Bloom where you are planted. M&M: Our new adventure: Day 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76: Our Last Full Day in Moscow & My First Encounter With Spain

Day 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76: Our Last Full Day in Moscow & My First Encounter With Spain

Word of the Day(s): танцевать [tantsevat']: Dance

Day 71 was the 22nd of June. A Saturday! We got up and left to check out another market that we hadn't been to yet. The market was HUGE, but all the shops had the same merchandise. It was quite the disappointment. We did see some cool cars parked outside the market though. Max asked me to take a picture of him in front of his dream car...

The van was tiny! He loved it. This next one was my personal favorite...

Who thinks..."hmm, I love space and the solar system. Let's get a paint job of that on my car!" This guy I guess. I swear, people here in Russia always put funky things on their cars. It is a way in which they can express themselves I suppose. I like to call them car tattoo's because you never know what to expect. For instance, one person had a group of unicorns by the passenger side door, flames on one side and ice on the other, and a yin yang symbol on the hood. Max saw it, I only heard about it, but I can only imagine the beauty of it.

We also saw a Automobile Museum! We didn't go in because it cost money to walk around and look at all the cars. They were placed around the building and it was obvious that they had been there for a while. Some had cracked windshields, others were held up by bricks. I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually a junk yard and they just called it an automobile museum to make a little extra money.

After walking around a bit, we took the metro to Gorky Park. This park has everything a person could want: rollerblading, biking, balloons, juggling, huge bean bags to sit on, football, paddle-boating, sand volleyball, dancing, singing...and the list goes on. We walked around, people watched a little bit, and then walked by the Moscow river.

There was dancing by the river. Max and I were mesmerized by how good they were. There were also these interesting bungee stilt shoes that these two guys were running and dancing around with. They were having the time of their lives and were quite the characters. Take a look...

There was also this one guy that kept us amused for a little bit. He was on some type of drugs or had a little too much alcohol because from the time we got to the dance floor until the time we left he was spinning over and over and over and over again. He wouldn't stop even for a minute. I hope he eventually mastered that spin move, but I am somewhat doubtful due to the lack of progress we saw during the time we were there. Check it out...

I also encountered some fellow blader people:

Max and I had seen the people dancing before on our boat tour and wanted to go back to dance, so today was our chance. We were very intimidated by their dancing skills. A song would start and they would whip into some amazing dance routine and look flawless while doing it. So, after some time, Max and I mustered up the courage to try our hand at dancing like them. We found an empty spot on the dance floor and just did our thang (which I am not quite sure I could describe). I really worked hard on Max dipping me because I was not very smooth at first. Max told me my face looked tense and in pain when I would go down. I had to learn how to be more graceful. As we practiced more, I got better (My neck was sore from all the dipping the next day. At first I thought I had a kinked neck, but I was wrong. The muscles were definitely sore). We would also watch other people do cool things and then try to mimic them. I am sure we thought we looked better than we actually were because by the end we thought we were dancing with the stars worthy. It is kind of like when you are singing in the car to lets say...Mariah Carey and think that you sound JUST like her, but when the music cuts out you find out that you can't even carry a tune. ~~I know this from personal experience.~~ After we got our groove on for a hour or so, we took a picture as proud accomplished Russian dancers. Here you go...

