Part 1 Euro-Extravaganza: Madrid

Part 1 of the Euro-Extravaganza began in the lovely city of Madrid. Having never been to Europe Madrid definitely showed off the good side of Europe. The people, the food, and the sights were all delicious.....yes ALL of them were. The city itself was very clean (this comment pertains specifically to the Metro which put the NY subway to shame) and more spread out then I imagined. All in all it wasn't too difficult to explore the city (even with my sad 5 year old Spanish skills) which is very tourist friendly.

Day 1: Saturday May 17
We began with a flight from JFK, and after purchasing a dinner of hummus to eat with our Trader Joe's Bagel/Pita chips, Kissa and I sat down and waited for our plane. The flight itself wasn't too bad (I have to admit I slept for the majority of it) and once again God blessed me with nice companions for the flight. Alessandro sat on my right, a blond blue-eyed Italian, in his late 20's who was had been visiting the city for vacation. We had a nice little conversation about a variety of things, and his biggest piece of advice? Make sure I go to Paris with my boyfriend because it is the "City of Love." Good thing I had Kissa with me to serve as my date/lover for the trip, haha. On the other side of of the row next to Kissa was Jorge, a very smiley and cheerful man probably in his early 50's. Jorge was definitely interested in us from the beginning, I think he was surprised to see two small Asian Americans sitting on a plane, trying to remember and practice any ounce of Spanish left in our bones. He was very helpful however, and was more than willing to give us tips on what to do in Madrid. Two important things: eat tapas and pulpo de gallega, both of which we did. Jorge also was kind enough to answer our questions about Spanish words, which ranged from asking him what to call a cup to what conseguir meant. And to top it all off he wished us good luck as we parted ways.

I like meeting strangers on planes. =)

Day 2: Sunday May 18
After getting into Madrid, we got our luggage and took a cab to our hostel. We found ourselves outside of a sketchy looking building, and walked into a darkened hallway, and into a really old school elevator. To get in you had to open the outside gate, enter through two swinging doors, making sure you locked the outside gate, and then up you went. Very quaint and old school, but awesome. We met Francisco who showed us our room (complete with a tv, 3 beds (yes 3!) and a desk. The bathrooms we shared with the rest of the girls on the floor, consisting of 2 showers and one toilet. The hostel we stayed at was a students hostel, and so every so often you'd hear some others conversing in different languages.

Once we were settled in at the hostel we went on to find a bank. Quite an adventure as we explored the city for the first day. First thing I ate was a boccadillo con jamon serrano, DELICIOUS. Boccadillo's are Spanish sandwiches, basically a baguette with ham (more like proscuitto then American sandwich ham, and therefore even more yummy.) We explored the Retiro Park for a bit before getting blown away by pollen and dirt (after we drank our first Spanish Coke - for the record it taste pretty good, maybe better than American Coke, and is always served with a slice of lemon.) From there we went to the Puerta del Sol where we encountered our first Museo Del Jamon. While it is most definitely NOT a museum, it has tons of meat, more like a deli. We stopped off to get some candy at a Haribo store, and then went home to rest up for the next day.

Day 3: Monday May 19
We started off the day at the Palacio Real, which was beautiful (thanks to Bekah who suggested it.) Large and picturesque were each of the rooms and the entire palace itself. After sneaking in an illegal picture or two, and taking absolutely too many between and through columns, we then went to the cathedral that was next to the palace.

It was interesting being in the cathedral. For one thing its different being in a type of church like it, because 1) Most Christian churches aren't built like cathedrals, and 2) it's also a piece of artwork. The stained glass windows, along with all the architectural aspects were simply amazing. The mosaic ceilings, were a blur of colors and images, and gave a sort of lightness to such a holy place. The second thing that interested me about being in the cathedral was that I felt the majesty of God in that place. I understood why Catholics seem to distance themselves from a personal relationship with God's to one where there God is the authoritative figure. Not saying its bad, if anything it was a feeling I haven't felt for a while. Few times do I ever feel that small at the feet of God, but in this cathedral, I felt God's power. I felt that I was in the presence of something so much bigger than me, that all I could do was be in complete awe as a result of his all mighty nature, and my insignificance.

