Day 33 - Deciding to make a change. Why not? #45daysofsummer

When I heard last night that we were going to the beach today, I was well excited! When I heard that it was just Mihaela, Bianca, Betsy and me, I was even more excited. Girls day out at the beach?! Wooo!

Then I heard it was a two and a half hour drive away.
Less excited at that point.

However, today has been a truly wonderful day!
Admittedly, I slept a lot of the way for the journey there (hey, what's new?! Everyone knows I sleep in the car all the time! And I did warn them beforehand..) But we stopped on the way there, part way up a mountain, almost 2000m above sea level on the winding roads that took us to Gijón, to marvel at the breathtaking views.

It was freezing. But it was gorgeous.

We continued the journey (I went back to sleep) and before I knew it, we were in Gijón. Ready to party.
Well, we were certainly ready for a day on the beach at least, but the sky was rather cloudy and it looked like a storm was brewing in the distance. We braved it anyway!

Waves!

Waves enough for surfing!

And other people with the same idea as us - who cares about the storm?! We're at the beach!

And something occurred to me today, that I hadn't thought of up until now on my travels. There are some definite challenges about coming to new places on you're own and trying to make friends when you can't fully function in their language.. But there are some really great opportunities too.
I realised today, that even though I have spent almost 10 days with these girls, they still don't know all that much about me (herein lies both the challenge and the opportunity). I wasn't about to spoil the party and tell them how much I liked the look and idea of the beach, but that actually I really don't like sand or sea pretty much at all... So I didn't tell them. And therefore had to pretend at first (or persuade myself) that I did actually like it. They knew no different. And rather than it feeling like lying, it occurred to me that I had a chance here to start something new, to change something, to try something that I had previously not liked, amongst people who were getting to know me and find out for myself that I don't altogether hate it. In fact, I loved it!
We only spent about an hour, maybe a little longer, on the beach. And a lot of that time, Betsy, Bianca and I were in the sea. First paddling, then running into the waves! And the waves were big! Huge, crashing, salt-in-your-mouth-nose-eyes-and-everywhere kind of waves. I tried to keep my hands and face out of the water initially, but it was impossible so I gave up and in that letting go, ended up having so much fun, getting drenched and finding out that I can enjoy something that I have previously dreaded! Such an amazing feeling!

We got dry (freezing whilst doing so!) And went in search of other bonitas vistas (beautiful views)...

Salty hair!

Getting dry before lunch.

Ideal spot for viewing the coast.

 

Selfie necessary.

Another, more smiley selfie, necessary.

Host-mom, Mihaela! She drove us all the way, and around the city, and looked after our stuff while we swam. Superstar. 

Oh and then we got chocolate con churros. Oh yes. 

Something else that's new today. I also decided to be brave try and start speaking my thoughts out loud. As yet, I haven't really been quick enough to translate a passing thought in to Spanish and speak it out loud in time for it to still be relevant so I've just not bothered.. I have managed a couple of witty responses and sarcastic comments, but today tried to forget about making mistakes and put in to words some ideas and thoughts I had at different points in the day - about how funny it is hearing little kids speaking Spanish, asking more about where we are and verbalising geneal observations.. And its amazing how much new conversation and vocabulary it opened up! Today felt a lot richer in so many ways. :)

I only slept for a short amount of time on the journey back. Mostly, I watched out the window as we passed yet more stunning scenery. We drove through various mountainous regions, and I kept thinking of Moses and wondering if these were anything like Mount Sanai.. Probably not, but I liked the thought and felt close to nature and to God! Particularly with all that is in the news if late, I just feel so thankful and so very blessed. Trying not to take these experiences for granted.

Day 26. Betsy, La Cumpleañera. #45daysofsummer

While the kids are singing, I have snook (is that a word?!) out to get some WiFi, and want to write quickly and tell you about Betsy. She is the director of this camp - the Football and English camp.

 It's her birthday today, she turned 29, and she is truly amazing! We have sung happy birthday (Cumpleaños Feliz) to her about 7 times today and she's getting a bit sick of it haha but I think she appreciates it really!

(Not a great pic!) Betsy blowing out the candles on her cake during La Cena (dinner) this evening. Little Sara (who is blurred her!) bought the cake in for her :)

The gift we got for her - a jar packed full of her favourite sweets!

She has an incredible voice and sang a solo in the concersts on the weekend, but she also writes a lot of the songs that the kids sing here, complete with actions, and yesterday she wrote one especially to go with the memory verse of the day. It's brilliant, and is about having humility - just another great way for them to remember the verse and take it to heart.

Singing in the Velada tonight!

But not only is she creative and super talented, she is hilarious. Like, really really funny.

I have been praying that at some point I will start to be able to understand jokes in Spanish because that's one of the hardest things really - following the conversation enough to fully understand and reach the punch line. To be honest, I can't say I've managed it yet, and miss most of the funny things that are said (which makes me feel a little sad, so that's why I've been praying specifically for this!) but God has blessed me so much with meeting Betsy because she is really sarcastic and even though I can't understand funny stories in full yet, I can get some of her one-liners or come backs and have laughed a lot this week! Plus, when she tries to speak English, it's the most hilarious thing you've ever heard.
Today she said 'please can I put my body on the plate of the shower' when she was simply asking to go for a shower! I know it's not quite as funny reading it like that but it was a rather hysterical moment for us and the chicas in my group who tried correcting her!

