Lent in Spain

On Ash Wednesday or Miércoles de ceniza I did attend Mass at night. It seemed basically the same. This wasn’t a children’s Mass like the one I normally attend with my host family, so they didn’t use a powerpoint presentation, which made it a little more difficult for me to understand. What was interesting was that they had 5 priests/deacons there to celebrate Mass and give out ashes.

Lent with my host family doesn’t seem to be any different than any other time of year. We eat meat on Fridays. Other people have said that their Catholic host families do too. Apparently, the Catholics in Spain are just a lot more casual about Lent and fasting?

This last Sunday was Palm Sunday or Domingo de Ramos. This was really interesting because you don’t just go to church and pick up a palm. Everyone brought their own. And there were many different types. My host mom got us laurel branches. Some people had what looked like lavender mixed in with their laurel. Other people had palms like in the United States, except longer and a whole bunch tied together. Another kind looked like the fancy folding you can do with palms in the United States, except it came like that already. My host mom strung different gummy candies with fishing line on my host sister’s laurel branch like ornaments on a Christmas tree. She told me it was a custom from her town, but they don’t really do it here in Oviedo.

Laurel branch with candies on it. (Source)

A bunch of really tall palms tied together. (Source)

Fancy folded palms. (Source)

Then during Mass, I’m pretty sure the priest said that because the kids probably wouldn’t get to church on Thursday and Friday, so we did the Gospel readings from those days too. The only readings we did were the Gospel from Sunday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Other miscellaneous things I’ve noticed about church in Spain:

•   Blood of Christ is only for the priest.
• When the priest says, "Do this in memory of me," the altar server rings the bell which I remember from when I was younger, but Masses I've attended in the last 10 years don't do that anymore.
• At the church I go to with my host family, there are normally 2 priests celebrating Mass and then a random deacon that shows up just to help with Communion. So, basically, lay people aren’t Eucharistic ministers.
• Only about half of the people get Communion. And going up for Communion isn’t really orderly.
• When the priest gives you Communion, it always seems really rushed like they’re just trying to get through the line as fast as possible.
•  Going along with that, certain parts of Mass seem rushed. During the money collection, we only sing about one verse of a song, then Mass continues while they’re still collecting money in the back.

I’ll be in Santiago de Compostela starting on Friday for Easter weekend, and I’m excited to see some of the Holy Week processions that Spain is known for!

Mumford & Sons!

But then, it was time for the main reason we came to Barcelona: the Mumford & Sons concert!

There were 2 opening acts. The first was Jesse Quin, an English acoustic guitarist and singer. I really liked his music. The second was deap vally which is 2 American girls wearing really short shorts and dress, playing metal-type music. It took me a long time to even figure out what language they were singing because I couldn't understand any of the words.

But, finally, it was time for Mumford & Sons to perform in their first headlining concert in Spain!

Their set list included: Babel, Little Lion Man, Whispers in the Dark, White Blank Page, Holland Road, Timshel, I Will Wait, Lover of the Light, Thistle & Weeds, Ghosts That We Knew, Awake My Soul, Roll Away Your Stone, Dust Bowl Dance, Winter Winds, and The Cave.

I also took some videos:

Clip from I Will Wait.

Clip from Winter Winds

The Cave

Attending concerts in Spain is interesting because there aren't really strict laws about smoking indoors, and it wasn't just tobacco they were smoking...But overall I think it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I'm really glad I got to go!

A Quick Trip to Barcelona

On Wednesday I did something really crazy for me. I skipped classes and took a 26-hour trip to Barcelona for a concert.

I’ve actually been planning on doing this since January. We found out Mumford & Sons would be planning in Barcelona and since plane tickets were 15 Euro each way, why not?

The day began taking the bus to the airport at 6:00 in the morning. This was my first time flying with Ryanair, but it was really easy because all any of us had was a purse.

Upon arriving in Barcelona, we took the train to get into the city and then the Metro to La Sagrada Familia by Gaudi. It is so big! It also isn’t completed yet. It was started in 1882, but won’t be finished until 2026. Whenever it gets finished, I would really like to come back and see it.

After some lunch in McDonald’s (Yes, I know. But it was cheap and we needed wifi.), we headed to Park Güell. I really loved it. Gaudi designed this also. It was just really nice to have a bit of nature in the middle of the city.

Apparently an episode of
America's Next Top Model took place here.

The view of Barcelona from a high point in the park.

It was some sort of cactus-tree! I didn't know that was a thing.

 We also saw this really big vending machine in a metro station:

I’m really excited to be able to return to Barcelona for a longer visit at the end of April!

A Visit to the Aquarium!

A couple of weekends ago, a group of us decided to go to Gijón to see the aquarium. There was a saxophone group performing there that night that we wanted to see, but the tickets were all sold out, so we just visited the aquarium.

These are just some of the fish we saw:

There were also sea turtles, sharks, and river otters (my favorite).