Wednesday Night

Today I had a little evening adventure. I needed to buy notebooks to take notes at school, so that was my primary goal after siesta. I decided I also wanted to go to mass, so I used misas.org (great website for locating Catholic churches and mass schedules in Spain) to find out that the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Perpetual Help—about a 15 minute walk from my house—would be having mass at 8pm. Perfect. So at about 7:20, I set out with the intention of finding a papelería (literally, “paper store”) and this church. I stepped inside a thrift store along the way just to see what a Spanish thrift store is like. It was pretty much exactly like American ones… I saw a couple things I sort of liked but there wasn’t really time to try on so I noted the place in my mind and continued on my way.

I found a papelería directly in my path to the church. That happens also to be my path to school every morning, but this particular papelería had never been open when I went by before. Hours of operation are a little scattered here. Anyway, they had exactly what I wanted, even if a bit pricey, but I’m hoping these will last all semester. In reality, about $8.00 for a semester’s worth of note-taking paper…not all that bad.

I found the church without a problem. This church was way more awesome than the churches I’ve been to on Sundays, which were just small parishes. This one was huge, traditional, and beautiful, very cathedral-esque, except it’s not the cathedral here. I have yet to visit that; it’s on my list. Anyway, it reminded me of the Roman churches, and I couldn’t help but be an American and smile at the whole place.

I think there were about 20 people at mass. So much space, so few people. How ridiculous. I think statistically, Spain is like 90% Catholic (nominally) but in practice, it’s more like 10% maybe less. But I am definitely going to make mass a Wednesday night tradition again, and perhaps more times a week. I feel that I should take advantage of the total awe-inspiring-ness of the worship spaces here as often as possible, you know?

So, mass was great, and then I wandered home. I stopped in this store that was something like a dollar store because of the range and randomness of the items inside, but the stuff wasn’t actually that cheap in price or quality. It was not something I’m used to. However, I found some empty envelopes and blank/colored paper…maybe I can get a head start on this summer’s card party (@Mary) and continue a little hobby from home :)

Well, I guess it’s dinner time now, then a bit of homework. Last day of classes for the week tomorrow! I really like my schedule here. And I like the weather here. Sorry to hear about your snow [again]…how absurd.