To the North we go!

This past week was absolutely incredible...exhausting, but nevertheless incredible. The first adventure started early on Thursday morning as my roommate and I drudgingly stumbled out of bed to our 5am alarms, ready to get on a bus for the next 6 hours as we headed north to Toledo! Our school took us on this amazing excursion that was complete with a stop at the windmills of Don Quijote de La Mancha (for those of you who may not know, this book is very famous and is based right here in España), which was so cool because I am actually taking a class that is entirely on Don Quijote and therefore, this famous knight-wanna who has a run in with these so called "giants" that came to life right before my eyes. I love it when you can actually witness the things you are learning about in school...it's like the textbooks have come to life (cue the "magic school bus" theme song!).

Looking out towards the patio of the monastery

We then made our way to our very nice hotel in Toledo to drop off our stuff and head to see the famous "El entierro del Conde de Orgaz" painting by El Greco as well as the monastery, "San Juan de los Reyes." I don't ever want to lose the awe that I'm instantly overcome with when I see the amazing detailed architecture and thought that has been put into all of these historical buildings.
Friday morning started with a hotel-spread lack of all things hot water. Yep, I am seeing quite the trend in my showers becoming encounters with icebergs here in Spain as when I came home from my weekend travels, I proceeded to have 3 more days of chilly showers! But alas, I am getting ahead of myself because the weekend did not end before first going to the Cathedral of Toledo on Friday morning and then 2 friends and I made our way to the beautiful Barcelona on Friday evening.

We made it to the hostel as very happy campers as the process of just getting there was an achievement in itself because the majority of people in Barcelona don't speak Spanish but Catalan, a mix of Spanish and French. It was as if we had stepped into another country! We walked in and were also instantly pleasantly surprised by the fun and cute atmosphere because you never know what you're going to get with a hostel....and they upgraded us from an 8 person room to our own private 3 person room for free! We were living the life at this point. We now had our own room to ourselves with what appeared to not be the cleanest sheets I've ever seen...and 40 cent loaves of bread, jam, and bananas to cover most of our meals for the rest of the weekend. What can I say, when traveling on Europe on a college budget, we go all out.

Me and Emma in front of La Sagrada Familia

Saturday started off with freezing temperatures and...snow?! Once we began the day at about 9am though, it just proceeded to rain for the next few hours. Luckily during this time we were inside the Sagrada Familia and the rest of the day continued to be freezing but full of clear skies and sun! Our day was then filled with the most amazing sights in our 12 hours of walking...yes, 12 hours! Of course we stopped for lunch but that was about it! With so many things to see and only 1 day to do it all, we walked and walked and...walked.
We feasted our eyes on the amazing, crazy architecture of La Sagrada Familia by Gaudi, the fun and famous street of Las Ramblas that was full of fun shops and restaurants and also lead us all the way down to the piers, the BEACH (it really was as amazing as it sounds even with the need to be all bundled up and wearing boots on the sand), the huge Cathedral of Barcelona, and finally this amazing light show at an even more amazing fountain complete with music and the makings of the perfect ending to our packed day. Our night however was not as packed as we only had about 4 hours to sleep and then got up at 3:15am to catch our 6am flight back to Sevilla. Needless to say we were quite the weary, but very happy travelers.

Me and Jana taking in the ocean view

This beautiful city became one of my new favorites

The famous fountain light show at Fuente Mágica de Montjuic

Adventure is out there!

I have just about finished my first round of exams....just one to go this coming Wednesday! I know what you're all thinking, the school part had to come sometime, right? And it did at last, as I really don't know what to expect as far as my grades go on these tests...I didn't feel amazing about them but hopefully I will just know more of what to expect on the next round of exams. It's insane to think I am going to school everyday and doing nothing but Spanish! Spanish grammar, Spanish art history, a literature class on Don Quijote, and a class on the three cultures of Spain...my mind is spinning with español. Es la vida en Sevilla... :)
To celebrate the end of a crazy week of studying, 6 of us girls from my school went to a Sevilla fútbol game on Friday night. It was incredible! As the entire stadium sang the anthem, "Sevilla, Sevilla, Sevilla!"(click on "anthem" and you will be singing along with me...it is quite the catchy song!) we couldn't help but feel proud of our new city, especially as they lead us to a 3-1 victory! Spaniards are ALL about their fútbol, and it was amazing to sport our new Sevilla jerseys and take part in such a fun part of their culture.

