The Spanish Constitution and a Saint´s Birthday makes a long weekend

So I would like to begin with wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving and coming into a Happy Holidays. I hope you all had a lovely Turkey Day and one that you will remember for years to come. Sadly Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Spain so I had to go without this year. My mother here did make me a dish with bits of turkey in it which was a nice gesture and one that I greatly appreciated. Turns out turkey is a less the easy meat to find in Spain and the task of finding a whole one near impossible. If only Thanksgiving were celebrated with pig instead.

I am now a couple days past my three month anniversary here in Spain and doing well. Learning more everyday and doing my best to stay in an a completely English free environment. School is just fine and I have a great time with my classmates and teachers. Being able to listen to non-stop spanish for a 8 hours straight almost everyday is extremely helpful although mind numbing when it comes time to go home. I still have a great group of friends that I go out with every weekend and with them have started practice sessions in the week where we practice English and Spanish. Practice, Listen, Learn; my life.

This last Friday afternoon my family and I packed up and headed off on a six hour drive through the Basque Country and up into France where we spent 4 nights and 3 days in a ski resort. As my title explains I had another four day weekend this last week; something that was extremely appreciated after missing out on my normally scheduled Thanksgiving Break. My family thought it might be nice to get out of town for a bit and do some skiing so the French Pyrenees were decided upon. The weekend as a whole was a wonderful time and an amazing expierence that I won´t soon forget.

I don´t believe anyone I know would call me a ´ski bum´ nor one to often ´shred the knar´ like many of my fellow Bozemanites however I do take a certain pleasure out of skiing. My mother grew me up with the belief  that "if you can walk, you can ski," through which has left me with many fond memorizes of many a winter on the slopes of Bridger and Big Sky alike. Even though I lack the true intensity for the sport, a winter without skiing at least once would feel some how sacrilegious with the deeper fabric of me. For this I am extremely grateful that I was granted three days to indulge that need and even have an absolutely amazing time at it.

The resort itself was quite snug being placed high up in the Pyrenees so as to try and get some snow fall. It was filled to bursting with Spaniards for the long weekend and French coming up for the day. Turns out after listening to Spanish for 3 months then listening to continuous French for 3 days you get rather confused; don´t even know what your trying to understand anymore. The snow itself wasn´t quite as deep nor heavy as that in Montana but being that it is likely the only of it´s kind that I´m going to be seeing for the year, it made me very happy to be cold again.

So now after a wonderful long weekend I am back to Palencia and the good old same old. With the Holiday Season upon us I will be sure to fill you all in at a later date of the many customs and differences that seem to come with it in Spain. With that said I hope you all have an absolutely amazing holidays and as always I wish you all the best.

One last thing is that the world finals of Jai alai were oddly enough held in Palencia a little while ago. I will post a picture of the sport below if the name doesn´t look familiar (the pictures aren´t mine however), although I´m quite sure many of you have seen it on tv or somewhere else. It is a sport that came out of the Basque Country and involves slings a ball at a large wall at roughly 180 mph which then the opposing team has to catch. Its a crazy sport and one that I was lucky enough to be able to watch. If your not familiar with it I would advice copy and pasting the name into YouTube and watching for a bit; its wild.

Also will be putting in a couple of pictures from the Cathedral in Burgos and somethings Valladolid, the capital of Castilla y Leon. The cathedral is huge and completely full of old and very expensive catholic artifacts. The painting of the man all in white with the white horse is "El Cid", a hero in that he started the driving of the Moors out of Spain. Thought it was funny in how it portrays how well life must of been like in the 11th century.

Anyway that's all. I again hope you are all well and hope to hear from you soon.

Cody

A painting of Leonardo da Vinci´s