May 16

First, I just wanted to share that video. You don't have to understand Spanish to get the message of the beautiful song and dancing. I love that video and Pablo Alboran (the singer) so much, I can't even put it into words.

Anyways, I'm off to Barcelona today! I am so so so excited to be going to this vibrant, fascinating city that all the Spaniards say is a must-see in Spain. I will be exploring Barcelona with four of my very good friends, what could be better?

Now, I wanted to share a story that happened the other day on the beach. My friends Solveig and Roosa were visiting me, and we went to a nearby town called Punta Umbria famous for its beaches. We had navigated our way there and everything, and had chosen a spot on the beach right next to a bunch of families with lots of little kids. We had a wonderful time swimming in the ocean, eating ice creams on the sand; you know, and when we were finally packing up to leave, suddenly one of the mothers that had been alongside of us began screaming "Lucia! Lucia! LUCIA!!" There was a clear face of panic on both the mother's and father's faces. Just a moment before, we had been watching the little girl drink from an oversized water bottle. She was adorable, 3 years old, with little black curls, and a pink frilly bikini. Now she was gone. The mother said she had taken off running down the beach. As soon as the parents started to scream her name, people all around us began to arise from their sun-comas, their towels and chairs. People began to stand up and look around. Minutes passed. The likelihood that we would find this little girl seemed to get slimmer by the second. There were hundreds of thousands of people on that beach (it's HUGE) and the Atlantic Ocean was right there.

I remember little moments from this experience. I remember seeing the father of this little girl running frantically up and down, crossing in front of us many times, his forehead glistening with sweat. Minutes later; the sweat pouring down his face in big droplets; that man never stopped running. People running up to the mother, exchange cell phone numbers, and setting off to help search. Everyone was standing up at this point. Everyone was looking. There was not a single person thinking about anything else than finding this little girl. That was the most beautiful thing for me. Seeing all of us work together. The parents were frantic, but they didn't have to ask anyone of us to help them. We just all did it. A search team of more than 200 people set off along the shoreline. Somebody said they saw her run to the left, so they went that way. Solveig, Roosa, and I went upwards towards the entrance to the beach. We tried to think as if we were 3 years old, what would interest us? Where would we run to? We searched on porches and and all around the entrance area, but came up empty. I think at this point it was about 15 minutes after Lucia had first disappeared. We walking back down towards the ocean, and saw a strange phenomenon. More than 300 people were walking back down towards our spot. We knew something had happened, but from far away we couldn't see the expressions on their faces. We stopped and watched the procession of people. At the end came the mother, little Lucia in her arms, crying and saying "La encontramos, gracias, gracias a todos." (We found her, thank you, thank you all.)

It was such an emotional moment. I started crying, as did many others. We had been imagining the pain and horror in our own lives if we had a 3 year old child and couldn't find her. But now we could be calm. With the help of every single person on that beach; the tourists, the natives, the world-travelers, the students, the little kids... we had found her. A little girl nobody knew personally, but that didn't matter. We knew what we had to do, and we did it. And I'm sure that mother and father have never been more grateful. And I will never forget all the beauty I saw in people working together that day. Nor will I ever forget little Lucia.

Those are those moments. Those little Spain moments that will be forever burned in my mind.

Thanks for reading guys, Besos;
Lani