Graduation Announcement!

The fateful day is fast approaching! Many of you who read blog this will be receiving one of these in the mail, but here's a sneak peak!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

New adventures await!

Ok...so I realize it's now been about 6 months since I wrote these blog posts. I had them saved as word documents on my computer, and I just ran across them and realized that I never published them. So here they are...ready for your reading pleasure. I'm pretty much skipping blog posts from the past semester, so here's a quick recap before I post the other stuff from Spain:

This semester I lived in the campus apartments with one roommate, who was nice, but very different from anyone I have EVER lived with. For the past four months, I was kind of lonely and kind of not-lonely all at once. It was weird coming back to the US, but I finally got adjusted pretty well. About two weeks into the semester, God presented me with a ministry opportunity for the summer with an organization called YouthWorks. I prayerfully and cautiously explored the opportunity and eventually said yes when they offered me a job for the summer in a position that was higher-up and better-paid than the one I originally applied for. I finished my last semester of "classes" at CU and watched two days ago as the majority of my friends graduated....ahhh...but alas I have one more year left. I received my placements for my two internships for next year: Sparta High School (teaching English as a second language) in the fall and Hudsonville High School in the spring for my student teaching (in Spanish). As I write this recap I am at home in Houghton Lake for a couple weeks before I fly out to Birmingham for a week of training and then head to my mission site in Onancock, Virginia, for the rest of my summer placement. I am very excited to be working with YouthWorks this summer. I am also excited to inform you that I WILL indeed be blogging my journey through this summer. Or, rather, "vlogging" my journey. I am hoping that being able to upload video-casts of my thoughts and experiences will be possible at my sight, and I'm pretty sure that I will have some sort of internet access on a semi-regular basis. So, I will be periodically uploading videos somehow this summer. I haven't yet decided whether it would be better or more efficient or easier to upload the videos to my blog directly or to upload them to youtube and post links. I guess you'll just have to wait and see!

And without further ado.....my long-awaited last posts from Spain:

"October 30 to November 2: Barcelona

We flew from Sevilla to Gerona with RyanAir Friday night. RyanAir has super-strict luggage restrictions. If you don’t want to pay for luggage you have one carry-on bag allowance, and your bag has to be about the size of a normal backpack or smaller. This meant that right before everyone boarded, they exchanged their purses and camera bags for clothes in their backpacks and the whole flight puts on several layers of clothes in order to board. It’s quite a comical sight. Haha

When we arrived in Gerona, we took a bus an hour in to the city of Barcelona, and from the bus station took a taxi to our hotel. Our hotel room was TINY. But, hey, it was pretty cheap and in a decent location. We looked around and discovered mold on the walls. And I’m not talking like a little patch in the corner, I’m talking like, our wall looked like a Dalmatian. It was even grosser when we pulled back the covers and climbed into damp sheets. The room had really bad humidity problems, to say the least.

The next morning we got ready and went to find a grocery store. We found one a few blocks away, and we bought stuff to make sandwiches, etc. for the rest of the weekend. After heading back to the hotel and eating lunch, we decided to visit the Sagrada Familia. It was almost surreal to be in a place I’ve only seen in books. We paid 9 Euros to get in, but we found out once we were inside that you can’t really see a whole lot of anything because there was scaffolding everywhere. We went back to the hotel, and bought gummies from a bulk candy store on the way. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel resting. That night we walked down to a mall to look at this really cool tower that looks like a bullet lit up like a disco ball. Unfortunately, after we made the trek we discovered that the tower wasn’t lit up that night. However, we did walk around the mall a little and enjoyed just being out and about.

The next morning Lisa and I went down to the Barri Gotic, which is the big touristy area of the city. Sarah decided to stay in the hotel and rest, so we took a bus down to the main plaza and then walked down Las Ramblas, which is like the main drag, with shops, restaurants, and street performers. We ended up walking down to the harbor and crossing a drawbridge to go to a cool mall. After the mall we walked some more and ended up on a peninsula of sorts that had more restaurants and a nice atmosphere. We stopped at a place right on the beach of the Mediterranean, even though by that time it was dark and quite chilly, and ate some very tasty pizza. We were also entertained by the antics of our Chilean waiter and the table next to us full of drunken young men from London. After taking a look at the map we decided to head back to the city and then figure out how we would get back to the hotel. On our way back down the peninsula, we kept being solicited by restaurant owners to eat in their restaurants, but it really bothered us that they kept asking us in English, because we were sick of being identified so easily as Americans. I vowed to Lisa that the next man to ask me to eat in his place in English would be answered with vague, German like ramblings from me. As we continued walking, I saw a man who looked like he might ask me. I nudged Lisa and prepared to answer him, but he bowed to me and asked in English with a thick Indian accent, “Hello my DIAMOND. You are so pretty. Would you like to eat here tonight?” I couldn’t say anything, and it was all I could do to hold in my laughter until we were past him. Hahaha

We hopped on the Barcelona subway system, which had a stop about a half a block away from our hotel. We discovered that the Barcelona subway system is a lot dirtier and a lot scarier and a lot grosser than the nice, clean metros of Sevilla. However, we made it back to our hotel without incident, and that night we got our stuff ready to say goodbye to Barcelona in the morning.

