A Wonderful Weekend

I would like to begin this blog with an apology for the utter mess my last posting was. I thank those you tried to understand it and its utter disarray for their patience and something like the 5 hours it would take to try and make either hide or hair of what was written there. At this point I’m just glad that when I promised to post pictures I hadn’t as well promised to do so in an orderly fashion. I have given up on trying to fix it being that any attempt only leads to greater calamity. Being this my first blog to date my tech 'savvyness’ is less then adequate and I hope you will all bear with me as I attempt to learn it all as I go. Thank you all again and in the future I will attempt to be more constructive with the organization of my thoughts and image.

With that said I would love to tell you all about the amazing weekend I had and how life is going thus far. I am now in my sixth week of life in Spain and am doing what only could be described as ´trudging along.’ The language is still fairly difficult and frustrating to say the least but its getting better each day. I have to continue to remind myself of how fair I’ve already come when I get discouraged by looking at how far I have to go. A prime example of just one of the many things that I learn and grow from each day. I believe now that it’s a very good thing that I completed high school before taking my year in Spain being that I am learning far far more each day then just a language and the addition of further academic material atop of it all would most likely be the straw that broke the camel’s back that I call a brain. When you’re in the nest they all can tell you how to fly on your own but turns out when you jump that first part of frantic plummeting downwards is where you do a good majority of your learning.

This weekend for example was a wonderful time for me to do and learn new things through experiences I’d never been around before. It was a very busy weekend but one that I can again add to my list of ones I will remember forever. On Saturday my family and I all went back to the town of Aranda de Duero and I got to learn how to harvest grapes from a vineyard and bring them all too where they get turned into wine. Then on Sunday we went south to the city of Valladolid and the wedding of some family friends there. Monday was a national holiday for the day that Christopher Columbus first landed on the Americas and is also a day for one of the Saints of the Catholic Church. All of which were so much fun but, as you could imagine, have now left me a tid bit exhausted.

Aranda de Duero is the town that I went to a couple of weeks ago for the bullfights and festivals that were held there. It is a wonderful town about an hour drive away from Palencia of roughly the population and size of Bozeman. Both my parents grew up in Aranda and they are the only ones of their extended family that does not still live in the town. So by this point I have found that I’m not actually living in Palencia but am only vacationing here every once and awhile from my true home of lovely Aranda de Duero.

Raquel’s father is wonderful man of 73 and as active as a man half his age. He actually built every last piece of the house that his family lived in from the underground wine cellar to every piece of furniture. A very talented man and not one to believe in idle hands. One of his many projects is a small vineyard of about two acres situated a little bit out of town. This is the vineyard that I worked on for about 4 hours on Saturday.

When it comes time to harvest the grapes the entire extended family is called with the promise of a large lunch after in return. In all there were about ten of us working on the vineyard but it still took us all awhile to cut all the grapes and get them all packed up. We made two runs to the winery at about 30 boxes a trip. In the pictures below you can see the size of the boxes and the type of grapes we were harvesting. The weather was nice so the actual work wasn’t that bad and you got to eat fresh grapes all day so I was happy.

The work wasn’t too complicated but still required a little bit of skill with clippers and kneeling in the dirty for long periods of time. The objective is to clip the good grapes off the plant and have the cluster drop into the box without getting leaves or grapes that can’t be used in there as well. Also turns out your going to want to do this at a fairly decent speed because the family turns it into a sort of competition each year and less then rapid pace gets some comments about how they thought Americans were good at working. Every once and awhile you hear ¨Another Box! ¨ from somewhere on the vineyard to tell everyone else how fast they clip. Didn’t take long to get the hang of however and by the end I had filled more boxes then some. It’s a little confusing at the beginning because it is a vine and sometimes the grapes all wrap around things in every which way so the tracking of the stem to the plant can be tricky. In time you know what to look for and would now consider myself a right out Dionysus.

The winery or ¨Bodega¨ is a large building where they buy all the grapes from the local famers and turn it into a community wine. You get paid depending on the quality and quantity of your grapes and how much you want in money and how much you want in the finished product. The pictures below show the bodega and its large white room where all the grapes are fermented and kept in giant container above and below ground. A couple of very large machines separate all the pieces of the grapes and leave the unneeded bits outside in a hug mountain. The picture of the large purple piles is all that’s left over after the grapes are separated. You can also see pictures of our grapes being originally processed in a large squisher device before they drop into one of the large machines. Don’t really know how best to describe it all so I hope that kind of makes sense.

Aranda the town was actually founded on top of a large number old bodegas that are now all connected by old tunnels under the very center of the town. Back during the festivals I was taken down into an old bodega from hundreds of years ago and shown all the different parts of making wine back then. You descend a long way into the earth so that it’s cold enough to make the wine. It was really cool and I was fine but I could see someone with any kind of fear of small spaces not being a big fan.

