Friday, 22 June 2012
Moving!
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Jamón!
Friday, 20 April 2012
Adventure Update
Me and Ellie outside of the Fairytale Castle in Bavaria! We've wanted to go since our time in London sophomore year...and we finally made it. What a lovely day it was.
Salzburg! If you climb up quite a few stairs just past the old area of town, you reach a hilltop park with some gorgeous views of the whole city. I loved seeing the rooftops and spires of the city peaking through this really old "Burgerwehr." Love some German. ;)
In Salzburg, there was also a dwarf garden with oh so many interesting characters. Here's my favorite. One of the dwarfs is featured in Sound of Music!
Our next and last stop was to the Czech Republic, where we got to visit and catch up with Johnny and Annette Johnson, church friends from Faith. I still remember loving the Sunday school class that Annette taught back in the 3rd (I think?) grade, and it was wonderful to hear about their ministry in the Czech Republic. They were beyond-fantastic hosts, even in the midst of their busy lives, so I was taking notes about how I'd like to be some day. It was such a refreshing, encouraging 2 days, and I'm so glad they were up for us crashing their apartment! Behind us is the Archbishop's Château in Kromeriz, an impressive castle with beautiful gardens surrounding it. We headed back to Spain on Easter Sunday morning. And as the train pulled away from Otrokovice, the nearest station, it was snowing. Snowing on Easter Sunday!
After our whirlwind trip, I settled back into my workweek in Sevilla and we enjoyed a free weekend. I can't believe my time here is almost up, and there's so much more I could share. But I'll save it for another day. peace!
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
News!
Next, my parents and Jeffrey came to visit! They showed up the very morning Nancy was headed out, so the touring and visiting just danced on happily. :) We had SO MUCH FUN while they were here. We traveled almost non-stop! I’m afraid I ran them a bit too ragged and hope they can recover this week. We started in Sevilla, took a train to Granada and enjoyed that lovely city (and also ended up scaling a mountain in the dark on a free night tour—not exactly what we expected, hoped for, or wanted…ha!), and then we headed to Barcelona for a few days. We also detoured to Montserrat from Barcelona, which is a truly magical mountain village based around a monastery with a legend and famous virgin statue that people take a pilgrimage to visit. We went on a sunrise hike to the highest peak of Montserrat, and goodness. It was absolutely incredible. I would go back there in a heartbeat, and I’ll store those fantastic memories away for life.
Also, I have other big news! It’s rather anti-climatic to snuggle this in with so much other stuff, but I don’t have much of a choice. I know where I’m headed with RUF! I’m headed to the University of South Florida in Tampa. It’s the 8th largest single-campus University in the nation. Woah! It will be quite a change from Samford! I’m really excited and can’t wait to hear more about it and to get in touch with the campus minister there. It’s really happening—I’m really going to start being an RUF intern! Praise the Lord.
Welp, that’s all folks. ¡Abrazos from Spain!
Sunday, 4 March 2012
I'm Back! I'm Back!
Monday, 20 February 2012
A weekend in Sevilla
Hi y’all. I couldn’t help starting that way, just to make up for all of the “y’alls” I lose here—not really on the tops list as far as words I use. ;)
I have a regular week of work this week, and then on Friday Ellie and I head to London again. This time, we’re staying for 5 nights! So exciting. We hope to see Matilda the musical, which I’m reallyexcited about. So. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep this blog somewhat updated. But if not, I apologize in advance. Just expect lots of interesting things upon my return. :)
Here's a picture of the Alameda. Hopefully I'll take some of my own some day soon. :)
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Help Me, Ronda!
Hi there! Happy Tuesday! Though technically, there’s only a smidgen of Tuesday left for me. ;)
Last weekend was a good one. We started it off by meeting up with four other auxiliars (with a great mix from CA, NY, England, and Scotland) for dinner at “Peggy Sue’s American Diner.” This place is as close to Johnny Rockets as you can get in Spain. Except, get this—the jute boxes at your table are free! No coin needed! Fun. Unfortunately, this restaurant plunged me into the most difficult position: trying to pronounce English words in a Spanish accent. I’ve gotten fairly good at reading whatever I need to in Spanish with the correct pronunciation. But if it’s an English word, I can’t help reverting back to the, well, correct pronunciation. You would think that’s fine. But no, not ok. Spaniards literally won’t understand you. So as I ordered my “Elvis Presley” pizza, I found myself struggling to say “Elvees Prezlay” instead of his real name. But only after I got the blank stare at the true pronunciation. It’s so hilarious! So yes indeed, familiar English words pronounced correctly are the most difficult words to communicate now.Who would have thought?
After that, we had a great weekend of catching up on things we needed to do, followed by a lovely trip to Ronda on Monday. This little “pueblo blanco” is snuggled into a rather mountainous region, and about halfway through the bus ride, it becomes impossible to read or sleep because the bus is whirling around curves on the edge of mountains faster than you think is advisable. The real treasure of this town is the “Puente Nuevo,” or the “New Bridge.” New, as in built in 1751. Ha. Makes you realize how young our history in the U.S. really is, eh? Ellie and I enjoyed our leisurely day wandering around the pueblo, the beautiful parks that overlooked the mountains, and our hike partially down the epic gorge. Ooh! And there was a sheep playground. That’s right. The whole play area for children was bedecked with hilarious, frolicking sheep. Maybe I’ll get some pictures of that up one of these days. Alan, I wish you were there. I would have loved to hear/ see your reaction. ;) All of that’s not to mention the delicious Spanish cuisine we indulged in for lunch. I had “revuelto de patatas,” which is a dish with eggs and potatoes. Of course, it had ham in it too. Here in Spain, there’s almost always an extra meat add-in that is left out of the description. I’m quite accustomed to that by now. It was also topped with two grand grilled peppers. Yum. The day was lovely, and I was so glad we got to visit this little village I have been wanting to see for quite some time. That’ll do for a Monday, let me tell you. :)
In other news, I’ve decided to apply for the RUF internship for the next two years. (!) If you haven’t heard me talk about it before, I’m surprised. :) I’ve been thinking about it and praying about whether I should jump in to this opportunity since the first semester of my sophomore year at Samford. I’m so very excited to see where this will lead. My interview is next Monday—so soon! I’ve been reviewing the guiding questions they provided about the interview today, and it’s only made me more excited. I’m also quite nervous, because it just seems so, well, nebulous and unguaranteed. I have to raise $33,000 dollars, for goodness sakes! And nothing in me wants to be calling people up asking them for money. But everything inside me wants to be a part of this college ministry, and my heart has been yearning for this opportunity for years now. So I finally stopped running away. Awkward phone calls, here I come. But I trust that God will work even the awkwardness out for my good in the end, no matter if I raise enough support to reach a campus next August or not. So there we have it!