Vamos Sevilla!!!

Goal!!

As for the week ahead, to Toledo we go! Our program is taking us on an overnight field trip to Toledo starting thursday morning at 6am! Ayy, ayy, ayy...now that, is early. From there, I am planning on going to Barcelona for the weekend with two friends as we plan on taking in the city in a crazy 24 hour turn around basically. We'll get into Barcelona quite late on Friday night and have a flight back to Sevilla on Sunday morning at once again, 6 am. It shall be quite the whirlwind of a weekend, followed by a 3 day week of school and then....PARIS for the 4 day weekend with my friend, Carly who is actually studying abroad in Cádiz-about an hour and a half from me!! I cannot believe I finally get to see the city I have been dying to see for so long!
Adventure is out there, folks and I can't wait to keep running after it!

Sweet? Bittersweet?

Ahh this week is quite hectic with all of my upcoming exams! I have a 50 minute group presentation on Wednesday, a short one page paper due Thursday, 1 exam in Art History and one in History on Thursday, and my Grammar class exam on Friday....and then a Don Quijote exam on Tuesday...the goal therefore? To make it through this week alive! I would greatly appreciate all your prayers back home as I am not quite sure what to expect exactly. I have definitely had my share of mid-terms and finals weeks back home, but never have they all been completely in Spanish! 
So this post shall be short and sweet (or maybe it's more bittersweet?) but I thought I would leave you all with some encouraging words and my favorite lyrics from a song that I know is helping me try to gain a better perspective amongst a really stressful time. 

[Click on "Safe" to hear an amazing song]

Safe 
(by Phil Wickham)

Have you heard of the One who can calm the raging seas
Give sight to the blind, pull the lame up to their feet
With a love so strong he'll never let you go
oh you're not alone

You will be safe in His arms
You will be safe in His arms
'Cause the hands that hold the world are holding your heart
This is the promise He made
He will be with You always
When everything is falling apart
You will be safe in His arms

Flavors of Sevilla

What a week it has been! For Spanish culture being famous for a relaxed lifestyle complete with "siestas" everyday, these past few weeks have been anything but that! It feels as if we have been going non stop and taking in everything as we can already tell that these next 4 months are going to fly by! But today (my Saturday), I finally stopped to take a breath, sleep in, get some homework done, and sit in a café to enjoy a frappé caliente de chocolate...it's as amazing as it sounds! As I sit here in this cute little coffee shop, I look back on the great highlights of this past week to share with you all back home:

1. Domingo (Sunday):
My roommate and I went to Catholic mass with our señora and her husband and were amazed to find ourselves in and out of the service in under 30 minutes! This was shocking compared to last week's service at the Spanish evangelical church which lasted more like 2.5 hours. It felt as if we had just gone through "iglesia rápida"-like fast food, but for churches! It was an awesome experience though to be able to see where our host parents, Chari and Walter go every week.

2. Lunes (Monday):
I attended my first flamenco class! Yes, you heard right, I am taking a flamenco class at my school every Monday night now. It was so much fun and I had a blast as I always love to learn new dances. It will be so fun to be able to learn the cultural dances everyone knows here so I can join in with the people in the streets during Feria-a huge week-long festival in April where the whole city is overtaken with parties and celebrating, dancing the nights away.

3. Martes (Tuesday):
I met up with my "intercambio" (where I am paired up with a Spaniard so that we can practice and teach each other Spanish and English), Marta who is actually a really good friend of my sister's from when she was living here! We had an amazing time together at this amazing Moroccan tea place as well as walking around the city together, her showing me the hidden gems of the city that only a true Spaniard would know about. I am so excited to be able to start meeting up with her every week! I am also so thankful to her for taking me in under her wing and allowing me the opportunity to make Spanish friends!

