Christmas...

this year has been so different than any other year. First of all, it is the first Christmas I have been away from home. I am really far away from home...was in Finland for Christmas eve and day. I had the privilege and honor to experience a traditional Swedish Christmas, in Finland. I ate the most expensive thing I will ever eat in my life...CAVIAR!! I was scared, but always enjoy trying new foods. And it wasn't bad because we ate it on top of toast, mixed with sour cream and onions...so those two things help mask the taste of the fish eggs. good thing too. I also ate Salmon and Salmon pate, not sure if that is spelled right. anyways, now I'm in Stockholm, Sweden at Christina's house. Her mom flew in today also and tonight we went into the city to walk around. It was very beautiful with the city lights reflecting on the water. It was much colder than I'm used to in Spain, but much warmer than the frozen tundra of MN! So, the next 3 days we will be exploring Stockholm and eating yummy Swedish food. One thing I was dissappointed in was the Christmas porrage had an almond in it and whoever got it in their bowl would have the luck of getting married next. I didn't get it. Neither did Christina. I think Alex, the 2 year old did. He's darling, he won't have problems getting a lady when he's old enough. Oh yeah, I also really enjoyed playing with the kids...there were 6! My favorite of course were Christina's 3 kids that she nannys for. I got to be auntie Crystal for a while and hold baby Amanda and play with the boys. What a great treat!! okay, I better go. Maybe before we leave for Germany on Tuesday I can write, if not, you'll hear from me next year!!
Happy New Year!!!! I can't believe 2009 is almost here!

Christmas Vacation...

this year has been so different than

Brand new YouTube Videos!!

Yes, I finally have some videos that I made especially for Christmas for my friends, family and supporters! Check it out...www.youtube.com/user/CrystalLeigh7

Christmas Decor!

This is what I came up with for decor during the holidays. My lights really make me happy when all the other lights are off. It's so pretty and festive!

Sad...

because the strength of the DOLLAR continues to weaken! In the last week or so, it has gone from 1.28 to 1.409! That's a loss of over 10 cents per euro I take out or spend! Man, this means my Christmas holiday vacation is going to be more expensive for me! Sadness. I pray the Euro gets weaker and the dollar gets strong, like it once was!

Happy...

Wow! It's so hard to believe that today is the 16th of December! Where have the days gone? I'm happy to be in warmer weather right now. I have Minneapolis' weather on my desktop just so I know what I'm missing, and just to give you a feel of the difference in weather, this Saturday shows it we will have a high of 56 degrees and Minneapolis is 11 degrees! And right now it's -10 degrees (although it's in the middle of the night) in MN and 37 here!! It does get chilly when the sun goes down...but not so cold that my nose and boogies freeze up! :)

I am also excited to have a WHITE Christmas, at least, I'm assuming Finland and Sweden are going to have snow! I want to go sledding with the kid's Christina takes care of! 

Red, Hot, Holland Shoes!

Okay, so I know I've made many posts today, but while I remembered I wanted to post the pics of my new shoes! Yes, I got them in Amsterdam! They had my size (it's harder to find my size in Spain, and they were a good price!) I wore them on Sunday and felt so good in them! What do you think?

A picture is worth a thousand words!

It's true...check out my three new photo albums at the links to the right. I posted Holland, Romanian wedding and Bethany's visit pictures.

Letters are ready...

This week I've been working on getting my newsletters and Christmas cards written, typed and printed. I'm finally done! My hand is sore, I hate writing and I have horrible penmanship! Plus, lately my pointer finger on my right hand has been sore. I think something with the joints..I don't  know. I hope it gets better before too long. I have a lot of traveling coming up, which means lots of pictures to take! I also have Christmas gifts ready to be sent with someone who will be able to fit them into their luggage. I know the load for my family is going for sure with Kerry this Saturday, but I don't know about the packages for my friends. Sorry guys, some may not get sent until the end of December. I hope at least I can have them all sent with Michael by then. If not...we'll see. Shipping things from here is ridiculously expensive (I hear) and would probably take awhile. 

New Header...

who likes it?! I took the picture last night at our IMM Christmas Party! Yeah for Christmas! Thank you God, for sending your one and only son to be born and die for us. We so do not deserve it! (But are more than happy to accept it and hopefully live our lives to glorify you in all we do!)

Memories of the past 2 weekends!

Me in the Dam Square.

In the Dam Square, there were sooo many pigeons/birds and as Alicia and I ate our fries, they seriously hovered us. I felt attacked. They would fly up close to our heads...I was freaking out! 

Typical Holland architecture, buildings and city layout.

