Author: barcelonababbler

Since Morocco took up so much of our time in that last blog, I didn’t get to give my synopsis on Sevilla. After Morocco, Brittany and I spent a day there before heading back to Barna (nickname the locals have for Barcelona).  Sevilla is a charming city in the south of Spain that is full of gorgeous buildings. It has a “small town feel” to it (at least compared to Barna). Honestly, it’s almost like a fairytale, with elegant architecture and various horse driven carriages all throughout the city. This was part of the cathedral:

The most magnificent part of the city is Plaza Espana.

It is a plaza that is in the shape of a semi-circle with a fountain in the center and a “moat”ish river that runs on the inside of it. All along the walls are colorful murals of the different cities in Spain. Cool fact: The Attach of the Clones Star Wars movie has a scene in this plaza, except they digitally enhanced the plaza as a full circle.

Sevilla has a river running through the middle of it, which is pretty cool:
And this was our Hostel. It was really cute on the inside. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who goes to Sevilla.

How to even attempt to explain this week. It was an experience unlike anything I have ever had. I had no expectations going into it, and was astonished with every moment.

This was an ISA extra trip that we had to sign up and pay for separately. So because of that, we had to meet up in Sevilla (city in the south of Spain, couple hours north of the Strait of Gibraltar) and wait around till 4am to meet up with the entire group. So Brittany and I got to Sevilla around 11:30pm, took a bus into town, and walked around for an hour and a half till finding our friends. We ate a restaurant with cool 20s pictures, and I had the most amazing pizza. Then, we spent 2 hours on the river bank that runs through Sevilla. At one point, a fish splashed loudly and I snapped a sweet shot of everyone’s reaction. Totally not posed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All day Wednesday, we travelled. Bus to Strait of Gibraltar, ferry across, and bus to Fes, Morocco. The first half of the day was pure torture. At 6:30am, only an half and a half after everyone fell asleep, the directors made everyone get off the bus and go to the bathroom. An hour later of sleep, we had to get off and onto the ferry. 2 hours later, off the ferry onto the bus. Everyone was basically a zombie. But finally, we arrived in Fes! Fes is known to be a very “holy” city, with a heavy Islamic influence, as with the rest of Morocco. We stayed in a beautiful hotel (Menzeh Zalagh):

That night, we went out for cafe con leche and to buy water. The traffic there is insane, and some random guy helped us get across the street:

Thursday we spent the entire day in “Medina of Fes”, which is the massive intricate market in Fes. The area consists of small, winding streets. You occasionally have to lean against the wall to allow the donkeys pass, always watching your step to avoid uneven ground or donkey dung. Unfortunately, it was raining which caused the streets to be slightly flooded, and my TOMS were soaked with who knows what kind of infested water. As you walk through, you get to see the occasional camel head or smell an overwhelming stench of spoiled seafood. The Medina was anything but glamorous, yet I definitely was taking in the experience and enjoying it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to leather, herbal, clothing, and medal shops. I ended up buying a shirt and scarf for myself. In the leather shop, the stench was so overwhelming that they gave us all mint leaves. It was quite a scene, watching these men soaking leather tubs outside:

We ate a traditional Moroccan lunch in the Medina, and went to a pottery factory and a spot overlooking Fes on our way home:

Friday was a bus day as well, but much more pleasant since the scenery was gorgeous. Morocco’s landscape is extremely diverse, going from mountains covered with green scrubs with blanketed with fog to barren land and rocky dry mountains:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around 3pm, we stopped for lunch at the “Ziz Oasis”:

By the time we got near the Sahara, it was dark. We rode in 4-wheelers out into the Sahara desert, which took nearly and hour and a half. The camp was full of tents, and a lot of “Berbers” (native Moroccans) were waiting for us with yummy tea and nuts:

I woke up the next morning in a complete haze at 5:30am. Stumbling out of bed, I headed in the direction where everyone else seemed to be going. A random Berber grabbed my arm and told me to come in broken Spanish. I was hesitant at first, as I was still half-asleep walking through an open, barren land with a strange man. But I continued to follow him for 15 minutes dune after dune, exhausted from climbing and wishing he would stop at each peak. Finally we plopped down on the top of one of the dunes, just in time to see the sun rise. I cannot describe how impressive it was. We hung out for a while, talked about his family, and eventually headed back to camp:
 After breakfast, it was CAMEL TIME! “Magnificent” isn’t exactly the word I would use to describe them. They are very funny/awkward looking creatures. They were sitting down, so it was a shock whenever I got on and it stood up. I didn’t realize how massive it was. After an hour ride through the desert, we came to a native town. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures on the camel, since my camera was dead, but my friend did get a picture of me WITH a camel… which I will put on here soon.

