Barcelona, hostels, fat tires, metros

My tale continues as I take you on a journey to Barcelona...
So classes finish Friday, and I hurry home to eat some dinner before hoping on the train that night which left around 8pm. Who knew what adventures would be looming around the corner once we departed from Oviedo. Naturally we are all super excited and full of energy so we talked quite a bit before deciding to "sleep". Since we're all college students and not having loads of cash lying around no one spent extra money on a sleeper car. Sooooo for any of you have ever ridden on a train you know that sleep was difficult to find. Well around 6 a.m. we decide it's time for some breakfast. Our long night was only the beginning of our 20 hour train ride that was originally supposed to be 12 hours.

What happened? Well we had wicked winds all day especially in our destination. Several people died that day which was a tragedy. So most of the day we were either stopped or crawling along, but God was looking our for us. Thankfully the 10 of us kept good company and had fun playing card games or just sharing gut busting stories about ourselves. I was thrilled to learn so much about the women I was with and had so many opportunities to hear about where they stand as far as faith. I felt so encouraged and love this opportunity to dive into living life with more unbelievers or believers who have wandered away from their faith for various reasons. I can't thank God enough for this challenge.

I am God's child who is following His lead holding firmly to His hand. Of course I love the fact that His grip will never loosen on me.I was reading Psalm 24 on the train the next morning and came across these verses which I'm sure you'll recognize from a contemporary song.

Psalm 24:7-8 Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

Alright so finally after much waiting, eating, snacking, taking silly pictures, a bus came to drive us the last hour to Barcelona. Wow where to begin...first off for Spain it was pretty chilly in Barcelona when we arrived. We hopped on the metro which was packed to the brim, seriously, I'm talking getting close and personal. Our hostel was amazing! We had all 10 of us in a room with personal lockers to store our stuff in our already locked room for extra security and had comfy beds, our own bathroom, and breakfast provided in the morning. Hostels don't get much better than that. Now it was time for a night out! So we were using this book and read about this great club so we hopped some metros and started walking around Barcelona after seeing some of the touristy shops. I enjoyed some amazing ice cream, one of the best smoothies ever, and couldn't resist getting a bocadillo which is their universal word for sandwich which consists of a million possibilities.

So we're walking up this crazy hill, they seem to have a lot of those here and see this castle lit up on the hill and after much wandering decide to call it a night. The next day we check out this fat tire bike tour company so we can see the big stuff in only 4 hours and 7 miles on super sweet bikes. I took pictures of everything, but still need a power cord which I should have this week. Here's what I saw:

Plaza Sant Jaume
Plaza del Rei
La Cathedral
Palau de Musica Catalana
Arc del Triomf
Sagrada Familia
Parc de la Ciutadella
Vila Olympic (where the 1992 olympics were held!)
Barceloneta Beach ( I touched the Mediterrean Sea!!!)
Port Vell

Our tour guide, Jordon, was a California guy, who hasn't been a tour guide for FAT TIRE for 5 years now and filled in. He was so passionate and has this ridiculous love for history. He still lives in Barcelona, and I even had a witnessing opportunity with him. We hated giving up our bikes but hopefully will do this when we go to Paris March 27-30. Just before leaving Oviedo I signed up for this trip because who can pass up Paris? The rest of the day was pretty relaxing apart from walking up the steepest hill I've ever met that wasn't a mountain only to get kicked out of a park that was closed for trespassing, scandoulous I know along with the other 40 people and some more ;-) Oh I know what you're thinking, "Carol don't you know Picasso was born in Barcelona?" No worries we all toured the Picasso museum which was pretty cool.

Something I took from the summer out at Snow Mountain Ranch with the Navigators is to pray big things. As we're traveling back I ask God to get us back early. Well we arrived back 10 minutes each which still blew me away. It's good to be home. We didn't have school today in honor our patron saint, St. Thomas. I haven't figured out who is he yet. I enjoyed going on a run with my friend all over the city.

One more story, on Monday I was pretty tired after a long train ride and was just having a rough day especially with relating to my classmates. Sometimes conversations just drift to things that I'm uncomfortable with, and I was having trouble communicating with one of my professors. As I'm walking home I see my close neighbor, B, and decide to strike up conversation with her. She shared about her faith and experience in missions with the church and encouraged me in my internship for the summer with the youth group. My spirit was lifted up because God heard my cry and provided me comfort.

Psalm 27:14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Hasta luego...

Good things come to those who wait...
I'm sure all of you have heard this at one time or multiple times in your life. I'm finding this to be so true. Something good that came to me yesterday was my final suitcase with all my clothes!!!! It feels so good to have my stuff back, but at the same time I want point out that God allowed me to be in good spirits and to have contentment without my stuff. He showed me that He is all I need everyday, and He filled my cup with joy nonetheless. Something I learned this summer about the phrase I'll be content when...is that I can be content like Paul in any circumstance.

