CARNAVAL 2009

Well, there is no way possible in man's ability to explain the pure chaos I experienced only minutes from where I sit now. LOCO!!!! (crazy). I am that tired from the weekend that I am not even going to try to explain what IS carnaval so I looked it up on Wikipedia (best known site for information).

Wikipedia explanation of: Carnaval de Cadiz (oldest city in Europe...1100 A.D.) -

The city of Cádiz is often considered to have the wittiest people in Spain. The whole city lives the carnival for more than two weeks and the presence of this fiesta is almost constant in the city throughout the year with the rehearsals, representations and contests. The feeling of this carnival is the sharp criticism, the funny play on words and the imagination in the customes, more than the glamorous dressings. It is traditional to paint the face with lipstick as a humble substitute of a mask. It is easy to get involved in the fiesta even not knowing the language and to live the Carnival. On Saturday everyone wears a costume, which many times is related to the most polemical news. However, the Cádiz Carnival is famous mainly for the satirical groups called chirigotas, their music and their lyrics

BACK TO ME SPEAKING. So, we decided to go to Cadiz on Saturday which is the most popular day to go. You go dressed as something else...like Halloween but 10 times crazier. The old part of Cadiz has maybe a population of about 629 thousand (according to Wikipidia). Imagine 300,000 thousand people from all over Spain and Europe coming to this one place dressed and drinking. NUTS!

Anywho, explanation of the night. We arrived at 2:00 p.m. Spent the afternoon in a bar just chatting and hanging out. at about 5:00 we decided to go to the beach to enjoy the sun. At 6:00 p.m we went back to the bar and hung around. A "chirigota" (men singing crazy songs dressed like something) came by the bar and sang in the bar. We ate a little food and then headed off to a more populated Plaza in Cadiz. We found ourselves in Plaza de Espana at about 10:00 and hung out and enjoyed seeing all the crazy costumes. After, we decided to head toward the big cathedral....#1 - bad choice.....#2 - everyone and their brother were headed in the opposite direction....#3 = taryn almost getting killed if not for friends by a huge massive ginormous crowd of people. To sum it up...the night even gets better. We make it to the Plaza de la Catedral at 1:00. Sydney and I decide, we are ready to go home. STOP! Hold that thought....as we come to the realization that trains stopped for the night....NOOOO! Meaning that we had to stay there till 5:00....6:00 in the morning. That was a sad turn of the night as we were cold, hungry, and tired. we made the best of the situation and went back to the bar to sit and wait. We caught the 6:00 train with everyone and the cousin and got back in El Puerto at 7:30.

I've decided, this is one thing that I will only allow once in my lifetime...y ya esta...there it is. DONE!

Here's some photos for you to enjoy and to maybe explain what life is like here in spain. Enjoy.

Leaving on the train which got super full!

OH our old men friends.

A "chirigota" singing in the bar.

La Plaza de la Catedral. This was just the start of everything.

One vital part of my outfit....

And the revealing of my full out costume......an 80's workout star....aka Olivia Newton John....also all my real clothes thrown together. OH, explanation, I decided to do a little workout routine to some nearby music.....no one really caught on. :)

And here shows the amount of trash, glass, urine, and everything under the sun on the ground. Sooooo GROSSS!! This was taken at....oh...5:30 in the morning...no big deal.

Hiking!!

Last weekend...technically valentines day, Carmen, Miguel, and I went for a hike in La Sierra. It was so beautiful and peaceful. It was good to get some fresh air. Chulisimo (very cool).

A bombed out church, pretty.

Prayers

Prayers for both of my brothers and their wives and my little nephew, Kai! Troy, the middle brother, just headed our for 4 months of duty for the military. Pray that the Lord keeps him safe and that the Lord will grow a ministry for him over there. As well, pray for Kari, his wife, as she is in Texas and for her to know we LOVE YOU MUCHISIMO!!!

My family is currently going nuts on the whole leaving the country thing because my oldest brother, Tyson and his wife and son, Tracy and Kai are heading to Peru this thursday for 2 YEARS. What am I going to do? Ahhhhh.
Their goal:
The purpose of EXTREME PERU is to seek and deploy people into an extreme global expansion of the Kingdom of God by prayerfully and thoughtfully engaging the specific talents, skills, experience and resources God has given them and to further develop them into permanent full-time constructors of the Kingdom.

