Madrid Highlights

I think I've given a sufficient personal meditation on my trip to Madrid, but seeing as it was a three-day-long trip, here are some highlights! I unfortunately didn't get a picture of the guy who tried to pick-pocket me after the Real Madrid game, but thankfully Andrea caught on to his game early. Sucker. And don't worry Barca fans, I wore red, blue, and yellow to the Bernabéu. It wasn't flashy or obvious, but it was my way of sticking it to them Madristas.

Actually this one is from Toledo, but I think all persons who knew me when I was a kiddie will recognize how amazing this is. We used to have an elephant slide in our basement back in the day, so when I saw this at the park, despite the kitty-litter box that was this playground, I had re-encounter my childhood! Mission Accomplished!

"So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron,who accepted their offering, and fashioning this gold with a graving tool, made a molten calf. Then they cried out, 'This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt' (Ex. 32: 3-4). Gotta love the Bible joke ;-) [Laura stop tapping your nose!]



Gabi, Mary Kate, and I clubbing at Kapital, one of Madrid's hotspots. The dude on the left looks like Stephen Eckart.

Gabi, Courtney, and I displaying mad hops in the center of Madrid. I like the little triangle of knees we make. Well planned, team!

I was in a very hoppy/Gene Kelly mood that day.


And after a long day...a delicious meal at local spot in a sketchy alley. Love me some Spain.


After Real Madrid's boring 1-0 victory over Deportivo. We had an awesome time though...so worth waking up at 530 Monday morning to get back to Toledo by 830 for class...¡Viva Barcelona!


The Bully of the Neighborhood - John George Brown - Probably my favorite painting from the Thyssen. Everyone's color seems to match their emotions. Bully's in black, Clenched Fist in red, Tears in blue, Plotter in an army fatigue color, Pacifist and baby in white. Thought I'd share :-)

Barcelona this weekend and then the Basque country the week after. Prayers for safe travel please. ¡Que Dios os bendiga!

Love Me Some Cheesy Endings...

Cornfield – Renoir

One of the most memorable lines from my trip to Madrid last weekend came from Miss Flannery Kearney, who at one point was one of my greatest acquaintances/friend-crushes [friend-crush: noun – someone you know at least by recognition, often by name, with whom you have you yet to establish a friendship; not to be confused with Kindergarten or High-school crushes, both of which carry romantic implications] at Notre Dame, and now I am pleased to say, a friend! A group of us were visiting some of Madrid’s fantastic art museums, everyone perusing at their own pace yet somehow all meeting up at the end…crazy how Providence works. Anyway, the story begins in one of the Impressionist rooms at the Museo de Arte Thyssen-Bornemisza, which is actually the holdings (Medieval to Modern!) of one woman, the Baroness Francesca Thyssen Bornemisza. I crossed paths with Miss Kearney and began to chat about this and that. In the midst of our small talk she decided impart her wisdom, “I just love how Impressionist painters stop time and soften it.”

Don’t you love it when people articulate your thoughts for you, and with such greater depth and simplicity than you thought possible? I do. Stop time and soften it…Not only is it a telling description of a particular school of painting; but moreover, it seems to be the very message of each work. A lot of times, not only in art, but in all facets of life, we attempt to understand experience with a clarity that is wholly impossible. “A single second of lived time contains more than can be recorded,” says Mr. Lewis in one of the Weight of Glory essays (I think…read them either way. If you live in the 203, there’s an idle copy in my collection of books. You can borrow as long as I get it back). As you are staring at your computer screen, there is but a fraction of your plane of vision that’s actually in focus. Looking at the word focus I can barely make out its neighbors without cheating. This is the fallacy of digital cameras and realistic painting; it is the virtue of Impressionism.

Most of life is blurred (I’ve already been here 2.5 weeks!), to recount any experience justly requires us to relive it, which if I’m not mistaken is forbidden by that strict moralist we call Time. However, that we long to relive, recount, or at least understand our own lives suggests their possibility. It is clear that we can do this of no power our own, for who can double the span of their life in order to relive every experience? Can we hit a certain point and then pull a Benjamin Button? Sadly no. There is hope though. God “knows the secrets of the heart,” our hearts, every experience we withhold from ourselves and thus from others, every subconscious longing we cannot explain or predict. Outside of time He sees and understands everything.

