Tuesday, October 28, 2003

post-Salamanca

A delightful Tuesday to you! (Or whatever day of the week it might happen to be when you read this!)

This past week, as usual, has been an absolute blast -- full of lots of fun activities and not a whole lot of sleep :) Tuesday we hit a bowling alley and VIPS for dinner. Wednesday was the Real Madrid soccer game! We met up at Burger King before to eat and chill, and then headed over to the game. The game wasn't that great -- I think RM knew they were gonna win so they didn't push themselves to play very hard -- but they did win, it was fun to be in the stadium, and I had a great time with my friends.

Thursday we had Bible Study, and just before it started, I received a very exciting phone call from my mother -- she's gonna travel with me at the end! I'm so incredibly excited that I can't hardly contain myself. Friday I headed over to a travel agent and bought us some tickets from Madrid to Prague and then from Rome to Madrid. We have 12 days between the flights, during which time we will take trains to view other places -- probably Vienna, Munich, Venice, and Florence. Friday evening I went over to the Pastor's house with all the youth and we ate pizza (yummy!) and watched The Recruit in Spanish... it made a lot more sense this time, because when I watched it in English, I didn't get to see the first 20ish mins.

Saturday, the Furman group headed off to Salamanca, a small town about 200kms north of Madrid. It was colder than it's been since we've been here, and rainy most of the time we were there, but Marisa (our Art & Civ prof) was our tour guide, and she's wonderful! We saw the 2 cathedrals (aptly named "Old Cathedral" and "New Cathedral"), the University of Salamanca, several other buildings from the outside. We stayed the night, and with the time change, I got a full 8 hours of sleep... I don't think I've gotten that much in one night since I arrived in Spain! On Sunday we saw 2 convents, one of which sells Almond cookies to make money -- reminds me of Butter Letter that I haven't had in ages!

We arrived back in Madrid around 5:30, and I headed off with my pals to church. It was Youth Sunday, and it was great to participate in the service that was run by our friends and to hear them sing the songs we had practiced with them. We had dinner together afterwards, and next thing you know, it's Monday!

We have a paper due in Theater in 5 mins that I had to work on last night, but other than that, this week looks to be a fairly slow one. Something tells me, however, that plans will come up and I will have plenty to share come next Tuesday!

You can continue to pray, if you would, for travel plans as there's still plenty to be done. Also, just that God would make His Word come alive in my life.

And one more thing -- the father of the little girl who lives with me died suddenly last Friday. He wasn't married to her mother (who also lives with me), but it's still hard on them. Please pray for me as I minister to them in this hard time, that they would see the Love of Christ, and that if it be His will, that He would draw them to Himself through this trial. Thanks!

Soli Deo Gloria...

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

of bad movie translations

Yeah, so it feels like just yesterday that I posted last time, but it has been a full week! On the other hand, so much has happened that I hardly remember the last posting. Oh, the joys of the human mind that can remember and forget at the same time!

This has been a delightful week. We "traded" profesors last week... Ángelica went back to Furman and Christina arrived. Friday we had our first Art & Civilizacion class in the Prado Museum... interesting, but it's hard on the back to stand for 2 hours while listening to a lecture in Spanish, taking notes on it, and looking at artwork at the same time. Friday afternoon I got a bit of a haircut before going to see "The Italian Job" in Spanish with my friends from the church. What a fun movie! There were definitely one or two spots that didn't quite come through in the translation where I found myself the only one laughing in the whole theater.

Saturday was a big day because we had the hike with the bilingual Bible study group. We had such a blast! I got some good pics, but they can't explain how much fun we had. After a bit of a hike/hard walk on the mountain, we had dinner at a Swiss restuarant (exceptional food!) and watched "Quigley Down Under." While we watched it in Spanish, it was hard not to read the English substitles because they were so much funnier than the Spanish! Thankfully, the rain held off until dinner time, but our return trip home (which took over an hour) was definitely rainy. I got back around 2:15am.

Spent a great Lord's Day with my friends at the church. Youth Sunday is this coming Sunday, so they spent a lot of time practicing the songs they are going to sing -- unfortunately I won't be able to join them because we are going to Salamanca this weekend. We went to Tony Roma's for dinner... yes, you read that right, I did have ribs for dinner in Spain. So much fun! Although, for some odd reason, the guys seem to think that I'm a big eater (where would they get that idea from?!?!), so I was the object of much laughter and ribbing (no pun intended) as I enjoyed my meal. Good times.

