the thankful post.

It is weird to look at the calendar that hangs on our bedroom wall and realize that our time in Spain is well over half-way through.  Stranger yet to think that in less than 2 months Zach and I will be on another plane, one bound for Guatemala. What a crazy year this is! Incredibly grateful for it. If anyone would have told me 5 years ago that my 22^nd year of life would have taken such a twist, I would have said SHUT. UP.

I’m noticing an I’m Thankful For trend that’s spread over facebook lately. That’s pretty cool, I guess. I’m convinced that a heart full of thankfulness opens up the windows of heaven, the door to His treasures— true riches like joy, and peace. Gratitude enables me to perceive God more clearly and to rejoice in the all-fulfilling relationship we have together. I have a HUGE list of thankfuls; they seem countless—as I know yours are too! My number one is for the life I know in Christ and the glorious adventure He has taken me on as His follower. Life in Christ means He is always doing something new in me. Now, that can be exciting, and that can also be scary! But if it means getting to know Him in greater depth and breadth, then heck yes Jesus, show me the way.

Other things I’m grateful for lately:

·         The best friend I have in Zachary. What’s more is that we’re also lovers. Lucky me:)

·         Rain boots and my umbrella, as it’s been raining almost every day for a couple of weeks.

·         Health! Besides some upset stomachs here and there, we haven’t fallen ill once on this trip.

·         Diverse people that color our planet and teach us things we'd otherwise have been blind to had we not stepped outside our front doors.

·         The hard things, the struggles, the questions. All these shape me and give me opportunity to give up my control and instead, trust.

·         Puppies.

·         The fact that Christmas is right around the corner which means GOING HOME to heated houses and sugar cookies and the faces and embraces of the people we love fiercely.

·         America and Obama and all our other leaders.

·         All the opportunities to hear and practice Spanish every day.

·         Having a job in Spain!

·         Time. I have so much time. Some days it gets annoying, but I’ve learned to see it as a gift from God. In my spare time I’ve got to read so much! For my own interests, too, not just textbooks—hallelujah.

·         Grace. I’ve needed a lot of that lately.

Woohoo! That felt good. Being thankful is actually super fun. And it is impossible to spend too much time thanking and praising Him. After all, that’s what we were first and foremost created for! To glorify Yahweh.

Peace, amigos! Thanks for tuning in.

Kristen

dirty, wet socks.

That is what our bedroom has smelled like for the past half week.

This is because wet socks and other clothing items sit all happily mixed together in the dirty clothes hamper in our room and just smell up the place. (aaaand laundry day isn’t for 5 more days, people.)

The wet socks are due to the fact that lately we have had SO. much. rain. It was all moody, too. Like it would come down in torrents and then drizzle off and on and then pour furiously again and then just when you think the streets have seen enough for a day, it would surprise-attack-tsunami all over again right when I decided I was good to go out for a run. I got caught umbrella-less like 5 times this week. At first the romantic in me thought it was delightful. Then it just got annoying.

Finally, a day with no rain! I just had to get out of the house today (Saturday). Fall Break is here and Zachary has the whole next week off from classes. Today we bought bus tickets with our friend Katie to travel to Matalascañas tomorrow (a journey that will involve camels! Can’t wait!), shopped around in an indoor mercado, ordered tea and sweet things at possibly our new favorite neighborhood pastelería, and discovered a new book store for Husband—where I waited patiently while he got all wide-eyed and salivated over every book he picked up. :) Zach in a bookstore makes me think of children in candy shops or myself in a park full of bushy-tailed squirrels. 

Spending so much time with this guy has truly been a blessing. I know couples whose schedules are so busy that they don’t see each other more than an hour a day. I am pretty sure that this will be us in a year, with Zach teaching and myself working probably very strange hours as a nurse, so I just feel so stinkin lucky to have received this chance to simply live life almost literally side-by-side my best friend for 3/4 of our first married year. It is thee best. Of course, with the all the close-quartersness comes the picking up on each other’s quirks and habits all the more quickly. I asked him today what kinds of new things he’s learned about me in these last 3-ish months. His initial response: “Umm…all the things that make you crabby??”  haha. It’s true—he has learned this. I admit to becoming unnecessarily crabby when I’m stressed or emotional. My family can attest.