The next day we woke up and checked out of our hotel, then took the bus to the main plaza. We walked and walked and finally found the bus station. We were worried that we would have to fight for a place on the bus because the line was so long and, once again, Spaniards have no concept of civility when there is a long line involved. However, we made it on our bus to the Girona airport without too much trouble and tried to enjoy the hour-long ride to the airport, despite the very rude and obnoxious group of young people that were sitting around us. We got to the airport, ate lunch, and got our documents all in order before boarding the plane. I ended up sitting in the aisle seat next to an Irish couple, but I actually had a lot of room because the girl next to me was actually in her boyfriend’s lap making out with him for the majority of the flight. It didn’t make much difference to me though, as I had my eyes closed, half-asleep, for the majority of the flight."

"IRELAND!!!

Our flight landed in Dublin, and we were so excited to be on the Emerald Isle. Then we got off the plane and realized that we had landed in a very cold country. We were freezing! I immediately put on all my warm clothes, which didn’t amount to much. Then we went outside and waited for a bus to take us to the stop by our hostel. It was a bit of a shock to be riding on the other side of the road, and to be riding in a two-story bus! After about a 40-minute bus ride, we made it to our stop, and walked about 50 feet to our hostel. We got checked in and brought our stuff up to our room and were surprised by a few things.

I had never stayed in a hostel before, so I didn’t know what to expect. We got up to our room, which was nice, but pretty sparse, with a small open closet, a sink and mirror, and two sets of bunk beds. We noticed that someone else was staying in the room with us, but by examining their stuff we determined that it was a girl, which was a relief to us. We then ventured down the hall to find the bathroom, which we discovered was not only community style, but also co-ed! Yikes! Our next mission was food, and warmth, as the window in our room was open and we couldn’t figure out how to shut it! We went down to reception and asked where was a good and cheap place to eat, and they directed us down a couple blocks to a nice little café.

The food at the café was delicious, and I had the BEST hot chocolate of my entire life. The foam was so thick I could set the spoon right on top and it just sat there! Haha Then we went exploring for warm clothes, and ended up in Dunne Stores, which is like a super-cheap department store, where we bought hats, scarves, gloves, and warm socks (and Lisa even bought a coat!). When we came back to the room, we met our roommate, who was a nice girl from Austria, and explored the hostel a little bit. We went downstairs to the basement lounge beneath the coffee shop for about a half hour, but got bored and came back upstairs. We ended up going to bed early so we could be up early in the morning to catch our train to Killarney.

In the morning we woke up and walked to the train station, and we very pleasantly surprised by how helpful and how NICE everyone we talked to was! We walked past the Guinness factory, and I was bummed I didn’t stop and get a picture. We made it to the train station easily and had a bit of time to sit and relax in the freezing cold train station before boarding the train to Cork.

The train was super-comfy and nice and warm, and we settled in for a nice long ride, periodically listening to announcements in both English and Gaelic. After about 3 hours we got off the train in Mallow and switched to the train for Killarney. At this point I was so excited and giggling to myself the whole time because I couldn’t believe we were actually there! We got there, and after some trouble finding the bus, we got dropped off quite a ways away from our hostel and had to hike a ways up to it. Our hostel, by the way, was an old restored mansion about 6 km outside of Killarney, and although it was beautiful, it was somewhat of a pain to be so far away from everything. That night we settled into our room and walked about 3 km in the rain to a convenience store to buy groceries for our three-day stay. We then hauled the groceries back 3 km in the rain. We were delighted to have a full kitchen at our disposal, not to mention that we were staying during the off-season, so there wasn’t anyone else staying in the entire hostel. That meant we didn’t really have to worry about sharing the space with lots of people, and it ended up being very relaxing.

The next day we went for a hike, and ended up in the National Park! It was absolutely, 100% breathtakingly gorgeous! The photos we took can’t even do it justice! We continued from the national park on into the town of Killarney, did some shopping, and then took the bus back to the hostel. We watched a couple movies that night, and then went to bed.

