I am back in Goshen for a few days. Just over a week, actually. It feels nice. I'm seeing friends and some family, though I won't get to see my immediate family until Christmas time. Working backwards, I got in to Goshen on Thursday after a night in Chicago with some friends. I had to stay over night in order to pick up my visa for Spain. But that is future, so that will have to wait. I flew into Chicago por Miami from San Jose, Costa Rica on Wednesday. On Tuesday I took a bus to San Jose from Managua, Nicaragua, where I spent most of my summer. (Hows that for confusing?) I was working with Mennonite Central Committee (relief/development agency of the Mennonite Church) and local Nicaraguan organization, CEPAD. I mainly accompanied delegations/church groups from the U.S. on their short term mission trips or partner relationships with Nicaraguan communities. Did a bit of translating, and a lot of traveling, thinking, seeing and doing. Overall a great experience. I definetly have a lot of questions about my future, the church (Latin American and North American), God, service (particularly international), economics, justice, politics, development, etc. But since this whole experience was made possible through a program at Goshen called "Service Inquiry Program" I feel validated in my questioning. Not that I needed validation.
Moving on to the future: I have one week here to do things like visit with friends, go to the eye doctor, laundry, financial stuff, writing essays, talking with advisors about classes and graduation... the list goes on. Come next Sunday, I am flying off to another 3-4 month adventure. This time to Europe--Barcelona, Spain, to be exact. (And thats "Barthelona," mind you.) I'll have to learn Spanish all over again. Not that I'm fluent by any means, but Central American-Spanish and Spain-Spanish are waaaay different. Not to mention I have no idea how to use the "vosotros" form. And they speak Catalan there. Eeek. So, in Barthelona I will be studying at the university there. Which is somewhere around 70 times the size of Goshen, my dear college here in Indiana. This along with the fact that I'm coming pretty much straight from a "third-world" country (Supposedly the 2nd poorest in all of the Americas, above only Haiti) might give me a bit of culture shock, though I usually deal pretty easily with change. But lets just take a little look the difference in public transportation in Managua and Barthelona: city bus anywhere in Managua: 2.5 cordobas or around 15 U.S. cents. taxi? 20-25 cordobas if you're not going far. Lets call it U.S. $ 1.25. In Barth a one-journey ticket to the metro is E. $1.25. U.S. $ nearly 2. (don't know the exact conversion yet) and a taxi from the airport to our orientation hotel? E. 30-35, or about U.S. $ 40 !!! I don't know what I'm going to do... I'll be the cheapest Estadounidense in Spain, probably...
At any rate (U.S., Euro, Cordoba, Colone...) I'm quite excited to go to Spain, live with a family there, meet new friends and see a lot of sweet architecture. I'm also pretty bummed about being gone (again) from friends and family and coming back to Goshen College with only one semester to go. Its a bit creepy thinking about life after college, so I often try to avoid it. =) Well, I guess thats enough for a first blog. I'm off to go Salsa dancing. Tenga un buen dia, buena noche o cualquier tiempo...
2 comments:
Hey Baby! Have a great time, safe travels tomorrow!!
look, i read your blog. also, i just woke up. again. i say again, because i had to take echo in for his recheck at 7:45 this morning, and since i didn't go to bed until almost 10.... that clearly wasn't enough sleep so i went back to bed when i got home. this isn't as pathetic as it sounds, because i just got back from a double practice in KC, and not much sleeping was involved. and now i need to go pay my credit card bill so that i can buy a ticket to spain without having echo's surgery and the ticket on the card at the same time. love ya, hope spain is treating you well. see ya in a few.
Post a Comment