Music and Lyrics

Dear Reader, I am thankful for my siblings.  Happy Thanksgiving to you! Today's topic line comes from a song entitled "Don't Write Me Off" in a film that you will have to guess. I'll help you, though. The movie is about a singer who tries to revive his career after more than a decade by singing with a rising pop star. While working with her, he meets a girl who has a gift with words and becomes his lyricist. Like any other Romance, he messes up and the girl runs off. In an effort to win back her trust, he writes the song containing today's title. I imagine that the guy (played by Hugh Grant), felt very similar to how I have felt this week. There are several reasons I have felt the need to tell people not to write me off this week. We will start off by reviewing my first week back at work. I started working at The Western Nut Company , just like a couple of years ago. Although I have picked up quickly on things that I remember, there is still...

Dear Reader, The music for today is by John Mclaughlin and is most famous for being performed in the Movie "Enchanted." The song is basically the theme song for our last week here in Spain as a group from Brigham Young University. Although, half of the story is not mine to tell. You may never hear it. Sorry. The half that can be told has to do with being so close to home but yet being so far. We finished up classes on Wednesday officially with our "closing ceremony." Our professors spoke and we sang. The professors cried while we sang. The professors said goodbye after we sang. Then we ate lunch. Anyway, these few days (Wednesday through Friday) have been full of roller coaster rides of emotion. There is that bitter-sweetness that comes every time you move from one place to another. On one hand you are excited to go, but on the other you don't want to leave the friends and family you have in the place you are leaving. We have gone out with a bang here. ...

Dear Reader, Today, we take the hymn "For the Beauty of the Earth" ( LDS Hymn No. 92 ) and talk about the wonderful things that our Heavenly Father has given us. This is a combination thought coming from two events in a town we visited this past weekend. Jorge, our new friend and literature master.  You know what time it is: trip summary time! This trip was unexpected for our group. According the schedule we have been using, we were under the impression that the trip to Portugal last week was the last trip we were taking before coming back the United States (Which is coming up soon). However, that trip did not end our adventures here in Spain. Our director gave us the news that we would be traveling to Burgos and Silos! Now, these are both very small towns. Both have very amazing stories. We left Friday morning to travel to Burgos, about 3 hours north of Madrid. One of the most exciting things on this trip were the two tables on our bus with chairs facing each ot...

Dear Reader, Today I'm experiencing a little bit of writer's block. Thus, Mary Poppin's wise word came to mind: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. She said you will have a lot to say when you summon up that word, right? Well, I know it is a lame excuse for not having much to say, but I'll just go straight to the pictures from this our trip this week. The Brigham Young University Spain group left Spain...to go to Portugal! The following are highlights of our trip, some with explanations, others to be interpreted how you desire. :) We started our trip with a stop in Trujillo, just a short way outside of Badajoz, Spain. It is a nice little town with a castle on top of a hill. We were only there for an hour, but we took lots of good pictures from the top and in the small shops in the main square. I took advantage of being so close to the bell tower and rang it three times. It probably doesn't have the same effect as ringing the bell we saw at the Alhambra en...

Dear Reader, Hopefully most of you will have heard the musical Beauty and the Beast . The Broadway version has a song entitled " Me ." It is a song all about the slightly misogynistic view Gaston has about women. Long story short, it is a song that can somewhat relate to the main character of another theatrical work: Don Juan Tenorio . At the beginning, Don Juan has a mentality similar to the sentiment that the song expresses. Allow me to expound upon Don Juan Tenorio by telling you about our weekend here in Spain. The Train Station in Siguenza.  Bright and early was the hour when we got on a train from Alcalá to visit Siguenza, a small city about an hour away. Halloween was possibly the best day we could have spent a day in the town, because noone was in the streets. We passed by the Cathedral, the Castle and the house of Doncel, a young knight who, according to our tour guide, "Was no one important." Part of our BYU Group, with our professor (Photo...