La mejor identidad

Here is a bit of insight on one of the things I have learning most about during this semester abroad....and that is, the idea of "identity."

Before leaving for my semester abroad,  I of course expected to learn a lot about the Spanish way of life, the culture, the language... what I didn't realize before coming to Spain, was just how much I would learn about myself in the process. When you study abroad, you quickly come to the realization that everything that you once knew of your surroundings has completely changed and how that actually influences who you are more than you think. Once all of the people, places, and things that make up your everyday, comfortable life are gone, it makes you see yourself for who you really are. It can be an uncomfortable process until you realize that there is one that doesn't change no matter where you travel in this world. And His name is Jesus, He's a pretty cool guy. ;)

I have to admit that I am a bit tired of standing out so much in Spain. As much as I want to blend in, let's face it, I just cannot pass as a Spaniard. So where does my identity lie? In being an American? Being a wanna-be Spaniard? None of the above...
God has been teaching me so much about ultimately only finding my identity in Him. Sociologists have this term called, "the looking-glass theory" that states that you adapt yourself to be what the most important person in your life thinks you are.

So what would it look like if we were more like John and were able to see our primary identity in Him alone, as "the one Jesus loves?" What an honor to be able to call ourselves His beloved.

La Vida Está Hecha de Pequeños Momentos

"Life is made up of the little moments."

I took this picture outside of a restaurant one of the very first nights I was in Sevilla, and it holds true even today. I know I blog a lot about my travels outside of Spain because there have been a lot of them, all holding amazing experiences but there have also been some wonderful, everyday small moments that make up my life here in Sevilla as well that deserve to be shared and remembered for years to come.

For example, this past weekend my señora was visiting her sister in Madrid and my roommate was traveling with her parents that were traveling. And so, it was just me and Walter all weekend at home. I had so much fun getting to know my señor even more by asking lots of questions to fill up the awkward silences that normally are always filled by my señora, "chatty Chari" as my roommate and I like to call her. AND! he is quite the chef and made me some amazing food, including dutch pancakes one night for dinner. My roommate came home that night while we were talking and laughing at the kitchen table and in his broken english he said, "yes, we make good friendship,"regarding our weekend together. He reminds me a lot of my really sweet and funny grandpa back home and it will definitely be hard to say goodbye in a month.

Watching Alicia show off her incredible talent!

Another special moment happened a few weeks ago when my roommate and I, who are both the youngest siblings in our families got to play the roles of "big sisters" for our señora's 12 year old granddaughter, Alicia. We first went to her dance class to watch the students perform for their family members traditional flamenco and classical dancing. This girl is seriously going to be famous one day for her dancing; she is absolutely incredible. My roommate and I were so proud, totally playing the big sister roles by taking tons of pictures of her and embarrassing her in front of all of her friends. The three of us that night also had a "noche de chicas" (girl's night), piling on my bed and watching her favorite movie (in spanish, but of course) while having some homemade "palomitas" (kettle corn made by our señora) and hot chocolate. She had so much fun, even though it was probably too much party for her because she fell asleep during the movie...she couldn't quite keep up with the older girls. ;)

We were so proud of her!

These are some of the moments I shall miss the most because they are irreplaceable, every day things that are what truly make up my time in this beautiful city.

Italia, prego! [Part 3]

[Florence]

After having stayed in Florence for 2 nights, it was about time we actually explored the great city of Firenze! And so Thursday consisted of just that. We saw the Duomo, an incredibly detailed fresco church and it so huge! We also went to the Galeria Academia and saw our good friend, David. That was actually way cooler than I thought it would be and turned out to be one of my favorite parts of Florence. The size of the statue alone is awe-inspiring, but the detail and realistic depiction taht has lasted all these years is incredible. I read under the description that Michelangelo actually salvaged a giant piece of marble that was going to be used by the church I believe, but then ended up being left behind, overlooked. Just like David, I thought. And so it was and is very fitting that the piece of marble was actually transformed into a statue of David that was also seen as a heroic symbol of the city when they were being attacked by enemies.

the Duomo

David himself! Disclaimer: I took the picture before
we realized you weren't allowed to take pics...woops ;)
And this really does not capture one bit the size and grandeur of this sculpture. 

Pont Veccio

We did lots of strolling around walking by shops, through the famous bridge, Pont Veccio, and of course partaking in more paninis and trying the delicious Florentine pastry, Panne de Pescatori-yumm!