Here is to learn about their own experiences abroad in Peru:
http://www.smithfamilyperu.blogspot.com/
And to learn more about Extreme Peru:
http://www.extremenazarene.org/

Along with my brothers, prayers for my parents because I am sure they are a little saddened that all us kids will be found outside of the country in about a week. WE LOVE YOU!!!

Gibraltar

This last wednesday, my students and students from other english classes took a field trip to the Rock of Gibraltar. It's a rare place because although it is attached to Spain it is of British territory. Wierd! In Gibraltar, everything is cheaper because everything is duty free, so no tax. I got some perfume for myself, a nice little purchase. The trip started early at 8:30 and it took about an hour fifteen to arrive. Spanish field trips are nothing like American field trips. Our first duty was to climb half way up the rock to be able to visit the monkey. I don't know if you have heard of the monkeys, but they are known for not being scared of people and tending to steal things easily. Once we had arrived at the "monkey infested place," some of the students stupidely brought out food...dumb idea. The monkey chased after one kid and started to climb up him. Soon after, we found that same kid basically convulsing, barely breathing, crying, and shaking like no other. Yea, don't mess with the monkeys. Later, we also had to take a girl to the hospital for a monkey bite. SOOO, when I say don't mess with 'em, I am talking serious. We then walked down to the city center to do some shopping. However, the question I had to ask the main dude was, "Sooo, do we have a central point and time to meet at?" as half of the students are starting to spread out through town. His response, "OH yea, that's what I need to do." Hmmmm???? Our ride home, one word....pure chaos....sorry that was two words. It started with two of my students grabing the microphone and basically singing, doing chants, poetry, yelling, etc the whole way home. To my amazement, no teacher did anything about it. Nightmare of a ride home let me tell yea, but worth the very nicely smelling perfume.

My crazy student Javier!!

Amigos Mios!!

Here are some pictures from my birthday celebration. We had pizza and then went to nearby bar where we had a big intercambio (speaking english and spanish).

Lucia is at my left.

This last weekend was just one of those weekends where you spend it just hanging out with good friends. I have made some really good spanish friends. Lucia, who is one of the other teachers in my school, Miguelangel, who I met through Lucia. Friday night we all decided to go see a movie at the theater. We saw "El caso curioso de Benjamin Button." It was allright, I would say wait to rent it. Saturday we all decided to go to Miguelangel's house to make a big lunch together. After, we went to a nearby bar and to hang out and have good conversation. After we watched two movies. This was one of the things that I had been desperately missing since living here, good spanish friends. We have so much fun together.

Sunday, I went to church and after, our church had a huge lunch together. It was sooo good and I wish I had a picture of the table. So much good food!! After, Miguel and I went for a bike ride and then met up with Lucia to have a hot chocolate. Then we all headed to Miguel's house to watch a movie. OH OH OH, you should be proud. Miguel let me drive his VW van, it's manual, and I did it! It was kind of my first time driving in Spain, so fun!!!! Sorry I don't have any pictures. I have been pretty lame about carrying my camera. Here are some pictures from the last week when we went to the theater and saw a flamenco show.

Sickness/Mentos/Birthday goodness

This last week has been kind of lame because I got sick throughout the 3 day weekend. NOT FUN! The sweats, chills, narsty cough and everything. However, Saturday I made myself go with all my friends to a nearby town called Jerez de la Frontera where we went to watch a flamenco show. It was EVEN in a real theatre and previous to going I bought a stick of Mentos. This seems to random to some, but not me. When Troy and I were younger, Mom and Dad would buy us Mentos whenever we went to the theatre (as in Musical/play theatre). I remember as a kid slowly eating the mentos so that it would last me the whole musical and if anyone asked for one it totally messed up my cycle. Super random and selfish, ha.

Happy Birthday to me!!

23

I´m sooooo old! I turned 23 this last monday, crazy! It wasn´t a really exciting birthday which I kind of liked. The main event was that I started my new classes in tennis. It was fun however I play with a bunch of 16 year old´s who are kind of better than me....DANG IT! ha, it was fun though just to get a workout again. My friends are planning on grabbing some pizza tonight to celebrate which will be fun. However, I missed being with people who are close to me on that day.