Scooter & Jessica

Barcelona, Spain - December 6-7

Barcelona is on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. It is right on the water and has a really nice beach. They speak Spanish of course, but the language that most people from Barcelona speak is actually called Catalan. 95% of the people in Barcelona can understand Catalan and 75% percent of the people speak it. Luckily for us, everyone also understands Spanish and if spoken to in Spanish will usually just switch over from Catalan. It was fun to see Scooter get to use his Spanish. He didn't go on a Spanish speaking mission and actually learned to speak Portuguese first, but because of some effort on his part including a volunteer program in Bolivia and his last job, he has become pretty much fluent. No one had any trouble conversing with him, so I was really proud because I had never been to a Spanish speaking country with him. We really liked Barcelona overall. It seemed really crowded and busy and we finally asked someone about it and were told that it was a national holiday weekend. On Saturday, December 6 it was Constitution Day and on Monday, December 8 it was Immaculate Conception Day, so many Spaniards were travelling within the country and that was why it was so crowded. Truly, it was packed. The crowd in front of one of the cathedrals was packed so tight it was like being at a concert or something.

Scooter on the beach in front of our hotel

My favorite thing about the city was the unique architecture. There is a really famous and innovative architect from that region named Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) who has left his distinctive mark all over the city. He has designed parks, churches, houses, and apartment complexes.

This is Gaudi's Casa Batlló

This is Gaudi's Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera

One of his parks is called Park Güell. It has a great view of the city and the ocean. It is very unique, and around every corner it seemed like there was something strange to see. There were really weird columns and balconies everywhere. The park (as well as many other Gaudi works) displays a method of mosaic called "trencadís." Broken pieces of tile, glass, china, bottles, etc. are pressed into plaster to cover an entire surface. Sometimes they even used broken china dolls. It was covering the benches, fountains, and statues all over the park.

This guy was even dressed as the famous lizard statue that you can see in the collage above as well as at the top of the post. It is amazing what some people will do for money - it must have taken ages to make that costume!

Probably the main architectural highlight of the city is another Gaudi contribution - La Sagrada Familia, which is a huge cathedral. The design is so strange and progressive that it looks very modern but the construction actually began in 1884. It is not scheduled to be complete until 2026. Millions of people come to see the building every year, and the construction is entirely funded by the ticket sales. Gaudi dedicated the whole last fifteen years of his life to it. He basically lived on site until he was killed by a tram that hit him. It is a sad story.

Gaudi is truly a genius; it was truly the most amazing building we have ever seen. It looks so strange - like nature (trees, leaves, animals, etc) but it also looks like it is melting. There were a ton of really amazing symbolic things on the building. My favorite feature were the doors that were covered with all of the names of Christ.

It is fairly expensive to get in, but we thought that it would definitely be worth it but it was disappointing when we got inside. We didn't realize that it was a complete construction site. We knew it was still under construction, but you could barely see anything inside because it was filled with scaffolding and piles of building materials. The museum in the basement was really neat, but we wish that we had known the inside was going to be so covered up. Overall, we were still really glad that we had gone. It was one of the most impressive buildings we have ever seen. We could have stayed for hours just looking at all the intricate detail.

We went and visited a couple other museums and cathedrals as well. Our favorite museum was the Picasso Museum. He was from Spain, so the people just love him there. It was chronologically organized so it was one of the more interesting museums I had ever been to. It was interesting to see how Picasso's style evolved throughout the years. I have never been a huge fan of him, or really cubism in general, but after visiting the museum I gained a new appreciation for him. We also just really enjoyed walking around the city.

Just a random building - I love the pattern on the wall.

These little cars were so funny. You could rent them for the day. We wanted to do it, but it was too expensive.

These lamb brains were for sale at this amazing food market. They had everything there (obviously). Scooter wanted to get one of these just because it was so weird that you could just buy these. Of course I vetoed that idea - honestly, what would we have done with it?

There was a huge zoo with a park next to it. While walking through the park we realized that the birds from the zoo were just flying around the park. Some of them had little numbered tags around their necks.