One of my favorite things about my husband though, is that I believe he has sort of unlocked a key (that most people don’t know about) as to how to snap me out of this grumpiness. It’s as easy as this: he laughs at me. Like, he really laughs. I don’t know why his laughter doesn’t push me over the edge from crabby to mad, but somehow this response usually makes me realize how silly the thing I’m cranky about really is. My mom is also very good at this art, although I’ve never credited her for it. (Was always so exasperating trying not to break a smile when I was “mad” about something and she would try to make me laugh. J Oh, Mom, you’re awesome.) 

Laughing at ourselves for being dumb is really a great practice, and humbling. I think the whole laugh-at-our-mistakes thing is certainly a fine ingredient for a good marriage, as is building a lifestyle together of embracing each other’s acute weirdness.

52 days more.

Rainy days make me miss home. 
                                                      

Mostly people.
                                                     

Like these guys.

and then it got chilly.

But that’s all. Just chilly.

And that’s just in the mornings.

Once noon rolls around, it’s warm again and I throw my cardigan in the bike basket. The sun feels so good on my face and I want to stay in it all day; I’ve never known a mid-October that was so deliciously sunny. However, facebook reminds me that all y’all back home are experiencing my favorite season with your pumpkin spice lattes and crunchy leaves and hoodies, and I am super jealous. Sevilla will eventually get cold, but the palm trees don’t change colors and there are no American football games to bring blankets to. I have been denying the fact that Zach and I will be missing out on autumn this year, but now I think it’s finally time to accept it.

...accepted.

And now I shall go run in the park in my shorts and t-shirt.

No but really. Things have gone back to normal now that the exciting family week has come and gone. After the fam left, Zach and I enjoyed the rest of the weekend quietly by ourselves in our apartment. We decided to make Sat night a date night and walked to the movie theaters to see this:

Portrayed the true story of a Spanish family who barely survived the Thailand 2004 tsunami. Before it started I bought a whole bolsa of gummies and could hardly finish them because I got so intensely wrapped up in the horror of the events unfolding. Was a very good film that I totally recommend. Made me think a lot about the bonds of family, where God is in crises like that, and the role I could valiantly claim as a nurse during a natural disaster someday.

Sunday morning we decided to rest. Slept in, bought groceries to make a simple lunch on the balcony, and got caught up on Modern Family. When nighttime fell we ventured across town to Sevilla’s annual month-long Festival of Nations. I bought Zach a Columbian beer and he bought me pretty Indian pants.

This week has consisted of the usual: Zach at class and myself at La Caridad in the mornings. Flamenco class on Monday night (we are so not graceful people, Zach and I. But it’s great exercise and we get to laugh quite a bit at ourselves—a win-win.), Encuentro, our student worship service held on Wednesday night, a Bible-study I attend with some of the girls from the school on Thursday night, and my English tutoring sessions four nights of the week. Here is my youngest chico giving me a special recorder concert during our half-hour together:

He’s the 10 year old with the cutest dimples, Ignacio. When he found out I hadn’t tried Gaspacho yet (this was at our very first meeting—like a month ago) he begged his mom to make some for me sometime. Since then I’ve tried it and discovered that it happens to be the only Spanish meal (besides octopus) that I have a really hard time eating. On Monday, he was so excited to let me try it, as his mom had made it the past weekend and had leftovers. Of course, I didn’t tell him that I already tried it and hated it, so as he and his mother sat close by and eagerly watched I forced the cold, orange, tomato-onion-vinegar slimy stuff down my throat and marveled, “Oh, it’s different... but I love it!”

How could I tell them I didn’t like it? I just couldn’t.

