Good Weather and the Upcoming Calvin Spring Break Diaspora

The last full week before spring break. Here in Denia we have had our first week of amazing weather: sun, no clouds, no rain. Calvin students could be seen in most outdoor locales, scaling Montgó (Denia's mountain), enjoying the beach, running alongside the sea, or meandering through the numerous sidestreets and older neighborhoods of Denia. After looking at this blog, readers may not realize that we are taking classes here in Denia as well. All of our classes are at the local university, the U.N.E.D. (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia). We have two professors from Spain, who teach 308, 309, art history, and Spanish literature. Alfonso is a witty Spaniard from a small pueblo in León, and I have no idea where Ge is from, but she smokes like a chimney and it's great when she uses her cigarette box and lighter to illustrate architectural concepts. María Elena, or Prof. Bierling, teaches 340 (linguistics) and 316 (contemporary Spain), along with working on a myriad of administrative tasks for the group. Tracy Ariza, an American who married a local Denian a few years back and who lives year-round in Denia, coordinates the ethnographic study and helps the group immensely with her knowledge of and connections in the area. I don't know who teaches 301 or 302, but I think we have or had those classes as well.

This weekend the tourists came pouring in from different parts of Europe to enjoy the beautiful sunny weather here in Denia. It is funny to see sunburned Brits wandering the streets of Denia in search of the English-speaking bars and consulting their tri-fold Rand McNally maps as they search in vain for any kind of street sign that will help them get their bearings. I feel a certain satisfaction in knowing that I would have to try quite hard to get lost in Denia by now. Today there was a large procession to commemorate Christ's entrance to Jerusalem; the locals stay true to the Biblical description with their palm fronds and olive branches. I was curious to see where everyone was going for spring break, and according to what I found out, Calvin students will soon be roving the following locales: Amsterdam, London, Paris, Montpelier, Nice, Cinque Terre, Rome, the Canary Islands, Venice, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Florence, Pisa, Lisboa, Oslo, Dublin, and northern Spain hiking the Camino de Santiago. I'm positive that I missed quite a few places, but at least this gives a hint as to the good times that will be had by Calvin students throughout Europe. Since Calvin's spring break was last week, we have seen a few significant others come out to spend time with their other halves; it is fun to see friends from the states come out. At this point, I think that most of us in the group realize how quickly the time has gone by here and are renewing our efforts to make the most of what time we have here. Every day provides a new opportunity to learn something of great value. We ask for readers' prayers as everyone is traveling everywhere this coming week; prayers for safety and discernment.

--Written by Phil Videtich

Alfonso with some of us from his 368 literature class

Fallas

The Falla worth 600 000 euros.

Some of the group that went to a "corrida de toros"

Some of our girls imitating the balerinas of one of Denia's fallas.

This past week, all of us had to study for our midterms amidst the loud explosions of firecrackers that were part of the biggest spring festival in the community of Valencia: Las Fallas. The Fallas is one of the most important events where different groups make satirical sculptures made out of cardboard, wood, or styrofoam. These are set in different parts of the city/town and later burnt on the night of March 19th, saving the 1st place at last. Everybody in Denia was in the party mode throughout the entire week. There were also marching bands, people dressed up in their beautiful traditional fallas’ clothes, fireworks waking us up at 7am, and kids throwing firecrackers everywhere you went. On Thursday, after surviving throughout our midterms that lasted for three days, we all went to the city of Valencia, where the biggest Fallas were, with some Germans from our church. There were so many people in Valencia that everybody was just pushing everyone else around (there are 1million tourists coming to see the fallas in Valencia every year!). All of us just walked around looking at the different fallas (the sculptures) and a lot of us also went to watch a bullfight! Watching the bulls die for the first time was just really hard at first, but by the end of the show we were all “ole”ing just like the rest of the crowd. After walking around for hours and watching the fireworks at 2am, most of us went back to Denia, but there were some people like myself who stayed back in Valencia, because we had friends visiting us and we wanted to see the burning of the fallas in Valencia. Watching all those fallas being burnt was just amazingly awesome. Yet, I also kept thinking about the fact that it was all money burning down, as all those fallas were made out of money that is collected by their group members (the most expensive falla in Valencia was that of 600,000 euros). All in all, it was just so impressive and interesting. This week has been one of the most busy, crazy, fun, I-would-so-do-it-again weeks here in Spain.

