So you all might be wondering what on earth I was doing in Denmark for Easter... haha all my teachers had the same question and asked me in a curious tone, "Alicia why don't you want to see the famous processions that go on here in Bollullos?" For those of you who have never heard of or experienced these Easter week processions--they are religious ceremonies/parades that go on all throughout the week and millions of people inside and outside of Spain join together to watch them on the streets in the various cities/towns. Mostly men (few women) carry these huge statues of Saints around on floats or wooden platforms. Usually the Mary and Jesus statues are the most lavishly decorated with gold, flowers, and candles. There are bands as well that play the infamous semana santa type music which is slow and steady for the beat of the floats moving through the streets. Even one little boy in my 5th grade class told me his favorite music was semana santa music haha. This wasn't the response I was expecting from a 5th grade boy, when thinking I was going to hear something like Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana, or Elena Gomez...typically what I hear around here.
Since I had already seen these processions all through Semana Santa when I lived in Sevilla two years ago, I was sure they would be pretty similar in Bollullos. Also, everyone tells me that if you've seen the famous processions in Sevilla, then you've seen the very best : ) That's why I took the best opportunity to travel to Copenhagen, Denmark for Easter week and visit my sister Andrea's host family the Andersens! Andrea went abroad her Junior year in college to Copenhagen. While she stayed in a colegium, she was still able to be matched up with this wonderful and loving family to meet with weekly and talk to on the phone.
Our family was lucky enough to be able to visit Denmark once and meet the Andersens for the first time, tour around the beautiful city, and see what Andrea had experienced those 4 months abroad. The Andersen family was also able to visit us in little old Avon a few times. Through these trips, our families have become very close and immediately felt like we were each other's family. They were so sweet to welcome me into their home over Easter break when I had no family to spend it with. I may have been moving from 70 degree Spain weather down to 40, but I was ready with my hat, gloves, and overcoat! It was worth the travel and time to get there to Denmark for an amazing experience.
They generously took me into their home, took me out for lovely family dinners/lunches, sight-seeing through the city, saw 2 famous castles, went to baby Emma's daycare, went shopping, and many more special things. One thing that was unfortunate was that when I arrived in Denmark and Lene asked me, "Do you have anything special you would like to do Alicia?" I replied by saying that I had really wanted to go visit the famous little mermaid statue again because I knew that was a special site to see. Lene and Peter broke the bad news to me and said that Little Mermaid had been sent off to China for 6 months, which had been decided by the government as a way to share a cultural artifact with another country. When we arrived at the spot where the Little Mermaid should have been, a Chinese couple came up to me and asked where the statue was?? haha I just kind of had to laugh a little bit since they had come all this way from China and then were surprised to know that the statue was actually in their own country!
It was so nice being able to spend time individually with each person as well as all together as a family. Lene, Peter, and I would tour around together in the car seeing all the wonderful and amazing sights through Copenhagen. We also took little Emma with us on the way to see the big mansions and the two castles. Louise and I were able to spend some quality time together in the beginning when we went shopping and found some cute scarfs (felt just like old days when we first met and found that we both had a love for shopping)and topped it off with some frankfurts and crepes for lunch :) Christian and I found our interest together in watching the futbol games on the tele and talking about our plans for the summer.
It felt like I was just right there part of the family and was simply effortless. We reminisced so much about our past times together as well as all the experiences Andrea went through being there. It was interesting to think that my sister had been there in the exact same spot as me 6 years ago, visiting the Little Mermaid statue, having Lene's homemade dinners, visiting the famous Oprah house, attending the colegium there, and eating those same waffle ice creams! I got some insight as to what she had seen in Denmark and been through with the Andersen family, but hopefully one day she'll have the same opportunity to come with me to experience Spain like I have for this year in Bollullos and the 4 months spent in Sevilla. These experiences change our lives dramatically and I definitely want my family to be part of that and see what a fantastic experience I have gone through by being here.
Coming up here for my last 3 weeks in Spain are: La Antilla beach this weekend to see Brittany and Ashley, next Friday last night w/ all 6 chicas together, Sat-Friday seeing the parents in London, so more to come : )
Peace & Love
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