Real Summer

As opposed to what, fake summer? No, it’s just that this has been my first summer since high school that I’ve done exactly what you’re supposed to do during the summer. You know travel, explore, lie by the pool, maybe earn a little money at a part time job. The last two summers I’ve worked full time. Great experience, but man I’ve been missing out!! Seriously, this summer has been the best yet, even though I “stayed” in Provo. I’ve managed to make it to most of western North America: California, Canada, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. I’ve been keeping up on climbing, and there’s more of that to come. Definitely got a tan. I’m pretty sure this is the most tan I’ve ever been. Thank you high altitudes and never ending sunshine, although I’m digging the clouds as of late. I guess you could say that I’m living the life.

I’ve already filled you in on California, Canada, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. That was early summer. Then things got super crazy in July. I was gone for two and a half weeks straight! It’s a good thing I have such an awesome job that makes doing that so easy.

The next great adventure was Idaho. The car was not so full this time (there were only four of us and we weren’t going camping), but that drive, oh that drive. It never gets any easier. You spend most of it in the barren wastelands of southern Idaho and southern Montana (sorry if that offends anyone, but let’s be honest). Once you hit Missoula though, then it starts to get enjoyable. Then you see signs of life again, trees and lakes and mountains. Then I feel like I’m home again. Candice, Phil, Kyle, and I made the long trek Monday before the fourth. Looking back at the blog, I thought I did a post on what it’s like to spend the Fourth of July with my family, but it turns out I didn’t. Boy, you’re in for a treat today! Let me fill you in.

It all begins in the morning. Some mornings earlier for others. Coeur d’Alene has their parade every year on the fourth, and my family has staked out the same spot for as long as I can remember. Usually the night before someone goes down and drops chairs off to claim the shady spot on the grass right on the curb, then some of us go down early to lay out blankets. Now for those of you who know us well, we are a very musical family, so a good portion of us are actually in the parade, in the marching band called the Perfection-Nots. Basically, everyone dresses up in costumes and no previous marching experience is needed. I’m actually part of this group, although I’m not playing with them. Grandpa Bob can’t march the parade – it’s a lot of walking – so for the past five or so years, I’ve been his nurse and pushed him in the parade. It’s quite the workout, and my face usually hurts from smiling so much, but it’s fun and it’s good time spent with one of my favorite people.

After the parade we head out to Sunbar for the rest of the day. We play on the lake, roast an entire pig for dinner (this year it was 100lbs!), and have our own firework show. Usually the day before a couple people head over to Montana to get the good stuff. Go big or go home! This year we added to the fun with a Roman candle war. Phil’s friend Matt and his fiancé were there, so we went down with Candice and Kyle to a dock floating in the middle of the lake and shot flaming balls of explosives at each other. No big deal. But not before poor Matt and Haliaka tipped over in their canoe ride out to the dock. Better protection from the fire I guess. But they also had the fireworks with them. Luckily, Matt had a waterproof bag that kept them mostly dry. It made things more interesting. You never knew when your weapon would decide to go off. Yeah, I think I’ll be doing that again. Sooooo much fun.

Probably my favorite picture of the trip. Kyle, I don't think you're doing it right.

Loved hanging out with my family. I’m a pretty lucky girl to have such wonderful people in my life. Even if we are a little crazy sometimes.

The next week and a half was spent in Texas and San Jose at leadership conferences with Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG. At the end of the month I went back to San Jose for EY’s. They were all pretty fun, I met some great people, and I got a little taste of the different cultures. That’s really all I’m going to say about them. Recruiting starts again in September and by October I’ll know who I’ll be interning for this coming winter. Hard to believe it’s almost that time already.

Everything is bigger in Texas.

Tesla Model S. Completely electric. 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds.

Hanging out at Google!

The last adventure of the summer was to Montana. Holy cow it was a whirlwind (there Friday evening, left Sunday afternoon), but you can’t go wrong when my family is involved. Every couple years we have a family reunion of sorts in Bigfork, MT and it’s always a blast. Even the drive there was pretty amazing. Ok, we had to endure the wastelands again, but once we got off the interstate in Montana and started on the state highways up through the national forests, oh my gosh, breathtaking. I found myself at home once again. We had a little delay due to an accident that backed up traffic, but that was totally fine with us (obviously not the fact that the accident happened, but the break it afforded). It was nice to stand up and goof off, for the entertainment of everyone around us I’m sure. Crazy kids from Utah. We drove the rest of the way with the windows down and the music blasting. It seemed like such a good idea at the time, but not so much when I tried to untangle my hair afterward. Oops. Still, I’d do it again.

Bodacious wind hair. Who needs a stylist?

