First and foremost, Easter happened! He has risen! He has risen, indeed! That also means that Easter week celebration in Spain happened and I made a video about it so feel free to watch:
Honestly, this was such an amazing and cool experience and talk about culture shock. Perhaps the pictures below will explain what I mean if you decided not to watch/can't watch the video.
Not something you see every day, right? At first it was a little scary and weird, but I found these processions really beautiful the more I learned about them. These people would walk around town (perhaps 4 or 5 different processions going on at once) which could take up to 7 hours. Imagine carrying candles or crosses or the Jesus/Mary shrine for that long. How exhausting. They also wear the hoods to cover their faces so no one knows who they are while in the procession, preventing anyone from taking pictures with their friends and such. However, processions are only a big deal or happen in the South of Spain so I am incredibly thankful that we went to Granada again to see these. Not to mention the fact I got to see my family again and do other amazing cool things! What other cool things? Well, La Alhambra is in Granada which is the most visited spot in Spain...
Honeycomb ceiling
Part of the city of Granada
Hanging Lavender-type flowers
My host sister, Elo, and me
This place was beyond beautiful. So now time for a brief history lesson behind it! It was constructed in 889 AD as a fortress but then renovated in the 11th century by a sultan because the south of Spain was ruled by Arab kings until the Catholic kings/the Spanish inquisition started. When the Catholic kings (which essentially united Spain into one country) took La Alhambra, they burned a lot of Arab books and parts of the palace to show their superiority and drive out any Arabs. It was either convert, be killed, or flee for Muslims during this time. However, Arab scholars were very ingenious with some of the designs in this palace: walls made of ceramic because in the winter, Granada gets very cold/snows and it keeps heat in while in the summer it gets in the 100ºF (30+C) and it keeps rooms cool; walls and floors outside were made out of white marble because white reflects the most light and illuminates the space as well as keeps outdoor spaces cooler in the summer; aqueducts running from underground water springs UP the mountain to bring water year round to the fountains and to drink; etc. Not to mention how beautiful all of the ceilings are, nearly all of them different too. A lot of them were star patterns noticed in the sky. Also, in some rooms, you can read the Koran from start to finish along the walls because it is painted in Arabic there. To say the least, my camera and I were in love.
My days in Granda/Linares basically consisted of spending time with family, eating tapas, and doing touristy things. It was awesome and time in Granada is always well spent in my book! P.S. If you want to see all my pictures from that week, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashlynkriegel/
Moving in to important update number two... I RAN MY FIRST MARATHON!
Before the race
The look of "what am I doing to myself"
In 4:05:59, I ran 26.2 miles/42.195 kilometers. Praise be to God for this one. I was so ready to quit by mile number 17ish, but I knew if I started walking (a goal was to not walk,) then I would not be able to start again. So I kept going, and I am so thankful I finished. It was the perfect day: cool morning and not too hot of an afternoon. I also came in place #7105 out of 11,365 participants. There were people from the US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Croatia, Russia, France, Holland, Belgium, UK, Kenya, EVERYWHERE! This was a huge race for everyone! I am so glad I got to be a part of it! So now begins the life of a crazy runner as I set out to pursue more running dreams. Has to start somewhere, right? This race did that for me. 6 months worth of training and waiting has yielded good results!
Life has been exciting for the past few weeks to say the least, so I am staying busy and keeping my mind of the impending doom of coming home much sooner than I probably realize. My host mom and I talked about possibly going to Jaén to visit my host sister in June (she is getting transferred to a different hospital) as well as going to Segovia and Ávila to do some site seeing before I go and to celebrate our birthdays since we were both born in June 5th! May, still working on a fun trip, maybe Vigo, perhaps Barcelona, but we will see. School is done in a few weeks which gives me lots of free time to go to the beach when it warms up, play my guitar, write, SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP (not like I don't do that already,) go exploring, etc. It makes me sad to think my year is already closing, but hey, I'm counting the days, I am making the days count.
As mentioned previously, Easter happened (which means Lent ended and my marathon #2 of Netflix has started since I gave that up.) It was cool to see all the traditions here, but the masked people and the people bearing crosses were done because it was... Tradition. There was little sentiment behind it. But that's not what God intended, we should be joyful always but especially on Easter because we are saved! God fulfilled all His promises and prophecies which means His kingdom is real and one day, we have the opportunity to see Him again! Oh, happy day! On Easter, I was at home and we didn't go to church which was very new for me, and I really didn't like it. It makes me feel grateful for the amazing church home and family I have in Minnesota and how much I can't wait to go and worship there again. Westwood, I'm coming for you!
~Ashlyn
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