We walked around the town for a while before heading back to camp in jeeps where we spent the rest of the day on a hike through the desert:

That night, Kathy, Grace and I laid on the sand, looking up at the brilliant sky full of stars. Unfortunately, we were so exhausted that we fell asleep after 10 minutes, but not without seeing at least 5 shooting stars.

It was a long journey back the 2 days. The first night, we stopped off in Meknes and hung out on a rooftop looking over the city. The second night, we finally got back to Sevilla where Ana, Kathy, Grace, Brittany, and I ate pizza/pasta at the same restaurant as before. It was probably one of the most satisfying meals I’ve had in a long time. After dinner, Grace, Brittany and I went to our hostel, Triana Backpackers, and passed out.

To see Morocco was a different, exciting experience is an understatement. I have been to 3rd world countries (Mexico+Costa Rica), but this was entirely different and cannot be compared. It was almost overwhelming, being hit with such a different culture, but definitely worth it. From the Medina of Fes, to the Sahara, to Meknes, I was constantly amazed with new sights and scenes.

This morning, Amber went back to that blasted city. The only thing that consoled me was knowing that we’d be in Ireland together in 5 weeks.

At least we went out with a bang. We went to Montserrat, which is a mountainous region that is known for its smooth rock formations. We saw a cross jutting out from one of the formations in the distance, seen here:

We set off to find this cross… a lady told us it was a 15 minute walk up the path. An hour later, we find ourselves here:

We found this offbeat trail, and ended up sitting and eating lunch on one of the jutting rock formations. It was a breathtaking scene.
After we made the hike back down, we realized which path we should have taken to get the the cross, then I had a quick temper tantrum before we consoled each other that the above destination was much more exciting than the cross. Then we checked out the monastery:

And I climbed this. I was hoping to get to the top, but these British kids kinda freaked me out. Like, 30 of them came running towards us yelling “OOH my gaaawd!! What is she doooing?”. We overheard one kid say to his friend “I’d do that for a flying bat!”
Finally, we took a couple pictures for a model portfolios…
 And this is just a sneak peek… get excited.

Last night we went out and ate typical tapas, then spent a couples hours on a park bench soaking in as much time as we could before our inevitable parting.

But you know what? 5 weeks, we’ll be in Limerick, Ireland. 6 weeks, Venice. And 8, PARIS for Christmas 🙂 It is a good year.

Tomorrow I leave for Morocco for 6 days. I will have a massive update when I return.

1.) Amber
2.) Barcelona
3.) Cheese and wine on the Mediterranean beach at night

So far, this weekend has been epic. And we still have tomorrow.

Amber came in Friday around 4, and once she got settled in, we went to the gothic district to see the “cuidad antigua” (or old city). Before going to a flamenco show, we stopped off in a typical European cafe to sip on cafe con leche and eat pastries:

The flamenco was stunning. We were enthralled the entire time, only to be distracted by the feet dangling from the second level:

This morning, we went to two different parks. The first, which is known as the “Laberint d’Horta” (Labyrinth). It was a good one, because we got lost… for at least 10 minutes. I mean look, it was pretty insane:

The screaming children we heard beating us out didn’t exactly boost our self-confidence either… but pushing them in the mud did… 😉

The 2nd park we went to was the most infamous “Parque Guell”:

AND, of course, La Sagrada Familia, where we ate our lunch in a park next to it:

After gaining our strength again, we finished off a lovely afternoon at Montjuic, by seeing “the Palace” and the Olympic stadium!

And finally, to finish off the night, Amber and I spent 2 hours on the beach, drinking wine, eating cheese and crackers and chocolate, and reminiscing on the depth of our friendship. Haters gonna hate.

Excited for a whole day tomorrow at Montserrat!!

I always feel like I’m 6 when I see the colorful fish, glowing jellyfish, and massive sharks swimming around. It’s intimidating, that only a transparent wall separates you from your most certain doom.