The following day we each kind of did our own thing. Lisa went for a walk. Sarah did a puzzle. I was starting to feel sick, so I stayed in and read a book and made myself some soup. Although we didn’t do much during our time in Killarney, it was exactly what I needed, and my stay was very relaxing and a great de-stressor.

The next morning we woke up early and walked the 6 km into town with our backpacks to catch the train back to Dublin. On our journey from Mallow to Dublin we ended up sitting with Patrick, a high school economics teacher. He was a great traveling companion, and it was fun to hear his Irish perspective on a lot of things and tell him what America is like. Once in Dublin, we walked along the river to our hostel and checked into our room, an 8-bed dorm that we were thankfully sharing with all girls. Lisa and I went out for dinner at a traditional Irish restaurant, skipping the crowded pub scene. The food there was SO good! Hearty, hot, rich, and super-flavorful, I honestly think it was the best meal I’ve had since coming to Europe. :-)

The next morning we were up bright and early to catch our bus to the Dublin airport. We found the bus stop right before the bus came, and we made it on our flight without any problems, saying goodbye to Ireland, the magical Emerald Isle."

"Gerona!

We flew into Gerona from Dublin and caught a 15-minute bus from the airport into the city. We had decided to stay in Gerona for the night instead of going all the way back down to Barcelona in order to save time and money. The bus dropped us off at the bus station in the center of town, and we walked about 10 minutes to get to our hostel in the main plaza. We stopped at a grocery store on the way for dinner and breakfast the next morning.

That night we went on a little walk, but mostly just stayed in the hostel. We were staying in a five-bed room, and when the three of us walked in, we discovered that we had two roommates. We couldn’t tell from their stuff whether they were males or females (or one of each!) so we didn’t really worry about it. We went up to the lounge on the top floor and stretched out on the Sumo bean bags and watched the Simpsons in Spanish. When we returned to our room, we discovered that our two roommates were indeed males. They were from the Czech Republic, and from the little bit of English they spoke we suspected they were nice and completely harmless. As the night progressed, we also figured out that they were likely a couple, which added to our sense of ease. Haha

The next day we woke up and spent the day exploring Gerona. We walked along the river and into the old Jewish ghetto, which is the oldest surviving Jewish ghetto in Europe. We also explored the old city wall a bit and the old castle gardens before getting to the bus station to catch our bus back to the airport. We boarded our flight back to Sevilla, arriving right before the bus we needed was leaving. We packed onto the bus and then made our way to the metro stop, and finally, home. A wonderful way to end a great week’s vacation."

"Ronda: Pronounced 'Rohn-da', not 'Rhonda'

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my school took a trip to Ronda, a city about 2-3 hours from Sevilla. It wasn’t anything too exciting, but it was a very pretty town.

The ride there was awful. Through the mountains in a tour bus with a semi-crazy driver meant that pretty much everyone was motion sick for the whole ride there. They did have some motion sickness gum, which helped quite a bit, but it made my mouth numb, which I didn’t like. Our first stop was some Roman ruins outside of Ronda. It was great to get out of the bus, but the professor who was showing us the ruins was pretty grumpy then, so it kind of lost some of its appeal because he kept scolding us for insignificant things. But the ruins were cool. There was an amphitheater, and when we climbed all the way to the top of the big hill there were some gorgeous views of the mountains and the valley floor.

After we piled back in the bus, we rode to Ronda and got out. We walked into town and split up for lunchtime and free time. After that we all met back up at McDonalds and headed out on a little tour of the town. Ronda is famous for its ginormous gorge that splits the city into its old, Arabic section and new, Christian section. Connecting the two parts of the city is a bridge that offers breathtaking views in every direction. I managed to find some drowsy formula Dramamine for the ride back to Sevilla, and thankfully slept almost the whole way back!"

Last Weeks of October

End of October: Noche de Chicas #2, Fun with Friends, Mom’s Visit, and Halloween

The second to last week in October we had another “Noche de Chicas” on a Friday evening, which was really a combined activity night for guys and girls. We all gathered in the library at the school and watched the movie You, Me, and Dupree. I thought it was a pretty good movie. The school ordered pizza for us, and a bunch of girls did their nails while we just relaxed and enjoyed a fun night together.

The next day I hung out with my intercambio Fernando. We went to this amazing Tavern, called La Taberna Los Coloniales, for tapas. It was DELICIOUS. We walked around and talked and got some ice cream before saying goodbye for the week. On my walk back home, there was a modern art exhibition going on. The city was having a contest for thirty artists to paint the glass recycling containers that can be found on nearly every corner. They were all gathered right outside the school, painting, drawing, stenciling. It was amazing. Since then, the containers have been judged and exhibited throughout the city, with one container going into each of the neighborhoods.

