Spring Break Part IV: Lisboa, Portugal

We arrived to Lisbon exhausted! We stayed in another very accommodating hostel...they let us sleep on their couches when we got there at 7am until breakfast started. We refueled for the day and got a

View from San José Castle

Queijadas

later start than I wanted to, but we had plenty of time to explore! (Whenever I travel I like to make the most of the time I have wherever I am, even I'm really tired. Why would I want to waste time in Lisbon sitting in a hostel?). A group of us walked to the water, the Sé Cathedral, and the San José Castle. I ran around and explored the castle on my own for a while, which I absolutely loved. I ended my first day with an amazing codfish dinner at a restaurant with excellent wine and an acoustic guitarist playing and singing 90s songs that my friends and I were belting. Next time I go to Libson (hopeful, I know) I want to go to a fado performance, which is a type of music "characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics," according to Wikipedia.

Where I found my friends

On Saturday, we took two "I hate tourism tours" vans to drive to the nearby town of Sintra (one of the favorite places I've visited) and get a taste of what the locals experience. We tried queijadas, traditional pastries made with egg yolks, sandwiches with chicken chorizo and cheese, and bought fruit from a local market as we made our way to the ocean. Before I finally felt the sand under my toes for the first time since the summer, we stopped at Quinta da

Waterfall from tunnel

Regaleira, a palace that I think is the greatest adult-sized playground ever built. The whole area of land has a palace, chapel, a waterfall, tunnels, grottoes, wells, towers, and a tree that looks just like Grandmother Willow! At one point during our exploration, we crossed over the stepping stones in front of the waterfall, passed through one of the

Grandmother Willow

tunnels, and I ended up at the bottom of a well. I started climbing up it, thinking my friends went this way, but they made a left at the fork in the tunnels. About 15 minutes later I came to the top of the well and found them calling my name from the top of a Medieval tower. I felt like I was a princess in a dream walking around this place!

Western-most point of Europe

We made it to the ocean to the top of a cliff that was the Western-most part of Europe. I was standing on these enormous rocks with green valleys to my left and the bluest ocean to my right. The two scenes didn't look like they even fit together. This kind of breathtaking creation often allows for great conversation about the Creator of it all. We drove a little farther and sat on the slightly-windy, but beautiful, beach. In Belem, another nearby town on our way back, we saw a well-known monastery and statue right on the coast with a view of the bridge and statue that are modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

On our last day of spring break, some of us went to a nearby beach to relax in the sun. It wasn't bathing suit weather, but it was a great way to end my vacation. I was so grateful to have all the experiences I did in the four countries I visited, but I was really ready to get back to my "home" in Parma...which we finally did at 4am!

[Misfortunes: I can't remember any that stand out...especially because by the end everything great that I experienced outweighed anything "bad" that happened along the way!]

Spring Break Part III: Sevilla, Spain

I apologize for the excessive delay in my posts, but I hope the wait was worth it. I think I'll enjoy reliving my experiences too :)

Sevilla/Seville was another beautiful city and seems like it would also be a great place to study abroad. We stayed in the really nice "Garden Backpacker" hostel, which was voted Best Hostel in the World last year by some (I think) reputable hostel standards. We took a "free walking tour" (you tip at the end...Dad, you're right, nothing's ever free) around the city shortly after we got there. As I was huddled under our tour guide's umbrella, he told us one of his favorite things about Seville is that it's almost always sunny. We should have warned him we were coming.

My favorite sites throughout the weekend were the Cathedral, Plaza de España, Alcazar, Metropol Parasol, and the flamenco show we went to. The Cathedral used to be a temple, then was turned into a mosque, and is now the largest Gothic Cathedral and third-largest Cathedral in the world! The view from the top of the attached Giralda Tower was also beautiful. I must say, though, that after seeing countless church buildings while studying abroad, I really like the simplicity of my home church's place of worship. No one comes in to take pictures, but it helps keep my focus on the "Church" as the body of Christian believers, rather than the place we meet on Sundays.

