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).

El Christo

Last Saturday, the weather was beautiful: 60 degrees and sunny. So Susan, Olivia, and I decided to climb up to El Christo. El Christo is a statue of Jesus on top of a mountain by Oviedo.

We met at 12:30 and I didn't get home until 4:30. So, it was a bit of a hike, but I don't think we took the most direct route, so that may have been part of it.

But, I think it was worth it, don't you?

Carnaval en España

I was lucky in that I got to experience Karneval while I was in Germany and Carnaval in Spain too. Oviedo celebrated Carnaval this past weekend (which is technically in Lent already, but they seem pretty lax about that stuff here in Spain). Saturday was the big celebration including a parade that I saw the second half of. Here are some pictures and commentary of the Carnaval parade in Oviedo:

You can see the various costumes people were wearing.

There were some chimney sweeps.  

This was probably the scariest float. 

There was a graveyard with someone coming out of a coffin.

And people dressed up like zombies.

People dressed up as bags of money.

Yes, those are Segways.

Smurfs!

 There were a few bands in this parade too. Most were just drum corps:

But this one actually included brass too:

Overall, I think the parade in Oviedo contained 'happier' floats and costumes. There was one person in the parade dressed up in a German witch-type costume and apparently he stole someone from UNI's sandal and ran off with it. She was really upset with this, but that type of thing was very common at the German parade.

I am really glad I got to see how Carnival is celebrated in 2 very different cultures.

Viaje a Germany: Stuttgart

In my last post, I described a little bit about Mitfahrgelegenheit. I had tried again to get a ride, this time from Nürnberg to Stuttgart. Finally we were able to ride with the third person I contacted. He seemed really nice. We didn’t really talk to him much. He was also going 150 km/hr in a 120 km/hr zone on the Autobahn, but we didn’t get caught and it got us to Stuttgart faster! Once in Stuttgart, Susan and I took the S-bahn to Herrenberg, a town close to where my friend Anke lives. Once again we just talked some, skyped my boyfriend so Anke could meet him :), and went to bed.

The next day, Susan and I took the S-bahn to Tübingen a lovely picturesque town where my friend Lauren studied one summer. We saw these lovely houses on the river, the church, the townhall, and the outside of the castle.

Townhall

Cool-looking building

It’s kind of a funny story, but not really. Susan and I were trying to actually get to the castle, but we ended up on the road below it. We walked along the road and then climbed what must have been at least 200 stairs to get to the same level as the castle. We walk about the other side of the castle. The path inclined down and it was icy. Both of us fell twice. That part was not fun. But then it was time to head to Altingen to watch the Karneval parade!

Apparently in this region, nearly everyone in Karneval parades dress up as witches (but it’s not necessarily what standard witches in the United States look like), but I think that varies depending on where you live. We stood across from the announcer’s stand. All the time he would shout (and I have no idea if I’m spelling this right): Nahrie! And we would reply: Nahro! Nahrie! Nahro! Nahrie! Nahro!

I liked how kids were included.

When there were groups of witches he would shout the name of the town they were from and we would reply: Hexe! (Witches!)

Some of the witches would let off these colored smoke bombs that smelled really bad.

Lots of times when the costumes contained bells, they would all walk in step so their bells jangled at  the same time.

Many of the troupes of witches would do a trick in front of the announcer's booth.
99% of the time it was forming a pyramid.

There were also a few marching bands, but they were definitely a lot more laid back than marching bands in the United States.

Also, the witches in the parade oftentimes had a marker or a stamp and would mark on your face. Or they would grab you and get straw in your hair or steal something from you. Or dump shredded paper or paper punch circles on you. They also handed out some candy. We left halfway through because our feet were frozen, but it was so much fun!

You can see she has a stamp and ink pad.

The girl running away? They just stuck her head in the hay at the back of that float.

Anke's family has friends that are in this marching band, and you can hear the 'Nahrie! Nahro!' in the following videos:

The next day Susan and I headed to Stuttgart. We walked around and saw the old castle (turns out it costs 15 € to enter to see the traveling exhibit. Yikes!) and then took the S-bahn to the TV Tower. Sadly it was a cloudy day and cold, so the view wasn’t as good as it could have been, but I did find a penny-squisher machine (okay, technically it was a 5-Euro-cent-squisher) and that made me very happy.

The old castle

A carnival for Karneval!

The view from the TV tower

DFTBA!

Then it was time to take the bus to Frankfurt so we could catch our plane to Madrid.

Now comes the worst part of the trip. Our plane was delayed over an hour. It was scheduled to arrive in Madrid at 10:20 and our bus (the last bus to Oviedo of the night) was scheduled to leave at 11:00. We were hoping the bus would leave late. This is Spain, right? The plane arrives to Madrid at 10:50. The first class takes forever to get off the plane. Susan and I run through the airport. We have to take the train to the other terminal. We run some more. We get to the bus station at 11:15 and alas, our bus has left. We were able to change our tickets for the first bus the next day. At 8 o’clock. We spent the night in the airport. I didn’t sleep. For this bus we had to go to the other Madrid bus station. We decided to leave at 7:00. I really wish the person who changed our tickets and told us what Metro station we needed to get off at had warned us how long it would take to get there. We got to the station at 7:55. There are literally a hundred buses at the Madrid bus station. We had no idea which one was ours because we didn’t see a board anywhere that said. So we each took a side and ran up and down looking for the right bus. And sat down in our seats at exactly 8:00.