my brief US trip...

So... let's see...I arrived back from 2 weeks in the States which was VERY brief.

First, a brief synopsis of the trip... Yolanda, a friend and I caught a plane in Madrid and headed to Brussels, Belgium. It occurred to me as we boarded the plane that this made NO sense; we were backtracking, but anyway. We arrived to Brussels and ran (at times literally) through the airport to our next gate, only very briefly glancing over our shoulders the yummy selections of chocolate. We literally ran to the gate only to have them ask us the million and one questions that are asked if you are headed to the US - about if anyone has given you anything, where your bags have been, etc., Yolanda struggled through this, with some translation on my part, since it was all in English and the people in Belgium don't tend to speak Spanish. She tried to get them to speak in Spanish, but no.

We board the plane only to quickly find that we are the minority. We are on Jet Airways and about 90% of the plane is Indian, as is the airline and the commercials. They speak English and Hindi, the food was Indian (yum), and we had a huge selection of Hollywood or Bollywood movies and a couple foreign films (one french, one arabic, and one chinese). Fun! A brief jaunt to another culture. The airline was great! Tons of leg room, they let you watch movies, play games, or listen to music from the time you boarded to the time you left the plane, and I didn't even feel the take off or landing (REALLY!). It took a smooth ride to a whole new level. Yolanda wasn't a huge fan of the food since it was quite spicy, but it was some of the best airline food I've ever had.

We arrived in New York City, took the train and then metro to Manhattan to the Meat Packing District, where my vegetarian sister was staying on work - at the Standard. We dropped off our stuff there, walked around a bit (along the river, through a cool market close by,...), and waited until my sister got off work. Yolanda kept saying, "It looks just like the movies!" "Everything is BIG!" (the streets, the cars, the houses,...) She was flipando. We found Sesame Street cupcakes, a store full of cookies, went into a European market and an Italian market, saw some cool art,... Then we headed back to the hotel to wait for my sister, who it was GREAT to see. Then off to dinner. We ate at this place called Olive & something. It was a fusion of European food, which was good (particularly after the Indian airplane) - something more normal for Yolanda's palate.

Backing up a bit... on the metro we met this guy who spent most of the trip there with us showing us pictures from his iPhone and my translating back and forth. He had somehow found a deal to pay something crazy like 500-800 dollars for 3 months of as much travel as he liked ANYWHERE in the world. So he had been to basically every continent and to lots of fun places in the past couple months. He had begun this after having traveled across the US in motorbike, or dirt-bike or something, from coast to coast, and then taken a van from California down to El Salvador, which he was only halfway there when he took off on this worldwide tour. He had a million and one stories to tell and we spent about an hour on the metro, so we were all ears. I'm guessing he just got out of college, or is in some type of transition, but was a little too tired to ask too many questions.

So, returning to above, after we got done with dinner (which we ordered WAY too much food at), we headed to catch the Megabus to Philly. We got there with plenty of time, boarded the bus in the last row so we could recline ALL the way - seriously it was flat, and went to sleep. The conductors were full of energy so they explained all the fun features of the bus - including wifi - and we were off. At some point some guy asked if I minded if they turned the sound for the movie on overhead. I did, but said no (realizing I'd probably sleep anyway), and went to sleep. Except for a few loud parts in the movie, I woke up as we arrived to Philly to the first stop. We stopped, I tried to pull up my seat for those passing by, but was too out of it to do so in a timely manner. We continued to the second stop, I woke up Yolanda, we got off the bus, we grabbed our luggage, and I hear, "Dawn!" I turn around and by God's grace my brother had gotten off work and realized, that while we would have made it to his place, I would hugely appreciate him showing up to help us. He took Yolanda's stuff since she was completely out of it by this time (probably close to 40 hours awake) and delirious and dealing with hearing a language she's still learning. It was SOOO great to see him. We took the trolley and then the metro and then walked to his place. It was raining a bit, but felt good.

We crashed and then woke up WIDE AWAKE bright and early. My brother and us headed to the historical part of town and we all saw the liberty bell, met up with my friend Cherith, and then to Independence Hall. My brother took off for work and we headed out for Philly Cheesesteaks, which Cherith continued to say were disgusting, but when in Rome do as the Romans. They were super yummy!

