Until recently, I personally felt like Salamanca was the perfect place for me. I loved the city, my program, my classes, the festivals and just about everything I've experienced so far. The city always has a lot to offer and it always seems to be something that strikes me fancy...for example, this past weekend was the Salamanca Social Science Festival along with a 7 hour street dance competition in the middle of the Plaza Mayor, covering two of my interests (dance, Sociology!).
I've been going along with the flow, exploring what the city, university & IES have to offer, but still unclear about what God has planned for me this semester in Spain. Over the past week or so, I've been overwhelmed with blessings, signs, whichever you want to call it, from God that have essentially proven to me that He has truly had great plans for me all along.
-Wednesday night was "Intercambio night" where IES rented out a bar and had tapas & drinks for us and other students from all over the world (Spanish-speaking countries). Laura, who I had an intercambio with the week before, was there and we spent a lot of time together that night, talking and getting to know each other even better than before. I found out that she loves to dance and that she is a practicing Catholic (more about that in a later post...). We got together over the weekend and explored around the city (she is from Colombia & this is her first time in Spain, too, so she isn't too familiar with the city, either - all the more fun!). She invited me to her apartment for café which I don't particularly like, so she offered me a chocolate milk box, which was quite tasty! It's fun to spend time with her because we'll change between speaking Spanish & English quite frequently to try to get a point across & have mutual understanding in whichever language.
-Last Thursday my friend Rachel & I attempted to go to this event of a Christian group on campus. We hiked across the city to find the building locked & dark with nobody around...except for a mysterious bible outside the door with no owner nearby to claim it. I thought it could possibly be a sign of some sort from God but couldn't read into it enough to figure out what we should do. We waited around a bit but nobody showed up, so we left, figuring it either wasn't happening this week or place or something along those lines. I soon found out that indeed they met but they didn't get there until later because they had to get the keys to the building. We were bummed we missed it, but don't worry the story gets better & happier!
-This past Sunday I went to an Evangelistic church with Katie. I had gotten the information about it through the grape vine & heard it was a great church, so we thought it was definitely worth checking out because I wasn't really feeling the whole traditional Catholic mass at the cathedral with nobody younger than 60. As soon as we walked in the door, we were greeted by multiple people (the Spanish way with 2 kisses, of course). They immediately knew we were first-timers & that we were foreigners...beats me what gave it away! They got our names & contact information and welcomed us to the church community. The service was unlike anything I had ever been to before but I absolutely loved it. Lots of singing (songs I recognized but sung in Spanish), many different parishioners simply standing up to praise God by sharing a passage from the Bible & applying it to our daily lives and a great sense of family & community. Towards the end of the service, they had announcements and introduced all the new members and had them stand up, including Katie & I, plus others from Peru, Germany and other countries. They also have various meetings with "jovenes" (teens, young adults) that we were invited to this week.
After the service, I met multiple people, including Kara who is from Georgia, US. She is here as an "intercambio" through an organization called En Vivo, a Christian organization at the university. She invited us to come out to the various activities that the group has throughout the week. Which leads me to...
-Last night Rachel & I went to "Conexion" which is an En Vivo event with music, food, a talk given by a leader about the Bible (this one was related to Aladdin, the Disney movie!) and a social gathering of all different ages. I met a ton of people from all over - professors, community members, students, etc. from Salamanca, Africa, the US and beyond. I loved getting to know other people and to be able to spend time together praising God. BTW - the praise songs were in Spanish but I knew all of them. I was told after that Spain doesn't really have much praise music and that many Christians (those who listen to praise music) listen to translated songs from the US, including Chris Tomlin, Counting Crows etc. Apparently the translation sometimes messes up the musical flow or meaning of the song, but I absolutely loved being able to sing the songs in Spanish and completely understand what I saying while worshiping God. Plus, I was fully able to understand the talk that the leader, Jesse, gave to us about authentic faith & connecting it to Aladdin.
En Vivo has bible studies throughout the week, one group that meets Monday nights for an English bible study and the rest are in Spanish. Unfortunately I have class Monday nights at the same time (Which I MAY be able to change - Rachel & I have the same class but a different section of the class meets on Tuesday...so we're possibly going to change sections and be able to attend the English bible study). If not, I'll definitely be checking out the Spanish bible studies - I do have a bible of the NT with parallel translations in Spanish & English, which would be fun to utilize. Also they have Café Inglés, which is a time for people to come and practice their English over coffee and simply hang out, since there are usually students from the US or other English-speaking countries involved in En Vivo (including the 2 leaders). I found out that they watch Modern Family at this event, which happens to be essentially the only TV show I watch back at home - which I haven't had the time to figure out how to watch here, since the usual sites don't work outside the US.
I can't begin to describe how happy I was when I left last night. I feel like God has provided for me in endless ways that I can't possibly praise Him enough!!
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