My Current Life in a Nutshell

One weekend whisked away to Nantes, France.  The next weekend engulfed by some Barcelona love.  Another weekend a visit from a great friend.  Then maybe a little trip to San Sebastian.  Oh!  And don’t forget to fit a little studying in the middle of all that. 

Basically, everything has been unbelievable here.  Joanne and I went to France last weekend to visit our friends Scotty and Nico.  We went to Nantes, so a fairly small town with a river running through it similar to Porto, Portugal, but the entire time we were there Joanne said it reminded her of Seattle.  So, maybe it is Seattle-esque?  It was definitely cold enough to be Seattle.  I did not go prepared for such cold weather at all.  I didn’t even bring anything but sandals.  Oops! 

While we were there our friend Nico had a Gala, which I guess I would describe as a glorified prom with 10 different themed rooms with different types of music and food and French people everywhere and fun and happiness.  But I think the best part was getting to dress up and spend some time with a few of Scotty’s friends from his time in Nantes.  Great people! 

Our weekend in France was a blast with little sleep and lots of love!  And Joanne and I get the honor of hosting Scotty in Barcelona this Thursday!  Woot!  Maybe we’ll finally get to do some tourist stuff around the city that we haven’t got to do yet either. 

Other than France, what else has been going on?  School?  Nah!  Well actually a little.  We had midterms last week, which went well.  I only had 2, so that was nice, but I’m definitely going to make up for those tests in final semester papers.  I think I have to write about 30 pages 1.5 spaced by the end of my time here.  Yikes!

But other than that, everything has been great.  I keep meeting new people every day and going on random adventures getting lost in the Barcelona jungle.  AND!  Yesterday I played lacrosse for the first time with my friend Aaron’s team here!  So neat!  I had no idea what I was getting myself into when he invited me, but I worked out with his team and improved 1000% from the beginning of the practice til the end.  For my first time picking up a lacrosse stick, I’d say I did pretty well.  They even invited me to play with them in their tournament next weekend against Madrid, Sevilla, and Andalucía!  It was a blast!  And I’m so glad I decided to go for it and try something new!  Who knows…maybe lacrosse is in my future haha. 

Ta ta for now!  

Routine

Everything is finally settling down and routines are kicking in.  Boy does time fly by here!  I’ve been here for about a month and a half now, and it seems like I just arrived on the streets with my mom yesterday, but I guess a lot has happened since then.  At SCU and IES they tried to prepare us for the emotional rollercoaster of the study abroad experience.  They even gave us charts on how our emotions would progress.  Here’s an example of the main one:

I shrugged my shoulders and never thought this thing could ever be true, but man, was I wrong.  The different stages are occurring like clockwork.  If I were to say that everything here has been a fairytale and wonderful I would be lying, so I’m not going to say that.  There have been ups and downs through the adjustment of moving across the world.  A lot of deciphering who I am and determining my place here.  But through all that, so many amazing things have come out of this experience so far.  And there’s only an upward slope to go. 

I said before that I would tell you about my classes, but I guess I never did that, so here it goes.  I’m taking 4 classes: Spanish 202 (Intermediate), Mediterranean Oceanography, Sport and Society in Spain, and The Business of Sports in Europe.  All of them have actually been super interesting and I really enjoy going to class.  The way IES sets up their classes is excellent; all the courses are Spain/Barcelona oriented and consist of “field studies” around the city.  For example, for Oceanography we went to the Aquarium on the second day of class:

For Spanish we go on Scavenger hunts around the city and go out interviewing people on the street in Spanish:

For my Sport and Society class we had Castellers (human towers.  It's a Catalan tradition) come into our class and we built towers of people INSIDE the classroom!  Seriously, these people are amazing!  They build towers of people 9 stories high all standing on each others' shoulders then a child (5-7 years old) climbs to the very top to finish off the tower.  Incredible.  You have to look them up on youtube or something!

And for my Business of Sports class yesterday we went to the 1992 Olympic Basketball Stadium to meet with players and marketing people from Club Joventut Badalona, a professional basketball team right outside of Barcelona.  http://www.penya.com/noticia.php?id=12028&lang=es.  We talked with the American players on the team and then with the marking director for the team.  And guess what a small world we live in?!  One of the players we talked to, Pooh Jeter, went to my rival high school and his sister is Carmelita Jeter, the fastest woman in the world, and used to be our high school track coach.  So all the way across the world I meet this professional basketball player from my hometown and I know his sister.  So neat.  Here’s a picture in the press box at the Olympic Stadium:

Those are some of the neat field studies I’ve been on so far and there are many more to come for all the classes.  The teachers are great and the content is enriching!  I just hope to get the units to all transfer correctly once I get back…

PORTO, PORTUGAL

I'm a little short for words about this weekend, but everyone says that pictures say 1,000 words, so check out my Facebook album from this weekend in Porto, Portugal:

THE ALBUM

Basically it was everything I could have ever dreamed of.  I couldn't have had a better weekend!

