hmatt's blog

I woke up at 7am. I donned my running shorts and headed down to the waterfront. The mornings are so peaceful. The Mediterranean sea lashes upon the shore, and the seafront has a great path that stretches for about a mile. I ran to the end and back and saw all the people walking their dogs. I said hola to as many people as I could.

It’s been a while since I ran, so I got winded after about 30 minutes. I used my Nike+ and ran to all sorts of pumped up music. I think I’ll have to load a beach playlist though. It was such a wonderful experience. Back in Santa Monica everything is so open and exposed, but here there is a little cove and it feels so comfy. Plus all the levels going inland give it such a different feel.

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At 9:30 Most of us took a trip down to the market. Every Tuesday there is a flea marked with all sorts of goods for sale. A few people bought sunglasses. Watches were cheap, and they even had solar powered fan hats!! I only purchased a bunch of candy though, but that was enough. Yum stuff.

It felt like we were barely there, then off to the food market. Lauryn and I were supposed to buy dessert so we picked up a watermelon.. that was HUGE! I also knew that I wouldn’t survive on candy alone, so I bought a few oranges, cherries, a melon and some cashews. I love farmer’s markets.. I just wish I wasn’t so cheap. Even though we had enough money for the week, I still was pinching my pennies.. but food is important yo!

We made the meal and it was grand.

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Later we went to a spot overlooking most of the city and talked about other things we will be doing throughout our time here.

Jordan wasn’t feeling well so we visited him and prayed over him. Afterwards he got up and led worship. Pretty neat stuff.

Sometime in the morning, 10? we all met up at a house along the waterfront. There we sat on the patio and were introduced to how each week would work.

There are people that are considered the core group because we’ll be there for the entire six weeks. There’s Noah and his wife Katie, a couple who have been married a year and as of a year ago, graduated from Vangaurd. Then there’s Joanna, Lauryn, Nick, Josh and the interns Colleen and Sean. Also Arianna’s two daughters, Xara and Havilah. There’s also Rachel and her boyfriend Jordan, but they will only be with us for three weeks.

The program will have us focus on talks each week, time to explore and get to know the locals. Also, we’ll have time to do art, take an excursion and volunteer on service projects.

This week is the least structured, so we’ve had plenty of time to chill and do whatever. I’ve been preparing my plans on what I’d like to accomplish while I’m here. Part of it is rest, part of it is recharging and preparing, and the other part is finally doing all those things I’ve been meaning to do that are so important to me.. and didn’t have the time. Things that allow my soul to breathe and appreciate the beauty that God has given us.

Arianna’s eldest daughter Havilah, made us the most delicuous lunch! There was a tasty salad with tomatoes and cucumbers. Pasta with a sauce and corn mixed in. I’m eager to start cooking my own meals again. Seeing prepared food always gets me inspired.

I didn’t have a way of contacting anyone, so I waited at the bus station for a long while. Eventually I called Arianna, and was disconnected after what couldn’t have been a minute. I didn’t have another euro so I waited until Sean met me.

Finally, an hour later, I met up with him. He welcomed me to Spain and explained that Benidorm was like the Las Vegas of Spain.. at that time though everyone was taking a Siesta, so the town was pretty quiet.

Arianna picked us up and dropped us off at the place we are staying at this week. Apparently the house we will normally be at won’t be available until week two.

Sean showed me how to turn the key and twist this ancient knob. Then we climbed in and up into the room. I’ll have to take some video of this place.

I have my own little room which was nice. The bathroom and kitchen are downstairs and everything reminded me of my grandmother Amor’s house.

Amor was raised in Spain and I remember growing up with random bits of Spanish culture mixed in. I don’t think I appreciated it much at the time, but it was so incredibly valuable. As I ate Paella I told everyone that it reminded me of Christmas.. because Amor would make it for us.. that was until my sister Jenn and I requested hamburgers instead. Seeing tentacles in one’s food wasn’t fun as a kid.

Good times.

I also discovered that I have been mispronouncing Altea. The correct pronunciation is Al-tay-ya and I was saying Al-tea-ah. Whoops!

The town is a small little beach town community and it is so gorgeous! The Mediterranean sea can be seen from everywhere because the city is built on a hill. Which is giving us all quite the workout.

The siestas we take always throw off my day and I forget what day it is, so everything has kind of blended together the past few days.

We don’t have internet, so I have been trying to find free wifi (pronounced wee-fee, lol). There is a place along the waterfront, but I’m pretty sure they turned it off the other day when three of us sat with our laptops in hand.

Okay, so now to remember what happened on the night of.. June 20th.

We were supposed to all meet up for an evening meeting, but it got pushed back to Monday. I met with a few of the other ‘edgies’ as we are called. We watched a soccer game at a bar and had the most delicious pizza. Everyone else had jet lag so we went to bed early, at around 10pm or so.

Whew! What a fun past few days!

