Noia for New Years!

So I am off on another adventure to Noia, this time to enjoying a few days over the New Year holidays with American friends and believers. I caught a bus from Lugo to Santiago with no problems, then arrived in Santiago to discover that I had to wait 1½ hours for the next bus to Noia...I purchased my bus ticket and went to a cafeteria/restaurant to enjoy a cup of coffee and write some on my laptop while I waited. I have been keeping this journal of my adventures in a word doc on my laptop to make updating my blog easier later... Anwyay, back to my story...I enjoy the clean bus stations and their amenities here in Spain. I sat down, ordered a coffee (which came in a very tiny cup), and then to my pleasure discovered wireless Internet available in the bus station. WOW!! Not something you'd find in India, so I was pleasantly surprised. I was able to put an hour of waiting to good use. PTL!!!

So finally getting on the bus, I was soon dozing most of the way to Noia...which seems to be a norm for me on that leg of my journey (I slept last time I rode down there)... Finally, arriving in Noia, I walked to the church which is minutes from the bus station. The ladies of the church were meeting this Saturday night for a ladies' banquet, which I was invited to. Martha and girls had not yet arrived, so I joined some of the other ladies in preparing salad. Thankfully my Spanish is improving and I was able to converse just a bit. This was at 7:15pm. Upon the arrival of the Towner clan, I was introduced to their cousin Katherine who is visiting from Paris. From that time on, we American girls helped when needed, but we talked more! It was great to get to simply talk in fluent English for a change, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. By 10pm, we were starving and still waiting on dinner for some reason. Finally, it was time to eat! We sat down to trays piled with large shrimp as the first course. Then came salad, amazingly tender roast beef with potatoes, octopus (suction cups and all), and plenty of bread. It was fabulous. I have discovered that octopus isn't my favorite, or at least not in the way I've had it prepared here, but it is also not horrible. Smile...I can eat it and enjoy myself, but I don't prefer it! The shrimp was delicious, as was the roast beef. Yummy!! Dinner was soon followed by desserts of various kinds. Mostly traditional candies, but also some “brownies” made by Martha (lacking some chocolate and sugar). Grin! After dinner, we had a contest for who had worn the best, most creative scarf. I had my scarf from Italy with me thankfully, so I was able to join in the fun. This voting on the best scarf took forever because they decided to have each woman give a 1-10 vote on each scarf, then added up the tally at the end. Finally, tired and ready to go home, we girls began to clean up as fast as we could. We finally left for home about 1:30am, hurrying to the van to avoid drunk teens just outside the church.
Back at the Towner home, we girls finally made it to sleep by about 3am. Guess we weren't quite so tired, or we were enjoying conversing too much. It was great to share stories, share about where we've been, and just be with American girls. Ruthie Towner doesn't have many friends her age here as the girls seem rather cliquish and won't include her. Katherine is living in Paris for a year, having been there since September, and enjoys having some American fellowship. Me, well, I enjoyed the fellowship greatly after having been with Spaniards non-stop for two weeks. I love being here in Spain, but enjoy a little break every once in a while. So, needless to say, this began the start of a wonderful break in Noia with the Towners.
Sunday was a wonderful day including going to church, having Christian fellowship, walking by the bay in the sun on a long boardwalk, and . By lunch time, we girls were nearly falling asleep at the table, so immediately after lunch we began to look for a place to nap. The adults had plans to watch “The Nativity” there at the church meaning we wouldn't be leaving for home anytime soon. So, we found a mattress in the back room of the church, along with a few pillows & blankets from the van. We all four curled up on this makeshift bed and fell asleep for the whole movie. Woohoo!! After cleaning up the church, we headed home to enjoy our evening. The evening included much conversation, a chat with my family at home on the phone (the Towners have a phone that is for calling to the US like a local call), more conversation, discovery of wireless internet at the Towner home, and finally a movie with the girls before falling to sleep. Once again, it was 2:30am before we slept!

