Gracia Espana

Yes, I am in Europe. Yes, I am at the beach. Yes, there will always be topless women...WoW. All I have to say about this subject is that if you are over 40..tops 50 or over 140 pounds, don't do it! Keep the bathing suit on Spaniards.

Funny story, So let me tell you a little bit about the little old Spanish woman we live with. Eating healthy is very very important to her, she loves her two daughters, her favorite color is green (hints her adorable bright green sweater she loves), she has taken every class you can possibly think of, from cooking to massages, she thinks that women don't need to get married and if you want children...Do not fret for technology has given us the option of paying a visit to the Doctor...yup. Every morning she listens to the news on her dinky little hand held radio and talks about all the devistating things happening in the world. She informs us about the weather and then she will explain what vitamins are in the food we are eating and how vegitables are an imortant part of your diet. I love this woman...ha. So last night she cooked us sliced potatoes, over a little bed of lettuce and topped it with slices of tomatoes, oil and vinegar...we have tomatos every day. Anyways, I was having a hard time eating this specific meal that night because she had put a lot of oil on the dish and the potatoes were really soaked in the stuff. At the end of my meal, I had possibly a sliver of a potato left and maybe a little bit of the tomato seeds...but the woman starts yelling at me! She straight up told me there are starving people in the world and i should eat everything on my plate...haha. So when she turned her back, my sassy clever roommate...yes in this point of the story Janice is solely my roommate....scrapped her left-overs on my plate, during that time our mother turned around and started laughing and said, "that's right, eat it all!"...Well, Let me tell you something, you know what I did? I ate every crumb my little Spanish fork could scoop up. .There wasn't going to be a single starving person disapointed in me! No sir. Thank you Janice Linthicum, yet again, for turning a funny sitution to a HiLaRiOuS one. I do love you. :)

This weekend was probably one of my favorite weekends; janice and i really got to know Valencia. We set out without a map into the old streets near Mercado Central and La Plaza de la Reina. We winded in and out of the skinny alleyways, passing the cute old men contently smiling playing their accordians. Janice and I told ourselves that we were not going to be embarrassed by the touristy act of capturing the beauty of Spain on our cameras; we were simply Amercians that day. By golly we have to buy fotos like that back in the states, we can't just walk down the street and Kodak that Jank, ha. We took pictures of everything! From the virbrant purple eggplants at the food market, to the graffiti on the old cracked and piant chipped walls. It was a glorious day. Spain handed us a free gift that day, with a big fat grin it gave us a big blue ribboned box and said "yup, that's right...Enjoy"...Gracias Espana.

Parlez vous Francais

Katie and I went on an adventure this past weekend to a nearby pueblo. We were supposed to go with some friends but the alarm didn't wake us up on time. The alarm clock made us late!! We traveled alone and explored on our own as well which ended up being perfect. It was honestly one of my favorite days and for the most part it was just me and Katie exploring *going down unmarked roads* alone. I love her more all the time!!
Okay, I'm just going to come out with the awesome news... Katie and I used our French on the train.. This was definitely the highlight for me. Luckily, I was able to sit with another French speaker on the way home from the town where I could speak French again. Umm also, there are two girls living in our house for a few days from.. FRANCE! We totally spoke French to them at dinner as well. For the passed two days I have woken up to the sound of French girls getting ready and gone to bed to the sound of giggling Frenchies. They're 14 and 15. I definitely consider all of this to be a sign. I'm moving on to conquer French next..! Maybe I'll study abroad in Canada. The dreams just keep coming, anything is possible ;) Thank you Longwood University for requiring language majors to take four levels of another language! I love French.

Back to our adventure.. Pictures tell the story best:

Tonight I have tutoring again and I'm still loving it. Keep Juan Luis in mind. He's having a hard time getting over the fact that I only have 10 classes total in a week and he has 31. "That's double.. NO TRIPLE.. NO MORE THAN TRIPLE what you have in a week!" he said as he put his hand on his shaking head. The poor kid has to wake up at 7 for six classes and I wake up at 9 for two.. He was very angry to find out that I don't go to school on Friday. He even gave ME homework to do on my excursion. The kid is funny. We were going over future tenses Monday night and he said, "I will be president of the United States. I will have a lot of money. I will give you a little bit." How generous spaniards are...

Okay, that's all I have for now. Katie posted some more pictures on Facebook. I'm gonna go for a run before our 12:00 class.

Word of the day: La oruga -- the caterpillar Why do I know that?? I have no clue.. But, now you know!

~Janice

Words as wide as skies

My new favorite thing in Spain is Vida Abundante. This past Sunday we went with some new friends to a church not far from our school. Let me just say that it was wonderful. Everyone was really welcoming. I think we got a kiss on each cheek from everyone. The worship was David Crowder's "How He Loves Us" -- ¡Cuanto nos ama!, Chris Tomlin's "Sing Sing Sing" -- ¡Vamos a cantar!, and (someone's) "Oh Happy Day" -- ¡Oh día feliz!" During worship I thought about David Crowder's song "I need you." I couldn't stop thinking about the words to that song.


