family is family no matter pais

Hello hello hello! I apologize again for the delayed blog post. This last month I have been living life up in Granada (you will hear about in another post coming soon!) and have therefore been neglecting my blog. But alas! I am hear to tell you about my Spring Break because I finally got the pictures from my host mom and from Mandy--my camera and I were having relationship problems during Spring Break because I forgot my memory card for the first part of it and the second part of it, it decided to die and I had forgotten my charger plug. Because I have so many photos, they will be dispersed throughout. The stories will follow but they may be ahead or behind the photos.


My Spring Break was fantastic! I traveled from Cañar, Spain to Lanaden, Belgium to Maastrict, Holland to Ghent, Belgium to Brussels, Belgium to Neustadt, Germany. While it surely sounds like a lot of places, I promise it was a very relaxing trip! Mandy and I actually traveled from family to family without ever once having to stay in a hostel--that's where the title of this post came from. I was talking to a man in Canar about being with my host family and he, in his broken English, says family is family no matter pais (country). It described my Spring Break entirely. It was so nice to be with families again and to obtain that homey feeling.

My Spring Break started off in Cañar, Spain because my host family had invited me there with them because there was going to be a big birthday party for my host dad since he was turning the grand 5-0. We went to Cañar, a small pueblo and hour and a half outside of Granada in the Alpujarras mountain range, because my host dad owns two houses that he not only rents out for vacations but also has land up there cultivating different types of fruits and vegetables. It was fascinating to be in a house type of place since almost all of Granada is apartments. 


The first day we were there (Friday) I helped my host mom decorate the barn and kitchen with balloons and streamers. That night people started showing up for dinner and the party started. From then on I believe the slogan eat, drink, and be merry applies. Taking out the time for sleeping, people were eating,drinking, and conversing from the time they arrived until the time they left on Sunday. It was so much fun! It was great to not only be there but to also be included in conversations.
 On Friday night I was asked to why I was in Spain practicing Spanish if I wanted to be a math teacher. I was so happy that my Spanish vocab and capability was up high enough for me to not only explain why I wanted to but to explain how I could do this job in other countries or even in my hometown. He told me he was impressed on how much I knew on the topic! I was impressed I was able to tell him. After that I made sure to follow the other conversations because I'm almost to the point of understanding everything fluently (just maybe not speaking fluently). So I proceeded to jump in on a conversation about Facebook and its security problems when I could. 


The next day at breakfast I spoke with just some of the women who were up and they proceeded to speak a little slower for me to understand which was especially nice for in the morning my Spanish (and English) is normally shot until I've had some coffee. After breakfast, one of Fernando (host dad)'s nieces named Marina arrived and even though she was 13, we hit it off. She thought I was cool to be American and 20 and I was just glad someone wanted to talk to me and would be more patient with my lack of Spanish because she also had Spanish difficulties at time (way less than me though) because she has been living in France for most of her life. Together we helped the women make these delicious desserts called Roscas. They're similar to a cake donut in a way but soooooo much better. I lost count of how many I ate they were so scrumptious. I'm going to have to figure out how to make those babies. Anyway continuing on, the rest of the day was also spent eating, drinking, playing games with Marina, Adrian, and another cousin, and conversing. I never once felt left out. I one time was sitting off by myself (because everyone I had been with randomly disappeared) and just observing all that was going on and was so joyful to be there. About this time, a man came up to me who was a Physics professor and started examining the small fountain I was sitting by. I asked him what he was looking at and we proceeded to have a conversation about Math in Spanish! My heart just wanted to explode with confetti from celebrations! I couldn't believe my luck. About this time, Marina comes back and asks why I didn't go with them. I told her I didn't know they had left and she said well look! I look up and what do I see? A DONKEY! No joke. My little brother and older sister are riding a donkey as my host mom and host sister's boyfriend walk beside it. It was one of the most hilarious sites to see. Feliz Cumpleaños Fernando! Saturday Night was probably one of my most favorite times with my parents. At this point them and most of their friends were at least tipsy and were just grooving to the music. Soon though they actually started dancing with each other and it was one of the most precious and coolest things too seen. It was a great sight to see my host parents smiling and laughing and everything too. It was just a perfect moment. 


Sunday consisted much of the same with playing games, eating, drinking, and saying 'sup burro' everytime I passed the donkey. It was the best way I could have started my Spring Break and really gotten closer with my family. 

Monday morning I met up with Mandy and we started our journey to Belgium. Luckily travel went quite smoothly and we met Sue in the airport without any troubles. It was so great to see her there and so odd because I hadn't realized it had been over 3 years since I had seen her last. For those of you who don't know, Sue is a missionary from the Muscatine church of Christ in Ghent, Belgium. She and I not only went to church together but also worked together in the infamous Quality Cobbler. She helped us continue our travel from the podunk airport in "Brussels" to Lanaken, Belgium where the Raabs live. The Raabs is another missionary family that the church in Muscatine supports. Whenever they come back to town to visit, they always stay in my house and so it was really cool to turn the tables and stay in their house. What was funny though was that my parents had just gone to their house also when they did their big Europe travel so I was able to hear all the stories from them. They have two sons, Sean and Stephen, around my age but Stephen is in college in the states, so it was cool to hang with Sean again. After the long day of travel, we just hung out at their house, Shirley quite the most wonderful host, but that was just what Mandy and I wanted/needed. It was time to spend time with families and in houses (we had forgotten what they were like living in apartments all the time!) 



