Write it on your heart...

1.6.13

...that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

(Thank you, Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Well, now it really is 2013.  Weird.  I was talking with some friends, and we all feel that "2013" sounds exceptionally weird as years go.  I don't remember thinking "2012... hmm, that sounds odd."  Maybe it's because, as a little girl, 2012 was the farthest ahead I thought.  I remember when I calculated what year it would be when I graduated from college and discovered it would be 2012.  I never bothered to think what might happen in 2013.  It really does feel the beginning of the rest, the unknown.

It's off to a good start for me here in Spain.  I went to a very fun New Year's Eve party in Lugo, spent the next day or so recovering, and today I just got back from a wonderful weekend in Santiago with Roxy :-)

The girls I hung out & ate grapes with at midnight before the party; Meghan, Annia, & Annie :-)

At the fiesta. Ryan, me, Annia & Meghan

The NYE party was pretty sweet.  The Spanish friends that I've met through Iria rented out a bar, decorated it, had music, goofy party favors, a "photocool" (photocall; area to take pictures), the whole nine yards.  The name tags we're wearing in the above picture are celebrities & famous characters, and when we arrived we had to find our "partner"-- it was fun.  I also had to post these pictures because I'm kind of in love with my dress, but I can't imagine I'll ever wear it again haha.

As I lay in bed, being lazy and trying to catch up on sleep/get back to a normal schedule on January 1st, I read the messages I'd gotten from Roxy the night before.  She was still in Florida at the time, but was about to come back to Spain, and, because she's got both some crazy & some awesome in her, she was thinking about flying up to Galicia to hang out with me before going home to Úbeda, in Andalucía.  It seemed like meeting up in Santiago de Compostela for a few days was the best plan because there's an airport there.  At first I felt pretty hesitant because it all seemed so spontaneous, but I am so glad we did it!  The city was just lovely, and we had a great time.

Me with some Christmas lights (they twinkled!) in the Praza de Cervantes, which it seemed like we always came back to.

The first night there we didn't do much but wander around; Roxy understandably needed some time to nap, so I showed up 3 or 4 hours after she'd already gotten to the hostel.  The first one we were in had an incredible view of the cathedral, but the doors to the rooms didn't lock, and there weren't any lockers... I'm not sure if this is common or not, but it made us both kind of uneasy.  So when we got back for the night & went to bed we pushed the spare bunkbed in front of the door (improvisation lol), and changed hostels first thing in the morning.  It's a good thing we'd decided to do that, because somebody tried to stumble in at around 8 in the morning.  Probably just a tired and/or inebriated guest with the wrong room, but still, who wants to wake up to that?

Anyway, the day after that went a lot smoother.  We got coffee at a cafe in the morning; met up with Meghan who'd come in for the day from Lugo; went and saw the cathedral, both inside and out; wandered the streets some more; took a small siesta; visited the cathedral museum; looked at some shops and street vendors; found a place to get yummy Spanish hot chocolate (which is really just melted chocolate), and also stumbled across a fantastic restaurant for dinner before going out that night (I had these setas [mushrooms] that were cooked in the most amazing sauce/spices... I am definitely going back there when I visit Santiago again, even if I have to walk up and down every street in the old town to find it, because of course I forgot the name).

The cathedral was just... jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring, amazing.

This was taken standing on almost the entire opposite of the plaza in front, in an attempt to get both myself and the entire facade.

I just couldn't stop taking pictures of it.

Me & Roxy :-)

Gator Chomp! Represent.

After we got done with that giant wave of pictures, we actually went inside, which was no less impressive.  And I saw the tomb of St. James! (supposedly).  Unfortunately I could not take a picture of that, but still.  Pretty neat thing I can say I've done.

This the main altar part (apse? nave? I feel like it's probably called something like that... some word I've read in books & can't remember).  The tomb is right under the most middle, most gold part.

While in the cathedral museum, we got to go into this cool inner courtyard, where a lot of old priests were buried, and we could also see the bells that used to be up in the towers.

I am in this picture, if you can see me.

I don't have any pictures of that night, unfortunately.  Not that there was much to photograph, except our pretty faces ;) haha.  We just wandered around for a while ducking into different bars, before we went to one that is apparently frequented by students.  There we met some people (including a girl from Morocco who's in a circus?) and walked over to a more dance-y, club-like place with them.  It was about 7am before we called a taxi to get back to the hostel (oh, Spain...), so, needless to say, we slept in a bit the next day.

When we finally did venture out into the world again, we took a few more pictures by the cathedral (of course), and then went & bought picnic supplies and went to one of the larger parks with a really pretty vista of the city.

 

 I also took some pictures of the traveling gnome I got for Christmas jeje ;)

I couldn't get over how pretty it was there. Must try to go see it in the spring or summer.

A monument to Rosalía de Castro, who was one of the greatest Galician language writers/poets.

At the over-look of the city.

My favorite picture of the cathedral from the park. Gotta love sunset light.

And then I got up at 5:45 this morning to come back to Lugo in the cold, frost, and fog (typical) haha.  But it was a really great time.  Great to see my friend, who I miss so much, and great to explore a new city.  I like that, the more I see of Galicia, the more I love it.

I think I'll give the internet a break for now; tomorrow is the last day of vacation before school starts again and I want to savor the hours!