Paris…it’s always been one of those places that I wanted to visit, but I didn’t think it would ever actually happen. After making friends with a French student who came to Kalamazoo for the summer, though, plans for a trip to Paris were in the works.

Since my mom was coming to visit me in Spain and I had a week off from my classes, we decided to travel to Paris together! We had a very special time together – what a beautiful city! Essentially, our time there was spent going to most of the famous places, art museums, and tourist attractions: Versailles, Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, the Louvre, Tuileries Gardens, L’Orangerie, Champs Élysées, L’Arc de Triomphe, Musée d’Orsay, Sacré Coeur at Montmartre, and of course, the Eiffel Tower. We did a lot in one week!

In addition to spending time in the city of Paris, we were also able to visit some special friends of ours, Frank and Karen Mills (no relation to us, actually), who used to go to our church in Kalamazoo and are now living in France. It was great to be able to see them, since they live in a town called Chantilly about an hour north of Paris. Frank and Karen really helped us by picking us up from the airport, letting us stay with them for a couple nights, and telling us which sights in Paris were truly worth seeing!

At the end of the week, I was finally able to connect with my French friend Maïlys, the one who was in Kalamazoo for the summer!! I was SOOOO excited and thankful to see her again, and we had such a great time together, even though it was short.

The main thing I noticed about France was that I MISSED SPANISH! It made me realize how much I love Spain and the Spanish language. It was really, really hard for me to go a week without it. And it really frustrated me to not have the ability to communicate with the people around me or to be able to ask a question (my French skills could use some work!). I’m not trying to say that I didn’t enjoy being in Paris – it was an incredible experience – but I’m very, very happy to be back in Spain. I think I appreciate life here even more than I did before.

It’s not every day that you walk out of  the front door of your house and see the queen of Spain drive right past you on the street. Yep, that’s right. That actually happened to me this week.

Sometimes I feel like this world of study abroad experience isn’t reality, that I can’t possibly be traveling to so many unique places and experiencing so many incredible things. But little by little, the reality is beginning to sink in. Yes, this IS real life, and yes, I’m living in it! And I couldn’t be more excited.

Back to the story about the queen, since I know you’re wondering what in the world that was all about. On Wednesday Queen Sofía of Spain actually came to Burgos, and one of the main places she came to visit was the monastery that’s directly across the street from my house. Here’s what it looks like:

I knew she was planning to be in Burgos, but I didn’t know much about her visit beyond that. I just happened to walk out of the front door about 45 seconds before a small caravan of cars zoomed past into the entrance of the monastery. People were lined up along the street, clapping and cheering as the queen went by. (My host mom’s opinion: “I’m anti-monarchical and don’t believe we should even have a king and queen. This is the 21st century and we’re in a democracy.” She stayed inside.) Interestingly, they removed all of the trash containers/dumpsters from everywhere in our neighborhood on the day Queen Sofía came to visit. Apparently she can’t know we’re normal people and therefore need somewhere to put our trash. It’s experiences like these that make me question the reality of this wonderful existence…who would have thought that on a normal day I’d get the chance to see the queen?

Another part of my life that’s sometimes hard to believe is the AWESOME Bible study I’ve been having with my WMU friends (7 of us total). We’re studying the gospel of John, and I’m blown away every week not only by the fact that these girls  are interested in studying the Bible together, but also that they have such a deep desire to learn more about God and have so many insightful thoughts about what the Scriptures mean for our lives. Wow.

Oh yeah, and my mom’s here in Spain with me!!!! That’s REALLY hard to believe, especially after a month and a half of not seeing her.

She arrived in Burgos this past Thursday, and I’ve spent the past few days showing her the city and my daily life here. On Thursday night I gave her a tour of the city. Friday morning, I brought her to class with me, and then we went to the castle overlooking Burgos, which was built in 884 (yes, you read that date correctly). We went to a really cool event on Friday night that is basically a group of students that gets together to help Spanish students learn English – my Mom LOVED getting to talk to people and help them improve their speaking skills (that’s definitely the former English teacher in her coming out…).

On Saturday morning we spent some time in a beautiful park, and came home to a huge meal/celebration with tons of my host mom’s friends and family for her son in law’s birthday. There was a lot of loud, fast Spanish being spoken, so I hope she wasn’t overwhelmed. I know I enjoyed it, even the heated (but not mean-spirited) arguments about politics. Today (Sunday) I brought her to church, so she was able to meet most of my church family here.