From there we went in search of coffee for me, tradition in Spain after lunch, and when you're jetlagged it becomes a necessity. We ended up walking all the way across Philly - stopping in a cool market, Chinatown, then heading to some cool statues (the famous LOVE statue, statues of board games and such), past some fountains, and the street with all the flags on it, down to the Philadelphia Art Museum (and Rocky statue), down to the Boathouses, and over to Fishtown (where Cherith and her husband live; and my brother does to). We saw the progress they're making on refurbing their house (right before leaving for Spain for a few years) and Cherith drove us to West Philly where a dear friend of mine lives. We had dinner with Carrie and fam, yummy vegan chili. And then about 8 or 9pm we became pumpkins and went back home to my brother's place. Of course I stayed up late both nights with my brother and his girlfriend to make the most of our little time together. One of the two nights we had delicious mojitos, which when made well is up there on my list of drinks.

We slept and got up bright and early for Drew to take us to the airport. On to St. Louis....

So we arrive to St. Louis late morning and are met by my mom who is full of tears and happy to see me. Sweet mom. We head out to the St. Louis Bread Company for lunch and then I convince her to take us home instead of us starting a tour of St. Louis. I am beat from all the running around, so we say hi to my dad (who has his office at home) and take off or Old Town St. Charles and to get some groceries. We came home and I worked, making calls & prepping for the week and for Sunday. That was Friday. I think we might have eaten in with some DELICIOUS, homemade cherry pie!

St. Louis is kind of a blur. Lots of meeting with people, speaking at churches, trying to be a good tour guide for yolanda, trying to spend quality time with my mom, sad because it was short and there are only 24h in a day and my dad had to leave monday morning for NH for work.

Saturday we went to the St. Louis Botanical Garden (aka Shaw Gardens), had some yummy Vietnamese food, and I think came home early so I could make some phone calls and prep for Sunday.

Sunday was church and sharing a bit there and lunch with people and then speaking at youth group (which unfortunately we were hugely jetlagged for; it was still fun I was just a bit delirious). A VERY full day.

Monday we saw my friend Catha, spoke at 5 spanish classes at a Christian high school a friend of mine is a spanish teacher at, and then came home.

The rest of the week was seeing some friends (some dear dear friends), seeing some ministry partners (many of whom are friends too), speaking as a few small groups that meet in homes (some smaller than others), hanging out with my mom, seeing St. Louis & St. Peters, some shopping, more sightseeing and meeting with people,...

The next weekend was similar to the last and then Tuesday morning we did the reverse. We flew to Philly, were met by my sweet friend Cherith who picked us up and took us to a Mediterranean restaurant and then to an incredibly delicious gelato place and then to catch our bus to NYC. We caught the bus, although this time our bus driver didn't speak English so we had some communication complications. I checked my e-mail and enjoyed the ride (sleeping some and just relaxing the rest). A guy on the bus said we might be 30-60 min late due to rush hour, so I sent a message to my friends who were there to meet us. We ended up at a different stop, in part to the communication problems, so walked several blocks and eventually found my friends who were in a bar waiting for us. It was SOOO SOOO good to see them - one a friend who came to visit last year and another a dear friend who just recently moved to NYC. We headed back to the apt we were going to stay at and then out for dinner. We ended up at an odd Spanish/Morroccan/Latin restaurant. I was not hungry at all, so just got something to drink and we caught up while I translated. I guess from the travel I was really tired again, so we went back early, talked through the next day and went online on this crazy high tech setup my friend has in his place. Karen went home and we went to sleep.

The next day Yolanda and I got up early and had the most delicious cappichino at City Girl Café, got a tad bit turned around, and headed to Battery Park to see Lady Liberty, then through Wall Street, past Ground Zero, walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, almost had some crazy good NY Italian food, but instead went to Central Park, to the John Lennon memorial, took a million and one pictures, and grabbed gyros on the street. While we were waiting for our food we met 10+ spaniards doing the same. We met up with Karen in Washington Square Park, got a quick tour of NYC and the oldest unchanged street in NYC, got a cappichino at one of the oldest places in Greenwich Village, tried to see Soho and the Village but got turned around a few times, so just took a lot of pictures and saw a few random things. We then met up with my friend Jonathan for dinner at a Mexican place and then to a chic coctail place. Again we went to bed tired.