We took a ferry to a Windmill Park. It was super cold (not freezing like MN, but much colder than Spain), as you can see we tried to stay warm. 

Working it with my cute, new hat in front of the windmills!

LEKKER!! Stroopwafels! Or in English, syrup waffles...so yummy! I ate 2 that day!

Two weekends ago my friend Bethany flew down from Ireland. We took her to Segovia. Below is Moises and Tiffany, my friends here.

Segovia is famous for it's suckling pig, pictured below. Moi ate it for lunch. I tried a bit, it was actually good.

Me and Beth in Plaza Mayor in Madrid.

4 months!!

Wow! It is hard to believe that I have been working at IMM and living in Spain for 4 months! This means I only have 20 months left! Time flies when you get old and are trying to have fun. Well, I have had fun here. I enjoy the peeps I live and work with. My friends from church are nice. I'm going to be in a Christmas play with the young adults at church....I'm kind of nervous...I hate being in front of people and we haven't even practiced yet (not to mention I am not fluent in Spanish, and I need to memorize lines)!! I was blessed to go to Holland for Thanksgiving weekend to be with family friends. The weekend before my friend Bethany flew down from Ireland! I got to show her around Madrid and we went to Segovia with two other friends of mine. It was a great weekend! I'm tired now. By the way, stay tuned for pics of my weekend with Beth and Holland, I will try to get them up here this week. I have so much to do though: unpack, laundry, clean, decorate for Christmas, get ready for the IMM Christmas party this weekend, work on a family Christmas letter and picture collage, try to plan and book hostels for my Christmas break travels with Christina, finish buying Christmas presents and package them to get ready to send with my friend to mail in the states, etc. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention...it was snowing this morning!! It wasn't much and didn't stay, but it was hard to believe snow flakes in Spain! Welcome December!!!

A fun weekend and leaving on a jet plane!

This past weekend, my friend Bethany who is an MA in Ireland flew down to spend the weekend seeing Spain with me! She got a super cheap flight...lucky! We met a year ago at PFO-our orientation for missions. It was great to see her and show her where I live and take her to Madrid and Segovia! She also got to meet some of my friends here. Pictures will have to wait to be posted because tomorrow I am leaving for the Netherlands to spend Thanksgiving with family! George, Muriel and Alicia Thomassen, family friends from home are missionaries there. I'm excited to see a new country/city because I've only been in the Amsterdam airport. It will be good too hang out and meet the people they work with as well. I'll be super busy when I get back trying to post pictures of my two fun weekends! I'm so blessed to be here. Being in God's will and doing what he wants me to do at IMM is awesome, and getting to travel and experience new places/cultures is a fabulous bonus! Good thing I worked a bunch of jobs and saved money before coming here, so I'm able to do this. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! If you are reading this, you are probably one of my family members or friends, and I'm thankful for  you! Dios le bendiga! Ciao!

I've been meaning to...

post these pictures, here they are finally. The first few are of my new winter coat (that I love so much, it's so cute and fits so good!), and my two new pairs of boots, a black and a brown pair. I got them for a pretty decent price too!

It's sunny in Spain!!

Hello!! 

I love my boots and skinny jeans!! 

These guys are: (L to R: alien monster dude from Emily, Gnomie, and another alien monster guy from Emily). I'm supposed to name each one of the monsters to be me and one Em, so I'll say the shorter guy is Emily and the one with 3 eyes is me! They were a part of my birthday package from her! Thanks Em!

Romanian Wedding Experience!