From the cathedral we went to the Real Madrid Soccer Stadium. Too cheap to pay for a tour, we walked around the entire stadium (took lots of pictures for my brother) and even got to sneak a picture of the field through an opening where some men were doing construction. From then we spent the afternoon at Plaza Mayor, where I had my first chocolate con churros and cafe con leche (can we say YUM!), and then later had dinner at a nice restaurant.

For the sake of the length of this blog I will write a short description of the food, but let it be known that it was all sooo good. =)
Pulpo de gallega - buttery slices of potato, with tender pieces of octopus on top, with a splash of olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika
Stuffed Pimientos - Small red peppers stuffed with seafood in a tomato cream sauce.
Sopa Castilliano - Serrano ham based soup, with pieces of bread, and a fried egg at the bottom
Sangria - you better know what this is

Day 3: Tuesday May 20
On our last day in Madrid we visited the famous Prado Museum, which had a special exhibit on Goya. Not realizing the extent of our exhaustion and the grandeur of the museum we quickly went through it and took a short 10 minute nap on one of the benches inside.

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NOTE: Goya
So I learned about Goya in my art history class, and I never was particularly fond of his art until I was able to see it up close and in full scale. In particular one of his paintings, The Third of May 1808, never struck a cord with me until I got to see it at the Prado. In books you can't really see the man's eyes, but in person.....well the painting depicted so much humanity in the eyes of the man, ready to die. The exhibition displayed Goya's works that were based on his feelings towards war. Some of them are really difficult to look at, not simply because they are gruesome, but rather because they indicate reality.

In seeing Goya's work I had to admire the man. You can't look at it and not realize the heavy burden he must have carried. His heart obviously hurt for victims of war, for injustice that occurred. His mind must have been heavy as he tried to explain his complex emotions through art. I saw his paintings not only as an expression of the situations around him, but as an image of his heart, torn, broken, and burdened. Burdened so much so that he had to express himself in a way that affects so many future generations, people like myself. And while it may seem depressing at some points, it in some way encouraged me to have hope. It reminded me that everyone carries some sort of heavy burden, for all sorts of things in the world. It reminded me that its ok to share that burden too, because perhaps it can encourage others to do something about injustice, like how Goya's artwork has affected me and so many others.
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After the Prado we stopped of for lunch at Plaza Mayor one last time, for paella and mas churros. Interestingly enough we had a waiter who was from China. I finally had the chance to carry a conversation in English, Chinese, and Spanish. =) Then we went back to the hostel to pick up our stuff, drag it through the Metro, got on a plane, and flew to Barcelona.............where the real fun began.

A Lion's Head and a Potential for Piece

I sit in Kimmel on the 8th floor trying to finish my 15 page paper thats due by 5 PM this Friday. So far I have a little more than half done, not bad considering I have been pretty distracted in the last couple of days. Lots of lunches, late nights, and last minute conversations, but all in all not too bad of a finals week.

So as I've been writing I've noticed two things:

1) A Lion's Head

NYU has many unecessary things it does with its money, but there are sometimes where I honestly wonder who in their right mind thought of this stupid idea. I sit next to the large glass windows, with a perfect view of 5th Avenue across from me (along with a dirt image of where the fountain used to be.........I can't believe they moved it, but thats another blog), a comfy chair, a table to put my computer on, and a 3 1/2 foot statue of a lion staring at me.

I have to be honest, the lion doesn't look that bad, aside from the fact that it looks a bit neglected and dusty, more of a gray color than the pristine white I would expect of NYU. It also appears to be eating a tassle/piece of cloth/ sash, that I can't really figure out. It's altogether a bit confusing (well at least the lion looks confused.......I mean sitting on the 8th floor of Kimmel? I would be a bit confused too....)

However unecessary and absurd the lion's placement is (I might add that he actually does have a friend on the other side of the floor so he's not completely alone at night when everyone leaves) it has been a good companion for the past couple of hours. So maybe that was NYU's intent in placing the poor lion here. He makes sure students don't go crazy studying for finals, even though they might think they are hallucinating when they see him staring at them for 4.5 hours.

2) A Potential for Peace

I've been sitting here to finish my essay on the outcome of the Democratic primaries, which basically means I get to figure out if Obama or Clinton wins the nomination. It's not a terrible assignment, just a bit long. But while you would think that the past 4.5 hours of work would be among the most boring and grueling of hours..........it really hasn't been at all.

