Tuesday, November 29

            Monday and Tuesday have brought with them a whirlwind, and I’m not quite sure where to start with this little post here. I guess Monday would be a good place.

I was pretty discouraged on Monday to find out that the expectations for my literature paper did not exactly meet up with what I wrote over the weekend, and I’ve been struggling to understand exactly why. Basically, the professor wants us to answer each question in a separate section rather than relating ideas in a fluid paper. So, later this week I’ll be going back and writing an explanation of where each question is specifically answered in my paper. I’m pretty frustrated because I hate to dismantle a synthesized paper, but as that’s the assignment, that’s what I’ll be doing.

This disappointment in the standards in my classes has been a recurring theme of my Spanish life, and this most recent, most significant disappointment has brought me to my knees in prayer for peace and understanding. I’m not sure what else to do with it…I feel helpless and without influence in the situation because I’ve already talked with the professor and know that it’s very unlikely that any changes in standards will be made. I don’t want this type of letdown to turn my last few weeks into a disagreeable time, so I’m working on coming to terms with the situation, dealing with it, and moving on. However, this has proven to be a true challenge for me, and prayers for a smooth, peaceful next couple of weeks would be truly appreciated.

After class yesterday, I met with a group to work on my last presentation for the semester. The group project went long enough that I didn’t have time to go home for lunch before heading to Mision Urbana, so I finally grabbed lunch at the restaurant next to school that I’ve been wanting to try all semester. I ate and did some homework in the park near school, which was nice, and then I caught the metro to my service project. I recently discovered that the place where I’ve been working on Mondays and Wednesdays is actually called Mision Urbana, NOT Mision Nervana…I have no idea where that confusion came from, but the name now makes a lot more sense to me. Anyways, because I lost my public transit card and had to buy a new one, I ended up missing the bus that I have to take after the metro, so I arrived about 15 minutes late. It ended up being alright, and the kids loved having something to tease me about.

Like always, we worked on homework for the first two hours and then had a snack. During the last hour of fun activities, I helped a girl one-on-one with her homework because she just couldn’t get it done during the group study time. I loved having the chance to work with her, and it was fun for me to watch her gain understanding as we progressed. Luckily, I did my homework for the evening in transit…I arrived home exhausted and ate a quick dinner before crashing.

Tuesday has been another very busy day. My group met again to finish up our presentation about our service projects, I had a couple of Skype sessions, and I went out for ice cream with some girls from church. I managed to squeeze in all the homework for tomorrow somewhere in-between that all, and we actually had to give our presentation today, so that took up quite a bit of time as well. I really enjoyed going out for ice cream with Corinne and some other girls we’ve met here. We went to this little ice cream shop on a small side street that one of them had run into one day, and there we ate the best ice cream I’ve had in a long time. It was good to get out of the overwhelming world of wrapping things up here for a little while.

I’m starting to work a little more seriously on plans for Paris, and I cannot believe we’re leaving for that trip already on Friday! It seems surreal, and I’m a little worried that I won’t be able to get everything done before we leave, but I know God is a good provider of time and an excellent planner, so I’m trying to leave it up to Him. Ultimately, the more I worry the worse things will be…God is teaching me so much about patience and trusting Him and helping me grow every step of the way. Dependence on Him is what I long for, and I pray for His guidance and assurance of His presence as the rest of the week unfolds.

Saturday, November 26

            Whew! What a day! I spent pretty much my entire Saturday working on my final paper for my Latin American literature class, and I’m very happy to say that I have just finished it. Praise God! I’m so grateful that He gave me the patience and endurance to get through that paper today, and I’m praying for continued strength as I begin approach my last final paper tomorrow. I’ve been working on my paper pretty much all weekend, and it feels really good to know that I was capable of writing a 10-page paper in Spanish. What a good way to confirm that the last two semesters have taught me an immeasurable amount of Spanish!

            My paper has pretty much consumed all of my free time for the last couple of days, which is why I haven’t been keeping up with my blog writing, but I’ve actually had a pretty fun and eventful Thanksgiving break. After I wrote about our field trip and rested for a while on Thursday, I spent the afternoon in the library and got a great start on my paper before heading home to get ready for our Thanksgiving dinner party near school. Corinne and I had lots of fun getting all dressed up and wrapping our secret Santa gifts, and although I wasn’t sure why, I was super excited to go to the party.

            Once we got there, we spent time taking pictures with everyone and finding tables to eat dinner, which was pretty good although it couldn’t compare with the homemade Thanksgiving meal my mom usually makes. Earlier this week we had all submitted affirmations about each other, and they passed out the compiled lists about everyone at the dinner and then we got to do our secret Santa exchange. With my three euro budged I had bought a mini sling shot for my secret Santa, Mark, and a couple of other girls gave him rocks as a joke, which was just hilariously perfect. We couldn’t believe how well his gifts went together. I got a lovely scarf and some post cards from my friend Rachel, and I had loads of fun trying to figure out who everyone bought for.

