home again

yeah, so, um, back from spain. we were told at one of the briefings in the morning after mass to think of a 'soundbite' of what happened there in spain. you know, because we can't just go around saying 'it was awesome' like we did after sydney. we said awesome so much, it began to lose all meaning. it kinda makes me think of an episode of scrubs i saw, where dr cox makes up the word megaloathe, because everyone said 'hate' so much, the word wasn't strong enough anymore.
anyway, so we had to think of a sort of  short linguistic paragraph (you know, a paragraph you say, not write) to explain how, (awesome) this world youth day was, and the experiences we had.
and every time i try to, i sort of try to say a bunch of things at once, and just stand there, sort of gulping like a fish trying to breathe air. so much happened, and in such a short space of time, i can't find the words to express the experiences i had. well i could, but it would be in so many words it would probably be fiendishly boring to listen to. and i still don't know where to begin. well, i guess i should start at the beginning. i'll put upn at least one photo a day, and tell you what the photo was about, the story behind the photo.

this photo is far from the first photo i took, and even farther from the last. this is of some of the surrounding area of pedro abad, which is where we stayed for days in the diocese. i think it was on the drive to my host familys home, on a big hill just outside town. those trees are olive trees, and, yes, they pretty much go as far as the eye can see, and probably farther. it was a beautiful place. espana es preciosa!

i start with this photo, because, to tell a good story, you have to begin with the background.

same same, but different... muchos different

i can´t get into my facebook, it keeps saying the device is not recognised. the computer is entirely in espanol.


anyway, hola! from espana! i don´t really know what to say, theres a lot of stuff that happened, and we´re going to the piscina (pool) later (luego), so i don´t have much time. so i´ll start at the beginning.


so, we were on a plane for, roughly 21 hours (horas). when we got oput of the areopuerto, the first thing i noticed was that the trees, the flora was totally different. no eucalyptus, or she-oaks. mostly olive trees. in pedro abad, where we are staying, the view from the top of  the hill is just olive trees, as far as you can see.
the view is beautiful, though, the entire country es preciosa (beatiful)
i´ve heard from other people, you don´t feel like you´re in a different country, different part of the world, but i think they´re  wrong. you can tell, it feels different, it looks different, everyone speaks espanol, so it sounds different. i´m starting to think, in my mind, with a spanish accent, with occasional spanish words. occasionally, i´ll say something to my fellow australians, and i´ll be saying the key words in spanish.  its a bit concerning.

we went to corduba today. i took about 300-400 photos, of eberything. i would be tired, but its so exciting well, i am prety tired, cansado, but, who has time to sleep?. this computer doesn´t have the capabilities to put up any oif my photos, so, lo siento, i cannot show you the cathedral, which was once the largest in the world.

sorry i haven´t said much, we are going to the piscina now. i am having a lot of fun, its very interesting, and beautiful.  i am fine, i have had so much food, i may explode. everyone is very friendly. we have done a lot in the past few days, i could never hope to tell you all of it in a simple blog post. i hope one day you can come to espana and see its beauty. i sound like i´m advertising it, but it has no need of advertisement.

oh, and world youth day is much bigger here in europe than in australia. the french are televising the mass tomorrow (el domingo) in, france, i suppose.
ok,  i must vamos. adios! hasta luego! maybe tomorrow (manana) hopefully. maybe i can put some order into this tangled mess of words.

oh, the sun doesn´t go down till about 10pm. it rises around 7am. its amazing.

organic supermarkets: what the hell?

organic supermarkets are weird. i mean, the stuff they sell is pretty good, it tastes nice and everything, lots of choice , even though having 18 different kinds of flour (normal, gluten free, oat, rice, 6 types of wheat, all with different levels of refinedness) seems a bit over the top.
most of it is local, so, you're contributing to the local economy. the weird thing i don't understand is, if its local, that means there aren't as many expenses in getting it from the farm, or whatever, to the supemarket, which means it should be cheaper. and then theres the fact that they seem so fond of saying: "its organic. nothing artificial has been added." which means even less expenses in production by lack of additives, making it cheaper yet again.
so why the hell is everything at least twice as expensive as in a regular supermarket, which gets its produce from at least 2-3 days truckdrive away, and its apparently filled with additives, and covered in insecticides and herbicides?
according to howstuffworks, the whole thing is basically because its in low supply, with a high demand, and that the marketing chains are innefficient. i think the last bit is a polite way of saying the organic supermarkets jack up the prices.

i would just like to add, their sweet potato chips are delicious.

here is a picture of a monkey on a really tall ye-olde style bike. enjoy.

i like the expression on the monkeys face.