[Pisa]

This picture alone basically sums up Pisa...yep. It was quite the little ghost town besides the area surrounding the infamous, Leaning Tower of Pisa. But as we were flying out the following morning from Pisa we spent Friday afternoon and night in this little town. And so we had to take the classic, "I'm holding up the tower" poses for our pictures and check yet another thing off our list. Being the last stop of the trip, it was quite appropriate that it was a sleepy town as we were 2 very weary travelers, ready for our beds and "homes" back in Sevilla, ready to hear something normal like Spanish all the time... ;)

Ciao, Italia....thanks for the great ride!

Italia, prego! [Part 2]

[Cinque Terre: nature is good for the soul]

And for the much anticipate story that happened in Florence....here we go!
First of all, Tuesday morning we decided to take advantage of our last few hours in Rome by going up to the top of the St. Peter's Basilica Copula. I must say, not too shabby of a view!

View from the top of the Copula 

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

And alas, we hopped onto the train where I somehow managed to get a business class seat (I knew something was off when I stepped on and everyone around me was an Italian business man in a suit, seated in the super comfy reclining chairs) but hey, I'll take it! The ride needless to say, was quite comfortable and the views of rolling Tuscan hills were absolutely breathtaking. I've always loved train rides for this reason, you can't help but stare out the window while taking in the amazing sights for a few hours, getting lost in your own little world. These moments are just good for the soul.

I've set up this great, "I'm in my happy place" feeling to draw the stark contrast of the awful unfolding event just around the bend....

After the train ride we arrived in rainy Florence and found bus #17, just like the hostel directions told us. To our confusion and surprise, no one on the bus paid the bus driver anything...and the bus driver was plugged into his ipod headphones in his little bus cubicle of a plastic box. So we wondered, maybe you pay when you get off? Maybe it's a ride free zone? Nevertheless, we were a few stops away from our stop when an "inspector" gets on the bus and starts asking people for their tickets...."no problem," I think, "just show him our money and say we didn't know where to pay," I tell Carly. Dead wrong, it was a problem indeed. The guy got all mad and treated us terribly saying condescending things like, "In-a Italy, we don't have a 'sorry,' we have a 'you pay da fine!' " Despite our shocked faces (mine of course, on the verge of tears), and explaining that we had literally just gotten here (as if the giant backpacks on our backs weren't enough to show that) and really weren't trying to cheat the system, he began writing up a ticket for our 50 euro fine...that's right, FIFTY EUROS! (that's about 70 U.S. dollars) Ouch. I am so thankful we both managed to have that much cash on us or who knows what could have happened...we probably would have ended up in an Italian police station with the nerve this guy had...the next Amanda Knox cases, perhaps? 

Once we got off, I let some of the tears go and once again, when we got the hostel...haha. The front desk lady gave us our bill and when Carly mentioned 'hey, this is cheaper than our bus ride,' the story had to be told and so I lost it in front of her and just had to say, "I'm sorry, it's just been a long day," and "people can be mean," I thought in my head. 

Although we felt as if we had been treated like criminals and nothing we would say mattered, we were determined to not let this guy define Florence for us. Hard lesson definitely learned, though. 

And so we decided that what we needed was to get away from the city, the tourists, and get ourselves some nature fix. Spontaneous day trip to Cinque Terre (5 little towns that are situated on cliffs, overlooking the ocean) ensued the following day.  

As great as Rome was, we were feeling overwhelmed by all of the touristy aspects, the hundreds of peoples on the streets trying to sell you the weirdest, purposeless things, the crowds...Cinque Terre soon solved all of that though and did our souls good. We pulled into the tiny cliff town of Vernazza and spent the afternoon soaking up the NATURE (we quickly realized we really are Pacific Northwest girls at heart) and the WATER, under some Tuscan sun...the day was absolutely perfect and made me wish we had made more of our Italy based out of small coastal towns like this. The locals were so nice, the views were amazing, and it was just so peaceful. This was the Italy I had been wanting to experience.

we have fun together

Best bruschetta of my LIFE!! Not to mention it was accompanied by a yummy panini
while overlooking the beach. Pure perfection. 

Beautiful Vernazza. Heaven on earth. 

Catching an amazing sunset. 

