mi verano en españa

i'm leaving on a jetplane...

2006-08-02T07:18:00.001-07:00

i'm coming home....tomorrow!!! i am completely excited. paris has been cool, but i can't wait to see you all soo much more. only a night and about 20ish hours of traveling between me and you. Au revoir!!!!!

i'm leaving on a jetplane...

2006-08-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

cliff jumping and sea urchins

2006-07-27T14:13:00.000-07:00

today we visited morgiou (???), a nature reserveish kinda place. you have to hike thru the white mountain cliffs to find the perfect rocky beach. it is absolutly beautiful, and a little painful, all at the same time. luanne and i went, along with two other ladies from the hostal. we jumped off a cliff, not the highest, but still an adrenaline booster. there were some crazy guys flipping off of towering cliffs that i was 100% sure were hitting the rocks. but they lived, thankfully. met lots of different folks from all over the world. all very nice. on the hike back, luanne had to swim most of the way due to her messed up foot (broken and serious blisters). just when we all thought her foot could not get any worse, she swam onshore and stepped in a bed of sea urchins. so tomorrow we are going to try and find a french pharmacy to get some healing cream or something. let's pray her feet can make it home.

marsaille, or marsailles

2006-07-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

luanne and i have now safely arrived in marsaille, a beach town in france. it was a lonnnnggg journey, partly because my ginormous suitcase decided to break the moment i stepped foot at the santiago airport. so it's a bit difficult to move, let alone go up and down stairs, and in and out of metros and buses. but we're here. don't know a lick of french, and can't seem to decide which language to try with the folks here....it comes out of my mouth a mix of english and spanish. we're going to go for a bike ride around town tonight, and tomorrow the hostal man is bringing a bunch of the guests here to some park by the beach. fabulous place to stay, except that its like a sauna. well dinner is ready-time to eat! 7 days!!!!

camino de vilalba

2006-07-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

after around 61ish km (36ish miles) my camino is complete. a couple days early, but no real big complaints. im loving my own, clean, personal shower and a nice cushioned bed with more than a cm between my mouth and the floor. i got the chance to walk 2 of the hardest days of the whole trip, but i'm real glad that i did. last week i came across this verse in micah 6 that says:

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

my prayer for this walk was to learn more what walking humbly with my God was. He definitely showed my little by little what it involves, and i'm thankful for that and the experience.

you can call me dr. bri

2006-07-14T05:34:00.000-07:00

for those of you that have not heard yet, my diagnosis was infact correct. after some hassling with the spanish medical system (thanks mom), a trip to the er (thanks tania), and an x-ray it was confirmed that i have bronchitis. they totally loaded up up with pills and concoctions of yucky water, but i am now feeling much much better. not nearly as much funky business happening in my throat/lungs area...and just intime for the hike. luanne arrives tonight, and we depart bright and early tomorrow morning from the bus station to arrive in Ribadeo, our beginning point. sunday we walk, which from my rusty calculations based on not a really substantial amount of information i think we'll be walking around 13 miles a day. which puts luanne and i at an estimated total of 52ish miles. cool beans...im psyched! thank you everyone so much for your prayers. God's been doing some awesome things in this heart of mine the past couple of days....maybe a couple days of bedtime was just what i needed. until next week friends...

shoo fly (bug), don't bother me

2006-07-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

so there is this bug flying around and it latched onto me. a little cough and a little fever, which thankfully broke this morning. i was in bed for seventeen hours....i'm pretty sure that's a record for me. luckily i was feeling well enough by this afternoon to make it to our 4th of July (or 9th) celebration and enjoy a bit of scrumptious american food. let's pray that i'm completely rejuvenated by saturday, when i depart on my hike.

