Sparrow's Flight: New Easter Traditions?

Monday, April 3rd, 2023

Monday was wonderful. I spent the morning to myself, working out, writing, dancing, the whole shebang. Meanwhile, my roommates went to the Bodega, and they bought a kiddie pool for our roof. When they got home, we set it up, and just sat in the sun with our feet in the pool. As we sat there, I realized how mush I am going to miss my roommates. Everything is starting to become very nostalgic and precious to me now that departure is so soon!

A little later that evening, we went out on the town. We walked and walked and went into dozens of stores. It made me very happy. I have missed thrifting, and going into all the little stores cured me of that a bit. We were out for hours. We didn't buy anything until we got to the China town store. We splurged there, but for good reason. After finding our treasures there, we walked to the Bodega on the opposite side of town, and bought some Oreos and coconut oil. Back at home, I made some no bake cookies for a house party we had the next day, then we put on "The Parent Trap" and had a girls night in. We painted nails, did hair wraps, and tried Oreos with peanut butter. GO AND TRY IT. I normally don't like Oreos, but putting peanut butter on top is a GAME CHANGER. I am seriously super upset that it took me so long to try it.

Tuesday, April 4th, 2023

On Tuesday, we went to Patti's house! Patti is Sergio's daughter, and one of our favorite people. We had an amazing time. When we first got there, we swam with Patti's kids in their little pool. Ramses and Grecia had a fun time splashing us. Patti served us a beautiful array of snacks. I forgot what they are called, but she made these little fried chip things, and paired the, with hot sauce. They were fantastic. I need to ask her what they are called, I want to make them for my family when I get home! She also served us cucumbers with homemade chili powder and drizzled with lime. We all have a new addiction to drizzling lime on EVERYTHING. Something I didn't anticipate when coming here was that there are no lemons anywhere. Everything is lime. I just wasn't expecting it, and I was partial to the taste of lemon over lime when I lived back in the states, but I have really learned to love limes, and I may like them more than lemons now! Anyways, the others kept playing with the kids, but I went in and talked with Patti in the kitchen. We had a good long chat. It was fun to hear her family stories, and to learn about what her parents and siblings were like when she was younger. She promised that she would teach me how to make "Patti Soup", then she went off to the store while we played with the kids some more. Once she got home, she taught me to make the soup, but she gave all the instructions in Spanish! it definitely tested me, but Ramses kept going back for more and more soup, so I must've made it right. We ate potato tacos, Patti soup, and drank limeade.A common thing that they do here in San Jose is that they put chia seeds in their drinks. I LOVE using chia, but I have never put it in lemonade or fruit water before. I think adding it to my drinks will be a little habit that I bring home with me, because I really love it. Patti is seriously so fun. She had us laughing our heads off during dinner with her wild stories. We learned a LOT about Sergio and Lulu. It just reminded me how we see so little of a person. Our paths may cross for a short time, and you become apart of each others stories, but there are chapters upon chapters that they''ve lived and that you will never see. It can be so easy to become tunnel visioned and just see a person as the parts of the story that you've seen, so getting a bigger picture was really nice We helped to clean up dinner, then we headed home.

(She got FRIED)

Back at home, I showed the girls one of my favorite movies, 'The School for Good and Evil", and they all really liked it. Everyone else went to bed after the show, but I stayed up pretty late talking to friends and family on the phone.

Wednesday, April 5th, 2023

Wednesday was a calm, and relaxed day for me. The others went out shopping, but I stayed home and worked on my book, danced, worked out, wrote some songs, etc. That evening, I made a comforting, homey meal of mashed potatoes, salad and garlic bread. It was just what I needed. I fell asleep around 10, then woke up two hours later, and I could not, for the life of me, fall back to sleep. I even tried taking my bedding to the roof to sleep to see if cool air would help. I tried hard to fall asleep for several hours, but I eventually gave up, and instead sat in my bed and worked on a few of my poems. I am now well over 90 written and published (online) poems! My goal was 100 by the time I left, and I will definitely meet that goal!

Thursday, April 6th, 2023

Our electricity was out on Thursday, and we all slept in. I spent the early afternoon journalling and doing some vocal work, then we all headed off. We went and spent another day walking through San Jose and going into whatever stores we pleased. I have loved spending this time in San Jose. I feel like we have spent the week just getting to know our little city, and I have fallen in love with it all over again. We had a great time. The town was decorated for passover. The cathedral had a big table in front of it, and there was a huge blown up photo of Jesus talking to the apostles that was for sure stolen from an LDS video. There were lots of people in town, and we ran into Erika from school, Luz, our old lunch lady, and right into a parade. I will forever remember the smell of incense used in that parade and the parades that followed through the rest of the week. It will always remind me of Mexico. After the parade, I went home. I was pretty shopped out. The other girls stayed out. I did some yoga out in the moonlight, and talked to some friends and family for awhile. When the girls got home, they showed me all the things they bought, and re hashed where they went to eat. Mica came home from his week with his family, and Kayla packed for a weekend with her dad. I spent the rest of my night painting. My emotions were really wacky all day, so I had a good cry about nothing and everything, and painted it away. I blame the emotions on the full moon ;)