Italia, prego! [Part 1]

Italy, where to even begin! Seeing as how a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm going to take advantage of that seeing as how a whole week is a bit hard to cover in a blog post. Once again, I set out on another 'travel the world adventure' with my friend, Carly...just another day in the life, ya know. And so Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Spain began with us taking a flight out on Friday night to Rome, Italy. Cue the "Rome if you want to" song...
Once we got situated at the hostel we walked right to the Trevi fountain and made our two coin tosses with the traditional wishes of returning back to the Trevi fountain and one for love. Visit the Trevi fountain? Check.
The weather on Saturday was absolutely beautiful and was perfect for us strolling through the city and stumbling upon sights like the Pantheon, street art markets, our first lunch of pizza (it really is better in Italy!), and some gelato. Let's just say one or both of us had some of this delicious stuff just about every single day.

Pantheon

Sunday consisted of us waking up at the crack of dawn (6am) to head out to battle the hectic crowds, smashed like sardines and pushing and shoving to get into St. Peter's Square and witness Palm Sunday Mass with none other than the new Pope Francis himself. What is my life?! 

Palm Sunday Mass at St. Peter's Square

After the 3 hour mass we made our way to Circus Maximus and the Colosseum. This finally made me feel like I was in Rome, seeing all of these incredible ruins that tell so much history. 

Enjoying yet another round of gelato in front of Circus Maximus 

Monday started off a little less early than our previous 17 hour day with some delicious cappuccinos and Italian pastries before going to the Vatican Museum and seeing the famous Sistine Chapel. It was spectacular. Amidst the crazy amounts of tourists crammed into the chapel, security guards "shushing" people to be quiet, the loud speaker reminding people to not take pictures and be quiet (in 10 different languages), I had to try really hard to block it all out so that I could actually soak it all in. Michelangelo's work is so incredibly detailed, the beautiful paintings cover just about every crevice of the room. I also found it so enlightening to see how the section with God and Adam stretching out their hands toward each other represents humanity to the "t." God is ilustrated as reaching out with all His strength, all that He has and Adam is sprawled out out on his cloud, sitting back so leisurely, his hand barely making the effort to touch the hand of God. Wow...how many times do we find ourselves barely trying when God does so much for us and loves us with every fiber in His being. Powerful stuff, my friends. 

And now for the very best part of Rome (at least in my book!)...our last dinner at this amazing family owned restaurant near our hostel. They say Italy is all about their food and they sure are right! We were treated so well by this family of an elderly couple as the chefs and their daughter as the hostess and definitely given some of the best food of all time. I had bruschetta (which, I just need to add, I don't like tomatoes but this stuff was so addicting!) with fresh, fresh tomatoes, dripping in olive oil and all kinds of garlic and spices...your mouth is just watering reading it, isn't it?! And that was just the beginning. Next up was some delicious ravioli, topped off with home made tiramisu. Needless to say, we were stuffed and shocked to see that we had been there for 2 and a half hours! Between our own talking and interacting with the cute old man, we felt like we had actually gotten one of the best glimpses into Italian life-family, good friends, and food.

Home made tiramisu! I wish I had gotten a picture of that bruschetta though... ;)

Next up, to Florence (and a rather funny/not so funny adventure to be had) we go! Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon!

A work in progress

I will be coming up on the half way mark of my time abroad pretty soon and it is so mind blowing to realize how the time is literally speeding by. That can be a scary thought too because I am realizing more and more that the idea of study abroad brings so many expectations to mind. I feel like I am up against this ticking clock of a deadline by which I must return to the states having completely perfected my spanish, grown tremendously in my relationship with God, and having learned all of these new things that will completely change me by the time I step foot back onto Seattle soil. And though some of these expectations definitely do have valid points and progressing results, it will probably not look as I had expected it to...

I am and always will be "a work in progress."

God has been teaching me that it is ok to to be ok with wherever I am at in the moment. How else will I fully be able to soak up this incredible experience if I am constantly thinking about where I should and want to be? I am most definitely here for a reason and God knows exactly what He is doing in my life even if I won't be able to see what that is until way down the road...and that is perfectly ok.


"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven...He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." -Ecclesiastes 3 

"Paris is always a good idea." -Audrey Hepburn

I. love. Paris.
It's as simple as that and yet not simple at all to try and describe how truly amazing my four day weekend was! It really was a dream come true for me to be able to visit this beautiful city, let alone with my amazing friend, Carly. The two of us go way back to our middle school days and we are so blessed to both be studying in different parts of Spain at the moment.