Tuesday afternoon I participated in a small cooking class put on by Ana, the day receptionist at Zach’s school. So much fun! She taught us how to make some traditional foods: paella con pollo (rice with veggies and chicken), a green bean and tomato dish, and tortillas (not the kind you’re thinking but the Spanish kind—you use eggs and potato slices). We chopped and peeled a lot of vegetables and didn’t spend too much time in the kitchen actually cooking, so I don’t know if I’d be able to reproduce exactly the finished product from memory. But I have the recipes! Am definitely holding on to those.

Sandra finally let me help her make lasagna this afternoon after I pleaded, but sadly this is the end of my Spanish cooking experiences thus far. Sandra and Juan Lu hardly ever let us help them prepare meals (understandably so—there is just not enough room in the kitchen. Also they are super fast and we’d probably slow them down.) Thus my wifely cooking duties are delayed for the time being. I know you have all been just dying to know if Spain has turned me into a better cook, so, there you go. So sorry.  :)

Hey, happy weekend!  If you’re reading this, a great big beso for you. xxXXX!!!

Kristen

the Borchardts visit Spain

Having planted ourselves and belongings in a few seats at a terminal in Madrid, we wait for our new favorite method of transportation to arrive: the bullet train! Way comfier than a car, bus, or plane, it will zoom us home to Sevilla in under three hours. Besides the miles upon miles of legroom we’ll be spoiled by, I’m also looking forward to being mesmerized once again by the Spanish countryside, with all its mountains and old abandoned fortresses and goat pastures and olive groves.  And a cup o’ tea with my honey beside me.

Said goodbye to my sweet and silly Borchardt family this morning! I love them so. Again and again I’m reminded of how blessed I am to be married to Zach and thus have his family live life with us, too. We had so much fun this week showing John and the girls around Sevilla and exploring Madrid. We tried new restaurants and introduced them to Spain’s delicious cuisine, toured Sevilla’s cathedral and climbed the 35 floors of La Giralda, walked the city streets by night and took a boat tour down the Gualdavivir by day, introduced them to Juan Lu and Sandra in our apartment and got dinner with them one evening, saw a flamenco show, met up with my friend Frank John in Madrid, laughed a lot, ate a lot, got caught up to speed in each other’s lives a lot, and may have had too much wine a lot. J  Gooood good times.

Perhaps a highlight of their visit for me was seeing them light up with awe at all the fascinating things Spanish culture offers the foreigner. This was their first encounter with Europe (first encounter in another country altogether for John and Mandy) and they loved it! Zach and I enjoyed teaching them what we’ve learned living here thus far, and of course the family was super impressed with Zach’s ability to communicate basically everything with Spaniards, and rightly so. He is darn good. John, Mandy, and Nicole—if you’re reading this, I want to tell you how impressed I was with your attitude of having no expectations for the trip, for trying so many new things, for being brave and using the Spanish you know, and for so quickly adopting our way of life here that is summed up in the phrase, “It’s Spain, no pasa nada!” if anything threatened to spoil plans or expectations. You guys are excellent travelers in my book. Few things thrill me more than experiencing new places in this beautiful world and when I come across people who understand that same delight and wonder, I can’t help but praise Him.

In other news:

It has happened. I had my first dream in which I was speaking Spanish.

Husband watches preschool children’s shows and reads children’s dragon fantasy novels now.

One year ago on this very day Zach asked me to marry hiiiimmmm! Was the day before Fall Break; I remember it all so clearly:)

I ate pineapple every morning for breakfast this week. Therefore I’m rockin two canker sores right now.

Visiting Madrid confirmed for me that I am not and will never be a big-city resident. No can do. It had great shopping though.

                                                             i love Zach and my seeesters! 

                                                                             Madrid.

                                   Trying all kinds of stuff at Los Gatos with our friend Frank John!

                                                                  Soul Father loves Spain:)

happy news

It’s morning. It’s RAINING. I’m at home and Zach has left for school. Nobody else is up in our apartment yet. Just took a little trip to the kitchen to fetch this tiny box of goodness:

Pinapple juice! Zach and I went looking for these in the Supermercado a couple days ago when we were both feeling a little “off,” …maybe you could even say sick. Must have only been a 24 hour deal though, which was a relief.