Not only does God understand, but He also longs to share His vision. Much as Flannery funneled my thoughts into one simple, telling sentence, so too does God employ brevity. John records in his Revelation, “I shall also give a white amulet upon which is inscribed a new name, which no one knows except the one who receives it,” (2:17). All we need to understand our lives is but a simple word. Just as the one word friend-crush signifies the type of person we know by sight, and often by name, but have yet to establish a (Platonic) friendship with, so too does our true name sum up our life in but a single word. It will be the ultimate “Ah-ha!” moment. Everything summed in one word. I imagine these moments are a great source of Heavenly laughter…everything embarrassing I’ve done subsumed in one word. It might actually be a funnier word than elbow or pudding (If you don’t get this just move on and forget).

But what an amazing experience it will be. We will no longer be identified by things we do, but rather as who we truly are. I know, especially when recently introduced to someone, it is impossible for me to detach a person from the context in which I met them, or facts about their life. “Oh, Beatrice, she’s the model who gave me her number at the party the other night.” I cannot say, “She is Beatrice,” which ideally ought to be enough. Rather, I limit her existence to what I know, because it is all I’m capable of. That’s why God is so awesome! He knows us as we truly are. Jesus, “calls his own sheep by name…and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice” (John 10: 3, 4).

So meditate on your identity today, on being a person created in God’s image and likeness, a child of God—not a doer of things. Remember the limitations that Time constrains us with, but do not fret about them. A life of perfect clarity is out of reach, and what remains, though a bit of a blur, is to follow the Shepherd’s gentle pace through life’s cornfields.

His face shone like the sun - A Mountain-Top Experience

The mountain-top experience of Peter, James, and John at the Transfiguration is often used at the end of retreats to situate the retreatants where they are and where they are going. After a week or weekend of constant prayer, wholly absorbed in their Christian life, much as the lucky Apostles were, they are not permitted to remain, but instead are sent into the world to spread the message of encountering Jesus in Word and Flesh. I’ve heard this innumerable times, and never grow tired of it.

An avid snowboarder, I have been blessed to stand atop many a white-cap looking over expanse after expanse of land. Yet, none such experience has been as Providential or as spiritually confirming as one the other night. If you would glance at the top of the page for a moment, you will see that Toledo proper, i.e. the city, lies within the banks of the river, whilst cliffs hover over the river’s outer banks.

Guided by a veteran from last semester, Miss Katie Peralta, a group of us crossed the famous Alcántara bridge to drink wine, eat baguettes and cheese, and watch the sunset over these cliffs and the city. Eventually, some of us dared to scale the steep cuesta (slope) and watch from there.

Thanks to the leprechaun/small child that lives inside of me I was able to sprint up and get this shot!

From there we had a great view of the city, especially the Cathedral and that sweet fortress that shown in other posts.

I feel like the city is ready for battle with this ominous weather!

Inspired by our pack mentality, we all got brave and started taking photos where one little slip may have caused a 100-foot plummet—to more rocks :-/

Definitely one of those things you tell your parents about after it happens ;-)

Eventually most people left to catch Mass at the Cathedral, but as Emily and I had gone with her host parents in the morning to a local parish Mass, we were able to stay and really soak in the city’s magnificence.

Definitely worth the danger

And yes, mom, I did have my flashlight on me and boy did it came in handy!!! Wise purchase on our part, eh? Probably its best use was illuminating Emily’s Breviary when we decided to pray evening prayer on one of the we-best-not-lean-forward-on-this kind of rocks. While she was busy fiddling with something, I was very careful to open what I was sure was the page for Sunday Evening Prayer. I was one hundred percent certain, no doubt in my mind. (Did God have other plans? Methinks so!)

So after we prayed the beautiful Psalms and Canticle from Corinthians(?), we got to the Intercession section and this how it began…

Gathered in this City set on the hill, let us pray for the Church that shines before men that they may see her good works and glorify the Father...

Talk about living what you're praying. To say we were shocked was an understatement. Sitting in the quiet dusk, admiring a city visible only by the dull glow of incandescent lighting, save for the magnificent Cathedral--the glimmering beacon and standard of the city--we were awed as the Apostles on the Mount must have been when Jesus appeared before them in glory with Moses and Elijah at His side. After we regained our composure enough to finish, and closed the book, we realized we should read it over again and get on film for situations like this blog entry. However, when Emily thumbed through the book, there was nothing in Sunday Evening Prayer that resembled anything about a city and a hill. In fact, despite all my carefulness to open to Sunday Evening Prayer, God made me stumble upon Monday Evening Prayer, as He clearly wanted to touch our hearts. I would say that he more or less roundhouse kicked my heart, but I’m sure he was just going for a simple touch. God seems like the kinda guy who doesn’t know his own strength…much like my cousin Penn, who is seven(?) and can legit tackle me…but I digress.