            After dinner, there was a live band and dancing, and I stayed for a little bit and then headed back home to get some rest…I was exhausted, but I had a blast at the party! On Friday, I was supposed to have a pretty packed day, but a few of my plans fell through, and I ended up having more time than I thought I would have to work on my paper. It was good to work on it, but it also made for kind of a long day. I was relieved to get a chance to talk with my family in the afternoon and to go out with Raquel, my intercambio, in the evening. She took me to a really neat, young part of town where we hung out for a while before I headed home for dinner.

            Corinne and I finished the TV series we were watching on Friday night, and we are so sad that it’s over…it was a wonderful Friday night tradition for us. The truth is we only have two more Friday nights left in Spain! This coming Friday night we will be in Paris, and then there’s only two left. Can you believe it?! It’s been such an incredible journey, and I’m excited to see it through to the end. The weeks ahead are going to be full and no doubt good…I can’t wait to see what they bring!

Thursday, November 24

            The first thing on my Thanksgiving “things I’m grateful for” list is the long weekend I’m looking forward to. This week has been consumed with running around and an ever-worsening cold, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the afternoon today knowing that there are no assignments due for three days. Praise the Lord! The weekend will surely be full of tasks and hopefully some adventures (Corinne and I are planning of explore more of Sevilla), but I’m just grateful that it’s here and that I’ll have some time to rest and hopefully regain my strength before diving back in for the last three weeks of the semester. 

            My busy week started off with Mision Nervana on Monday night, which I already wrote about, and my evenings on Tuesday and Wednesday were equally busy. My class on Modern Spain was rescheduled so we would have the day off today, which meant that we had class on both Tuesday and Wednesday night, and therefore I didn’t go back to Mision Nervana this week. In my class, we talked about general trends among the Spanish population, such as unemployment, living situations, age of marriage (the average woman here gets married when she’s about 31!), and birthrates, which have been falling consistently since “the crisis” hit Spain. I loved learning about the trends, and we had a guest speaker who answered a bunch of questions we had about the current situation in Spain. It was great to hear from him and get a better picture of the society we’re living in.

             My romanticism class has begun to tackle “the best piece of Spanish Romantic literature,” the play Don Juan Tenorio, and I’m really enjoying reading it, although it’s written from an overbearingly macho perspective. We each have our own roles, which makes reading it in class a lot of fun. Unfortunately my lack of a voice limited my participation this week, but watching the story unfold is still very entertaining. A local theater is presenting the play this weekend, so our whole class purchased tickets to see it on Sunday night. I’m really looking forward to it, and I think it will be cool to see it all acted out.

            It was a bit of a challenge to keep up with my homework this week while having activities each night and feeling completely worn out, and I certainly need to take some time this weekend to review everything we went over this week. I also need to start working on my final papers and work on planning for our trip to Paris next weekend. The good news is that staying busy shouldn’t be a problem.

            To kick off our holiday weekend and in honor of the oh-so-American tradition of Thanksgiving, we had a field trip to Italica this morning. Two of our professors led a tour of the ancient Roman ruins in the city, which is about 10 minutes by public bus from Seville. It was a little uncomfortable using public transport with a group of 30, but once we got there I really enjoyed it. We started off at the convent there. It was really interesting because it has two churches attached to it because the ruler who built the first one for his own remains didn’t permit his children to be buried there, so they built their own church right next to his. The convent was also the place where the first Spanish Protestant Bible was written, and we got to see a copy of it, which was pretty cool.

            After the convent, we walked to another part of the city to see the ruins of the amphitheater and other private and public Roman buildings. The amphitheater of Italica was apparently the third biggest one in the Roman Empire and home to many gladiator fights and possibly naval battle reenactments. Salva, my literature professor who led our tour, explained that the theater was located outside the city limits because inside the city was a place of order and business whereas outside the limits was a place of more disorder or chaos. I had never heard that explanation, and I thought it was really interesting to get some insight into Hispano-roman history. Salva also showed us some ruined aristocratic houses and a planetarium where Roman gods were honored. I was completely exhausted after walking around all morning, but I was grateful to have gone on the trip. Italica is a beautiful city, we had perfect weather, and I loved learning about the history of the city.

            Now, as I take a minute to reflect on the reason for my lovely extended weekend, I am reminded of the beauty of celebrating a day of giving thanks. I am amazed and humbled to think about the incredible work God has done in my life over the very short past year, not to mention His grace and mercy that has surrounded my entire life up to this point. I am filled with joy to think of the wonderfully full life I have been blessed with. The people I have met and grown to love and the experiences I’ve been honored to have shape who I am every day, and words can’t even express how grateful I am for this crazy journey that God has me on.

The miles I’ve traveled, perspectives I’ve been introduced to, and new customs I’ve been stretched to become accustomed to in the past year have given me an introduction to understanding the vastness of the beauty of God. Every day I live is brimming over with love and lessons to be learned. It is only by His strength and mercy that everything falls together so perfectly, and I couldn’t as for a more awesome God to serve.

