Journal

June 19, 2000

Hola! I´m here in Spain. And I love it! It´s hot, but here in Madrid, it´s very dry and not at all humid. It´s so dry in fact, my lips are chapped. Spain is beautiful. I love it.

June 20, 2000

I´m never quite sure if the Spaniards are upset or not when they´re conversing with each other. They talk so fast and it seems as if they´re yelling at each other. On the phone they answer with a quick ¨Si¨ (Yes) or ¨Digame¨ (Tell me). But they all talk that way and no one gets offended, so I guess that´s just the way it is.

I stayed with the Espinar family last night. The program starts today at the Hotel Regina in downtown Madrid. An interesting fact - Madrid is the exact geographical center of Spain and that is why they named it the capital a few hundred years ago. The Plaza del Sol (Plaza of the Sun) is the exact center which is just down the street from our Hotel. The Espinar family consists of Vicente and Rafaela, the parents, and their four children - Azahara, Dalila, Natanael, and Lea. From their house you can see the surrounding hills, the city of Madrid, the area where the airport is, and the castle that General Franco used to vacation in. Awesome view! This is also the convention place in Madrid. ¡Bella España!

June 21, 2000

It is so noisy in this city! All hours of the day there are people out. At three o´clock in the morning the garbage man comes and makes such a racket, at 8:00 the construction starts, sidewalks are constantly being repaired and new pipes put in, we have dinner at about 10 or 11 pm and from then until 2 or 3 or 4 (or 5 or 6) in the morning there are people out having tapas and drinking and talking. Crazy! It´s hard to get used to this schedule of eating at 9 am, 3 or 4 pm for lunch and dinner at 10 or 11 pm. But it´s fun and interesting. I´ve tried lots of new things like gazpacho, paella, tortilla española, hard dry crusty bread, café con leche, wine, sangría, croquetas, scrambled eggs with asparagus and lots more.

I got lost today which was a big pain. Luis Laplaza, the director of API (Acedemic Programs International) gave me directions but I don´t know what happened. He told me to turn left, pass two fountains, and then turn left again and that´s the street that the hotel is on, but I did that and ended up in the middle of Spain somewhere on some street who knows how many miles away from the hotel. I finally made my way back after asking some señoras in a park for directions. It was a bit frustrating. I did get to see a lot of Madrid though.

June 22, 2000

Toledo. The most beautiful city in the world. Well, so far. I fell in love with it at first glance. Something about it just touched something deep within me. It has narrow streets with flower boxes on the windows and high buildings on either side of the street. The cathedral is amazing. It is HUGE. It took 400 years to build. It is a very old city. Only one side of the city has a wall; the river creates a boundary on the other three sides. There is a bridge from the 9th century and a building from the 10th that now belongs to the University. An old man named Emilio was our guide and he made all sorts of jokes and told us the history of various sites. It´s amazing because everything is still in use; cars drive over the old bridge instead of horses and the university uses the old palace or whatever it used to be. Everything is so old, but it still works. It´s made out of stone and brick and stucco and it´s beautiful. It still is after hundreds of years. It´s not plastic and metal that looks horrid in 10, 20, 30 years. I love how much history is packed into everything.

I can´t wait to go back to Toledo. We didn´t have time to shop, but I saw lots of cute shops with beautiful pottery and white linens with embroidery and so I can´t wait to return.

June 23 and 24, 2000

Córdoba. I wasn´t really very impressed except that it´s a very very old city and there´s one cool museum with the paintings of Julio Romero de Torres. And the pool in the hotel was impressive! It was so hot in Córdoba that it felt wonderful to go swimming. So hot and dry that in a matter of minutes after getting out of the pool, your suit and hair were dry again.

We also went to a Midsummer´s night fiesta de San Juan which was an eye-opener. They had a huge bonfire, loud music and masked people dancing around. The people would write their wishes on pieces of paper and throw them into the fire and millions of little sparks went floating up into the sky.

There´s also a neat market in Córdoba with big tubs of snails climbing out of their shells, different types of shellfish, fish, vegetables, antiques, fruits, bread, all sorts of things.

June 25, 2000

We left Córdoba for Sevilla on a beautiful ancient road with huge fields of sunflowers, orange trees, olive trees and corn, and pastures with goats and bulls. A beautiful road and an air conditioned bus, what could be better!? :)

We visited the ruins of the city of Medina Al-Zahra which was spectacular. It was an old moorish palace and mosque and only about 1/10 of it has been uncovered. It makes me feel like taking a shovel and digging up the ground. It´s beautiful all that they´ve uncovered; rounded arches, carvings, marble floors, the site of a beautiful garden... and they´ve planted jasmine - ahhh - and other perfumy plants.

