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.