Well this past weekend ISA took us to Valencia, Spain. It is a gorgeous city. What I find most fascinating is that there used to be a river running right through the city, but because a flood killed many people years ago, they diverted the river. And now, the riverbed has been converted into this long winding park that cuts through the middle of the city. So neat!

So Valencia has the Mediterranean feel, it’s right on the beach, and there is the LOVELY ‘old city’ with a cathedral that was once a building where the Romans met, turned into a Visigoth church, turned into a mosque, until it finally rested as a cathedral once again. Glimpse of the outside and inside:

Valencia is a beautiful city that feels very quaint. Whenever you’re walking through these small, winding streets, it’s exciting to imagine how people have been walking down that same street for hundreds of years. In the main plaza, we saw this other breathtaking building. I’m not sure what it was for, though.

As you must know if you’re close enough to me to be suffering through these ranting blogs, I really don’t like seafood. I can stand tuna, which doesn’t even count. But there’s this very famous dish here in Spain called “paella”, which is a plate of rice with spices and loads of different seafood. It can be as basic as only shrimp, to what I tried which had shrimp, crawfish, mussels, clams, and octopus. And shockingly, I loved it! I’m so proud of myself for actually eating it:

 And finally, on Saturday night, we went to a local bar to watch a flamenco show, and it was brilliant. The music is intense; I’ve never been so enthralled with dancing before.

My camera died Friday night…
Saturday we went to the 2nd largest aquarium in the world, saw a dolphin show, and eventually went to the beach for a few hours before heading home.

I stole this pic from a friend… and really I’m just putting it here because I think I’m cool. It’s not like any of you haven’t seen a shark before.
Amber Lea Mercier is coming to visit this weekend. Get ready, Barcelona.

Many times, the enemy can plant lies in our life when we are children. Since we’re so young, we can’t process the lie, realize it’s not from God, and expel it like we can as adults. So often, these lies will simply sit in our soul, dormant, waiting for the right moment that would most effectively hurt us.

Sometime in my youth, a lie was planted that I was unworthy. At times, it almost became an actual belief, like when my sisters excelled at sports much better than I did, or when I began to notice that they were skinnier than me, so on. There have been many instances in my past where the lie almost had a hold on me. But because of my loving parents who continually encouraged me and spoke truth of God’s love to me, I feel like I was shielded from it.

Here in Barcelona, I am in an amazing girls group studying the life of David. We were watching a video tonight where Beth Moore explained the different levels of relationships that we are to have: with the world, the church, a small group, 2 or 3 close friends, and mano y mano with God. Obviously, the smaller the group gets, the more intimate and transparent we are to become with our friends. She explained the desperate importance of meeting with God alone, and how extraordinary and  significant we should feel that the God of the universe was calling me, and me alone, to meet with Him alone. “Why won’t you let Me help you?”

I found myself crying at this point, and by the grace of God, no one saw since the video was still playing. I realize that although I had the other relationships, I hadn’t been one on one with God in a very long time. He revealed to me a lot about what I had been stuffing down for so long. The lie that the enemy had planted so long ago was finally allowed to take root whenever I came to college. There were a series of events and a few people that had basically watered the seed of unworthiness in me. I was made to feel insignificant, awkward, and inadequate by those I had vulnerably trusted and been transparent with. Their harsh words soon encompassed who I was. But instead of aligning my soul with Christ’s truth, I allowed those lies to actually mold who I was. I retreated, started being less relational and open as I used to be. It was an ugly slippery slope because the unworthiness caused me to care less about what I did (began to gain weight, never dress nicely, did poorly in school), which then turned into self-hatred and shame, because I wasn’t shaping up and being a “better person”. So I would try again, try to be better, get my life back in order. But because I hadn’t dealt with how the vicious words of these people affected me, I simply couldn’t succeed. Inevitably, my internal life spiraled deeper into a pit while I put on a good face and continued to live “normally”.
But it is impossible to put on a good face for too long. Not forgiving myself meant not accepting God’s forgiveness. It is impossible to hate oneself and accept the love of Christ. You either deal with your troubles, or they start to leak out like a poison, affecting everyone around you.
I became vicious. I had a wicked tongue that masked itself in “humor”, and while everyone laughed at my extreme sarcasm, there was always someone left damaged. I found weaknesses in others, and exploited them whenever I could.
The sick part is that I saw myself doing this, it was almost like I was watching myself act this awful way. I KNEW that I wasn’t that person, but unfortunately it would just add fuel to the fire because I would turn to internally bashing myself for being a horrible person… the self-hatred spiral again. It hurt me that my friends around me only saw me as an obnoxious, insensitive girl that made everyone laugh once in a while.
Because I had been hurt so much, I placed very thick strongholds to “protect” me, rejecting my friends and even God.