We continued onto Sevilla and met our host families where we are going to stay for the next 5 nights. My señora´s name is Angeles, but her nickname is Chele. She is a good cook! It was great to have homemade food after a week of restaurant food.

Then, the bullfight. The Plaza de Toros in Sevilla is one of the most beautiful in all of Spain. It´s made of stone and brick and the seats and rows have numbers on them but in blue and white tile instead of plastic like the stadiums at home. It was much more romantic and classical than the stadiums where we go to see events. The bullfight was interesting to see. I kind of liked it somehow. But on the other hand it kind of made me sick to my stomach. I cried when the first bull died. There were six bull fights in total and three matadors who took turns fighting. It´s so traditional - they still dress in the traditional costumes and the band plays, and the trumpets, and people yell, ¨¡Olé!¨ when the matador makes a good move. Two people got knocked down by the bulls but they didn´t get hurt too badly because they got up again and kept fighting. One man got one pant leg torn off almost all the way and one of his legs was bleeding. The bull fighters were all young, from ages 19-26. Quite a thing.

June 26, 2000

Sevilla is beautiful. Orange, olive, fig, and palm trees line the streets.

Classes started at the API office from 10 to 12 every day. Then home for lunch, siesta, shopping, email café or exploring, and then dinner around 9:30 or 10:00. Pretty relaxed schedule and ¨on time¨ doesn´t really mean anything.

June 27 and 28, 2000

More Spanish classes and visits. Tuesday we visited the Alcázar, an old palace, which is beautiful. It has lovely gardens with a maze, good smelling things, roses, palms, and fountains. Wednesday we visited the Cathedral. It was neat but nothing in comparison to the one in Toledo. But it has some famous paintings and Cristopher Columbus´ son is buried there. They made a special statue for Christopher for the 400th year celebration (this was back in 1800 something) of him discovering America or something and they were going to move his bones and bury them either underneath the statue or inside it or somewhere in the Cathedral, but somehow his bones got lost, so really no one knows where Columbus is buried. Lots of people claim he´s buried here or there, but really his body is lost. Anyway, just an interesting tidbit.

June 29, 2000

This internet place is pretty cool. The colors are yellow and blue and it´s called ¨Ciber Planet¨. It´s just right around the corner from where I live, so pretty neat. Tomorrow we leave for Cádiz where we´ll spend the month of July, so I´m pretty excited for that.

There are so many cute shoes stores here! They don´t have any department stores except for one called El Corte Ingles (The English Cut) so all along the streets there are clothing stores, shoe stores (Zapatarías), grocery stores, bakeries (Panaderías) and at every other corner there is a little booth where they sell cold water and ice cream... yum!

June 30, 2000

We left Sevilla on the train and arrived in Cádiz about an hour and a half later. Wow. Cádiz is the most beautiful place in the world. The beach is so georgous... it is the best beach I´ve ever seen in my life. Clear blue water, hot sun, soft sand. It is so beautiful. The first thing I did when I got here, of course, is go to la playa and go swimming. Delicious.

July 1, 2000

There was a bit of problem with arrangements for the host families so the first night in Cádiz, a few of the students stayed at Luis´ apartment which was fine with me because it is absolutely beautiful there. His apartment is right on the beach and wow - what a view.

July 2, 2000

My roommate´s name is Patience and she´s from South Carolina. Her accent is so cute; a real southern gal. I finally got to go to a Sunday morning meeting! There were 11 of us including 2 workers and me. Afterwards, I had dinner with the Sanchez family and went up to Sevilla to the gospel meeting. There were 9 of us there. It was so wonderful, undescribable really, to have fellowship again.

July 3, 2000

I took the placement test today. I was a bit nervous, but it went well. The university is beautiful. Old, big, white buildings against the deep blue sky.

July 4, 2000

Happy Independence day!

There are some problems with my host family situation, so Luis is looking for another family for me. It´s been a bit frustrating lately, trying to get things sorted out, but I hope to get settled comfortably soon.

July 5-6, 2000

Classes, beach, shopping... nothing really too exciting. :)

July 7, 2000

Granada. WOW. What a beautiful city. It´s absolutely gorgeous. It is so romantic and mysterious. Maybe that´s why I liked it so much. The Alhambra is so beautiful. It´s just like they say it is, ¨You hAve to see it.¨ And is it ever beautiful. They have it all lit up at night with lights, and it´s hot, but there are cool breezes, and some young folk in the corner are playing a guitar and singing gypsy music, and there´s just an Arabian air to the plaza where you sit and watch and feel the night.