Vanessa and me in Plaza de España

Plaza de España in Maria Luisa Park was built for the 1929

One ceiling in Alcazar

World's Fair and has also been the backdrop of a few movies, including Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Alcazar is a royal palace that was originally a Moorish fort and is filled with beautiful Islamic art and is a great example of mudéjar (Muslims who remained in Iberia and didn't convert after the Christian Reconquista) architecture. I've always pretended to be a photographer, but I would imagine it's a real one's dream to photograph that place! The Metropol Parasol/Las Setas de la Encarnación (Incarnación's mushrooms) claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world and looks like giant connected mushrooms. You can walk around on top to see another amazing view of Seville. Unfortunately when it rains, the ceiling is slotted and really doesn't protect you at all. We learned that flamenco is not just a dance or performance but a "way of life." I still don't understand what that means but the show was great! It consisted of four people on stage, one female dancer, one male dancer, one female singer, and one male guitarist. Apparently if you have more than one female dancer on stage it's not "real" flamenco.

Tapas pre-rain

Inside the Bullring

Two of my friends and I also visited the Bullring near the river. We went inside, through the open gate and up the stairs, took a few pictures, and got yelled at from the next set of stairs by a lady who was giving a tour. We didn't realize we had inadvertently snuck in without paying. I felt bad, but they left the place wide open! The group of 15 or so of us enjoyed delicious tapas throughout our two days in Seville. The last night, right before our 8-hour overnight bus to Lisbon, we were eating tapas outside. They put the umbrellas up when it started to rain, but no amount of covering could stop the downpour from drowning the remainder of our food. Fortunately, I had already finished the food I ordered. Sometimes eating quickly can pay off!

[Misfortunes: mostly just the rain and some of the group started fighting.]

Metropol from below

From the top of the Metropol

Spring Break Part II: Barcelona, Spain

Gothic Quarter

I can no longer say Barcelona without the "Barsthelona" lisp. All those in my Spanish class senior year know I used to hate that with a passion, so I must really be okay with assimilating. Staying with my friend Mireia also probably helped, since she's unbelievably sweet. She was my former international student at BC and graciously welcomed me into her home for three nights while my friends stayed in a hostel in another part of the city. It was so nice to have my own room, to see a familiar face, and to have a personal local tour guide for two days!

Mireia took me all over her city, which I absolutely loved! Among many places, we went to:
- Las Ramblas (one of the main streets in Barcelona where cars can't drive down the middle)
- the Picasso Museum (I didn't realize how different and "normal" his earlier works were)

In Park Güell

- Santa Maria del Mar church
- Cathedral of Barcelona
- Gothic Quarter (which I loved!)
- Paseo de Gracia where three important buildings are: La Pedrera by Antoni Gaudí, Casa Batlló by Gaudí, and Casa Amatller by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. The last two were built for a competition.
- Sagrada Familia church (designed by Gaudí in 1883, a deeply religious man, but he died before it was finished...people still work on it every day)
- Park Güell (Gaudí - an absolutely beautiful and unique public park)

Mireia and me at Montjuic

- Montjuic hill
- Christopher Columbus statue (he's pointing out to sea, but the Americas aren't actually in that direction)
- walked along the beach!

Rachel!

I also had the great privilege of spending Easter Monday lunch at her grandparents' house. Even though I missed my own family that day, it was great to be around another loving family with delicious home-cooked food and little children running around. I had such a great time! I also met up with my friends one night for tapas at Can Eusebio and my friend Rachel from home at Rosa Negra for Tex-Mex. It's very surreal seeing people I know outside of the locations I know them from!

Hope.

One of my favorite parts of Barcelona was when Mireia and I came out of Sagrada Familia. It is a gorgeous church and we were happy to be inside of it protected from the rain. When we walked out, we were awestruck by the clearest double rainbow I've ever seen. After just praying in the church for a little while and experiencing some tough things a few days before, this was such a clear sign of hope from God for me. I practically shouted "God is good!" as I felt Him watching over me right then and there!

[Misfortunes: continued rain, three friends got food poisoning, one get an egg thrown at him at night, and another got her passport, camera, wallet, and everything valuable stolen. Understandably, most of my friends vow not to come back to this city, but I know I will...I have a list from Mireia of all that I still have to see!]

Spring Break Part I: Nice, France

Nice ("niece"), not to be confused with my unofficial host mom Nice ("nee-chay"), is a beautiful town in the French Riviera and was the first stop on my 10 day spring break adventure. As a group of 15+ of us, we were very sfortunato (unlucky) throughout our trip (you'll read why), but we still had a great time, saw some amazing sights, and arrived back to Parma with more knowledge of the world than we had before we left! Plus, those unplanned, unfortunate experiences often make for the best stories down the road.