As moving an experience as this was, I do think God wants me to understand at an even deeper level. I’ve got a little analogy cooking to back it up. So as I said a bit earlier, for Emily and me this night was a mountain-top experience. That cues us into the Apostles’ mountain-top experience at the Transfiguration. And what did they see, they saw, “His face shone like the sun” (Mat. 17:2). And now that we have three out of four parts of the analogy, you know what that means...SAT Time!

Apostles : Jesus’ shining face :: Emily and I : ____________

a.) My biceps
b.) My mom and dad’s hamburgers
c.) The Cathedral
d.) The Annexation of Puerto Rico

Well, I know analogies were kicked off the SAT hace unos años (a few years ago), but I think you can figure it out.

If you answered a, you are very thoughtful—but very wrong. If b, you share my affection for medium-rare red meat seasoned with adobo, but alas, wrong again. If d, your parents forced you here, didn't they?

BUT! If you answered c, while gosh golly you’ve got yourself a ticket to the prestigious university of your choice…hopefully ND!!!

Now, what does this mean? It means that the Church is (or at least ought to be) Christ’s very face in the world. This is what it means to let “your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Mat. 5: 16). Christ’s light shined on the Apostles. La Catedral Primada’s light shined on Emily and me. Now please, take this moment; smile and realize that God wants you to shine His light on His children today. You are the beacon of hope the world needs. You are brilliant. You are beautiful.

:-)

Walking on God's Very Palms

So I picked a good semester to be abroad. Word on the street is that at some point the other day the “feels like” temperature was actually lower than the South Pole…right…that’s not supposed to happen. However, here in Toledo the weather isn’t so bitter. I mean we could see our breath today during our walking tour, but by the afternoon the sun finally apareció (appeared) and I actually walked around comfortably without my coat. Once the tour ended we took an early comida (at a more American hour unfortunately) and then split up. Some noble persons took on the task of planning our next few weekends, while a few of us carpe-diem spirits went decided to walk the path that runs between la muralla (the city walls) and el Río Tajo. To get there we got to see more of the city…and El Entierro del Conde Orgaz (The Exhuming of the Count of Orgaz)…which is considered to be El Greco’s most famous painting. It’s housed in la Iglesia de Santo Tomé and only costs € 2,30 (note: Europeans use periods and commas to separate monetary divisions inversely so that mean 2 Euros and 30 céntimos, whereas €200.000 means two hundred thousand Euro…I think our system actually makes more sense from an objective point of view, but hey it works). Anyway, the painting is fantastic. It depicts, as its name implies, the burial of the Count of Orgaz, who was a member of this particular parish during the 14th century and by all accounts was one heck of a guy. He gave a ton of money to the poor and to his Church, and more importantly he did it with such charity that when he died St. Stephen and St. Augustine appeared to shepherd his soul to Heaven. The painting depicts this story, which is the treasure of the parish’s history. The Church itself was also very pretty, and like all good Churches, had some Eucharist in the Tabernacle, so we stopped and prayed and admired before continuing towards our pending adventure.

Vale (VAH-lay, that's a Spanish expression for ok, and a whole slew of other things, expect to see it here a lot). So we walk and walk and walk, eventually finding a little swingset atop the hill, overlooking the river—not a bad place to be a child—and then San Juan de los Reyes, which has an aesthetically unflattering exterior decor, but when you know their true meaning, they’re beauty is revealed. They’re a bunch of chains, which as I said, are quite ugly. However, they were all collected from prisons in Southern Spain where Muslims held Christians prisoner. So when Spain conquered the Muslims (ok, maybe not their proudest moment) they freed their prisoners and brought the chains back to be put on display as a testament to those who would suffer for Spain. The important lesson I took out of it was that Spain was not always the bad guy. They get a bad rap a lot, and rightly so, but they were persecuted at times, too. Also, just a little aside courtesy of my roommate Santiago A. Rosado, during the Inquistion people would commit heresy just to be tried by the Church because they were considerably nicer than the state. But I don’t wanna get into such controversies, because story telling is much more fun.

