Home Sweet Home

We're home! A bit later than we were expecting due to some delays with our flights, but home none the less. Last night I ate supper with my family and fell asleep in my very own bed; it had been 25 hours since my last night's sleep which had only consisted of three hours. This morning I woke up bright and early thanks to the six hour time difference that my body is running on. I ate pancakes for breakfast, a welcome change from the cereal that I have been eating every single morning for six weeks. It is so good to be home!

But I miss Spain. I've been comparing times all day long. "If I were in Spain, this is what I would be doing right now..." Or, "no wonder I'm so tired, it's midnight!" I unpacked my suitcase and listened to the FIFA 2010 theme song. I showed Stephanie and Allison pictures and videos. I told stories and laughed to myself at funny memories. Things that remind me of Spain. It's already Sabbath in Spain. Sabbaths were my favorite days there. I'm thinking of church tomorrow. The songs they'll sing. Who might preach. How those plastic chairs will be arranged in circles outside for Sabbath School. And how the moon will look from my balcony window after the sun slips below the horizon. It's so good to be home, but a piece of me is still in Spain.

It's like this wherever I go. Each country I visit, I leave a piece of my heart. England, Fiji, Honduras, Spain, a little piece of me is still connected to each of these places. Because you go to a place and you spend time. You make friends. You experience new things and you make memories. And all these things stay with you forever. They change who you are and how you view the world. They open your heart and give you new understandings. I am so thankful for the opportunity to spend this summer in Spain. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. The things that I've learned have added a richness to my life that nothing else could have. I praise God for blessing me with this opportunity and for using it to bring me ever closer to Him. I'm so glad to be home!

Remenisces from Spain (by Khelsea)

I think I will miss walking when I get home. Walking to breakfast, walking to school, walking to church, even walking to the bathroom. Walking beaches. I may miss that the most. Swam in the Mediterranean today for possibly the last time. For a while. The waves were crashing and huge, there were our ever present sand fights and water wars. Jen and I took our customary beach stroll, talking, people watching. There are no words for how I will miss the Mediterranean. It has become a boon companion. I know what it feels like, what it smells like, and all too often what it tastes like. All too often.

I think I will miss trips to Carrefour when I get home. It feels odd to be thrilled to go to the grocery store once a week on Fridays. Buying my favorite crackers, and chocolates for snacks. We went to another supermarket when we were in Madrid. Somehow Carrefour feels like home. My home of supermarkets.

I think I will miss spontaneity when I get home. Staying up late standing on the roof with the "Alianza" in a thunderstorm. Or having parties in our hotel room in Madrid... Jen cooking apples, whacking together all the random snacks we had left from supermarket runs and putting them in plates made from scrapes of left over tin foil. Synchronized swimming, soccer and football games, singing after vespers and in the church, and climbing mountains when decent people are taking their Sabbath afternoon naps. Going to an heladeria, the beach, up to a mountain and managing to make it back to the dorm only a little after our 3 o'clock curfew. 3 in the morning. And then doing it all again a couple nights later.

I think I will miss people when I get home. People I laugh with. Stage mock karate battles with on the beach. Wander around to find the next open/free monument in whatever city we happen to be in people. People I stay up late laughing with, telling stories, singing songs. Or talk about Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Poe, Dante and Ellen G. White with. People who join parades and can sing jazz. People who force me to speak in Spanish and then laugh when my "necesitos" come out with an awful accent. People who I share my dreams with. People who walk around Valencia with the flowers I put in their hair. People who do cartwheels and laugh when I fall down the stairs. People who invite me to their houses and drive me home in their cars. Good sorts of people. All sorts of people.

The Average Day (by Khelsea)

Every morning, penetrating through the soft, dark fabric of my eye patch, the sun rises through the slats of our shade and over the edge of our balcony. Its persistence is to be applauded. So far it hasn't abated with its pure energy and dazzling morning displays. Every morning, sifting through the foamy material of my neon-yellow earplugs, the birds' songs waft through the cracks of our shade and over the rim of our balcony. Their joy is to be lauded. They haven't ceased to praise the morning and chorus with the joy of being alive.

