The Portugal Series

Dear blog readers,

I know I haven't updated this blog as much lately. At first, with every new experience, I wanted to race home and let my fingers express it to you, my seres queridos (loved ones) on the other side of the mar. Slowly though, Spain has ceased to be a foreign country and it has become my country. Maybe even more-so than the States in that I have grown here in some intense ways. Spain has changed me. The people, the food, the traditions, my students, traveling has changed me. I will come home and I will not view the world the same way. I think the way I see things, the way I view life is more me, more congruent with the way I am.

If you want to know more, spend time with me. I don't think I can sit down and write you and email with all my shifted views. If you ask my opinion on something, listen. Try not to have a chip on your shoulder. I promise to try the same, however difficult it may be.

If there is one thing I can share with you at this point, it is that God is bigger and more encompassing than I could ever imagine and that people have way more in common than different.

I am learning to make assertions, to speak, to laugh at myself at least twenty times a day, and to distinguish different Spanish accents.

I recently wrote in my journal (see below for entry) that my life is so full that sometimes I feel like I could explode. And if I did it would be an explosion that sounded like laughter and rained down sparkles and joy on all in proximity.

The British kid sitting across the aisle of this train just said to his father "You treaded on my toes so I treaded on yours." An excellent example of life and of a funny British way of saying things.

So, I introduce to you here the Portugal diaries. All of the entries tagged "Lisbon" have come straight out of my journal and typed into this blog. It was on this trip that I started to realize how much I have changed. And I'm going to try to express it here because you are my family and friends and I need to you know what I'm thinking about. I'm running around, living my life here and it's beautiful, but I need you to know what I'm thinking so that leaving and going back is not as difficult. Most of these thoughts aren't really new. What's new is that I have the confidence to express them and a need to hear what you think.

Love you.