Virgen Maria de la Carmen

Hello Guys!

Today was another good day! We get a 10 minute break every hour, and Silvia and I went out for coffee during our first break. Since she's Italian, she drinks espresso black and well, looks like I do too because "there's only one way to drink espresso" lol! I'm having so much fun in class and the subjects are challenging me. Spanish law uses black letter law so it's so different from our system. I think there went my dreams of being a lawyer in Spain. There is hope however, since contracts are universal, so I'm not ready to give up on my dreams just yet. 

After classes, I went to go sit on the beach. Today is Virgen Maria del Carmen's day. She's the patron saint of the sea. For cities with fishermen and located near the ocean, today is especially important for them because she's the one who looks out for their safe passage and fruitful fishing days. I'm actually really excited to be a part of this. So I raced home to get all my homework and a quick workout in before the procession started. 

No one told me that they were working on mountain time...so looks like I arrived on time, but in Spain that means you're an hour early. Good think I brought a towel to sit on the beach and passed my time enjoying the ocean views and the numerous boats sailing by!

Want to know another thing no one told me? No one told me that this was a fancy pants occasion. So you got me looking a bit questionable in my workout clothes (I hadn't even showered because I knew I would just get sweaty from going outside again). Then you have the rest of Spain dressed up more nicely...not tuxedo wise, this is a beach city after all, but they were in nice pressed pants/shirts or jumpsuits/dresses. Good thing I'm independent of the good opinion of others!

Oh yes, that's my pirate party bro tank that says "work like a captain, party like a pirate." I'm keeping it real classy guys hahaha. Also! You know the whole Peppa pig story, so imagine my surprise when she followed me to Spain!

The procession was led by the school kids and at the front was a cross and lamps. They read some prayers and such but I could not understand a word, so I just sat there and listened quietly.

This is mosaic of Maria del Carmen which they bring the big Maria statue they're carrying over to and then raise her up and say "Viva Virgen Maria del Carmen!" As you can see people have already come to bring her flowers throughout the day. What you see here wasn't even half the flowers surrounding it! 

Here is the huge Virgen Maria del Carmen they were carrying throughout the entire town. It looked so heavy, I was glad I wasn't one of the 20 men below supporting the base and walking through the town. 

So as they walk Maria around, they have chants that they say together with the city. There's a captain of  a boat who stands in front of all the guys carrying her and says things like "Quien es la mas guapa?" (Who is the most beautiful?) and the town answers "Maria del Carmen!" Or they go "guapa, guapa guapa guapa." I gotta say, Maria's got it good. For all of eternity these people are shouting "Long Live Maria!" and "Beautiful" at her during her day. 

Pro tip, if you're ever at an event and you have no clue what is going on, put yourself next to a couple of younger kids with their parents. I promise before long you'll have explanations for everything. Did I ever tell you how much I adore Spanish children? They are absolutely adorable with their little voices and accents. This mother had put her three year old on top of her shoulders. And the three year old would not stop asking questions. It was so funny, but also very  beneficial to me who literally had no clue about this procession. 

My favorite moment was when she was like, "why are they saying that she's guapa so many times?" And the mother without missing a beat said "isn't she guapa? I mean look at her?" and the little girl pauses for a moment and goes, "yeah, I guess she's guapa, but I'm guapa too." I could not stop laughing. 

What happens next is that all those boats I was talking about earlier? Well they were here to get blessing from Maria del Carmen. So they all come in a semi-circle as close to shore as they can. And then the procession continues into the water. The entire town encloses the other part makes this huge circle, and then Maria gets walked around the inside of the circle blessing each part. Each section she's in front of repeats the chants and then crosses themselves. My favorite part was when she was in front of the boats because the captains and crews went wild. They were chanting the loudest and blaring their boat horns and making so much noise, you just couldn't help but laugh and get really into it. 

There were so. many. humans. I tried not to think about it too hard, otherwise I probably would have panicked a little bit being in the middle of such a crowd. But seriously, I was only this close because I unknowingly had walked to the beach and figured that something would happen here since everyone seemed to slowly be trickling their way to the shoreline. 

