Day 20 something.....

So this post defines how the study abroad trip has been going so far. It has just blown by and I can't even remember how many days it has been for these pictures so I apologize in advance but to make up for it. I will try and put some photos here that just summarizes my trip to the Canaries that I had this past 5 days.

So it all started off with this little view from our apartment.....well actually a night in the airport, then a 3 hour flight to get this view...

The ocean was looking pretty tempting so we took a walk down to the beach and found some sand dunes which were incredible...

We spent a few days hanging around on the beach until we received a generous offer to get a little scuba diving action in....

(Sorry I can't get the picture right side up!)

And then the final walk on the beach with the moon guiding us home...

 Needless to say it was an incredible trip!

As we flew into the island, it just looked like we were flying into a fairytale, with slight clouds over a little piece of land in the middle of the ocean. It was absolutely incredible. We were fortunate enough to have the perfect mix of relaxation and adventure during our fall break. It made it even better when other students came back complaining about how they had walked and traveled through rain the entire four days and when I looked back on how good sunny and 80's felt for a few days, I felt pretty lucky.

Jill was quick to humble me when I came home and skyped her and told her that everything was just great right now and she asked me how could it not be after a few days in the Canaries. She put me right back on track and made me realize how blessed I actually am to have these experiences. Just incredible.

Life on the island, like most islands, was very relaxed and was just a reminder not to get too caught up in life with the little things. Especially in a time of minor stress with random thoughts of always trying to figure out the rest of my life in school, internships, and careers. This was definitely a great time to just get away and out of touch for a few days. Come to find out there was a hurricane in New York? Who would have thought.

Anyways, I remain very thankful and blessed that I am fortunate to have all these opportunities. I hope and pray for rest and peace in your lives as well.

Day 17

So I figured as I'm working at my internship I could take a little "courtesy hour" and update the blog from yesterday and today's photos.

Today I was just amazed this morning at the beauty of Toledo. I witnessed quite a bit on the walk up to work, like a guy who got in a car accident and they were literally cutting apart the car to get him out but somehow he seemed fine inside?

In the States there was no way I would have been able to literally touch the car that had been in the accident but in Spain the rules were a little different. A cool experience none the less but out of courtesy I didn't want to be the crazy American who takes a snapshot of someone getting cut out of a car....

So about 5 minutes later, I came to this little park right next to my work that I usually just take some time to walk through and look out over the cliff back at my house, mainly cause my work starts at nine but no one actually gets there to open the building until 9:15, definitely loving Spanish time.

Now it's very hard to see my house but there is a tall, white, squared building just a little bit right of center. My house is NEXT to that one!

I then turned around and was reminded just how much this city was a medieval city and had doors of protection. I am surprised that I have walked through this door so many times and even though I have thought about what it would have been like back in the day, I am now immune to the fact of just how old some of these things are. So here is an attempt to reflect on it!

This is one of the doors to the city and it is so small one car barely fits through it at a time. In order to walk through, you have to pray no car is coming in hot from the other side and bolt through as quick as you can!

It is just a little fun experience I have had while being in Toledo. A few close calls for my life but hey we're still here!

I hope you can enjoy today! Have a good one! Pase un buen dia!

Day 16

So as I usual I found myself running out of time to find something to take a photo of for my 16th day in a row of a photo. It didn't dawn on me until I was gathering my clean laundry that my house mom had cleaned early that day to realize what I wanted to talk about.

This just looks like a folded up piece of cloth and in reality that may be exactly what it is!

However, this amazing folded up piece of cloth is just that, amazing.

Before I left for this adventure to Spain, my girlfriends Mother gave me a couple of gifts and this one has by far been the most useful. This is a towel specifically made for back packing! It was something that I really didn't even think about before I left for Spain but it is has been a life changer.

Every trip I have taken, every hostel that I have stayed in, this has come in such great use. It usually costs money to rent towels at a hostel but thanks to this I have saved a few coins for some food wherever I have been traveling.

I am amazed at how much this little gift has helped impact my trip in such a significant way. I am truly thankful for this gift, as well as the thought of Jill's mother!

