My Trip to Espana (Part 1)

This was written whilst on the airplane from DFW to Madrid, Sunday afternoon and very early Monday morning.

This is me writing. I promised I would, didn't I? Well now I am. Why, you ask? Because it's three in the morning wherever above earth I am, midnight in Dallas, and seven AM in Madrid... I can't fall asleep and I've already watched both of the good movies American Airlines provides. So, let me expound to you, all one or two of my lovely readers, about what my day has been like, the first day of my trip to Spain.
This morning I went to Sunday School, but didn't get to go to Big Church. I love on some of my girls (Mich and Vickers especially) but not as much as I wanted to. I didn't get to give Becca her earrings in person, but I gave them to Missy, so hopefully she'll get them... Although I won't get to know her reaction until sometime around when I post this and can message her.
Then we (Mom, Dad, and me) drove to DFW to sit in the airport and wait. We got to the airport and checked in my bags at about, oh, say two o'clock. Bear in mind that my flight boarded at five fifty-five. Being the intelligent person I am, I called up my good friend Nathan and asked him if he was in town. About forty-five minutes later, I went through security and roamed around with a friend for company instead of freaking out in a corner until some kind flight attendant could help me (which is what I surely would have been doing without his assistance and airport-savvy. We found my ate no problem, and then found somewhere not surrounded by cranky people to sit and talk. Get this – he even introduced me to one of the pilots on my flight! What are the odds that someone he knew from church would be my pilot? Not luck – God's providence.
When I finally got to my seat, I squeezed my backpack under the seat in front of me, barely stuffing it in with all the things I'd crammed into it yesterday and the day before. Getting this netbook out of it was the first time I've touched it or anything in it in the first seven hours of my nine hour flight. Plans of mice and men, eh? I ended up sitting next to a very nice man named Carl, who is going to Spain to teach Spanish for six weeks. We talked for quite some time, which was very cool. I watched “Leap Year” and “Me and Orson Welles” (reviews of those movies may or may not be forthcoming, depending on how bored I get. The short version is I liked Leap Year better and differently.) and now I'm listening to the provided country station (I've recognized a grand total of one song so far) using one side of my headphones. I swear they worked this morning, but as soon as I got on the plane I discovered that not only do the provided earphones only work in one ear, but my trusty, somewhat dusty headphones also only work in one ear. Bah.
Looking out a window and seeing clouds carpeting the sky UNDERNEATH me is unlike anything else. I tried to imagine what it would be like and it's far better than anything I could have pictured. God's creation is truly beautiful. I got to look down and see the east coast picked out in lights, I could see the outline of the coastline from the air! I don't know if you can picture how unbelievably cool that was. Just trust me. Wow. I can just barely see a stripe of pink and purple cloud out a halfway open window all the way across the cabin, which is not nearly as beautiful as I might have hoped, but oh well. I've seen gorgeous things already today, and I will surely see more through the course of this journey.
God is good. He does amazing things, some of which are insane and hard to grasp with the mortal mind... and at the moment, this whole trip is one of those things. I'm already missing my beloved friends back home, but hey... Spain! It's (hopefully not) a once in a lifetime thing, and I intend to grab life by the horns, live life to the fullest, etc. etc. (Without any literal grabbing of horns planned, even if the running of the bulls does happen while I'm here, which I have no earthly idea if it will or not.)
In conclusion, pray for me! Oh, which reminds me... More for my own reminder than for any benefit of ya'll (Hey, a girl can be selfish once in a while) here's a list of people I'm praying for today (All the ones I can think of right now).
Michaela
Ashton
Levi (and his family)
David
The Dennis' move
The Rodgers' move
The Thompsons' move
Lyndsay and her new job
Erica (dealing with being a newlywed)
Stina (dealing with getting married THIS MONTH)
Angela (dealing with both her sisters getting married in one year!)
And all the seniors, even if I didn't mention all of them by name.
And many many more people.
Also I pray for myself, to have strength
patience
wisdom
obedience
humility
joy
focus on God
willingness to serve
longing to grow and mature
sanity (or not, you know, whatever)
etc. etc.
Signing off now, to stare out at the beautiful clouds some more. Love you all!
In Christ,
MaryLynn

Well.

I was going to send in a nice LOOONG post today, but as is I don't know if this one will send, much less the whole tirade I was planning, as the wifi here is iffy at best, and I'm pretty sure it's shut off.
Anyways, I will be posting, I just don't know how soon.
More when there's more! (At least for my June trip to Spain, I promise!!)

Yeah, so...

Blogging regularly has never been one of my strong suits. And many times in the past month I've pulled up this page and thought about writing a new post, and it just hasn't felt right. But currently my life is a very exciting thing, and I feel like getting it all down on (virtual) paper might help it make some sense. So, lets see if I can make a quick summary of what it's like right now to be me.

Currently foremost in my mind is track, since I did that this morning at SEVEN AM. :) It was surprisingly fun! Coach is having us sprinters work on form and building muscle, while the distance runners are jogging and jogging and jogging.... This morning he had every non-sprinter run as many laps as they were old. He had us run four laps and then lift weights and do lunges with weights while everyone else finished their laps. I'm soooo glad, because I'd much rather work hard and fast than jog interminably. I hate going slow.

Next most urgent in my mind at the moment is college. I guess really this should be at the top of the list, but it's not making me wince every time I move today, and track is. I've decided to got to ACU next year as a fully enrolled student. I should be taking fifteen hours: A psych course, Honors English, Honors Core, Bible, and an art class of some kind or some other extra class. I'll still be living at home (and saving $8,000 by doing so) for at least the first semester and probably more, depending on how well that works. Mom is working here now, so I get a pretty big tuition discount from that, and hopefully I'll get one from National Merit Scholars too, in addition to a Chancellors for my ACT/SAT scores.

School otherwise is at a standstill, as today is Dead Day and I have my finals today (Spanish), Wednesday (Personal Selling), Thursday (Calculus), and Friday (Chemistry) upon the completion of which I shall be DONE!!! (except for AWANAs and that extra psych class, but bear it no mind.)

In June I will be traveling to España to visit my cousins for a whole month (and attend Stina and Ricard's wedding!). As I've never been out of the country (except to Mexico) and I've never flown, I'm very excited. There are all kinds of new experiences there. In addition, I feel like God has really been telling me that He's going to use me on the plane ride, where whoever is sitting next to me will be a captive audience for the message. So, here's praying that I'll be able to follow God's will, and not get sucked into a book or music or a movie or out the window of the plane. :D

Hopefully right after returning from Spain I will get my drivers license, and somewhere in there I plan on getting a job. :)

I guess that's it for the moment.