After we left the dance floor, we decided to go get something to eat. There were multiple restaurants to choose from in the park (like I said, this park has everything there is to offer), but they were all pretty pricey. As we walked closer and closer to the exit of the park, we decided that maybe we should find something outside of the park because it would be cheaper. However, on our way out, a burger place caught our attention and drew us in with its delicious smells. We read the menu and decided that it wasn't too expensive and it looked quite tasty. All of the burgers were given names to them after famous monuments, places, or people. One of the burgers was an Obama burger. It gave me a good laugh. I am surprised by how much these Russians like Obama. There are bobble heads of him, Russian nesting dolls with his face on them, and heck, even burgers named after him. I think that they might be trying to appeal to American tourists. Who knows? haha anyway, we each grabbed a burger (not an Obama burger though), some fries, and a strawberry lemonade drink with ginger in it. When we began to eat, we realized that the hamburger meat was also mixed in with spinach and some other spices. Oh, it was a great burger. I loved every bite of it. Thinking about it now makes me hungry and my mouth water. The strawberry lemonade with ginger was actually also surprisingly delicious. It was a successful spontaneous choice because it could have gone either way with the odd combination. After our stomachs were completely satisfied, we sat and watched this guy roller-blade on his homemade skates. They were blocks of wood with two wheels attached to the bottom of them with no straps to provide support around the foot. It was pretty neat. He would set the two skates next to each other, run a little to gain momentum and then step on them to begin skating. He had to kind of swivel back and forth to keep the momentum up. Once he got comfortable, he tried to skate on just one. He wasn't super successful from what we saw, but a lot of people in the park were intrigued by his homemade skates. While Max watched this blader boy try and skate on one of his blades, I set off on a mission to get some cotton candy. Everyone was walking around with these fluffy pink clouds of deliciousness and I could resist no longer. I walked up to one of the stands, gave the man some money, and he made me this giant cloud of pink. I began to walk back all happy and what-not, until I realized the side I hadn't been eating from began melting. I have never seen cotton candy melt like this one did. By the time I sat down it had gotten on my pants, my jacket, my shoes, and probably other places that I didn't notice. It was pretty disappointing and a huge mess. We ended up throwing the last bit away.

Before I knew it melted.

After: Me salvaging what was left of my cotton candy.

After I finished with my cotton candy, we called it a night and headed home. I would definitely say today was a great and successful day of fun and spontaneity.

Day 72 was the 23rd of June. A Sunday! We got up, did our usual routine of getting ready for church, and headed out the door. We went to the English speaking ward for church today since I don't exactly understand Russian yet. When we got there, Max noticed a couple that looked familiar. After the sacrament meeting, we went up to the familiar faces and introduced ourselves. Max realized that this couple was Brother and Sister Malm and that Brother Malm was Juan's, Max's brother, mission president. He was in charge of the missionaries in Norway where Juan served his mission. Small world! We talked and got all caught up. As we moved on to Sunday School, we met a new American couple: Tim and Dani! Tim complimented Max's tie and we instantly all became friends. I wish we could have found them sooner! After relief society, I was able to become more acquainted with Dani as well as Sister Malm. We talked about living abroad or away from home and how we have to rely on our Heavenly Father to give us comfort and direct us to where we need to be. He has a plan for us, all we need to do is follow His Will for us and bloom where we are planted. It may not always be easy, but we grow from our experiences and become a better person every day. Since we ended up talking for a long time, the men became impatient and came up to break up our conversations; they wanted to go home. So, we went outside of the church building, took a picture with the Malm's to share with Juan and Kristine, and then exchanged contact information with Tim and Dani. The Malm's wished us well and went on their way while Tim and Dani walked back with us to the metro station.

Us with the Malm's

They rode with us to our stop and then had to switch tracks. We said our goodbyes and attempted to set up a time for them to come over for dinner or hang out that day. We continued to text and try to figure something out. What it came down to was which place we would go to for dinner. Max and I sent them these pictures to try and convince them that our place was better:

We set this book next to the TV to let them know that our TV was definitely bigger than theirs. (Even though we deceived them because the book we chose was mini sized haha) In the end, their TV was definitely bigger and we confessed to our joke.

I think the real selling point though was this miniature giraffe print couch. This is when they truly committed to being our friends and said yes to coming over.

We didn't end up getting together Sunday at all because they were pretty tired and so were we, but we planned for a future date to hang out and become better friends. This weekend turned out to be pretty great. I will leave you this Sunday with a little Sunday quote:

Day 73 was the 24th of June. A Monday! The day my beautiful sister Lauren entered the wonderful state of Texas to go to EFY (especially for youth) with Elise, my other beautiful sister (in-law, but mostly just sister)! It is a program for youth in our church where they can meet a bunch of people, go to different inspirational/spiritual classes, and have a load of fun. She was glowing and so excited to go! I just wish I was back in the states to see her!