It is true that it is the little things in life, like this little towel, that make the biggest difference.

Day 13, 14, and 15

Wow,

So I have just gotten back from a weekend trip to Barcelona and I am exhausted. There were so many pictures taken and so many experiences I could not even put them all into one blog and I apologize.

If you would like to see the recap of the trip and all the I experienced, you will have to be a friend of mine on facebook!

We pretty much covered everything there was in Barcelona, from swimming in the Mediterranean to hiking to the top of Parc Guell.

It was amazing and I enjoyed every second of it. Each place I visit is my new favorite place and favorite experience on this trip!

Hopefully you enjoy the photos on facebook!

Day 12

So in a few hours I will be heading out on my first trip back traveling after 4 weekends off however today my picture is something that kind of caught my attention very quickly.

This afternoon the fundacion received a ton of mail and packages. It was crazy! So many students got some mail and I realized how special it is to receive "real" mail from someone, not just an e-mail or facebook message.

I am so thankful that my girlfriend Jill has been able to send me a few pieces of mail and it has been amazing every time I have gotten mail. Just simple little cards but they mean so much, especially when there is any amount of distance in between.

I feel this is so intentional and every loves when people are being very intentional to them.

Who could you be a little more intentional with? I guarantee it will be worth it! Send somebody some mail!

Day 11

So I was surprised when I went home last night. I walked into the house and was surrounded by an amazing smell almost like french toast and I instantly knew what it was.

My house Mom had made Torillas. It is basically french toast but they are for dessert or even with your coffee in the morning.

This dessert is so special and it is even better because my house mom saves these just for me. She hides them from the rest of the family in secret cupboards throughout the kitchen it is hilarious.

Last night, one of her friends buzzed up to our apartment and we were just about finished with dinner. My house mom pushed the button to let her in the apartment. After this my house mom hurried back to the table, told me to eat the torilla as quick as possible and she took the plate away and hid them in the kitchen so that they could be saved!

It was hilarious and I couldn't help but laugh a little bit, but I was extremely grateful to find some extra torilla's waiting out for me on the table this morning when I went to have breakfast!

Hopefully I will learn the correct way to make these amazing things so I can make them myself when I get back to the states!

Day 10

So today I was finally able to take the picture that I had been wanting to take for the past couple of days. It's actually two but here they are.

This the Fedeto. I have spent quite a bit of time here because this is the place of my internship. I work in the international department and I am researching the US markets of Wine, Olive Oil, and Cheese for my boss.

He has a few clients that are interested in placing their products into US markets so I am transferring the research into Spanish with my boss and he will then present the information to his clients.

This has been an incredible experience for me just to get to learn the Spanish way in the work place. It has been quite different. A little more relaxed at times and I have built a great relationship with many people in this place.

The typical day consists of a couple hours of work but then always time for coffee and socializing with locals and clients to improve my Spanish and to improve their English!

It is quite amazing and humbling to be able to not only be in the position of a student of Spanish but also as a teacher of English at the same time during intercambio sessions. These have been very powerful and have opened my eyes so much about the everyday lives of people here.

What amazes me even more about this place is that about two months before I came to Spain, I was very unsure of if I even wanted an internship while I was here. Considering that this place has been probably the best experience for me, I am so thankful that I decided to follow through with it.

Unfortunately, it is time to go to this class because I do have a class just about the internships and everything but hopefully you enjoy your day!

Day 9

So today I was fairly busy with class as Monday is one of the busier days of the week. As I was looking for a picture I really didn't know what to do but then I remembered what Jill and I had been talking about the other day.

This is nothing more than a computer but through this mainly, and other devices such as my phone, I have been able to maintain such a close relationship with Jill, my family and other loved ones back at home.

It started a about a week ago when Jill had heard a sermon at church and they were talking about implementing the use of technology and social networks into the use of the church and just how these technologies could be put to even better use for the Church.

Well it got Jill thinking and she sent me an e-mail about the sermon but mostly just how grateful she was that we were able to have computers and internet to just stay in contact with prayer requests and just how day to day life is going.