Beach in Nice

My main objective for Nice was to have a lot of crepes (sweet and savory, of course), bread, cheese, and wine. I successfully accomplished all of this, often while overlooking the ocean, a mountaintop view, or wandering through a garden. Not a bad start to my week, especially since I got to share so many new experiences with Chris.

It was pouring rain our first day, but that made for a great romantic exploration through Old Town and up to Castle Hill, where a castle used to stand but is now the sight of a beautiful waterfall and view of the ocean and city. Because I made a "no eating Italian food outside of Italy" rule for myself, my meals consisted of escargot, French onion soup, croque monsieur, seafood, flank steak, and French (freedom?) fries...I wasn't complaining. I'm also glad Chris got to taste something besides rice, beans, and pupusa for a week!

Hiking in Eze

Saturday, the whole group went to the nearby Medieval town of Eze ("ezz"), but Chris and I missed the train because of the malfunctioning ticket machines/our slowness. Learning how to go with the flow, we hopped on the next train and found our group still waiting for the bus to take us to the top of the hill to the town. In case they weren't there, they resourcefully found a way to let us know where to meet them (since our phones are really expensive to use outside of Italy, it has to be more like the "olden days"). Eze was slightly reminiscent of Assisi, one of the favorite places I've visited so far while abroad. (If I haven't expressed this yet, I'm slightly obsessed with Medieval things right now, probably thanks to my new-found interest in the Lord of the Rings). Some of us walked around gardens and followed the Nietzche Path for about an hour, which was where the philosopher found inspiration for his "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." How he was able to see the beauty of that nature and claim "God is dead" is beyond me! I felt like a true explorer when we took the road less traveled that led to an almost secret waterfall.


On Easter morning, Chris, another Chris from the group, and I went to church (in French) at Notre Dame. Having my English Bible was imperative to understanding what was going on. After church, we were headed to Cannes ("kahn") with everyone, but once again missed the train. We didn't really know the details of this trip and wanted to be back in time for our departures, so we hopped on another train to Cagnes sul Mer, which we figured meant something like "on the sea." All we wanted was the beach, preferably one with sand instead of rocks. We got a mixture of both and some time to relax before we went our separate ways. Goodbyes are one of my least favorite things, but there was so much to be thankful for during our week together!

View from Castle Hill

[Misfortunes: wearing very wet clothes from the rain, missing trains, flooding the 8-person hostel room with my shower, realizing I left my quiche at the shop when I was already on the beach.]

He Gives and Takes Away

"The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord!" - Job 1:21

I was recently given the amazing gift of having my boyfriend Chris fly across the world from his study abroad program in El Salvador to visit me for a week. He traveled for an entire day just to see me and spend time with me, which made me feel incredibly special and loved! Having a whole week together when we've only been able to talk once or twice a week this semester was very surreal. I showed him all around Parma, we ate wonderful Italian meals on relaxed Italian time, and we traveled to Nice, France with 15 other BC students until Easter evening. Chris was a great sport when he unknowingly ordered raw horse (my elementary Italian skills weren't enough to avoid the mistake this time). At least he got to try some great tortelli and gelato!

While Chris was here, he celebrated with me when I found out about my summer internship. A few hours later, he also grieved with me when I got news that a close friend of mine from home passed away. It was such a strangely timed blessing to have him here for that, but I was so grateful for his comfort.

My third grade birthday party

My friend Casey was always such an amazing friend to me and an inspiration to everyone around her. She was my Sister in Christ and huge motivation for my field of study. She was so strong in SO many ways and I'm so blessed to have grown up with her in church and school and to call her my friend. While her spirit didn't show it, Casey had been confined to a wheelchair since fourth or fifth grade. I'm both mournful and incredibly joyful that she's no longer with us but that I can confidently say she's DANCING and JUMPING around right now with her dad, sister, and with our Lord in her new heavenly body! It was very fitting that her own passing would come on the same week we remember and celebrate Christ's death and resurrection! I can't wait for the day I get to join her again.

My graduation

I have been learning to love Jesus more and more for who He is, rather than for His blessings. Still, throughout this recent hardship, I'm so overwhelmingly convinced that He is sovereign, loving, and GOOD in all He does. Even if it hurts, He is my Comfort. Through the "good" and the "bad" I, like Job, want to be able to say "blessed be the name of the Lord!"

