Whinnie like a horse....Naaaay

I am hoarse! Dont misunderstand this, Im not a horse or just simply hoarse but my little voice box has officially given out on me. I think I will blame having no voice speaking too much spanish, who new such tragedy could happen when learning a new language. Yesterday I sounded like a smoker who had smoked 40 packs a day for the past seventy years. Today I sound like the Big Bad wolf in Little Red Riding Hood only worse because he could talk and I can’t.

When I was little I always wanted to have Laryngitis. I thought it would be so neat to not have a voice for a day. Now I realize that I should have been dreaming about different things when I was little, like snowmen or ice cream cones. I must admit this is going to be a challenge for me. Not being able to talk will push me to having to listen more and speak less. Not always giving an opinion but accepting opinions and being content with the silence of my voice. Who new not having a voice could have so many potential lessons in it? Every day a new lesson pops up and sometimes in the strangest forms. Not talking here I come...or am!

GLADIATORS

Chelsea is the Best!

Butter Waves and Fertility

Spain has been an experience for me. I have hablared some spanish, ate some pretty weird food and watched futbol games with some pretty crazy fans. One privilege I have had here is participating in the endless supply of festivals and random holidays that float around Spain. A few weeks ago San Juan graced us with his holiday and let me tell you San Juan knows how to throw the party. So Im not sure what kind of saint San Fermin was but he was a wierd one or at least the people who celebrate him see him in a strange way.

The tradition is to wait until midnight and at the stroke of twelve dash into the Mediterranean's butter smooth waves and jump over the waves. Every time you successfully jump over a way you are granted purity. That's right! I have been deemed pure by jumping waves at midnight! Thanks San Juan!

Now the great thing about this holiday is that you get two things out of it, Purity and fertility. Im not sure how these two are related but they are. Before or after waves are jumped the participant seeking fertility must leap over a fire. Fires are lit all over the beach and people can be seen leaping through the flames. Jump a flame and you're fertile until the next San Juan day. Personally it seems like this tradition would cause more infertility than fertility but what do I know.

Our little band of rag tag Americans decided we too wanted to be fertile and pure. People were jumping over flames, whootin' hollerin and having a good time. One of my friends walked up to me and asked me why I hadnt jumped the flames. I told him I had a bad ankle and I didnt want to hurt it anymore, (its all better now, thanks Dr. Wilkens!:) Before I knew it he and another guy were carrying me over the flames....Phew, I dont know what I would do if I had to wait to the next San Juan day. So now I am pure and fertile....awkward.

Back.Stabber

Yesterday I got poked in the back with a pig leg. This sounds really abstract but it is in fact the truth. I was standing in line at the Walmart-esque store getting ready to purchase a few necessities. I was studying my purchases and trying to look like a local when I felt something poke me in the back. I turned to see what was going on when I noticed a ham leg sticking out of the shopping cart behind me. The leg was really pale pink and still had a hoof and little piggy hairs on it; the leg looked at me and seemed to say...."Tag, you're it." Well pig leg I guess games over because you are soon going to apart of a dinner, so jokes on you.

Actually here in Spain ham legs are a really big thing to eat. We went into a large open air market the other day and one stall was completely covered with ham legs. As beautiful as they are they smell even better, I think someone should consider making the scent into an air freshener, it could be called "never squeal again." Alright Im sorry, enough with the bad pig jokes. But in all honesty I love Spain! and pigs...but more so when the pigs are alive.

Poked in the Mind's Eye

I have had such an awesome time here in Spain. I have always like being submersed in another culture and absorbing the life around me. Here I love the view I see everyday, I just step out onto the little balcony we have attached to our room and I can see the Mediterranean. The people who are helping us learn Spanish this summer are friendly and don't seem to mind my very choppy Spanish. I love eating gelato, finishing my gelato and wanting more...(Im a little piggish with ice cream). I even love the heat we have been getting because its proof that we are not cold.

The night before I flew over to Spain I remember my mom and I having a conversation, after several minutes of talking she turned to me and said something that shocked me a little. She said,"Laura, Be careful when you go to the beach, you're going to get an eye full." Now instantly I thought, no way the beaches will be like they are here. I've always heard horror stories of European beaches and the topless women that walk around but I just didn't want to believe it.

The first day we went to the beach was nothing out of the ordinary, people were dressed and there were no signs of the fabled European beaches. But let me tell you, I have seen more topless women then I ever wanted to see in my life. My eyes hurt every time I go to the beach, I can't look around without getting poked in my minds eye...and my real eyes. Not only is the specialty here topless women, men have started this trend of wearing speedos....ewww. Its like there are surprises everywhere you go on the beaches here. I'm pretty sure each individual thinks to themselves before they go to the beach, "what can I wear to the beach today that will scar the foreigners?" Well let me tell you they figured out a fool proof method to repeatedly poke me in the eyes. Now more then ever I really appreciate beaches at home where people have to wear at least some type of body covering.

I'm all about appreciating and taking back a piece of different cultures and I think there are many things I will bring back with me from spain...just not the beach attire:)

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I love being a room full of people who are all sharing passion for the same thing. Now these passions can be anything but here in Spain the new passion rage is...World Cup. Congratulations Spain on your recent wins and please continue to win because I can't imagine what the state of Spain would be like if the Spanish futbol team lost.

A couple of nights ago we all crammed into a room and watched Spain play Portugal...BIG rivalry. Shots were taken on the Portugal goal keeper and every time a ball would miss the goal moans of agony and screams that sounded similar to a woman in labor came from the viewers. Now when I think of soccer fans I think of someone wearing maybe a jersey to show support for their team, that is not the case here. Face paint of yellow and red are must, a jersey, and the Spanish flag draped around the shoulders is the standard attire for viewing a futbol game.

After the Spanish futbol team succeeded in making the viewers hoarse from their moans they decided to score....

Finally Spain scored! Everyone, as if they were only one person leapt from chairs and started jumping up and down and screaming "Espana! Espana!" A flag started waving and the national anthem began to chorus throughout the room.

What a moment. Its so easy to be swept up into the joy and excitement that everyone around you is feeling. My friend Chelsea and I got up and started jumping around with everyone else, we did not however, sing the national anthem...it escaped our vocabulary.

I wouldn't want to be anywhere else for world cup...except maybe South Africa, but thats besides the point.