In English “hace un mes” means one month ago. One month ago, I arrived in Barcelona not knowing what I was getting myself into; but now, here I am, with a daily routine. So what has this month taught me?
I’ve learned not to wear new dress shoes to church when you have a 20 minute walk to get there and that even though you put on band-aids half way through the trip you’ll still get blisters. I’ve learned that when buying band-aids you should also buy scissors because it’s easy to buy one that is literally 3 feet long. I’ve learned that just because it’s a green lay’s chip bag and there’s what looks like an onion on the front doesn’t mean the chips are sour cream and onion and that’s it’s probably best to learn the words for different types of fruits and vegetables. I’ve learned that just because that’s where you got off the bus doesn’t mean that that’s where you should get on the bus again and that if you just walk to the other side of the street to the same number bus going the same way, you’ll probably save yourself an hour or so. But most of all, what I’ve learned so far, is to appreciate the people in my life. There aren’t many places in the world where you can surround yourself with people that love God with all their being and you know you’ll have good clean fun together. I’ve also learned the importance of “a people” as Trygve (Hope chaplain) likes to say. I miss my people, my Hope people, but I’m so thankful God led me to my Barcelona people. It’s such a blessing to have people here who encourage me when I’m down and are willing and want to talk about more than what bar they went to last night or how hot that waiter is.
Long story short, I’ve made some mistakes (hopefully they won’t happen again), but life is good. I have friends; I have a people (albeit a much smaller people than in Michigan). I have hope. God is so good.