This morning I just wanted to write home about the incredible opportunities God’s placed in my lap here in Sevilla! I prayed so hard about this in the months before we left home—that I could find a purpose in the community and try to use my nursing/people skills somehow.  I wondered too about the possibilities of landing a small job to earn a little money, since I am so good at fretting about finances and Zach’s and my ability to make it 4 months in Spain with no income! Finding a job for pay seemed almost impossible after talking to people who know Spain and also investigating online how to go about finding temporary work in this country.

Well, I am just so pleased to say that I’ve been blessed with both of these things—a volunteer opportunity and a very part-time job teaching English! I am just floored at the way God has provided. He always does! And it is just so thrilling every time. Hombre.

This was my first week at Hospital de la Caridad (translated: the Charity Hospital). It is a huge, gorgeous and very old building founded in the 15^th century where its mission was to assist sick abandoned people. At present its mission still stands, as today it serves as a nursing home for over 80 older male residents, many who were poor and needy before they came to live here. I have so quickly fallen in love with this place and its people. I come twice a week in the mornings to learn from and assist the main morning doctor named Rafa. He is so great! Speaks pretty fast but he is enthusiastic to teach me and let me help. I know I just passed my State Nursing boards in June, but I feel oh-so-rusty on my nursing skills already. Ayyyy, that freaks me out a bit. But getting hands-on experience in this season when I’m not practicing my career yet is just what I need, thank you Lord! On the mornings that I’m not at the La Caridad, I’ve been making time to just sit on our balcony to list all the medical terms and phrases I can think of and then translate them to Spanish and MEMORIZE.

I’ve only been there twice so far, but I already have so much to say about La Caridad. I need to pace myself and save some for future posts. J One thing I have to express, however, is how precious the old men are! It frustrates me that we can’t always understand each other, but things like their mannerisms or the way they joke around with me and the other caregivers is just gosh darn cute.  Getting to know them reminds me of some of my favorite older-adult patients from different rotations in nursing school. My friend Katie, the Student Ministries Coordinator who totally rocked at setting me up at La Caridad, says this and I totally agree: Girls, if you are having low self-esteem issues or just really needing a pick-me-up, go spend some time at La Caridad. The older gentlemen are the best at making you feel like the prettiest woman in the world, no joke. It’s not in a creepy way either. Walk into the courtyard where they are hangin out in their wheelchairs and playing dominoes and you will get at least 3 different, “Guapísima!”s (basically, “hello Beautiful!”) in your direction. Gotta love it.

My English-teaching “classes” for 2 different families (but they are related and live down the street from each other) makes me smile just as much. Like, for reals. I have thee biggest smile on my face riding home on the metro after an hour with these people 4 nights a week. This has been my second week of “classes;” and I keep using those quotations marks because their sense of the word class is different than mine?? Essentially, I receive pay (in the form of Euros! So cool to say that!) to sit and have conversation in my native tongue with some really sweet kids/teenagers. They call it English class, but we are really just sitting and talking. J Hands down the easiest job I will ever have in my life. I have sessions with the beautiful Hernandez girls, Marta (18) and Mercedes (16), their brother, Manuel (12), and the Peña boys, Alfonso (14) and Ignacio (11). I am having way too much fun getting to know them and their parents. The kids are all very good at English since they’ve spent a lot of time with their families in Ireland and England during past summers.  They are so sweet to me and I am almost always very reluctant to leave their homes when our time is up.