The next day I was SO excited for my mom to come. Despite the difficulties with her flight, she arrived the next day, Sunday night. Lisa and I had taken the bus to the airport and were anxiously awaiting her in the receiving area. I even made a sign with her name on it, just in case she didn’t remember what I looked like. Haha The three of us took a taxi to her hotel in Triana and then walked across the river to grab some dinner at Pan’s and Company, which is liked a Subway meets McDonald’s type of restaurant. The next morning, I surprised her bright and early with breakfast before I headed to school: cañas de chocolate, apples, and orange juice. The cañas are my favorite breakfast treat here. Once every two or three weeks I will go to OpenCor and treat myself to one from the bakery there. MMMMmmmm. They are like a croissant shaped like a log, with chocolate filling, and chocolate sprinkles on top. Sometimes I get lucky and I buy them on the day that they are also glazed in chocolate over the top. Oh, man, now I really want to go buy one. Haha Anyways, I had a great time while mom was here. I got to show her some of my favorite places around the city, and while I was in classes in the morning she got to go exploring some of the touristy things. Wednesday night Lisa and I went with her to a flamenco show in the Jewish barrio of Santa Cruz. It was INCREDIBLE. I don’t understand how they can move that way! Thursday Mom got to come to our house and have lunch with my host family. We had paella, and I think it was mom’s favorite thing she had while she was here.

Friday we celebrated Halloween at the school with a little costume contest. I was a “Nudist on Strike” or “Nudista que está de huelga”. Basically, I just wore my normal clothes and then taped a sign on my shirt. Haha That night we all headed to the airport and said our goodbyes, Mom heading to her flight to Madrid and then back home, and me heading to Barcelona with Lisa and our friend Sarah for a week of vacation.

Sevilla Cathedral Visit

October 20: Sevilla Cathedral Visit

My art class was learning about Gothic architecture, so we met up one afternoon to have a tour of the cathedral here in Sevilla. It was downpouring, so we did get wet while we were waiting, but it was worth it. The cathedral is gorgeous inside, with tall vaulted ceilings and big stone columns. The main altar is covered from floor to ceiling in gold. The cathedral here is also one of the final resting places for Christopher Columbus’ remains. I say that it is only one of the final resting places because the poor man’s remains have been divided and so he now rests in some four or five different sites around the world. Also in the cathedral we saw a group of local miners on strike. They had been on strike for over 200 days, and were living in the cathedral as a manner of protecting themselves from the government. At the end of our visit we climbed La Giralda, the tower that rises high above all the other buildings in the city. Thirty-five steep ramps and a pair of throbbing calves later, I made it to the top, and was greeted with some amazing views. I then walked back to the school to do a few things before Solidarios that night and proceeded to get soaking wet, despite my umbrella. When it was warmer earlier in the semester and it rained, I just wore my Chacos. It was the easiest thing, and the most logical in my mind, since I didn’t have rain boots. My Spanish friends, however, thought I was completely nuts. They just couldn’t wrap their minds around the concept of wearing “chanclas” when it was raining. hahaha

The Scoop on Toledo and my Time with the Musser Family

Wow….sorry it took me almost forever to catch up on updates.

To begin: Toledo and my visit to the Musser family, October 15-18.

Our art class took a trip to Toledo to visit the cathedral there and to look at some famous paintings we were studying at the time. When we first arrived the first thing we noticed is that it was a whole lot colder than in Sevilla, and I immediately decided that I hadn’t brought enough warm clothes. Hahaha That afternoon we explored a little bit. I got pooped on by a pidgeon while I was eating my lunch, but thankfully we had napkins and hand sanitizer on hand! Haha After our explorations we met up with the art class to look at El Entierro del Señor de Orgaz in a small church and then when to a monastery to look at Romanic architecture. That night we went shopping and had lots of fun just walking around the city, even though we were freezing.