Waking up in a different bed, in a different room, that is entirely different and entirely mine (along with two other people) never ceases to amaze me. I rise to the challenge of battling our shower curtain, which picks the most inopportune times to attack. Unfortunately in the confined space of our shower I cannot avoid the conflict. Breackfast is similar every morning. Cereal, fruit, and peanut butter with Nutella on my crackers, throw in some churros on Sunday for variety. Classes begin more or less at 9:30A.M., veering toward the "less" as time wears on. And time seems to wear differently here. We measuring time by the growth of our fingernails, and teh amount of shampoo we have left in the bottle.

Classes consist of Grammar, Composition, Conversation, and Culture. I can not count the times I have heard "Es facil" in connection with a homework assignment I know will take me the better part of an hour. Partially due to my desire to look up every single word I don't know, a waning desire as the need for sleep asserts its primal authority. Lulnch is varied and wonderful, as long as there is a delicous salad waiting for me to put it on my tray. And after lunch, before study hour, there is the pros and cons debate of napping or doing my homework.

Study hour is varied in its results. The use of a Spanish speaking monitor, or tutor is fabulous. But having to share my monitor with 6 other studnets can have its moments of frustration. Sharing never scored very high on my list of spiritual gifts. After study hour there is a slew of activities to choose from, hiking trips, beach trips, dancing classes, cooking classes, arts and crafts, and watching a Spanish movie with Spanish subtitles. Activities generally run right until supper, when along with hunger, a slight, gnawing worry starts spinning around in your stomach. It is the whisper of a hint that possibly you may run out of time tonight to finish all your homework. After supper we have worship around the circle in front of the little campus snack shop. It is in Spanish, with a translator. Yours truly took a spin as the translator for one evening, although I made avid use of a script I translated into English. It was still an exciting experience to pick the right words and phrases necessary to get the message across.

Do the choices never stop? After worship there are soccer games, and aerobics classes, walks in the dusk, and more time with the monitors in front of the guys' dorm. And then the burning of the midnight candle to finish the last few pages in a reading assignment or workbook. followed by the suffocating choice of sleeping with or without the thin cotton sheet in the slightly uncomfortable heat of an air-condition-less room. We never close the door while we are in our room. By dawn it feels just about perfect.

And every night penetrating through the soft, dark fabric of my eye patch is the glowing light of my roommate's computer and echoing through the foamy material of my neon, yellow earplugs the soft sounds of a dorm falling asleep.

Winding Down

Things are starting to wind down here. Finals begin tomorrow and end on Wednesday. Then on Thursday it is Home Sweet Home. We still have so many pictures and stories that haven't made it up on the blog yet. Maybe one night after the studying is done... or maybe it will just have to wait until we're home. And now, back to the studying.

Note: Don't be surprised if you happen to stumble across the occasionally frequent misspelling or poor usage of grammar as you scan through this blog. I think I've caught and corrected most of the errors so far, but there is always a chance that you'll find the ones I missed. I'm quite certain that my my Spanish skills have improved from a very basic level to a semi-intermediate level and my English skills have regressed from a semi-advanced level back down to an intermediate level. It is so strange. I feel deficient in both languages, which is rather frustrating for one who loves words so very much!

An incoherent collection of thoughts and observations.

I really like Spain. It is such an odd mixture of things familiar and unfamiliar. A combination of contrasting feelings and opposite experiences. From growing up in England and traveling around Europe I have a deep appreciation for the European style of doing things. The tiny towns and narrow streets. The rich culture and history: castles, gardens, fountains, cathedrals. Everything on a mini-scale: washing machines, serving sizes in restaurants. It is completely different from the way we do things in America. Not better or worse, just different. Equally as different is the culture and lifestyle of Central and South America. Four of my five mission experiences have been in this part of the world, so a part of me feels strongly connected to the people and language of Spanish-speaking countries. Spain is a mixture of both. It is a blend of the European and the Spanish. And I kind of like it. It is a very comfortable feeling.