Due to the lack of sleep I got over the weekend, yesterday was a day to do some work and pretty much stay home. I did go to buy a ticket to a Real Madrid soccer game for this Wednesday, so I'll tell you about that next week. I also went to the gym, where I encountered a woman who wants to pay me to work with her on her English. I'm waiting for her to call me now, so we'll see what happens with that. I'll keep you posted.

Keep those emails coming... I love knowing how to pray for you! Thanks for your continued prayers -- I have come up with a topic for my Chile project, but I need to keep researching it to be sure that it will work and to clarify a bit more exactly what I'm going to write about. Free travel is still a bit up in the air, so pray for decision-making wisdom. And also, please pray for my relationships -- that I would be an encouragement to fellow Christians and a witness to non-believers. And that I would have the boldness to open my mouth... living a life of love is a good thing, but openly sharing what my Saviour has done for me is a good thing too, and I tend to have trouble with it. Until next time,

Soli Deo Gloria...

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

of Cuenca and wet laundry

Hello, hello.
Time has passed rather quickly since last Tuesday, something that is happening a lot lately. I'm amazed that we are almost at the half-way point in our trip, and are past half-way in our classes (due to the traveling we do at the end).
Classes have been going fairly normally, although we do have a midterm in Art and Civilization this Thursday that has the whole class pretty much petrified. We've covered so much information it's ridiculous! And I love it until I have to remember it!
We went to see "Historia de una escalera" on Friday evening. It was a much better theater presentation than the last one we saw in that it was more modern, shorter, easier to understand, and had a better plot. That being said, I was still bummed that they planned a school thing on a Friday night... I mean, who does that?!?!
Saturday I went to Cuenca, a small art community that's less than 3 hours away by train. As there wasn't much interest among the group (and it wasn't a required trip), it just ended up being me and one other girl. I think I liked it better like that. We could take our time walking around, taking pics, visiting the Abstract Art Museum without a guide and making fun of the interesting stuff we found there, and get to know each other better. I had to wake up at 6:30 so we could catch the 8:50 train, so after returning at 10, catching the end of a birthday party at Planet Hollywood, and waiting on a bus that wasn´t running, I think I was asleep before hitting the pillow around 1:30.
Sunday was a delightful day spent at church and with my friends... doesn't get much better! Monday was normal, except that my "monitor" at the gym sure kicked my butt for over an hour and a half. Cardio, weights, 100 crunches... felt great! When I got home, I decided to handwash some clothes and hang them on the line... I didn't realize what a mistake that was until I woke up this morning at 7:30 to realize that it was raining and my shirts and socks weren't anywhere near dry. Such is life when you live in a country that thinks dryers are more of a pain than they're worth :)
Now, I have to go before I'm late to the most boring of theater classes. I think the key things you can pray for me for this week are that decisions about free travel fall smoothly into place (anyone want to come travel Europe with me for 2 weeks?!?!) and that I will come up with a project idea for my Chile trip before next Monday... it's hard to give that priority when I'm having such a great time here, but it needs to be done. Until next week,
Soli Deo Gloria...

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

post-Galicia

Hey there folks!
With my new schedule for October, more than likely my postings will be on Tuesdays now, instead of Wed... for what it's worth.
This past weekend we spent in Galicia... the NorthWest of Spain. It is sooo open and green compared to Madrid. Very beautiful. Yet again, we spent a whole lot of time in buses with tour guides, so I returned very well rested from all the sleep I got ;), but when I was awake, I really enjoyed my time there. We saw Santiago de Compostela which has importance in the Catholic church because of Saint James, for whom it's named, and there's a long pilgrimage that you can make from France that is supposed to give some forgiveness benefit or something if you do it by foot.
We also saw La Coruña, a city a little farther north. Our hotel overlooked the Atlantic ocean, which was gorgeous. I haven't been able to get up all my pics yet, but I've started and hope to get most of them up by the end of the week, so keep checking back.
We returned just in time for 3 of us to hop a taxi and get to church... it was great to hear the Word preached and be in the fellowship of our Spaniard brothers and sisters.
Classes started back yesterday, and I'm very excited because I have the same grammar prof that I had for September, and she's great! I also made it to the gym last night and had a great workout.
As we head into this week, my specific prayer request would be for my witness to several Spaniards that I see fairly consistently... Lazaro, Katy and Kini at the gym; Maria Jose, Amparo and Marisa, my profs at school; and Conchita, Carolina, and Gabriela, the family I live with.
Thanks for all the emails... it's great to get updates on your lives, and it's encouraging to be reminded that you're praying for me. Much love from Spain!
Soli Deo Gloria...