I don’t have classes this week (also hard to wrap my mind around), since my program gives us a week off to travel. So, tomorrow my mom and I fly out to spend a week together in Paris!! I can’t wait – it’s hard to think that I’m actually going to see the Eiffel Tower and so many other famous places for myself! Make sure to s tay tuned for pictures and further adventures.

Although at times the events this study abroad experience seem almost unbelievable, I’m determined to enjoy every minute of it.

Hello from beautiful Spain!

I had yet another wonderful opportunity to travel this past weekend. My friend Bryleigh and I took a very relaxing trip to Santander, a city on the northern coast of Spain, which is only about 2.5 hours from Burgos by bus. (WMU actually has a summer study abroad program in Santander, too.) The weather could not have been any nicer, the views were absolutely amazing, and going to the beach was awesome. I was so thankful to spend a weekend in such a beautiful place with such a great friend!

Also, I’m starting a new job this week: I’ll be giving English lessons to two kids, ages 5 and 8, who live in Burgos. Essentially, I have to pretend I don’t know Spanish at all and play with kids for a couple hours a week, speaking only in English (shouldn’t be too hard, right?). Their parents really want them to be exposed to speaking and listening to English – there’s a huge demand for this type of English lessons here. I think I’m really going to enjoy this opportunity!

Last night I had the chance to play basketball with some of my friends from church. I learned a bunch of new vocabulary words and had a ton of fun! I think one indication that my Spanish is improving is that now I’m able to “trash talk” and joke around about who’s going to win. I’m grateful for new friends and constant opportunities to work on my language skills.

Oh, and I have some exciting news: my mom is coming to visit me later this week!!! I can’t wait! I’ll definitely keep you updated on our time together and on our travels.

Hasta luego,

Mandi

In the past few weeks, I’ve had the chance to visit several Spanish pueblos (very small towns), and I thought I’d share a little bit with all of you about my experiences.

Around the year 1900, well over half of Spain’s population lived in the countryside (in pueblos) and worked in agriculture. However, over the course of the twentieth century, there were huge migrations to cities due to the increased mechanization of agriculture, more job opportunities, and political reasons.

When the Spanish people moved to the cities, though, they left their pueblos behind. So, all over the Spanish countryside, there are small towns that are practically abandoned. These pueblos couldn’t have held more than a couple hundred people each. The buildings are made of stones, and the tallest building is always the church.

Nowadays, not many people live out in the pueblos year round. However, many older people have homes in a pueblo that their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren use to vacation during the summer months. Therefore the pueblos are fairly lively in the warmer months, whereas in the winter, it’s likely that only around five (or fewer) older couples live there.

The Spanish countryside is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Every time I travel outside of the city I’m blown away by the mountains, the scenery, and the sky, which are all AMAZING. I don’t think there has been a day I’ve been in Spain so far where the sky has been anything but incredible. I’m always amazed by the Lord’s creativity and beauty in creation…wow.

That being said, it’s understandable that many people like to go to the pueblos to vacation. In addition, each pueblo has a weekend in which they have a fiesta (big party or celebration) to celebrate the town. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to go with my host mom to visit one of these small towns, and I want to share some pictures from that experience.

Okay, that’s it for today! Thanks for reading!

Mandi

This past weekend I was very, very blessed to be able to visit Barcelona with five of my friends. It’s such a beautiful city, and I really, really enjoyed my time there.

On Thursday night, we took a bus from Burgos and arrived in Barcelona around 8 on Friday morning. First stop: the Barcelona Cathedral, where, at first, the guard wouldn’t let us enter the church! We finally realized that we needed to be wearing more church-appropriate clothing; tank tops and shorts weren’t going to work. So, all six of us girls stood the steps of the cathedral, rummaging through our backpacks to find pants, skirts, and jackets to wear inside and pulling them over what we were already wearing. Meanwhile, the guard was watching us and trying so hard not to laugh – I think we made sure he had a memorable day!

Next, we went to the Picasso Museum. It wasn’t as impressive as we had hoped, but we were able to see many of Picasso’s early works as well as his famous interpretation of Velazquez’s “Las Meninas”.

Later that afternoon, my friend Bryleigh and I decided to visit the Casa Batlló, designed and constructed by leading Modernist architect Antoni Gaudí. (If you don’t know who Gaudí is, please look him up – his work is amazing and all over Barcelona!) The house displays so much creativity and attention to detail, and it’s impossible to describe it in words. It’s incredible to think that it was constructed in the early 1900s.

