self-reflection.

There is nothing like a good, solid two weeks with the family to inspire good, old-fashioned self-reflection in a person.

I explain.

So, fourteen days after non-stop European travel and fun... the Griswald... I mean Burandt family arrives in the beautiful capital of Madrid where a disgraceful amount of water is pummeling the city from its former aerial location among the Spanish heavens.

We walk out of our hotel and into mortal combat against the pluvial showers...
Mom and I struggle with the wind to find the precise degree of angle so that our matching three Euro plaid umbrellas (purchased in Rome... so that would make them Italian and therefore cooler) do not cruelly fold inside out upon themselves, therefore creating awesome "brellabowls"...
Dad and Brother Ben (who are too manly to necessitate our wimpy umbrellas) battle some-sort of psychological war of attrition, like if they just withstand the rain enough... it will stop.
So Dad dons his "Italia" baseball cap (bought as a replacement for the baseball cap he brought, then lost, but later found in his suitcase) and Ben, his hoodless Arcteryx water-resistant jacket which has long since lost its insusceptibility to water, having transformed into a rather absorbent sponge jacket.
We can all imagine how rain reacts to mind games... and the two of them soon huddle with Mom and I under our Italian umbrellas.

Well... God REALLY loves us, and this particular day he decided to demonstrate his love through the provision of a movie theater which features movies in "versión original" (ie the original language) with Spanish subtítilos. AND what is more... the theater was freaking flanked by two of the most quintessential, amazing American institutions.
That's right.
Starbucks and McDonald's.
So... Dad heads to MickeyD's while Mom, Ben, and I spend a sinful amount of money in Starbucks which God forgives us for because he provided the spot and was giving out special grace because of the Spanish monsoon that was falling.

THEN we all see a showing of the new Indiana Jones (with Spanish subtitles) on opening day, while indulging in a large popcorn and diet coke (with four straws) like six hours before it was even released in the US... wahooooooo.

(I promise I'm getting to the self-reflective part... here it is.)

I tell you all this to explain how it is that we arrive back of the hotel... having walked back in the SAME rain that we endured on the way to the "cinema"... and decide to pamper ourselves in purchasing a movie to watch in the hotel room. (To me, an American treat.)

So we choose the movie Hot Fuzz.
Now, I don't know how many of you have seen this movie. (Maybe I just live over here in Spain and therefore am WAY behind on movies... very true.)
But I had never even heard of this one... and my parents had seen it for some reason and suggested it.
Now I don't want to ruin it for anyone because I honestly suggest you ALL see it because it is HILARIOUS and one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen in a LONG time (which I surprise myself in saying because I am not one for British humor... yep... don't think Monty Python is funny and don't really care to give it any more than that one chance to prove itself.)

But here is how faithful IMDB describes it... just to give you a point of reference:

Jealous colleagues conspire to get a top London cop transferred to a small town and paired with a witless new partner. On the beat, the pair stumble upon a series of suspicious accidents and events.

Ok... not giving anything away... there is this GREAT scene where these ordinary, everyday people start doing that classic Jean-Claude Van Damme style hardcore fighting, and in watching that... this entirely new thought occurred to me.

How would I, Julie Ann Burandt, fare in true, intense hand-to-hand combat?
OR... what if I was even doing it... with WEAPONS?

Now, maybe you dudes have thought about this before... but this was TRULY a NEW thought for me.

How would I manage? Could I do it? I mean... maybe I don't have the skill... but I've got a decent amount of strength and agility. Hmmmm.

(See... here in lies part of the hilarity of the movie... you are so used to seeing Bruce Willis, Sly Stalone, and Arnold... heck even Angelina Jolie doing all these fancy combat moves... it is just ludicrous to see mom, pop, billy, susie, and grandma pulling it all off. Genius, I tell you, genius.)

Time out... I could SO be Angelina Jolie. Question answered. I would dominate in such militant encounters. Done.

So... now... while you're chewing on your new pugnacious thoughts... I'll leave you some eye candy of the "Burandt Family Vaycay Spain/Italy May 2008."

(Yes, I titled it.)

A few details.

Time in Sevilla.
Dinners out with my roomies, at my pastor's house, and home-cooked for my friends (complete with real Texan chilli and cornbread... thanks Aunt Debbie for that mix).
Cathedrals. Palaces. Gardens.





