Mom and Dad at the Bullfighting Ring

Capileira -- small mountain village in Spain

The parents and me by a canal in Holland!

A visit to a working windmill

Me in Leiden. With the canal, of course :)

The Parents Come to Europe

It is crazy to think that this is probably the second to last blog of the semester! The last month has flown by and I have only 12 days left in Granada! While I am very excited to come back home, I am trying to enjoy the time I have left here as it is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. Well, I had a really great time with my parents for the last few weeks. We met in Holland and stayed with some relatives who showed us around the province of Friesland, where both my dad and mom’s relatives are from. My great-grandfathers on my mom and dad’s side immigrated to America from villages in Friesland, and we were able to visit them, as well as others. We also had a lot of great Dutch food – mostly bread, cheese, and one meal of pea soup. At the end of our stay there, we began talking like them – Ya and nay for yes and no. We also visited a few working windmills and the dikes on the coast, and learned a lot of history. My parents were in Spain with me from Tuesday until today, Monday. We had a really good time together. We saw a lot of Granada and also visited two other smaller towns. We had some great food, and they loved everything we ate here. It was really fun having them here because it just switched up the roles a little bit – I got to show them around and pretty much decide what to do and translate for them. I guess that is all for now. Only 12 more days in Granada and then home sweet home!

Mosque in Cordoba

Las Alpujarras -- from the top :)

Hola todos! Sorry that I’m not very good at keeping up with this blog. I have been doing pretty well though. I did go through about a week of homesickness, but I’m pretty much over that, thankfully. I mean, I am really excited to go home, but I am also enjoying the time that I have left here. Only 29 more days! I really can’t believe it. A few highlights from the last few weeks: A few Thursday’s ago, my only class for the day was cancelled, so I decided to go to the Alpujarras, a nearby mountain range. I hiked for about 6 hours total and made it to the top of a mountain! It was so beautiful and was able to see the Mediterranean Sea from the top. Last weekend, our program took us all on a day trip to Cordoba. It was a pretty long and exhausting day with about 7 hours of it on a bus, but we also had a good time in Cordoba. We went to see some ruins of a 10th century Islamic town, had some free time to walk around the city, and then visited the mosque. I absolutely loved the mosque! It was first a Christian temple built in the 6th century, and then when the Muslims invaded Spain in the 8th century, they converted it into a mosque. In the 13th century, when Cordoba was recaptured from the Muslims, they converted it back into a Christian church where they added chapels. I liked it mostly because it was so beautiful and had such a great history, but also because I remember learning about it in high school Spanish class and thinking, “Wow, that is really cool, but there is no way I would ever be able to go there.” :) I had my midterms this week, and it was a pretty crazy Wednesday and Thursday because I had two tests and a presentation on Wednesday and another test on Thursday. I did have to study quite a bit for one of my tests, but the others were really easy. It has been nice to have an easy semester and have time to free read and explore Granada. I am so excited for the next few weeks! I will be in Holland for a very long weekend – I will be in Leiden on Thursday and then my parents will fly into Amsterdam on Friday and then spend the rest of the weekend in Heerenveen with some of our relatives. And after that, my parents will be spending almost a week with me in Granada! I hope all is well with you! I would love to hear from you. And I’ll be seeing many of you soon!

Morocco

In short, Morocco was an eye-opening experience. We were in Morocco last weekend and we had an incredible time. It was my first time in a Muslim country, so it was really interesting to see how the Islamic faith was incorporated into their culture. The program that we went with was wonderful, and it allowed us to stay with host families and meet many native Moroccans. Here are a few highlights: The first day, we got to ride a camel! I think it was probably really touristy because they don’t really use camels in that part of Morocco, but I guess not everyone can say that they have ridden a camel in Africa! I loved getting to know a few native Moroccans. Our host family was so fun, and reminded me of a typical American family. They had a 16 year old daughter and 10 year old son, and we were able to hang out a bit with the daughter and her friends. It was surprising to see so many similarities in a country that seemed so different from ours. I also got to meet a university student from Casablanca who took me around Rabat shopping. She was so nice and generous – she insisted on buying me something and we hope to keep in touch. Overall, the trip impacted me a lot. I was able to experience a culture radically different from my own, and it was really intriguing to see a society with an official religion and with religious laws. This experience created in me a desire to know more about the world and current events. It challenged my judgmental attitude because even though Moroccans don’t agree with American politics, they do not judge American people as having anything to do with its government. They are so hospitable and generous, and it is sad that our media portrays the Muslim world so incorrectly. I am so glad to have been able to experience Moroccan culture and learn so much about the world in so few days and not even in a classroom.