After we got all the grapes squared away we went back to my new family’s house in Aranda and had a very large meal. It was actually my new aunt’s birthday as well so it was an extra special occasion. We actually stayed all day in Aranda after not only spending a great deal of time with Raquel’s side of the family but then Juan’s side as well. They are all amazing people and they love to tell me things about Aranda and joke with me.

The wedding on Sunday held a lot of similarities and a lot of differences to that of the weddings I’ve been to in the United States. I’ve never actually been to a Catholic wedding before, let alone a Spanish Catholic wedding, so that aspect was a quite an experience in itself. A lot of standing up then sitting down then standing up again. I didn’t even try to do all the different phrases you’re supposed to say to different things the priest says but it seems there are a lot of them. I think I tried to cross myself once but wasn’t very good at it so didn’t try that again. It was held in a very old giant church dating back to the 1500´s. There is a picture below of the church itself and the inside.

The wedding itself was very formal and structured but what came after was absolute craziness. So my family and about 200 other people all headed into Valladolid for the reception. The reception was made up of drinks and appetizers as everyone stood around socializing for a good two hours before dinner started. Then dinner was made up of four courses and dessert which took a few more hours as well. Then it was a discotech dance party for the rest of the night. We didn’t get back to Palencia until five the next morning. Truly one of the most wild/fun nights I’ve had here in Spain.

You must excuse me because I have to take a second and talk about the food at the wedding. Before the dinner the waiters would walk around and give you appetizers that were so good that you couldn’t stop from eating them when they came by. Then dinner came around and blew those out of the water. I wasn’t technically hungry after eating so many appetizer things but I managed to amaze everyone at the table by finishing every piece of all the courses and dessert. It was that good. I could go into every one of the four courses for you but it pains me to think I won’t be eating it again. My parents said that at weddings it’s very common to have lots of courses and they have been to some that had five to six. They gave everyone their own take home menu of the meal so I can remember each dish for ever.

Then Monday was a National Holiday so we luckily didn’t have school. Got to sleep in for a bit but eventually had to get up to go have lunch with all of Raquel’s family who stayed in Palencia after the wedding. So we spent the day together again and watched the Spanish army on the television march through the streets of Madrid as a show of their might. A good day and a little more relaxed then the two preceding it which was nice.

So that was my weekend and one I will sorely miss. I hope this post makes more sense the last and when I push the publish button the photos won’t go all crazy. Hopefully. I hope you all are well and be sure to stay in a touch. I’d love to hear from you and am now lively in a much improved internet situation so will be able to respond more readily. Stay in touch and god bless.



Cody Combs

First Batch of Pictures for You All

Well hey there everybody!

Coming up on my fourth week in Spain this Saturday then two days after that will be officially one month in my new home. It's crazy and I'm finally starting to get to the point of being able to look back a little bit and go " Well hey look at that! I've made a little progress!" You have no idea how much a relief that is for me and will only start getting better from here.

I love all your blog comments so much and it gives me great pleasure to read them. Thank you so much for that. I'm doing great and all but from time to time having something to make you smile really helps. The language is still really difficult but having gone from a baby's understanding of language when I landed here to now I would say I'm doing alright.

The European Union has established a whole bunch of language centers across Europe where you can take any kind of language classes for really cheap. I started my first two classes of Spanish this week so hopefully that will help to speed the whole process along. Cross your fingers yah?

It's the third week of school in Palencia and I feel like I'm finally starting to fall into a groove. By now mostly all the teachers understand not to really call on me unless if they want to waste a good ten minutes trying to convey something through body gestures. So for the most part I'm just left to my own means during class which really helps for me to listen and not have to worry about anymore embarrassing scenes. All the students are really great though and super friendly and patient with my language troubles. I'm very grateful to them all and their continuing support when I am utterly confused.

Last weekend was one of David's (My host families son who is on exchange in South Carolina) friend's birthday so I went to that. One thing I thought was interesting is that on someone's birthday you give them the amount of tugs on the ear for how old they are. Thought that was interesting and different. During the weekends I for the most part go out with David's friends and go around Palencia. They are all amazing guys and I am so grateful that they are will to adopt me as a worthy substitute David. One of the main problems for many exchange students is not having friends or this to do so you just sit at home and get homesick. I am very very lucky in that I was never given that option and that I had friends even before I landed in Spain. One more thing I am very grateful for. It's a shame they don't do Thanksgiving in Spain cause these days I seem to have so much to be thankful for.

So you'll all be proud of me in that I now will finally be able to post some pictures in this blog. I am at this moment in the public library with wonderful free internet access. I have a whole slew of pictures to show you but I won't to overburden you all so I will post the ones that give you a general jist of Spain. Now while looking at them please to remember I am in no way a decent photographer and my camera is wonderful, but isn't the Hubble. So ya just keep that in mind. I put in there a few pictures of Palencia as well but there are many more parts of the town then what I posted. If you wish you can go online and quite easily check out the most interesting parts of the town. It's a wonderfully city and I absolutely love it so I would advice you all to take a look if you have a sec.