Rome. Colessium. Forum. Fountains. Plazas. Buildings. Food. You name it.




Cinque Terre. Hiking. Absurdity. Food, good food.





Pisa. Towers that lean. Food.






Madrid. More palaces. Movies. And yes, even a musical.






PS... these are my pictures from my camera... hence why I don't appear in any of them. I promise I was there, too.

my crisis of being.

Every once in a while a certain type of moment hits me like a freight train... or in my case... hits me like the AVE (ie the high velocity - alta velocidad - train).

Anyway... I call these moments my "crisis of being."

The last one I had occurred last Monday evening.

I was working and had reached a point of delirium.
I started thinking about all my friends and the amazing jobs things they are doing.
I know some pretty cool people.
I have friends in medical school, PA school, nursing school, law school, grad school for psychology, grad school at HARVARD.
Friends who are jet-setting across the US giving hard-core presentations in front of clients over twice their age.
Friends who have been editors at big-time, big city magazines and have already left their jobs.
Friends who live in Washington, DC, New York City, and LA doing things that are beyond me.
Friends who are Peace Corps volunteers changing the lives of people in 2nd and 3rd world countries.
Friends who are engineers working at the "happiest place on earth."
Friends who are tour managers, organizing a well-known band's performances across the world.
Friends who are accountants, dealing with (literally) millions of dollars.
Friends who are teachers, educating the youth of America.
Friends who are ministers, pastoring to people around them.
And I know there's more that I can't pinpoint right now.

No really, sometimes I marvel at the intense caliber of cool of the people I know.


And you know what I was doing?
Cutting out sea creatures out of colored paper.








That's right.

Big fish
Skinny fish
Star fish
Jelly fish
Sting rays
Sea horses
Octopuses
and let's not forget the sweet crab I cut out. (Not a single template, I might add.)
And I thought "WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?"

Given, this was all for a reason. Read on if you'd like to give me a little more accreditation, but feel free to stop if you enjoy the fact that my job sometimes is to cut out sea-dwelling inhabitants.


I was preparing for our school's carnival-style fiesta we were throwing at the convent which acts as a children's home for kids who have families who can't take care of them full-time, so they live there during the week and go home on the weekends.




I decided we should bestow our carnival with a theme, bajo el mar (aka under the sea), based upon my personal favorite station of Verner Elementary's Spring Fling which I attended every year of my primary schooling. It was a "fishing" station where the coolest mom obtained and painted a refrigerator box to look like the ocean, and then we kids got to fish for prizes with clothes pins for hooks. TRY and tell me that's not SWEET. (Ok, so it was difficult to procure a refrigerator box... this old sheet made do.)



So clearly, I determined this would be a wonderful addition to Acento de Trinity's third annual fiesta en el convento de los niños, and hence rooted the rest of the activities based upon this theme. We dressed in "beach attire" and began by playing a tremendous game of terrestrial "sharks and minnows" (which clearly became "tiburones y pececitos"). Then I oversaw a complicated rotation of about thirty Spanish children divided into 5 different teams through the following games:





a Spanish-style "cake walk" (where we replaced "cake" with "bag-o-chuches" which is the bomb candy here)







a relay of dressing in over-size beach finery (including my goggles)






a beach towel water balloon toss









a create-your-own-boat-with-random-objects-that-float craft along with face painting (because what self-respecting carnival doesn't have face painting?)







a shoot some penalty shots competition (not super "under the sea"-esque, but I mean, this is Spain, what do you expect?)








Meanwhile as the kids won the little events, they were presented with a gusanito (a little worm) to go and fish in the mar for a prize (maned by the professors.)









Of course, it was not totally perfect, but I have amazing students that helped so much, and with their indispensable assistance as team captains and activity supervisors, the fiesta was a complete success. We even got the coolest nun ever, Madre Gema, to participate.

(No, seriously, this woman rivals Sister Mary Clarence, she's too cool to even wear her habit... the woman is phenomenal, not to mention hilarious.)


So conclusion, well... yo que sé, if you want doctors or lawyers, you better look somewhere else... but if you want mono-colored sea creatures cut out of computer paper (without the help of a template, mind you), then I'm your girl.