The symbol of the city is a pomegranate (that´s what granada means in spanish). I saw a lot of pomegranates, but no real ones... it must be because they don´t harvest them until the fall.

July 9, 2000

We slept in. The bus was supposed to come at 12:00... but it didn´t come for another hour and 45 minutes. But that´s okay, because this is Spain and time is relative here.

We left around 2:00 and drove back to Cádiz. When we arrived, Patience and I moved in to a residence hall called La Sal (The Salt), which is beautiful. It has lots of tiles and marble, blue and white, huge ceilings, and very friendly people. So, I´m very glad to be settled finally and am really enjoying it here.

July 10, 2000

Patience is leaving tomorrow. She got so homesick that she decided to only stay for three weeks instead of six like she originally planned. Also, half of the group is leaving on the 12th, because they are only on a three week program instead of six like the rest of us. So, our group is going to be much smaller. I´m sad that they´re leaving. It´s amazing how fast the time has flown by. Every day just zooms past. But when I look ahead, it seems like it will be forever.

July 11, 2000

I met Ester Sanchez Martinez and one of her friends for lunch today. I met Ester a year or two ago at a convention in California. She is from San Fernando, which is only about 15 or 20 minutes away by train. She is a very sweet girl. It´s so fun to communicate in Spanish. It´s getting a lot easier to speak and understand.

I showed them pictures of my family and my roommates. The picture of my roomies and I is in front of the Grant St. House. It was so funny because they were talking about how the house didn´t have a wall around it and how it was made of wood. For them, it´s strange for a house not to be made of stone, brick, and stucco. And it´s strange for a house not to have a wall around it. All of the houses and apartments here have some kind of wall around them and wrought iron bars on all the windows. When I first saw the bars on all the windows I thought, if they had a fire, how would they escape? But they probably don´t have too much trouble with fires, because everything is made out of stone, not wood.

June 12, 2000

This is an amazing country. It´s beautiful, colorful, hot, and so liveable. It has a lot of old world tradition and so much history. But everything that still stands from the past is in use. All these old things that we from the ¨New World¨ would think are so incredibly old, are just part of their daily lives. It´s incredible. That´s one of the reasons why it´s so romantic over here. They have all the modern conveniences, for the most part, but the intrigue of the old world is very present as well. It´s kind of like all the romance of the past with the conveniences of the present.

I´ve met a lot of neat people here at the dorm. They´re mostly young people that live here and the crew that works here. They´re fantastic. There are a couple guys from France, one American boy from Kentucky who has been studying in France, an Italian girl, and several Spaniards.

There is a shop for everything here. You walk down the street and you don´t see any Fred Meyer´s or big shopping malls. Instead you see row after row of little shops, each specializing in something. One shop for fruit, one for bread, one for meat, one for underwear, one for cosmetics and soaps, one for baby clothes. All along the street little tiny shops for everything. The only mall type stores I´ve heard of here is El Corte Ingles (The English Cut) and one called La Bahía (The Bay) something or other.

I put a white flower in my hair and took a melancholy walk tonight along the street with a view of the beach and the ocean. I guess I am a bit homesick. I love it here, sometimes I just wish I could transport everyone I love and have them here with me. I guess it´s something like what the Portugese call suadid (I´m not sure how you spell it). It means something like being homesick, but knowing you can´t go home, and almost enjoying the bittersweetness of it all.

Okay, maybe I´ve just turned into a hopeless romantic, I don´t know. :)

Nights here are so calm and relaxing. It gets cool and the breezes pick up, everyone dresses up and goes out for a walk or a drink.

July 13, 2000

The residence hall food is really good. It´s definitely not the average American dormitory cafeteria food. They give us so much too! I can never eat it all. Lunch today was fried chicken (3 pieces!), whole fried green peppers, a cold rice salad with corn, peas, sour cream, carrots, red peppers, and olives, crusty bread, peaches, and water. Quite a meal. Breakfast is usually big crusty rolls with butter and jam, café con leche (coffee with milk), little packaged cookies, and liver paté (for those interested). For dinner last night we had some sort of casserole, deep fried cauliflower, salad, crusty bread, honeydew melon, and water. Excellent food. A lot of foods are fried, but they use olive oil, which is very good for the health.

At 4:00 some students that live here at the residence and I are going to the beach; Tiziana, the Italian girl; one of the French boys, I forget his name; the American, Trevor; and maybe María, a Spanish girl.

