YES!

So. Spain.
I live here now.
It was immensely satisfying in church yesterday when I was introduced to someone and they asked, "¿Estás aqui para vacaciones?" and I got to respond, "No, ¡Vivo aquí!"

Ok, let's take an inventory of the last few days.

-Camarma de Esterueles is the name of the small town where I live. It is about 20 minutes outside of Madrid, and it is where the school is located. So far, I am completely taken with this whole "living in a small European town" thing.  I've really only ever spent time in big cities when I've traveled, and while Madrid is really close, Camarma is it's own entity entirely. Our apartment is a stone's throw away from the main plaza, and you can see the steeple of the Catholic church from our porch. I took the picture above from our porch (that's a stork nest on top of it by the way)


-My apartment is beautiful.  Like, gorgeous.  Tile floors, yellow walls, a gargantuan porch that looks out over one of the main streets... I have my own room with a big window and built in closets/shelves.  I'm mostly moved in and have pictures on the walls and everything. (Oh and the thing above my bed is an embroidered pillow case of a camel from the old souk in Dubai :)

-The best thing about Camarma is that there are all of these little shops that sell everything you could ever need all within a short walk of my apartment. There is a bread shop. A donut shop. A sweet shop. A fruit shop. This American is so used to things like Super Target and Walmart, and driving 15 minutes to get to everything, so I'm excited about the idea of walking everywhere and getting to know the people that own these shops over the next two years.

-Apparently they don't believe in air conditioning here. The high has been somewhere between 90 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day. As I muddle through the heat wave and turn on every possible fan, I just keep reminding myself that this is a cultural experience.

-  Our neighbors that live right behind us, who I hope to officially meet soon, have at least 300, um I mean 3, dogs, and an entire coup of homing pigeons. Bed time for me is a daily adventure. (It's entirely possible that as a by-product of living here, I may develop a dependency on Nyquil) Although I've found that with each night it gets  a little easier as I adjust to the noise and get over over jet lag.

-I got to go to Church in Madrid yesterday! There is nothing quite like worshiping in Spanish to songs that you grew up singing in English. After being at church all morning my brain hurt, but I am finding that overall I understand pretty well. It's kind of like listening to someone talk underwater, I don't get every word, but I can get the basic idea. Speaking is a struggle for me if we venture out of basic topics of conversation, but I am hopeful and excited to see how my language will grow in the coming months.

Mostly? Mostly I'm just walking around amazed that God did it. He did it. He brought me here two and a half years ago for 10 measly little days, and He said (shouted?), "This is it. This is what I'm preparing you for. This is where we are coming back to" And I just remember thinking "Ok, but I don't know how to do that" and He said, "I know. But I do. All you have to do is say yes"  So I did. I said yes. Over and over and over again, even when I wasn't really quite sure what I was agreeing to, I said yes. And He did it, just like He promised me that He would. So many people think that the Christian life is just about saying no. No to fun, no to partying, no to sex, no to a good time. They think that God is a kill joy out to make us all into prudish ascetics. Well. I'm living proof that when you say yes to the one who runs the universe, He takes you places that you never could have gone on your own. He births courage and a vision into your heart that's bigger than you ever could have imagined. That's what He does when you say yes to Him. And getting to live that is really cool.