This is the Arch of Triumph, just like the one in Paris, but it looks much more Spanish.

The main street in Barcelona is called La Rambla and is lined with shops and markets. All up and down the street there are tons of street performers as well as a lot of people that were living "statues." It was really fun to walk up and down the street, especially because it was so busy because of the holiday weekend. There were also tons of really festive and beautiful Christmas lights. Instead of buildings putting up their own lights, they are mainly hung above the streets by the city.

We were able to go to church in Barcelona which was also nice. One of the missionaries translated for me, which made it even better.

We also discovered something amazing about Spain in Barcelona - the hot chocolate! I have never had anything like it before. It was so thick that when you took your spoon out it would stick to the spoon. The consistency was almost exactly halfway between melted chocolate and regular hot chocolate. They serve it with churros and it is divine!

Here is Scooter on the beach again. It was just so nice to be in the sunshine after all of that dreary English weather! We were so glad we had chosen to go south for our break.

Frankfurt, Germany - December 5

We already posted about this, so to view the original post click here. This time I will be briefer and add the pictures. We flew from London to Frankfurt, Germany to surprise Scooter's brother, Skipper, who we haven't seen for two years because he had been serving a mission for the LDS church in Samara, Russia.

I couldn't get over his name tag. I can't believe those symbols actually mean something. It was also funny to hear he and his companion speak in Russian. They sounded like they were making it up. It is just strange to see someone you know so well with a new skill like a language.

Our flight was delayed so we were afraid that we were going to miss him, but we found him, had lunch together, and then put he and his companion onto their next flight. It was fun to see the brothers reunite and get to hear about Skipper's experiences in Russia.

After Skipper and his companion had flown away we rode the train from the airport to Friedrichsdorf, which is a small town outside of Frankfurt, to attend the LDS temple there.

We spent a little time there and then rushed back to the airport to catch the flight to our first destination - Barcelona!

Posting and Passing

Judging by the number of family members and friends that have requested more photos and info from our Christmas trip I think it is safe to say that the photos that I posted were not enough. So, I will start posting more when I have the chance. Annoyingly, our camera, for some inexplicable reason, downloaded the photos from our trip out of order, so I had to go through and manually put them in the correct order. I have finally finished that project, and am hoping to start posting every couple of days about our trip. I will probably just make one post per city, so as not to bore all of our readers.

It was sad to come back to our adopted English home, but it has been nice to start falling back into a routine. I have gone back to work and Scooter has started hitting the books really hard. For those of you that are wondering if he ever studies - he has put in probably 50 hours this week. We do play and have fun, but when I'm at work he is constantly reading.

School here has been a big adjustment for us. The system is just entirely different. There is no syllabus, no reading assignments, no homework, and no exams until the final - there is not even a specific textbook! When we first got here we had a meeting with the director of Scooter's program. We told him that we were concerned because school was starting the following day and Scooter hadn't purchased a textbook or materials, so he printed off the reading list for us. It had 40 textbooks on it! He told Scooter if he knew all the information in those books that he would ace the one and only exam at the end of the year (which is, by the way, nine hours written and three hours oral over a couple days). Not very reassuring. Scooter is basically allowed to study anything that he thinks will be helpful to him. That means textbooks, scientific journals, or even shadowing physicians at the hospital. For those of you that know anything about Scooter's previous studying methods (making a huge timeline with reading assignments, exams, quizzes, papers, and projects all color-coded so that he wouldn't forget to do anything) you will know that the Oxford method is basically 180 degrees different from the system he is accustomed to. Oxford basically puts the students fully in charge of how much they learn and how well they do. We are both left feeling really unsure of his progress. Everything just feels really, really vague. Before we left on our long trip Scooter turned in a paper that didn't count toward his grade at all, but that the teacher would read and give him some feedback. He met with his teacher yesterday and received his marks and comments on the paper. He got a 70%, which of course sounds terrible, but that actually means that he passed with distinction and got one of the highest grades in his class. His teacher also said, "It's good to know that I don't have to worry about you." Well, maybe his teacher isn't worried, but we are still feeling apprehensive....