We spent the night at a hostel that was only five blocks from the Mediterranean Sea!! After going to the beach to watch the sunset on Friday night, we decided to go back on Saturday morning – it’s not every day that you can wake up and go for a swim in the Mediterranean!

We started off that day by going to see La Sagrada Familia, a famous cathedral that is Gaudí’s masterpiece. Once again, words can’t do it justice.

After the cathedral, we visited Parc Güell, a park designed by Gaudí that overlooks the city.

After all of that, we were pretty tired, so we spent the rest of the afternoon at Las Ramblas, which is the main stretch of historic Barcelona and a pedestrian mall with lots of shops.

At the end of the day, we boarded the bus to Burgos and returned home around 4 a.m. on Sunday. It was an eventful but wonderful weekend – I’m so glad I went!!

Hello, everyone! After a week and a half here, I think I’m getting the hang of daily life in Spain. To let you all get a feel for my life here, I thought I’d give you an idea of what a normal day looks like for me.

7:30 – Wake up and get ready for school.

8:15 – Eat breakfast. This usually consists of toast with marmelade or Nutella, coffee, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

8:45 – Leave for school. The University of Burgos is only about a 10-15 minute walk from my house which is great. I’m very blessed because many of my friends’ houses are over an hour walk away, and they have to catch the bus in order to get there.

9:10 – class starts. I have two hours of language classes in the morning, which are my favorite. I was very blessed to be placed into the advanced language class, and my teacher (who happens to be named Jesús and was born on December 25th!) is both informative and friendly.

11:00 – Descanso (break). We usually go to the cafeteria to get a snack and chat with friends.

11:30 – History class (called “Cultural Keys of the 20th and 21st Centuries”), followed by a class about living in Spain, called Vivir España.

1:30 – Classes finish, and I walk home.

2:00 or 2:30 – Lunch, the largest meal of the day. I typically spend a long time chatting with my host mom, Marisol, during lunch.

3:30- 4:30 or 5:00 – Afternoon siesta. I love how people in Spain just stop everything to take a nap! I usually rest or hang out my room for a while.

5:00 – At this point, what I do depends on the day. Sometimes I hang out with friends, go downtown, or do homework.

9:00 – Dinner. People don’t eat until very late here! Dinner is a smaller meal than lunch, and sometimes I eat by myself if Marisol has other obligations.

10:00 – After dinner I usually spend time in my room reading, online, etc.

12:00 – Bedtime!

That’s a normal day, but in the past week there have been some things that have happened that are definitely not everyday occurrences:

First, I was interviewed for the newspaper in Burgos last week! They had an article about the group of American students studying here, complete with individual photos of the two students they interviewed and shot of the whole group. I was a little nervous that I would say something wrong or not speak well in Spanish, but it went well.

The second unusual thing that happened this past week was that two of my dearest friends from WMU, Kelsey and Sydney, came to visit me in Burgos!! They’ve been participating in another study abroad program in northern Spain this summer and will return to the U.S. next week. It was SO wonderful to catch up with them and spend some time together this past weekend. I felt very honored and very grateful that they would come here to see me!

I spent some time showing them the city, and we also were able to see the inside of the Catedral de Burgos for the first time. All of the Gothic architecture is really awesome, and the visit was even more valuable since we had all learned about the cathedral in school. I took tons of pictures, but the ceilings were my favorite. What beautiful architecture!

Wow, what an eventful week!

My flight from Chicago went smoothly, and we (10 girls, including myself) arrived safely in Madrid on Thursday morning. We were able to check into our hotel early, took a quick nap, then decided to explore the city.

One girl from our group had arrived the day before, so she showed us how to take the metro downtown. We found a place to eat, then walked around for a while, visiting places like la Puerta del Sol, la Plaza Mayor (main square/plaza), and a small market, el Mercado de San Miguel.

After walking farther than we intended to, three of us broke off from the group and decided to take a tour of El Palacio Real (the Royal Palace), which was incredible and definitely worth the price of 10 euros to see!! It was amazing to be in the same rooms in which the kings and queens of Spain lived. Things I vaguely remembered from my classes began to come alive! There were a few things about the palace that I found to be especially interesting: 1) the walls were decorated so intricately – some had designs in porcelain, others were covered in embroidered silk, and others featured amazing tapestries, 2) I was able to see FOUR Stradivarius string instruments that were given to Spanish royalty – two violins, a viola, and a cello – that were on display in glass cases. SO cool! 3) The ceilings of the rooms were covered in frescoes painted by professional artists. I can’t imagine living in the kind of splendor that these kings and queens enjoyed; I don’t think I could live there, but I really enjoyed visiting.

