains around the horse statue are much higher than I am. Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, I want my grave stone to be identical to that statue...except put my face on it instead of this guy's.

i just realized that those pictures didn't show up. I will try again and see if I can get them on there.

day 1

Here are a couple of pictures of cathedrals in Logroño. We got to go on a tour of four or five of them. They are very impressive to look at. There is also a picture of a big horse. Im sure the guy on top has some significance, but I wasn't listening. I was taking a picture.

Arrival

In case anyone really cares, I just thouht I'd share a quick blip about how I arrived.
I left slc at noon on Saturday, and few for two and a half hours to texas. After a two hour layover I jumped on a plane for 8 of the slowest hours of my life toward England where I sat for three hours waiting for my plane to spain. After arriving in spain, I jumped a bus, and nearly missed my next bus because for some reason I was sitting at a bus stop labeled "Logrono" (which is where I was headed), when in fact a more logical place was to have the bus at a stop which was not labeled at all. Silly me. Anyway, after four hours and two boring movies, I made it to the University. And now, I am going to make me a nice little lunch of potatoes and baked beans. I am so glad baked beans know no boundaries.

Departure

'Twas the night before Spain, and all through my head,
voices were screaming, 'AHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Yeah, that's kind of how I feel right now. Emotions are all astir. I can't really concentrate on anything due to the anticipation, but my thoughts keep coming back to my awesome friends and family. Thanks for all your support, the sweet parties, and just for being there. You guys are great. Love you all. See you next summer.

"Spain" by Loni Dansie

Here is one of the swellest poems I have ever heard. Written by Loni Dansie. Loni, I hope you don't mind that I gave it a title.

"Spain"

As the Spanish sun sinks low,

And the wine begin to flow,

Una bailadora appears from above,

Her motions speaking the language of love.

A spicy melody wafts through the dance floor,

Her prowess seeks but one amour.

She calls to him with eyes aflame,

This foreign muchacho clearly not from Spain.

But his heart is held by another land,

So this chica's love is pitifully canned!

Lo siento."

-Senorita Loni Dansie

So my awesome friends threw me a going away party, and they let me sing a couple of songs. My pal Scotty (from Eternal Jamnation) jumped in with me on this one. He had never heard nor played it before and justed rocked it up. I on the other hand had heard and played it before, and I kind of botched it. I had a blast though, and the song seemed kind of appropriate for the occasion.

Here it is...

Well, despite my best efforts I have just created a blog. I mostly created it so whilst I am in Spain I can share pictures without having to pay international postage. Thats about it. I don't know how to use this thing yet, but don't you worry, after several months of frustration and yelling at my computer I'm sure I will get the hang of it...or give up. Yeah, that sounds easier.