Wanderlust

So I have realized that it's been a while since I last blogged! It has been a very busy couple of weeks. Spanish life is continuing the way it has been with classes, meeting with my intercambio, Acción Solidaria, flamenco class and other school activities, but the last two weeks we only had 3 days of class each week. Two weeks ago on Thursday, we took an excursion with the program to Toledo! It was a 6 hour bus ride (during which we watched The Wedding Planner dubbed over in Spanish) and we stopped on the way to see the windmills that Don Quijote mistakes for giants and tries to fight in Cervantes' classic novel. When we arrived in Toledo it was raining but we still went exploring with our first two hours of free time, which included going to the top of the palace and trying the famous delicacy, mazapán (marzipan). Toledo's primary economic base is the metal-working industry, which meant great things for me. It is where the ring and many of the swords in The Lord of the Rings as well as in Pirates of the Caribbean were fabricated! We found many stores with paraphernalia from my most favorite movie (LotR) which was very fun. We then met back up with our professors and went to the church where El Greco's famous painting "El Entierro del Señor de Orgaz"is, which we had been studying in art class. After seeing this painting and walking around the church, we went to the gothic-style monastery in the town, San Juan de los Reyes. It was absolutely beautiful and we got to see the elements of gothic architecture we had also studied in art class. Thursday night, a few friends and I sat on the edge of the town over the river for a while and then wandered around until we found a place to have dinner. We were staying in a nice hotel, so we returned there to sleep. The next morning we were all overjoyed because the hotel had a buffet-style breakfast and it had been forever since any of us had had more than a couple pieces of toast in the morning. After stuffing ourselves, we went to the Toledo cathedral which was absolutely beautiful. It had another famous painting by El Greco that we had also been learning about, "El Espolio." Thus concluded our school's excursion, but not my own. . .

The windmills

View of Toledo from the top of the palace

Kelsey and I in the monastery patio

Emma and I so excited about this store with things from Lord of the Rings

Don Quijote statue 

View of the river from Toledo 

The Cathedral

From Toledo, Josiah (one of my best friends from Wheaton) and I took a 30-minute train ride to Madrid. Our good friend Chris Anderson's family are missionaries there so we went to stay with them! Upon arriving in Madrid, the two of us walked around for a while but it was still pretty rainy. We decided to go into the Reina Sofia which was free with a student pass. Josiah is one of the best people to go to museums with because he knows so much about art, so it was very fun to have him explain a lot of the things to me. I had been to Madrid and the Reina Sofia before with my European History class in high school, but we had only looked at Picasso's "Guernica" and left because our time was limited. That is definitely the most famous work in the museum, but seeing all the other artwork there was really cool. After leaving the museum, we took a train out about 45 minutes to the station in the Andersons' town. Mrs. Anderson picked us up and we went back to their house where they were having a small Bible Study with some of their Spanish friends, who we got to chat with for a while. The next morning, Mrs. Anderson made us French toast (which was amazing!!) and we had a nice, relaxing morning. We then went into the city with Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, Chris' two younger brothers Matthew and Luke, and their family friend Stephanie. They showed us around all the main sights, including the Palacio Real and its gardens, the main plazas (Mayor and Sol), Mercado de San Miguel, the operahouse and, of course, H&M. We went out for tacos and burritos, which was awesome and a nice taste of home. Saturday night we had homemade pizza and hung out as an American family (a huge blessing and break for Josiah and I) and got to Skype with Chris! Sunday morning Josiah and I left pretty early and went to the Prado and Parque del Retiro before catching our bus back to Seville. Overall, it was an amazing weekend and we were so thankful to the Andersons for letting us stay with them and spend time with them!