quick major highlights of the week

2006-07-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

this past thursday my buddy chris, and a gal visiting the team from ohio went on a hike up one of the mountains here in santiago. quite a lovely hike, only an hour to get to the top, and it gives a fabulous view of the city. (sidenote: check out chris' shirt....yes, it is the one and only "el swifto" shirt. never thought id find a fellow swift fan here). i also had my last spinning class thursday, which i must say was a vast improvement since the first class. i think my teacher and i actually talked for half of the class. imagine that?? friday we took a small little train ride up north to a coruna, (my first train ride ever....well besides the great smokey mountain railroad, which i do not think really can be classified as a train ride). we walked around, ahhhlot, got lost, napped on the beach, etc. it was a day full of laughs, adventure, and fun. sunday we grabbed lunch at a chinese place here in santiago. try figuring out what to order admist spanish, chinese, and english. quite interesting :) i've been loading up on tapas with a new norwegian friend, and tomorrow i'm starting intercambios. that's a quick synopsis. hope you all are enjoying the fourth. i am definitely missing the bbq's and fireworks.....so have double fun for me!

pulpo....plllahhh

2006-06-28T05:25:00.000-07:00

last night we went out to eat at this barn that had been converted into a restaurant. it was really cool....sitting on benches made of sticks, pig skulls covered in dust, cobwebs above your head. haha, no, but honestly the food was really good...well except for a few items. unfortunately they discovered i had not yet tried "pulpo", aka octopus, a galician delicacy, as well as squid. so peer pressure prevailed, and the fabulous experience is captured here to the left. hope you enjoy as much as i did :)

time to study

2006-06-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

yesterday was also my last tutoring lesson. ana, my tutor, is heading back home for the summer. i'm definitely going to miss her, and her patient correction of my espanol. so this means, i'm going to have to discipline myself to study each day. boy ohh boy.......

fiesta de san juan (i think)

2006-06-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

yesterday, or maybe today, was the fiesta de san juan. either way, last night was quite a sight. a friend of one of the family's here, (on his way to intern in russia), and i went in search of the fun. i don't really know what its all about, but heres what i saw: bonfires all around the city, people jumping over them, music, and free ann-cho-vees and bread (yeah, so i don't know how to spell that, so just sound it out and hopefully you will get the point). it was fun to have a friend to enjoy it with and laugh at the crazy people :)

para siempre

2006-06-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

today i joined the swains on a trip to a coruna (not so sure about the city's name) to visit a church there. it was quite interesting, while at the same time comforting to know that in Christ we have family all over the world. i don't think ive ever focused so much on a message before...trying to figure out the gist of what the preacher was talking about. the people were very welcoming, and it really made me think about trying out new greeting tactics at Crosspoint or FCA.....here in spain they do the whole 2 kisses on the cheek dealio, and from my perspective, (im sure its completely natural, comfortable, and casual for folks here), but it puts you on this whole different familiarity level immediately. really, im just kidding, i think we might scare some people off if we tried that... but i thought i'd entertain the idea for a minute anyway.

a galician concert

2006-06-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

this past wednesday i went with my friend/tutor to this bar that has galician music every wednesday night (well, this happened to be the last wednesday due to it being the end of the schoolyear for the students over here). first of all, it felt like i was in lord of the rings, (yes, i know i equate everything with a movie or a book, but really it did, hehe). the music was being played downstairs in this small little room jam-packed with people sitting on tiny little barstools. there were men of all ages playing bagpipes, accordians, banjos, flutes, recorders, guitars, little drummy things, violins.....it was really awesome. reminded me kinda of the good ol pickers and grinners back home....minus my oreo milkshake from twistee treat. tear :) wish you all could have been here to enjoy it with me!

a great new production

2006-06-13T04:03:00.000-07:00

okay, so i've got quite a treat for you. i personally know this really awesome up-and-coming music group called Dreamboat. you can check out their new video release at by clicking HERE. i hope you enjoy this as much as i did. GOOOOOO DREAMBOAT!!! hehe :)

