Trying Something New

Well here I am...in my final semester of college! It feels so strange to know that I am actually going to graduate in December. So I figured I would try something new for my last semester at A&M.  I am going to try and post a picture a day!  It sounds easy, but I already know that it will pose a challenge.  But I am excited to try! So this is day 1 and here is the pic of the day:

In this picture are a few of my favorite things! A cup of coffee; blueberry frappe, a game of tavoli in one of my favorite coffeshops - mugwalls, and of course my wonderful friend Brittani!   We are obsessed with playing this game!  It looks like a backgammon gameboard and I'm sure it is but the Greeks call it Tavoli!  I'm sure you are wondering how we learned to play this game?  Well you see, Brittani and I were part of  a summer project team that went to Greece for the first half of the summer!  We were there for 6 weeks and in the process we met Greek students, had coffee, shared with them the love of Christ and learned a lot about the Greek culture - which includes Tavoli :) I could share so much more about our experience in Greece but that should deserve a post all its own! 


Well there it is folks! My first picture of the semester...stay tuned for more :)


-Chantel

T-Shirt Fundraiser!

Hello Friends!


As many of you now know...I am going to Greece this summer!  I am so PUMPED to have this wonderful opportunity and in order to make this happen I need your help! So to help out with some of the costs (which is $5,650) I am selling T-shirts for $17! We have submitted the design and now I am just waiting to hear back from the company with a final design.

So I figured I would go on ahead and get a jump start on this process by taking orders and collecting money.  I have set up an account with paypal to make it super easy to collect orders and payments and if there is another option that might work better for you ...let me know!

This is a sketch up of the design that I am thinking and it will print on a light blue shirt. The blue stripes are going to be the same color as the shirt so basically all you will actually see are the white stripes with the overlapping art layer!  Once I get a final design I will post a new picture!  I am positive that they are going to look pretty sweet and so I encourage you to consider helping me out by buying one of these tees and inviting your friends to do the same :)






HERE'S THE LINK TO BUY ONE VIA PAYPAL --

Sizes

Small $17.00 Medium $17.00 Large $17.00 X-Large $17.00 XX-Large $17.00 Small (shipping) $20.00 Medium (shipping) $20.00 Large (shipping) $20.00 X-Large (shipping) $20.00 XX-Large (shipping) $20.00

Peace & Blessings,

Chantel Zapatero

Brrrrrrlin

After we had done as much as we could in Dublin, our next stop took us to Berlin!  Never have I ever imagined that I would want to go to anywhere in Germany because my notion of Germans begins with their not so gentle language.  But, for some reason, the weeks leading up to our departure for fall break I became really excited about going....the reasons I can't really remember right now.  Maybe it had something to do with hearing about other peoples experiences in the region and how it was a must see destination while we were overseas.  I was game.  


I am so glad that I took the opportunity to visit Berlin. Berlin is truly a fascinating city.  It is so deeply rooted in its past, yet progressively moving forward as a modern city.  Remnants of the past are visibly seen everywhere you look; parts of the berlin wall, checkpoint charlie, tv tower, memorials and so much more.  On our first day we participated in the Fat Tire bike tours.  This city offers many different tours, but we chose to do this one because as a student at A&M I have heard so much about this company.  This company is based in four cities across europe; London, Paris, Barcelona and Berlin.  The one in Paris was started by an aggie graduate and a goal I have in life is to one day work for this company as a guide!  So of course I wanted to get first hand experience of how they operate...which now I realize may be different from city to city.  Nonetheless, participating in this tour has affirmed even more my desire to work for this company! Also, it was a great way to see the major attractions that we might have not been aware of, so that in the next two days we could go back and spend more time at our favorite sites.  Which ended up being too many to fit in our short amount of time we had there.  


Berlin is beautiful and during our time there REALLY cold.  I love Europe and its beautiful display of colors during Fall.  Our time there was filled with biking around the city, through a huge park, going to museum island and other monuments.  We visited two museums...one had just opened the first exhibit ever on Hitler and the other was the infamous Pergamon museum which houses so many artifacts that I had learned about so much through my art history classes.  So of course I was pumped! The food in Berlin is wonderful as well.  Because of the diversity of culture found in Berlin; it has the second largest turkish population, the food found here is very diverse!  So we tried the doner (turkish), currywurst and even managed to find a steak house!  One of the biggest things that I got out of this experience is how it is one thing to learn about various things in a classroom, but when you get to immerse yourself and really experience the things you learn about, it just takes on a whole new level of importance to you personally and really resonates within you.  As a result, Berlin is one of my top favorite destinations!


Now, here are some pics!

As always, if you have questions about any of these photos...do ask!