I've learned that I really enjoy writing. That for me, writing leads to a potential for piece or peace.

I've always enjoyed writing. Even from 5th grade I wanted to be an author. English has always been the easiest subject for me (minus writing the essay freshman year, which kind of counts as an English class.) I find that through writing I can piece together, or piece apart my thoughts, and figure out what to do with them, and start to understand them.

So the last few hours of work, well they haven't been too bad. Just some interesting topics, some (hopefully) good writing, and good music.

I'm set, lets finish this thing.

When I want to do good..........I just can't.

Sometimes it's hard to understand why hurt happens.

Why, in a world that is already torn apart and broken, do we choose to make it even harder than it needs to.
Why, in the moments where we could change things, in the moments we could actually lessen the potential for hurt, do we instead choose to continue on, leading us to hurt people we care about in the worst way possible.
Why, do honest answers seem to escape our lips, even though we know the truth will hurt less then the lie we continue to find ourselves in.

So many times, if we had just been upfront and truthful, would broken hearts have been spared, would the waterfall of tears been reduced to a simple stream.

And I understand that hurt of any degree probably feels the same to that person going through it. I'm not saying it would hurt less. But maybe the aftermath would be easier to heal if we could just be honest.

And I understand that it's hard to tell someone you've betrayed them, that you're going to hurt them, that you can't understand why you've acted the way you did, when you want to do what's right. It says in Romans 7, "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me." meaning that our sinful nature is the reason why we do it, although it doesn't mean its right.

So while we want ultimately to do good, sin once again gets in the way, and THIS is the reason why God comes into the picture. Amidst our broken relationships, our imperfect lives, we try as hard as we can to make it better. We try telling the truth, we try being completely honest, we try to do good always. But its never good enough, because somehow its the sinful nature that continues to live and breathe in us, even when we think we've shoved it down to the deepest parts of the earth.

And then God comes in to make us whole, to overcome the sinful nature within us. He comes to defeat the "evil right there with me" in order that we may live a free life. He lets us DO the good we want because he provides strength to conquer our inner self and do what is right.

And this is why relationships without his presence fall apart, because there is no one to provide freedom so that both people can care and love each other equally.

If one person is stuck in the sinful nature while the other is free, it's like a person trying to free a prisoner. While the one person is free on the outside, they first have to break into the prison gates, past the electric fences and guards. Once inside they still have to sneak past more guards, and find the cell where the other person is being kept. After that there are thick metal doors to get through, along with the prison bars. Even after that, if the person happens to be freed, there's still the psychological and even physical barriers that need to be broken down before that person can even completely enjoy their freedom.

And that is why it's so hard to have relationships without God, because ultimately a normal person can't break that easily into prison.

Only God can.

Golden Glow at 7 o'clock

One of my favorite parts of the day is right before dusk. It's not when the sun exactly sets, but it's the hour before, when its still bright enough to be part of the midday, but starts to slowly darken. Today that moment begins at 7 o'clock.As I look outside the sun no longer hits the top of the buildings, with a bright light. Instead it seems to warm up the bottom parts of the buildings, like a small glow of a fire almost burnt out. The clouds shift and sweep across the blue sky, whispy and whimsical. The sky is a combination of light blues, pale purples, faint yellows, grays and whites. It looks like an impressionist painting. It's like looking out into a fairytale of a scene, a dream that swirls around the harshness of New York City.

For a moment at least it seems that the city is caught up in fantasy, instead of living in the realness that consumes the masses here.

The best part however is the golden glow of light that caresses the edges of the buildings. It's a warm, yummy caramel color that makes me feel like I just drank a hot cup of coca. There's a sense of kindness in the light, a kind of gentility that breaks up the bright sunshine of the rest of the day with the dark mystery of the night.

And slowly it starts to melt into that dark mystery, except that right before it disappears the light seems to get brighter. A quick flash of the sun, and then the last of the golden glow trails away like the delicate chain of a necklace.



Mmmmm.....................

Donna on the 2

I like encouragement. I thrive on it. I especially like it when it happens in the most unexpected moments, the most random times, by the people you least think would be encouraging you.