the coolest bridge ehhh-ver

2006-06-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

i'm currently reading furiously thru this book series called mark of the lion, by francine rivers. its pretty much amazing, i highly recommend it. but it has this side effect that makes me think that i am a roman historian or something, and everything i see, read, or hear somehow relates to the characters and setting in these books. its quite amusing actually. today for example as i went exploring through the countryside of spain with the bailey's, all i could think about was this book, and "ohh man, i can see the romans building this bridge" (which was the coolest bridge ehh-ver, brought more to life by this book, haha), or "doesn't this field look like there should be a gladiator galloping right thru the middle of it?" luckily one of the gals here is reading thru it now too, and is sharing the fun experience with me. i really think you should join too :)

a wee bit tired

2006-06-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

i am finding myself a bit tired this afternoon. ive discovered i have little need for the cardiovascular equipment at the gym...walking alone is wearing me out. today for example, (a little out of the ordinary, but allow me to continue) i will have walked 2.5 hours in total. it amazes me how much these people walk. i am definitely looking forward to chilling in my bed tonight, feet up, watching a nice chick flick. hasta luego!

such a lovely day

2006-06-06T12:53:00.000-07:00

today was ahh-mazing. here are all the super awesome things that happened:

1) i had a great tutoring-time with ana

2) i have joined the gym i mentioned previously, and had my first spinning class en espanol. i did not understand almost anything the teacher said, but the only other girl in the class tried to explain it to me in english as best as she could. both girls were very nice, and it was a splendid time. annnnddddd, the girl that is learning english eats at the same place i do :)

3) i found out that at this place that we both eat at, (which i was coming to not like alot because i always chose really gross things due to my inability to understand what the menu says) that they siempre (or ALWAYS!!!) have my favorite salad, and the lady told me the word for watermelon so i can ask for that specifically. zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-eh, my ohhh my what a wonderfully, splendid, lovely day!!!!

legs of steel

2006-06-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

by the time i leave here i should be in ahh-mazing shape (or atleast one would think so). this is one of the many hills i climb up en route to the cafe, at the least twice a day. (this is the most brutal though). but good news.....i found a small little gym right around the corner from my apartment that i am contemplating about joining. they have a cardio workout room, and aerobic and spinning classes. spinning in spanish? that could be interesting. im hoping this might be an avenue to meet some people and give me something to do. ill keep you updated.

a change of heart

2006-05-31T02:38:00.000-07:00

so yesterday i was having a kinda rough morning, struggling with why in the entire world God placed me here--because i know that He did place me here. He opened doors and more than provided for me to be right here in Santiago, but i just can't see why. so i decided to go to one of the only places here that would be like being at home--McDonalds (who would have ever thought I'd want to go to there). i was reading over all of your encouraging emails, (which i am very thankful for by the way), probably at my lowest point of the day, when the nice little McDonalds man (who i must say was very patient with me while ordering), came to my table and said something....and after a minute or two of confusion i realized he was asking if i wanted a "helado" or an ice cream, which of course brightened my day and put a huge smile on my face just like a little kid. praise God for McDonalds and that nice little man!

Cathedral of Santiago

2006-05-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

Today I took a trip to the cathedral...very big, very intricate, very cool, but also very weird. I went inside and there were a mix between tourists, walkers from the camino, school kids inside....some snapping pictures, some that looked like they were in a state of worship. I saw a priest in a little confession box, that was different. I think the first one I've seen ever. I might try and go again sometime. There is lots of details and stuff inside to see. So that was a bit of my afternoon hoy. Hasta luego.

las playas

2006-05-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend was quite nice. The Bailey family invited me over to hang out, and we ended up going to the most beautiful beach I have ever been to. It was like one of those exotic places you hear stars go to...lots of fun. Then Sunday, after we had a cleaning day at the cafe, both families and their visiting relatives went to another beach. The picture to the left is of this beach. Lots of rough waves and rocks. And a very cool winding sidewalk thingy. This was a little tiny cove thing, kinda interesting I thought. Wish you all could have been here to enjoy it with me : )

A little taste of where I live

2006-05-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

This is the street I live on. From the photographers vantage point (that would be I), is the edge of the University of Santiago. It has a beautiful campus. Perhaps one day I will document that and share :)

This is my room above....pretty big, eh? I even have my own private bathroom. And the last picture is a view from my bedroom window. Hasta luego amigos!