We camped right on the shore of Flathead Lake, in this palace of a tent. Uncle Ken kept saying you could fit a whole platoon in there and I’d agree with that. It was HUGE. We had the perfect spot on the shore to see the sky and watch some of the meteor shower for the two nights we were there. It wasn’t even the peak nights and we still saw some amazing ones. We spent Saturday eating, playing in the lake, eating some more, walking around downtown, and eating even more. Seriously, by the time dinner was over I was vowing to never eat again. You will never go hungry in my family. How do we all manage to stay so thin? We must be blessed on both accounts.

Huckleberry ice cream is the best. Ever. Always.

On Sunday, Candice and I attended the ward in the area. That was probably one of the biggest wards I’ve been to; we filled chairs all the way to the back of the cultural hall. Not bad for a small little town in northern Montana. A returned sister missionary was one of the speakers in Sacrament meeting. Now that I’m almost 21, I’ve thought a lot about serving a mission, but I honestly feel like that is not in God’s plan for me. I feel like serving a mission would be good, and I would do a lot of good as a missionary. But the Lord has something else in mind for me, where I can do even more good. I have no clue what that is, but I know He does, and I trust in the direction He wants my life to go. So I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. I feel like that is the right path and I know God will help me make any needed adjustments along the way, and I know He will give me the needed strength to go where He would have me go. His grace and love is never ending.

And that sums up my travels this summer. I caught the travel bug when I went to Europe and it seems to have struck again this summer. Clearly, I don’t mind. Although, traveling can be exhausting. It’s been nice just to sit back and relax in Provo too. In my down time I’ve been rock climbing with Candice. Lots of climbing. Lead climbing is getting easier, and less scary, but I haven’t taken a fall yet. Hopefully that doesn’t make me too reckless… haha, yeah right. When have I ever been reckless (says the girl who participated in shooting fireworks at each other)? I’ve had lots of time to go to the temple. Sometimes I get in there and never want to come out. I could sit there forever just thinking and feeling so peaceful. And it’s such a great place to study and seek inspiration. Someday I want to be one of those little grandmas that works in the temple all the time. Dream job! Work has been fabulous. I’ve also been going to the gym, getting ready for the Dirty Dash in September. Not that that’s anything compared to the Tough Mudder, but it will be great fun and you will definitely see a post on that.

Alrighty. I’m officially caught up. So many adventures. So much fun. So much happiness. So many blessings. So much life. Love it.

Summing Up

Ok, ok. I know this is long in coming. I’ve been back for over a week now. But, as I’m sure most of you know, coming home after an extended stay, far away, is a lot of work. You have to unpack and you want to see all the people you’ve been missing for weeks or months. But it’s here now, and that’s all that matters.

So now that this amazing trip is over, did I accomplish what I set out to do? Did I achieve the growth I was looking for? Yes and no. The no is short, so I’ll start with that. The only thing I would do over is speak more Spanish. It was insanely difficult, especially because we were together as a group so often, and we’re all English speakers. So maybe my Spanish didn’t improve as much as I wanted it to, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t improve at all! I can understand it now like nobody’s business (don’t quote me on that). Those Spaniards are the fastest speakers of the Spanish-speaking world. If you can remotely understand them, you can understand everyone else. My confidence in speaking definitely went up. I don’t feel awkward or weird starting a conversation in Spanish anymore. It actually seems pretty natural. I dunno how much my speaking ability improved, but I feel like I’m slightly more articulate now. That’s acceptable, right?

And now to expand on the yes. I’ll admit, I had to look back at my first post to even remember what it was I wanted to do. “Growth, and lots of it,” is what I said. Well, I found that growth I was looking for and learned some surprising things too. I feel like I’ve gained a confidence that can only be gained by stepping completely into a foreign world. I think I could navigate my way around the planet now with little trouble, and I definitely outgrew that terrified feeling I had at the beginning. That’s not to say I won’t have some apprehension about going somewhere new. That always comes with something new. I just think I’ll know how to handle the situation better.

I’ve grown in my awareness of the other people of this world and my tolerance for different points of view. I’m a white girl from North Idaho that goes to school in Utah, so I can’t say I’ve been exposed to much diversity, until now. I feel like I better understand the role of culture in people’s lives and how it influences their living and thinking. If you take the time to know the culture, you’ll know the people.

I think most importantly, I’ve grown in my love for people. I’ve realized the great worth of everyone’s souls and seen that we are all sons and daughters of God, no matter what our race or nationality is. There are so many GOOD people on this earth, trying to make the world a better place by making their cities and communities a better place. There is still hope for humanity.

