i've been really bad at blogging lately. like really terribly bad. sorryyyy. i in fact though have had many life moments where i'm like dang. i need to write about this. anyway. im committing to doing this now before i go to sleep.
since i've been in madrid, i've been walking my little butt off. the balls of my feet are completely covered in blisters, in places i didn't even know it was possible to get blisters. my feet feel it. but i like it. i like walking. i'm a healthy girl now.
tomorrow we go to a place called toledo. it's in spain, the south of spain to be exact. it's going to be great. what is there, i am really not sure, but i am excited either way, and am sure that i'll have learned plenty to tell you all about in a day or so.
things in the Cortez/Dominguez household have been bueno lately. Maria and Juan are well. The other day, Juan told Monique and I that we were boring because we slept too much. He told us that all we did was sleep and eat, sleep and eat sleep and eat...and that in a week we would be dying from depression. hysterical. for the record, i am not depressed, and i am very busy as well. For a few days, things were maybe a little intense around the house. It's quite possibly because culturally men and women dynamics in the home are just a lot different. But we've been laughing a lot with Juan. Laughing a lot with maria. Acting like 5 year olds all together. It's perfect. I couldn't ask for a better household to keep me from the spanish "violadores" (creepers) and to ask me about how my spanish boyfriends are.
In the past few days, monique and I have just gotten really really comfortable. Comfortable in spain, comfortable on the metro, comfortable with each other, with juan and maria, with the other girls in our casa, etc etc. So it's been good. because we've gotten past those initial uncomfortable moments of insecurity...thus bringing forth lots of laughter.
The other day in class, i made a list of some life lesson observations to blog about. They're importante, mostly.
1. Never judge by your first impressions.
Mother Teresa once said "If you judge someone, you have no time to love them". We must give everyone a chance. Never write anyone off..you might be very pleasantly, beautifully surprised.
2. Everyone--i mean EVERYONE, has a right to self-confidence. To living a life free from fear.
Everyone has a right to love themselves completely. And we must allow ourselves that rights.
This past weekend i went shopping with maria and monique. While trying on clothes i realized that i am a giant in the spanish world. Spanish girls are really tiny. And they wear clothing that is even more tiny than them. And walking down the streets with my incredibly beautiful friends, i'll admit that i had a couple of days of complete insecurity..dealing with stuff that i haven't dealt with in a long time. but then i decided this.
insecurity is completely ridiculous. and i chose to be confident. and i chose to love myself. because if i was fearfully and wonderfully made, then i can be sure that i wasn't made inferior to anyone. but so perfectly who i am.
plus, self confidence, in my opinion, is the most beautiful thing about a woman. period.
3. Our everyday experience can change our lives if we let them. we must be teachable. Goodness gracious, must we be teachable. If we lose the ability to learn, then we lose the ability to live. Something the Lord taught me a long time ago was this: "Wisdom is always learning". It is ALWAYS learning. We are given a choice in everything. To choose maturity or to choose to be immature. To choose maturity really does refine our hearts. To make us more whole, more full, more wise, more patient, and much more like children.
Isn't that the point? Following Jesus is as simple as our choices sometimes. To choose him is not to choose yourself. But him. To choose the Jesus inside of you. To choose to believe that you're no longer apart from him, but now one with him. And you have to honor that and get over yourself and just LOVE yourself. You HAVE to.
I love life lessons if you haven't noticed. Annnnd also, i love life. period.
Side note observations about spain:
1. they never sleep. nightlife starts at midnightish. People stay out til 6am when everything closes. this is crazy to me. but fun. also, clubs in spain are called discotecas. hows 80s, right? :)
2. spanish men are still very forward. i think i already said that once. but also, italian men are more forward. nooooooo bueno.
however, there's been some really redemptive things happening in that department. since being in spain, i've been stared at, yelled at, and asked really not okay things by men. fully frustrated and done with spanish strangers and never wanted to go anywhere monique and i made a friend. we met him last week when our friends were walking around madrid our first friday night trying to find something to do. our friends met his friends and the rest is history. since then, monique hung out with him a lot. he took us on a nice little walking guided native spaniard tour of madrid. he knows probably everything. he's probably the kindest guy i've ever met (other than the fact that he hates the police). he speaks no english, and never wants to learn to speak english, because he's fully convinced that spanish is better and that he never needs to go to the states because he doesn't think it necessary to ever leave europe. i think i fully agree with him. he's a lot of fun, and i'm glad he's spanish. everyone needs a good spanish best friend. thanks, Lord.
another random side note.
The other night while walking around el sol, which is like the hot spot in madrid, I saw prostitutes all up and down the street for the first time in my life. i know that i've seen prostitution in movies and statistics and stories, but to actually see the woman---to see the life---right in front of you, was completely different. my heart hurt. and it hurt really really bad. what made it worse was that they were on the same street as the police were just hanging out..maybe 25 yards away...doing nothing. it made me sick. the reality of that lifestyle became really real and really intense. i can't imagine having nothing or no one to come home to.
okay. sleep now. toledo in the morning. 100 million degree weather y mas blisters on my feets. for the record, i am feeling a lot better. i still can't breathe very well, but im trying. i've been trying to run in spain for the past couple of days. it's been successful.
k. love you all. besosssss
iva.
ps. 2 things.
first, everyone in spain calls me iva. i love that. it's mostly bc no one can pronounce brooke. but iva (or e-vah as they say) works beautifully for me.
second, go look up the song "he woke me up again" by sufjan stevens. RIGHT NOW. i've been singing it all day. thats all.
"EEEEE-VA!" Like in Wall-e!
ReplyDeleteAlso, your thoughts make me happy :)