Let’s just skip to the river trip. After failing to scale the city walls from the bottom, we found the river path (the end we were on marked some point in Don Quijote’s journey around the city!). Its beginning was right under el Puente de San Martín (St. Martin’s Bridge) and we got some awesome pictures.

Here’s where the real fun begins. In our descent on the path, we gave the Spanish a bit of their own medicine, discovering what we called St. Joseph’s Island, named after its sister island at Notre Dame, and claimed it for the same Lady, as shown by Andrea aquí.

I claim this land for Notre Dame!

Climbing back up to el sendero (the path), we found a locked door with a tiny park behind its gates. Seeing as no one was around, it was time to get adventurous and figure out a way in. Emily’s dastardliness found this way…a dangerous way, but a way nonetheless. We had to hop a little gap in the rocks surrounding its walls—failure may have caused a bit of injury, or at least serious abrasions. It was pretty nice inside, but our real joy came from the fact that we probably shouldn’t have been there ;-)

Emily making her dastardly escape!

The rest of the walk was, for me at least, a glimpse into surreality. European terrain is just so mystical. I’m gonna quote my long lost buddy Adam Joines, whose account of his Irish experience gives life to my encuentra (encounter) with the Spanish tierra. He wrote, “Ghosts occupy this land. The wind speaks and the grass listens; water whispers and rocks pay heed. It is a moment of complete and total harmony, except that moment is every moment of my time here. Of what little I know of love, with all my heart I love this land.” Thanks Adam. Do I need to footnote your blog or give a parenthetical reference to comply with blogger etiquette? I dunno, I’m new to this stuff.

Looking at this wouldn’t you agree with what my good friends says though?

Praise the LORD from the earth...you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars; Let them all praise the LORD'S name, for his name alone is exalted
Psalm 148: 9, 13


Alabado seas Señor por la hermana tierra que es toda bendición hermana madre tierra que da en toda ocasión las hierbas y los furtos y flores de color.
El cántico del hermano sol – San Francisco de Asís


Since men…have lost the consideration of the works of God, by which they should daily praise Him as the Creator, God [strikes] them with wonder, that He might rouse men as from sleep to worship Him
Tractate 8 on the Gospel of John p.1 – St. Augustine

And here's the best part of immersing yourself in nature: all of us human beings, in spite of our pettiness and whatever nasty traits we might have, are worth infinitely more. We are God’s image. We are “very good.” We are worth dying for. God, the One the philosophers tell us is eternal (outside of time), unknowable, and impassible (can’t be affected in anyway), entered our world, made Himself known as Jesus, and loved us unto death for our benefit alone. Who else would willingly defy their very nature to redeem another? I know I wouldn’t.

So yea, I love nature. Every sight is another glimpse not only into God’s glory but into our own human dignity, a further revelation of why being human is itself a reason to wake up and smile. Professor Amar’s words come to mind. He told our class once, and here excuse my paraphrasing, “Do you want to feel alive? Go out into the grass, take your shoes and socks off, close your eyes and focus on every sensation in your feet: Every blade that gets caught between your toes and every bug crawling on your feet.” A baby knows its mothers touch; the next time you're outside, close your eyes and feel God embrace you with His very Earth.

A pleasant sleep to you and your loved ones :n)

Profile Photo

Gotta give a big shout out to Miss Hannah Elkins for this profile pic. She took it when she game to visit ND. Worst part of it is that she is also in the picture, but I cut her out. I will justify this by saying I originally used it as the photo that went to my host family so they would have an idea of what I looked like. Since it is such a wonderful photo (and obviously she looks even better than I do!) I decided to use it again.

So yea, no hate right, Hannah? I'm not a bad person again am I? Thanks for taking this photo? Do you want royalties or something? I mean this blog does rake in the big bucks...ja :)

These Streets Are Made For Walkin'