Here's Virgen Maria del Carmen blessing people. I cant imagine how hard it must have been to carry her around in the water. One time the guys almost lost their footing in the sand and you could see the huge statute start to sway. Everyone was like OH NO! They'll drop her! But I think the others in the water ran to their rescue and she didn't fall in the end. 

After Maria del Carmen makes her rounds, they put her in a special rowboat decorated with flowers and row into the sea with her and all the boats follow in her wake. Honestly it really was something to see. Totally spectacular to be a part of such reverence and enthusiasm. 

The second she started rowing away, I noticed that the parents with kids were rather quickly hightailing it closer to the boardwalk, I was a bit confused since I wanted to watch the boats row away. That is until everyone in the water turned to the beach and rushed us! Splashing and getting as many humans wet as they can, both in the water and in the shoreline. Ever been in a stampede? Well that's pretty much what it felt like with all 300 of us running to shore. It was rather humorous I wish I had a recording of my face as it dawned on my that all those humans were running towards me! I was like oh crap! and ran as fast as I could to get ahead of the herd. Good thing I'm pretty tiny and was able to slip between people as the chaos ensued. It was all in good fun, those of us that managed to stay dry laughed in solidarity at the boardwalk.

That night was a lunar eclipse and Mumma Bailey suggested that I watch it from my balcony. I had been having a bit of trouble being friendly with my roommates and felt a bit awkward around the apartment. Mumma Bailey said that I just needed to go and make friends with them. Well I think that that was her secret mission all along. I went to the balcony and the two Polish women I live with were already out there. Now mind you, I was ready for bed and dressed in pjs with retainers in. Well, since I was just kinda standing around, the Polish women insisted I sit down and offered me some Polish chocolate. Not knowing how to explain retainers in Spanish and not really wanting to take them out in front of everyone (just gross) I politely declined. But they insisted and I was like crap, how do I turn them down without being insulting. Well as you can imagine I didn't, and said a little prayer the chocolate wasn't loaded with nuts, and for the next hour chatted with the polish ladies while eating super yummy chocolate with retainers and all. Probably not one of my finest moments. But 1) I didn't die (don't worry I got a good lashing from all my friends and family about risk taking - lol to the fact that eating chocolate with ingredients I can't read is considered a big risk for me),  2) I actually really enjoyed their company and realized they were just less confident in their Spanish, and it was not that they didn't like me,  and 3) they never once commented on how long I was taking to eat a single tiny piece of chocolate lol! (idk in my mind I figured slow poisoning was the best option - like resistance training - if I were actually allergic to the chocolate, which I wasn't). We had good chats and I went to bed rather happy to have finally made friends in my apartment. Thanks Mumma Bailey for your sneaky moves!  

Love you guys,

Carolyn

Inutil

Hi Everyone!

I woke up this morning super excited to go to school and to walk along the beach to get there. Let me tell you, the walk did not disappoint ! I mean guys, this is literally my view the entire way to school. Now there is a faster street way but I'd say the ocean is definitely worth the extra three minutes of my time. Really, how is this my life. 

Classes were great! It's just me and this Italian lawyer Sylvia. The material subjects are hard, and I'm realizing I'm missing a lot of critical vocabulary, but that's why I'm here. Literally, today we were studying the Spanish political system and I had to explain the electoral college system to my professor. Mate, I barely understand it in English, and now you want me to tell you all about it in a foreign language? It was rough, but I think I got the point across.

The teacher, Manuel, will not let me get away with anything. He forces me to read out loud and if I don't answer the question after Sylvia, he then specifically asks me for my opinion. Super good for learning purposes, but definitely panic inducing for me. I know that with time I'll get into the hang of it and my Spanish will definitely get better. However, today I totally failed. Manuel goes "what do you think about the Spanish monarchy and the role of the king in the justice system?" What does this chick here say? Me and my big fat mouth goes "Well, frankly the king doesn't really do anything for the justice system. I mean, I'm not saying my country is much better with Trump for president but at least we have got a triangle of powers with checks and balances. Whereas your king doesn't contribute to anything, he's...inutil" Guys, in my attempt to find the right adjective, I called the king of Spain useless/worthless/superfluous! Major cringe moment. Oops.