Granada after 1 month! I can't believe it has been that long already!

Hola de Granada! An apology to begin with – I hope that this post makes sense, but since we speak so much in Spanish, sometimes we forget how to speak correctly in English :)

After we got back from England and Ireland, I had two days to recover before classes started on Wednesday. I am so thankful to have a daily routine now, and I really like my classes. I am able to understand my professors, and most of them are really interesting. I feel like I am being challenged but not overwhelmed, so I am very happy about that. I am taking Advanced Grammar, 20th century Spanish Literature, Translation, and a few other required classes. We have a lot of free time when I usually read (Mere Christianity by CS Lewis), explore Granada, and hang out with friends.

We had a 4 day weekend last weekend – a few highlights. 1. I volunteered at a soup kitchen with my senora. 2. We went to a concert of a popular Spanish pop band. 3. We spent two days on the beach of Almeria that was absolutely beautiful and perfect beach weather! It was quite strange to think, though, that here we were in Spain on the beach where it was about 85 degrees and we had only had 2 days of class so far with no homework, and our friends at Central are stressing out over midterms and it had snowed there!

I will close with a good quote from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis: [when man does something good for God or gives something to God] “It is like a small child going to its father and saying, ‘Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.’”

There were mulberries on the side of the rode and they were delicious. The Trim Castle is in the background.

London Eye

Here is the matador with the bull inside the stadium in Madrid -- the largest bull fighting stadium in Spain.

Trip to Madrid, England, and Ireland

Hello all from 3700 feet! As I wrote most of this, I was flying Ryanair from London to Granada after an amazing week of travelling. We left last Saturday morning for Madrid with the Central program which meant that we stayed in a very nice hotel and given money for meals -- the ideal for a college student traveller! My favorite part of Madrid was the bull fight. Although I don't enjoy seeing innocent animals tortured and killed, it was a great cultural experience. On Tuesday morning, we flew from Madrid to London and spent three days there. My favorite parts of London were going on the London Eye and meeting up with Kaylee, a friend from Central who is studying in London, who was great at taking me to all the tourist-y places without spending any money. I also acquired a taste for tea with milk and fish and chips. We travelled by overnight train on Thursday night from London to Holyhead, Wales and then a ferry to Dublin. My favorite part of Ireland was going out of the city and into a small village called Trim. We visited the Trim Castle, the oldest castle in Ireland, built in the 12 century. This was also the place where the film Braveheart was filmed. All of Ireland was so green and beautiful, but very cold. We arrived back into Granada safely on Sunday night. I already feel so much better -- smelling better after a shower and clean clothes, and a great night's sleep. We finally start classes on Wednesday, and I am excited to get into a regular schedule and back to speaking Spanish. Hope all is well, and hope to hear from you!

Granada

Hey all! I’m so sorry that it took so long to update this blog! They have kept us very busy with lots of orientation classes and other excursions. Anyway, we arrived safely in Granada after over 30 hours of travelling and sleeping! We got here on Friday night and our orientation didn’t start until Sunday, so we had a while to get adjusted to Granada and Spanish culture before moving in with our host families. We received many strange looks when we tried to have supper at 6pm. Spaniards normally have three meals a day at around 10, 2 and 9. Many of the stores are closed from 2-5 for the siesta time. Everything is going great here. I love speaking Spanish and being surrounded by the language. I am learning a lot, but am humbled by how much I have to learn. I am struggling the most with understanding the natives because they talk so fast and have a different accent than I’m used to, but I am learning. A few of my favorite experiences so far: 1. We went out for tapas (you buy a drink and get a free plate of appetizers). Afterwards we were just walking around looking for something else to do when I saw a poster that advertised free dancing lessons, so we went inside the building and asked the owner about the lessons. This was at 2:00am, and he called the dance professor and he came to the bar and taught us how to salsa and meringue. It was so much fun! 2. On Sunday, we took a bus in the morning to Nerja, a beautiful beach about 2 hours from Granada. We had a great day of adventure – I even jumped off a huge rock into the sea, about 15 feet! After relaxing on the beach and having supper, we made our way to the bus station where the bus was supposed to leave at 9:00pm. Well we soon found out that the last bus to Granada had already left – they use military time here, and we had translated 19:00 to 9:00pm. We will never make that mistake again! So we spent the entire night on the beach! It was quite an adventure to remember. There are so many more things I could write, but the café is closing. Hope to hear from you and hope all is well! I'll be leaving this Saturday for Madrid, London, and Dublin, so I'll be gone for a whole week! Pray for safety, and I promise an update afterwards!

