Update 2: Family in Logrono for Christmas!

On December 23rd, the seven of us made it to Logrono in the afternoon to all go to the grocery store together to buy what we would need for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals in Spain. My family thought it was crazy how the the people pulled around little mini carts in the grocery store. Ben and I have become accustomed to them so it was funny to see how new people laughed as we had done right away. The mini grocery carts remind me of a wash bucket that you use to clean your floors but on wheels and having holes in them. They are very small so you always have to pull a couple around in order to fit all your groceries.

For Christmas Eve, Ben and I decided to venture once again in making the turkey, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, green peppers, a fabulous salad and vegetables meal like we had once before for Thanksgiving Day here in Spain and sort of failed at it then. This time though, the meal was a success! Like on Thanksgiving Day our power went out again but this time we were prepared and everything was finished all together. Ben and I treated my family to traditional Christmas treats. In Spain they have many different Christmas goodies that are excellent at Christmas time. My family liked them so much that they all packed a few away to bring back to share with people in the US. I also was able to show my family the greatest candy that I have ever had and they all fell in love with it too. I have never liked candy so much as I do here in Spain. There are candy stores everywhere in my city and they seem to always be busy all of the time with children and even adults. We took my family out for the traditional churros and chocolate for breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. They were great!

My mom, dad and I went to midnight mass on Christmas Eve at the beautiful cathedral near our apartment and we also went again on Christmas Day with everybody. It was interesting both times because it was all in Spanish! Everybody could kind of understand at least the traditional Christmas tunes they played during the masses.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent relaxing with the family catching up in our apartment. It was a great time being able to have all 7 people together staying in our apartment. It was a tight squeeze but we all managed great and it was really nice to be able to spend all the time together. We also spent the days here wandering and exploring the city.

Here are some photos of the places in Logrono we visited.

Here is "a" for Abby!

Here is my mom, Rob and I at the RiojaForum. The RiojaForum is a concert hall and also used as a building for where the Congress of La Rioja meets.

Cities in Spain are known for the traditional 'tapas' or appetizers. It was exciting going out for tapas with my family during the Christmas time. Most Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights families in Spain go out to many different bars and eat small appetizer foods together with a glass of wine or beer. It is a fun time to wander the streets and visit with people. Here we are above in one of Ben and my favorite bars in Logrono to visit for tapas. It was especially exciting during the Christmas time since there were many small local bands playing Christmas tunes marching through the streets and stopping to play outside for the crowd. It really made it feel like Christmas even though there wasn't any snow or cold weather! During Christmas they also had two different little outside markets to buy handmade goods from people that came here from all over the world. We all bought a few gifts from there to remember the markets.

After Christmas Day my family took two more day trips to the cities of Bilbao and Zaragoza. They are both cities within 2 hours away from Logrono by bus. I will update you later on the excursions of both those cities. Goodbye for now!

New Update: My Family Comes to Spain!!

It has been quite a long time since I have updated my blog. Time is flying by fast here! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I can't believe it is already the 20th of January! We are very lucky here as even though it is still 'winter' it was a great 60 degrees outside today! Spanish winters are very nice.

Okay, I will now take you all the way back to December 15th to update you for what has been going on in Spain this past month. On Monday, December 15th Rob arrived in Spain for a month long adventure staying with Ben and I. He arrived at 12:00 AM on a bus from Madrid wearing only shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals! We (and also the other people on his bus) thought he was nuts. Nobody else knew he was coming here from a place that was very hot and didn't have anything else with him to wear that was warm. It was only 25 degrees outside that night. We even had to walk back to our apartment that is about 1.5 miles away from the bus station.

Ben and I took school off on Thursday, December 20 and Friday, December 21 to go with Rob to meet the rest of the family in Madrid. Here we are below 'Welcoming the Larson Family to Spain' in the airport as they walked through the exit where all the people wait for those that are getting off the airplanes. We were very excited to see my family walk through that door!
After many hugs we took all seven of us on the Madrid Metro System...each of us carrying two large suitcases. Wow, how tourists can stand out in Madrid with so many suitcases! We lugged all of our suitcases on 3 different metro lines to finally arrive in our apartment that we stayed in for 3 days near the Puerta del Sol. It was a great apartment in an excellent area of Madrid. We had a fabulous time walking around Madrid seeing the sights of the Christmas season.