While my sister was having fun in Texas, I was stuck with my boring old routine of homework, homework, a break, and then of course, some more homework. After Max got home from work and playing soccer, Tim and Dani came over to our place to hang out and eat some pizza. We ordered a few different types of pizza and waited for it to come. As we waited we had great conversation with Tim and Dani and we realized that Dani and I were very similar. We both like super hot/spicy foods (I showed her my spices that Max's coworker brought me from the states and I gave her some), we both are into shopping....the list could go on. They also said yes to letting us keep our luggage at their place while we left for Spain and Paris, which was a great help and blessing for us.When the pizza came, both Dani and I doused our pieces with red crushed pepper and we all dug in. It was very good pizza for Moscow. We then continued to talk until about 12:00 pm and decided to call it a night. They are an awesome couple and we are very glad to have met them even though we are leaving in a few short days.

Day 74, the 25th of June! Max had his NOV Ukraine presentation again today to give to a bunch of people here in Moscow. He looked great when he left and did a great job presenting. I am so proud of this man! He is so handsome and smart and fun and I will stop gushing so you don't have to keep reading about how much I love him.

While he was gone and doing his thang, I watched it hail outside. The weather here can be so weird! But it was a great excuse to procrastinate my never-ending homework load.

Today was the day of a successful presentation and a successful procrastination.

Day 75, the 26th of June! Today I packed and got us ready to go to Spain and Paris because today is our LAST FULL DAY HERE IN MOSCOW. Kind of sad and bittersweet. Dani came over and helped me pack up our stuff because I need moral support while I pack I guess. It was good talking to her though and I hope that our paths cross again one day and we can continue our friendship where we left off. For our lunch break, we headed down to the restaurant right by our place and met up with her husband, Tim. We ate lunch with some other Russians who are trying to learn English. After lunch, I went back up to the apartment to finish packing. Later that night, Max and I took all of our luggage (about 4 huge bags) onto the metro to Tim and Dani's place. By the time we got there, we were both wiped out and very tired. We ate some dinner with them and then headed back home to go to bed early since our taxi driver was going to pick us up around 3 in the morning. When we got home, Max ran some of his old shoes down to a place where "our homeless people" lived (in the tunnel by our apartment that we would always use). He even shined his dress shoes, the shoes he wore to our wedding, before he left to give them to the homeless guys. He also gave them some old indoor soccer Adidas shoes (Russians LOVE Adidas). They were thrilled and played him a thank you song on their harmonica (I don't know that for sure, but that's what I image they did).

R.I.P to the shoes he wore to our wedding.

After all was said and done, we went to bed at 1:30, close to 2:00 (I was finishing up some last minute homework), and got about an hour and a half of sleep. I wasn't worried though because I was headed to the beautiful Spain and after that, Paris. Man, we are lucky to be traveling so much in just our first year of marriage. Life is pretty exciting I would have to say.

Day 76, the 27th of June! We are on our way to Spain! Our taxi driver picked us up at 3:00 a.m. and took us to the airport. The air was cold and crisp when we got outside and it definitely felt like it was too early to be up, but we couldn't contain our excitement.

Thankfully not many people were on the road, so we got to the airport in good time. When we got there, the airport was super crowded! We had to wait outside of one of the rotating doors because they weren't letting anyone in to lessen the traffic. Once they opened the doors, people piled in and forced their way through. When we got inside, we had to put our bags through the entrance security. They do a security check before you even enter the airport because of a suicide bombing that occurred just a few years ago. We got through security without any troubles and headed towards the area to check in our bags for the flight. We successfully got our bags checked, so we headed to security and passport control. After finishing our second round of security checks, we found our gate and waited. I was amazed by how many people were at the airport at 4 in the morning. There weren't any open chairs to sit on and there were people everywhere.

Luckily I was able to see one too many mullets before leaving on our plane to Spain.

