By the way: I dare you type "Round 2" into Google Translate and translate it into Spanish.
About a month back, us SISers went to Ronda for the day. We had a pretty great time, but I'm gonna try to let the pictures do most of the talking instead of my words, for a couple reasons: it's almost 2 am, it's finals weeks, and the typical picture is worth a dozen words (that's how it goes, right?) cliché. The picture above is the view into the valley. I probably posted a similar picture when I talked about Ronda during our road trip, but hey, maybe you missed it the first time around.
We saw some birds and plants.
And then the bull ring!
Aimee gave me attitude; half of our program jumped; Emily, Kayla, Lauren, Sarah, and Kerianne smiled; and Steph and I followed suit.
Here's a wider shot of the bull ring. Also, this is unrelated, but Alba just started crying. Thought you'd like to know.
Then they brought out the bull and the torero, and the rest was just an emotional rollercoaster for everyone involved.
We then got to see the paths that they would lead the bull through before letting it out into the ring. Salva (my Spanish lit teacher) made noises at us from the top. That rope in the upper left-hand corner is attached to the door that lets the bull through into the passageway.
More great people, several additional plants, and a lamp.
Here you see a petrified bull, Cameron's impression of a football referee (it's spot on; you have to see it), a dried cherry tree, and an unpetrified horse.
After the bull ring tour, we had free reign to explore the city for a bit. Here's an iglesia that's in one of the main plazas in Ronda. The white and yellow color scheme is pretty big in Andalucia; whoever makes that yellow paint probably makes bank (it's always the same shade of yellow!).
Emily, Tori, and I then walked to the bus station so the ladies could by their tickets to ________ (I think it was Málaga, but I'm not sure enough to assert that), we grabbed ice cream on the way (I got strawberry...it was pretty swell), and then met up with some friends at El Lechugita, the cheap and tasty tapas place we found the first time we were in Ronda. I got one of the same things I got the first time, a pork loin skewer (brocheta de solomillo; basically, shashliki, for the Russian-speaking folk)...it was so good! Tender pieces of pork, onion, and fat (yes, chunks of fat) made for an awesome tapa.
One of my favorite views in Ronda.
We found this cool vista point (that we didn't realize our school tour would take us to just an hour later) that looked out over the river gorge and hung out for a while. We may have played ninja and planked up there, but I don't have photo evidence of it, so you'll have to go to Facebook to verify my claims.
Ah. So much to discuss here. First off, note Jon, Kerianne, and Yus trying the fruit on the olive-like tree. I'm still not sure if they were actual olives. I am sure that they were not very pleasing in the taste category (though if they were actual olives, the same would be true). Next, we have the bridge picture. Two words: the Hamstras :D
Old buildings galore.
Next, we went to this old abandoned building that has a huge staircase that descends down to the river (Michelle Obama has visited it, or so claimed the faded poster out front). We went down to the bottom, Salva had several of us share about different aspects of our experiences in Spain, and then we started the arduous trek back up.
Then we headed towards our bus, admiring the view from the huge bridge that connects the old and new parts of the city. Katie, our student ministry coordinator (one day I will learn and remember what her official title is; it's something along those lines...) got in trouble because some of us took too long taking pictures off of the bridge. Whoops! Sorry Katie :) That's a sheepish grin, not just a regular grinning grin. And I promise it wasn't just me!
Here's the valley once again, this time basking in the late afternoon light.
And here's the house I will one day buy... as Jessie's rewritten lyrics go, "Let's get hitched and buy that one [white] house in the south of Spain..."
And so ended our Ronda trip! Now for a couple of anecdotes/musings before I hit the hay.
A couple weeks back we had a movie night at our school and had free PIZZA and all kinds of other unhealthy goodies. Afterwards, some of us bros were still itching for something to do, and I just happened to have my frisbee with me, so we went to Parque de los Príncipes at 11 to throw the disc around. It was glorious. Tonight, we had a reunion and did the same thing. At 12:27, the security guard kicked us out, but it was a great hour and a half. We were definitely lacking some Lane Sauce though, if ya know what I mean.
