our mcnugget grows!: Thoughts and such...

What to say, what to say. I'm sure I've got something in here to say. Well, how about I tell you a bit of what I've been up to here? Grrrreat. When asked this, sometimes I feel like I need to glorify my situation and make it seem like, well, the movies. But, life is not such. And, again, this whole issue of me needing to prove myself is really coming out time and time again.

I've been staying at my cousins and honestly, it's been really great. I live life with them, for the most part. And live the Spanish life. Obviously, we're in Spain. But the most important thing is that we are living life. Together. We speak a mix of Spanish, Catalan and English here. When I'm not tired, we speak only in Spanish. Tonight, we watched the Incredibles... (my first time!) and I requested English. I wait for the day that it won't matter. I know it will happen soon enough. I hang out with their friends, which means only Spanish. Today we went to Elna's family's house and ate lunch. And walked around the city a bit. I go running along the beach, take the dog for walks, went to take a test i never took to get into a class at a school I wasn't registered... but supposedly will have no problem getting in, wrote up a resume, went to church!, just basically do life here. And I've already learned a ton, on so many levels. And each day I do something a bit out of my comfort zone. And each day I get a bit more confidence.

Peace. I'm finding peace here in the little moments. In the extra 10 minutes before the train comes. In the time when I wake up. When we are all in the kitchen together. It's not about the noise. It's not about the activity. Well, at least on the outside. It's what's happening in my heart. And learning to be CONTENT in every situation.

Today, I had a moment of peace. An excerpt from my journal:
Sitting on the beach. aire fresco. mist from the sea. sun kissing me. feet in the sand. Barcelona skyline to my right. sailboats to my left. I am here.

FUNNY STORY! Eric and I went to go running. So we're walking to the beach and his neighbor was outside. Tall man. Burly. Rather friendly fellow. Looks at Eric and says "Hola." Looks at me and in best efforts says with such gusto, "HELLO!" Eric and I burst out laughing. I respond, "So it's that obvious I'm an American?!" Yup.

Skype date with rayna, andrew and baby today. My favorite line of it all
Rayna: Andrew, do you know where Dean is? She's in Spain. That's far away.
Andrew: She's far away... but i can see her!
You all are close in heart to me. <3

Here are some pics I thought you might like. I'm overdue.

we are at a wine festival in the next town over and this traditional band was playing a song with the lyrics that were essentially saying goodbye to Lola. The whole cowd was swinging their tissue or hanky and singing Lola. just wonderful!