I was on my way to work today, sitting on the 2 train, and I took out my bible to read. I haven't been going through any specific chapter in the bible, just kind of flipping through the New Testament, seeing what God wants to tell me that specific day. Today I really had no clue where I wanted to start, so I began looking through the passage titles, trying to find something that jumped out at me. Next to me sat an older black woman, not extremely aged, but definitely an adult who had been through her share of life. I noticed that she kept looking at me and at my bible.

My first thought was that she was about to criticize me for being a Christian. I guess living in New York I've gotten really cynical about other people and their views on religion. I automatically assume that people are completely against what the Word says, and look at Christians with a distorted perspective.

Instead the woman asked "Have you read Romans 8:1-18? It's a really good chapter, you should read it. I've been really encouraged by it."

I was kind of stunned for a second, and then realized that this woman, was encouraging me because she was my sister in Christ. I had forgotten for a moment that by being a part of Christ's family, I also inherited the biggest extended family ever. And here I was on a train to Time Square, getting to meet a distant (although now not so distant) relative of mine, who had some encouraging words to tell me.

I told the woman I hadn't read it for a while and so I read through it, and then we finished our conversation. The woman's name was Donna, and she told me that recently she had been starting to get back into church, and had started seeking God again. She told me that she could have been in jail, killed, and that she'd done a lot in her life that she wasn't proud of. But ultimately it was God and his love that brought her back. Donna told me that the beauty of God is that even if we go far away, in our own directions, that he eventually calls us back to him, because he loves us so much. And even when the rest of the world, our friends, and family fail us, that he doesn't. That He is above all of it.

That was the first WOW. To hear her tell her testimony to me was such an encouragement. To see her faith, and how she talked about God with a sparkle of hope and graciousness in her eyes was an awesome thing. To see her honesty and passion, well it was so simple and trusting.

The second WOW was what I found through reading the Romans passage she told me about. In verse 15 it says:
"For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
The part that stuck out to me was that we no longer are "slave again to fear."

Fear is something that makes it sometimes so difficult to follow God. Sometimes the fear of failure keeps us from living out his Word. Fear of rejection prevents us from reaching out to non-believing family and friends. Fear of hurting or being hurt stops us from rebuking when we need to. Fear always seems to become an excuse for why we don't do the things we want to.

And yet in Romans it tells us we are no longer slaves to fear..........so why keep being a slave when we can be free? We have no reason to be fearful with the power of the most high on our side. There is no fear in us if we can only learn to just fear the Lord.

The third WOW was how God humbled me through my conversation with Donna. She told me about another verse in Psalms 141:3 "Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips." and told me that this was something she struggled with. But she said that verse always reminded and encouraged her to be careful of her words. To hear her being so open with her struggles was such a demonstration of humility, especially as I struggle with the same thing.

WOW is all I can say about Donna, about our pre-appointed meeting, and about the encouragement she brought me today.

It's nice when God does the unexpected.

Scumbags

It's the week before finals, hence I should be writing a paper that's due. Instead my mind has been wandering to a conversation I had earlier with one of my sisters. We were talking about scumbag boyfriends, you know the type, the one with the most amazing girlfriend who thinks he's slick enough to flirt with other girls on the side. The one who seems to be completely into his girlfriend, when behind her back he's trying to hook up with her roommate. Now I'm saying a lot of this out of frustration, and so I'm making more of a general statement here. There are a lot of amazing guys out there, who are in relationships with amazing girls, that treat them the way they should. But as of now, I'm talking about the ones who just take for granted the fact that their girlfriend would give the world for them, and in turn they give her a scrap piece of land that no one really wants.

My heart hurts for those girls.

I've had too many friends who have been in this position. Too many girls I know who stay in their relationships because of excuses like "we have a long history together" "you don't know him like I do" "he'll change I know he will" "he really loves me, he's just being stupid."

Too many excuses, too many times, and what does that leave us with? More broken hearts, more tears, and more reasons that girls just can't find the right kind of love they need.

And if they only knew the kind of love that is unconditional, the kind of love that would sacrifice his only child for them. That listens to them every second of everyday, that pursues them with such passion and commitment.

If they only knew that there's someone who thinks they are beautiful, who has confidence in their abilities, who encourages them, who is proud of them.

If they only knew how worthy they are, how they deserve so much better than what they have now.

If they knew they have been called to greatness, to live a life that's complete and full.

If they knew that they don't have to get their hearts smashed into pieces to be loved, because they already are.

God IS love.

If they only knew.....