Good thing my classmate and professor were pretty chill and were like WHAAAATTT? and then after the initial shock laughed it off and then countered my point with the importance of symbolism to unify people into a community. Oh gosh, if this first day is an indication for how this week is going to go, buckle your seat belts because I'm sure this won't be my first transgression. 

Classes flew by and before I knew it I was back at home. I had to do some studying but I can't complain too much when this is my balcony view. I sat out there studying until sunset. 

Tomorrow I'm going to make sure to find time to sit on the beach, but for today, I'm content to admire it from afar. 

Love you guys lots,

Carolyn

Sunday In Malaga

Hi guys,

Today is my last day with mom and we are both trying not to be too melancholy. I'm really excited to start school tomorrow, but also super nervous. I'm living in an apartment with four other women and only one bathroom....wish me luck guys, seriously I might need it. Mom being...well a mom, decided to accompany me on my dry run of my walk to school and my journey to retrieve my apartment keys. Let's just say that I was less that amenable in the morning as I definitely did not want my road trip to end. Also mom was having a field day taking pictures, you would have thought it was my first day of college or pre-K, not my millionth time abroad lol!! Moms will be moms? Anyways, these pictures are definitely funny to look at now and you'll be able to see my school. So without further adieu:

Here's my walk to school.

My school.

Me in front of my school.

In my apartment less than amused by now. Sorry not sorry mom? Enjoy one of the many faces I'm sure you all have experienced by now...Hey, it could be worse than just a bit of sass. 

Once we got that over with we actually could explore the town a bit more. Except we forgot something really critical. It was a Sunday, and literally everything shuts down on Sundays. Not a single store was open except for cafes and restaurants. So we just walked around chatting and enjoying the architecture and the harbor. That's the best part of Spain, the country is so old that literally even if you're walking around the outside of the shopping malls, you're still looking at 14th or 16th century buildings. Do these people know how lucky they are?

See what I mean? Nothing special and yet super special at the same time. 

We then moved onto the port, which is becoming my favorite place to chat and people watch. Today was exciting because all the boats were docked so there was a lot more boat envy on my part.It was sweltering so we gelato for lunch and then again after dinner. Being an adult means that I can eat ice cream for lunch right? Plus it was endorsed by my mother, which counts for something lol! 

I don't really have much more to say since I was just enjoying having the company of a familiar face for one last day before the last leg of my trip. I was also taking in the Spanish air and all the surroundings of the city center. I'm moving a bit outside of town so I'm not too sure if I'll have time to come back here until the weekend. You can thank mom for being so photo crazy today! I promise I'll try my best when I don't have a personal photographer following me around for the next three weeks lol.

Tomorrow school begins and I'm sure I will have much more to share! 

Love you all,

Carolyn

Malaga

Hi guys! 

If you're thinking I've skipped a few days, I have. But that's because our last few days have been traveling. We had to say be to Jes and Mumma Bailey and that was really hard. Having the best of friends all over the world allows me to have these adventures and I'm so grateful. But can you all just move to one spot so that we can adventure together all the time and never have to say goodbye please? Thanks.

It didn't make it easier that mom and I had the worst Uber driver ever who tried to save us three minutes by taking the ferry and then ended up taking an extra two and a half HOURS to get us to our destination. I don't know about you, but somehow I think those three extra minutes would have been worth it mate. At least I transformed my tears in the wrath for this poor guy. 

The 5 am wake up call after a less than ideal night's worth of sleep did not have me in tip top shape. So when BOTH my bags were pulled aside for extra screening, I literally burst into tears in front of the TSA agent. Please imagine a very flabbergasted British man, who pulled out a toothpaste past the 125mL allowance which I had forgotten in my backpack and me pretty much sobbing about it. Looking back, hilarious. In the moment, I was mortified and my mother was terribly confused as I'm normally a very cool traveler. I think it was just pent up Sadness in my Inside Out brain who finally escaped her chambers and hit all the crying buttons before Joy could stop her.