--Written by Ahn Chan Young

Preparation

It has been a week of preparation. All of the students have been preparing for a plethora of exams and the people of Denia have been preparing for Las Fallas.
At the beginning of the week the celebratory mood of Denia came alive. Some of the streets have been closed down in order to facilitate large colorful sculptures. These huge sculptures are called fallas and many are as large as the buildings around them. The falleros (teams of workers) have been working on these masterpieces all year, and all of the hard work culminates in the celebration of fallas this week. (I will only describe the preparation here and leave you in suspense as to what the celebration entails this weekend :) )
Just a little tip for visitors during this time of year: ¡Ten cuidado! Watch out for groups of children in the street. A favorite celebratory pastime of the youth of Denia is to throw firecrackers in the street (and I literally mean lighting the firecracker and throwing it onto the sidewalk or into the middle of the street). A simple task like walking to the grocery store can turn into an action-packed scene with explosions from all sides! It seems to me like there is never rest during this week. Music, firecrackers, tourists, and paellas abound until all hours of the night.
Other than that, we have all been working diligently to study for exams in the hopes that we will be able to better celebrate after we have finished. Keep us in your prayers as we continue to work hard at our classes!

--Written by Clara DeJonge

More Grandchildren

Our professor Maria Elena and her husband Neal have now increased their total number of granchildren to 6 will the arrival of Kieran Alexander - born yesterday in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Another healthy family member!

The Charming South of Spain

Dear loyal followers of our humble blog,

I am writing to you all from the comfort of my bedroom after a whirlwind adventure of a lifetime in Andalucia. I’ve just spent the last 3 hours poring over mountains of photos from the last week (my homework can wait one more day, right?), reliving the memories – sinking again into the awe of viewing, for the very first time, the marching red and white arches of La Gran Mezquita de Cordoba, or puzzling over the sculpted text and designs intertwining and climbing the walls of La Alhambra like so many flowering vines following the steps of an exquisite dance.

I’ve a feeling that experiencing these ancient sites would instill wonder in any human soul, but being obsessed (I don’t think I can describe the sentiment more strongly than that) with history and art as I am, I’m pretty sure I died from the rapture of it all at least about 10 times. Imagine, for example, our first thoughts upon entering La Catedral de Granada. This particular edifice was erected in “el estilo gigante” – gigantic style. Shall I explain? It’s quite possible that it took me 15 minutes just to gaze from the pearly tiled floors to the arching ceiling, that being supported by towering columns that bore a strong resemblance to giant sequoias. I’m convinced that it would have taken at least half of the group to stretch our arms around one (ok, perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but these things were monstrous!). To sit at the base of one of them would have felt akin to being an ant at the foot of an immense tree, staring up into the blue and pondering the world in all its wonder. Surely the cathedral was meant to inspire that sort of awe, and I have to admit that my heart was ready to leap out of my chest in violent worship of our grand Creator. If human hands can erect something of such grandeur, what wonder is the source of all this creativity capable of? I’ve had a very small taste of that splendor during travels through mountains – veritable coffers of the riches of God, and that alone was enough to knock me off my feet.

Well dear friends, that was just the tip of the iceberg. We spent the morning of the following day chasing foreign scents and frolicking music down the strange and labyrinthine alleys of el Albaicin, one of the oldest parts of Granada and home to some truly gorgeous Arabic architecture – a small hint of what awaited us in La Alhambra later that afternoon. I’ll not spend much time with description as I’m anxious to get on to talking about the Mosque, but suffice it to say the ancient palace was like something out of Arabian Nights. The walls really did seem to come alive with crawling decoration – flower stems twisting and turning like serpents twining their way through starbursts, diamonds, and the flowing script of passages from the Qu’ran. It was every bit as staggering as the cathedral, though perhaps expressing power and beauty through playful mind-games and tricks of the eye rather than the somewhat forceful, engulfing power of the cathedral.

I should interject here that all of these delights for the eyes were supplemented throughout with gastric delights, the most famous of which was the cherished “churros con chocolate” (put frankly, deep fried dough dipped in molten chocolate), without a doubt the most calorie-laden fiesta my tongue has ever enjoyed.

With that, I arrive finally at the jewel of our tour, the dazzling ruby of Cordoba – La Gran Mezquita. I’m willing to admit that any bitterness I had at the fact that the lions were absent from the Court of the Lions (they would choose to restore them when their greatest fan was coming to visit) in La Alhambra was quickly washed away by the Great Mosque. I’ll not bore you all with dusty art history facts (though I’m dying to pour forth with all I’ve got), but the mosque is truly a feat to be admired. It’s basically a building the size of a football field filled with row upon row of columns, each pair supporting a double arch of red and white stripes. The affect is breath-taking, lit as it is by dim chandeliers that bathe the edges in shadow and trick the eye into thinking that the columns march into infinity. To top it off, a giant cathedral has been plunked right in the middle of the mosque! As unnatural as the mix seems, there’s something beautiful and magnificent about the way in which the two styles meld and clash. It’s an incredibly strange, and certainly unique, experience. I’d have loved to wander beneath those candied arches for hours, breathing in years of dust and the spicy-sweet scent of incense in the light flickering candles.