(Sorry, this is super long, but it’s worth reading)
A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Marin, from the church I go to here asked me if I would go to a Romanian wedding with him (he’s Romanian, by the way). I was like, “yeah, that would be awesome!” You know me…I love new cultural experiences. It was this past Saturday, and the bride and groom must have been praying for some great weather…because it was an absolutely gorgeous day! It was probably around 65 degrees, maybe even in the 70’s—and this is on Nov. 8!! Needless to say, I didn’t need my new winter jacket that I wore, but it was useful when the sun went down. Oh yea, the ceremony was outside too! So, I actually got to enjoy basking in the sun! The ceremony lasted maybe 7 minutes. The dad walked the bride up the aisle, then gave her over to the groom. We all clapped. The pastor then welcomed us to the ceremony and proceeded with asking the bride and groom how long they planned on being married, they both said “my whole life” and that was it! Then we clapped again. Well, that’s all the Marin translated for me. But I don’t think much else happened. It was so short! No candles, no special music, nada. Not even a “you may now kiss the bride.” I don’t even remember if they kissed up there. After the ceremony they served appetizers while everyone got their picture taken with the couple. We also took lots of pictures because this wedding was at a beautiful site! It was a restaurant that was also a golf course, so I guess sort of like a country club in the states. Marin’s friends were so nice! And the girls always included me in on their pictures together and they are just so darn cute! Then we went inside to have the meal. This was a 4 course meal: cheese with jamon serrano (some nasty cured ham that Spaniards think is good for them, but it’s super fatty and just not good), sarmale (which is really good Romanian food! It’s meat with rice wrapped in cabbage leaves), chicken with potatoes and mushrooms, then really yummy cake with ice cream in a chocolate cup and coffee! In between meals, we wandered outside for some more pictures in the gorgeous landscaping! Once the wedding reception was over, we went to some of the girls apartment to hang out for a bit, then they all decided they wanted to see a movie. So about 10 or so of us went to see “Mama Mia.” I was happy that they kept the songs in English with Spanish subtitles. But the rest of the movie was in Spanish. And I guess since we are young and were having so much fun already, we went to play some pool at the nearby game place! One of the most memorable things about that day was that I taught one of the girls how to say “How are you?” and “Do you speak English?” in English. The entire day…she kept saying “How are you” with her cute Romanian accent! She is just hilarious! I laughed so much! She did a lot of other funny things, but I guess you had to be there. Basically, she’s crazy fun! Although I couldn’t communicate with anyone, really, except Marin, I still had a great time. (well, they could’ve spoken Spanish and I would’ve understood, but I don’t expect a bunch of Romanians to speak their non native language with each other). I will always remember this day, because I got to experience a new culture, meet new people, eat good food, dress up and be treated nicely!

*Some of the pictures from the day are in the next blog. Soon, I'll make a Picassa Web album then you can check out more!

Happy Birthday Kenny!

God knows...

who the next president of the United States of America is going to be. We do not need to worry if the person we voted for does not make it in. What we need to do is pray for that leader and pray for a unity in America, a unity and strengthening of the church in America. There are still a hours left for the polls being open. I haven't even thoroughly checked on the internet to see what the east coast states are predicated to be blue or red. I care, but just say "Lord, have your will be done in this election!" The only difference we can make is by voting (which I did), by praying for our leaders, and by standing up for what God cares about and what we should also care about. May God bless America (even though we hardly deserve it!) 

3 months!

Today is my 3 month anniversary in España! It's been a fast but good 3 months. I've been to a few different cities in Spain and have already had one friend from MN/Sweden visit me! In 3 weeks I have another friend coming down from Ireland! And the weekend of Thanksgiving I'll be going to celebrate with "family," the Thomassens, in Amsterdam! I haven't felt too homesick yet. I do miss the conveniences of everything in the states. Spain isn't the most convenient place to live, but I do like some things here and think we should adopt them in the US. For example, you can park on the side of the road, facing either direction. Like if you are driving on the left but see a good spot on the other side, you can park there even though your car will be facing the opposite way of the traffic flow. One reason I am sad...is that I miss my kiddos! Samuel, Lauren and the newest addition that I haven't even met yet, Jasmine. I strongly desire to give them kisses and hugs and watch them grow and become smart! Good thing I get "Spanish kisses" from my non American friends here to sort of make up for not being able to kiss the kids! :)

21 months to go....thanks for friends and family for supporting me in this experience! It's where I'm supposed to be!!

Chilly in Spain...

yes, it's raining today. It's really windy and I'm chilly sitting in my living room. Yesterday was gorgeous!! In the mid or high 60's! So nice! I sat outside for lunch. Sunday was amazing too! After church I felt like I could lay outside in my pool if it was outside still and get a tan. Instead I took a nice 3.5 hour nap because I really needed one! It was a crazy weekend with 2 late nights (I'm a party animal!!! hahaha. not really.)

Speaking of parties...the term for "party pooper" in Spanish is "aguafiesta" translated it means "someone who puts water on the party." I learned that a couple weeks ago from someone else who had just learned it. 

New curtains!!!

Here is what I did with two purchases from Ikea (that I bought over a month ago!) I wanted to cover up my ugly shower and sink area in my room, so during my Ikea mission to buy things to spruce up my home and make it more mine, I looked for curtains to put in my room. I think I found what I was looking for! I finally took the time and energy to put it together tonight! {click photo to enlarge}

One of my favorite things God gives us...

This was taken tonight. I ate dinner while watching the sun set and make a beautiful skyscape! I had to take a picture, I just couldn't handle watching this not photographing it! 

My birthday photo

Erin made me a chocolate with peanut butter frosting cake for my birthday! yeah! It was a month ago, but I just remembered I did not share this yet. It was also the first time I wore my 5 dollar dress I got in MN before I came. 

Christmas Vacation!