Needless to say, Friday was spent taking a three hour nap and sitting at the hotel rooftop bar drinking a tropical smoothie with a very concerned mom looking over my shoulder all day. I'm fine mom, Sadness had her moment and Joy is back in control!

So, now here we are at Saturday. After a good sleep I started my morning off with cafe con leche. Man I missed good coffee. 

I forgot about good ole' Spanish hospitality...aka they hate everyone not from Spain. So you can imagine how my morning went when we had to figure out mom's train situation after hers got cancelled because of a strike. I think we got sent to three people before finally someone took pity on me. Also by the fourth person I did the tourist grovel "hi sir, I'm really bad at speaking Spanish but I'm going to try. Thank you so much for your patience, I appreciate you, you wonderful human..." blah blah blah. Well that finally did the trick and guess who got her mom's tickets sorted out with no pride in tact. It's like come on guys, I know you speak English...hello national school system, I'm speaking Spanish albeit with an accent, but fine, still give me the evil eye unless I apologize for my existence. Bah these Europeans, crack me up every time.

If you thought you were done seeing Jesus on my blog, guess again! We visited the Catedral de Malaga. Honestly it was gorgeous. Malaga is a unique city because it is one of the older cities in Europe and went through so many different cultures and regimes. Started with the Phoenicians back in 770 BC. Then it was passed to the Romans, Arabs, and ultimately ended up under the Spanish rule. So you've got a tiny port city with so much history and lots of ruins to explore, I think I'm going to love it here.

I gotta say, no one really knows how to do a cathedral like inquisition Spaniards. They were really in your face about it...but in a very beautiful way.

(that choir box was made from pomegranate tree bark imported from the US)

See what I mean? So overwhelming and yet so pretty. This is only 1/4 of the pictures mom took! she actually knew the names of the people who made this art, so most of it was lost on me. Looks like I didn't get the cultured bit that my mom has...oopsies. 

We then found the gardens and took a break in that posh little restaurant. So cute and yet the worst tapas ever! I feel like that's how it always goes, the best food is served in the hidden hole in the wall places. 

It is so warm and sunny here! I love it, even if I'm melting. I decided after you guys listened to me complain about the rain and cold for over two months, I simply don't have the right to say anything remotely negative about this warm weather. Trust me, I'm loving it, despite melting. I just feel badly for my poor mom running to any and all the patches of shade visible along our walks. Thank god I don't burn, but even with sunscreen I'm already significantly darker. Hope you all recognize me when I come home!

I took a siesta like all good espanolas do, and then mom and I decided to walk around the harbor! Is it possible to have ship envy, because that is how I feel towards this ship. I want someone to take me out on it, even though I would literally be dead weight since I have nothing whatsoever to contribute to sailing. However, I just love the idea of being out on open waters with real sails! I don't have to be a sailor to recognize that this ship is puuurrrtttyyyy. Maybe one day.

We walked from the port to the beach, and then back again. 

Needless to say we worked up a hearty appetite and stopped along one of the port restaurants for some dinner. This place served Mexican, Indian, Argentinian, and Greek food all in one space. Do you think the owner couldn't make up her mind? Or maybe he hired four different chefs? Anyways the location was perfect and just the food we needed to replenish before our walk home. 

Mom kept snapping pictures along the walk back to our hotel. 

In case you were wondering, I'm apparently highly photogenic 100% of the time...someone please cue the Miss America song. Do you think they'd take me with this as my head shot? lol 

At least we got one good one in there. 

Update you more tomorrow!

Love ya'll,

Carolyn

Pooh and Piglet Wander Brighton

Hi Fam Bam,

We've been pretty active this whole trip, so not surprisingly today we took it easy. This morning we met up at 10 am to go inside the Pavilion Henry the IV built (remember that Indian looking building I took a picture in front of a few weeks ago?). Perks of having the parents around is they pay for thing lol, so we actually went inside this time! OMG it was AMAZING. Like so decadent and ostentatious, even the kitchen had huge fake palm trees to show off to the guests. They wouldn't let us take pictures anywhere which was super annoying. So the only picture we have is Jes and I wearing our matching shirts and bonnets with a dragon in the children's play box area. If there's a play box, we will play.