My host mother has traveled a good bit in Spain she said. Even so, her favorite city is still Toledo. Scoping it out for the past few days, I wholeheartedly understand. Perched on a hill overlooking beautiful countryside, this cobblestone-happy town is the epitome cities that grow increasingly more charming with age. Whenever my friends and I walk its hilly streets, which I imagine to be quite perilous for los borrachos (drunks), I can’t help but imagine how much fun it would be to be chased by the police here. Little alleyways and randomly placed one-way streets offer plenty of chances for a well-versed Toledano (?) to outwit his Johnny-Law pursuers and make a romantic getaway. Toledo is perfect for James Bond. I unfortunately haven’t taken too many good photos of the Toledo streetscape yet, but do enjoy what I have from the western edge of the Río Tajo's loop around the southern portion of the city. The photos are slightly altered because it was a cloudy day, but there aren’t many cloudy days here (or so they say) so I thought they would be more accurate with a sunny touch-up. Also, they look nicer this way. Now that I think of it, my favorite photo is taken within “España: 1808-1814: De súbditos a ciudadanos” (Spain: 1808-1814: From Subjects to Citizens) an exposition we found during our wanderings today. The exposition is in an old monastery with a beautiful courtyard, the subject of this particular photo. And here it is!

I can only imagine how much prettier this is during the spring when new life blooms and the sun's renewed warmth reminds of us of the renewal Jesus brings us in the Resurrection. Oh, natural symbolism how I love thee. Two different quotes come to mind, but I can't remember them exactly so I'll give them as best I can. The first is Thomas Merton who said something to the extent of "A tree praises God by its very act of being a tree" and then probably went on to make some amazing point about how we must reclaim and live out what authentic humanity consists in. The second I think was Gregory of Nyssa (maybe John Damascene? who knows...one of those awesome Greek Fathers or maybe not too, it could've been CS Lewis for all I know) who said that "The sun mourns when humanity praises it and serves it as God, for it gives light and warmth only to reveal the even greater Light and greater Warmth that comes from God Almighty."

While we're on a nature kick, here are those photos of Toledo on the West Si-ee-de (that's my attempt to spell side in gangster phoenetics). Yea, this where I'll be living and studying for four months!

The castle on the hill houses students at the military academy, which dominates the top of the hill on the other side of el río, which you can see running at the bottom of the photo. Cool place to live, eh?

Do you like the one car touch in this photo? I had to wait a minute or two for a car, but I just had to have it jaja.

Nothing crazy about this one, just beautiful rock formations where some lucky ducks were smart enough to build their houses. I think the one building that stands out in the upper left part of the picture is actually a restaraunt...must be pretty pricy. I think I'll stick to the tapas on this side of the river!

Ok, I know some of you are disappointed there are no photos of the Cathedral. ¡No os preocupad! (Don't worry!) They're coming soon and will have their own entry. We actually went to one of the side chapel for daily Mass today (so beautiful!), but it costs money to see the whole Cathedral (this subject will also have its own blog if it's not covered in the one with the photos), so instead we resigned ourselves to receiving the greatest gift of all, the Eucharist for free in a beautiful chapel...siiiiigh...life is so hard! However, after the Confession I made, I talked it up with one of the priests and he gave us the skinny on how to get in for free. Score! Love me some priests. So yea, keep praying for vocations...that way you can get into Cathedrals for free and maybe the cost will go down cuz people would be going to Church more...oops, did I say that?

Kk, todo mi cariño a vosotros (para los que hablan español...¡me estoy acostumbrando a vosotros! No es tan difícil como pensé...¡gra(th)ias a Dios!) y más que os durmaís siempre a las canciones de cuna que María cantaba a su infante Jesús.

Translation: All my affection to you, but more so that you always fall asleep to the same lullabies Mary sang to her infant Jesus.

-Javs

The Journey of 3627 Miles Begins with a Single Hydraulic Failure?

As is customary at the notorious JFK International, our departure flight to Madrid was delayed. Originally this delay was only calculated at thirty minutes, a rather understandable amount, not enough to frustrate some of my fellow Domers who had actually arrived at the departure gate at the requested four hours early, nor enough to drive all the beautiful Spanish children to tears. In fact everyone was rather content. Our group was meshing very well, so much so that we are comfortable making fun of each other already—a sign of “greater things to come” as my man Chris Tomlin just sang on my itunes (God of This City on the album Hello Love…check it out). Anyhoo, our boarding went smoothly except for the part where I asked the man sitting next to me (¡en español!) if he would switch with my friend Emily. Of course, he spoke slurred Italian…not Spanish. Eventually we figured it out and he pleasantly offered his seat to Miss Matich.

So alright, seatbelts are fastened, safety videos are captivating curious eyes, and we are all set para volar (to fly). That’s when the unintelligible Spanish and mediocre English disappointed everyone on the plane…who could understand what he was saying. His words were something like, “I’m sorry, but we need everyone to disembark the plane. We’re having technical difficulties…but we’re not sure what they are, hopefully we will get this fixed.” Not too promising. On the bright side, they figured this out before we were airborne.