Myth: It's not easy being green

(Okay really corny but I kept thinking it). At least it's a myth in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day weekend when the airport, Guinness factory, government buildings and people are sporting the color all weekend. After many more hours of traveling than I would have liked to take (a train to a bus to a plane to a bus to sprinting across the airport to another plane to another bus), I finally made it to Dublin! By the grace of God, my roommate Annie and I were able to meet at the perfect time: her flight (from Italy) was delayed a few hours, and I originally told her I was landing a few hours before I actually was (because I forgot about my layover)...but it's all for a reason, right? I was also very grateful for the free wi-fi in Dublin International Airport. They really know how to cater to poor, traveling American college students whose vital forms of communication are WhatsApp and Facebook.

Sand sculpting on Grafton Street

I felt welcomed to the city as soon as I landed and saw the balloons festively decorating the airport for the holiday weekend. Annie, her abroad friends, and I took a cab to her school's campus and I was again welcomed by one of the many friendly taxi drivers in the city. As Annie pointed out, there isn't that much to "see" in Dublin in terms of landmarks, but I was just so happy to be spending the weekend with my roommate and to get a taste of another part of the world. I made myself a rule that wherever I travel to throughout my semester, I'm not allowing myself to get any Italian food outside of Italy. Really all I wanted in Ireland was a burger and a good beer. Fortunately, I had easy access to both.

I was surprised by how "American" everything seemed in Dublin. Of course, it's probably more true to say that we've adopted more of Europe's traditions, and I was just surprised to see everything written in English, but still. Annie and I spent some time wandering around St. Stephen's Green, Grafton Street (the main street in Dublin to go shopping and see street performers/artists), St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Guinness Factory (which was enormous and really interesting to learn about how Guinness is made), and various pubs. I was disappointed at first that my actual St. Patrick's Day had to consist of 12 hours of traveling instead of going to the parades, but it was cold and rainy when I left Sunday morning and I had such a great time the rest of my weekend I couldn't complain.

Porterhouse with friends from home

It was fun walking around that weekend and running into about 8 people I knew: BC students not studying in Dublin, old neighbors, one of my roommate's friends from home, etc. It really is a small world! I also love the laid back pub atmosphere with jolly Irishmen and live music. At this pub called Porterhouse on my last night in Dublin, I also got to see three friends from home who are studying at the same university as my roommate.

The most memorable souvenir I brought back from Ireland was my fifth ear piercing. Annie and I had been wanting to get this matching piercing since freshman year, but we weren't presented with the opportune time until now. We finally just went for it! We found what seemed like a reputable place, paid, and went into the piercing room. I sat down first and was expecting the woman to use a piercing gun like what I was used to seeing. Instead, she used a special needle and then put the earring in. Now, needles have not become one of my favorite things over the last few years and, like I indicated on my form before my piercing, I have a tendency to become dizzy or pass out. I think you see where this is going.

After my earring was in and I was sitting up on the table, I said very nonchalantly, "I'm feeling a little lightheaded..." And I fainted. Once I came to, the very patient woman was consoling me (I'm sure she's used to this) and asked me the last time I ate. As I was thinking of the answer, I fainted again. (It's okay, you can laugh). When I woke up (again) poor Annie was paler than I was from watching what I'm sure was a frightening scenario. I was laughing because I knew this would happen once I started getting dizzy, and I've learned how to recover from this. But I didn't want the same thing to happen to Annie, so it may be a little while before we have matching piercings.

Parfait Paris!

("Perfect Paris"...about two of the ten words I know in French. It makes GG's parfaits that much more special now that I know it means "perfect.")

This weekend was absolutely awesome. Everything I saw and did was amazing, but I was most excited and encouraged by seeing one of my best friends at BC, Ericka! I got to stay with her host family in Invalides with a surreal view of the Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel) right outside their front door. Everyone's family and friends have been visiting Parma the past two weeks, so it was really great for both of us to finally see a familiar face!