We waited for a long time for our plane to be prepared for boarding and our flight ended up being delayed for almost an hour. I guess having that many people in the airport that early turned out to be a blessing in disguise: I was never bored because of all the people watching I was able to do. This is what I saw: mullets, people that were beach ready in their swim trunks and everything (but knowing that their beach trunks were actually their normal, everyday attire), Adidas track suits...the list could go on. Max and I also witnessed a lady passing out at the check-in desk for who know's what reason and a paramedic type doctor rushing to her side. The doctor, or whoever she was, immediately gave the lady some type of shot. Max then proceeded to tell me that people here are super paranoid and think that a shot will fix everything. Apparently they give shots for everything and it is a cure-all. When she was able to stand up, her friend gave her some water and took her onto the bus so that she wouldn't miss her plane. Crazy Russians. After all the people watching and excitement, we finally began to get ready to go onto the bus to take us to the plane. Max and I were first in line, and everyone kept coming up to the front asking if this was the right flight even though it was stated in bright neon green letters on a big screen above them (they just wanted to cut in line to be the first one's on the bus). It was ridiculous, they would try to make friends with people in the front of the line so that they could cut. I just laughed and pointed to the screen when they would ask me if it was the right flight. Nice try haha Also, as we waited for them to finish getting the bus ready, a bunch of nasty bugs came into the airport and were crawling all over the floor. They looked like little cockroaches. They were so gross. After a bunch of the bugs stormed in, one of the airline workers would come and squish them all. Oh, what an experience we had at 4 in the morning. When we finally were allowed to board the bus, we all were smashed in and taken to our plane. We then boarded the plane and sat down. I was by the window and Max got the dreaded middle seat. Hoping that no one would sit next to him I guess made it more likely that someone would sit next to him and someone did. That someone was from Spain and would accompany us on the flight as well as the connecting flight from Barcelona to Seville. What. A. Joy. (you will understand my sarcasm in just one minute). It was the kind of experience you would see exaggerated in a commercial for airliners persuading individuals to switch their choice of airline. First of all, this older man from Spain was hitting on some Russian lady before we boarded the plane in a creepy, stalker-ish kind of way. He wouldn't leave the poor lady alone. Second, his breath. Need I say more? As he talked to Max in Spanish (these are the times I like to pretend like I don't know or understand any language besides English) his breath filled the air and I am pretty sure Max was crying inside while holding his breath, waiting for fresh air to surface. I just looked out the window and every once and a while tried to talk to Max to get him out of having to talk to this man. (This sounds bad, I know, but it was really bad). Then, as we began to take off, this man's ear popped. It popped so loudly that Max could even hear it. The man began to freak out because I guess it really hurt him. So, naturally he began to dig in his ear and A BUNCH of crusties (I will spare you the details of these crusties) began falling out. He then proceeded to ask Max to look in his ear to see if he saw anything. After some time of this man digging in his ear, he continued to talk to Max about Spain and soccer and who know's what. Poor Max just wanted to rest only having two hours of sleep the previous night. As the conversation died out, Max laid his head back to rest a little bit, but before he could get anywhere or even begin to think about dreaming the man pulled out his collection of stamps and tried to get Max's attention by poking him with the corner of the book (which was pretty sharp- it was one of those plastic very jagged corners. Not a smoothed out fancy scrap-booking type corner). Max said "ouch" looked at me with a "help me!" kind of face and turned to the man to see what was up. He showed him his stamp collection and I pulled Max away as much as I possibly could. I also couldn't help but laugh because of the situation. Like I said, I felt like we were in one of those airliner commercials with the crying baby in the background. The flight felt long and Max did not get any peace the whole plane ride. After the plane landed in Barcelona, we got off and rushed to our connecting flight. When we got there, we snapped a quick picture and then boarded the plane.

Barcelona, Spain
And yes, I did a load of laundry before we left and Max's shirt didn't dry, so he had to carry it around his shoulders so it would eventually dry.

Boarding the plane to Sevilla, Spain.
Yes, that is a man, and yes he is wearing a burgundy velvet scrunchy.

This flight was definitely better even though the man was on it with us (he wasn't sitting right next to us). When we arrived in Seville we went to go get our luggage that we had checked. When we got to the baggage claim, there was no sign of our bags. So, we went to the baggage claim desk and that is where they told us the luggage had been lost in the transfer. Not only were our bags lost, but the man that had the crusty ear also had lost his bags. What are the chances, seriously. Just us and him had lost our bags. Anyway, we gave them our number and address to the apartment that we would be staying at so they could drop the bags off in the morning (the soonest they could get them to us). We walked out of the airport and saw Ignacio (Alfonso or Papi's brother) who was there to pick us up. We hugged and said our hello's and then headed back to his place. As we drove there I looked out the window and saw Spain for the first time. Max pointed out places where he remembered them living, where his dad grew up, and where his mom had lived while in Spain. It was really cool to see the different places and experience a little bit of their culture.