During these last couple weeks we have been beginning to form some really wonderful relationships with Spaniards; I speak for Zachary, as well. I guess I didn’t expect to be blessed in this way to this extent and it’s hard for me to realize that we are only for such a short time… Will try not to think about that too much yet, as we’ve only been here 1 month. (ONE MONTH! Where does the time go?!) Finding myself delighting in this part of the world not only because of the sights and fun trips we get to take, but because these relationships we start building begin to nestle their way deep into my heart. Which seems dangerous knowing that an end to our time here comes quicker than we think, and good-byes just plain suck. However, meaningful friendships are the nitty-gritty of LIFE. There is something even more precious about the fact that someone can be a dear friend not because you talk about everything under the sun together (which is what I’d love to do but cannot do in Spanish with my Spanish friends) but because of the special moments of life that you share together. Kinda puts a new spin on relationships for me.

Hmmm, where was I even going with this? I am so great at rambling. Basically what I mean to say is that I am so grateful to our Maker for giving us the ability to love and be loved. We are experiencing all kinds of that in our time here, and inside me I feel it overflowing and just…so much joy.

Congrats to you if you made it this far…twas a long post. Although I am still soaking in every day in Spain, I want you all to know how much my heart also longs for my home and family and dear friends! Miss you guys like crazy.

All my love,

Kristen

da beach and stuff

Husband and I took a trip to Lagos, Portugal this past weekend! I rarely get to see the ocean, and its blue vastness takes my breath away every time. The Atlantic is freezing cold! Nevertheless, we warmed up to it on Saturday and really, it’s not so bad once you make yourself stay in for about 10 minutes. Even more than swimming we enjoyed exploring the colorful coast. Along all the yellows and reds and browns of the rocky cliffs above the water were many little trails consisting of all kinds of beautiful plant life. Seagulls cawing overhead. The sound of waves hitting the shore beneath us. Little sailboats dotting the huge sea. Perfectly round and white snail shells at our feet along  the sandy paths. We felt like modern day Christopher Columbuses, especially on Saturday evening when we got to see the sun go down over the ocean in Sagres, the location that was once thought to be “The End of the World.” I would watch the day end in that spot every day for the rest of my life if I could. God is really brilliant with those sunsets…

This weekend was really good for us. Solid quality time and lots of good conversation. We got to and from Lagos on a big bus full of other American students studying in Sevilla/Madrid, but we mostly kept to ourselves, as it was quite a loud and obnoxious partying bunch. Oh, Americanos… ;) Zach and I felt like slackers because we didn’t really use Spanish at all over the weekend. But being in Portugal, we were told that the Portuguese don’t appreciate when everyone comes over from  Spain and speaks Spanish, thinking Spanish is almost just like Portuguese, which it is not. Portugal wants to keep its individuality as a country with its own language, which is very understandable. The Portuguese countryside we experienced only in passing-through on the bus was sooo dreamy. Lots of green, hilly, ponies, little white homes with the Spanish-style roofs, orange groves, rivers. In and out of sleep I would look out the window and imagine myself galloping on a cream-colored horse through the fields. Ayyy I just HAVE to ride a horse while I’m here in Europe! It's happening, people.

All weekend we were inspired by God’s hand in creation as well as the memories of a very precious woman who went to be with Jesus this past weekend. Zachary’s Grandma Borchardt died peacefully surrounded by family early Friday morning, September 21, the day we left for Lagos. I had the privilege of getting to know Ruth these past couple of years; she was always wonderful to talk to and a most creative gift-giver! Of course, Zach has many many more memories with her, his whole lifetime of memories of his Grandma, so we celebrated Ruth’s life by remembering her a lot over the weekend. Was hard to accept that we wouldn’t be able to attend the funeral, which is today, so we got up early on Sunday morning to hike to the top of a cliff and have our own little service for her.

                          Psalm 23, Isaiah 40, the sunrise, and a little memorial site Zach made.

She and Grandpa Frank used to travel a whole lot. So Ruth was an explorer, just like us. She's even been to Spain a couple of times! Grandma Borchardt, we love you and know what you are experiencing now is even more astounding than the sights we experienced at the world's end this weekend. Can’t wait to see you again, someday soon. Your leaving us reminds me how our time on earth is but a breath; what am I doing with the moments that make up my short life? This is a good question to ask. 

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.