--Written by Kyria Osterhouse

PICTURES from our trip to Andalucia:

Group pic with La Alhambra in the background

Funny group pic in the Plaza of the Alhambra

The Mosque and it's arches

Some of the group "One foot in, one foot out" of the city proper of Cordoba

The Monastery in Granada

Photos from Benimaurell

Better late than never =)



A group that climbed "Cabello Verde" on Sunday


A gran paella from a local restaurant



Some of the group hiking through "canon del infierno"

Entire group pic (minus Neal) at the end of the hike, posing at the fountain in Benimaurell

Opportunities

Well this week much of the group is starting to feel like Denia is our new home. Each of us has our own separate routine that keeps us busy all week long with our host families, our jobs from ethnographic studies, our conversation partners (friends) from a local high school, our acquaintances from the UNED, etc. We still have that American love of a routine engrained in us, and most of us have our routine down pat. For me, and many others, a major part of that routine is the afternoon siesta which we’ll have a hard time leaving behind when we leave Spain!

Along with getting our routine set we are also starting to notice how busy our lives are! The fact that our time in Denia has a definite end adds a little pressure to our schedules. Because each day we are one day closer to leaving Denia and returning home, we have this sense of having to do as much as we possibly can each day.

My favorite slogan has become - ¡Aprovecha! – direct translation = take advantage! This week the group as a whole has had many opportunities to take advantage of. During the middle of the week we had 3 days of straight sunlight. One day it got up to 23 degrees Celsius which is about 73 degrees Fahrenheit. You could spot out a Calvin student from a mile away – we were the only people in Denia walking around in short-sleeved shirts and flip-flops…but we don’t care if we look foreign…we like the sun!

Another opportunity we had to take advantage of was an optional excursion to Benimaurell. Benimaurell is a pueblo (small town) in the mountains. Our bus driver, Ricardo and his family have lived in Benimaurell for many years. Ricardo provided us bus transportation to and from Benimaurell for free – which made for a fantastic, cheap excursion to take advantage of.

Benimaurell was founded a muslum town in the eight century and remain that way until the Christians kicked the moriscos out during the inquisition and repopulated the city with people from Mallorca. Ricardo shared with us the rich history of his pueblo and we had the chance to apply some of what we’ve learned in our classes.

On Saturday we spent the whole day hiking through the “cañón del infierno” – canyon of hell. This was a good workout for all of us. The paths were the paths designed by the arabs since many hundreds of years. The paths wound up and down the mountain like serpents. We arrived at the bottom of the canyon two times before coming all the way back up again to Benimaurell. 300m below the canyon is the subterranean river “Río de Lucifero” – River of Lucifer. The water from this river is siphoned up naturally through the ground and was available for us to drink at various fountains along the way. It is some of the purest water in all of Spain.

On Sunday we had the opportunity to attend mass at the church. Calvin students made up nearly 2/3 of the congregation. The priest was very welcoming. Maria Elena even played guitar with the rest of the worship band. After mass we were on our own and everyone made their own adventure. Some students climbed the “caballo verde” – the green horse. This mountain is called the green horse because its two tall humps make it look like the saddle of a horse. When the Christians came to expulse the moriscos they all gathered around the base of the mountain because according to legend their “caballero” was going to come sit on the saddle to lead them to victory over the Christians. Needless to say, their legened leader never came and they lost the battle. Also at this time other students returned to the cañón del infierno to explore on their own and revisit the waterfall that we came across the day before. Some students also decided to stay at our hostel and relax around the fireplace.

While not everyone went on the trip to Benimaurell some folks stayed home. It is always nice to spend time with our host families. These students keep busy doing church activities, soaking up the sun on Denia’s beach, catching up on homework, etc.

As a whole this past weekend was a great time to take advantage of. The group bonded more than ever. We’re coming to realize that we would have never known each other if it weren’t for this trip and that would have been a shame. More and more I am realizing how many opportunities I have here in Spain and I find myself saying at the end of each weekend – I am the luckiest girl in the world.

--Written by Sarah Orndorff