July 13, 2000

Yes, the food is good, but sometimes a bit interesting. Like today, we got mashed potatoes (powdered, I´m sure), fried chicken, and a whole plate of mushrooms. Yes, a whole plate. I mean, I like mushrooms, and they were cooked very well, but a whole heaping plate of them? Uuf. Lots of people ate them all though. They got their fungus for the day, that´s for sure.

July 14, 2000

There is one big problem with this city. There are way too many dogs. It´s easy to just ignore them and they don´t bother you at all, but really, this city could do with a lot less. I don´t know where the people keep them, either. Everyone lives in apartments; I don´t think there are any houses in Cádiz. So they must keep them in their apartments. I don´t think I could handle having animals other than humans in my house. Anyway, the problem is that the owners take their dogs on walks and the dogs poop all over the sidewalk. So, one word of advice when travelling in Cádiz, watch your step! Another word of advice, watch our for motos and cars! They don´t watch out for you. Each tiny narrow street has a tiny narrow sidewalk, which is really nice for when a moto comes zooming up behind you and you have somewhere relatively safe to jump to. The motos (they´re like motorcycles, but smaller) are really loud, which is also nice, because you can sure hear them coming.

July 15, 2000

Well, I mostly spent this day catching up. I slept in for the first time in a long time! And then I went to the beach, studied a little (not too much!) and that´s about all.

Last night we went to a Folklore Festival and there were several groups from different countries that sang and danced. One group, from Moldavia, was really good. I had never heard of Moldavia before and I still don´t know where it is, but I do know they have some good musicians and dancers.

July 16, 2000

I spent the day with Ester. She is such a darling. Went to a meeting also today, which was very nice. I appreciate fellowship so much. Here there are very few people that serve God and they are very spread out, but I have been glad to be able to spend some time with them.

July 17, 2000

Last night I decided to go to bed early. I´m always tired in the morning and so I decided to do something about, get some more sleep and then Monday morning for classes I´d be bright and cheery. Well, it was not to be. First of all, I was starving. I missed dinner (the dinner hour is from 9-10pm, and I got in a little after 10 but I didn´t want to go out by myself to eat, so I just decided not to) and so my stomach was growling. Next, it is SO windy. Yesterday and today the wind has just been blowing like crazy. And because I sleep with the windows open so I don´t die from the heat, it was very loud. Then, at about 2:00 or so the garbage men came to empty the garbage. I don´t know what those people were throwing away, but it sounded like rocks. Crazy. It probably was rocks. They throw away everything here. I haven´t seen any recycling going on the entire time I´ve been here. So, it was quite the night. I went to bed about 12:00 and didn´t fall asleep until 3:30 or so, but fortunately, I woke up bright and cheery. I don´t quite know why.

Okay, now get this. Today I had to change rooms (just for tonight) because they are going to do some construction! Oh no!

July 18, 2000

¡Hola todos! Okay, another big adventure. Yesterday they started doing construction. And then today, when I got home from school, they told me that the police are completely closing this university residence por falta de una rampa para los minusválidos... because there is no ramp for disabled people. So they´re shutting the whole place down and we all have to find new places to live for a week or so. I´m going to go live with one of the señoras that works here - Tiziana, me and I think a few others. So all my bags are packed and while I´m waiting for the others to get ready I just have a few minutes to use the internet. However, Hotmail isn´t working for some reason, so I can´t check my mail.

So, another big adventure. Well, this whole trip has been an adventure. There´s a classical piano concert tonight at the university. I think I´ll go, I need something to calm my nerves. :)

July 29, 2000

Hello!! I´m not even going to try to catch up all the days I´ve missed... maybe later. It´s been crazy the last two weeks but quite an adventure.

I´m here in Madrid with my family! They all made it safe and sound, but are very tired too.

I passed all my exams with flying colors and left Cádiz, running to catch buses and trains and I finally made it to Madrid. I´m very glad to be with my family. I miss Ben so much. He sent me roses before I left Cádiz. It was the biggest bouquet of roses I´d ever seen. And then he gave a card to Korwin to give to me... and it just makes me miss him so much. What a dear.

Monday we start our trip; we will leave Madrid and head south to Cádiz, then east and north to Barcelona, then north and west to Pamplona and San Sebatian, then back south again to Madrid.

August 2, 2000

Hi! We are now in Cádiz, after having survived Córdoba and Sevilla; it is SO hot. In Madrid, Córdoba, and Sevilla it was very very hot dry heat. Now we´re in Cádiz, and it´s not quite as hot, but it is more humid.

I doubt I´ll be able to use the internet from now on because we´ll be travelling and staying in hotels, so if I don´t write anything for a long time, don´t worry. Thanks for being faithful readers of my web site. :)

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