Monday, November 21

            Happy Monday! Today has been very tiring for me, but that’s mostly because of the sore throat I’m battling. Everything else went fairly well today, and I can’t think of much out of the ordinary to write about. In Romanticism we talked about going to see the play Don Juan Tenorio at a local theater and made plans to buy tickets for that. I’m excited to see the play since we’re reading it in class, and it should be a cool experience. After class I went to the local convenience store for some cough drops and Corinne offered me some “throat soothing tea,” so hopefully we’ll see some more improvement in my throat as the week progresses.

            I also went to Mision Nervana this afternoon, which was interesting. Because my voice was so worn out I could only talk quietly, and the kids responded extremely well to it…they all listened well and got lots of homework done. I think they’re finally settling into the routine there of getting things done before we can play games, and it was really helpful considering I wasn’t feeling very well. 

            I was really happy with the amount of homework I was able to get done on the bus/metro to and from Mision Nervana, and I’m grateful for the fact that my homework load has pretty much leveled off as of late. Things haven’t been too overwhelming, and the days are going by faster as I keep myself a little busier with Mision Nervana and my evening class. Rosa bought us Advent calendars, but since we’re not going to be here all the way until Christmas we’ve decided to eat the chocolates on the 24 days before we leave Spain. Not including the time we’ll be in Paris, we only have 22 days left of the semester! We’ve both therefore enjoyed 2 chocolate treats, and we’re having fun watching the number dwindle down while trying to live every day here to its fullest. :)

Sunday, November 20

            It looks like another re-cap of several days is called for. My blogging motivation has seriously diminished in the last month…sorry about that.

            On Friday, I had a fairly interesting day. I stayed at school working on things until it closed at 2:00 for lunch and I headed back to my apartment. I had asked Rosa to pack me a bag lunch because the bus to Sierra Norte (a region about an hour and a half away from Sevilla where the camp I volunteered at is) left a few hours later and I didn’t want to have to squeeze a big lunch and packing into a short space of time. So, when I got home I leisurely packed my bag and then headed towards the bus stop with my bag and lunch. I stopped by the river on the way to read and eat lunch in the time I had before the bus came, and I really enjoyed the quiet, alone time. I was really happy I had asked for a packed lunch and that I got away by myself for a bit before heading out with the group.

            When we got off the bus in the town where the camp was, one of the camp staff members was there to give us rides to the camp, but we had to go in small groups, so it took a while to get everyone there. We quickly settled into the rooms where we were staying and got to know the camp staff before having dinner, going stargazing, and staying up late talking. Throughout the weekend I got to talk with a few people in our group that I haven’t gotten to know very well yet, and I really enjoyed getting to know them and spending time with them in an environment outside of school.

            On Saturday morning, we got up early for breakfast and then split up into work teams. I mis-set my alarm on Friday night, so everyone woke up 10 minutes before we were expected for breakfast, but everyone was really relaxed about it and it wasn’t that big of a deal, it just added a little bit of excitement to the day. I went out to work with the moving/painting team, and I spent a few hours with them whitewashing a cabin. We got done pretty fast, so they had two of us go into another cabin to clean, which was also fun. After a short break for snack, a group of us worked on deep-cleaning the kitchen, which was quite a task, but we had fun doing it. Everyone really enjoyed serving for the day…it gave us a chance to step out of our own little lives and support a valuable, Christ-honoring cause.

            Since it was so cold and rainy at the camp, we were all excited to get home and take warm showers, and that’s exactly what I did as soon as our bus got back to Sevilla. I quickly told Rosa about my day, took a warm, refreshing shower and unpacked before tackling my homework for the evening. When Corinne got home (she didn’t go to the camp), we had dinner and then watched another episode of the series we’re watching (and loving) this semester. We had a wonderful time talking about ways we’ve grown this semester and things God is teaching us. By the time I went to sleep last night my face hurt from smiling…it was a day just full of blessings and affirmation of God’s presence and work in my life.

            Today I woke up feeling pretty under the weather. I’ve been battling a cold that seems to have taken a turn for the worst, and my sore throat has made my voice go in and out throughout the day. I’m hoping that it will be better in the morning and that it won’t drag on for the whole week, but I know that either way I’ll get through it. We went to Sunday school and church as normal, and I seriously just love our Sunday school class and pastor. Today we talked about our identity in Christ and about the responsibilities that come with salvation. It was a great conversation, and I really felt connected to the community there, which was wonderful. I saw one of the students I tutor at Mision Nervana at the main service, which was really cool too.

I had big plans for my day after church, but somehow the whole afternoon passed quite unproductively. I finished the homework I needed to get done, but I didn’t have a chance to start on my final papers like I had hoped. The good news is that we had a good conversation with Rosa and it was a pretty relaxed day. Later in the afternoon I went to a café to use the internet and just to get out of the house, and then I met with my intercambio for a little bit. She brought a friend of hers, and the three of us went to look at the seasonal craft fair going on downtown. There were all kinds of nativities and other figurines for sale, and I loved seeing everything there. Afterwards we went to a restaurant for coffee, and then they dropped me off at home. I was so tired that all I had the energy to do was shower, finish this post, and go to bed. I’m praying for health and restored energy this week. I can’t wait to see what God brings me and to walk through it with Him.