Final Goodbye

I just got an email from Caleb and Lindsey. They are officially not going to return until after the baby is born. I'm not sure when that will be, but I am guessing late December or January. I don't have much time right now to post, but that's ok because I don't have much information to pass along, anyway. More to come on my fantastic trip I'm taking to the coast.

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go.

It's strange how things have a way of piling up on you without you noticing. And then suddenly, you realize that you are exhausted for seemingly no particular reason. Fortunately, Spaniards have a useful and frequent remedy for such things. It's called a fiesta, of which there are a ridiculous amount. Yet again, I have along weekend, four days with nothing planned to do as of yet. Normally, I don't get an opportunity to plan anything because I know enough people that multiple options are planned for me. Choosing between them is the difficult part. However, this weekend, many of my friends are busy, out of town, or even out of country. A group of American exchange students invited me to go with them to San Pablo this weekend. As much fun as that would be, I really don't need to spend so much time with English speakers. It's bad for my health. :) Maybe I'll take a day or two off by myself and take a train to the coast or something. I need to get some shots of the sea anyway. We'll see.

P.S. I'm blogging from a strange computer, so no photos today. Sorry.

P.P.S. I put a hit counter at the bottom of my blog for a reason. It helps me monitor the degree of laziness of my reading audience. I know that my mother is not checking my blog 45 times a day, so that means that there are a lot of you out there who need to step up and give a little feed back. In plainer English: Leave some comments! :)

Sunny Rain

So, I'm standing outside of this cafe yesterday, waiting for my new intercambio person to show up at 6 o'clock. I don't know her name yet, and I told her that I would be wearing a green T-shirt with a black vest so that she could know who I was. The problem is that it had gotten a lot colder and had begun to rain. But I can't put on a sweater, or she won't recognize me. So I'm standing under the eaves of this cafe getting wet and shivering. I look up at the sky, and the sun is in my eyes (as well as the rain). It's bright and sunshiny two blocks away, but it's pouring down cold rain on me! Six o'clock passes. Six fifteen passes. Finally, I give up at 6:20 and go home, having never seen anyone remotely fitting her description. I get home fifteen minutes later, wet and cold. I check my mobil phone which I had forgotten to take with me, and she had sent me a text saying, "It's 6:25 and I'm here at the cafe door. Where are you!?" :) Apparently, her bus was late or something.
I think she must be a student from Andalucia in the south, because Spaniards around these parts are actually fairly punctual.

Update

Caleb's dad passed away last night. Caleb is doing alright, and everything has already been prepared. I am assuming that he and Lindsey are still returning on the 30th. Thank you on their behalf for all of your support. Caleb, we are thinking of you and hope to see you and Lindsey soon.
Things in Santiago, meanwhile, are carrying on. I started my photography class last night. Fortunately, my friend Isa is taking the same class. She can translate for me which is good because I didn't catch anything at all last night. Well, mostly nothing. There are two teachers and they speak too quickly, playing off of each other. Plus, the vocabulary is still strange. Unfortunately, for me, Isa called me today to tell me that she has suddenly received a scholarship for two months studying in Austin, Texas (of all places)! Hurrah for her. Poor me. :)
Pictures later.

Day Tripping

Sunday was a full day. Having been up (very) late for the past two nights and still very much under the influence of a cold, the girls and I left early in the morning. We caught a train to Padrón where our friend Rocío and her sister met us at the train station. From there we drove to an open market. I think the girls were more interested in shopping, but I tagged along for the photo opportunity. I am so glad that I dragged myself out of my warm bed, because I managed to get some good photos. It was a good addition to my project. Afterwards, Rocío and Marí tooks us to their home town and the surrounding area. We stopped at a public park and walked around the ruins of an old fortress built to protect the area from the Vikings.
Back home in Santiago, we spent the evening over dinner with some friends of ours that run a local cafe. It was a good time of fellowship and an excuse for pizza.
Having exhausted myself, I decided to head to bed early, at about 1AM. :)

just a note

Got an email from Lindsey. Caleb's dad is still alive even though he has been taken off all life supports. This is against all expectations, but there has been no improvement and none is expected. He is comfortable and has been conscious at times. They have even been able to communicate with him a little.
I am slowly getting over my cold, but am still very tired. Intercambios are continuing to go well, and I have a few new ones. Conversations have been enlightening and purposeful. Last night, I met my roommate's circle of friends and they seem to have taken me in under their wing. We will see how this goes.
Also, I learned a new word: telebasura. It means tele-garbage, as in worthless TV programs. It seems that Spaniards have a sense of humor about their own television. :)

P.S. I think i fixed the problem with the comments. Everyone should be able to comment now, even if you don't have a Blogger account. Personally, i think it's a dumb way for Blogger to run their comments.

24 hour flu

Well, today I am sick. I think I caught what ever it was that Caleb had before he left. I hope that is just a cold or something. Something that won't last very long. Yesterday was a very long day. I unexpectedly had two intercambios back to back in the evening. That's 4 hours of mental gymansics. By the end of the second one, I could already feel myself pulling back into a tunnel and shutting down. My throat was slightly swollen, and I was just plane tired. After a bottle of orange juice and 12 hours of sleep, I'm functioning with the assistance of some Dayquil. Hopefully, I wont have to postpone my intercambio tonight. It's the first time I've met this guy and I hate to start off on the wrong foot.
Tomorrow, I'll have coffee with Matt, my temporary supervisor while Caleb and Lindsey are out of the country. They run a café in town. I wonder if the coffee will be on the house? :)

A haphazard send-off

We had our short meeting last night amongst Caleb and Lindsey's frantic packing. It was good to see them before they headed off at 5AM this morning. We had a little home cooked chile and some Ben and Jerry's ice cream that I managed to find somewhere. As usual, we laughed a lot and had a great time, but there was a somber undertone. Officially, the family has decided to discontinue the life support for Caleb's dad, and to try to make him as comfortable as possible. The rest of it will be on God's timing. They will be back in two weeks, but I already miss them.
In the meantime, the girls and I will just doing what we do. I'm sure most of you are still wondering what exactly that is. :) Me, too. I don't think that I've had two days when I've done the same thing. The weather is turning much colder and rainier (not sure if that's a word), but we still walk to class everyday in it anyway. Hurrah, Europe. Let's see, what is it that my dad is always telling me? Something about building character... I don't know, I'm usually not listening to him. (Just kidding, dad.)