On December 22nd we took a day trip south of Madrid to the city of Toledo. It is about an hour and a half away from Madrid and one of the oldest cities in Spain. Here are some photos from Toledo. Below is a photo of us so excited to be in Toledo, Spain together!

The city has very small apartments and roads. I can't believe that people drive in them!
While we were there we met a guy named Antonio and he showed us the way to his 'little artisan shop' where people were making traditional jewelry made of gold thread onto a black backing. We were lucky to be able to watch them work on the jewelry. They were all beautiful that everybody walked out of the artisan shop having something in their hand.

Here I am standing by the famous Don Quijote..."The Man of La Mancha".

Toledo has castle walls around the old part of the city. Here is part of the beautiful castle wall at night.
After a full day of walking in Toledo we headed back to Madrid on the "Ave"(Bird) high speed train for the last night in our rented apartment. Everyone in my family was a good trooper in Madrid and Toledo having done so much walking, visiting many art museums (such as the Reina Sofia and Prado) and famous sites around both of the cities with Ben and I leading the way.

The next morning we woke up to go on a 4 1/2 hour bus ride to Logrono to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in our apartment. Come back tomorrow as I will update you then about the family Christmas in Logrono, Spain.

It's Snowing!

Everybody in Logrono always says that it only snows in January or February and only about once or twice a year. It is officially snowing right now and it is only December 17th! It really feels like the Christmas season now. I didn't think we would get to see snow here this year. Enjoy the mini video that I took of the first snow. Happy Holidays!!!

Happy Holidays!

Hello everybody! I hope you are all having a great start to this wonderful holiday season. Last night Ben and I went to watch the act of lighting all of the Christmas lights in our city at 7:00 in the Square that is very close to our apartment. There were lots of people in the square watching marionette shows, giant puppets running around, getting free hot chocolate and waiting anxiously for the lights to turn on. Our city looks very beautiful now with all the lights on. Tomorrow, Ben and I head to Milan, Italy with one of our friends from here that is from California. I can't wait! This will be our first time leaving Spain to another European country. I love Italian food so I am planning to eat a lot of great pastas there. We will be there until late Tuesday night. I will update you all late next week on all that has been going on here in Logrono. I am also very excited because 2 weeks from today my whole family will be here with me in Spain to celebrate the Christmas holiday. Wow, how the time here is flying by! I will leave you with a few photos from last night that I took of the great Christmas lights. Have a happy holidays!

Supper with the Primary School

This past Friday night Ben and I went out for supper with my teachers from the Primary School where I teach at in Logrono. It was a great night! We started out by meeting everybody at 9:30 at a local bar for a drink before we went to our restaurant to eat. There was a total of 22 of us that got together. I didn't have a clue that it was going to be the biggest meal I had eaten so far since being in Logrono.

We sat down and they started bringing around many bottles of water and wine to everybody. After the wine, they brought out baskets and baskets of fresh bread. The appetizers we had were amazing. There was a total of 5 different kinds of appetizers! I couldn't believe it every time a new one came out of the kitchen. The first appetizer we had was 'croquetas' which are ham and cheese snacks in a breaded shell. They remind me of mozzarella sticks. The next appetizer we had were very large mushrooms with a garlic taste. Then we had typical Rioja ham and slices of cheese. After the ham and cheese we had cut up octopus pieces that we on top of sliced potatoes. Finally we had salad that had fried red pepper, sardines and tuna with it. I tried all 5 of the different appetizers.