The next morning we made sure our stuff was packed and that we knew how to get there okay, met up with Karen for brunch after seeing her digs in Harlem and getting a brief tour of the area, and then did the whirlwind tour - Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Fifth Avenue, NBA Store (for t-shirts for a friend of yolanda), coffee, Empire States Building (which unfortunately we didn't have time to go up in - yolanda was really sad), and then off to the airport in train and then another train. We boarded the plane and did the reverse, arriving home to Madrid a day later (Friday AM).

That is the brief outline of the trip. I have some observations and thoughts I was going to blog, but another day.

Four days later I had to jump on another plan to Barcelona for some meetings, which was FULL not to mention with jetlag on this side of the pond. Time in Barcelona I also want to blog about, as it was fun as always to stay and work with friends there.

July 4th

fireworks!!! it's funny. i generally wouldn't consider myself to be a very patriotic person and yet i am still an american and absolutely LOVED being in the US for the 4th of July. it was fun seeing people dressed up as abe lincoln and ben franklin (since it was abe's 200th bday and we were in philadelphia). it was fun visiting museums and thinking about way back when our founding fathers signed the declaration of the independence and such. and it was FABULOUS watching fireworks with thousands of others by the philadelphia art museum (or the steps rocky ran up).

and it was most definitely hilarious being with my brother and his girlfriend as he talked to my parents and literally gave them a play by play on the fireworks. they were at home watching fireworks on tv, but my parents LOVED getting to "be" with us thanks to my brother. he talked about the colors, where in the sky they were, how they exploded, he told them what we said, how we reacted,... everything. and while he was doing this his girlfriend and i were enjoying the fireworks and making fun of him (which he was fully aware of). eventually he passed the phone to me and i said bye to them, the fireworks continued, and then we made our way back - which definitely competes with the fireworks.

on the way to the fireworks, lauren and i took off from their house and then drew called when he got off work (yep, he worked on the 4th) and met us as we walked from the metro to the art museum. we were hoping to make it to the gazebo behind the art museum (which we later found was roped off and inaccessible) and had a ways to go and not much time. so my brother took off and we followed after. although it was humorous as lauren had to jog to keep up with us even though her legs are twice as long. ;-)

on the way back, drew shot out and then lauren competed as we expertly weaved in and out of the crowd. it was a race, not really between us, but between us and the crowd. and we were headed to the metro, which was a jaunt away, but it was partly the journey, partly the race that was what mattered. we were trying to see how many people we could pass, unbeknownst to them, of course. there was glass, empty beer cans, random people in random places. we weaved in and out, each of us with our own strategy, and yet trying to stay together in a crowd of thousands. crowd surfing at its finest. and amazingly when we got to the metro, while we had a little line to wait to get through the turnstile, we didn't wait even a minute for the next train (and i was amazed, living in madrid, at how unpacked it was. my brother said it was because most of those on the train were tourists or suburbanites, not true locals). and as we took the train a few stops back to drew and lauren's apt, i eavesdropped the conversations of the latino family next to us (whom i'm sure had no idea that i understood them). good times.

Welcome

To all who are spiritually weary and seek rest;
to all who mourn and long for comfort;
to all who struggle and desire victory;
to all who sin and need a Savior;
to all who are strangers and want fellowship;
to all who hunger and thirst after righteousness;
and to whoever will come--

this church opens wide her doors
and offers her welcome in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ.

--- I saw this last week as I was looking for a church to go to while visiting my brother in Philadelphia (a short, but sweet visit to see my brother & sister). I ended up here, at Tenth Presbyterian Church, which was great!

My brother's show in Philly (Sat PM)

If you happen to be in Philadelphia tomorrow night, you should really go check out my brother at Green Line Cafe, playing stuff from his cd and other new tunes. By the way, you can also check out "assemble" on myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/assemblemusic

----

Tomorrow is the day!! assemble's first show:

Sat. July 26, 7:30pm
the new Green Line Cafe (45th and Locust)
w/ Upholstery and Gillian Grassie
$5 suggested donation

My set starts at 8:15pm in case you're coming from work.