Beautiful. Epic. Insane. Correfoc.

Today is one of those days where you have to slap yourself before you go to bed to make sure you haven’t been dreaming.  I just don’t even know where to begin on all the adventures and just pure goodness that went down.  First, Joanne and I went to the International church again which has just been such a blessing with so much life and encouragement every time we visit.   Then the church had a potluck type lunch for the young adults with homemade paella!  It was delicious and the house we ate at was beautiful up in the peaceful hills way out of the city.  So beautiful and so serene.  Once again, we’re seeing a different Spain.

Can someone say PAELLA?! 

The beautiful view from the courtyard of the home.

Then comes the extreme craziness!  This weekend, in Catalunya, there was a festival called La Mercè.  This four day festival occurs throughout the city in every plaza around town.  There are so many events and different things to do and see that you are forced to choose between the best ones ‘cause news flash…we haven’t figured out how to be in two places at once quite yet.  All these events serve to display Catalan and Mediterranean tradition. 

The bunch of events I went to were all great fun, but tonight just was just thrown over the edge.  Here in Spain they close off the festivities with a parade and fireworks.  Sounds normal right?  Nope.  In this parade called the Correfoc, people (dressed as devils) light huge sticks of fire, similar to those 4^th of July sparklers times 10, and run through the streets of Barcelona.  Thousands of people show up to watch and participate in this celebration.  The devils run around with the fire as people run and dance underneath the flames.  I can’t even really describe it or do it any justice, but google images or youtube Correfoc and witness the insaneness for yourself.  There is no way anything like this would ever happen in the US.  Just this about the Correfoc, a government sponsored/funded parade where they shoot fire at their citizens.  Yup.  This would just not be an option is the US. 

Before all the action hit

Yup.  That's my silhouette in there right by that fire

 The action on the streets

Post running through fire.  Can you tell it was exhilarating?

After my two friends Leslie and Ally and I ran through the fire and followed a fire breathing dragon the entire parade route, we went on a mission to get to the roof of our RA’s apartment before the fireworks began.  This journey to her house was an adventure by itself running through the streets with people everywhere and taking the jammed packed metro with no room to move an inch.  But we made it all the way to her roof and spent the next hour marveling at the beauty and adventurous city of Barcelona while gazing up at the lit sky just over the Plaza de España.    

Beautiful.  Epic.  Insane.  A night to remember.

Viaje a la Costa Brava con mi Escuela

As I sit here at the University of Barcelona with the hum of Spanish and Catalan coming from local students filling the air, I take a look around unsure of where I actually am.  Am I on a college campus full of people on a similar journey as me?  Or am I in a foreign country, isolated by the language barrier that will always remain? 

Last weekend I went on a trip up the coast with everyone from my school.  It was the same area I went with my mom earlier in the month, but we went to totally different places.  The trip started out bright and early at 7:30am with sleepy students hastily entering 5 buses headed to 2 different locations.  Joanne, Shelby, and I were all on different busses going in different directions, so this weekend was great for us to get to know lots of new people.

We started the trip in Figures at the Salvador Dali museum.  Here is his website if you have no idea who this awesome artist is (mom and dad). http://www.salvador-dali.org/en_index.html.  The place was just surreal.  I don’t really consider myself a museum person, but this place was mind blowing.  I have no idea how one person could create so many obscure images in one short lifetime.  Every detail in this museum, that he created himself, was pronounced with meaning.  Here are a few pictures:

A painting of Dali's wife inside who other than good 'ol Abe Lincoln.

A raining car.  It rains literally inside the car.

After that we rode to Cadaqués to see the town where Dali grew up and to have lunch and soak up the sun right on the beach in this small town with little car access.

The next day we spent in FRANCE!  We followed the same path of the Spanish exile on the way and stopped in Jonquera at the exile museum.  This event imitates the Holocaust and occurred after the Spanish Civil War when Franco ruled, so you could see how this would not be the most pleasant of experiences.  But it was very enlightening and gave a whole new perspective on the Catalonian Empire and why Catalunya is so important to the people of Barcelona. 