While we were eating the different appetizers a waiter came out and read off a huge list of foods that we could choose from for our main meal. Ben and I had no clue what to choose. I had no clue even what was a meat or a fish from the list. It was hard to understand the man. He talked very fast. Finally all of the teachers started trying to tell us what we should choose to eat. The two ladies across from me helped me choose my meal and Ben's. When my meal came out it ended up being a huge steak fillet with potatoes, kind of like french fries. It was really really good! I ate the whole thing even though I was already stuffed from all of the appetizers I had eaten. I completely forgot about dessert! I am not used to eating dessert after every meal. Here in Spain it is always served with each meal. We all laughed when we saw our dessert come out. It ended up being 7 pieces of different kinds of desserts for each one of us! It was unbelievable. I was so full but I had to eat (because I really wanted to and love dessert) all of the different types of desserts. I was really full. After dessert they brought all of us either a cup of coffee or tea. I chose to drink a tea. After the tea and coffee they asked everybody want kind of shot of alcohol they wanted. That is very typical for people to do after a meal here. I declined the offer due to how full I was by that time. I couldn't possibly add anything else in me. Finally the bill was about to be given to us. I was scared! I couldn't imagine how much we would pay for this incredibly excellent meal. It ended up only being 24 euros per person. That is about $35.60. I have never paid that much for a meal before but I swear it was the most food I have ever eaten before at a restaurant. We were also at the restaurant from 10:00 until 1:30 AM!!! They eat supper very late here.

We all decided to go out to the local bars next to the cathedral to go dancing for the rest of the night. We went to two different bars and stayed out with all of my teachers until 4:00 AM! It was so much fun. We danced and danced and danced! I hope that we will be able to go out dancing with my professors again. We were able to talk Spanish all night and learn a lot more about the Spanish culture from them. The meal on Friday night was like having another Thanksgiving Day dinner. It was great!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you are all having a fabulous day. Today Ben and I are going to host our first Thanksgiving meal here in Spain. We are going to have people from all over the world come over for it. There are going to be 11 people here including Ben and I. One girl from California, two boys from New Mexico, one boy from Florida, one girl from Italy, one girl from Germany, one girl from France, and one boy & girl from England. The people not from the USA are very excited because they have never had a Thanksgiving meal before.

We went shopping last night at a grocery store and found great things for our menu. We will have turkey breast fillets with sauteed mushrooms and onions, mashed potatoes with garlic, a lettuce salad with sliced almonds, orange slices, lemon juice & olive oil, corn niblets and a mixed bag of vegetables that consists of white asparagus, pepper, green beans, carrots. We are also going to have two different kind of desserts. We were unable to make a pumpkin pie but really wanted to.

It should be a great time. I am also very scared of how we are going to cook enough food for all 11 people and keep it warm at the same time. It will be served at 9 PM tonight. That is when people have supper here. It is actually kind of early. Most people eat about 9:30 or 10 at night! We have a nice kitchen but not as many pots and pans as well as serving dishes as we would like so we are just going to have to see what we can do with what we have. I hope everybody likes it! I hope that you all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving vacation. I will let you know tomorrow how the Thanksgiving Day meal went. Bye!

Exciting Times Ahead!

As I sit here drinking some hot strawberry cream tea, eating some wonderful Spanish cookies and listening to Christmas music at 6:00 PM on Sunday evening, I figured it was a great time to tell you all about my exciting plans for the start of December and Christmas break.

First, I am going to explain a few of my previous photos in the last blog that I posted. I wanted you all to completely experience what the photos actually were of. The first photo is of the three strange faces. I saw those in Museum Wurth in a nearby city next to Logrono. There was three white round objects in this small dark room. All of a sudden these three faces were projected on to the white objects. They continuously were moving their eyes, noses and mouths. It was quite a sight to see! I had to capture the looks of them on my camera.

The second photo is of the huge man sitting with his arms wrapped around his legs. This man was very big. He would change colors every few seconds. The man also also had many embossed words of the body parts all over his body such as head, leg, arm, nose....etc. It was really cool. I took many photos of this man. I liked the blue color the best.