Tuesday we traveled into the Netherlands! Cross another country off the list of places to visit! It was funny we just drove right on through the border and Scott says, "there's border control." Maastrict, Holland was absolutely beautiful. We walked through a park that was full of green grass, blooming trees, and a small creek with swans. The city had its own old red light district and other historical facts that made it unique to itself. Ironic thing was how Northern Belgium looked more like Pella and yet the Netherlands had more of the feel of Pella with everything needing to be in order and in the same format. 


Wednesday, Mandy, Sue, and I got up early to travel to Ghent so that Sue could show us her town. We got to see another castle right smack dab in the middle of the city! It just appeared out of nowhere but was so cool. We toured it with this little video guide that actually told a story about what could have happened in the castle but it wasn't fully accurate in any sense; nonetheless it was quite comical! We also got to take a cute river canal tour where we were really able to take in the cuteness of the architecture. From there we walked around the city to see the Cathedral and other cool important buildings before heading to the real Brussels. We didnt have too much time in Brussels because we were invited to a friend of Sue's for dinner and a Bible study. Therefore we went straight to the main square and oh my goodness I've never seen anything look so stoic and important. There was gold everywhere and it was like royalty and importance spurred from each building. It was fascinating. After that fascinating moment it was, of course, off to see Monica Piss aka the Peeing Boy! I know, we're real classy. 


The dinner and Bible study was completely filling. The food was Mexican enchiladas! MEXICAN FOOD! I was so excited. Then it had been ages since I had actually gone to a Bible study and the man who led it was originally from Texas so it was a part of my other home there too.  We met people from all over like Canada, France, China or Japan or Korea (I'm not quite sure where some of the woman were from) and we even skyped some other girls in. It was quite the party! That night we stayed with Sue's friend in order that we could get up early and catch our next bus to Frankfurt, Germany!

I must say though before I continue. Belgium has the best typical touristy food ever. Amazing french fries and sauces. Delicious chocolate. And to die for Waffles. 


In Frankfurt, we were met by a family Mandy knew from her church pack home. This was the same family that we had the opportunity to stay with while we were in Paris. This family is amazing and so darn precious! They have 5 kids ranging from 3 to 10 all with their own bubbly, unique personality. It was so much fun to be with kids again and to be able to talk to them in English! There was never a dull moment. Everything Mandy and I did, it made it that much better because that family was there with us making the moment that much more exciting and enjoyable. The first night was similar to our first night in Lanaken of just relaxing at home and being shown around their house. They also have a small pond that is infested with all sorts of tadpoles and even a couple newts, which of course was the best catch/find! 


On Friday we spent the day in Neustat checking out their strange city fountain and then up to a castle they also had in their town. We took a really cool hike into the hills around there and was able to get this great view of all of the vineyards in Germany. Again, so much green! 


On Saturday we took a boat cruise of the Rhine river to see all of the castles that were located along it. We saw so many castles! Literally there was one every 5 or 10 minutes. It was so incredible to see. We stopped at one of the last stops on the cruise to look at the castle St. Goar. This was the coolest castle I have seen thus far! It was huge and had all sorts of rooms still in tact. There were even areas underneath the castle that we went spalunking through. The view was gorgeous too! I've decided I want to live in a castle when I get older so I hope my future husband is prepared for this expectation. 

Sunday morning we woke up to Easter Baskets! I'm 20 years old and I was still ecstatic to have gotten an easter basket--it was hidden somewhere within the house and everything. That afternoon we went to their friends land on this hill for a barbeque and easter egg hunt. Get this! The two families we joined also knew Spanish and so we had at one point 3 languages going on of English, German, and Spanish. We were even able to have Spanish salchichon and chorizo for appetizers. It was actually really cool to have that piece of 'home' there. Mandy and I helped the dad's hide the easter eggs while the kids ate and then while we ate they went on the search. There was so much squealing and pure joy! After they had collected all the eggs and candy they attempted to divy it up evenly but that was a disaster with there being 8 kids there, all starving for candy! One of the moms brought another easter basket for the kids and these consisted of water guns. You've got to know where this story is going now. 8 sugar high kids and a hike to find water to a water fight can be found. It happened that just a couple minutes past the fountain was another castle. 

So Mandy and I went along, sat a good 10-15 yards away from the fountain and within in minutes we are the object of their desire, the aim of their water. We were innocent bystanders! We had no guns! And yet here we are running around like crazy people giggling up a storm. It took much convincing to get a water gun from someone and after it was returned you were still one to be gone after. It was a BLAST! We all looked like a mess as we walked up to the castle and saw the view from there. I know we got more than one strange look our way. 


Monday was our last day in Germany so that morning we stopped by a cool park before heading to the airport in Frankfurt. This park was quite the park--I'm not sure what of it would have passed American safety standards but my oh my was it cool! I saw wolves, petted a boar, and went on an attraction ride where there was no staff (don't freak out mom, as you can see I've survived). I saw the coolest playground area ever and got to go down those carpet slides again with the kids like I did when I was their age. I took the kids into some bumper boats and I'd say we were the best drivers/bumpers out. Lastly before we left, Mandy and I went on this luge/bobsled track thing that definitely was something else. Not only did it not look safe, we couldn't read any of the signs telling us what was about to happen. For all we know we were riding our life away! But thats what made the ride that much more adrenalin rushed and fun! We survived and now we have a great story to tell. 


We arrived back in Granada safe and sound Monday night, unfortunately having class the next day. Spring Break was my last big trip anywhere for now it was time to experience Granada in all of its glory.