For me, I had never really put thought into the fact that just my computer and the use of internet on it was holding together such a strong relationship and Jill really opened my eyes to that. Not only just relationships but also school work, I use this computer as one of the main sources for my learning and education which is just crazy. If I think back to when my parents were growing up, they simply had a land line telephone to keep in touch when they were long distance.

Just makes me think of how easy I have it now.

But anyways, it was amazing to have my eyes opened in that way by Jill and also just to reflect on how lucky we are to be able to use these things in our life. It is definitely crazy but what I was more amazed at was how much I took it for granted.

What else might we be taking for granted today?

Day 8

So today was a pretty quiet Sunday, no real adventures like last week in the Rastro, but on my quick walk around this afternoon, I came across some old Roman ruins which I thought would be a good picture.

Here they are.

F

From what I read in the little informational panel, these are just Roman ruins! Not sure exactly what these specific ruins were but that these ruins were connected to ovens where they potentially made most of the pottery for the Empire!

So it was nice to stand in an old oven today!

Día Siete

So today was a fairly quiet day, I slept in a little bit and I am feeling much better. I was able to get a good little workout in and then had a fantastic lunch. My house mom bought the closest thing to steak that I have eaten since being here and it was awesome!

This afternoon I went for a little walk around the town to try and see what I could find.

It started off with some pretty cool European roundabouts and one with a water fountain in the middle of it.

I loved how this walk, even though it was only for about an hour, was in a completely different direction than I had intended in the first place. So anyways, as I kept adventuring, I came across this cool little bridge.

I thought this bridge was amazing. Not only was it physically beautiful in itself but as always when you encounter a bridge, do you cross it or just stay safe on the side you know? As I'm studying in my literature class a little bit, there is a lot of symbolism as always and the use of mountains, rivers, and what do you know BRIDGES are huge elements of symbolism. Today however, I decided to be adventurous and see what the heck was on the other side.

Here is what I saw first as I crossed and looked back from where I had come from.....

It was a beautiful view of Toledo from a direction I had never seen before. It was amazing. So as I trekked on about 100 feet on the other side of the bridge I began to hear music.... I was caught off guard because I had assumed I was in the middle of nowhere but little did I now what I was close to....

Yes, that is the circus I found! Unfortunately it was not open just yet but the music was still playing and they were warming up. It would have been great to see but too bad I didn't have my wallet on this adventure!

None the less it was a pretty good adventure alone. Now off to do some homework, eat some dinner, and then maybe play some futbol with the hombres tonight!

Have a good one!

Day 6

So there has been a lot of learning and a lot of thinking that has gone on during my time here in Spain. I can't describe exactly everything that I have learned or even remember everything that I have been sat in thought on but what I do remember is where majority of this has happened.

Home.

Now this may not look like anything more than an apartment complex but I can guarantee you that this place has been an incredible home for me.

I believe that it starts with my house mother who allowed me into her home in the first place but it is just a wonderful home. She is incredible faithful and her heart just overflows with service towards me and her family. This has created an incredible environment for me to live and learn about the Spanish culture and customs. Just to be able to see the interactions of Spaniards with their friends and family have been experiences that I will never forget.

Just to highlight one point, I came home at about one in the morning, which is fairly early for a Spanish night, and typically my house mother is already asleep. But as I walked in, she was on the phone. A little while later I heard her hang up and she came into my room and was talking with me and she was just talking to her friends who just wanted to chat about life and a current struggle that was going on. I could not understand exactly what the problem was because my house mom did not go into much detail but it was an incredible example of just humbleness and love in my host mothers heart.

It is those kinds of actions that make this home away from home, feel even more like a home to me then I ever thought possible. It might also be in the fact that she wakes me up every morning and has breakfast prepared and on the table ready and waiting for me every day too, but I see her love for others as well.

I hope that someday I will be able to open up my home with my family and just share life with whomever I am called to share it with.

Day 5

Sorry I updated this one a little late but none the less, day 5 is complete. I realized that I wanted to do something about money but didn't know how to portray it, in a sign, or a budget for my trip, but then I just realized I may as well just take a picture of the actual thing.

