My birthday and U2!

I know its a week late but last week was a little bit busy for us, so here is the post many people have been asking about.

On my Birthday Sarah made me chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. My plan was to stay home all morning and be lazy but she convinced me to come to the school while she had to work on some things. Towards the end of the morning, Sarah told me that one of the blinds in the teachers lounge fell down and they needed someone tall to fix. The rest of the staff were waiting inside to surprise me with a little birthday fiesta.

The staff all pitched in to get me the book Tales of The Alhambra by Washington Irving and enough change(literally a box of coins) for Sarah and I to buy two entrances to the Alhambra in Granada. (We just got into Granada last night and I am taking advantage of the lazy morning to do this post) We are staying with good friends Cecilia and Enrique. Cecilia was my first professor here in Spain and her husband is here working in Granada for awhile. Sarah has been here before when she was a student but is excited to see it all again. We are scheduled to go see inside the Alhambra on Tuesday night!

Thanks again everyone!

The Huelga (strike) took place as planned but didn't seem to be as effective as everyone had hoped. Many stores closed only while the people were marching down the main street. There were reports that some groups of people were harassing workers in banks and stores later in the day but nothing too serious. The lack of public transportation was probably the biggest problem in the city.

That night we had another big bbq on our roof. Actually I think it was our biggest one yet. Our hamburgers with pineapple are getting famous here.

Sarah set up a "good ol' fashion" game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. The Spaniards got a kick out of it. This is a picture of Aaron, our pastor's son, giving it his best shot.

Here is Cecilia getting prepped to go.

I got pretty darn close. Pit Stains!

Jonathan played guitar while everyone sang happy birthday in English. It was hilarious.
Sarah baked yummy cupcakes for everyone. (6 at a time)

The next day I headed over to the Olympic Stadium at noon to get in line for the U2 concert. Everyone with General admission tickets wanted to be let in first so that they could get the closest to the stage. Even though I got there at 12pm (5 hours early) there were already about 1,200 people waiting in line. Many of them lighting up cigarettes every 10 minutes. I have seriously never inhaled so much second hand smoke in my life and have never hated smoking so much as I do now (I have been sick since). Sarah joined me at 3pm and they started letting us in at 5pm. We didn't take any pictures because it wasn't something we really wanted to remember. As we were moving forward, they kept everyone calm until we got to the front of the stadium. At that point it was a race for who could run across the stadium and up to the stage the fastest. Sarah and I managed to get a spot about 15 feet from the stage.

After three hours of waiting there, we were well acquainted with the people around us. These are a group of guys that all work for the Guardia Civil at the Sevilla airport. They were a lot of fun. One of them kept buying beers and would not let me refuse to take the first few sips.

The opening band was Interpol. I have seen them before in concert. They have a darker sound calling back to some 80's music and I really enjoy how they weave their guitar parts together.

After their set some lucky stage crew member got the job of fixing one of the LED panels.

The crowd watched and cheered him on as he made progress. This picture also gives you an idea of how many people were behind us.

This gives you an idea of how high up he was. Can you see him in the middle of the red panels?

After much anticipation, U2 came on the stage.

It was great to hear all the Spaniards sing along.

Sarah and I were singing at the top of our lungs with our favorites.

Bono is a great showman.

I wish I could have gotten a closer look at the Edge's guitar setup. He switched guitars every song and his pedal board was HUGE.

Bono and the Edge on the walkway in the middle of the crowd. (behind us)

I was amazed at how many times Adam switched the bass he was playing

Sarah and I thought this girl was going to try to kiss Bono.

The stage and light set-up was amazing!

Larry held it down

Sarah even cried during "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" it was so amazing!

We snapped this on our way out. They had immediately started taking apart the stage to move it to the next gig.

Here are some videos that we took.

First a view of the stadium

Bono going over our heads on the bridge.

It's Alright!