Eavesdropping on different flight attendants we heard the delay would be one to two more hours, because something was wrong with the hydraulic system. Oy. Thankfully ice was sufficiently broken, and the group commandeered a rather sizeable portion of floor to continue the process of making friends with former strangers. We were all humored by Gabi, who at the sound of the Captain’s voice popped a sleeping pill…much to her chagrin. She managed to keep herself pretty lucid considering the amount of downer in her bloodstream…I was impressed. All the laughter and story telling about common friends (…mostly complimentary of course:-/ ) provided a good antidote to the frustration of a delayed flight.

Eventually they boarded us, although I wasn’t so confident to get on after overhearing one of the attendants say, “We’re actually letting them on the plane?” It all worked out though. Emily and I had only one more awkward run in with our Italian gentleman and before you knew it we were praying a Rosary all sorts of intentions…but primarily for our beloved hydraulic system. I won’t lie. I fell asleep a few times during her decades. It was a strange oscillation between dreaming about fictional characters like Ronald McDonald and a concerted effort to actually pray for safety.

Well as you can guess, we did get there safe, and what’s more it was the first time I got off a plane and could actually hear normally (I started chewing gum way before our landing!). That was a nice surprise. So was the chicness of the Madrid-Barajas airport. However, it was huge, and the journey to the baggage claim and Yuki’s (our program’s coordinator) smiling face was quite a hike with my crazy big hiking backpack. Oh and before I forget I should admit, whether shamefully or with a hint of pride I know not, that I appeared to have the most weighty of luggage. I suppose I could’ve seen that coming, but it’s ok because I will definitely wear everything I brought…at least I better. My host mother, who is incredibly sweet, actually joked that I look like I’m ready to stay a whole year. Oh well :-)

I suppose this is a good time to talk about my host family. So far they’ve been nothing but sweet and awesome. They have a really cute apartment in Polígono, one of the Toledo suburbs. My room is pretty sizeable and actually has enough storage for me…which is a shocker considering. I know my mom will be very mad when I say this, but I’m already unpacked and have everything neatly organized and sorted by style, then the color spectrum. Pretty lame, but fun at the same time. I hope this doesn’t set a precedent, but it probably should considering the warzone that was my bedroom during the previous three and a half weeks. But back to my family—My host dad is actually a cook, which is fantastic as I found out at dinner tonight. He made a Spanish tortilla, i.e. eggs, potatoes and onions and this dish with tuna, green beans, tomatoes, and a hardboiled eggs—tuna and hardboiled eggs aren’t usually my thing, but I found it rather stomachable. It was just he and I at dinner tonight, but it was a good time. We talked about all sorts of things from beautiful places to see in Spain to the economic situations in our respective home countries. My ‘mom’ is great too. She made me feel welcome from the moment we met and was talking to me all day about all sorts of things: family histories, sports, and the general ways of life here in Spain. Did I mention they don’t allow smoking or drinking in the house? Ka-ching! We have a winner. The dad’s rule: Have fun outside with your friends, but if you drink here, you sleep on the stairs.

I literally just met my ‘brother.’ He’s a biology student at the University of Madrid, but he commutes, so I’ll get to spend a lot of time with him and hopefully have him teach me how to manage the city. The one drawback is that he’s a Real Madrid fan. Thankfully his parents are Barca fans so I have an early in with them. I don’t know where the sister stands on football rivalries, but I do know she’s a heck of a swimmer—she won a National Championship last year! How cool is that? Hopefully I’ll get to go to some of her meets and cheer her on.

So yea, 3627 miles is a long, long way, but so far everything has gone swimmingly. The people who have taken me in are wonderful and the people at the school seem really bright, energetic, and helpful. The funniest thing is that I do not get to escape parietals like those pesky Londoners! In the Fund’s dorms, visiting hours end at twelve! DuLac has its footprints everywhere. It’s not the biggest deal, though, because I don’t think any ND kids are living there anyway.

Alrighty, I think that’s enough story time for day 1. Pray for all of us here: my group, my family, and my profs, that we all take advantage of this semester earnestly and do our best to learn Spanish and live good Christian lives…and travel Europe and Northern Africa…ok and study a bit, too…but not too much ;-)

All my love, and even more of God’s.