Ignacio

When we arrived at the apartment Ignacio parked his car in a tiny space (all the cars are tiny in Europe and all of the spaces are tiny as well). I was very impressed with his parking skills. We rode the elevator up to his apartment and were greeted by the beautiful Emma and Felipe, Ignacio's kids, as well as Abuela (grandmother in Spanish). They don't know a lot of English, but I was able to understand them for the most part and communicate a little bit. We were hungry and tired from all of the traveling, so Ignacio gave us some fruit to hold us over until he finished making the big lunch. In Spain, they have a smaller breakfast and dinner, but a large lunch around 3:00 pm. After lunch everyone also has a siesta which is a nap that lasts however long you want it to last. It is amazing.

Emma throwing away some garbage with a leg of Jamón sticking out

Dinner was great! Ignacio is an amazing cook! I miss eating his delicious meals! We had some gazpacho, papa's fritas (fries), melon, and a meet dish (turkey wrapped around pork) that was so flavorful and mouthwatering. Spanish food is definitely worth traveling to Spain for.

After lunch, Max and I went to the guest room and took a few-hour-long siesta. We were pretty tired.

Outside our window, spying on some lady hanging up her laundry.

Looking down outside the window. It is just an area for people to hang up and dry their clothing.

Taking my siesta

After we woke up we went with Emma to meet up with Marisa, her husband Luis, and their dog Puppet to have tapas (smaller Spanish dishes).This was my first time meeting more of the family, so I was excited but nervous (especially because my Spanish is very basic). Thankfully Marisa and Luis speak English pretty well. When we first saw them, we hugged and introduced ourselves. At this time a huge drooling bulldog walked by and I felt something wet drip all down my leg. I thought that the dog had drooled all over me, but I tried to keep my cool so that I could make a good first impression. I looked down to check it out and wipe off my leg, but noticed that my sock was wet and it looked yellowish. Then, it all clicked: that dog did not drool on me, Puppet (Marisa and Luis') dog had peed on me. I am pretty sure my face went red, especially when I had to tell them that I got peed on. Marisa, very kindly took me up to her flat and gave me some wipes to clean up a bit. While I cleaned off my leg, they walked to the tapas bar to find a seat for all of us. Marisa and I met up with them and choose what to eat. We ate gazpacho, fried fish, fanta limon, and some other tapas dishes.

After we had some food, we walked to a place that Marisa knew well to get some dessert. The place was called Rayas and it was special because it is a seasonal dessert restaurant that makes all of their ice cream, sorbet, gelato...etc from scratch. Oh man was it good.

You can see that Emma is eating some ice-cream!

After filling our bellies with tapas and sweets, we walked around a little bit. I really like Europe for this very reason. You eat good food, but then you walk it off and there is so much to see as you walk. Also, everyone is out enjoying the break from the hot weather during the day and feeling the cool breeze of the night. The night life is amazing here: friends and family come together to fill the air with laughter and words everywhere they go. People stay out until about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, enjoying their social lives and food. I was just amazed by how happy people were and how much activity there was into the late hours of the night.
My first night being in Seville, I was able to see one monument that was recently finished in 2011 called the Metropol Parasol. It is the largest wooden structure in the world and it gives a modern twist to the area. Not a lot of people like it because it is unnecessary and a waste of money (especially considering the economical state of Spain at the moment). When building the monument, they found some Roman ruins. They find ruins everywhere they build because the Romans used to be very prominent in the area. They even had to stop their progress in the metro system because of the ruins they have been running into. It is really difficult to build in Spain for that reason. Anyway, under the Metropol Parasol was a museum displaying the ruins that they had found. You had to pay to get in of course, but there were glass windows that gave a little sneak peak. Take a look...