Monday, New Year's Eve, we slept in late to make up for the late night. Once we got around and had some lunch, we headed out in the van for an excursion to a beautiful lookout point overlooking a large portion of the coastal towns on the northwest coast of Spain. What a view! I loved the view, the warm sun, and getting to run around and then down the mountain and enjoy the out-of-doors. We also explored an old Celtic ruin on the beach. After enjoying a beautiful sunset, we soon set out for home...
Bringing in the New Year with 12 grapes each in the last 12 seconds of 2007, we were enjoying one of the Spanish New Year's traditions. Quite interesting really...you pop 12 grapes into your mouth one at a time for the countdown. I ended up stuffing them into my mouth by the end muntil my cheeks resembled a chipmunk and then bit down to get a gush or juice. I was able to tell Irene, Helena, and Celia that I had participated in their tradition of the grapes. This is one thing they had told me about and really wanted me to do with them. They were a bit disappointed that I was going to miss this event, but soon got over it thankfully. Anyway, we also shared our thanksgiving of the past year and our prayers and goals for the new year. It is crazy to think that it is already 2008. I remember thinking that I'd never live to 2010 and now it is only 2 years away. Who knows what the Lord has prepared for us! I'm looking forward to a wonderful year of growing in the Lord, being challenged, joining the US Coast Guard, and hopefully more! PTL!!!
Tuesday, New Year's Day, arrived cold, wet, and stormy, but no less beautiful. We set out early, 1:30pm, to visit a castle about an hour north of us and enjoy the coast on our way. Well, I laugh at what Spaniards (& evidentially Americans who have lived in Spain for so long) call early!! Haha!! Anyway, moving on....we enjoyed a stormy view of the Atlantic Ocean. The northwest coast that we followed to our ultimate destination is known as the “Coast of Death” due to the number of deaths in this area. The waters were rough, the clouds dark and ominous, and the wind heavy. It was gorgeous!! The lighthouse turned its light on for a short time while we were at the beach. We enjoyed eating a picnic lunch in the van; it was too windy and cold outside the van to sit and eat! We enjoyed climbing all over the rocks that jutted out into the ocean. I enjoyed trying to get good pictures of the seagulls in flight. I wanted one of them all taking flight while I ran into their midst, but they seemed to noticed my red jacket rather quickly, so I had to satisfy myself with good zoom, and hiding behind rocks! Smile... I had fun taking lots of pictures of the stormy waters, the big waves, the seagulls, myself, and my friends. I'm learning more and more about my camera and have discovered numerous different settings for B&W, Sequia, blue tints, green highlights, red tints, etc...it's a lot of fun!

We got to the castle around 4:30pm only to find that it was closed. The internet had said it was open on holidays, but evidentially it was wrong!! Oh well...Since viewing the castle was no longer an option, we decided to explore new places that not even the Towners had visited before...off we drove on yet another adventure with our map! We found lovely places, saw great views, found a monastery with beautiful walkways and a park-like area, went through cute and artistic little towns and villages, and just had a great time! Finally, we began to navigate our way toward the dairy where Martha was to pick up some fresh cows milk. With me as navigator and Martha as driver, we made our way quite well through the country-side to a town called A Picota, where we got milk. I enjoyed taking pictures of the cows for Dad! Smile... Finally we headed home..me quite tired from a day of romping around on the beaches, rocks, and running to and fro everywhere we went. On the way home, we three oldest girls made plans to celebrate the new year by jumping into the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean. So, reaching home, we quickly unloaded the van and changed into swimwear for our little adventure. Crazy??

January 1, 2008, Ruthie Towner, Jonna Clouse, & Katherine Richtie, with towels in tow, ran thru the freezing cold rain to the nearest beach (about 5 minutes), divested ourselves of our outer clothing (we still had swimsuits on), hurriedly took pictures (we're freezing in the cold rain and wind at this point), then ran screaming into the frigid waters off the Coast of Death on the northwest coast of Spain!! We were in less than a minute before we were running back out! The rain began to pelt us harder!! We “dried” off, struggled back into our clothes (now mostly soggy & sandy), and began to run home. At this point in the adventure, I was feeling quite warm strangely enough. About halfway home Martha met us in the van having taken pity on us...Smile... Once back home, we all climbed into the shower, swimsuits and all, to rinse off and warm up... I haven't taken a shower with someone in YEARS!! Grin...Cleaned up, hot, and hungry, we raided the kitchen. The rest of the evening was filled with conversation, looking at our pictures from the day, and more... I got to talk with my cousin on the phone for a bit! What a blessing since I had missed him when I'd called home early that weekend. Finally, Katherine, Ruthie, and myself sat down to enjoy “Pride & Prejudice” along with hot tea, fresh bread, and oranges! What a wonderful end to a fabulous break! Praise the Lord!!!

Wednesday saw me getting ready to head back to Lugo. Martha gave me a ride to Santiago so I could catch the 12:45pm bus, but because of a late departure and too much traffic, I still missed the bus. No problem, I went grocery shopping with Martha while waiting for the next bus. Back at the bus station preparing to purchase a bus ticket for 4pm, I discovered an earlier bus. PTL that I was at the station too early! I slept most of the way to Lugo and arrived back in Lugo safely! Walking to the house, about 20 minutes from the bus station with my suitcase and backpack was no problem. Arriving home, the family was happy to see me. I prayed the girls would not be mad at me for staying away one extra day (Irene had given me permission so I could go see the castle). I was greatly pleased that they welcomed me back with open arms and in good moods...they were headed to get their haircut.