I need words as wide as skies
I need a language as large as this longing inside.
I need a voice bigger than mine.
And I need a song to sing you that I’ve yet to find.

I've always loved this song but now that I can speak two languages, it has a new meaning. I love moments like my Vida Abundante moment when two languages doesn't even begin to provide a wide enough vocabulary to describe the joy of belonging to the conqueror of death. Honestly, these are the moments when I remember why I study/LOVE Spanish and why I have to live my life for Jesus. Clearly, the words will never be enough. I'm still found speechless.

The word of the day: Well, I love the fact that I learn a new phrase pretty much everyday! So I'll share a new expression. Anyone who studied Spanish knows that Hasta Luego means see you later but I learned that if you'll be back pretty quickly you can say "Hasta ahora." This is one of my new favorites. So, if you didn't know hasta luego, now you have two new ones ;)

Hasta ahora tíos ;)
Janice

Tony & Guy Academy

Today I got a new European haircut! Okay honestly, it looks exactly the same but a trillion times more healthy. It would be far too embarassing to confess to all of you when my last haircut was. I guess I'll just let you lose sleep over that mystery. So, the hair cut was free. There's a hairdressing academy on the other side of town next to the bull fighting plaza. If you remember my previous post "snacks and maps" we tried to go the other day without many good directions. This time my "sister" showed me where it was on an actual map and I found it all alone. There were two teachers overseeing all of the students after every step and making sure no major damage was done. I don't know my hairdressers name, actually, I was so nervous inside because I felt like an obvious target so when he asked me my name I thought he asked "How are you?" and I said "Bien.. Oh my name, my name's Janice." Despite the initial break down, I felt a connection with my new hairdresser, no name friend. This is actually an understatement, I'm sure Katie would agree to that. Every since my haircut this unidentified friend of mine comes up everyday but we had a bond. My hairdresser and I understood one another even if we didn't communicate very much, he was very focused! He took a lot of time with every move he made. Let me tell you though, you clearly don't need a lot of experience to do a good job washing someone's hair. It was like a massage! Anyway, I trusted this 20 something boy with four months of experience with my hair. My haircut was just practice and he needed someone willing to take a chance on him. Everyday I am only hoping that people will trust me enough to take a chance on a conversation with me and hopefully, it will come out as well as my haircut. As for my hairdresser friend, his future looks bright!

Janice

My loves...

This week I have fallen in love with many things, some of them not being my first time falling, but more like a renewing or expanding of my love...such as my love for music. This weekend me, janice, and Dani got to go and see the Salsbury Orchestra play along with their choir. It was quite a fiasco getting to our free tickets and our awesome seats....but when we finally sat down the audience started clapping for the classy, gray haired director. My body completely became still. He took a bow and the audience immediately silenced themselves. He raised his little stick and his students formed into position with their instruments. Then it happened.....it´s always hard to describe the sensation I get when I hear music I love. My hair stands up on my arms, my heart sinks, and I completely focus all my attention to what is being played. The orchestra played three long pieces and then when they were done the choir stood. I had never heard a choir that large sing with a orchestra before....it was love at first sight. I watched the tenors and altos open their mouths to form the vowels properly.....the bass scrunch their chins going as low as their diaphrame can let them. I walked out of that concert hall....content. I think this was just a week of music....I have really been trying to expand my spanish playlist and I have found some great songs! So here is my list of songs:
1. Enrique Iglesias and Luis Guerra - cuando me enamoro
2. Shakiera - Loca, Gitana
3. Te Extrano
4. Ricky Martin feat Natalia Jemenez - lo mejor de mi vida eres tu
5. Calos Baute
This is only a taste.....Enjoy my friends....disfrute!
Another thing that I am always doing but this week it seemed to really be a HOt topic....is of course my amazing family! This week me and Janice have stayed up late everynight pillowtalking about our funny family stories and the tough family stories and so on....its been a great bonding experience. I got to tell Janice my little testimony about josh and about how strong and amazing my family has become since his accident....It never gets old telling that story, I think its because its such an important thing to tell people how real and alive God is through the worst of times. I think we should always cherrish him in our darkest and crapiest times...haha. I could def go all day about how much I adore my family, my goofy brothers, my adorable and beautiful sister-in law, my amazing mother that I consider my hero, of course I am a daddys girl...so that says enough about him...haha.
So me and Janice have been able to find time to do our devo time here in Spain, and let me tell you something, that girl loves the Lord! She has put a new and refreshing love of searching christ in my heart! So this is my little shout out slash thank you to Janice Madena Lithicum...who has a beautiful name....haha.
This past week me and janice have successfully met our first cool spanish student, her name is Marina and she is precious. We went out for some drinks this past weekend and I totally fell in love with this girl! She was absolutely adorable and we sat and talked in Castillian for 4 hours or more. Which those of you who dont know what Castillian is, its a certian dialect they use here in Spain. There are many different types of spanish in the good old country of spain, lucky me...haha. Marina told us that she hadnt been talking to us in Valenciano, me and janice were like....HECK YEAH, take that Spain! haha.
Another love I have is the book, Eat, Pray, Love.....this book was written for the hearts of all the travelors, wanna be travelors, and soon to be travelors.
Well I hope you take the music suggestion seriously... ; )

Kate
                       

Mi amigo, Juan Luis.