My day in Madrid was spent with Mike and Therese. We visited the Prado museum. We spent 3 hours there and only saw half of it! That place is huge!

Then the last night practically everyone from our room at the hostel went downstairs for free Paella night. I sat with a couple Canadian girls, a couple beautiful South Americans, four or five french guys and a few other Americans. We played some games and danced.

Then around one we left for the famous El Kapital. A dance club with seven floors and three different types of music playing.

It was incredible. There were SO MANY PEOPLE THERE! It was difficult to keep track of everyone. My favorite part was when they blasted us with cold smoke. It was so crazy!

I think we got back around 4 or so. A few hours later I left for the metro.

Fortunately for me, the metro is clearly labeled.. except for the stop to get off for el stacion de autobus. I asked in broken spanish which stop to get off on and a turnstile worker (I guess that is what she does) pointed the correct direction.

By the time I got to the bus station I was pretty hungry, so I stopped for breakfast- doughnuts and chocolate. Yum!

Then I lost about 2 euros trying to buy something from the machine for the bus trip.

They fed us pretty well though. The trip was amazing. I was so impressed to see exactly what you’d expect to see in the Spain countryside. Rolling hills, farm houses.. windmills and solar farms. It was great.

They fed us some sort of and I watched that movie Miss Potter. The one about Beatrix Potter, the author of Peter Rabbit. They also played Imagine That. I think I slept most of the way though because it didn’t seem like that long of a trip. I awoke in Benidorm around 1:30pm.

• In Altea, and it is so beautiful here. = ) #
• Hand Held Hollywood is giving away the Ultimate Filmmaker iPhone! Includes an OWLE, Mikey, Wing, and Apps! Details: http://bit.ly/ae5Wmh #

I learned a few things when it comes to traveling.

– leave a LOT earlier than you need to. I got to the airport one hour early and still barely made my flight. They shut the doors behind me!

– coach seats don’t have power adapters. Oh well. They had lots of videos to watch and eventually I just tried my best to sleep. The guy next to me seemed annoyed by everything so I tried to ignore him.

– I should have bought a map. I got to Madrid, and kind of wandered around for an hour until I found the CATS hostel.

It was 11 am on the 18th by the time I checked in.

The first group of people I introduced myself to just kind of shrugged me off. They seemed ‘too cool for school’.

Eventually I joined a walking tour. That was nice. Although I immediately figured out how much of a hassle it is to carry that large camera around. Yikes!

After the tour there was a tapas tour. That was fun. The first drink was pretty watered down, but the Sangria was tasty. By the third bar I was pretty tired. I took a siesta from 3:30-6

A couple of girls made a ruckus coming in to the room. So I joined them on a self guided walking tour. Alex and Nisha took their time unlike the first tour I did which was go-go-go.

When we got back, the entire room we were staying in was full. There were lots of Americans. Mike and his girlfriend Therese from Massachusetts. A couple of sunburned fellows from the midwest. The girls were from Berkley. Then this Australian couple told us about their adventures elsewhere.

I think that traveling with someone else is better than alone, because when you tell stories, they are able to add other details. It was fun to chat with everyone, to hear of where they have been or where they are going.

Afterward I was still full from the tapas tour so the girls left for dinner and I got lost for an hour during the night. Which was fine until it started to rain.

Eventually I found my way back to the hostel and by this time I was hungry.

So I thought that I’d just be able to meet the other travelers all the time, but the place is only occupied at certain times. The place was vacant except in the room there was one fellow. Javier from Mexico. We chatted about life in a mix of Spanish and English. He had already eaten, so we stopped in at a McDonalds. Yeah, yeah, I know. But now I can compare the experience. It was pretty much the same as in the US.

At 1:30am everyone met up for a pub crawl. That was amazing! The first place we stopped had thick smoke so my eyes were watering. Everyone was still sober so there were few people dancing. That changed as the night went on.

We had ‘free’ drinks at each bar.. Which was always a shot of Vodka. I danced the night away which was a lot of fun..

Until we got to the last dance place. It was so huge that I quickly lost everyone in my group and danced by myself until it got boring. There were so many extra guys and very few available girls! It was ridiculous.

The US couple found me outside of the dance hall, and led me back to the hostel.

Apparently we were the last ones from our group to leave. We got home around 5:45.

I woke up today around 11, and wandered around for a bit. In a little while that couple and myself are going out for lunch. Then I’m going to the main museum in Madrid.

Tonight I don’t know what will happen. Maybe I’ll be able to catch some sort of a show or something.

Ciao!

• In Madrid! Let's hope I find some new friends! #

• About to go through security, then off to DC then onto Madrid! #
• *whew!* barely made it! #

• *sniff* Goodbye Apple Store Pasadena. thank you for Three years of adventure. = ) #

• Taping with Michelle today. Fun times will be had. #
• Rats. I've lost my dance shoes! I guess there's no dancing for me tonight. #