Friday, April 7th, 2023

On Friday, Kayla's dad picked her up for the weekend, and we said goodbye! I had woken up with a stress headache, so I wasn't in the best spirits. I managed to get a simple workout in, and I made my favorite protein pancake recipe. After that, Allie kindly gave me a massage, and it helped immensely. Seriously, I need a guasha. I then read more of my book on the Goddess, Brigid, and it gave me some inspiration for my book, and prompted a long writing session. I managed to get quite a bit written, and I had just finished a chapter when my roommates came in and invited me out to dinner. We went to Los Primos, and as we were waiting for our food, another parade passed just outside, I of course went out to watch, and the crowd almost whisked me away! Luckily, I found a car and planted myself behind it. The parade was really cool. It was unlike all the others we had seen in San Jose thus far. They had statues that they were holding up in this one, it was at night, they all had candles, and they were all singing. It was really beautiful and almost otherworldly in a lot of ways. My Los Primos tacos were amazing. I will miss their veggie tacos. Nothing in the US competes. Back at home, Alli and I decided we would finish Stranger Things while we are here. I've seen it before, bit she never had. We started watching way back in February, and got more than halfway through season one, but we then got busy, and had other things we were working on. We managed to watch the rest of season one AND start season two that night. I LOVE watching movies and shows with Alli. She has the best reactions, always has snacks, and gives the greatest commentary. We got to bed REALLY late, but it was so worth it.

Saturday, April 8th, 2023

On Saturday, Allie and I decided to have a Stranger Things marathon all day. We set it up on the downstairs tv, and we set up camp. I have a hard time just sitting and watching a movie, so I brought down all my craft stuff. As we watched, I got 2 sketches done, a painting, some embroidery and then made zucchini muffins for Sergio and worked on dinner. Since coming to SJI, I have craved beet falafel. It is one of my favorite dishes, and we finally had the stuff to make it. I made falafel, a fruit salad, freshened up the salad from a few nights previous, and made some naan and a make shift Greek cucumber sauce. We finished season two, and stopped there for the day. I spent the rest of my evening talking to Quessa and working on my resume, job applications and all the gross adult things that I have to think of now that coming home is just on the horizon. I balanced out all this planning by working on my book for a few hours before bed. It is interesting...I never understood when authors would say "the book wrote itself", but I am starting to understand that. I will go into a chapter with only a vague idea of what is going to happen, and before I know it, there are words on a page and a colorful scene in front of me. It has made me appreciate my brain so much! I also had no plans whatsoever of having 'parts' within my book, but as I finished chapter 11, I just felt that it was the end of a 'part' and the start of a new one, and now my book is going to have three sections or 'parts' in it to help show my heroines growth better. So, part one of my book is finished! Part 2 is started, and I am excited to see how this story gets to the end that I have in mind.

Sunday, April 9th, 2023

This Easter was, by far, the weirdest that I have ever celebrated. We slept in and enjoyed our last morning of no school. I spent my afternoon reading and writing, then we got ready for the day, and we went to our student, Ulisess birthday party. It was plant vs zombie themed, and it was really fun! The food was delicious, and spicy! We sat right under a tree that had purple flowers blooming on it, and each time a breeze rustled it, dozens of flowers fell onto us. There was this cute little bee that hung out with me for awhile...He really liked my water bottle, but I had to banish him when he flew directly into my eye. We brought him to a new area of the yard where we were both safe. I wasn't as careful as I usually am, given it was a children's party, and I got a drink that looked like a yummy orange voice thing...I took a swig, and something tasted off...It was alcohol, lol. Don't worry, mom, I only took one drink. The hosts of the party showed us a room in their house that was built in the 1700's. It was really amazing to look at. He also had all these old rocks and sculptures from hundreds of years ago, and he let us hold them. When I got home from the party, I got two really nice surprises! My nieces Marco Poloed me, and Lulu had made Chile Rellenos! Chile Rellenos are my favorite Mexican food, yet every time I have gone somewhere to get some, they've been out. I almost cried when I tasted it. It was so, SO good. I then recorded a little Easter song for my mom, and just spent some time to myself.

(My little friend)

(It's a snake!)

(the offending drink)

(party favors)

That night, the girls and I went out to try to find the Easter Festivities. The main square was strangely empty, and so we got ice cream and went off to hunt for the crowds. We eventually found them down by the bus station, and we were not prepared. There was a band, paper mâché people with devil horns, and one hoisted up above the crowd like a pinata. Apparently, the tradition is, that you make paper mâché devils of people who have greatly sinned, then you burn them to represent the burning away of their sins, and Easter becomes a new day for them to be a new person. Of course, there is an added flair. There are fireworks built into these things. Before the burnings started, I was having a normal, fun time. I was dancing with Alli, and listening to the band. It was great. As we peered at the 'devil' hoisted above us, we realized that he had a soccer jersey on, and some other, um, interesting elements to him. His soccer jersey was a French one, and it dawned on us that this was none other than Gerard Pique...the scoundrel who cheated on Mexico's beloved Shakira. I don't know if I have words to describe the feelings that coursed through me as they set this thing on fire and it started spinning and exploding. Part of me felt like I was at a Salem witch trial as it burned and they read off his sins, and I worried that I was next. Another part of me thought I was way too close to the fireworks, and as they came arching toward my face i definitely thought I was about to be a burn victim. Another part thought it was hysterically odd, and if you can't punish someone, public humiliation is the next best thing. My reigning thought was "I wonder if this man knows that in a small town in Mexico, they are practically burning him at the stake?". Don't mess with Shakira, that's all I've got. We stayed for a few more burnings (I can't believe that I even wrote that sentence, lol). It would have been %10000 more creepy if the band wasn't playing cheery music during it, and it would've been weirder had we been any closer the stage where they had people hoisting around the paper mâché things and making them appear to dance as the other burned. Like I said, very different than chocolate bunnies, Easter rolls, and potlucks, but it was an experience I will never forget. Yep. That pretty much sums up my Easter.