I was surprised by how normal it felt to be in Spain. It didn’t really feel like a foreign country (I realize that Spain is a developed country and that if I went to a developing country, that notion would be blown out of the water). Sure, everything was in Spanish, but it still didn’t feel that different. I used to think of foreign countries as these big, interesting but scary places, where everything is different and you have to completely change everything you do to adapt. I quickly realized that’s not true. There’s little things here and there that you might have to change (like shorter showers and no carpet and different eating times), but it’s not like you went to live with lions or something. You’re still living with people.

The most interesting thing I learned (besides arco de medio punto!) is that we really aren’t that different from the rest of the people in the world. I think the similarities outweigh the differences. We are all striving for one thing: happiness. We just might look for it in different ways. I loved learning how these cultures found happiness in their lives. It opened me up to new ways of finding joy in my own life.

One last thing, I’ve learned to appreciate the life I have here and the blessings and opportunities available to me (like free water and free refills! Just kidding, but only kind of). Seriously, we live in a great country with amazing freedoms that I will try not to take for granted anymore. I’m so grateful to be here.

So even though I didn’t become as fluent as a native speaker, I think I learned some really important life lessons that will stay with me longer than my Spanish would have. All that’s left to say is thank you. Thank you to all who have influenced my life in such a positive way. I wouldn’t have been able to have this experience without you.

What will become of this blog, you might ask? Don’t worry, I will keep updating it, although probably not twice a week. Remember, it’s about my adventures abroad AND at home. Trust me, I always find some sort of trouble fun, wholesome thing to get myself into, so keep checking back! Until then!

¡Qué riquísimo!

First, let’s all shout hooray for having the internet! Now I don’t have to stay up until 1:00 AM writing blog posts so I can post them at school the next day. Actually, it was set up on Saturday, so I haven’t had to do that since then. Before, I was mooching internet from La Plaza de Cervantes and the school. It’s kinda sad how crippled I feel without my phone or the internet all the time. No, not kinda sad. It is sad. It’s slightly ridiculous how dependent on technology I am. But, I justify it by remembering that I use it to keep in touch with those that matter most. Anyway, I’m not here to talk about the pros and cons of technology. I’ll leave that to someone else. I want to share a little about the food of España, a much more interesting topic I think.

The eating schedule here is a little different, or a lot different. We eat breakfast around 8:00 or 9:00. Pretty normal. Then we don’t have lunch until 2:00 or 3:00, and dinner isn’t until at least 9:00. Some families even eat at midnight! Don’t worry, we don’t starve in between lunch and dinner. Generally, that’s the time to have a little merienda (snack) or eat tapas!

All the food here is so rich! It’s rich and heavy. I love it, haha. And everything is drenched in olive oil. And a lot of it is fried. Hmmm, sounds like America. Except people here walk a lot more, so obesity is not such a problem. Spaniards love their meat. And seafood. And bread. We eat bread with every lunch and dinner. It’s a good thing I kind of really like bread! They also love little, sweet things (hey, me too!). We have this drawer full of dulces that we just eat whenever. Yeah, I’m definitely going to have to work to keep my girlish figure. ¿Quién quiere correr conmigo? Nice alliteration! After every meal, we have either some fruit or some yogurt for dessert. So there, I’m getting my healthy eating in too.

Breakfast here usually consists of coffee and some sort of grain-based food, whether cereal or muffins or little graham-cracker-type cookies. Since we’re not coffee drinkers, Erin and I drink leche con chocolate (basically cold hot chocolate). We also have dulces with breakfast. Lunch and dinner are backwards here. Lunch is the largest meal of the day, which actually makes more sense if you think about it. You need more energy during the day than at night, although there is the food coma immediately following a big meal. That must be why they have a siesta! It’s all coming together now. For lunch we eat things like soup, fish or chicken fillets, and all sorts of salads. I don’t think they eat a lot of beef here. It’s mostly fish, chicken, and pork. Dinner is definitely reminiscent of American lunches. We eat little finger foods and sandwiches. It’s a pretty light meal, usually consisting of bread (of course), thin strips of meat, and cheese, or fried fish nuggets, or empanadas. Mari is an excellent cook and she’s going to make us the famous paella and tortilla española. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into that!

Tapas.

Breakfast!

Paella. Mmmmmm.

Today we went out and ate churros con chocolate. It was pretty delicious and a recipe I need to find and share. The consistency of the chocolate is sort of like pudding. That’s the closest comparison I can think of. Except, it’s a little more runny than pudding. But not runny like liquid. Lava. I’ll go with that. It has the consistency of lava, not that I’ve ever actually felt lava. Just humor me here.

Yes. I ate the entire thing.