Caleb is Going Home

Caleb was sick yesterday with a cold and so he wasn't with us at English club last night. In the middle of everything, Lindsey got a call from him. He had gotten a call from his family and the doctors expected his dad to die pretty soon. So that's how we found out he was going home Wednesday morning. I didn't get to see him last night and so I won't know the full details until tonight's meeting, but I think that Lindsey is planning to go with him at least for a short time. She still wants to have the baby in Spain. Meanwhile, the girls and I would carry on with our own schedules with out them until they come back. We'll be alright. I'm fairly confident in my ability to order pizza on the phone. (For those of you laughing... that's a monumental step in learning another language!) I'll try to make another post maybe tonight or tomorrow morning after I know more about everything. Please keep Caleb and Lindsey in your thoughts as this is a very difficult time with many concerns.
Also, I have some American friends at Spanish class that are exchange students from the University of Kansas. One of the girls from their group was hit by a car yesterday. She is ok, but I'm not sure as to the extent of her injuries. We were suppose to go out with them last night, but they were obviously preoccupied at the time.
Meanwhile, Shanna is busily racking up the numbers of intercambios she has every week. I don't know how she does it because they are so draining for me. I think she is trying to put together another English club at some point. Stephanie and I are both thinking about our photo projects. Film may be a difficulty because it is very expensive. I've got my parents on a fact finding mission to figure out how much it cost to buy it in bulk at Sam's Club. Things seem to be going well with my flatmates. I spent a few hours hanging out with some of them and their friends last night... well this morning... what ever you want to call it. Spaniards stay up to ridiculous hours as norm, by the way. It's not just a college kid thing. Adios.

Cancelled Plans

I was suppose to go on a road trip today to the equivalent of a state park and officially start my photography project. There are some ruins of two monasteries and some spectacular waterfalls, supposedly. Alas, it´s pouring down and the wind is gusting at gail force. It´s a rainy day to say the least. Somewhere in the back of my mind, there should be a list of things that I saved to do on a rainy day. I just can´t seem to find it.
My teammates have all seemed to adapt well to life in Santiago, which is good because we are then able to be more independent and forge our own paths into the Gallician culture. It´s also bad because we are more independent and have forged our own paths into Gallician culture. Hence, I have no idea where the rest of my teammates are today. I guess I´ll have to make my own alternative plans, which is probably good for me.
I FINALLY moved into my permanent housing last Thursday. It´s in an apartment building that´s about as down hill as you can get in Santiago. :( But I do have three genuine Gallego flatmates. :) One of which is normal, another is a heavy medal anarchist, and the third I still haven´t met because he is alway asleep in his room.
Actually, they are nice guys and we seem to be getting along. I just haven´t had an opportunity to spend much time with them as of yet. I hope to be able to build some genuine friendships here.

28 Year Old Children

Caleb just had his 28th birthday and we threw him a little surprise birthday get together at the cafe down the street. It was the first time that all of their Spanish friends were in the same place at the same time with all of us foreigners, so that was cool. And it was good to see that they felt like they knew us well enough to be relaxed and just have fun. Anytime you get a big group of friends all at one meal, the stories and accusations start flying. :) But I´ve never seen it in such a mix of two languages. Isabela (Isa) bought Caleb the RIDICULOUSLY huge card and we all signed it. Several of us got together and bought him a piece of equipment for his Play Station 2 so that he can play video games against people online now. I had nothing to do with that and would benefit from it in no way. ;)
A good time was had by all, and a great time of fellowship.

Happy Birthday Caleb!


PS I don´t normally like to mix color and black&white photos, but this is just such a CLASSIC Caleb expression that i had to make an exception. :)

Fine Art and Babies?

Well, this is me just wandering around one afternoon with a few hours off. There was this random art gallery in the hallway of this apartment block, so I decided to take a few shots. Unfortunately, the hall way shared a windowed wall with a baby goods store. I'm sure all of the women shopping for their stollers and baby clothes thought I was quite strange taking pictures of myself.
Well, all of the students are back in town and our placement test is tomorrow morning. I've got two intercambios (language tutoring sessions) already and hope to find a few more. The girls have moved into their permanent aparment, but I haven't yet myself. Fortunately, neither my Japnese nor Dutch temporary flatmates speak very much English. More pictures coming.


P.S. No word as of yet on the condition of Caleb's dad. Please keep praying. It has been a difficult time, but one that has bound us closely together in Christ.

Difficult Time

Unfortunately, I have some difficult news. Caleb's father has been in the hospital with pancreas complications for the past 6 months. He has been through several unsuccessful endoscopic surgeries and today he had an invasive one. It was unsuccessful. The doctors are not sure if he will survive and can give no time frame as of yet. His attitude through this ordeal has been full of faith and wisdom even though it has been a long suffering burden for Caleb and his family. He and Lindsey may need to return to the States and it is unclear what that means for the rest of the team at this point. The girls and I are grateful that we could be here to share their burden and are doing all that we can. Incidentally, this all comes as they prepare for the added pressure and joy of their first baby which is due this Thanksgiving. Please keep them in your thoughts.