Was it a good trip?

Since the minute that I got home people have been asking me, "Was it a good trip?" At first I was a little annoyed, but soon I realized that the more I get asked that question, the more I really consider it. Was it a good trip?

So far the answer has come back a firm yes. What is an awesome trip? Sometimes. There were times when I thought I could stay there for the rest of my life and be totally happy. But there were also times when I wanted to find the next plane home and go back to what is normal. The Wills, my host family, warned me from the get go that they didn't really have a summer internship and that I would kind of be on my own. I wasn't worried about it though. I mean I would be in Spain! How could I ever get bored? They also warned me that once the "honeymoon" stage was over it could get a little harder. Again I brushed it off, thinking, "There is no way I could get tired of something in just two months."

For a few weeks I was walking on the clouds. I was riding my bike around Granada, meeting Spanish people, and eating at tapas bars about twice a day. It was awesome. Everything was totally new and exciting. But after about 3 weeks things started to get less interesting. I had seen just about everything in Granada, I had spent way more money than I had planned to so I couldn't just go out all the time, I had no responsibilities so my days were LONG and kind of empty and I had gotten just a tad tired of not being able to have a normal conversation with someone because we don't speak the same language.

That is when I hit the low point of the trip. I spent week just moping around and feeling sorry for myself. I didn't have any friends so I didn't have anything to do. But I couldn't really make friends because I couldn't speak very good Spanish and even if I could, Spanish circles are really hard to break into. I just wanted to get out of there and go home.

Now that I look back on that, I see that there were two sides to that week. It's true that I didn't have many friends. And it's true that because I didn't have many friends I didn't have much to occupy my time. And it's also true that it's hard to make friends without good Spanish in a culture that isn't all that open to new people. BUT it's also true that I did have SOME friends who would have loved to hang out with me and some of them spoke English.

I think that the biggest problem was that I had no idea why I was in Spain. I kept wondering when I was going to have the opportunity to teach someone something. Or when I was going to do something useful for the the ministry there. But finally I realized that I wasn't there to help everyone. I realized that I was there to be taught. I know everyone always says that but I really mean it. I really had nothing to offer. Short trips in places like Spain are really hard because the people there aren't poor. It's not like I was going to go out and build some guy a house. All of the ministry is relationship based and good relationships take a long long time to develop. But I didn't have a long time to develop relationships.

After that I realized I just needed to relax and go with the flow. From there I learned all kinds of things about myself and how to interact with people. How to enjoy a little down time. How to really listen to someone when they are talking. I realized that I talk too much and that when I am having a conversation I need to be more interested in what the other person has to say rather than only being interested in what I have to say. I also realized that my friends can't replace God. That was a big one.

The trip was good.