What else have I been doing? Well, we don’t have another trip until this Friday so we’ve been seeking our own adventures. I had my second day of class today. I’ve been here a week and only had class twice. My kind of schedule. I haven’t even started the Spanish grammar class yet! Yesterday, a bunch of us went up to Madrid. We wandered through El Parque del Buen Retiro and paddled around in some boats. It reminded me a lot of Central Park.

We stood in front of La Puerta del Sol, the very center of Spain, where the 0 km mark is.

We ate lunch in La Plaza Mayor. Well, I ate before and just got some water, which cost me three Euros!!! Are you kidding?! Yeah, I didn’t know that when I bought it. Others got little pizzas that cost 14 Euros each. Lesson learned: do not buy food in La Plaza Mayor.

We also visited La Catedral de La Almudena. This one I got to take pictures in! So beautiful.

Last but not least, El Palacio Real de Madrid and its gardens. We plan on returning and going inside. Yesterday was Worker’s Day in Spain (which is why we didn’t have class) and lots of sites were closed.

I went to a Catholic misa today as well. It was a very interesting experience. There was a lot of reciting by the entire congregation, standing up and down, and only the priest took the sacrament. I can see why people think the LDS church is so different. Everyone participates in the meetings. Everyone takes the sacrament. We don’t have a priest, in the sense of other churches. We really are a peculiar people. I love it.

I already feel like I’m becoming a better person. I’m gaining more confidence, more tolerance, greater love for people everywhere, greater adaptability. And I’m having lots of fun while I’m at it. Thinking about doing a study abroad? Do it. It will be the best decision of your life.

¡Holy Toledo!

Why yes, today we wandered on down to the city that is the origin of the expression “Holy Toledo!” Toledo was a holy city (no surprise there) for the Jews, but it is also where the Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in peace for centuries. I think I saw so much that my eyes, and my legs from all the walking, are going to fall out (off for the legs). Where do I even begin? I guess with some of the history.

As mentioned previously, Toledo was an important city for the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It was part of the Muslim empire when the Moors ruled Spain and in 1085 it was retaken by King Alfonso VI (see statue below). It was also the capital of the Visigoths in Spain, who I believe came after the Romans. El Greco, the famous painter, lived here. When it’s cloudy they say the city has “el cielo de Greco”, making reference to his dark paintings. Ok, enough history for now. But I do have one more interesting fact. All the swords used in Hollywood movies, like Lord of the Rings, come from here. Cool, huh?

Today, you can find the remnants of the time of peace (the Jews were eventually expelled, which in my mind ends this period) all over the city. There are cathedrals, monasteries, mosques, and synagogues. We got to visit many of these places.

The first was el Monasterio de San Juan. Today it is often used for weddings.

Next, we stopped by the la Sinogoga de Santa Maria la Blanca. As you can see from the name, it was a Jewish synagogue before it became a Christian church. See if you can spot the Star of David, the only reminder that it was a synagogue, in the photos below. There is an interesting story that goes along with the expulsion. When the Jews left, they only took some of their documents and their keys, because they believed they would return. These keys have been passed down for generations and families still have them today. The synagogue was built in the 12^th century. ¡Que vieja! The horseshoe arches are a great example of the Muslim influence on Spanish culture.

The crowning jewel of Toledo is la Catedral Primada. There are just no words to describe it. This structure is unbelievable. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any photos inside so I’ll have to describe some of it. The entire building is basically one room inside, like a chapel, except ten times larger in all directions. Of course, there are smaller rooms here and there on the side. There are high, vaulted ceilings, black and white checkered, marble floors, and stained glass windows. And that’s not all. There are carvings everywhere. One such carving took 17 artists and six years to create. It’s all overlaid in gold and depicts the life of Christ, from His birth to His resurrection. My favorite one, and perhaps the most amazing work of art I’ve ever seen, is at the end of the cathedral. One part surrounds a window where the light shines in onto a gold sun, which is on the other part. It’s all marble with gold mixed in. It depicts angels and Mary and Christ. You really just have to see it for yourself. My description does not even do it justice. The actual cathedral was begun in the 1200s and finished in the 1400s. Can you imagine what it felt like to finish a building that had taken 200 years to build? They must have had some party! Except, it still wasn’t finished. They continued adding more to the inside into the 1800s. But, obviously, the result was worth it. That cathedral is incredible.

I also didn’t get photos of the inside of la Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz, because we didn’t actually go inside. This mosque, built in the 10^th century (that makes it 1100 years old) is the only building still preserved from before the Christian Reconquest.

Yeah, Toledo is pretty amazing, and it’s only a couple hours from Madrid. I would definitely recommend a visit if you’re ever in the area. Just don’t bring your high heels, especially if you’re a guy (that would be weird), because the whole city is up, down, up, down, and paved in cobblestone (no, that does not imply that I wore high heels. I definitely have more sense than that).