That first night, I went out with Sharon, Kimberly, Caroline, and Erin in search of shoes for Sharon (her flipflops had broken) and food for all of us. As we were looking for shoes (speaking of which, Spain does not have flipflops ANYWHERE. and crocs are really expensive: 25 euro which is about $40 US. crazy), I managed to separate myself from both Sharon and the others. Sharon had gone ahead to another store. I went to go find her while the others waited. I couldn't find her and when I got back, the others had disappeared. But no pasa nada. I just wandered around the street vendors by myself for awhile looking for them and then when I had decided to go get some food on my own, I ran into some other girls from the school. So all ended well. And I learned that I have absolutely no problem being by myself in the city. Probably not the safest, but oh well.
After supper (Greek gyros, yummy), I went back to the hotel and found Erin and Kimberly. We decided to go out again and wander some more. We ended up at a street concert of some "old" Spanish contemporary group. Basically, the kind of group that used to be cool back in the day, but now is only listened to by the parents.
We crowd-wove our way to the very front, had our ears blasted out for a few minutes and then went back to the hotel around 11:30pm.
Intending to not be tired the next day, I went to bed soon after. But my efforts to sleep all the way till breakfast (9am) were thwarted by the marching band that decided to go marching by at 7:00am right outside our window. Grrr. And they ended up doing it again the next morning too. Silly Spaniards.
Oh, at this point I should probably explain why so much was going on. We were in Zaragoza during the festival "Pilar." Basically, it is celebrating the supposed visit of the Virgen Mary to St. James back in the first century. Legend says that she gave a pillar to build a church upon. Today this same "pillar" is inside the Basilica of Zaragoza and you can stand in line to kiss the back of it.
Or if you're still young enough, you can stand in line and pay to have your picture taken in front of it.
On Thursday, we started the morning off by going to a museum of the Roman foro that used to be in Zaragoza back when the city was called "Caesaraugusta" (it was actually the only city in Europe directly named after the emperor).
Then we went to La Seo, a cathedral right next to the foro museum. More pretty architecture here along with a magnificent organ that I would love to play someday along with mom.
You weren't supposed to take pictures, but I turned my flash off and did anyways. Shame on me.
The cathedral was built first by the Christians and then the Moors added some more on and then it was Catholic again....I think. Anyway, it has both Christian and Moorish aspects to it.
After the cathedral, it was time to go to the Basilica.
Another gorgeous building, but this one also had a tower. Unlike the tower in Valencia, this one had an elevator halfway up and then stairs the rest of the way.
So it wasn't as bad of a hike to the top and the magnificent views of the city, including the Rio Ebro.
Next, we all had free time to both go eat lunch and then walk around and shop or take siesta or whatever. While we were walking the streets we saw this hilarious street performer. He would remain absolutely still except for his face where he had some of the weirdest/hilarious expressions. And if you wanted you could have your picture with him. When you gave him change, he would then bop you on the head with a stuffed mallet that he was hiding under his floppy violin. Quite entertaining. Especially watching little kids trying to toss coins in his jar without getting bopped on the head.
We met up again at 4:30pm to go to Aljaferia, an arabic castle that now also holds the "Cortes de Aragon" (the local legislature).
This castle was super cool and made me feel like I was in the middle of "Arabian Nights."
Arabic architecture is so neat and I think I like it better than neoclassic or romantic or gothic. There's just something about the way the arabs formed their arches.
We went on an actual guided tour here rather than just having our professor Ana Fernandez explain everything to us like she had earlier that day. Our guide took us through both the ancient palace and the current modern governmental section.
One funny part to this visit was that to enter the castle, you have to go through security with a metal detector and everything. Since we thought we were just visiting an ancient castle we were all confused. Were they afraid some Islam radical still mad at the Christians for winning would come by and bomb the national monument? But then we went into the government section and everything made sense. Silly Americans.
Once again, after we got back to the hotel, we had more free time. Katie, Carolyn and I ended up going to see the "jotas," traditional peasant dances. The dancers, musicians, and singers were all fantastic and I love castanets! It's a bit blurry cause the guy in front of me kept moving his head, but here's a short video if you so desire.Then we wandered around some more, went into some candy stores, decided I needed something better than gummies in the shape of a fried egg,
bought four bonbons for 2.50 euro that were definitely worth it (sorry, no picture), took pics of buildings at night,
including a Christmas building,
went down to another concert (better than last time but still too loud and too late), and then went to bed to get ready for the main event the next day: La Ofrenda de Flores.
Breathtaking huh? It was also cool how they had the path system set up. You wandered your way through the park climbing up to the top of waterfalls 
and going down through tunnels 
and over bridges 
and through 
and I loved it. The only problem was I almost died on these slippery stairs. 