For my blog readers who don't have facebook, and may not know....I bought my ticket to fly to Finland on the 23rd to spend Christmas eve and day with Christina's (my friend who is an au pair in Sweden) host family! Well, it's her host dad's family. I'm really excited to spend Christmas in a new culture, with Finnish traditions! I also bought my ticket to fly from Finland to Sweden for the day after Christmas! Then, Christina's mom is coming in also, and we plan to possibly go to Norway then Germany, the land of our ancestors!

Tropical Thunder...in español!

Last night I got out of the IMM/America bubble :) and met up with another fellow American girl Tiffany (not a missionary, she married a Spaniard). We went to the mall for an hour or so then her husband and cousin picked us up and we went to the cine. First we ate at a Doner Kebob, a turkish/middle eastern restaurant--it's good, because the movie didn't start until 10. Anyways, another friend came with too, so the 5 of us went to see Ben Stiller's movie Tropical Thunder. Yes, it was in spanish, so it was not as funny as it would've been with the regular actors voices, because that's always one of the things that make movies funny! And, no I did not understand much of it. However, since it was an action movie, you don't really need to know much of what is said to get the point. I could tell some bad words were being said. It was kinda a gross movie at times too. But, Tom Cruise was in it, and I didn't know it was him until my friends figured it out. Deborah, said she knew his voice sounded familiar, because they always use the some dubbed voice in Spanish for actors in movies. They did some good special makeup and making him fatter in the movie, it was pretty funny to see him like that! And Matthew MC, was in it....he's always so good looking. He had nice curls in this movie, which I am biased about! So, Tiffany and I told our friends that it would've been better in original voice. The two Spaniards and one Romanian didn't like it. Oh well, I guess some humor only Americans can appreciate....or something.

Lauren turns 1!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY PRECIOUS NIECE LAUREN!

CUMPLEANOS FELIZ A MI SOBRINA PRECIOSOS LAUREN!

It would be nice to celebrate with my family this weekend, but I cannot be there. It makes me sad. I really want to snuggle with my babies and give them kisses! Hopefully there mama and daddy can take video of her birthday and post it on their blog for me to see (hint, hint)!

stay tuned....

I'm working on getting my videos pieced together and uploaded.  I'm home alone for the next 10 days, so I should be able to catch up since I have no house mates (and am saddened by that!) 

Race for the White House

This is what I think: I'm SO GLAD that I am not in the U.S. right now, because I HATE every political commercial that is aired, all the time, on the tv. I didn't watch much television back in the day living in MN, just a few select shows, but I still hated hearing and seeing all the bashing the other candidate, pointing fingers at the other's problems, etc. It's so annoying! I feel bad for you because you probably are stuck seeing those dang commercials. Anyways...

To try and be a good American, I have been watching the debates of the VP's and Pres. candidates on YouTube. I'm currently watching, actually listening to while I work, the debate from last night at Belmont (props to Angela for attending Belmont!) From the debates/forums I've watched/listened to: I'm sick of hearing the word "fundamental" and am annoyed at the fact that these politicians seem to just point fingers at the other (some I feel more than others). Please, why can't they just be REAL and answer the question posed and tell us what THEY think and what THEY will try to do. Stop telling us what the other person has done or thinks about the issue. Tom Brokaw didn't ask you to point out all of the issues that you and you're opponent disagree on!! Out of what I've seen, I feel like Sarah Palin has been the most real and to the point (during the VP debate). That's what we want to hear!

One more month until the most important election of my time! (I still haven't received my absentee ballot in the mail...Benton county better get the move on, my vote counts, and there may be a possibility that MN will win the electoral points for same candidate I vote for! Wouldn't that be amazing!)

Making home more homey!

I want to share with you, my faithful blog readers, what I've done to my home (so far) to make it more homey and personalized! A few weeks ago I went to Ikea with Denise, in the hopes of finding a few good priced items to makeover some areas of my living room and bedroom. First, you must know that all of the walls in the "MA living area" are mintish green. I don't think they were expecting it to be as minty as it turned out, but it is, and I guess they didn't want to redo it. It's fine...after a while you don't even notice, but it would be nice if my furniture didn't clash with it! Yes, I have forest green couches, that IMM has had forever!! I saw them in a program from back in the day when IMM was located in Belgium (in the 80's and 90's). I also have a nice burnt brown/goldish recliner that looks like something I would've seen at my grandpa's house. At least I have a brown toned rug to tie everything in that area together. Anyways, after a missionary garage sale, an afternoon at Ikea and an afternoon at the Rastro (a huge market Madrid is known for), I was able to do a small makeover in my living room area. Click on the photos to enlarge them so you can read what I wrote.