Leaving Cali

The California Adventures are coming to an end! Our last week was amazing! Vacation Bible School at Emmanuel is the biggest and grandest kids’ event I’ve ever been a part of. There were over 300 kids each day, and it takes the entire church to be involved, including over 100 volunteers and many of the pastors and staff. I was the 2nd grade storyteller, which meant that I told a Bible story to 3 groups of 2nd graders, about 20 kids each. It was a struggle, especially because the kids often seemed like they weren’t paying attention, but we reviewed each day about the previous stories, and they could remember, so that was especially encouraging. And it was all worth it because on the last day, I prayed with each of the kids individually and gave them the choice to ask for a blessing or to ask Jesus into their heart, and ten kids accepted Jesus on Friday! Wow, that was so exciting. It is hard working with kids because you don’t always see the fruit of your labor, but I guess I just need to leave the rest to God. We also had some visitors from Central, so it was wonderful to enjoy fellowship with them. I can’t believe that today is our last day here, and I’ve already had to say goodbye to so many people. It is all bittersweet, though. I’ve had such a great experience here in California, but I’m also very excited to come home and see my family and friends. So I guess that this is goodbye via blogger for now. I will start up in about a month, though when I am in Spain for the fall. Thanks for reading these blogs and supporting me. I hope to talk to you in person soon!

Day Camp done, VBS this week!

Day camp finished this week and we have only one more week here. I can’t believe it. I feel like I sound like a broken record, but the time is really going very quickly, especially the last few weeks because I’ve had so much fun. Day camp finished well with a field trip to Riley’s farm. It was a two hour drive each way, but the kids enjoyed the colonial farm. They learned how to weave, do calligraphy, make candles, and learned proper etiquette. Goodbyes were tough, too, but most of the kids will be attending our Vacation Bible School this week! We are so thankful for that because we love these kids so much and want to teach them about Jesus, and now they will be able to learn about Him at VBS! I decorated my room today – they go all out here, and it took us about 4 hours to finish it! I worked on the mural, and I’m especially proud of the trees. VBS runs this week from 8:30-noon, and then they offer an aftercare program from noon-3 that Jill and I, along with our new friends Hannah and Luke, will be working aftercare. So pray for VBS this week at Emmanuel and that the kids would have a good time and that Jesus would transform their lives.

Week 3 of Day Camp

Three weeks of day camp down, one more to go. And then one week of VBS, and then we will be done! The time goes quickly, but it’s been a fun and busy week! Day Camp was fun this week – we went on a field trip to the Orange County Fair with all the kids! It was a little crazy, but still a lot of fun, and I got to ride the carousel and the big slide! On Friday, we had Water Day and then a bunch of us went to a Dodger’s game! It was my first professional sports game, so it was really exciting. Saturday, we had the Compton Work Day where about 1000 volunteers from local churches unite and work at various sites in Compton. About 250 of us went to an elementary school and painted all the outside walls as well as a beautiful solar system mural inside a large room. It is amazing how fast work can get done when there are so many working together. Overall, we had a great week, especially getting to know more people from the church. Plus, our friend Rachel came to visit us from Wednesday and is leaving tomorrow morning. It was fun to have her join us! I hope all is well, and I’d love to hear from all of you!