So today (and this week generally), I am so very thankful for Betsy, for her fun and gentle spirit, for her creativity, her warm welcome and for all that she is doing at the camp in the lives of these young people!!

Day 12 - tourists in Marburg, lots of rain, lots of laughs. #45daysofsummer

Our first morning at Waldi and Ruth's involved a lovely long lie in (in a very comfortable bed!) followed by a typical German breakfast.

Fresh bread, eggs, cheese, avacade, cucumber, tomatoes, jam... Mmm! 

After a couple of hours chatting and catching up some more, putting the world to rights etc.. we wandered in to Marburg, and looked like proper tourists with our cameras out as W&R told us about the history of the city and other interesting facts.

Walking by the river.

The weather was gorgeous and the scenery beautiful..

 The church and castle at the top there, is where we were headed.

 Streets of Marburg.

R&W being cute :)

Jessie and I having a proper tourist picture!

Higher up the hill, looking down at the city.. We were actually walking up to see Landgrafenschloss but I didn't get any photos on my phone so will have to wait til September to see those!

The hill was quite steep, we stopped for a brief rest!

 Beautiful gardens at the top of the hill. They were telling us about a festival here a few weeks back that sounded like so much fun! There's a big outdoor cinema up there too!

On ur way back down, we passed the house that the Grimm brothers lived in for a year while they were in Marburg. They didn't like the city, and were very open about that.

They took us to an adorable little cafe called Die Pause (the break) where we ate delicious food and sat for another few hours, talking, laughing, enjoying ourselves!

I had goats cheese with apple and honey, and some curry lentil soup. Jessie's chips were incredible (that's not an overstatement) and we all helped her to eat them haha!

After a spot of shopping, we made a start for home. That's when the rain started. And carried on. We found shelter under some places, and when it eased off we continued on. But then... Oh how it rained. Absolutely chucking it down. To say we were drenched would be somewhat of an understatement. It was hilarious. We had to walk for about 15 minutes in it as well. In fact, while I write, our clothes are still drying on the airer despite it being like 15 hours later... 

So we dried off, and curled up on the sofa and Waldi played guitar and we all talked some more. It was like the old times, but new times. We talked about how much we have all changed and lots else. Then we had homemade bread (thrown together by Waldi) and salad for a late night snack before heading off to bed. It has to be said, I have not laughed so much as I have today in months. In years potentially. Its been fabulous, and funny. And really freeing. Thank you Jesus!! :):)

Storm Chasers - Day 11 of #45daysofsummer

We felt like storm chasers yesterday. That's not what we were actually doing, it felt more like the storms were chasing us but we survived. Let me tell you about the day before we got to the storms.

We had a chilled morning at Corinna's, and then had a Spanish breakfast (tostadas con tomatoes) out in her little garden, which was just beautiful. We sat for a long while catching up and Corinna told us her story of the last 5 years (Jess and I told ours the previous night) before her flatmates came out and we made friends and just enjoyed the quiet morning.

I helped make the tomato sauce - tomatoes with olive oil and garlic, blitzed together.

Then after a small tour of Munster, with ice cream (the kind German man gave me extra ice cream and a cherry too.. Clearly my broken German is useful for something!) and time to wander around funny little shops, we met Pia, Ushi and Nora (Corinna's flatmates) at the Canal for a rather experiential afternoon:

Putting the slack line up.

Corinna showing us her skills.

Jumping in the canal.

Meeee!

Then, paddling up the canal came two beautiful strangers on stand up surfboards (slightly bigger than a normal surfboard, with more grip I think.. And they offered for us to have a go. So we did! Photos are on my actual camera though so can't upload those until I'm home but that was brilliant - I stood up and paddled my way round on the water for a few minutes! 

We picked raspberries on the walk back to the car, saving some for the pancakes that Pia had made when we arrived home. And by this point, it was time for us to say our goodbyes and get on the road.

That's when the storm hit.

No ordinary storm (although I appreciate all storms are pretty ordinary in that there's normally thunder, lightning, rain etc..) But this time, the rain came down heavily and quickly and within minutes the street was flooding and cars were backed up down the street and people were coming out in bathing suits to play in the giant puddles! It was quite a community to be honest, but it meant that we couldn't leave yet. So we waiting for it to calm down and then made our move heading for Marburg.

45 minutes of peace and then the next storm hit. It is, admittedly, the worst conditions I have driven in. We pulled over at first thinking we could sit and wait for it to pass, but quickly realised that it wasn't passing any time soon and there weren't lights on the road side so if it got dark and we had to drive in these conditions, it would be even worse! So we prayed and drove and stayed super alert. Eventually, the rain died down and we drove in peace for a fee more kilometers. Then the next storm hit, the same again... But God was so good, and we finally made it to Marburg safely and in one piece, despite hearing from friends of the many accidents and fallen trees that had affected others. God protected us on our 3 and a half hour journey and we made it to Ruth and Waldi's.

Talking late in to the night, eating freshly baked banana bread and watching the persistent lightning over the hill from the safety of their beautiful little flat... It was a wonderful evening, to end a crazy adventurous day.

Thank you Jesus for friends, for new experiences, for leading us safely through the storm and for all that is to come.