One Pope Brings Hope

 

The Church in Spain where I got married

 

I have always had a strong faith in God, and I have felt him throughout my life. Not so much with organized religion—I’m a non-practicing Catholic. My mother was a devout Catholic, went to Church regularly, prayed daily and wanted her children to follow in her faith as well. Unfortunately, I had a hard time taking to the church. I didn’t believe in some of the sermons, and I always felt that the bible is just a small guide for our faith and that we shouldn’t take it literally.

Now that I married in a Catholic Church, I find myself wanting to return to the Church, but take from it what helps me with my faith. For example, several weeks ago, the priest we sat and listened to (well, since it was in German, I sat in my own thoughts while my husband later interpreted what the priest said) was a radical priest. He condemned so many people that there wasn’t anyone left to condemn. If the Catholic Church wanted to bring in parishioners, he wasn’t the one to assign to the task. My husband felt disgusted after mass, and didn’t want to go anymore. I told him all we have to do is avoid that priest’s masses. There’s nothing wrong with going to mass and following God’s word—taking away from it what guides our faith. At least, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.

Religion, like many things, is very personal. Some don’t believe at all, some are up in the air, some are like me, and some have strong religious convictions. But no matter what, I couldn’t help watching CNN the past few days, waiting to hear from the new Pope. I’ve never done that in the past, but for some reason I found so much hope and change hanging in the air. Flags from different countries stood high in the crowds of people gathering in St. Peter’s square. Anderson Cooper interviewed several people from all parts of the world, and they also stated that they were looking for hope and change.

With all that’s gone on in the Catholic Church regarding sexual abuses, people want action and punishment against these priests. Catholics also want to see a change in bringing the church up-to-date in relation to the parishioners.

I couldn’t help but tear up watching all the people from all walks of life gather together in peace to find out about the next Pope. There were many Americans hoping Cardinal O’Malley would become Pope, but instead, a Pope was chosen from outside Europe—Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who chose the name Francis. I didn’t know much about him, but I found him to be humble, and from what we were told, to be one who lives in the faith, not in the wealth. I wish him well and hope his legacy will be one of positive change.

God and Church,

Bea

You Can’t Handle the Truth!

Well…I’m trying to handle it. The time has come for me to say good-bye. I’m sad my European adventures and time with my Love is ending, but I know I was blessed and appreciate the opportunity. We’ve explored so many places within Germany and Europe that we’ve tracked our walks and they totaled approximately 210 miles since January 9. I’ve been pretty proud of our footage. Here’s a recap of the journeys we took over the past 5 months: (Germany) Hattingen, Essen, Monschau, Plettenberg, Bochum, Krefeld-Lynn, Wuppertal, Munster, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Dortmund, Kempen, Schloss Burg, Altenberg; (Luxembourg) Luxembourg; (Scotland) Edinburgh, (England) Windsor, (Spain) Roses, Cadaques, Figueres, Barcelona, Girona, Banyoles, Besalu; (Belgium) Brugge; (Holland) Amsterdam, Venlo, Domburg, Zoutelande; (Italy) Lake Garda, Verona, Bologna; and (Sweden) Stockholm, Trosa, Nykoping. I want to thank you all for following us in our travels.

As an update to my “I Got Your Back” post, I haven’t shed my weight like Germany shed the snow, but I haven’t gained either. See how I made that a positive. ;) At the present time, I am unable to sell my condo due to unforeseen matters. Once those unforeseen matters are cleared up, I will put it on the market. For anyone looking for a condo on the south side of Chicago in a historic part of town, and within walking distance to the train, shoot me an email and maybe we can work something out.

At the present time, my Love has not found a teaching position in the U.S. What this means is that he will be coming to the U.S. with me through the month of April for his spring break and student exchange excursion, but will return to Germany in May. I will look for a job, hopefully freelance or within the Chicago downtown area, while he finishes out his school year in Germany. If he still doesn’t have a teaching position in the U.S. by summer, he will come in July during his summer break and then return to Germany at the end of August—another year of separation.

It will be a tough year for us, so I ask you to send good thoughts our way…or a job. LOL! Anyhow, this will be my last post before I leave for the States on Friday. I wish you all a safe and awesome week.

 
Bea, who is looking forward to a shower without a hunched ceiling.

Carnaval en España (Carnivale in Spain)

I had the pleasure of going to Spain for a second time to visit with my Love’s parents. They made sure our stay was comfortable and they were very hospitable. We drank wine, ate, talked (well, my love translated) and laughed. They showed me new areas we didn’t visit the last time and a local tradition. I could have stayed there longer, which they kindly opened up their home to me to stay any time.  

We arrived Friday evening. It was raining, so they stoked the fireplace where we warmed up with a few glasses of wine before dinner. They have fig, lemon and pomegranate trees, which make wonderful fresh ingredients for foods or just to eat straight from the tree. Here are a few pictures of Saturday morning around their veranda and looking out onto the fields.

Here is a night picture of their veranda.

 

On Saturday morning, we all headed to a place called Girona to explore. It has gone through many sieges with the first inhabitants being Iberians and current residents, Catalans. These pictures are of the market in Girona and a Gothic church.

 

 

We walked through the streets and came upon Arabian baths, so we paid a few euros to see them.

 

From there, we walked around a park and then headed up to the church.

Here is the church from the outside and the view from the front of the church.

We left Girona and went to another town called Banyoles, where we ate lunch. These are a few pictures of the lake.

After lunch, we went to another place called Besalu, and on the way, we stopped at a 900 year old church.

The bridge in Besalu is gorgeous but I couldn’t find what year it was built. I took many pictures of the bridge and looking down from it, so here are a few. 

On Sunday, my Love and I went to Barcelona while his parent’s attended a function they had already planned. We took the train and spent the day exploring parts of the city we didn’t get to explore the last time. Before going to Barcelona, I thought New York and Chicago were huge cities. Barcelona is gigantic.

The first place we headed to was Sagrada Familia. This church was designed by Gaudi and the size of it is overwhelming. These pictures don’t really show the magnitude of this church. Although there are many beautiful sculptures on this cathedral, I think Gaudi got a bit gaudy while releasing his creativity. You’ll see a bunch of cranes in the picture because they are still building the cathedral.

We then headed toward the seaport. Here are a few pictures I took along the way. They had the Barcelona Marathon, so I took a few pictures of the runners.

Some pictures of the seaport area and the statue of Christopher Columbus with a backdrop of Montjuïc Castle.

We finally reached Montjuïc Castle. Not only is the castle enormous, the view is spectacular.

Afterwards, we took a cable car down and walked back to the train. These are pictures of a park we passed, the art museum, a water fountain and the arena.

The weekend was beautiful--we had great weather and company. Hope you had a nice weekend too.