Week 2 of Day Camp

Week two has gone by quickly and it has been getting even hotter! Everything went well, though. It is fun getting to know the kids more and I think that I am up to knowing about 50% of their names. They can be challenging sometimes, but not unbearable for us. We have gotten to know and hang out with some day camp staff this week. They are a lot of fun and a great community for us here. The picture is at a restaurant called BJ's where we went on Thursday before all going to Connect. Our host family was gone the whole week, so we also got to practice our cooking skills, which was a lot of fun. I am looking forward to this week, but I am also very stressed out about finishing my schoolwork. I have a few hundred pages to read and about 25 pages to write, so I am trying not to freak out and just get it done. Just pray for strength and energy to work on it even after a long day at day camp.

We also had a great study on Monday over Mark 4. We talked and struggled a lot with verse 12 which says that Jesus teaches in parables: “so that they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!” We wondered why Jesus would not want all people to hear his truth, but we realized that Jesus wants to teach those who desire to be taught. He did not want to give his teachings to those who would not accept it or who would destroy it (giving pearls to swine). Instead, he taught the disciples the meaning of the parable when they came to him and asked. Jesus wants us to pursue him! It is then that He will teach us so that we can understand, and his teaching will change our lives!

Day Camp Week 1

Wow, the first week of Day Camp is over already, and we are also half way done with our two months in Cali! The kids are fairly well behaved, and they have loved our games so far! Some of the highlights from the games this week – freeze dance, the Macarena, Twister, Chubby Bunny, and Water Day! I love spending time with the kids and getting to know them. Even though we cannot teach them about Jesus in the classrooms, we pray that we can point them to Jesus in the way that we love them. Besides day camp, we have had a blessed week, spending a little time at the beach and getting together with other believers at our two gatherings. I learned that prayer isn’t something that Jesus commanded, but expected. We should pray out of necessity and a deep desire in our hearts; as a response to our lives in this world, we need God’s help. Grace and peace.

Week 3 --

Wow, time has flown! I can’t believe that we have been here for three weeks already. We had a pretty busy week – we had four long days of work, full of organizing supplies for day camp and painting a few rooms that will be used for day camp. We also saw some fireworks on the beach! Day camp starts tomorrow! I’m excited to meet the kids that we will be working with. The day camp is a unique opportunity – the people in charge work both for Emmanuel Reformed Church and the Paramount Care Foundation which is a government-run organization, so while we cannot teach any Bible stories, we can encourage them to come back for the church’s ministries, like VBS held the week after day camp. Pray for us this week as we start day camp, and let me know how I can pray for you!

Week 2 -- Sorry, Flowers, and Tide Pools

Hello again from sunny California! It has been a great week, full of both work and play. We continue to prepare our games for Day Camp in July, and our most recent project is the life-sized Sorry board, about 20 square feet. It turned out to be much more work and planning than we had thought, but it is so much fun to plan out and paint! We also joined two groups at the church. The Mark study is on Monday nights, and we go through the text like a manuscript and also apply it to our lives. The young adults group, Connect, is on Thursday nights and we sing, hear the Word, and pray in small groups. Both have been a huge blessing in our lives and have helped us to meet others. O, and how could I forget – we went with a group from the church to the filming of The Price is Right on Tuesday, and one guy from our group was called up and won a new car! This weekend, we got to help Vicki, our host mom who is a florist, with a wedding! It was so fun to witness all of the work that goes into the flowers, and it was so beautiful! We also went to the tide pools and got to see lots of crabs and sea anemones! Also got our first California suntan :) Please continue to pray for us and let me know how you are doing!

Road Trip and First Week in Cali!

Hey all! California is amazing! Jill and I left last week Thursday, travelled through the mountains of Colorado and hiked a little ways down the Grand Canyon, and arrived at our destination on Saturday night! It was a long drive, but absolutely beautiful! We were so blessed to be able to see so much beauty of the United States in only three days! We’ve been here for a week already, and it has gone by so quickly! Our work started out pretty slowly – we have three weeks to prepare for Day Camp and help out doing other random jobs around the church. Once July 6 comes around, though, we will be busy with Day Camp, which is held every day from 9-3. Jill and I are in charge of games, so we are working on preparing for obstacle courses, a life-sized game of Sorry, and more. We have been doing a lot of sight-seeing (the many sandy beaches, Hollywood, Santa Monica) because we won’t have time for that later. Anyway, things are going splendidly and the weather has been great so far, but they say that it will be hot later. I hope all is well with all of you, and feel free to email or facebook to let me know how you are doing!