I will be moving into our flat in the town of Palencia this weekend so that will hopefully ease up any strain on internet access that I have had up unto this point. Thank you all again for your continuing patience on this fact and if I haven't yet gotten back to you individually I promise I will soon. Thank you all again for your continuing support and remember to stay in touch!

So I hope you don't mind that most of my pictures are of old churches or bridges but I kind of find that stuff interesting. Bear with me. This is one of the many many many old churches in Palencia. Not only Palencia but basically all of Spain is chalk full of old Catholic churches. Pretty much everywhere. Who knew. The picture above this would be the sort of town hall in Palencia.

This is the Calle Mayor in Palencia. Sort of a Main Street that runs through most of the city but your only allowed to walk on it. They're big about walking in Spain. Not so much running but walking is big. Even very old people come out every night and go and walk around town. Very cool to see and possibly a more healthy life style in some ways. Not the running part but the walking is cool.

This would be a sort of normal street in Spain. Most of these streets I don't see how two cars fit on them. It's crazy. Well, two wouldn't fit on this one anyway.

This is a very old bridge in Palencia. It was actually built during the Roman occupation. So very very very old. Its very cool to walk over and know that some Roman Solider could of done the same.

The picture below this the massive Cathedral in Palencia. Absolutely huge its crazy. And very beautiful. This is just a small part of it.

This is a canal that runs by where I live.

This is a one of many plazas in Palencia that people hang out.

Another old bridge that's fallen out of use. Can you guess why?

Another of the very very old churches. My spanish isn't too good but from what I understand its like a bunch of hundreds of years old. I know thats a very ruff estimate but you get the idea.

Oh so last weekend I went to the north of Palencia and went on a hike with my father in the mountains. Now this is Palencia the county we'll say. So I live in Palencia the city in Palencia the county in Castilla y Leon the State in Spain. They have different names but you get the idea. Beauty though huh?

That's my father Juan. He really likes trees. He tried to teach me all the different names. I'm having trouble constructing simple sentences let alone remembering all the different types of trees.

This is the bull fight I went to. Didn't really mean to put the dead bull picture first but oh well. I guess we can just get that out of the way. So ya. This is a dead bull.

This is a picture of me and a bull fighter. The person who took me to the fight was very excited that we got this picture. He says they never take pictures with people so I'm special. As you can see we had to get him while he was in his van.

Another picture of my hike with Juan. Sorry a little out of order here. My bad.

This is an old castle that went by. So ya Spain's big into castles. Lots of castles. Like my state is Castilla y Leon. In Spanish castle is Castillo or Castilla. and they prefer the language being called Castillian instead of Spanish. Which is the Castle language. Yep, they like their castles.

This is an old canal in Palencia that goes right by my house. The canal was started in 1751 and took over 70 years to finish and goes for something like a hundred miles. They say it was one of Carlos III 's big mistakes. Well i like it anyway.

And now back to the bull fight. This is a man that I took a picture with. Don't really know who he was but he wasn't to happy I took a picture with him though. I still like him anyway.

This is at the bull fight. I'm with a priest and a policeman. I thought the perfect coupling. And if you can see the priest has a large drink in his hand. Thats Spain for ya.

The bull ring.

The bull during one of the fights. Those are those spear things that I talked about in one of my earlier blogs.

The bull with the fighter. crazy huh?

Back to our hike. This is Juan in a cave. Pretty cool.

This is the craziness after the bull fight. I don't know if you can see it but this street is filled with thousands of people for like a mile. It was so crazy. And they do this all night.

This is people all in a parade on their way to the bull fight. All playing instruments and dressed up.

This guys whip the pavement and make really loud noises. They are kind of dangerous. They don't really look when their whipping.

A picture of the Spanish countryside. Sorry. this are really out of order. But ya this is typical Spain counrtyside.

This is one of many pictures like this. Me with some random person. The guy I was with would just randomly grab people and make me take pictures with them. He was very happy about me being there. I have a whole bunch of these. Like the old man before. He's my favorite.

This are the royalty of the festivals they are called. Don't really know why but they are.

This is the Spanish version of the Arch de Triumph and even has a quite similar name as well. This is also in Madrid. But hey check up the sun coming down on it an all. And you wonder where people get the idea's like Manifest Destiny?

A big flag of Spain in Madrid

As I said before there is much more of Palencia online that you can check out. For instance overlooking the town on a 850 meter high hill is a 20 meter high Jesus statue. Now thats a big Jesus. He has both his hand put up like he wants to give you two big high fives. I pretend to give them to him everyday. He's the second biggest Jesus in the world after the Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Now thats cool, check it out!