Our Twisted Love Story, Part 3

April 21, 2011April 26, 2014 ~ Kaley ~ 1 Comment

Please read parts one and two before this one, if you haven’t.

I was minding my own business in the CSF House, where I occasionally attended Thursday night services, when I found it – the way to get back to Spain. They had a simple table, three-fold posters, and pamphlets. I picked one up and read “Where We Work.” I was quite surprised to see Spain listed among such countries as Ivory Coast, Thailand, and Kenya. Spain, a place for missions work? I was taken aback, yet intrigued. I vowed to research more. And so I did, scouring the websites until my eyes glazed from my suddenly urgent desire to grab hold of this opportunity, one I’d never considered remotely plausible. As I filled out the laborious application, I got more and more excited, anticipating the day when I would once again step on a plane headed for the continent.

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Our Twisted Love Story, Part 2

April 19, 2011April 26, 2014 ~ Kaley ~ 4 Comments

It was the summer of 2008 and I was 21 years old. I had just returned from my semester abroad and expected to feel different, be different, like all those study abroad pamphlets and information sessions told me I would be. I expected reverse culture shock. I expected the U.S. to frustrate me in small ways that it had never done before. None of this happened. I was the same old me and I still loved America, the land of milk (and by milk I mean soda) and honey (and by honey I mean high fructose corn syrup). I liked driving my 2001 Hyundai Elantra, a five-speed that rode so smoothly. I liked sitting on the porch on humid, almost sticky, midsummer nights, laughing with my family. I liked drinking homemade margaritas and biting into garden fresh tomatoes, the juice running in rivets down my chin and neck.

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Why Did You Go?

August 1, 2010April 26, 2014 ~ Kaley ~ 1 Comment

I was born in Podunk, Indiana. I love my hometown, but it’s not worldly. I grew up sheltered and went to college at a small, private Christian school. After a year, I realized such an environment was counterintuitive to my own ideals. I decided to go to Indiana University Bloomington. It was a great place, full of local food, ethnic restaurants, and diversity. It was still in Indiana, but it was honestly the best place for me. I blossomed there. In the spring of 2008, I went to study abroad in Toledo, Spain.