hmatt's blog

I had a meeting with Arianna this day.

We rode a couple bikes to these little places along the beach.

How they work is that they are built only for the summer when tourists visit. They serve drinks and tapas and such.

There were two of them so we visited them both. It was nice being able to chat with her. She is a very inspiring person. She asked me about my life and goals and such, so I told her.

Spain was an amazing experience, and there were many reasons for that. One, for me, was the ability to clarify what it is that I want to do with my life. A lot of people don’t know.. but I do- and being able to articulate it aloud again and again has made it more attainable and more realistic. It re-inspires me every time I think about it.

Oh, and I totally forgot sunscreen, as did she.. we both got a little red that day.

Today we had workshops. The two to choose from were ‘improv’ or ‘salsa dancing’. Since I can do improv whenever, I chose dancing.

I learned some steps at one time, but I don’t dig the music.. so I rarely did the steps and then forgot them.

Omar taught everyone a few basic moves like underarm turns and such. It was difficult for me to get into the pushing down motion of the dance. It’s like you are drilling into the floor.

It was fun.. I was the only guy though.

Volleyball.

Usually they go after church, but due to the world cup, they played on Monday. Only Lauryn and I went, but we still had a lot of fun. When I was younger I remember taking a volleyball workshop for one day.

I totally forgot everything, but fortunately Lauryn gave me a few pointers. The most important being: “Don’t interlock your fingers otherwise you’ll break them when you hit the ball”.

July 11
They’ve split our group into a few teams where we visit local churches. My group would have to leave early to not miss the World Cup, so I decided to join the group that goes to Benidorm.

What a wise decision.

A german lady translated the sermon for us, so I actually got something out of it.

Afterwards a group of the youth there invited us to watch the world cup in a nearby park.

We took a trip to the mall, Centro Commercial- but it was siesta time so everything was closed. We stopped at a brand new store called Iceland where everything is imported from the UK, usually frozen (thus the name).

Spain was in the world cup. I was in Spain. WAY awesome! There was this giant screen in this park, and there were THOUSANDS of people there. Too bad I didn’t know that we were going to stay there for the World Cup because I wasn’t prepared at all. While everyone had a red shirt on I was wearing my green striped shirt.. I was like a backwards Where’s Waldo.

Afterwards there was some confusion on how to get home. No one spoke English except Elí (who spoke a little) but we were able to get a ride from George.

I sat in the front on the way home. George didn’t speak any english, but I didn’t want it to be one of those silent rides so I tried talking to him. It worked for the most part, but then we’d get into these areas where I didn’t know the words, so I’d have to steer the conversation elsewhere.

Good times though. = )

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2610774&id=10709142

I didn’t take any pictures on the 7th, so I can only say that I had Spanish class that day.

On the 8th I made a Spanish omelette, one made with potatoes which is called a Spanish Tortilla.

Then that night was ‘tapas night’ so Nick and I skipped that idea and went to the circus.

Amazing times.

Market.

The week before I tried and failed to bargain buy a beach blanket. This time, however, I found the most magnificent terribly drawn Batman blanket. Batman doesn’t have any ears on his head and his bat symbol is all askew. This one was 5 euros. Of course I tried unsuccessfully to lower the price again, so I paid the asking price.

At noon we had conversations.

I forgot about my spanish class this day. I don’t know how, but it totally slipped my mind. Whoops!

Then we had our conversations at noon. Followed by the guy’s meal.. and we had pizza and beer. Very classic ‘guy’.

Jordan wanted to go to the other geocache a few miles away, so I went back to the guy’s house to charge my phone and then we set off.

Little did I know of the troubles that were about to begin. The first thing was that by the time we stopped back at La Tereza to get the bikes, everyone had left. We then set off on foot.. Thus began the ill fated trip. We walked along the freeway for a few miles before we came to the church.

The inside looked like this:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2611263&id=10709142&l=5daf8ceb02

We arrived around 6:30 and then proceeded to look for about 45 minutes. We found the spot where the cache was supposed to be, but we thought someone must have taken it. We left empty handed. On our walk back we picked up and ate an entire box of Horchata flavored popsicles. Yum!

Then break out at 9. This is where we talk about what we’ve all been up to.

This part of Spain is so spectacular. There are so many natural parks around here and I can hardly wait to post the pictures I’ve been taking.. however, due to the http://www.descensodelsella.com festival beginning tomorrow morning, the library where I get internet access will be closing early.. like in ten minutes (at 2pm).

I know I keep writing this, but expect a huge deluge of posts upon my return to the States on August 11th. I’ve been writing tons of stuff, but I wanted to reference photos and they take too long to upload first.

Anyway, I’ve got the traveling bug and I am eager to come back to Europe. Next time I want to visit touristy spots.. like Rome and London and Barcelona and such.

I know that my experience here has been unique as the places I’ve been to aren’t typical tourist destinations.. well for American tourists (there are tons of European tourists). It has been kind of fun to be one of the few Americans in this area for a while.

Of course that’s all changing as I watch this area transform in to a giant fiesta. It is going to get crazy!

On my run this morning I already saw TONS of people parked out everywhere and tents popping up all over the place. This quiet town now has a party atmosphere- and this is only the beginning!

I haven’t been posting much because internet access is quite limited around here.. unless I want to pay for a cafe or catch the library at the appropriate hours (and hope their connection works).

Now that the Edge program is coming to a close, we’ve all moved into the same place for one last night together. I’m leaving for Oviedo tomorrow night, and today I’ve been catching up on some research things that have been on my to do list for a bit..

One of which is a quick way to create text files.. I’ve decided that this is the simplest solution to sort my plans and such (especially since my handwriting is so bad).

After a quick search I found http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-To-Create-New-Text-File-in-Finder-140373.shtml

Which is EXACTLY what I’ve been wanting for a while. Using this and TextExpander to quickly name the file by date- and I’m good to go.

I do have a list of what I’ve been doing since my last big update.. it is quite a doozy, and there is a lot to share.

I have a 12 hour bus ride tomorrow night, and then there’s the same amount of time for my plane ride home August 10th.. – A big thing to think about is how I’m going to answer the question:

“How was Spain?”

So much has happened, and I get to figure out how to encapsulate it all into a few minute spiel..

The quickest answer would be: “God is amazing.”

= )

These last couple weeks of the program are packed with activities. Tomorrow (thursday) Nick, Jacqueline and I are traveling up to Valencia to visit the science museum, which looks incredible!! http://cac.es/

Friday Jacqueline, Lauryn and I are going to visit the fortress at Alicante and then on to a barbecue at the home of an English couple we met at a party.

Next Thursday I’m joining Elí and Nick to visit http://www.aqualandia.net – the biggest waterpark in Europe.

I was starting to get stressed, trying to cram all the things I still want to do before I leave Altea… but it looks like everything is going smoothly now. = )