On My Way to Her

I wanted to share with you my favorite spot between our house and Betsy's so I made this video Friday on my way out to say goodbye. It's right on 33; hope everyone can see it.



She's leaving for South Africa tomorrow (Tuesday). Please be in prayer for her and her six teammates.

Have a great week!

Love,
Philip

I went on a small excursion to Sitges last weekend with a few friends. Sitges is a small fishing town which is about a 35-40 minute train ride from Barcelona. We walked around the town for about half the day and then took the train back home. The train, however, did not take us all the way back to Barcelona. One stop before the Barcelona station everyone just cleared out and we were a little confused. Finally we asked somebody if the train would go to Barcelona and he kindly told us that it would not, in fact. So we scurried to get out of the train before it headed back to Sitges! So we had to get on a bus that took us back to Plaza España. The train system is a little messed up because of some construction difficulties, so the ride was basically free!

The Church in Sitges that overlooks the sea - there was a wedding there that day.
I'm gonna call this one "random chameleon (spelling?) perched on a wall."
Two friends that went with me, Yuko and Tana.

It was a good time overall and a pretty little town to see.

and...
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!
Last night the BCA group went out to a restaurant for a Thanksgiving meal, courtesy of the BCA program. It was sooo tasty - we had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, artichokes, and some apple dessert with café con leche afterwards - I admit, I was craving pumpkin pie. I am so thankful to have had this wonderful experience here in Barcelona, but am also looking forward to being with family again. The next three weeks will go by soo fast, i know it, and I'm gonna soak it all in while I can. I decided to drop my Metaphysics class and I'm taking it as an oyente (auditing) instead. This will take a little pressure off as the end is nearing. I enjoyed seeing the pictures of the walnut-smashing (brings back good memories) and settlers from the home-base! Were there any "inadvertant" cases of dropping the bread into the fondue?

Much Love from Spain!
Diech

The Most Exciting...

...to write about. Betsy Fisher.

She's done with her training and will be leaving behind Ohio one week from today. Bek and I went out to the commissioning on Friday and had a very fun drive:

out 33
through slidy snow
over West Virginia mountains

-an amazing picture Rebekah took that we're still trying to figure out!

After lots of talking, friends, meals, drives, walks, books...we decided we still like each other.

:) Good. Philip

More pictures of sunsets and such can be viewed at the following link:

http://community.webshots.com/user/diech2

Sunsets and some pretty amazing pictures of other things

so, it has been a while. the lack of postage may have been caused by a lack of time due to exams last week, or it could have been just straight up laziness. the former puts me in a better light, so i suggest you believe that one. Exams went pretty well i think - i'll get them back this week hopefully. Other than that i've just been taking it pretty easy, going to classes and exploring random places on the weekends. I went up to Park Guell again, because it's one of my favorite places. On Friday we had a tour of the "ciutat vella" which is the part of Barcelona that is built on top of the Roman ruins. We explored all the old buildings and churches and even saw some news ones (government buildings). it was all very interesting.

Park Guell and dog - this picture was taken from the top of a small mountain. if you squint, you may be able to see La Sagrada Familia and the sea.
Sunset at Park Guell
One of Gaudi's rather eccentric buildings
Café Dietrich - i was walking around with a friend and we came across my café! what luck
Another picture from Park Guell - the castle in the background is Tibidabo
This is an industrial park, situated very near the train station which is about a ten minute walk from my house. it's a very lovely place to sit and read (i had been reading "the sound and the fury" but i'm finished now) - on to "The Karamozov Brothers" - any suggestions after this?
We found a mexican restaurant while we were walking around. it was oh so good! (the two ladies on the far left are orginally from Mexico)

An amazing piece of engineering. this tree is in the middle of the monastery of the cathdral of Barcelona. don't ask me why i didn't take any pictures of the amazing pieces of engineering inside the cathedral.
Park Guell again

And the culinary surprises keep coming. My host mom, Marta, basically told me that i'm living with one of the best cooks in the BCA program. ha ha, and i think she's right. They have the small little pastries called pallettes (i think that's the right word) that they make for All Saints Day, which is November 1st. They are pretty delicious and they make the house smell absolutely wonderful. I didn't celebrate very much - i had a lot of studying to do. This may sound wierd, but one of my favorite things she makes is soft eggs with this tomato sauce and sauteed bell peppers. It's sooooo good, especially when one takes a barra of bread, breaks off a chunk, and dips it in the aforementioned tomato sauce/egg yolk combination. mmmm. i may have to continue this when i get home. okay, list mode:
fried calamari (squid) with sauteed onions and garlic with potatoes
artichoke omellette (spelling?)
Lasagna-type dish with some sort of cheese sauce on top (made by a friend of Marta's)
fish with chips
And always some sort of veggies or salad

mmm, yummy - i may be slightly less than overweight when i come home!

my blogs probably make me seem ADD - but it's just my mind that's all over the place. i'm pretty calm most of the time.
Okay, so i get really nervous when i talk to people in general, but i got up the courage to talk to my professor of Metaphysics. i pretty much stumbled all over my tongue and couldn't get the right words to come out. He is a very gracious man. So i had to talk to him about taking the exam early because the UB courses have exams in January. He told me i could take it whenever i want during the first couple weeks of December even though the class doesn't even end until the 16th, or something like that. That's how flexible he is - and he even offered that i could take it in either Spanish or English. When i told him i'd do it in Spanish, he made a polite, good-natured jab at my spanish skills by pointing out that i am a very brave person. ha ha. I may ask him if i can do my course-work in English. A lengthy explanation of the Brothers Karamozov in relation to Metaphysics in spanish is no laughing matter, so i'm seriously considering it. Anyhow, i have three short weeks to do it, and i'm starting to think that this amount of time is insufficient for this paper. it's optional, but i want to take a stab at it. We shall see.

For some reason i was singing "milk and honey" to myself the other day and thinking about those records we used to listen to. that train of thought is stopping right there and here is where i finish the blog with love - i've got to rush off to class now!

Love to you all!!!
-Diech