España: súper mega-guay

Sun. Glorious sun. Vitamin D seeping into my pores. The groundhog may have seen his shadow, but I sure feel the hope of spring in the air. Yesterday I went running in the “rio”, a dried up riverbed turned into a long park that divides the city. It is now complete with fountains, sport fields, skate parks, playgrounds, orange trees and modern landscape. I see everything from dogs to bikers to skaters to athletes to children to los enamorados… enjoying themselves. It’s a novelty every time. Funny thing how sure I am of God’s presence when I am surrounded by nature. I hear the whistle of the breeze and the calls of the animals, the trickle of water, and the hum of animated conversations. Even the whiz of traffic and boisterous commerce cannot faze me in the least. I am home. Well ok, very far from it. But I am content. I feel God’s presence, here in this strange land, His land, so strongly, maybe even more than I do at home, or maybe just differently. It’s been a challenge. Here I feel quite isolated from fellowship and people who know my heart and share my passions. But I can more confidently be sure of God’s protection and love than ever before.

I am in Valencia, España for an entire semester. Ridiculous, I know, and not really something I pursued, yet the Lord brought me here. I know I am here for a reason; nothing is an accident with God. I have been learning true dependency on Him and what it looks like to have my life honor Him. He has stretched me by separating me from what is comfortable and easy. I am in an unfamiliar place with little other security besides my salvation. I hardly have confidence in myself, but I have full confidence in my Savior.

Now before I get completely philosophical I must add that the Lord has richly blessed my life here. I live with an endearing and exciting host mom. She is a dress maker for an enormous fiesta here in Valencia called Fallas. She is also a painter and our house is decorated by her vibrant nature themed oil paintings. She is talkative but not rude, outgoing but laid-back. Our apartment is in a perfect location and is quite plush. I am well fed and have my own bathroom for the first time in my life. I am complaint free.

Class, I’ll admit is more difficult than I anticipated. I feel like I’m at the level of a 2-year-old’s exponential word acquisition stage. It’s rather overwhelming; my brain whirrs in-between 2 languages regularly, and the classes are challenging with more reading, writing and cultural comprehension than I have ever had before. It’s incredibly interesting and satisfying to be challenged but leaves me feeling weary. Most of my life I have succeeded barely doing the minimum work, and here I have to put in more than average amount [for me].

The culture is not such a shock for me. The food is just like Puerto Rican with sea-food touches, a strange obsession with hamon cerano, extremely strong coffee, and the best, most scrumtulecent oranges. The family life is extremely close, bordering on invasive, but it suits me well. People are caring and communal, even neighbor to neighbor. I walk everywhere, and I imagine it adds up to a nice daily workout. Minimum 6km a day; that’s decent right? My favorite part of the day is the siesta, when all the small stores and shops close and everyone goes home to eat or nap. It’s a glorious, lazy part of the day, but I can’t see how it would be good for the economy. Speaking of Spain’s economy, I’m quite sure it’s worse than in the U.S. Every store has ridiculous rebajas [sales] and I don’t know how some of the small businesses are not bankrupt. It’s a curious world here.

Ahh, and the nightlife. Valencia is never more exuberant than after 11pm, almost any night of the week. People, whole families, walk their dogs [and yes there are millions of dogs in the city] and push their babies in strollers. They eat and drink at restaurants until 1 or 2 in the morning. The discotecas only open their doors at 3am are thriving until at least 7am. After one night on the town, I could see why people needed their siesta. One thing to note, although they party long, they don’t party too hard. Drinking isn’t solely for the purpose of being drunk. It’s rather refreshing. People drink because they enjoy it with meals or with tapas.

And tapas, most likely the greatest invention of the Spanish culture, are small appetizers that come with every drink. We went down south to the region of Andalucia a couple weekends ago, another story entirely, but in Granada, every tapa was free. The best part was the camarera would not tell you what the tapa consisted of, so it’s always a surprise, sometimes tuna, sometimes eggs with bread, and sometimes a strange meat than you are better off not knowing its origin.

Life is strange, and beautiful. I suppose I could continue to fill these virtual pages, there is so much I have seen and done, and much more I have yet to see and do that I fear my list will be interminable. (For the record, interminable is the word of the day according to dictionary.com, not that it’s that clever, but I thought I would throw it in there) I will save more rambling for another day. My prayer is this: that I might live to glorify my Creator and that I will never be content to live for myself. My prayer for all of you is that in spite of life you may always be keenly aware of the presence of God in your life. He is closer than you can imagine.