It is amazing how quickly I have budgeted for some of the trips I have been taking. Sometimes there is more thought then others, for example, booking a trip to Barcelona round trip on a plane was 37 euro.

But on the other hand, a 70 euro train ride home from Ronda was the result of bad planning....That one kind of hurt the funds for the trip!

Never the less, every day is a learning experience on how to budget my money to get the best experience I possibly can out of this trip. When I take a step back and think about it, I feel people always are doing this, how can we obtain the most amount of satisfaction for the least amount of money. In short, one could say that is the study of economics, and that is why I love majoring in economics.

However, I have noticed one hard thing, it is harder here for me to give money away, whether that is buying a gift for someone, giving to a person on the street, or simply just leaving a little tip even though it is not customary here in Europe. I am not too sure why this is but I think it is because my mindset is mostly focused on me and my trips that I have planned and as I take a step back to reflect on this today. Maybe for the second half of this trip, that is one thing I can work on and focus on, just releasing the hold that money has on this trip and my life.

Day 4, The Challenge

Day 4 of the challenge was very slow, and to make matters not as good, I'm a little sick so I decided to show you all what brought the spirits up.

Now the comida in Spain is fairly different than the US, some things are a little more bland, but some things are literally heaven in a cup, such as this....

This dessert is called Natilla and it is very similar to vanilla pudding but it is not quite the same. My house mom showed this dessert to me the first week I was here and it was a home run right from the start. Then, the next week, she showed me how to add a little cinnamon to give it just a little extra kick and it was perfected.

I can say that I have felt slightly under the weather today with a little Spanish Cold, thankfully not the Spanish Flu, but this dessert tonight lifted my spirits up and also gave me the idea for the challenge of the day!

I hope that whomever is reading this may enjoy a little sweetness of their favorite dessert tonight and truly enjoy it! It lifted my spirits and I hope it can lift yours too!

Photo Challenge Day 3

¡Tortilla Española!

So this is the third day of my photo challenge and I can honestly say that what I thought was going to be my picture for the day I ended up not being able to get the shot today because I forgot but I was then reminded right near the end of my day of the beauty of this one dish I have eaten.

I have to admit that I have a love hate relationship with this Tortilla Española. Some days, it is the thing I am craving the most, and other days I don't want to have two bites of it.

I am not sure exactly how this works because it's not like chipotle. Chipotle back in the US I could have as much as my stomach will allow me, every single day if I had the budget.

Hence, very short and sweet, I enjoy this traditional meal of Spain.....but not as much as chipotle.

The food here, in general, has been pretty good. It has been made by the hands of my house mom and let me tell you there has been a lot of fried foods, no cheese curds, but fried fish, eggs, and even hot dogs!

I cannot help but be grateful for the food I have received here, and I believe that my eyes have been opened to how good the quality and the taste of our food actually is in the United States. We are very lucky and I know this is very American, but I will be sure to enjoy a lot of "our" food as soon I am state side again!

Day Two of the Photo Challenge

Hello again,

So here is day two of the photo challenge, it's nothing much but I'll explain.

The journal and the Spanish-English dictionary both have more stories contained in them than I could ever write about just from the last 5 weeks.

I figured for this challenge of 30 straight photos in 30 days, I would try and look for things that stood out to me, not necessarily what I thought other people would like, so I apologize in advance.

Anyways, I received the journal on the left from my Mom last Christmas. She knew I had a few journals but little did she know that my girlfriend Jill had given me two journals about a day before so needless to say at the time, I was fulfilled in the journal department.

As I binged on journal entries trying to finish the current one I had and then wanting to dive into the next three that were ahead of me, I finally came across the perfect use for the this journal about a week before I arrived to Spain.

It all started with my Spanish professor in the spring of 2012, she told me that if I truly wanted to learn Spanish, I needed to one immerse myself, and two keep track of all the words, phrases, and conjugations that I did not understand completely when I heard them. Well let me tell you Susanna, there are plenty of phrases in here now and I will say they all might not be appropriate but I am definitely learning my Spanish!