Being in school here is also an interesting experience. Most of the ACA students are in college so it brings a more mature feel to the program (most of the time), but our classes and activities feel very much like high school. This is my first experience living in a dormitory which adds a whole new dimension into the mix. I really love living making new friends , but I also miss my family and the home setting incredibly. I miss cooking in our kitchen and playing the piano whenever I want. I miss driving places with my sisters and having those deep family discissions about everything under the sun.

Six weeks is such a strange amount of time to spend in one place. In a lot of ways it feels like I am on a trip. As much as I love it here, I am having a hard time feeling like I am actually living here, in Spain, for the summer. And yet I go to class every day, eat all of my meals in the cafeteria, change my sheets on Wednesdays, and do all the normal routine things that go along with daily living. Yet somehow it still feels like just a trip.

I absolutely love observing people. I love figuring out what things make them unique and what things they value and appreciate most. I love doing this with cultures as well. The culture here in Spain is much more open than our culture at home. Everyone greets each other by giving two kisses, one on each cheek. This is something that I am familiar with from our church in England, but definitely not used to anymore. There are many things like this. Things that are so different from our cultural norms but are completely acceptable and often expected here in this country. It is like trying to solve a big puzzle. Each new country I visit, I observe. And then I try to put the pieces together to see the bigger picture.

Typical tourists annoy me. Most people go to a country expecting to be catered for. They complain about people not speaking English, the food not meeting their expectations, or any number of other things that happen to be different from what they are used to. They run around from one tourist attraction to another completely oblivious to the daily life happening around them. Sometimes you learn more by being quiet. By not drawing attention to yourself and by keeping your eyes and ears open. Sometimes the true beauty of a place can only be accessed by leaving the well-marked paths and experiencing a little adventure.

The desire to travel is permanently running through my veins. As I was cooling off in the Mediterranean one afternoon last week, I was thinking again about how blessed I am to have been able to live, work, study, serve, and travel in so many parts of the world during my eighteen years of life. This summer has been another adventure to add to the list, but I know that this is not simply a few more words to expand my Spanish vocabulary and another set of photos to keep in an album. The learning and growing that I have done this summer has changed me. It has made me stronger and more prepared for the future. I have no idea what adventures may be just over the horizon, but I am confident in is this: that He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And in the meantime, I am loving every single step of the journey.

Tour of Castilla

Roman Acuaduct, Segovia
View from the tower at Alcazar, Segovia

Alcazar, Segovia

Alcazar, Segovia

Cathedral, Segovia

Spain wins!

The big screen.

Watching Spain v. Germany outside of the stadium in Madrid.

Bernabeu Stadium, Madrid

Royal Palace, Madrid

Khelsea and Don Quijote, Toledo

Jennifer and Don Quijote, Toledo

streets of Toledo

Museo Sefardi (Jewish history), Toledo

Royal Palace, Madrid

Plaza Mayor, Madrid

A vegetarian restaurant in Madrid!

Crystal Palace, Madrid

Crystal Palace, Madrid

All of last week we enjoyed an educational and sight-seeing tour of the heart of Spain: Madrid, Toledo, and Segovia. We visited cathedrals, monuments, castles, palaces, and museums learning more about Spain's rich culture and history. Some of the highlights of the week were seeing Jimmy Carter at the Prado and watching Spain v. Germany outside of Bernabeu Stadium. So far we are up to 2112 pictures of our time in Spain (Jennifer: 844 Khelsea: 1268). The ones we post here are a mixture of both. Above is a small selection from last week's adventures. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments. We love hearing from you and seeing who has been to the blog!

Sights