A visa for you, HA! a visa for me, HA! a visa for we...HA!

Just in case you aren't fluent in the movies of my childhood, that's a little Road to El Dorado for ya.

Well after lots of phone calls, one VERY frustrating meeting with a study abroad advisor that is ABSOLUTELY RESILIENT with her pessimistic, "I could give a whole crap less if I accidentally send you to GERMANY" attitude (who by the way is starting to remind me of the Teacher from the Black Lagoon), and a beautiful 10 hour drive with the ever sweet Jillian Zamora that reclaimed all my hard work and...

I have been visa-ed!

well, dern CVS, Walgreens, and every other "passport picture taker" I was recommended to wanted me to pay 9 dern dollars for 2 passport pictures!  I needed 8 pictures.  Homie don't play that game.  Especially when you've got a Jillian Zamora on your side.  We added all the pictures together into two 4 x 6s.  Cost me 60 cents.  Take that SUCKAS.

Gerald D. Hines Waterfall Park in Houston

Jelly Zamora & Bernie Bell

The Williams Tower.

Well...then there was this wiener dog.  THE most furry-looking wiener dog of all time.

So of course! I had to go investigate.

The following, is real.

Sweet sweet cousin Brittani and her mom, Wendy, let Jillian and I stay the weekend at their house in Houston while we Visa-ed it up.   What a fun crew of girls!  LA-OVE them!

On our way back we found Sam Houston.  Whom I thought was Hank McCoy from X-men.  I don't know why I would ever assume that Houston was like SUPER into X-men like that.  But hey, I'de be down with it.

Rocky Road fudge from a hole-in-the-wall-gas station. DUUUUUUDE.

yah, around hour 4 of our way back, I kinda started to lose it.

The following pictures were shot at the Waterfall Park by Jillian Zamora.  This is my ABSOLUTELY shameless and COMPLETELY proud plug for Jillian Zamora photography. Click on that link for more of her work.  Believe me, it will change your life.  ALSO, check out her amazing artist of a husband, James Zamora.  They both do AMAZING commission work.

 

These are my FEEBLE attempts to capture Jillian's beauty.

As the time draws nearer and nearer, 9 weeks, 63 days, 1512 hours, I dig further and further into my cultural experience in Spain.  I haven't even gone yet and I feel like I've learned so much!  Here are somethings I've been thinking on:

1. Last week a plumbing problem made my room flood.  Now, this was no heavy rain lifting my desk off the ground, but it was significant enough that my carpet had to be replaced immediately.  However, in the 4 days it took for us to rip up the carpet, remove and disassemble things from my room, and get the carpet replaced, I felt so defeated.  I live in Arlington, go to school in Denton, and work in Fort Worth.  Therefore, I am always on the go.  Back-to-back study abroad meetings means I stay overnight in Denton sometimes.  And when I am in Arlington I have SO much studying to do so I'll go to America's Best Coffee (which I highly recommend) for hours at a time to study.  THEREFORE, I cherish my room.  A spot that is MINE.  A place that I know will be the same as I left it.  A home where I am very clearly there.  My room says, "Brittney Bell exists and lives life here.  There is a key element missing when she is gone and no one can replace it but her."  It is my comfort and helps me to feel anchored to SOMETHING.  I actually thought that God was punishing me somehow by ripping apart my room that way.  But as my sweet friend Meagan always reminds me, "our God does things FOR us, not TO us".  It took my comfort being taken away, not knowing when or how it was going to be returned to me, for me to realize that in Jesus is my comfort.  Now I have new carpet in my room and the furniture has been returned to it's proper place.  But I need not forget: Christ is my anchor, Christ is my home.  He has gone before me to prepare a way.  He...my God that loves me, He is faithful.  In Christ alone is my joy made complete.
2. Last night, I got to catch up with a precious girl by the name of Lyndsey Trantham.  She's a Spanish minor so I INSTANTLY wanted to talk to her more.  Throughout the night we talked in bits of Spanish.  Then she made a this comment:  "You just speak faster than I do.  It's more fluid".  I thought I was going to kiss her. Seriously, one of the most amazing encouragements I have gotten in awhile.  And she said it with such sincerity, like, she was really amazed.  I was just reminded that although I have a ways to go, Jesus has brought me so far in my little Spanish journey.  It is because of Him that I have these words.  Praise Him.
3. As a planner, I have about 385 different scenarios in my head of what my time is Spain will be like.  As a planner, I tend to think 2 months ahead instead of enjoying the here and now.  As a planner, I try and predict what God is going to do in my life and figure out how everything works together.  But now, I'm letting go, in a very Francesca Batestelli kind of way, and just letting God work.  I will cherish the time I have with my family now instead of fretting the day I will have to say bye to them.  I will let Jesus infiltrate my heart and my thoughts, calming me and loving me through every one of them.  I'm letting go of the scary, unknown, predicted, expected, sad, and weighty.  And am picking up the joy I have in Christ.

ps. This is one of my FAVORITE songs right now.  It not only stirs my heart for Spain and all things Spanish.  But also stirs my heart for my Savior as I remember that, although highly attractive, sweet sweet Carlos Baute cannot fulfill these promises.  My God, whom adores me, will forever.   

Con todo mi amor,
Brittney