Now as I had my journal planned out for what would be written in there, I realized that I needed a dictionary to help me define some of these terms that I was going to come across. As I was at Jill's house near the end of August to say goodbye to her for a couple of months, I came across a Spanish to English dictionary and I asked her if I could borrow it!

Well unfortunately I forgot to bring it along as I was all caught up in saying the last goodbye for a few months, but fortunately Jill bought me a new one online and sent it to me as a surprise gift right before I left! I was so pumped!

It is amazing how two books that separately would not have meant to much, but as the stories come together, each book is helping each other and most of all helping me record stories in a unique way of my experience living in Spain!

Above all, I am most grateful to have the chance to reflect on these people in my lives, those being my Mother and Jill, who I am so blessed to have apart of my life and I love them both very much!

So there it is Mom and Jill, thank you so much for the gifts, but thank you most of all for the reminder of your presence every time I am able to use both of these books! I love you guys and am praying for you both every day!

Service, service, and then a challenge

Since being in Spain for the past 5 or 6 weeks, the transformation of my worldview has been incredible. Just to summarize, the use of resources here such as electricity and water is incredible. We use every second of daylight we have and not an ounce of water more than we ever need.

What I would really like to talk about and reflect on is something that has really been on my mind lately.

About a week and a half ago my girlfriend Jill and I were chatting and she was telling me about some disappointment she had after another friend of ours came over and was not exactly accepting of the food Jill and her roommate had prepared, also the other friend was not very pleased with the accommodations of the apartment so it just provided for a very tough atmosphere to love.

As we were discussing the events of the night and the storm had calmed, Jill and I realized that why she was disappointed was that she had expected a reaction, a positive reaction, and what she received what not what she had perceived or expected. This then brought us to the point where we realized, true service, true love, does not expect anything in return.

It is so simple and fundamental, and as always, I feel that we always overlook those little details. Jill told me that if she had really been doing it for service in her heart, the negative feedback would have felt a little different and instead of an angry frustration it would have been a feeling of trying to continue serving this person until they were satisfied.

Jill is pretty amazing and this was just one example of a conversation I have been lucky enough to have and through this conversation, it opened my eyes to the service of my host mother here in Spain.

To quickly describe my house mother, she serves and loves her family because they don't have jobs in this economic crisis, and she does not have enough resources to do as much as she does, she then serves me every single day even when she knows I am fully capable of operating a toaster at 7 in the morning, she feels she still needs to get out of bed to push the button down for me. Incredible! Through this service and hearing her story, I have just seen this woman has truly lived. She has experienced it all, she has seen life born, she has witnessed death as she had to watch the passing of her husband from cancer, she has experienced new life in grand children, rejoiced in marriages, and struggled through family hardships, through dictatorships, through new republics and transferring of currencies.

The resume of her stories is just endless and absolutely incredible. I am so blessed to be able to have this person and this place to call home for a few weeks! I feel more than ever, God is just saying learn from this woman as much as you can, oh and do it all in another language please.

Aside from all of these blessings, there has been other challenges. Fun challenges at that. The other day I was challenged to try something new for 30 days, I figured since I am in a new country, why not capture 30 days worth of photos to tell the story or capture the moments of my time here in Spain. So here it is, for the next 30 days, I will attempt to take at least one photo a day and tell a little story about it.

In light of today, I will start with a photo of El Rastro, in Madrid. This is one of the worlds largest flea markets and this has gone on for every Sunday since the 18th century! I was so overwhelmed it was amazing. There was literally every type of product you could think, people from all over the world, and just a tremendous amount of energy in the streets! I was only able to capture a brief glimpse of the market in a few photos but I know the memories of this time will last a life time. I strongly suggest, if you're ever in Madrid on a Sunday, go to the Rastro. There are just miles and miles of vendors in the streets, I was able to walk around for 2 1/2 hours and I probably only saw about 50% of it. It is HUGE!

Needless to say this was an amazing experience and I am so happy that the prayers for adventure I had are being answered in such unique ways!

Hopefully you enjoy this little 30 day adventure.