¡Day two of tutoring English to my new friend, Juan Luis! I had to reschedule my tutoring session from yesterday to today because our mother took us to the theater. When Esperanza tells us to do something, Katie and I do it. The other day she wanted us to go to a Ceramics museum. She explained that students always get to the end of their semester with a list of "should've could'ves". If we don't leave in a time frame that she finds appropriate she comes into our room aggressively speaking Spanish and waving her hands and pointing to her watch. ¡We've learned not to mess with mama Española! So, when I told her that I had to study and she said to switch it, I SWITCHED IT!
Hopefully, the pre-tutoring jitters won't last beyond the second session. It doesn't make sense to be nervous about a family as welcoming as the Santiagos. One thing can not be denied though.. the kid is a nerd. While we were going over possesive adjectives to prepare for his exam tomorrow, I gave him multiple examples. For two of my examples he very confidantly corrected me. Thankfully, he was just confused and it set me up beautifully to teach him the right form but his confidence made me extremely nervous. But atleast he asks questions now last time all he would say was "sì". Now, if only I could get him to put down his Spanish/English dictionary. If I, the American, am sitting in front of you ready to explain a word or tell you the spanish translation why should we spend ten minutes looking for it.
Despite his lack of social skills, I just find him to be wonderful. When I was about to leave he saw RedSox written on the front of my sweatshirt. He immediately stopped me from leaving to show me his mini Red Sox baseball bat that he got in New York. What an awesome kid! ¡¡In New York, he bought Boston paraphernalia!!

Dear Juan, I really hope you get an A on your exam tomorrow!

The ins and outs of Spanish life

Blogging about our adventures is a lot harder than I expected it to be. All weekend I would laugh at the thought of telling all of my dear friends about the different situations we have been getting ourselves into. Somehow, these great stories don't translate as well as I would like them to.

I just wish I could explain how much I love being here and hearing Spanish all the time except for all of the English music. Dear Spain, get your own music. I didn't fly 10 hours or so just to hear more Rihanna and JUSTIN BEIBER.. Yeah, he was on the news last night. Ay ay ay! I love our mother more everyday, she has been so silly recently. Sometimes the three of us just laugh and laugh after we eat dinner. My favorite was when she was telling us that her hands have gotten too fat for her gloves.

There's a "valencibi" bike system here in Valencia. Basically, it works like a red box only with bikes. There are stations all over the city where you can get or drop off bikes. It only costs 18€ to get a year pass and 2€ for a week. Katie and I walked through the entire city looking for a bike station that would let us buy a week long pass that actually had bikes. When we finally found a fully functioning bike station we had been looking for atleast an hour! We did it though and WE FOUND THE MEDITTARANIAN!!! It takes about twenty minutes to ride our bikes to the beach and it is beyond beautiful. Yesterday Katie and I went back during the siesta and ate an orange on the boardwalk. She said "So, straight ahead of us is Italy?" and as she pointed right "and that's Africa?" What a humbling realization that was!

Monday was my first day of tutoring English. After arriving a half hour late (I got lost for the FIRST TIME), I met a fourteen year old boy who looks ten. I tutor him in his New York City styled home on "the other side of the river," where the money is in Valencia by the way.  I love this little boy already. That night I had a hard time falling asleep because I thought about this family for a long time. It's been the highlight of my week being able to meet this family. Juan and I bonded for quite some time over his love of sports; he loves the Madrid soccer team, Micheal Phelps, the Lakers, and Nadal (tennis)! Which is clear as soon as you walk in his room to see posters all over his wall. His parents were wonderful, his dad loves the superbowl and even knew that the Eagles were from Philadelphia! The parents beamed over Juan's superb soccer abilities and his indoor soccer team. And let me tell you that the kid can speak some English.. He's a very smart, somewhat nerdy Spaniard!

Allow me to defend myself on the half hour late issue. I have been on time to class everyday except for that one time I had the time wrong and I'm an expert navigator.. So, take that.

Spain is going to give me lung cancer.. Everyone and their dog smokes here. Clearly, I have yet to see a dog smoking but you get the severity of the issue. Even the Americans who teach English have conformed to the nicatine addicted society. What's worst is that you walk passed the hospital and see atleast three women in scrubs smoking together. Ironic..

Personally, I miss young life as much as my actual family and I miss my family a lot! So, dear Southside teammates and Randolph Henry students who may be reading this, I MISS YOU! Dear tennis girls, I pass two different tennis courts on my walk to school everyday. It's a daily reminder of you beautiful girls!  There's also a raquetball/tennis court box game that I have yet to figure out.. More on that to come later, for now just know that they love tennis here!