The third photo from the museum is the blue dress. I captured the dress with the photo in the background of it. At one time the dress in the photograph was actually worn by two sisters. The dress could fit two people and now they have it on display at the museum with the original photo of the sisters in it next to it. I thought it was pretty cool and artsy. Okay, good. I really wanted to clarify the photos that were taken from the museum so that you could capture the whole effect and experience like I did. Now, on to the fun times that lie ahead for me.

I am very excited to say that we just bought plane tickets to go travel to Milan, Italy. Ben, our friend Kara from California, and I will be going to Milan on December 7 - 11. I decided to take an extra day off of work to be able to see all Milan. According to Wikipedia, Milan is considered one of the largest cities in Italy and one of the most highly developed urban centers in Europe. The metropolitan area of Milan accounts for 7.4 million people! I can't wait to experience it. I absolutely love all types of Italian food and can't wait to try them all. We are going to be staying in a hotel that is close to the center of the city. Milan has the second largest church in Italy and the third largest in the world. We will be about a 10 - 15 minute walk from that church. Right after we purchased our plane tickets this past week we found out that December 7th is the Festival of the Patron Saint Ambrose. We will be arriving on that evening to have a ton of people celebrating. It should be a fun time while there are so many people celebrating. Also, one exciting thing I also found out is that Milan holds Leonardo Da Vinci's original "The Last Supper" in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. I hope we are able to view it while we are there. If you want to read more about Milan and what other cool things the city has to offer you can visit Wikipedia by clicking here.

After we get back from Milan we will just have one week before we head off to Madrid to meet up with my family on the afternoon of December 20th! We have rented a great apartment in a fabulous location, Puerta de Sol, that will fit all 7 of us to stay together. It will be good to walk to all the tourist locations that everybody wants to see when they go to Madrid. On the 22nd we are planning to head for a day trip to Toledo. A small city that is about an hour away from Madrid. Last time I was in Spain I bought a sword from Toledo.We are going to be staying in Madrid until noon on the 23rd and heading to Logrono. We will be celebrating Christmas in Logrono on the 23rd - 26th. We have a few day trips planned to such places as Bilbao and maybe Pamplona. Bilbao is known for the Guggenheim Museum and Pamplona is known for the running of the bulls in July. We will be heading back to Madrid on the 29th to spend two more days there until my family flies out on the 31st. I can not wait for all of our adventures with my family to begin. After they leave on the 31st, Ben and I are planning to stay in Madrid to celebrate the New Year and head off to take a long way back to Logrono going through cities such as Segovia, Valladolid and Burgos. They are all in northern Spain. We are lucky we have vacation from December 20th - January 8th.

Due to Spain not having Thanksgiving Day here the streets are getting covered by hanging lights ready for December 1st. Pablo, the boy I tutor, told me that they will turn all of the lights around the city on the night of December 1st. I can't wait to be walking around the city with all of the Christmas lights on. I will miss the snow but the Christmas season will still be great here without it! Another great thing for Christmas here they actually have little huts that sell chestnuts that have been roasting over an open fire! Ben and I tried 7 of them the other night. They were great. I never knew that they actually had them. I just thought it was part of the song.

Ben and I are going to plan a big holiday Thanksgiving dinner for all of our friends here for Thursday evening. We are still trying to find out if Spain has turkeys that you can bake. We don't know for sure. If not, we will be having chicken for supper. We are going to try make it as traditional as possible. There should be about 14 or 15 of us in our apartment! Luckily we have a lot of free space to share with everyone. I also will be teaching all of my classes this week with worksheets and photos the story of Thanksgiving. Well, I am very excited for all of the wonderful events that are going to be happening in the next coming month! I am off to prepare my Thanksgiving Day classes. Have a great and wonderful Thanksgiving everybody! I will be missing the great food that my Grandma Bernie prepares for us every year. :) Speaking of which, I really enjoyed having my last slice of banana bread that I brought in the plane to Spain right when we moved in to our apartment. Thanks again Grandma! Here is me back in September with my last slice of banana bread. I had to take a photo with it.