The next day we woke up and ate a delicious breakfast at the hotel and packed our stuff. We went as a group to the cathedral and after the tour we had free time for the rest of the weekend. We had the option of either returning to Sevilla with the school or doing or own thing. I had made plans to go visit the Musser family outside of Madrid for the weekend, so I caught a taxi to the train station. I learned that the taxi system in Toledo is far different than that of Sevilla. By that, I mean that I think there are two taxis in the entire city. We went to the tourism office to ask where the best place to get a taxi was, and they pointed us across the street, saying that that was the main taxi point in the city. So we went and we waited and waited and waited. Twenty minutes later, we saw a taxi and attempted to flag it down, but the driver shook his head and kept driving. There was another American couple behind me in line for a taxi, and they didn’t speak any Spanish, so I was trying to help them out, and while I was helping them I missed a taxi. So then I went back to the tourism office and had them call a taxi for me. The taxi picked me up and took me down to the train station. Where I found out that the next two trains were sold out, so I had to sit at the train station and do homework for a few hours while I waited. I finally got into Madrid Atocha station, figured out where my next train was, and wedged myself onto a packed commuter train with my huge backpack and my stuffed messenger bag. I got lots of dirty looks. Haha

The Mussers drove out to meet me in Alcala, where I got off the train, and drove me back to their house and fed me an INCREDIBLE American meal. It was so good! Haha Mrs. Musser gave me a tour of their house and I showed her some photos of my time here in Spain, and then I went to bed. The next day we got up bright and early to head out to a camp in the mountains in Guadalajara. It was an English retreat run by local missionaries, so I got to help out by speaking English with the different people. There were a few people there my age, and I made friends with Dani, who was my partner in the baking workshop session. We returned home that night, and went pretty much straight to bed. The next morning was church at the Evangelical Christian Academy across the street. It was so much fun, and there was a potluck after the service, so that was a nice treat. I caught the AVE high speed train to Sevilla in Madrid that night, and made it back home in less than 3 hours. :-)

A great weekend all in all! Sorry it took me forever to update!

Toledo and Madrid

I'm currently at a hostel in Girona on my way back from my week of vacations, and I don't have much time left on the internet. However, I assure you that I fully intend to update about the Toledo/Madrid trip and do another update immediately afterwards on my amazing week in Barcelona and Ireland! I apologize for the delay...I know many of you have been asking my mom why I haven't updated. And the answer is simply that I've been very busy with group projects and exams.

But once again, fear not, for I shall update soon. :-)

Another week comes to an end. One month already???

Well, it’s Sunday. The start of another week. Last week was a good week overall. I’m starting to make Spanish friends, which is very exciting! Tuesday night I started working with my service project, called Solidarios. They are an NGO that, among many other things, serves homeless people here in Sevilla. We go out onto the streets at night with coffee and cookies and look for the homeless, and our mission is to give them acknowledgement and company in a city where society scorns them, ignores them, and treats them as if they didn’t exist. This week it rained, so there weren’t many homeless actually out on the streets, but we did find a few. One of the men was drunk, and he talked to us for an hour and a half straight about Jesus. I was really excited when he started talking because for once, someone was talking about something I’m familiar with. haha But he spoke the language of the streets and was so drunk that I really couldn’t understand him. It’s also interesting serving with an organizationthat has no ties to the church and, more accurately, scorns the church. I did meet some new friends this week, and I am excited to get to know them better as the semester goes on. You can pray for them. Their names are Javi, Marta, Chano, Maria, Cora, Clara, and Andres.

Thursday I painted a fan for charity at my school. :-) It took me 5 hours, but it was so worth it. I bought two more fans, but haven’t had time to paint those yet.

Friday I got to meet and hang out with my intercambio (kind of like an “assigned friend” who helps you with your Spanish and you help them with English) Fernando for the first time. He’s so nice! We went to lunch and took a couple nice walks, and we got BEN AND JERRY’S!!!!!!!! I needed that. haha Fernando had never had peanut butter before, so we stopped at Corte Ingles so I could buy a jar and he could try some. He said he liked it, but it was very strong. I think I probably should have given him some bread to have it on. haha Oh, well. We spent the afternoon switching back and forth between English and Spanish, helping each other figure out how to say certain things. We had a really good discussion on faith on our way to his bus stop, and I hope we are able to keep talking about it sometime before I leave. Prayers for Fernando and I are appreciated as well.

Saturday I decided not to go to Huelva with the school trip because I was so tired when I woke up. I went to the park to read my Bible and my devotional book for siesta, but left when this creepy Spanish guy wanted to take pictures of my feet. Ew. So I went as far away from the park as I knew how to get, which is the mall on the other side of the city. I got there and thought I’d walk around a little. And then I decided to go see a movie, so I went upstairs to the cinema and saw Disney’s Up in Spanish. It was so funny, and also reassuring that I could purchase movie tickets without help and understand an entire movie without much difficulty. :-) Did you know that movie theaters here have assigned seats?

Lisa ran in a 5k race this morning, and I intended to go to church alone, but I slept in too long. Today has been a lazy day, just sitting around doing homework, watching a Spanish version of “America’s Got Talent” whose title translates to “Yes, You’re Worth It,” and napping. Now I think Lisa and I are going to go get ice cream. Yum!

Blessings!