Later that night our school treated us to a "Noche de Tapas" by assigning us groups to be taken out by Spaniards to different restaurants around the city. We ate sooo many tapas (a Spanish custom of sharing tons of different trays of appetizers around the table for dinner...which is usually at 9 or 10 here) and were stuffed with delicious food to last us a whole week! I don't even know what most of the food was but I do know that it was absolutely amazing! You realize what you're missing out on when you're taken out by real Spaniards!

4. Jueves (Thursday):
My school went to play Bingo at the old folks home near our school. This is actually the place where I will also be volunteering every week with two other girls. Every Tuesday, I will visit "Hospital de la Caridad" to hang out with the old men that reside there, playing games with them to help them do mental exercises and of course to just chat with them and listen to them chatter on for a few hours. My friend, Kate and I actually made a new special friend whose name is Juan. He is 75 years old and has the sweetest personality and smile-two front teeth and all. He is very excited to have us come back every week and we can't wait to bring him a little joy for a few hours every Tuesday.


As you can see, I have been getting really involved in so many different activities and cannot wait to continue living and thriving in this beautiful city that I get to call home for the next 4 months.

Happy Saturday from Sevilla!

Recapping time

For those of you that follow my pictures on Facebook (if not, go check them out!), you can probably see that I have been quite busy these last few weeks!
Just like at George Fox, I got involved with helping lead worship for our program's Wednesday night Bible study, "Encuentro." Worship has always been my outlet and best manner for me to sit in God's presence. It was therefore very special for me to have the opportunity to do so here in Spain as well, brought me a little piece of joy from home. It felt amazing to be able to worship God via both English and Spanish songs. I also had the privilege of attending a Spanish church last sunday which was also an awesome new experience. I am sure we were quite the sight to see as this small congregation sat with wide eyed stares at the fact that about 15 American girls were now making up about a quarter of their congregation. After about an hour and a half of worship, scripture reading, and what I thought was a short message, the real message began....haha. We definitely arrived home hours later than our señora's half hour Catholic mass.

"...from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb."-Revelation 7:9

On Thursday night, all the girls in the program (a.k.a the three boys didn't come) had a girl's night out on the town for some churros and chocolate-these things are AMAZING. I have guiltily already had them about 5 times now...what can I say, when in Sevilla! We then went on top of Las Setas to have a view of the entire city beneath the setting sun. It was absolutely incredible. It still blows my mind how beautiful this city is with amazing architecture that is centuries old...and it's all basically in my "backyard," just a short walk away.

Noche de Chicas

View of the city from Las Setas!

Sunset 

Once again, referring back to my Facebook pictures, you may have noticed that on Friday we took a 2 hour bus ride to Córdoba for the day to visit La Mesquita-a cathedral turned mosque, turned cathedral again. All that to say, it has some of the most amazing architecture you may ever feast your eyes on. I have been learning all about it in my art history class at school and was so excited to see it all for myself but alas....that did not exactly happen.....
It was a great early morning watching the sunrise over the valleys on the drive to Córdoba and stopping about halfway for some café con leche (also a new favorite of mine). We had just pulled up to the preserved Ancient Roman bridge to cross over to the mosque and had literally only been standing in front of the mosque door when I realized something. I did not feel well....the pounding of the head, the churning of the stomach and lightheadedness all lead to one thing....it was indeed a migraine!! Let me make the story more dramatic with my added on sound effects: "noooooooo!"I could not focus on a word my professor was saying because at that moment I could care less what this specific type of arch meant or who built it when, I had to get out of there. I found our school director and with teary eyes got out the words that I did not feel well and thought I might puke. Imagine my fear of puking inside of this amazing mosque! That would have also been quite the story to tell. Fortunately we were able to find a bathroom across the street in a bar where I painfully tried to get myself through my awful migraine and throwing up and feeling quite embarrassed that this was actually happening to me. Needless to say, it was quite the long day, I did not see the mosque I had so awaited, and I missed home more than ever before.

My first and last picture of the mosque.... ;)

And so that recaps my last week or so! I know that last part may sound quite graphic and miserable, but I promise I am having the time of my life! This time just happens to come with some great opportunities for growth, being stretched outside of my comfort zone, and having to rely on God to be the only thing that stays constant when everything around me has completely changed.