written October 4th

hey all!

Sorry, it’s been a little bit since I’ve updated this. It’s been a whirlwind of a few weeks! I’ve been in Spain for 5 weeks tomorrow, but it feels like it’s been sooo much longer than that! October already. My classes are really starting to ramp up here, papers in Classical Lit and Advanced Comm and some super interesting discussions in Modern Spain. And….oh my goodness! My photography class is AMAZING. I’m taking it with four other girls with this professor named Javier, who’s hilarious and little did we know, THE main photographer here in Segovia. We laugh a lot, and the stuff we’re doing has just been sweet! We worked with black box cameras for a few weeks – just a shoebox painted black inside with a little hole and film paper inside. You open up uncover the hole for just 30-40 seconds, develop the film, and whala! I have a sweet pic of the aqueduct! I feel more pride over this not-so-high-quality photo than any pic I’ve taken with my digital camera. ;) Last week we got our first rolls of black and white film and I spent 2 hours with Emily getting lost in the Alameda (the gorgeous park that runs along the alcázar) as we experimented with velocity, zoom, focus, and a bunch of other photography terms that I only know in Spanish. ;) Turns out this girl has a few more of her dad’s artsy genes that she knew!

Excursions: Last weekend we went to La Granja, a pueblo 20 minutes outside of Segovia. We toured a glass blowing/crystal factory that was used to make all the glass products for all the castles in Spain. It’s still in use and we saw some pretty sweet glass blowing and sculptures. We toured the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) also. But the best part, by far, was the gardens. The king who built this palacio created this HUGE expanse of amazing gardens….some back yard! They are set against the mountains, and we had the perfect fall day to explore the flowers, forests, fountains (how’s that for alliteration…) and pathways….all the while with “The Hills are Alive” running through my head. The gardens in La Granja are definitely my favorite of all the excursions so far. Today we went to Toledo, about two hours north of Segovia. It’s a gorgeous town that was a center of culture and religion. The amazing thing about Toledo is that three religious groups: Jews, Muslims, and Christians, all resided there for virtually centuries of peace. We toured an enormous cathedral with no end, a synagogue, and another museum with lots of Arabic influences.

I have Spanish friends! How nerdy does that sound. :) At Horizonte Cultural, the center where we take classes, Spaniards can sign up for intercambios, language exchanges in which they practice their English and we can practice our Spanish. Three weeks ago, Melissa and I started meeting with a guy named Miguel who lives here in Segovia and attends the university in Madrid during the week. He introduced us to his group of friends here, and I’ve had a number of opportunities to hang out with them since then. They remind me a lot of my guy friends at home in some ways, and it’s been great for my Spanish. We spend a lot of time with Americans speaking Spanish here, since our classes are only with Bethel and Concordia people, so it’s nice to break out of that bubble a bit. I’ve been learning plenty of slang and muddling my way through trying to make jokes in Spanish, haha.

In a week, we have ten days off for fall break. I’m traveling to Italy with four other girls. We’ll be taking off this Friday night and spending three days each in Rome, Florence, and Milan packing in all the art, culture, history, and gelato we can. The last day (get this!) we’re going to take a side trip up to Switzerland since it’s so close to Milan. We don’t have anything specific planned, but I’m definitely most excited for this. I love sightseeing and learning and seeing famous works….but give me mountains and Swiss chocolate any day over all that, and I’ll be oh-so-happy! :P If you could pray for safety and health as we travel and navigate these big cities this next week (we’ll be gone October 10-19), that would be wonderful.

I'm not really sure what else to write....except that I'm simply loving it here. So blessed by friendships with people here- Spaniards and Americans alike, the chance to start over and figure out who i am in a different culture and a different language (i'm more outgoing in Spanish! :P), everything. Sometimes, I feel this weird gap between who I am here and who I am at home, since there are so many differences in my lifestyle, friendships, leisure activities, family etc. I think I'm starting to understand what some of my friends mean when they talk about their different identities/lives at college far away and at home, something I haven't dealt with too much at Bethel. I talked to Em a lot about it yesterday, who's struggled with this between her two homes in Chicago and MN. Yesterday in church (writing this on Monday now) I found my center again. No matter how much I change here, no matter how different my passions and interests and friends and lifestyle is here in Spain....my God is the same. Meeting God face to face here....it's the same as at home, during Vespers or devos or anything. He's doing different things in my heart, teaching me new lessons, showing me new opportunities, but the grace he showers upon me day in and day out is the same....the peace and trust in talking to him, his faithfulness through all of the valleys and mountains of experiences both here and at home....the same.

You all are in my thoughts and heart tons these days! Happy Monday. :)