View from the top of the Reina Sofia

Plaza Mayor

Puerta del Sol with the Andersons

Josiah,  Luke and I at Kilometer 0

Palacio Real

We returned late Sunday night for another three-day week of school. Thursday was "Día de Andalucia" so we got to have what they call a "puente" (bridge) because we had both Thursday and Friday off. My friends all went to different places for this break, and Josiah and I had decided we wanted to travel together because we are going with different people for other breaks. We had chosen Amsterdam slightly randomly, but it was somewhere we had both wanted to go and we found tickets for good prices. It ended up being, as so many things, not at all random but exactly where God wanted us to be that weekend. We arrived Thursday around 1:00 o'clock and found our bus that would take us to our hostel. We sat by one of the flight attendants from our flight who was very nice and gave us some good ideas of what to do for the weekend, as well as helping us know which stop to get off on. After checking into our hostel, we found out that it's one of the places Wheaton sends groups to in the summers through Youth Hostel Mission, so the staff members were familiar with our school. I stayed in an 18-bed girls' room and Josiah stayed in an 18-bed boys' room. We figured out from information in the hostel that the best thing to do would be to buy a 48-hour "I Amsterdam" pass, which included free access to many museums and attractions, a free canal-ride tour of the city, and public transportation. We walked to the center of the city to buy those passes, and then went to the Diamond Museum and the Stedeilijk Modern Art Museum. We went back to our hostel, ate sandwiches we had packed, and talked with some of the people who worked there. The next day, after our free delicious breakfast at the hostel, we were going all day. We first went to the Hermitage which was temporarily housing works from the Van Gogh Museum because the latter is under construction. Although a temporary exhibition, it was incredible. Seeing all the works by Van Gogh was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend for me. After that, we went to Rembrandt's house and got to tour where he lived and created many of his works. Next, we found a cute cafe to stop at for lunch. We then went to Het Scheepvaart Museum, or the maritime museum. They had information about the naval importance of Amsterdam as a port city and they also had a ship we got to explore! From there, we decided to stop in the zoo. We ended up spending a good amount of time there because it was a very beautiful and well laid-out zoo. We got a kick out of noticing the differences in the Dutch zoo and American zoos, and could tell how much more lax regulations are there. There were lemurs running around uncaged and one building had birds, bats, lizards, monkeys and all kinds of other animals together and not separated by anything from human visitors. Another highlight for me was when we went to see the giraffes (my favorite) and as I was posing for a picture with a baby one, he touched my hair with his nose! It was a dream come true. After the zoo, we went to a famous hidden restaurant where we got free croquette rolls with the IAmsterdam cards. As a music major, Josiah had come prepared and we had bought tickets ahead of time to see the world-famous Concertgebouw that night. It was incredible. They played Bach, Haydn, and Mozart. Since we had bought the cheapest seats possible, we couldn't see very well as we were at the very back behind the orchestra, but after intermission, a Dutch man invited us to come sit in the two open seats by him that were in the front row right behind the orchestra! It was such an amazing experience. After his kindness, we were affirmed in our belief that the people in Amsterdam are the most friendly of any city either of us had traveled to. We had such great experiences with the Dutch people and found them very kind and helpful. The next day we definitely wanted to make the most of our cards before they expired at 4:00 o'clock, so we went to all kinds of places. We started at the Tulip Museum which explained the growth process and had all kinds of beautiful representations of the most famous flower in Holland. Next door was the Cheese Museum, which was the World Champion for goat cheese in 2011, and there we sampled the best cheeses I have ever had. They had everything from pesto cheese to red pepper cheese to mustard cheese. From there, we took the tram to visit the Dutch Resistance Museum which explained the role of the Netherlands in World War II. It was very interesting and well-done: they had a lot of information and interesting artifacts. Next stop was the Jewish History Museum, which was also well-done and had a beautiful synagogue inside. We then went to a super cool restaurant we found from our cards, where we got free coffee or tea and ate our packed pistachios and granola bars (we were saving money on food big time). After that we went and took our free tour from the canal boats, which was beautiful and very fun. Our plan for the rest of the afternoon was to take a bus out to Volendaam or another smaller Dutch town, but our time was running short and it didn't appear that it was going to work out. So instead, we decided to create our own scavenger hunt of sorts through the city to find the rest of the stops where we got free giveaways from our card. This included another cafe with free tea and a luggage tag from a super fancy mall. It was really fun to go around the city and find new hidden places we wouldn't have otherwise. We returned to our hostel for a Dutch food tasting experience they were hosting that night. We met more people there, which included a huge group from a college in Iowa who knew a couple girls that are on my same program in Spain, as well as my friend from Wheaton's younger sister who is working in Amsterdam this year but will be coming to Wheaton in the fall as a freshman! It was so fun to talk with them for a while and have fun trying all kinds of traditional Dutch food. After this, Josiah and I went to the most notorious part of Amsterdam, the Red Light District, to pray. We decided to go because we both had loved the city and the people, and appreciated so much their kindness, as well as learning about their culture and history during our time there, but we hadn't seen the neighborhood it is most known for. We felt that walking through and praying for the many women who are exploited there every night was important. We read aloud the parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15 and then walked around and prayed, and were very sobered and saddened by what we saw. Something that we were reminded of is the impossible power of God's love, for all peoples. He is the most tolerant and forgiving being in existence, and although it was hard, I know there is hope for redemption for everyone there through His amazing love. We returned to Sevilla on Sunday with a full week of school ahead of us, but I will never forget my time in Amsterdam and all that we got to do and experience. I am so thankful to God for my opportunity to begin to quench my wanderlust, as well as to be living in such an amazing and beautiful city for two more months.

View of Amsterdam from the street near our hostel

We saw a lot of these

:)

At the Concertgebouw! (A super sweet Dutch lady sneakily took this illegal picture for us...)

Love all the canals

One of our free teas we got with our card!

View from our canal tour

Now only two weeks until my mom and dad come! I cannot wait, it will be a wonderful break to get to travel to France with them and then have them here in Sevilla for a week too. Thanks to all of you for keeping up with my many adventures and for your prayers! Until next time :)