The San Antonio missions

Yes, that's "missions" with a lowercase "m". If you were hoping to find a post about the baseball team... well, you're on the wrong blog.

I decided that I should take my friend on a sort of historical tour of San Antonio while she was visiting me. We were supposed to visit the Alamo on the first day of her visit, but due to a misunderstanding of the driving directions... well, we ended up at the missions instead. On a cold, rainy day with one jacket and one umbrella between us. But we still had a good time.

There are five missions in the San Antonio area, all of them built by the Spanish along the banks of the river. We visited the two best-preserved missions -- San José and Concepcion. Here is their story:

Spain claimed Texas as part of its territories from the early 1500s until 1821. However, they didn't pay much attention to colonizing the area until the late 1600s, when France began encroaching on New Spain's territory. In 1690, Spain sent missionaries to East Texas to build missions where they would convert the natives to Catholicism and a Spanish way of life while staking Spain's claim to the region.

In order to help send supplies to the missions in the East, the Spaniards built a new mission alongside the San Antonio River to serve as a waystation. They named it San Antonio de Valero -- now known as the Alamo. The importance of the Alamo in Texas history is going to be explained in the next post.

The next mission to be established was San José. It was founded in 1720 by a Dominican friar who wanted to convert the local natives (the Coahuiltecans) to Christianity and confer Spanish citizenship upon them. Then the missions in East Texas began to fail, and the Concepcion, San Juan, and Espada missions were moved to strategic locations on the San Antonio River. Nowadays they're in the San Antonio city limits, but back then none of them were (although the town was visible from the Alamo).

The Coahuiltecans were a peaceful hunter-gatherer people, but they had a big problem: the Apache and Comanche tribes, who often attacked them. They were also starting to fall victim to European diseases. These two reasons, plus the prospect of a steady supply of food, help explain why they let themselves be converted and brought to live at the missions.

At the missions, each extended family (20 or so people) was given a two-room space to live along the mission walls. Some crops were grown within the mission, and there were stone, igloo-shaped ovens at each of the four corners of the walls. Each mission had an elaborate irrigation system known as an acequia (and they're still there today).

The missions flourished until the end of the 1700s, when disease and increasing attacks by the Apache and Comanche caused their decline. One by one, they were abandoned. Now they've been partially restored, and they're part of the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park. Recently they've started restoring the intricate paintings on the exterior and interior of the mission churches. They were done mostly in red and yellow (Spain's colors) and blue (the Fransiscans' color).

Pictures to come tomorrow...

Not happy

I thought I had all my bills taken care of before I left.

Nope. I got a bill for taxes and a bill for my credit card that were both due earlier this month. I used my credit card while I was on vacation -- they billed me that day and gave me only two weeks to pay it. Over the Christmas holidays. That fries my cheese.

It's going to be fun finding out how much I have in late fees. Really fun.

Leavin' on a jet plane

I made it back to Switzerland today, safe and sound. Back to the land of normal-sized toilets and full-sheet paper towels and no election primary frenzy, thank goodness. I have my one and only exam this semester tomorrow morning -- nice to get it out of the way right off the bat.

I was really surprised to see a 5-year-old girl flying by herself. She was seated in the middle of the plane, with strangers on either side of her. I don't mean to stick my nose where it doesn't belong, but I question her parents' judgement...

Going to unpack now.

The best commercial music ever

She's never heard an Aggie joke...

I have a friend visiting from up North. It's her first time to visit Texas, so I've been showing her around. Today's mini culture lesson included a section on Texas humor -- namely, Aggie jokes. Here goes (all of these courtesy of my father, who told and retold them throughout my childhood):

An Aggie is standing in line behind another customer, waiting to talk to the salesman. The customer in front of him says, "I want seven pairs of underwear." "Why?" asks the salesman. "One for Monday, one for Tuesday, one for Wednesday, one for Thursday, one for Friday, one for Saturday, and one for Sunday."

Then it's the Aggie's turn. He goes up to the salesman and says, "I'd like twelve pairs of underwear." "Why?" asks the salesman. "One for January, one for February, one for March..."

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An Aggie living in Houston heard on TV that mandatory evacuations were being ordered because a hurricane was coming in. So he got on Loop 610.

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An Aggie was stranded on a desert island with two other men. One day, they found an old bottle and rubbed it just to see what would happen. Poof! Out came a genie. "I'll grant you each one wish," he said. The first stranded man said, "I'd love to be on a sunny beach surrounded by beautiful girls." Poof! He was gone, sent away to the beach of his dreams. The second stranded man said, "I miss my family. I'd like to be back home, eating a spaghetti dinner with my wife and kids." Poof! He was back in his kitchen, eating with his family. Then it was the Aggie's turn. "You know, it's kind of lonely around here with my buddies gone. I wish that they were back!"

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An Aggie and his friend both needed a job. One company gave them a test to see how well-suited they'd be to working there. The Aggie copied all of his friend's answers, but they both failed.

Once the hiring manager reviewed their test answers, he announced that despite the fact that they both had the same score, he was going to hire the Aggie's friend. "How come?" demanded the Aggie. "Because you copied off him," said the manager. "How'd you know that?" the Aggie asked. "Because on question 7, your friend wrote, "I don't know" and you wrote, "Me, neither."

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An Aggie was hired to do quality control at the M&M factory. The foreman was really impressed with him -- he was weeding out far more defective M&Ms than the other workers. "What's wrong with all these M&Ms you're finding?" asked the foreman. "They all have Ws printed on them!" replied the Aggie.

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An Aggie and his two friends decide to go to the desert. They each bring one thing on the trip. The first guy brings water so they don't dehydrate. The second guy brings food so they don't starve to death. The Aggie says, "I brought a car door so if it gets too hot, we can roll down the window!"

Uggggh!

I wound up spending several hours in the hospital last night. After 2+ days of a migraine-like headache, dizzyness and vomiting if I so much as propped my head up on a pillow, I couldn't take it anymore.

First my mom took me to the nearest med clinic, which was closed. So then we had to drive to the hospital.

Did I mention that a severe case of carsickness kicked all this off on Saturday morning?

The two car trips to find medical assistance were just too much for my head. I opened the door, assumed a Senator Craig stance, and vomited in the middle of the parking lot.

Apparently my Senator Craig stance isn't quite wide enough. My (brand-new!) shoes are now bright orange and stinky.

At least I feel better now.

A slip of the tongue