Then came France, which was so breathtaking!  How many people can say they just skedaddled over to France for the day?  Not many.  Except there’s the problem that no one knows one word of French.  When I went to go buy postcards this nice lady smiled and had an entire conversation with me in French while I just smiled and gave her way more Euros than I had to just in case.  Then I said, “Merci” and walked away.  During that entire conversation I wished my friend Scotty would pop up beside me to translate, but nope.  He never did. 

Also in France there was this beautiful castle right on the Sea.  It was the craziest home I have ever been in.  I entered this underground tunnel on accident and after walking a while I popped up on some other side with another amazing view.  There were underground secret passages in every direction and the views out of the large castles walls were to die for!  Sea in every direction.

And the last day we stayed in Girona and had a walking tour of the city (in the rain) before we took the bus home.  One jammed packed weekend full of fun, bonding, and little sleep.  Many more to come!

Are you there?

Have you ever felt as if someone took over your body?

Have you ever caught yourself not acting as yourself?

Could you figure out why?

Did you revert back to the true you?  Or begin a new identity?

Have you ever walked into a room and not known a single soul?

Have you ever known me to walk into a room and not know a single soul?

How did you feel not having someone at your side to talk with?

Unsure?

Curious?

Excited that new friends are to be made? 

Isolated?

What do you do next?

Introduce yourself to the next group of people you see?

Wait for someone to approach you through the crowd?

Walk through the room pretending you know what is going on?

Have you ever felt as if your heart abandoned you?

Is it back in California?

Is it here in Spain?

Has it always been inside waiting to be noticed again?

When you turn, Jesus is always waiting.

For you.

For ME. 

A companion for life.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”  –Jeremiah 29:13

and the days keep going and going

So here’s the deal.  Every day when I walk around the city here I think to myself “Wow.  I can’t wait to blog about this.”  Then you got it.  I either never remember that thing again or the day just goes on so long that I don’t feel like writing anymore.  And then after too many days go by (and the days feel like weeks here) I have no idea where to even start up again, so I guess here is a quick recap of a few of the things I’ve done since I last blogged.

-          Joanne and I went on a day trip last Friday to Sitges, a small beach town about half an hour south of Barcelona.  It is truly gorgeous there and is exactly what Joanne and I pictured when we originally thought of Spain.  There are small Spanish streets with old looking shops overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.  And the good news about this little place is that it is FREE for us to get there on the train with our metro passes, so we will definitely be going back soon before it starts to cool off here.

-          The weather is still super humid with little breeze.  The nights are a struggle with no air conditioning.

-          My host mom is the best and craziest human alive.  She just talked to fast in her Castillian accent that it’s hard to understand, but I get the jist.  And, let’s just say that I would hate to be on the other side of the phone when the internet at our house goes out.  She definitely gave that automated machine a run for its money.  Basically she’s hilarious.

-          Joanne, Cynthia, and I saw Swan Lake  the ballet performed by the Nation Ballet of Cuba.  Or well, should I sat El Lago de Las Cisnes?  Good thing there are no words in a ballet.  I saw the ballet before with Christine at the San Joase ballet, so I was familiar with it, but there was a different sort of elegance with this production which made it almost like I was watching a different ballet with the same elements.  It’s funny how the same choreography and story line can tell a totally different story just through the motions of people’s bodies and the passion they place into the dance.

-          Went shopping and Joanne and I bought these matching totally European pants with the baggy look.  We might be sporting them back in the US…just a little warning.

-          My host mom made Paella for dinner.  DELISH!

-          Joanne and I found a church in ENGLISH!  And met another girl, Audrey, studying here from Texas.  The church was a hit and we will definitely be going back even thoughmy host mom does not really approve at all and called it a ummmmm I’m not too sure what but probably something I shouldn’t be repeating. 

-          What else have I been up to this week besides school and actually having to start studying here?  This isn’t just a vacation after all is it?

-          Hmmm.  Joanne and I (can you tell that I’ve basically been doing everything with Joanne?) went to see a movie totally in Spanish and we pretty much understood it all.  Success.  It was a little, well a really not pleasant movie, but at least we understood what was going on the whole time ¿Right?

-          Then I guess going back to school, classes have been a lot of work already, but I’ve been enjoying them all, so that’s a good thing.  I’ll write about those later (hopefully I remember) but for now I have to go read for a class starting in 2 hours.  ¡Adios!