[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.9.2″ min_height=”555.9px” custom_margin=”-43px||-469px|||” custom_padding=”16px||0px|||”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.2″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” min_height=”487px” custom_margin=”0px|auto|-6px|auto||” custom_padding=”0px||0px|||”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.2″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” min_height=”543px” custom_padding=”||0px|||” custom_margin=”||44px|||”]<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I was studying abroad in Oxford.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s a pretty common answer to the question, \u201cWhere were you this semester?\u201d when you run into people you know. And the question that follows is, \u201chow was it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Little do people know that there\u2019s no good answer. It was four months. It was a semester. It\u2019s like asking how any four-month period in your life is because you\u2019re really living it.<\/span><\/p>\n So how did I process four months of that?<\/span><\/p>\n I spent time in London; Cardiff, Wales; Vienna, Austria; several locations in France, including Paris; Athens, Greece; Dublin, Ireland; Edinburgh, Scotland; Brussels, Belgium; many places in Germany; and then, all over northern Spain, including Madrid. It\u2019s a mouthful. And saying the names don\u2019t do even a little justice to my experiences there. So instead I want to focus on the ones that affected me the most, of which there were three.<\/span><\/p>\n In a little town in eastern France, right in the Alsace region, there\u2019s a tiny town called Colmar. It\u2019s so beautifully picturesque that it\u2019s bizarre, and is famous for being the hometown of the architect of the Statue of Liberty (in fact, set in all the walking paths are little metal imprints of this particular monument). But what really made this trip amazing to me was the opportunity to interact with our Airbnb host: a woman named Nicole, who opened her apartment on her spacious bit of farmland with an open smile and a pastry from the bakery down the street. Every day we were there, she drove us for free to the train station so we could go where we needed to go. But what really made it special was the fact that she spoke only French and no English, and so I got to work out my limited French and actually converse for real.<\/span><\/p>\n In Madrid, for one of our classes, a few of us took a trip up the mountain to a monument known as Valle de los Ca\u00eddos. We didn\u2019t really know what to expect except that it was a monument to those on the side of the Spanish Revolution who fought for the fascists, which was a little nerve-wracking. The place itself was set up as a strange chapel, windowless and huge, with a Star-Wars-like military parade stretch of marble in front. But each of us was most sobered by one particular thing: a sobering five-hundred-foot cross stretching up from the roof.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/honorscollege\/files\/2021\/11\/Jarvis_SP19_2.jpg” _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default” title_text=”Jarvis_SP19_2″ hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″ custom_margin=”-43px|||||” custom_padding=”|0px|0px|||”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Lastly, Athens, and my favorite spot there: the Areopagus at the foot of the Parthenon, a big lump of rock in the side of the mountain that was primarily used for large court meetings back in ancient times. It\u2019s also the location of Paul\u2019s speech in Acts chapter 17 regarding the Unknown God, a deity that the Romans held a shrine to. Walking across its surface and seeing the same city he saw, the same hills and monuments, and then reading the very chapter he gave in that spot was, well, cause for goosebumps.<\/span><\/p>\n So what\u2019s the biggest takeaway for me after four months of things like that?<\/span><\/p>\n Probably that learning happens in the moments when I least expected. Sure, I went to museums and historical places and found tons of stuff to marvel over\u2014but what stayed with me were the things that taught me about the real character of a place and, maybe more deeply, what I really value.<\/span><\/p>\n All of these places left me speechless. They ended up on the backs of my eyelids long after I left them, yet were the things I didn\u2019t know would affect me at all.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMany are the plans in a man\u2019s heart, but it is the Lord\u2019s purpose that prevails.\u201d –Proverbs 19:21<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/honorscollege\/files\/2021\/11\/Jarvis_SP19_3.jpg” _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default” title_text=”Jarvis_SP19_3″ hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″ custom_margin=”||10px||false|false”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I spent time in London; Cardiff, Wales; Vienna, Austria; several locations in France, including Paris; Athens, Greece; Dublin, Ireland; Edinburgh, Scotland; Brussels, Belgium; many places in Germany; and then, all over northern Spain, including Madrid. It\u2019s a mouthful. And saying the names don\u2019t do even a little justice to my experiences there. So instead I want to focus on the ones that affected me the most, of which there were three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18033,"featured_media":5372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080","footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[22860,6643,571,496],"class_list":["post-5369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-acu-honors","tag-england","tag-oxford","tag-study-abroad"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/h2>\n