This summer I finally identified the problem. It has been a long process of slowly forgiving those original people who hurt me, friends who chose to label me a jerk instead of seeing me in pain, and of course, myself for allowing sin into my life. This semester in Barcelona was perfectly timed and ordained. I am excited/terrified to be alone with God, to have to meet with Him completely stripped and vulnerable. I know it sounds ridiculous, but the thought of being that exposed to anyone is frightening, but I hold to the truth that God adores me as His child. And anytime I ponder on the significance of Christ coming to this earth and dying for me, I am overwhelmed by His grace. And usually start crying. My current state. Christ’s love is almost unbelievable. Even a small glimpse of how He sees me can completely wreck my soul. I am ready though, ready to be wrecked in these next months so that He can build me up again into the daughter I was meant to be.

I am definitely updating this very late, but my parents came to Barcelona for a week! Wooohoo!

But it was a blast. For someone who has always been shown up by her well-traveled, multi-cultured parents, I finally got to show them a part of the world that they haven’t seen.

The first day, we went to Montjuic. At the base of Monjuic is the “Palace” which is now an art museum. Dad got a little frisky:

Then the 1992 Olympic stadium:
 We then went to the top of Montjuic to the old fort:

And finally, off to “La Fuente Magica” for the light show!
 The next day was “Gaudi day”, where we visited various Gaudi buildings, such as Casa Batllo, La Pedrera, La Sagrada Familia, and Park Guell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday we visited my church here, then took a day trip to Tarragona, which is a beautiful beach town with an old Roman coliseum resides:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of the week, we visited various sights like the beach, plaza Espanya and Catalunya, other parks, and of course my school seen here:

 

All in all, I was extremely blessed to have my parents visit me while I was here. Next time I’ll see them, there’ll be chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

I have class at 2 different campuses on Tuesday/Thursdays.
Today I attempted to walk the whole day, without using the metro.
In total, I ran 2 miles and walked 2.5 hours.

Twas the wrong day to skip out on TOMS and wear less comfortable sandals…

But I got to see La Sagrada Familia again, so that made it all worth it.

Three events that solidified my trip to Munich this weekend:

1.) I got yelled at in German by an angry police officer for walking in a prohibited part of the beer-tent. (“AUS!”)
2.) Getting free Swiss chocolate on the plane.
3.) And, this was where I slept:

Oktoberfest is brilliant. I think it’s the closest I’ve experienced to culture becoming tangible. All around me were the Beer tents, games, rides, scent of roasting nuts and sausages, German music, and people wearing dirndl and lederhosen. I couldn’t have been any more immersed in the Bavarian culture unless I actually knew German. I went on the ferris wheel, which had a spectacular view.

The beginning of Saturday, we went to downtown Munich to Marienplatz. Unfortunately, even though we got there at 10am, the Glockenspiel didn’t work. Maybe it was being renovated
 I accidentally went to the airport an hour early, so I sat in the outside area between the two terminals and ate a traditional German lunch:

…afterwards reminiscing about the weekend in my journal while drinking Spezi.

Perfect weekend, Now excited to see my parents in a few days!

Boyfriend count: 2
One Argentinean gelato shop owner, and one Spanish waiter. I’ve received free ice cream and a kiss on the cheek. Well played.

Saturday I went to La Sagrada Familia, which is a huge cathedral the Gaudi designed, and is still in construction.

And then I went to the birthday party of my host mom’s sister. She has ELEVEN brothers and sisters. It was a really neat experience. We ate tapas in a park.

Yesterday I visited the International Church of Barcelona, which was really encouraging. Especially since the assistant pastor mentioned the Aggie win… I’m going to start going to this 20s/30s group on Thursday nights. After church, I went out with my two new friends to go see the Catalan festivities downtown. When we got there, we realized we missed it, but we did get the see a market thing with old trinkets…

 And while sitting in front of the Barcelona Cathedral, we asked these Australians to take a picture of us.
We ended up walking around with these guys for a while. They are in Barcelona for a training session with Apple.

Day ended well with wine and cheese and crackers at La Fuenta Magica. Pictures to come.