Directly after class on Wednesday afternoon, I booked it to the bus station so that I could begin that day's journey of a bus ride, 2.5 hour train ride to Madrid, an hour on the Metro to get to the airport, a 2 hour flight, then a couple more hours of....well, this is where the adventure part begins! Carly and I landed at the airport at about 10:30pm and were soon shocked to realize that by the time we had walked to the train departures, the last train going into the city for the night had already left. You have to just picture our faces at that moment when we realized we were somewhat stranded, in France, very late at night, and neither one of us speaks a lick of French! Español anyone? We soon learned that we had to take a bus but as we were trying to ask the woman at the ticket booth if this bus could take us near our hostel we heard the familiar English words from a man saying, "Girls, I can help you, I live here." With a quick "is this guy trustworthy?" check we decided he was and really, we had no other options. Fortunately, this man was an answer to prayer as he helped us through the process of getting on the bus (which felt as if it was taking us to the middle of nowhere) and then leading us through a full on sprint  to catch the last metro of the night to where we would finally be on our way to our hostel and he on his way home. And yet, it doesn't end there! We then proceeded to walk up and down the same street about 5 times trying to find the street to turn on to find our hostel. We are now coming upon 1am in the international district of Paris and there are few souls out on the street. Our last hope was to walk into a bar to ask for directions when to our surprise, a french man who could tell we didn't speak French, began speaking in Spanish! Whether he actually thought we were Spaniards (I'll take that as a compliment!) or that was the only other language besides French that he knew, we shall never know! With his help we finally made it to the super nice hostel-a huge silver lining at the end of the tunnel to crash for the night amidst the chorus of the 4 other roommates snoring...

The next day we were pleasantly surprised to realize how amazing our hostel really was! After enjoying our free French (yes, croissants were included) breakfast, we once again braved the metro system to find ourselves walking up the steps and onto the street, where right around the corner stood Notre Dam! We were shocked to instantly already see something so amazing before our eyes! "Is this real life?" we asked ourselves. We enjoyed walking in awe and taking lots of pictures. We also realized that a mass was about to start soon after we arrived and so we decided to sit on it! The rest of the day was spent wandering the beautiful streets, doing some good ol' shopping, and finishing it all off with an amazing dinner of crepes and creme brulee in a cute little bistro. Not too shabby of a day.

Our first reactions to seeing the Eiffel Tower!

Friday morning began with us feeling like quite the masters with the whole metro system in Paris. We were getting the hang of it and were once again pleasantly surprised to walk up from the metro steps, turn the corner at the opera house, and BAM! there stood the majestic Eiffel Tower. We both started screaming and laughing at the ridiculous notion that we really were in Paris, looking at the Eiffel Tower. I couldn't have felt happier and more blessed to stand before something I have been dreaming of seeing for so many years. The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower was just as amazing and reinforced another mind blowing experience. I have been wanting to travel Europe for so long and never knew if or when it would happen. I am so thankful for a God that provides and also takes pleasure in seeing his children so happy.
We spent several hours that morning walking around the area, turning around every so often to make sure the Eiffel Tower really was still there and was still real! After summiting the top to soak in some amazing views and practically freeze to death, we partook in some delicious french bread to cap off the entire tourist experience. This was followed by some warm food at a nearby bistro, another chilly walk to the Arc de Triumph (with reduced student entrance), and ending the night with 3 hours in the Louvre. We also were able to get free entrance to the Louvre Museum because it was a Friday night, after 6pm and we happened to be under 26 years old with European visas. Gotta love all of the free perks at this age in life.

Taking our walk through the estate grounds

Our last full day in Paris we took a day trip to Versailles where once again, we got to enter for free! Being a student sure has its perks...walking through the palace felt so surreal as we kept realizing how much history had taken place on the very floors we were stepping on. It is very obvious that King Louis and Marie Antoinette were the "go big or go home" type of people as this estate was ginormous and beautifully crafted to be one of the most elegant things I have ever seen. Even the gardens (more like a forest) were beautiful. We walked around for hours and hours exploring the grounds and feeling as if we had stepped into a "Pride and Prejudice"era, taking our afternoon stroll through the countryside. It felt so invigorating to share some great conversation, feel the crisp air on our cheeks, and take in all of the natural beauty that surrounded us-a wonderful few hours of stepping into another peaceful world amidst the hectic moments that have consumed our days for the past 2 months.
To say "au revoir," to our new beloved city, we went back into Paris to walk around the city even more and catch the lighting up of the Eiffel Tower at night and partake in our last very french meal (Carly tried escargot! I on the other hand was not as brave...) before going homeward bound on Sunday morning.


It was a phenomenal weekend full of wonderful conversations/being reunited with a good friend, delicious French food, amazing historical sights, and special memories that shall last me a lifetime.

Just a snapshot of the amazing work inside the Louvre

Until next time, Paris...