Feels like Fast-Forward

Hello all!
I am surprised and somewhat bewildered to alert you that I have a little over 2 weeks left here in the beautiful country of Spain. I feel like since Spring Break, the time here has absolutely flown by with little warning. I am now bogged down with papers, the promise of exams, and presentations. Great fun will be had by all, I can assure you. We've just arrived home from our final excursion, which was to the region of Cantabria.

Cantabria is a varied region with snow-capped crags on one side and idyllic beaches on the other! Not so surprisingly, as I have come to learn, our fearless leader Jesus Angel Jimenez decided we would see the entirety of this landscape variety in a mere 2 days. We started our travels off first at the caves of El Castillo, which house some of the oldest cave paintings in Europe! It was so incredible to walk through caves with roofs made of stalagtites, imagining some of the first men who decided to be creative just painting away with their fingers. These crude drawings have so much more significance in our society today than they could have ever realized! I was in awe at the spiritual and mystical quality of the red clay handprints, and the ocre outlines of bison. Its hard for me to explain this feeling fully, but I can sum it up with: No matter where art is, how it was made, or really...what it looks like, Me encanta (i adore it).

Afterwards, we headed to our hotel, a "parador" (basically, a lodge) right on the side of the mountain! By far, one of the most majestic places we've been lucky enough to stay in. The next morning, after sleeping soundly in our beds, we headed up the mountain in cable-cars...so far up our ears were popping from the altitude and the quick ascent. We had snowball fights, watched hardcore hikers prepare for excursions, and took tons of pictures. It was surreal to see so much snow in April, but a welcome surprise, at that.

We ended up, after a pit stop in a historic town called Santanilla, in Santander. Santander is the capital of Cantabria, and although it is sort of small, is quite lovely. Our hotel was right on the beach! After months of missing physical activity, namely yoga, I decided this would be an excellent oppurtunity to begin to rekindle my practice. Myself and a few friends woke up bright and early at 7:15 to do some sunrise yoga on the beach. The crash of the waves was extremely soothing, and doing "sun salutations" to the sun as it was rising was magical.
I am a bit sore, though. Perhaps a sign that I should keep working at it!
More excitement ensued later, including myself being absolutely drenched to the bone with fickle spanish rain and later tripping and falling in front of handsome spaniards and busting my knee while laughing and saying "todo esta bien!" (everything is alright!) But I'll spare us all the embarassment of recounting the entirety of these stories.

I LOVE you all, and can't wait to see you.
besitos para todos,
Lindsay