Some of the telebasura, as Heather's intercambio called it, that is watched at my house here is the show Gran Hermano. I've heard we have/had it in the states as well: Big Brother? Well, rather than be a potentially interesting George Orwell tribute, it's a show where they stick a bunch of extremely-mature (verbal irony, not sarcasm; thank you Tori for looking that up) twenty-something-year-olds in a house and film them 24/7. They have different activities arranged for them to do, because life apparently gets boring sometimes (really? I thought they were all busy cheating on their respective significant others...[now that would probably count as sarcasm]), and one of the activities the other week was a choreographed dance that they were all required to participate in. Well, although the show itself wasn't too entertaining, Vitso (my 27-year-old host dad) pretending to dance was hilarious. If only I had gotten a video of it!
Two weeks ago, Alba started crying up a storm (mostly around 3 in the morning). I think it's because she subconsciously realizes I'm leaving soon ;) It's gotten better again lately, but the other day she did have a temper tantrum when her mom wouldn't give her the phone (in the middle of her conversation). Alba proceeded to lunge for the phone (they were both seated on the couch) while Maricarmen dodged her unrelenting attempts at seizing her quarry. It made for quite the comical scene. Speaking of Alba, a couple days ago, Tori asked me if I'd noticed if Alba had grown at all since I came to Spain. At first, I had trouble of thinking of anything in particular that had struck my attention, but in the time since then I think I've come to realize that Alba's speech has definitely developed a good bit in these past couple of months. For instance, today Alba was watching an episode of Caillou (cue annoyingly catchy theme song) and they kept repeating the phrase "platillo volante" (flying saucer). All of a sudden, I hear Alba say it with perfect pronunciation...kind of took me aback, seeing as she often has trouble with simpler phrases. Now that I think about it, I think it's the sound "ay" that is difficult for her, as she almost always says "fio" instead of "feo" (that's a pretty common word for Alba unfortunately...). Hahaha, I just remembered something else. This is my last Alba/Maricarmen story for now. Two days ago, Alba and Maricarmen were on the couch, and Alba knocked on the wall of the living room and said "vecinos!" (neighbors)... well, on the other side of that wall is our kitchen. I think spatial reasoning is still coming for her. Anyways, Maricarmen proceeded to ask her if she thought the vecinos were "buenos," and she responded with a yes. But Maricarmen added, "Pero pocito pesados, no?" (But a little annoying/difficult, no?), to which Alba responded, "Sí, y 'fios'" (refer to above translation of Alba's unique Spanish). Oh boy. Teaching 'em well from an early age.
Yesterday was my last Sunday at Prosperidad, the church I've been going to in Spain (no, once again, they don't teach the prosperity gospel there; it's the street name). It was sad saying bye to the friends I've made there and to the pastor and guys on the worship team, but I know I'll see them one day! YOLF (hope I'm using that correctly; I've just seen McClean and Becksters using it a substantial amount on Twitter, but I could be off on my usage here). It's been a great church family, and that's really what it feels like: a family (although I do think that half of the church is related to each other). What I've really enjoyed is hearing things that I've learned at Westmont in Spanish, like that fact that Jesus "tabernaculizó" ("tabernacled") among us, or that the gospel of Mark is a gospel of "acción" (action) because the writer always uses "de repente" (suddenly). There's something really unique about hearing those things in a different language; it kind of reinforces them in a neat way I didn't expect.
I am up to my elbows in papers this week, so I'd really love prayer! Today I (for the most part) finished my 6-page Don Quijote paper (and we have to 1.5 space it, not double!), and tomorrow I'm going to try to power through my Spanish lit paper (also needs to be at least 6-pages long, 1.5 spaced). We'll see how that goes, seeing as Quijote took me a good three days...I also have to do two grammar compositions and study for finals, which I'm taking this Thursday and Friday. AHHHHHHH. These past three days I've just been going to the practice rooms in the morning (I'm trying to milk my money's worth out of the remaining time I have there, and also get my chops as close to ready for orchestra tour as I can) and working on my papers whenever I get tired of playing, switching back and forth between my trumpet, the piano, and OpenOffice (free word-processing FTW) as needed. Then I eat lunch, and go study in a coffee shop, and then go back to the practice rooms around eight, and head home for dinner. On a brighter note, it's actually been really good being able to play trumpet consistently again. Also, we've gone out to breakfast twice in the past three days, which is AWESOME. I love breakfast.
I mentioned orchestra tour in that last paragraph. I want to mention it again, because it's coming up! A week from tomorrow I'll be flying to China with everyone. I can't wait! But first, there's this little thing called papers and final exams. Which are difficult when you don't sleep. So I'm gonna go to bed.
Tsa luego!
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