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.
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