Back to school

Well, after a 5 day weekend we're back to school. Last week was the ferrial (fare) for Granada, so they saw it fit to give us a few days to take in the cultural experience. Some of the students from SUU went to Portugal for a few days but the rest of us decided to stay back and get to see more of Granada.

On Wed we went to la Tarasca, a big parade for the kids. They didn't throw candy or anything, but it was better in my opinion. The parade started with police men on horses, followed by 4 big people in costumes, representing the first king and queen of Spain, and the Moroccans, who used to live in Spain before the Catholic kings took over (the whole celebration is based on the Spanish kings and the Moroccans). After them is a lady manican on top of a dragon, representing a disciple of Christ overcoming evil. Legend has it that many years ago there was a dragon invading Granada and she was sent to kill it. Now, in the parade, each year she wears a new dress which supposedly represents the new fashion for the year. Its a big secret what she'll be wearing until the day of the Tarasca. The dress is never very pretty however, and if you're told you're dressed worse than the manican, you know your clothes are way out of style. Following the dragon are the Cabasudos, people with big head costumes on representing people in the culture of Spain, such as Don Quojote, and bull fighters. The best part about them was they carry around ballons made of pigs bladders and hit people on the head with them. The little kids get scared and cry and the old ladies try to duck to avoid them. An older lady in front of us totally got wapped one. It was hilarious.

That night we went to the actual fair ground and rode a fare ride. The rides here are a lot more fun than the ones in Logan. It was more like Lagoon. We just rode one but after we all got sick and thought we were going to hurl. Actually, when we got off Shaka and Cameron (2 guys from SUU) put on a big scene acting sick and scared a lot of people into not going on the ride.

On Thursday we went to the Corpus Cristi (body of Christ). Its more of a religious celebration starting with Mass at the Cathedral and a long procession. We skipped mass but decided to see the procession. It was a hot day (over 100) and after 45 minutes of watching people walk by with candles we decided it just wasn't worth it. Two older ladies had already passed out next to us, and I just knew that I was going to be next. We decided to go get an ice cream instead. I guess when the actual Corpus Cristi comes by at the end you can look at it and its just like partaking of the sacrament for them. That way they don't have to actually eat it. It was interesting.

Friday we caught a bus and went to a beach called Almuñecar with 4 or us girls from SUU, Jared, a student from New Hampshire, and 3 member guys from the ward here. We sat in the sun all day and all got burnt. The water was cold but very refreshing. I´m learning to be very careful when I go to the beach because there´s a lot of topless girls. You wouldn´t see that at Bear Lake, that´s for sure.

Saturday we walked around Granada for most of the day and tried to recover from our sunburns. That night we went to Stake Conference and hung out with some of the members again.

Sunday was Conference and more time hanging out with the members.

Today we had school and had to force ourselves to get up early and get back into things. Its always hard to go back to school, even when you´re in Spain.