Would love to see you there!!

-Drew

my flight back & my great brother

so, my flight back was incredible. it was clear that the Lord had gone before me and that he was caring for me the whole way along.

first, there was checking in... i weighed my bags on the scale at home, which i thought would be about right since the little calibrating thing showed that it was actually adding a few pounds. nope. i got to check in and both bags were over the 50 lb allotted. the lady was super nice and told me i had to take stuff out. i was prepared, so put it into a bag for my mom to take home. the lady noticed some of my heavy books and complimented me on my good taste. she then proceeded to tell me to just shove it all into my carry-on, which of course already surpassed any weight limit they might have. that was where the really heavy and/or important stuff i wanted to be sure not to loose. i told her that i thought it was probably already full and she said, actually go put it in the carry-on measuring thing to make sure it will fit. it didn't so i started to rearrange things there (and take out a couple books) to make it fit. when it did, she suggested i go across the hall to the shop with a sale on rolling duffle bags (so i could take everything i had just pulled out of the other bags). i asked if they were really going to allow me to have my carry-on plus this other bag the size of a normal big carry-on (basically) as my personal item (which i previously thought only included a purse or a laptop bag, or something a bit smaller). she assured me it would be fine and i went to get the extra bag (on which i saved a ton of money over having tried to get those books to me in madrid any other way).

so i was off and somehow just about everyone on the entire trip was extremely nice and helpful.

then i got to philly with the 6 hour layover, so i could hang out a bit with my brother (pictured above), my great brother. we went to his neighborhood in sw philly, which is by the way a very fun, artsy and ethnically diverse neighborhood with GREAT food, great architecture, great people, and fun things to do. (it also doesn't hurt that my brother lives there.) we had some good laosian food (kind of a mix between vietnamese & thai food - also where the country is located) and then went to his apartment, hung out with his cats, sat out on the back porch, and just enjoyed a couple hours together. unfortunately, six hours is a fairly short amount of time when you have to take up most of the later two back inside the airport.

(oh, by the way, my brother has a show in philly this saturday that you should DEFINITELY check out if you live or will be in the area. drew is a musician and a quite talented one at that. he's playing in a coffeehouse/bar which is somewhere around 48th street. let me know and i can get you the name. the name of his group is assemble, you can find it on myspace - although there are a few bands with the same name.)

then, i got back on a plane which fortunately had 2 empty seats between me and the girl on the other end. so we both got a decent rest and were able to actually LAY DOWN on the transcontinental flight. i did watch p.s. i love you, but was too tired to watch much else. i also got some good reading done in a fabulous book i recently picked up. it's a compilation of sermons on the sermon on the mount and is fabulous - Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Dwight Martyn Lloyd-Jones. apparently he is quite well known. anyway, i currently think he's amazing.

i also LOVED hearing and speaking Spain spanish again. it was great! and the people around me were both nice & interesting.

well, after sleeping a bit on and off for several hours, i was awakened by the breakfast cart bumping my feet. i laid back down, eventually got some juice & coffee, and eventually arrived safely to madrid almost an hour early - 7am. i got a taxi (since i brought back way too much stuff) and ended up paying about 10-15 euros less than i had expected! amazing! on the ride home a friend called to see if he could pick me up from the airport, which was really a nice bonus (even though i was in the taxi already).

i walked in the door to an amazingly clean apartment, thanks to my new roommate chery! such a blessing! unfortunately the internet isn't working and thus the vonage phone isn't either (but today i found a wifi line from the neighbors that works on and off, so at least i have something). later a friend helped me put together my new bed (which is SOOO nice).

as you can imagine, i am still getting used to the time change (7 hours) and am still a bit jetlagged, which is why it is now (wow) 3 am and i am wide awake. and in the morning, i am a complete zombie. at least i have a couple days before i have to fully engage with the normal world (sat/sun) - when i head up to galicia (nw spain) for the western european new staff training with ágape. in the meantime, i should probably get some shuteye.

note: this picture of my brother cracks me up. it looks like everyone is either amazed or horrified by drew's crazy dance moves. in actuality he is just knealing down to talk to vance jr., or buddy, my cousin's son. :-D jejeje. it really is hilarious if you look at drew and think that he is dancing. :-D