written September 24th
Thoughts here and there:

- I went to Madrid this weekend! What a crazy city. We stayed in this gorgeous hotel and visited two art museums- Prado and Reina Sofia (the latter was modern art- Picasso!!), as well as the Palacio Real, the cathedral, and some gorgeous parks and buildings. We snagged some shopping time at the centro commercial (their main mall) and celebrated Marie’s birthday with some of her friends that live in Madrid at a delicious restaurant called Pepe Tio, I think. Lots of walking, art, and metro riding- All in all, it was a wonderful whirlwind of a weekend.

- On a somewhat related note, it was an amazing sensation to come home to Segovia after this weekend. I think we all realized after Madrid how little Segovia really is. Some people feel a little cramped by it, but I love it so much. Something definitely changed after Madrid for me….of course, Bloomington will always be my hometown, but somehow I feel more ownership to Segovia than I ever have in Bloomington. Maybe it’s that it really is a bit smaller. Maybe it’s that we’re living with native Segovians whose families have been here for generations. Maybe it’s that I’ve already walked miles and miles throughout so much of this town. Maybe it just feels familiar after the craziness of Madrid. Either way (and I almost feel presumptuous for saying this after only a month!) whether it’s reading the newspaper, watching the news, or just hearing about Spain….Segovia really feels like “my town”. And it really is the best. :)

- If you want to, definitely pray for Spain during this time. These past few days, the ETA (a terrorist group here) has attacked three times, all in the País Vasco, northern Spain. Lots of injuries, and a man from Segovia who worked for the military was killed by a car bomb on Monday. It feels pretty close to home…he was actually a second or third cousin of Sandra, and the funeral was at an Artillery Academy only a block away from my house.

- One of the really unsettling things about being here has been the difficulty in understanding news about the US. I try to read the paper every day, but I don’t catch a lot of it. Sandra explains to me what’s going on when we’re watching the news on TV, and the helps a lot too. But today in class Ricardo was talking in class about how serious the financial issues are in the US right now, the latest developments, etc….and a lot of us were pretty clueless. I’m kinda uneasy about it all, not knowing how much to take from what Ricardo said and having only caught snippets here and there in the past month. I plan to start reading up a bit online (read: less facebook time! :P) and that should help a lot.

- On a lighter note, I’ve got a SWEET running route! I discovered a beautiful path for running the other day with Sandra and officially went for my first run in Spain last week. It’s so gorgeous, located in a park here with a path that goes right along the river, through some woods, and eventually right next to the alcázar. I kept tripping over myself, staring up at the huge castle with all these sweet caves and ancient little lookouts in the cliff that the alcázar was on. Also, I’m pretty sure I got scolded hardcore by an older man when I was running, but have yet to figure out what I did wrong! :P In the middle of my run, I stopped at a monastery and stepped into the sanctuary for a minute (it’s amazing…there are so many around here that you can just walk in and look around). It was so gorgeous, and completely silent. Once again, I was torn between feeling awe and wonder at how beautiful these places are, but knowing some of the dark history that the church has been involved in. The other night, Sandra (who went to Catholic school all her life) told me that the only thing she remembered about the church is that you’re supposed to feel guilty for everything you do. In the cathedral, I couldn’t stop thinking about how many coins were donated for the building of this gorgeous church that were donated out of fear, guilt, or a warped image of a God who just wants your money. There’s definitely more to the story, and I’m not bashing the Catholic church- I know they’ve done some amazing things (especially in Latin America with liberation theology…) and that there have always been priests and bishops and believers who stood up against some of these lies and wrong actions. Anyways, despite all that, this place was amazingly serene, and I hope to make it part of my normal runs here. :)

Sorry about the heaviness of this post. It isn’t all terrorist groups and politics and the Catholic church here. :P Tonight we went out to celebrate Stephanie’s birthday at Foster’s American Restaurant, the one and only American restaurant in Segovia! I almost felt guilty doing something so blatantly not Spanish, but it was quite heavenly to have the cheeseburgers, ribs, French fries, and onion rings that we shared. This past week or so has really been great here….feeling settled into the life here, forming relationships with the others on the trip, and starting my intercambio (language exchange) with a Spanish guy named Miguel. And in two weeks….I’m going to Italy!!!! ahh!! :)

for all of you not on facebook:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049343&l=739da&id=63804298

pictures!!

Hey all!

I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon, the 14th. Just got back from church, watching Alonso, a famous racecar driver here in Spain, on TV. Soo…I freakin love the church here. It’s nothing fancy, but it was such an encouragement again today. There’s something that just gets me, being able to worship in a different language, listening to the words of God in a different language, and knowing this is the same God I serve. Hearing these words in Spanish is like hearing them for the first time again. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s definitely a joy and honesty in this simple church, and it’s so refreshing. Today part of the sermon was from John 15, the passage about how God is the vine and we are the branches….how we can’t bear any fruit without being connected to the vine. Such a lesson I’ve been learning these weeks. This week was a little rougher, and many times I was just brought to my knees by my own weakness, my own fears, and my own faults. It’s so backwards, this walk with Christ. I want to be strong, independent, and beautiful, but it’s when I’m on my knees, “sweetly broken and wholly surrendered” that I’m where I’m supposed to be. It’s here, in my weakness that Christ is working. I’m feeling more and more like a “niña”, a little girl in the arms of my Father. But once again, he’s so, so faithful! He’s answering prayers I never thought would be answered, opening my eyes to things I’ve never seen before, and creating some amazing conversations of healing and growth with friends and family.

Yesterday we had our first official excursion (we’ll be taking one nearly every weekend) to Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) and El Escorial. The first was this incredible cathedral that was built by Spain’s dictator, Franco. It was built as a memorial to those who died in the Spanish Civil War, but only for those on Franco’s side (the nationalists). Ironically, it was built by prisoners who protested against the corrupt dictatorship of Franco during this time. This basilica was a gorgeous place, but very, very cold. I was so torn between feeling such awe at the beauty of the sculptures and architecture, but such confusion at the same time. There were sculptures of virgins of the faith, and they were portrayed as representing different branches of the army. Franco’s grave was only steps away from a crucifix. Here, I can see why so many people in Spain hate the Catholic church, or even the church in general, and brush it off as hypocritical. Because for so many years, Franco and the church were permanently tied, associated with each other. The same face that represented the army and the killings of innocent people was the face of the loving Savior on the cross. It so does not make sense, but that was so normal at this time….to die “por Espana y por Dios”- for Spain and for God. It’s not all bad, there was a sacredness, a holiness to this worship of God that I feel like we’ve lost sometimes in this day of modernizing everything. We tend to focus on the humility and love of God, which I can’t get enough of. But it’s also way cool to walk into an enormous stone cathedral, filled with candles and sculptures and paintings and hushed whispers and think “wow….how great is our God.” Anyways, I feel like after that visit, I understand a little better the distrust of the church…..but I just wanted to scream “ahh! This is not our God! He’s so different than war and fear and dictators and coldness…”

El Escorial was an ENORMOUS building…I don’t even know how to describe it. It had a monastery, a cathedral, a library, rooms and rooms of amazing art, tons of rooms elaborately decorated that held the bones of past kings and queens, even their bedrooms! It was so crazy! I was in a room and saw the actual caskets, with the names on them, that held 20 or more kings and queens of Spain. Incredible. Everything was beautiful, but it was a major information and sensory overload, and by the end we were all exhausted, if not a tad creeped out by all the dead bodies. :P

I finally feel like I’m starting to settle into the Spanish social life….kind of.  I’ve been taken for French or Italian, but never American. I now know that you have to ask for the check at the end of meal, because the Spanish are accustomed to sitting and talking for hours, and if they bring you the check on their own it’s because they’re trying to get rid of you. We found a sweet karaoke bar that also has bingo last night but alas, at 12:45am it was far too early in the night and so it was pretty empty. :P One huge blessing of last week was one night when, after churros and chocolate, 6 or 7 of us were able to go over to one girl’s house and play guitar and sing and talk for a few hours. It was incredibly refreshing to be able to sing and play, harmonize to familiar songs (thinking of my sisters!) and just be in a home with others for a while.

Still been having some sweet conversations with Sandra….I really am so thankful for her! I couldn’t have asked for a better host. We took a long walk the other night around Segovia, and seeing the cathedral and alcazar all lit up over the woods here, I just kept saying “No puedo creer que estoy en Espana! No puedo creerlo!”- “I can’t believe that I’m in Spain! I just can’t believe it!”

What an adventure….what a rollercoaster. I love you all!

One week into things....

(written Sunday, Sept. 7^th)

Hola from Espana!

We’ve been here for officially a week now, even though it feels like a month! I definitely feel settled here, having a schedule and structure helps a lot.

I’ve been a bit homesick today. I’ve only been really homesick one other time this week, after talking to my parents on Friday, but something about Sundays just do me in a bit. I love Sundays so much at home, whether it’s being lazy with the roommates at Bethel or with the fam at home. I miss my churches at home. I miss playing guitar and piano like crazy. Mostly, I’m just really missing my friends these days. Here in Spain, we don’t really have an equivalent/opportunity to hang out at someone’s house to talk or watch a movie, and I’m definitely aching for some good late night “dissecting life” chats with my beautiful friends. I know this will all pass….just some of the bumps along the road these first few weeks.

Anyways, Espana! It’s been quite the week. I’m loving my classes so far, especially the ones we take with Ricardo. I have Modern Spain (history/a bit of sociology, but all under the perspective of ethics) and Advanced Comm with him, and it’s been sweet to dig into those. My prof for Photography is quite a character, but I’m taking the class with just 4 other girls, so we should have a fun adventure with that. :)

I’ve had some super good chats with Sandra this week. We wasted no time in getting to the taboo subjects within the first week, and since we have some pretty different views on some things, we were able to establish from the get-go that we both really respect the other, despite our different viewpoints. We talked about the different styles of communication we have (Spaniards tend to be very blunt and honest about things, and often don’t mind discussing things very openly, while my Midwestern upbringing and personality has me assuming that hatred is involved anytime someone raises their voice! :P) One of the amazing challenges I hope to grow from this semester: to state my beliefs honestly, openly, and respectfully even if it causes confrontation or a bit of heated discussion.

So far, we have a LOT of free time here. Sometimes only an hour or two of class a day. Like I mentioned before, it’s been a bit of a challenge to fill those hours sometimes. It’s not very common to invite someone over to your house, people usually go out to bars or restaurants to socialize. It has been fun to try out the different types of restaurants or tapas bars around here (the ice cream/hot chocolate/coffee/any type of chocolate is amazing here!!), and we went dancing one night. Still, I haven’t experienced the full extent of Spanish night life yet- it cracks me up a bit when my host mom comments on how early I come in at night (aka 1 or 2 am :P). Hopefully I’ll get a bit more nocturnal as the semester goes on!

We visited an evangelical church here in Segovia this morning. The religious climate here is so different; there are only 2 evangelical churches in Segovia (and tons of Catholic ones, obviously), and this one we visited was very small, only 50-75 people in this little room. To be “cristiano” here is not really a positive thing in society, while to be “evangelico” is merely strange and rare. At first, it made me really homesick for St. Mikes and Sanctuary, but once we got into the service, I was amazed at how similar it was to the services I’ve attended in Mexico and at Nueva Esperanza. Very odd, because neither of these churches had ties to Spain, but sooo refreshing at the same time. It was lovely to sing some of those familiar songs and see people expressing their worship in a way I haven’t encountered here yet. And amazingly, I understood the whole sermon. J Anyways, it was definitely a huge refreshment, as I’ve struggled a lot more than I thought I would spiritually here. I may end up blabbing a lot about this here, but it’s been a week of definite confusion, wrestling, and growth as far as spiritual things go. Who knows what’s in store for these next few months…..but God has definitely been faithful.

Umm what else….I’m LOVING the food! I didn’t think I would, but I think my stomach is growing every day I’m here :P. Sandra is a great cook, and we’ve had something different every meal. Lots of pork, some beef and chicken, some fish. Eggs and potatoes, crunchy bread with every meal. A good amount of fruits and vegetables, lots of fried stuff. Not necessarily new ingredients, just very different ways of preparing them and combining things. My fave so far: coffee flavored flan. Mmmmm. :)

I think that’s good for now. I miss you all tons and tons, and I can’t wait to hug you in a few months. I don’t have a ton of internet access here (good for my facebook addiction for sure…), but it’s been great to hear from some of you so far. Y’all are in my prayers and thoughts every day…..adios!

Hola a todos!

Hey everyone :) just a little update from Segovia, Spain! We’ve been here for about 5 days now now…..i’m loving it. This city is amazing. It has some incredible architecture, castles, cathedrals, everything. The streets are all cobblestone and everything looks old and beautiful. It has the feel of a small town (there’s about 60,000 people) because everyone walks everywhere. I have a five-minute walk to the aqueduct, where we meet often, a 10 minute walk to the center of town (called the Plaza Mayor) and a 10-15 minute walk to the centro where we have our classes. In the midst of these beautiful streets are some gorgeous parks with tons of greenery…something that my Minnesotan heart loves. The streets are lined with super cute little restaurants or shops with very European-type clothes….not too expensive though!

It was quite the trip over here. We took off on Saturday at about 3 and had a 7 hr plane ride to Amsterdam. When we arrived, it was 6:30am, but because of the time change, we all felt like it was 11pm or so. I had a bit of an adventure with one girl, Kaitlyn, in the Amsterdam airport when we got distracted by a Starbucks and ended up spending an extra hour walking around the airport and waiting in line for security during our layover…ay yi yi! We had a quick flight from there to Madrid, and then an hour-long bus ride to Segovia, during which we all collapsed from exhaustion. From there we met our host families. I’m living with Sandra, a 32 year-old woman in a very cute little apartment. My room overlooks the plaza in the middle of the apartment building, and it feels like something straight out of West Side Story. Sandra owns her own clothing store and also cooks at her parents’ restaurant. Her boyfriend, Baba, stays here on the weekends but works in Madrid throughout the week. They’re both super nice, and it’s been really great so far with Sandra. She likes to talk a lot, and I really enjoy our conversations. She speaks clearly and slowly, and we’ve already had some pretty good conversations about culture, politics (Spanish and American!), television, and family.

So much to say. I’ll try to keep this short- but it’s nice to finally spill all this out and process a bit. : ) We spent Sunday night and Monday walking around the city, becoming acquainted with the locations of everything. Like I said, Segovia is incredible…I wish there was one right next to Bloomington so I could live there forever. : ) I had my first adventure as a city girl yesterday when I accidently locked myself out of the apartment when I ran out for a minute and had to sit outside our door, barefoot, until Sandra came home. Yikes! ;) The other day we visited the alcázar, or the fortress/castle here in Segovia. It’s incredible sight, and one of the inspirations for Walt Disney’s castle in Disneyland. We also had an introduction to our classes. We take classes with only Bethel and Concordia students….a big help considering the profesores talk a mile a minute in Spanish. : ) I’m taking Classical Literature, Modern Spain: An Examination in Ethics, Advanced Communication in Spanish, and Photography. My schedule is SWEET- only a few hours of class a day, starting at either 10:30am or 4:15pm. Also, Ricardo (our director) is looking into arranging some dance classes for anyone interested.

This has been such an exciting time. I don’t know if it’s this town, the language, this group, or just that I’m at this point in my life, but I’ve never been able to jump so headfirst into a new situation, a new adventure with minimal anxiety and just complete faith that this is where God wants me.

The language aspect has been aMAZing! From the moment we met Ricardo at the airport, we’re more or less required to stick with Spanish, even in our daily conversations with each other. 90% of the time, it’s been like that, and as soon as Monday, I found myself thinking in Spanish and feeling so comfortable with the language. Victory of the week so far: purchasing a cell phone/plan in Spanish, albeit with a bit of help from Ricardo. ;) Even now, I stumbled over writing these first few paragraphs in English, my brain has been in Spanish mode all day. So, so exciting.

The Spanish schedule is something interesting for sure. People don’t start work until 9 or 10 at the earliest, and they work until 2pm or so, when everyone goes home (most businesses and stores close) for lunch/siesta time. Then everything starts back up again at 4 or 5 and continues until 8ish. After this, a lot of people meet at restaurants outside for something to drink and pinchos (free little snacks –bread with potatoes or meat- that you get when you order a beverage). There’s hardly anything “to go” here….everyone sits and actually enjoys their food for awhile. It was so hard for me the first time….I was all antsy, ready to pay and leave after eating- but I think it’ll be a really great challenge to just sit…..to learn how to be present in the moment and not be rushing off to the next thing. Eventually, people return home (stores close at 9 or so) and eat dinner 10 or 11pm. Then, they often go out for more food and socializing! Last night we celebrated a Amanda´s birthday by going to a really cute little tapas bar where we had little dishes of potatoes or and some kind of ham (i´m learning to not ask questions, and just eat :P)

Whew….still so much to sort through, but I think that’s good for now. I (obviously) have sooo much to learn, about the language, the society, the Spanish mentality, and how I live in this different context where perspectives about government, religions, God and faith are so, so different than what I’ve grown up with. Even in these first few days, I’ve been a bit overwhelmed in trying to figure out how my own faith can possibly fit into this culture that’s seems so anti-religion, or at least anti-anything that hints of imposition.

Anyways- I miss you all so, so much! I hope you’re all having an amazing week, starting school at Bethel or elsewhere….or continuing on with your work week. Os amo mucho (love you lots!!) and can’t wait to phone chat/skype chat/hear about your lives soon!