On Friday morning, my friend Lauren (from my program) and I took the 5:21AM Parma train to Milan, which got in at 6:55. We sprinted across the Milan train station to try to catch the 7 o'clock bus. It knowingly pulled away from us as we stood outside with our tickets, so we had to wait for the 7:20 bus. The bus from the train station to the airport can take anywhere between 40 minutes and over one hour. We were really hoping for the former because our flight was leaving at 8:55! With God's guiding hand, as always, we made it through security, bolted across the airport, and got to our gate as the last 20 people were boarding. While I do not recommend this early of a flight out of Malpensa from Parma, especially not with only four hours of sleep in you, it is possible with a little running and a lot of faith.


(Sidenote: This has been a week of me realizing how counterproductive it is for me to worry. Friday morning I hopped on a train, a bus, and a plane with much less angst than I normally would have had in this situation. Because worrying wouldn't make the train leave on time, or the bus go faster, or the plane delay a few minutes. Even if we didn't make our flight, the worst thing that would have happened is I waste/spend more money...I'm still in Italy. I'm still living and breathing and enjoying God's wonderful creations all around the world. I'm still able to find joy in what's around me, sometimes even more so when things don't go exactly as I've planned them.
My mom my favorite verses to me in third grade, which continue to be probably the most important ones throughout my life: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." ~ Philippians 4:6-7)

Back to my trip. Friday was really rainy. While the movie "Midnight in Paris" claims that Paris is most beautiful in the rain, I bet that's probably most true in the summer and if you're wearing the proper shoes. Despite my blisters and fatigue, I still very much enjoyed the walking tour Ericka took us on. We saw Notre Dame and several other cathedrals, the Luxemburg Gardens, ate sweet and savory crepes (what I was probably most excited for in this city), walked along the Seine River, wetn into the bookstore Shakespeare and Company, went to a really fun dinner, and saw Sacre Coeur at night. We went to Les Refuge des Fondues for dinner, which was this teeny tiny fondue restaurant where you sit really close to people you don't know (some pleasant, some not as much), the walls are covered in people's signatures, and you drink wine out of baby bottles. I would recommend this to anyone around my age.

Rodin's "Thinker"

I caught up on some sleep Friday night, and we toured for around 12 straight hours on Saturday! Even though it was supposed to rain all weekend, it was sunny and fairly warm, which made everything that much more enjoyable. We went from Rodin's Museum (where I got to see "The Thinker") to Napoleon's tomb (the largest funerary space I've ever seen for such a small person) to the Eiffel Tower. We were going to climb the Tower, but the nice weather brought an insane amount of tourists out at that time. Tourists are the worst, right? So we climbed the Arc de Triomphe, "Triumphal Arch," a monument commemorating the lives of those who fought for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. There is a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the arch honoring a soldier from WWI.

We headed down the famous street Champs-Élysées and ate macaroons and drank hot chocolate at the esteemed La Duree. It was expensive but delicious and worth the experience! Then we went to the Louvre Museum, which would apparently take 3 weeks nonstop to actually look at every piece of art in this former palace. I was really struck by its enormity. Among other works, I saw the "Venus de Milo" and "La Gioconda," better known as the "Mona Lisa." When
we studied Da Vinci in my Art History class, we learned a lot about this portrait. It is a beautiful painting, but the reason it's so famous is that it's been stolen so many times. (Also sorry to disappoint anyone but her eyes don't really "follow" you. Well they kind of do, but the reason is because the vanishing point of the painting's perspective is in between her eyes. Many other painters have done this too. BUT it was amazing to stand in front of something so important). Lauren and I also walked Ericka down the Italian painters section of the Louvre and shared any knowledge we could give her on what we know about the iconography of the paintings or stories of the painters.

Best dinner ever

Crepes at the Eiffel Tower

(I'm almost done I promise). We walked along the lock bridge where couples write their names on a lock, attach to the bridge, and throw their key in the Seine. Paris really is such a romantic city, which was typified by the bride taking pictures on that bridge in her wedding dress. We got wine at Le Fumoir where Hemingway used to hang out, then came my favorite part of the weekend: dinner. I was at the peek of contentment at this cafe in Saint Germain. The girls and I got the best French Onion Soup I think I've ever had, a Caesar salad (finally something healthy besides a crepe and
baguettes), and delicious escargot. The food combined with the ambiance of the restaurant, the slow jazzy music playing in the background, the clarinet player outside, and the people I was with just made my heart melt. After this dinner, it seemed like the perfect time to finally venture to the top of the Eiffel Tower and get another crepe while we watched it twinkle at midnight. Truly amazing.