Coimbra, Portual and the past couple of weeks

View of the city from the balcony of the chapel



Sunset after our concert Saturday night



With the other Cristina, in concert attire



Last weekend, going out for tapas with the girls!



Hey everyone :) Sorry to my 6 dutiful followers that I haven’t written in a couple of weeks. I’m certain that you are all devastatingly upset, so I will try to make this entry EXTRA fun to read! The main reason I didn’t write about last weekend is because I didn’t go on any grand trips or take very many pictures. I stayed in Pamplona and hung out with my girlfriends here. I went to the gym and went running along the Camino de Santiago. We took blankets and books outside to the Ciudadela (the old citadel in the middle of the city) to take in the sun. And Jane and I went to San Sebastian to hang out at the beach for a few hours on Saturday. That night, we all went out for pintxos because there was a competition for the best one in Pamplona. So we had to try them out! Mmmm. Sunday Hanna and I went to our Evangelical church, and had dinner together, and pretty much just took it easy. During the week, I did the usual: go to class, work out, cook food, etc. But I also made homemade tropical popsicles, which was probably the highlight of my Thursday!

So Friday at noon the choir sang at a prestigious academic awards ceremony at the university. When I walked in the building, there were 6 policemen acting as doormen who asked me what I was doing there. Talk about disconcerting! Geez. And during the program, I have a duet with another Spanish girl. While we were signing, they had about 7 video cameras right up in our faces. It was super distracting. And the program was realllyyy boring, especially since all the acceptance speeches were in Spanish, so I pretty much just tuned it out! Anyway, after the program, they provided lunch for everyone, and then all the girls got on the bus to leave for Coimbra!
The said 7-hour trip ended up being 10, but I didn’t mind because I was reading The Host on my Kindle, and I was so enthralled that I didn’t even notice the hours passing. Unfortunately, I finished that book, so the trip home yesterday wasn’t quite as pleasant. We got to the hotel around 1a.m. and went straight to bed. The hotel (Doña Inés) was really nice.

Saturday we went to the University of Coimbra to practice for our concert that night. The weather was gorgeous, and the campus is one of the oldest in Europe, so we had fun looking around. Saturday, the concert went pretty well, I thought, considering its informality. It was very different from the rigidity and professionalism of choir concerts that I’m accustomed to, but it was still fun. We celebrated with a big Spanish dinner that night, around 10:30p.m. As everyone got drunker, they started singing all of our songs. I felt really bad for the other people there, and I was kind of embarrassed because they just kept singing and singing! So around 1, I had someone walk me back to the hotel and I went to bed. But everyone else, the director and bus driver included, stayed out until 6 or 7 a.m.

Therefore, the next day, I had a “cara fresca” (fresh face) and was ready to go. Everyone else was in bed until noon, fighting hangovers. I just don’t understand, really I don’t… Anyway, we got to walk around the city some on Sunday. We saw the university’s famous old library and chapel. And then we went to the university’s choir concert, where they sang with two other choirs. I can’t lie, it was probably the worst concert I’ve been to in my life. The off-key signing hurt my ears so much that about one hour into it, I “went to the bathroom” and didn’t return. It was so bad, it was actually comical! But at the same time, I felt bad for the performers…
Sunday night, we went out for pizza and hung out in the hotel, and then got up yesterday morning to come back to Pamplona. The trip back took about 11 hours, because we stopped for a 2-hour lunch. It was good and all, but my American attitude of “grab something to eat and get back on the road” had me itching to leave by the time they brought out the coffees and dessert. Overall, it was a fun and laid-back weekend. We didn’t do a whole lot, but every meal was delicious and everything was paid for, so I got to experience Portugal and pay less than if I had bought groceries and stayed in Pamplona for the weekend!

I’m leaving in 3 weeks and 1 day. I’m definitely taking advantage of my time here and enjoying myself immensely. But I can’t wait to see my family and Wesley and Susan and Jess and probably anyone who cares enough about me to be reading this right now! I appreciate all of your continued prayers, and I will see you SOON! <3

“Dear France, I take back what I said earlier” and other stories from a week with my family

Madrid Square with mommy



Arc de Triomphe in Paris



Me and Sam in the Olite Castle



The family on the bridge to the Louvre in Paris



Me, Grace, and the Eiffel Tower


April 13, 2010:

After spending the entire month of April thus far traveling with my family, I am glad to say that all is well; I’m just super tired! I met up with Grace at the Hotel Voltaire in Paris on Good Friday. Mom, dad, Timmy and John met us there on Saturday morning. We spent the day sightseeing in Paris. We walked around for hours and saw the Eiffel Tower and tried lots of French food. I was just sooo happy to be with my family! I wish Sam could have come with them; he was definitely missed. But we had a cutout of his head, so we took some pictures with him, but for some reason, it wasn’t quite the same…

We spent Saturday and Sunday doing the regular Paris touristy things and having a grand time. We got to go to the Louvre, which was amazing. We also tried to go to a mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral on Easter Sunday, along with the 10,000 other people that had the same idea. Overall, it was a spectacular couple of days in Paris.

Monday was when the problem happened, changing my highly esteemed opinion of France on the whole. I took the train that my ticket indicated, from Paris to Bordeaux. After the train arrived at the last stop and the cleaning people got on the train, I asked if we were in Bordeaux yet, and they looked at me like, “oh you poor thing!” So I went to the desk to inquire as to my whereabouts, and found out that I was in the tiny NORTHERN French town of Saint Malo. The man at the train station didn’t speak very good English, but he just kept saying, “Not possible. Not possible. This is very bad for you, very bad.” Haha, thanks, monsieur! Anyway, to make a long and rather unpleasant story short, it was a French national holiday, and I had to take several small trains to end up in Bordeaux by midnight that night. I had to spend the night there, and then the next day, the same thing happened again. Apparently, the train changes aren’t indicated on the ticket. So I would stay on the train until the line ended, in the wrong city, only to find out that I was supposed to switch trains an hour earlier. A lot of frustration and many hours later, I made it back to Spain—31 hours after leaving Paris. I’m not going to lie, it was really stressful, but luckily my roommate was here in my apartment, so she could let my family in when they arrived and I wasn’t there. All in all, it was a pretty miserable couple of days, but by Tuesday afternoon, we were all reunited in sunny San Sebastian, and all was well. God definitely watched out for me during that long trip.

I showed my family my city Wednesday. They got to see where I go to school, and we went downtown and saw the bull ring and the Castle Square. Thursday we went to a small town called Olite, where there is a huge castle we toured. And as always, we enjoyed trying all sorts of different Spanish foods. We left for Madrid on Friday morning, and my friend Jane got to join us for the weekend. We enjoyed 75 degree sunny weather for the entire weekend. The boys left Saturday morning, but mom and Jane and I spent all day Saturday and Sunday touring Madrid. We went to three different art museums and saw lots of famous paintings and ate delicious tapas and saw the Royal Palace. But my favorite part was probably sitting in the city square eating ice cream, chatting, and taking in the sun. Beautiful weather can make everything all better!

Mom flew out Monday morning, and Jane and I returned to Pamplona on the bus. Less than an hour after we got back, I had to go to class. It was not very much fun to wake up from vacation mode and take notes, and I was super exhausted. But I’m so glad that I got to spend a wonderful week with my family and John, and I can’t wait to see them again when I come home next month! :)