Pictures from my bedroom soon to  come, once I put it all together.

Sunsets...

I love them! Here's some captured images I want to share with you. The first two are from my birthday in Segovia. I love how in this first one, there are light beams that come out and are so noticeable. 

A full moon (with a lens flare).

Thank God for digital!

I celebrated my birthday this past Saturday in Segovia, a city just north of Madrid with Vino and Erin. Two other new friends were supposed to come, but something else got in the way, so they had to bail on us. Anyways, as we all know, I love pictures!! Buying my digital SLR camera was the best purchase I have made...probably ever...well, equal to my Mac! I took about 450 pictures in one day! The reason I was able to take so many was because I had just deleted all the pictures from my memory card. Some of the pics were of textures, doors, windows and different fonts/texts for various stock image collections I'm building up, but still...450 is quite a lot! I'm now going through and deleting ones of course that are duplicates or out of focus or just not good enough to use memory on my hard drive. The point of this blog is: if you don't have a digital camera...get one! 

Photos of Segovia and Toledo to come soon!

Making Memories...

This past weekend I had the opportunity to make some great memories with a friend from college, Christina, and a new friend, Mac, from Mexico City. Mac and Christina met on an airplane from Mexico to Minneapolis earlier this year. Christina flew in to Madrid on Wednesday and on Friday we took a bus to Barcelona! We met Mac there on Saturday morning and had a very full day of sightseeing, meeting Italians, watching Spain's favorite sport...futbol (or as we say in the USA - soccer) and laying on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea! Since I only had until Sunday afternoon, I packed my full day in Barcelona with visiting sights from my top list of things to do!  Christina and Mac were very good sports about letting me decide what things to do that day. Thanks guys! We sure got our exercise in for the weekend. I love being a tourist and traveling, but when you have someone or some friends to travel with, see new sights, and make memories...it makes that time all the more better! I believe, it's really the people and relationships in my life (or anyone's life) that matter most! The sights and places in Barcelona would've been nice to see by myself, but friends make it so much better! Even though I met Mac for the first time on Saturday morning, the three of us had a great time (at least, I think they did too)! Here's some of the captured moments from the trip!

La Sagrada Familia

L to R-Mac, Gianlucas and Mateo (the guys we met from Italia! They were fun and nice, they gave us their Barcelona guide map and told us about Fira Barcelona, a beautiful fountain, light and music display you'll see later). I LOVE meeting people from other countries/cultures!! Living in MN, I didn't get that much, but in Spain...yes! 

 That's me, in front of the National Art Museum. Didn't go in it, but it had a great view of the city!

Oh yea, Barcelona vs. Russia Futbol! One thing I wanted to do while living in Spain was go to a soccer game, however, once I found out the price of the tickets, I knew that would probably not be an option. But, thanks to Mac and his generous offer to pay for the majority of the tickets, we got to go!! Muchas gracias amigo!

Mac, all smiles at the game! (until is started raining, but it just makes for a good story and fun experience!) The gorgeous sunset was a nice bonus...thanks God!

More pics to come....it just takes so long to download.

Guys like girls with skills....

...like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills...

so, while I'm in Spain I'm going to try and get skilled at cooking and baking! This week, I made buttermilk pancakes (didn't turn out so well, because I didn't have baking soda) and I also made maple syrup from scratch!! yep...1 cup of boiling water, add 2 cups of white sugar, dissolve then add some maple flavoring (I don't remember how much) and  you have maple syrup! Mine turned out a little more runny that I like.

Tonight, I made banana nut, chocolate bread and muffins! Yum!! My muffins turned out well, however, after an hour of the bread baking, it was still mushy and not baked in the middle (I think my first mistake was putting too much  batter in the pan). So, I dumped the partially baked bread onto a cookie sheet, cut off the done outer edge, scooped out the middle not done batter and put that into a muffin tin. Then I baked those all some more and have sloppy looking muffins and parts of bread...but it all tastes the same, so who cares what it looks like, right!?

Also, a couple weeks ago, I made refried beans from scratch (Vino's family recipe and he coached me through it). I hope with great cooks as neighbors that I'll get some good recipes and tips from them so I can one day be a great cook!! I want to be able to cook (good food) for my husband when I get married!!

La Feria! Fair in Alcala!

The past two weeks Alcala de Henares, the city near my little town, was having a fair. So, I went twice with friends and here are some pics.

mmmm, chocolate covered churros! next to the nasty looking fries and hot dog cup.

Coconut and horchata nuts.
I bought a cream filled, chocolate covered churro!

For many more pics of the events of the last 2 weeks, please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/crystalclear7