Philippians 4:12-13
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

Fun news: My host mom must be a mind reader because she realized that I was greatly lacking in my sugar intake which was a bit tolling. At UNI I usually have a dessert after most meals...;-) She bought me a jar of chocolate spread for bread which tastes amazing! Today I got myself breakfast. Seriously back in the states I cereal which isn't that much but they eat maybe a piece of fruit and have something to drink, that's it. So I found some bread to munch on as well. The food here is great with potatoes in almost every meal and some kind of meat. I am definitely eating healthy here with lots of variations of soup. Last night I have some mini German sausages which look like little hot dogs but are bursting with more flavor. I watched some comedians with my family a couple nights ago which had to funny to just watch us. Here I was trying to quickly translate what they were saying (improvisation like SNL) so I could get the jokes. I'd was doing pretty well getting the first half or 3/4s then they would suddenly throw in the punch line leaving my parents in a fit of laughter while I sat there thinking, "Oh come on I almost had it!!! I want to laugh at the joke too!"

My host parents say its supposed to be really cold tomorrow with our low being 34 degrees. Considering during most days the temp is about 60 degrees having 44 is colder than normal. Today I'm enjoying more sunny weather with my window open so I can feel the pleasant breeze. I just can't get over how this is supposed to be Winter and am curious as to how warm it will be when Spring arrives. As I said before I live right by a park so I might go over there sometime on a weekend and see what kind of sports they have going on. Maybe some futbol or soccer as we call it. Tonight all the UNI students are meeting at 11pm which would be about 3pm for most of you to go out. I have class tomorrow at 3pm so I need to get my homework done. I don't have so much homework like at UNI which means more time to experience this new culture. Tomorrow I'll class until 8pm!

Here is my class schedule:
M: 2-3 Grammar 6-7 Literature 7-8 Hispanic Literature
TW: 2-3 Vocab 3-4 Grammar 4-5 Translation
R:2-3 Vocab 3-4 Literature 4-5 Translation
F: 2-3 Hispanic Literature 4-5 Literature

Prayer request: My host mom, Albi, know where the Evangelical church is, so I would like to check it out for next Sunday. I will be asking some UNI students if they would like to meet and go together.

Here is the passage I feel led to leave you with:

Psalm 18:28-36
You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. 29With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. 30As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him. 31For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? 32It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. 33He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to stand on the heights. 34He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 35You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. 36You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.

Hasta luego! Until next time...;-)

Hey everyone! So I have now been in Spain for 1 week...

A lot has happened since then. For one thing I finally got 1 of my suitcases yesterday afternoon and will hopefully be picking up the other one tomorrow. I finally broke down and bought some more clothes the day before I got my suitcase because the airport should be reimbursing me. So Oviedo has a population of 200,000 people and here this is what they call a small city. Ha! Right. Well my host mom told me only after a couple of days I would be getting around this "small city" in no time. I thought, "You've got to be kidding?!?" She was so right. In a matter of 2-3 days I have been to the north, south, east, and west sides of the city. My legs and feet are so sore because I have averaged at least 6 miles of walking everyday.

Some funny things I have learned or seen while here. I have seen escalators outside. I absolutely love lemon flavored Fanta which is unique to Europe. People here care about saving energy with electricity and water but smoke a lot of the time and don't mind littering. I'm still trying to figure that one out. I have been into a McDonald's but didn't order anything apart from my Fanta. The fruit juice here is way better because it's all fresh. Oh in the airport in Madrid they had this announcement that kept reminding everyone how you couldn't smoke in the airport yet they had designated smoking areas where you could smoke. When I see stores or advertisements that have an English word in them. I often hear music that is in English wherever I go. I'm adjusting to the 24 hour clocks. I've started figuring out the difference for temperature. For those of you in Iowa, the coldest temperature I've had has been 42 degrees with average around 61 during the day. Feel free to come visit! ;-)

Since my post is focused on giving you some insight or a view of my life I thought it would be best to describe what this part of Spain looks like. So on the bus ride here I saw the beautiful ocean. Oviedo reminds me of a combination of California and Colorado. We have palm trees and lots of beautiful mountains. In fact, the view behind my apartment here is nothing short of breath taking. I will hopefully be able to include some pictures later on. Words cannot describe how beautiful it is here. The European Peaks which I flew over are amazing too.

The reason I'm here: to learn Spanish and to dive into this culture. God is always providing for me in abundance. So in my first 3 days of traveling I had 8 hours of sleep but God provided me with patience and a hopeful spirit. There is no way I should have survived that but God can do anything. My host family consists of Albi (mom), Miguel (dad), and Albi's dad, David. They are so kind and are learning patience as well when talking with me. It took them a while to realize that I understand the majority of what they are saying, I just have trouble speaking well back. I believe there is already improvement. I am studying at the University of Oviedo and am taking vocabulary, translation, grammar, literature, and Hispanic literature. With little sleep I didn't have to worry about jet lag. I didn't experience it! As far as eating goes, wow, I love the food and eating later hasn't really affected me too much. Breakfast: between 10-12 Lunch: (the biggest meal) 2:30, 5-6 snack time, Dinner: between 9:30-10pm.

Tomorrow some friends and I might go hiking! Oh something I've learned is that Europeans are so friendly and caring even to complete strangers. I can ask anyone for directions and they will help me. I even had one person walk with me for a while. Something else I experienced while traveling and having massive delays was meeting angels. I met so many kind people who spoke Spanish and helped interpret for me when I had questions about my ticket. I also got to meet people from English and hear people from Australia! I enjoyed traveling by myself especially since I knew that God was with me and taking care of me. I made many friends in my travels. I look forward to making more while I'm here with 20 other students from UNI. I'm looking forward to being a witness to my classmates while I'm here. Please keep us in your prayers!

Hasta Luego! Until next time...