The king was living his best life though. There was gold everywhere, and dragons and phoenixes lining the walls floors and ceilings. One of the chandeliers was suspended by a dragon and is so big it takes 6 weeks to clean it. Yeah, when I heard that I said no thanks! You guys should google it, it really was something to see. It was decorated with a western interpretation of Orientalism, hence how you have Indian architecture but totally Chinese interior decorations. Do you think Henry IV knew that India and China were two different countries and cultures? 

Afterwards Jes had to leave us for work so mom, mumma Bailey, and I passed the day together just hopping from cafe to cafe. And when I mean we passed the day, I mean we spent about 6 hours together exploring two miles of Brighton. It was so great. First we started at the Pavilion and had phenomenal tea. Mumma Bailey got earl grey, while I got a smokey Chinese black tea, and mom got her cappuccino of course. We sat watching the birds and humans pass by whilst protecting our muffins from the seagulls. After our first chat, we walked the Brighton Lanes and picked up little knickknacks here and there. 

Deciding that we had enough shopping, we found another little cafe and this time ordered chips (aka fries, I know the British have it all backwards) and fizzy drinks. This time we had a lot of fun watching the poor humans fall privy to the seagull attacks. I think because there's no predators on this island these birds are confused. They don't know how to fish and keep snagging human food. Mom and mumma Bailey love the shade, so we were the first table just outside the doors of the cafe, needless to say, super safe from seagulls. Those closer to the beach were not so lucky haha. This one table got attacked five times before they finally asked to move. I suggested there should be a cull of seagulls.

We then took about five or six steps before poor Mumma Bailey was pooped on! This photograph was too good not to share. Good thing the moms have good humor and Mumma Bailey laughed the situation off after initial shock and annoyance. Let's just say we were well aware of our surroundings after this little incident. 

Mom and Mumma Bailey named themselves Pooh and Piglet back in the New Forest, when Jes and I told them not to get lost in the woods when we went riding. Needless to say, we made lots of Pooh and Piglet jokes because literally all we were doing was wandering Brighton with frequent rest stops. Today was the Pooh and Piglet take on Brighton edition. I'm just lucky they let me tag along...

Brighton is the city of quirkiness, so it comes to no surprise that they built an upside down house as a tourist attraction!

If you thought we were sick of tea and coffee you would be totally wrong! Here we are at cafe number three, which was my second favorite cafe of the day. The pavilion cafe couldn't be beat, but this gazebo one was playing old music like Frank Sinatra and Diana Washington. It got a bit chilly for me, so I put on a jumper and ordered a hot cocoa while the menopausal moms looked at me like I was absolutely mental. But in the photo you can see that the sun practically disappeared and the sky was more cloudy, so a hot cocoa was definitely necessary. The waitress must have given us silly looks when we did the whole "cheers" routine with a cider, a hot cocoa, and a Sanpellegrino. We were joking that we were going to drink and eat our way over to Hove, the next town over where Jes lives. 

Which ultimately is exactly what we did! From the gazebo we walked the last mile along the shore to go to the tiny Italian place for dinner that I kept raving about. After struggling to be a part of the clean plate club all week, I finally was the only one who ate everything! It was funny because the portions were always too large, I guess that large portions don't really matter when you're eating homemade pasta and gelato. I told you guys I could eat pasta for the rest of my life and never think twice about it. I should've been born Italian. Good thing I've got a true Italian godmom to teach me the ways. 

I was practically rolling home after having done nothing but walk along the beach and eat and drink all day. However, it was so satisfying to truly take a day off and not really do anything but chat. That being said, for all our wandering we did manage to walk eight miles! Go us! Someone please tell me that school isn't too close, because I'm going to miss these leisurely days. Good thing I can count on you all to remind me that life can be good and moments like these do exist when I'm in the dark tunnel of my second year of law school. Miss you guys.

Love you lots,

Carolyn