May 7--Spending the Sabbath on the Camino

 Today was honestly so chill--it was really nice--but as always, it ended up being WAY busier than I thought it would be! We had a devotional and choir practice at 10:00 which ended up being really nice.  Terry, the literature professor's wife, led the devotional, we studied Come, Follow Me, and we started to memorize The Living Christ in Spanish.  Then we practiced our hymns for later in the evening when we would be singing in the Pilgrim's Mass.  We had some free time t just ROAM until 6 p.m. so we went to a nearby stream.  I was planning on drawing, but a few other students and I got distracted by a nearby field with weird abandoned buildings and cows, so we spent the next 30 minutes climbing around a crashed car and trying to lure the cows close enough for us to pet them ;-)


Then it started sprinkling a little, so we headed back to the hotel.  We wended up doing a little circle around Roncesvalles which is a SUPER small town before heading back to the hotel and watching the rest of Megamind (I also got in some drawing around this time and at lunch which was nice).  We ate lunch and somehow we also ended up watching Prince of Egypt today which I will always say is a great movie, and if you haven't watched it, DO IT!

The only big thing we did today was go to the Pilgrim's Mass and sing for them.  The actual mass felt pretty scripted, but the little blessing they gave all the pilgrims at the end was very cute.  Afterwards, we got to sing the songs we have been practicing in our preparation classes! Then, because the Priest enjoyed the canto (song), we also got a private tour of the church.  We went down into the crypt (which sadly didn't have any bodies in it) and sang another hymn there while looking at paintings on the walls from the 13th century.  Then we went back into the chapel and out into the cloister area where we again sang more songs.  I have to admit, it was a pretty cool, old church, and when I say "old" I mean it was built in 1230 which is INSANE! A group of us who are a bit more musically inclined have planned to start a little quartet to learn some more hymns and songs to sing since we got such good responses from our singing today.  

And a cute thing: the Priest who showed us around was so cute, and he gave us a little ubi caritas in response.  An ubi caritas is a small theme which plays during communion or after mass ends, and he taught it to us.

After dinner, we headed to bed because tomorrow we start the second day on the Camino! I'm super excited!

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