On Friday I went with two friends to explore the city again, planning to visit two  art museums. First, we visited la Puerta de Alcalá, which is one of the old gates to the city, walked through el Parque Retiro, one of the most famous parks in Madrid, and peeked inside a cathedral. We ended up walking through el Museo del Prado, a famous and historical art museum for about three hours, stopped for lunch, and then went to  a more modern art museum, la Reina Sofía, for a while. In el Museo del Prado, I saw works by artists like Goya, Velazquez, el Greco, and more. In la Reina Sofía I stood in front of paintings by Dalí, Miró, and Picasso. Again, the opportunity to see things in person that I had studied in class was absolutely fascinating! I was blown away by both the quantity and quality of the art that was there.

By Friday night sixteen of the eighteen members of our group had arrived in Madrid, and we all went out to eat together. I was definitely tired after the busyness of these two days, but I loved almost every minute of it!

Wow, the big day is almost here! Only two days away…incredible.

Over the past few days I’ve had to say several goodbyes to family and friends. There haven’t been any tears yet, but my brother jokes that my mom’s eyes water every times someone says the word “Spain”.  The most frequent question people have asked me during our goodbyes is, “Are you ready?” And YES, absolutely, I am. I am so ready to experience this new adventure and learn as much as I can! My suitcase isn’t quite as ready as my brain is, though – it’s hard to fit four months’ worth of stuff into a 50 pound bag! However, I’m confident that everything  I need to accomplish will get done before Wednesday.

I fly out of Chicago with several other students on Wednesday afternoon, and I’ll be arriving in Madrid on Thursday morning. There is a six hour time difference, and the flight is eight hours long. Upon our arrival in Madrid, we will drop our suitcases off at a hotel and have two days of sightseeing and adjustment to the culture and the time (6 hours ahead). On Saturday, we will take a bus from Madrid to Burgos, where we will meet our host families.

I’m not too nervous about flying or traveling – I’ve flown to Europe twice before for mission trips, so I think everything will work out fine. I’m just hoping the other people on my trip will still like me after the long hours of traveling together. I’ve been known to get pretty grumpy when I’m sleep deprived.

I am SO looking forward to this trip! Thanks for joining me on this part of the adventure. The next time I post, I’ll be in España!

Over the past few days I’ve had a chance to correspond with my host mom, Marisol, via email. I already know I’ll love living with her!

Marisol has been hosting international students in her home for 15 years and students from Western for ten. Her husband died four years ago, and she has four grown children and five grandchildren, who she said are around all the time. I’m looking forward to playing with the kids – what a great opportunity to learn more Spanish!

Along with being a mom, host mom, and grandma, Marisol somehow finds time to be involved in so many other activities. Apparently she’s an amazing cook (she hosts a Thanksgiving dinner for WMU students each November!); her other interests include dancing, swimming, sewing, reading, and writing. And she has a cat.

Her email to me was so warm and friendly  – the subject said “un saludo cariñoso de Burgos para tí Mandi“(translation: a loving/caring greeting from Burgos for you, Mandi). She gave me advice on what to bring and what to leave at home. Marisol said that if any of my family decided to visit me in Spain, she welcomed them to stay at her house! This lady seems super kind and wonderful to be around – I can’t wait to meet her in person!

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted, but it’s been pretty difficult to come up with things to write about while I’m still here in the United States. However, each day brings me one day closer to the day I leave, so my anticipation is rapidly increasing! This past Friday was my last day of work for the summer, so in the next couple weeks I’ll mainly be spending time with my family and organizing things before I go. It seems like there are so many details to take care of!

I do want to share with you some good news that I received in an email on Friday: I now have my host family! My host mom’s name is Marisol, and she lives only about a 15 minute walk from the University of Burgos. Several of my friends live within walking distance of where I’ll be staying as well, which is great! I emailed Marisol earlier today, so I am very anxious and excited to hear back from her. I can’t wait to meet her, since I’ve heard that the host madres that the university assigns to international students are wonderful. I’m very curious to know whether there will be other family members living with us as well; Marisol’s name was the only one I received. Maybe I’ll have a Spanish hermano or hermana – that would be fun!

Hasta la próxima vez,

Mandi