Granizo!

Granizo is the spanish word for hail.  Today, when I came out of the gym at 2:00 PM, the weather outside had transformed from a cold, wet, miserable day to a snow day.  In a matter of 30 minutes, the entire ground had been covered in ice!

Anway, antes de todo, here is the promised picture of me as a pirate.  

So, this weekend (fin de semana) we went to Bilbao, a city about an hour and a half to the east of Santander (see the map from last post).  Bilbao is a city in the Basque region of Spain- a region with it's own distinct culture and language from the rest of spain.  Today, the dominant culture of Spain has overwhelmed most of the Basque culture, but there are those who hold onto the old language and culture.  

Bilboa itself is a gorgeous city, with a slightly more gothic and older feel than Santander.  It has a river that runs through the center of the city.  Now, it is picturesque, but it used to be contaminated with sludge from Bilbao's industrial complexes.  God blessed us with beautiful weather on Saturday, so we mostly just wandered around and snapped photos. Thank You Lord for simple graces like sunny days.  Later, we went to the Guggenheim Musuem there.

  It was amazing on the outside!

On the inside, however, it was just plain weird.  I came in prepared to have to take art for art's sake, but there is a line across which you can pass into disgusting.  A lot of the art in the museum did just that.  On the good side, as we came out of the musuem, one of the more famous local politicians emerged from the musuem, dogged by a dozen cameramen.  We all angled ourselves to get on TV- and two people from our group suceeded.  That was fun.

Then the next day we went to church for the second time.  Praise the Lord for such, dear, dear people!  We were immediately welcomed into this church made of about a dozen nationalities.  There were people there from Ukraine, Colombia, Ecudor, Brazil, America (us), Moldova and Romania.  Sadly, I didn't find any spaniards.  The worship is lively and full of "Amens" and "Gracias, Senor" (addressed to Jesus).  I really enjoyed the message as well.  Last Sunday, was had communion, which was a great opportunity to ponder the precious blood of Christ.  Afterwards, we socialized over Colombian-style fruit salad.  I am going on Sundays with two members of my group that are also Christians- another blessing!  One of my friends led the church in the singing of an english hymn that they also sing (but in Spanish).  We have an open invite to go over to the pastor's house for dinner.

Thank You Lord for faithful believers all over the world!

More pictures of Bilbao: