(written December 27th)

What a few weeks it’s been! I feel like I start every journal entry like this :P

Well, the semester is officially over. After a few last weeks of scrambling to finish final papers and photo portfolios, we’re finally done! The Wednesday before everyone left, we had a fancy cena de despedida (goodbye dinner) at a very traditional Segovian restaurant. Everyone came- our host families, our professors, even Manrique, the front-desk guy at the center. It was so fun to see everyone in their element with their host families and meet the people I’d been hearing stories about all semesters. We had the special-occasion meal that Segovia is famous for- cochinillo. I can’t remember if I’ve written about this or not, but it’s roast baby pig- 21 days of mother’s milk, then roasted for hours till it’s super tender…basically what we dissected in bio, minus the formaldehyde. Cochinillo is more than just a fancy tradition- it’s an entire ordeal. After two or three courses, they brought them out on this huge grill, with tons of herbs and steam. Everyone crowded around, taking pictures and oohing and aahing while an older man read this fancy speech (which Sandra said she couldn’t even understand) and then proceeded to chop up each cochinillo into 8 large parts using only a porcelain dinner plate and stick them onto our plates. Hooves and all.

Nearly the entire group took off that Friday, and it was a lot harder than I expected to say goodbye to everyone and just have it all be over like that. Those who didn’t leave on Friday left in next few days to travel with family or friends over Christmas until just my friend Kat and I remained. We spent a free week together practicing vocab, playing guitar, and exploring Segovia a bit more. Also, I moved! Sandra moved to a different apartment nearer to the center of Segovia and of course, I came with. Our new place is enormous, especially for Spanish apartments, which are typically pretty tiny. It was an insane whirlwind of a weekend with most of Sandra’s family, her boyfriend, and a few moving guys helping us with the move. I discovered anew that Spaniards tend to be more comfortable with yelling and harsh words and brutal honesty with each other, especially when stressed….yikes! One cultural difference that I’m not quite accustomed too, but I stayed out of the line of fire and in a few days, peace arrived again. :P

On the 18th, Kat and I took off to Madrid to meet up with her family- her parents and her brother Joseph who were visiting from Minnesota for the week. They had invited me to travel with them over Christmas and I was so, so blessed to spend this time with them! Within days, I felt like part of the fam and their generosity was overwhelming. We first spent three days in Madrid and visited the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), the cathedral, some Egyptian ruins, an enormous beautiful park called El Parque de Buen Retiro. We ate plenty of delicious Spanish food (tortilla espanola, jamón serrano, churros y chocolate, paella, all sorts of tapas…the works!), took lots of strolls around the city looking at the gorgeous lights and nearly getting crushed by the crowds, and met up with our friend Jorge who showed us some of his favorite parts of the city.

Next, we stayed in Granada (southern Spain, in the region of Andalucía) for a day and a half, visited the Alhambra again (huge Moorish palace with some amazing gardens) and of course, took in the ambience of the Arab-influenced culture in the many markets and teterías (tea shops) there. Finally, we spent the 23rd-26th in Sevilla, also in Andalucía. We saw another flamenco show (still soooo amazing!) and visited the largest cathedral in Spain (third in Europe) again. Lots of things were closed since it was over Christmas, so we spent a lot of time walking along the river in the 70-degree weather.

Christmas was different this year, but good. The craziest part of it was that we had the opportunity to go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve at this enormous cathedral! It was my first Catholic mass, and we got there early to sit in the front row, about 100 yards away from the remains of Christopher Colombus himself….how insane!! The service itself was really interesting….a lot of singing in Latin, readings in Spanish with a few commentaries here and there, ringing bells and incense and many old men with elaborate robes and hats. The congregation participated during some songs, the offering, the Eucharist, and at then end, when everyone lined up to kiss the feet of a statue of baby Jesus. Wow. Needless to say, it was very different than anything I’ve seen before. To be honest, it was all a pretty confusing experience. The altar space was no simple altar, but actually an altar with a wall probably two stories high and the most intricate carvings depicting scenes from Jesus’ life- with literally every square centimeter covered in gold leaf. Ironically, the altar area had these huge golden barred gates on all sides stretching just as high, separating the congregation from everything else and making it hard to see what was going on. I’ve never seen so much wealth in my life, and it was just strange. I understand that when this cathedral was built, all the wealth and gold and formalities were an attempt to bring glory and praise to God…but it was just odd, knowing that Jesus came not into this world of wealth and jewels but in a smelly dirty cave among animals and shepherds. I couldn’t help feeling that if Jesus was physically here this Christmas, he might be hanging out with the gypsies and beggars in the mountains of Granada instead of at a cathedral like this. That aside, it was sweet to see that the content of the mass was quite Christ-centered and that the main prayers centered around the homeless, the disabled, the sick, and that all forms of war and racial division and oppression would stop. All in all, I still don’t quite know what to make of it, but definitely some food for thought…

Christmas itself was pretty chill…we took some walks and played games in our hotel room. I got to talk to my family (the entire Schuessler side…including the Phoenix cousins through skype!!) and heard my sisters play the song they had sung in church that morning. Kind of a rougher day, but still soooo blessed to have my second family of the Melheims that day. :) Coming home to Segovia was heavenly….I love this city so much! I didn’t realize how much I had missed Sandra until she swept me up into this huge hug once she got home that night from work…..so good to be home here. It’s freezing cold, but for the first time in weeks the sky is clear and you can see the enormous blue snow-covered mountains in the distance beyond the aqueduct and the mass of rust-colored shingles of the houses. Breathtaking. :) These next few weeks will be full- New Years Spanish style (aka all night long?!?!), and then January 6th, which is just as big or even more important than Christmas for most Spanish families. The 6th is known as Reyes (Kings), when the arrival of the three kings to worship Jesus is celebrated. Supposedly, there’s a huge parade on the 6th, and the night before kids set out turrón (a typical Spanish candy) for the kings and water and snacks for their camels (sound familiar?). They wake up the next morning to find the snacks half-eaten and gifts from los Reyes, hopefully just what they asked for in the letter they wrote to them earlier in the month. :)

We start class right away Monday, then it’ll be three short weeks and home! After so many crazy adventures and growth experiences and challenges, I’m ready to process a bit, to just sit and sift through all of this and how it fits in life at home. I’ve LOVED traveling, seeing new things, learning to adapt….but in the end I’m finding that there truly is no place like home, as cheesy and Dorothy-esque as that sounds. I think we have different seasons of our live (shoutout to Christine Osgood’s Personal Wholeness class….:P)- seasons in which we step outside the box and experiencing new things and get challenged and stretched, and then seasons in which we step back inside to rest, reflect, cement the new things we’ve learned, and prepare for what’s to come….I’m definitely coming up on the latter.

Ready to crack down on Spanish these next few weeks, hopefully grow leaps and bounds in the language, and have some last adventures with Spanish friends and Marie and Steph. And then…..home. :) Soooo excited to run errands with my mom, have garage talks with my dad, sing and harmonize with my sisters and snuggle with them during Gilmore Girls, hug my grandparents and just BE with them, cook my own food and try new recipes, go running, play piano and guitar!!, attempt to learn to drive again, have late-night IN PERSON talks with friends, be wacko with my lovely roomies, go to Target, go to St. Michael’s and Vespers and Upper Room, and see my amazing kids at the CDC. :)

Thinking of you all these days and praying that your breaks are full of rest and relaxation!! See you soon.

written recently

Merry Christmas everyone!! Warning: tangent post…:)

“But it’s true, kingdoms and crowns
The God who came down to find you
It’s true, angels on high
Sing through the night, Hallelujah”

-It’s True by Sara Groves

What a strange Christmas, but what an amazing message that still hasn’t changed. This Christmas, stripped of most traditions and sentiment and familiar routines made the good news oh-so-crystal clear...

…this God of the stars and Mediterranean Sea and Swiss Alps and every amazing wonder of the world who broke through heaven’s floor to live a rough life, to be poor and weak and lowly and DIE because he knew it was the only way to come to our level, to have a true honest relationship with us, to wipe away this heavy, guilt-ridden debt that I carry and rip the curtain from top to bottom so that I, John the murderer or Mary the prostitute or Katie Joy, so entrenched in sin, could come fearlessly to the throne of my God and call him Father, dear Father….and be welcomed with opened arms.

“So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God’s very own children, adopted into his family- calling him ‘Father, dear Father.’” Romans 8

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” Luke 4

“O Holy Night
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
Yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
Fall on your knees and hear the angels’ voices
Singing O night divine

Truly he taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother
And in his name all oppression will cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we
Let all within us praise his holy name
O Christ the Lord, praise his name forever
His power and glory proclaim

O Lord, when you came to the earth
O my soul, my soul felt its worth
O my soul, my soul felt a thrill of hope
The weary world rejoices
Yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
Fall on your knees and hear the angels’ voices
Singing O night divine, O this holy night…”

Such good news :) That it’s true….that this God of kingdoms and crowns came down to find us.

(written December 3rd)

How long it’s been! What a month since I last updated….let’s see what I can remember. :) In middle of November, we had our very last excursion to Andalucía, the region in southern Spain. We visited three cities over five days. We stopped in Córdoba for just the afternoon on the way down to see a famous mezquita (mosque). It was full of beautiful red and white striped arches, an elegant section that has been turned to a cathedral and a plaza FULL of naranjos – orange trees – on of the symbols of the city.

After Córdoba, we spent two days in Sevilla, which was a bit of a strange experience. Andalucía, and especially Sevilla, is where a lot of the stereotypically Spanish things come from and are still common – bullfighting, flamenco, etc. We passed hundreds and hundreds of cheap souvenir shops stuffed full of red and black lacy flamenco dresses, Spanish fans, castanets, toro (bull) memorabilia, etc. It was so different to see this part of the Spanish culture, these stereotypes of Spain, even though none of these things are part of the Spain I’ve come to know these past three months. In Sevilla we toured the third largest cathedral in the world, after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and St. Paul’s in London. Needless to say, it was enormous and had an entire wall/altar space just COVERED in gold, with the most elaborate carvings and sculptures ever. Ay yi yi. I’m a bit done with seeing churches that are such storehouses of wealth, so cold and shiny and now just for touring. However, this cathedral did have a way sweet lookout over the entire city and - get this – the actual remains of Christopher Columbus!

Definite highlight of Andalucía occurred the next night, we went to see a flamenco show! I had no idea what to expect, but I was blown. away. :) We were in this little theatre-type café that boasted the “purest” flamenco spectacle in Spain. The two hour show was made up of one guitar player and two male singers (I don’t even know how to describe the singing- very loud and passionate and almost mournful), and then dancers – male and female – who danced one at a time, and then all together at the end. Each dancer did something different- one danced with castanets, another with a long embroidered shawl, and another with a wooden fan. The dance is a strange improvised mix of wrist-twisting and head-turning, all centered around this riveting rhythm created by the singers’ clapping and furious stomping/feet-tapping by the dancer. Absolutely incredible. Their dancing was so passionate and strong, every movement was fierce and graceful simultaneously….like nothing I’ve ever seen before. We were all pretty giddy afterwards and proceeded to flamenco-dance halfway back to the hotel, with Ricardo shaking his head and chuckling half a block behind us the whole time. :P

Right before heading out we stopped at the Plaza Espanola, full of gorgeously painted bridges and railings and a ceramic section of a wall devoted to each city in Spain. Then we were on to Granada! Granada was SUCH an interesting place! It’s in the very south of Spain, and is one of the places where there’s been a ton of Arab/Muslim influence. Seriously, it was like a completely different culture. It also has a huge “hipi” population. The first day we hiked up to the top of the city and in the plaza with this amazing lookout over the Alhambra, the forests, and the huge snow-covered mountains were hundreds of these “hipis” with their dreds and colorful clothes, sitting on the ground selling handmade jewelry or singing and playing guitar in a big group. Sooooo amazing. :) In Granada we took about a 5-hour tour of the Alhambra, an enormous Muslim mosque/palace. It was absolutely gorgeous! So colorful, yet lots of beautiful carvings in more neutral colors of wood and stone. Lots of nature, fountains, gardens…..incredible. We also had a good amount of time to roam the streets of Granada (with shops FULL of Indian-looking purses, wall hangings, jewelry, scarves, tea, everything) and discovered a lot of teterías (tea shops) with some pretty swell atmosphere. :) Granada was definitely my favorite city to visit after Barcelona- so full of color and contrasting cultures.