The park also has a fish hatchery that it looks like it is used similarly to the MK Nature Center in Boise. And being the naughty college students that we are, Sharon and I followed 
While the gate wasn't locked, the fence was definitely there to keep visitors out. Oops. :P Since we were busy playing with the fish and trying to feed them crackers and bread, we ended up being late for the tour through the monastery itself and almost got left behind. But thanks to some fast walking, we were only a little late and we ended up not being the only ones late either. 
The monastery was almost as cool as the park. Parts of it the owners (the monastery's owned by a private family) were letting disintegrate as nature took its course. 
Or at least that's what I'm assuming was happening. 
Oh and here's a pic of me with a possible relative: 
Anywho, on to the actual details of the event. We left around 9:30 in the morning, got there at ten, and proceeded to have a bus tour of the city. Mainly our professor Ana was just pointing out different commercial sections of the city, neat buildings built in modern styles, the plaza de toros, and different monuments. 
We walked around it first to look at the different sides that were in different architectural styles (gothic, baroque, and romantic for those who really want to know). While we were looking at the romantic doorway (which was enormous with a smaller pair of doors cut out of the bigger ones that I know I wouldn't want to have to open), we saw two files of nuns come around the corner and enter the building. It was amusing to watch about 90% of the ACA group oggle the nuns and say things like "It's Sister Act Valencia" or "Wow! Real, live nuns!" Yeah, a little pathetic yet still amusing. 
Here's a model of the cathedral so you can get a feel for what it was like.
But the view from the top was definitely worth it. 
And as an added bonus, it turned twelve noon while we were up there and we had the privilege of having our ears blasted out as the bell sounded twelve times.
After ice cream (mmm, mmm good), we went shopping. Boo!!! Oh well, I survived and was intrigued at the current fashion/prices in Spain. When we finally stopped and made it back to the park near this arch/monument/thing where we were meeting to go back to school, it was time for me to take a snooze in the somewhat green grass (no, not the grass next to the arch. I only wish)
Speaking of which, I'd have to say that's one of the things of my top things I miss about Union. Green grass that I can sit on to do homework. Honestly, there is no good grass on this campus except for in front of the boy's dorm/church and the soccer field (of course). And I'm not about to go sit down in front of the boy's dorm to do my homework on a regular basis. Poo.
basically, this festival was commorating the conflict between Jaime I (first king of spain) and the moors as both tried to occupy the castle of sagunto and the surrounding areas.
after the tail end of the parade passed us, we trailed them in the streets marching along to the music and generally goofing off. at the end of the parade route they had a raised platform where all the "royalty" who were in the parade were seated. when we got there, everything was breaking up and we were able to get pictures with random parade people. here i am wearing and amazingly cool hat/turbin/thing. one thing that i've really like about the spanairds so far is that they all seem to be really nice. no complaints or rolled eyes or anything when barraged by many americans wanting pictures with them.
while we had been marching down the street my group had been joined by pretty much the rest of CAS that was down at the parade. when we were done with parade people pics, my original group plus erin, kim, and txe txu (pronounced "cheh-choo") decided to go get something to eat. so we headed back down the same street, being loud and kicking empty pop cans like soccer balls. after much deliberation and indecisiveness and sidetracking, we ended up at a kebab place. there we joked and goofed off more as some of the guys had sandwiches, claudia bought us all ice cream sandwiches, and txe txu made the girls napkin roses. 
since it was getting late and the girls' dorm closes with locked doors at midnight, we decided we needed to head back. but not before making fools of ourselves in the streets again. txe txu took us on the ride of our lives as he tried to get back to the school in 4 minutes to beat curfew. which he did; we arrived at the dorm at 11:59 pm. 
and here's a picture of the rifle corps who delighted in shooting off their blank rounds at random times and during supposed "battles" and scaring the crowd. even when i knew they were going to shoot, i still jumped like crazy every time. 
at the very end of the speeches, the two kings came down and had a "duel to the death." jaime I beat the moor and everyone cheered and then it was all over.
after much wishy-washyness, i finally overcame my shyness and went and asked the spanish prince dude if i could have my picture taken with him. which obviously i did, and even though neither of us really look that good, i can still say that i "found" my spanish prince. ha!
after that, kim and i and adam (we found him up at the castle), went down the street and meandered through the medieval market. since it was the first day, some people were still setting up and it wasn't really that great. which was a real bummer in the end cause it caused us to not come down on tuesday for "dia de valencia," the real festival day cause we thought it would be the same. which other people told us it wasn't; we missed street performers and more music and other stuff. boo! 
for lunch we ended up having a spinach pastry thing and candy....way too much candy. but it looked good and it tasted good and we had been walking all morning so why not? anywho, here's a pic of a pear gummy candy thing that was amazing.