And with that, we finished our long list of weekend excursions. I’m actually traveling with my friend Kat and her family Dec 18-26 to Madrid, Sevilla, and Granada, so I won’t have to quit quite yet. :)

This past week we celebrated Thanksgiving with our group here in Segovia. Obviously, Spain doesn’t celebrate it, but Ricardo brought us to a restaurant and arranged ahead for them to make us some typical thanksgiving food. What we had was the most unique Thanksgiving meal I’ve had yet: a first course of squid fried with eggs and green peppers, turkey with a sweet red barbecue sauce, a baby baked potato and a sort of meat stuffing with cooked raisins, and a (delicious) typical Spanish dessert.  The restaurant really went all out with the turkey, and it was so kind of them! Later in the day I got to skype with nearly my entire family- mom and dad, sisters, both sets of grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins….how lucky am I?!? It was amazing to see their faces (I haven’t seen Sara since I left and Alena just once) and laugh as they all tried to cram into the camera at the same time. I was a bit homesick and definitely missed my grandma’s food, my grandpa praying before the meal, and being silly with my sisters ….but overall it wasn’t too bad at all. I was overwhelmed with how blessed I am...the amazing family I have….more thankful this year than ever before, I think. :)

Thanksgiving morning was actually really sweet, as I worked on my final project for my photography class all morning. I wandered around the city for a few hours, leisurely and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible while snapping pictures. I never would have guessed I’d like it this much, but this class has definitely been one of the best parts of the semester (tho a bit stressful and lightning-paced). I’ve had so, so much fun scouring the city for perfect moments to capture (which isn’t hard in Segovia, that’s for sure) and spending hours at a time in the dark room with my ipod, seeing how they finally turn out after 2, 3, 4 tries (sometimes many more on the bad days :P) to develop them well. I still have sooo much to learn, but I’m absolutely intrigued by this art now. :)

It snowed here! This week Spain has been completely dumped on, something relatively uncommon especially for this point in the year, and something that sends the country into a bit of a frenzy. It’s sooo beautiful, and we were like little kids again the first day it snowed this week- snowball fights, the works. :) What else…it’s been a full week or two with visits to the beloved crepería (crepe restaurant), the Oja Blanca (a sweet bar with live music late into the night- a mix of older segovian professors and young college kids playing everything from Frank Sinatra to traditional Spanish songs to “Hit the Road Jack”!), and Stephen (Emily’s boyfriend) visiting from MN! I think I’m finally adjusting to the social life in Spain a bit…The past few weekends we’ve gone out dancing or spent time with our Spanish friends until some of the wee hours of the morning and it’s been really fun, although they tell me it’s not a “true” Spanish night until I stay out till 6 or 7 in the morning and eat churros and chocolate to warm my hands in the freezing cold streets for breakfast the next morning. Hmm….may take a while to work up to that! :P

It’s so crazy…the rest of the group leaves in a mere 8 days or so. We have a few last projects and classes, our “cena de despedida”, a final dinner when all our host families and professors come, and the morning of Friday the 12th most of the group takes off for Minnesota, although some are staying to travel a bit more. Sooo weird, this semester has flown like no other! I’m crazy thankful for the chance to spend 6 more short weeks here, as much as I’m crazy excited to see my friends and family after those same 6 long weeks. A ver lo que pase en la época que viene....We’ll see what happens in this next “epoch”! (haha they use that word in spanish a bit more than english...) Love you all tons and tons. :)

p.s. Andalucía pictures here!:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052923&l=ebafd&id=63804298
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052924&l=7cfd5&id=63804298