Sevilla, y otras cosas

Sevilla was amazing. I thought I had already written about it, but I guess I didn't. Sorry! We toured the city on bicycles for about three hours. I saw the Plaza de Espana, El Torre de Oro, and all kinds of other famous buildings. It was miserably hot. I got to spend a lot of time with the parents and grandmother of Sheila and Josue. They are wonderful people. I ate some amazing croquettes, vegetable puree, pollo con chiles... and the list goes on. I also ate a not so good pincho de pollo (like a chicken kebab) that made me very sick to my stomach.

Since getting back I have spent a lot of time studying. I did go to the Reina Sofia and I have now seen almost all of the paintings on my list, including Picasso's "Guernica," and several works by Dali!

School has gotten serious. I am trying to get ahead these next few weeks because November will be so busy.

Nov 6-8: Paris

Nov 11: presentation in my Christian Education class

Nov 17: 50 minute presentation in my History of the Church class

Nov 20-22: Pinos Reales, University group retreat

Nov 27-30: London

Tomorrow, I will go to church, then help with Sunday School for the second service. Hopefully I can convice myself to come back early and get some studying done!

I miss everyone like crazy. I try to pay attention to the blog, but with facebook and the cheap phone calls on Skype, it's hard to do it all. Plus school. Haha. What did we do before technology?!

BESOS

Whitney

Sevilla

I'm going to Sevilla this weekend with Sheila and Josue! There are plans for bicycle tours, sight-seeing, and tapas! I will write more when I get back, if school doesn't kick my butt too bad. Busy busy busy

Missing everyone! Besos!

Whitney

It's been a while...

Wow, long time no post... :/

Weekends get crazy busy around here. I'm hardly in the seminary to talk. I'll start with last Friday

After my class, I went to Atocha to meet a friend from the seminary. We went to El Parque del Buen Retiro. It used to be the king's private park, so there are a ton of beautiful statues everywhere. And people making out, of course-- because people make out in parks here. ALL the time. After that, we ate at T.G.I. Fridays. I said, "You pick." And that's where we went. I was basically back in America for 2 and 1/2 hours, except that the waiter took our order in Spanish. Then, we went to the Palacio Real and the Sabbitini Gardens. Beautiful places both.

Friday night the university group at the church met for the first time. It was amazing. There are people from Nigeria, the Philipines, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Switzerland, Portugal, England, Australia, and... Knoxville? I met two kids from K-town and another girl who grew up in New York, but her dad was born in Knoxville! SMALL world.

Saturday I went to a Samuel Barcelo concert. He is an amazing singer. If you like gospel (in Spanish), I recommend him. After the concert, we spent over an hour walking to Burger King. By the time we go there, they told us it was take out only, so we sat outside @ midnight, eating Burger King.

Sunday I went to church for the 10:30 service. Afterward we played basketball! I looooved it. Then, during the second service, I helped out with a 3-4 year old Sunday school class. I have a class called "Christian Education," and part of my final is to teach one of the classes myself, so I'm kind of "shadowing" for a while. The kids are adorable, but their attention span is non-existent, so we have to keep things moving constantly. After church, I went to a Chinese restaurant called Chin-Chin with some friends. I love Asian food. The guys ordered 7 dishes or so and everyone shared. Then we went to my friend Marcio's house and kind of watched "Black Hawk Down." I say "kind of," because there was so much talking going on that no one really paid attention to the movie.

Monday, I saw Inglourious Basterds (Malditos Bastardos). In Spanish. I can get a student discount with my CN ID, which is very nice.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday = class class class. I had tutoring with Sergio today and learned some nifty slang. I'm about to Skype with Tim to figure out plans for Paris. Yay! I love and miss everyone!

one of those days

I had stomach ache today so laid around watching Beatles videos after class. I now know all the words to "Let It Be," so I'm trying not to feel like I wasted a day in Spain laying around :/

gringa

friend: you don't look too much like the other gringas

me: i don't? how come?

friend: well. you're short. all the gringos are so tall and loud.

I think that's a win.

Friday: Spent the day walking around Alcobendas with my friend Enoc. He's looking for a job so we went to every clothing store/fast food joint to hand out his resume. Then there was ice cream. Dolcelatte, the Argentine heladeria, has the most amazing ice cream. Ever. And I have tried a lot of ice creams. I'm normally not a fan of mint-chocolate chip, but the kind at Dolcelatte has so much chocolate chip in it, I'll be a fan for life.

That night, I went to Plaza Norte, a big mall, with Sheila, Josue, and Enoc. After walking around for a while, we ate at this place called "Cien Malanditos" (I'm pretty sure I'm spelling it wrong...) Basically, it's "100 tiny sandwiches." And there really are a hundred different sanwiches to try. I only got four though; tortilla and ali oli, chicken and ali oli, lomo with queso, and salmon with brie. I have no idea what kind of meat "lomo" is, but it was awesome. I also tried some traditional Spanish ham that was very good too.

Saturday: My day-time was very lazy on Saturday, but that night was La Noche en Blanco: The Night in White. There are a ton of museums, concerts, plays, movies, and other activites, all free to the public--all happening very late at night. We got into the National Museum of Natural Sciences at about 10 p.m. Afterward, we went to tour the soccer stadium where Real Madrid plays. It was awesome. We got home about 3:30 a.m. Needless to say, I went to the LATE service at church on Sunday. Here, the second service starts at 1: 00 p.m.

After church, I stood around visiting with everyone for a while. There was a very spirited argument about Barcelona versus Madrid happening in the parking lot and it was hilarious to watch. After leaving the church, I had a 'mixto' kebab with Sheila and Josue at this Middle-Eastern place across the street from the seminary. Mixtos are amazing. And huge. So I had mixto leftovers for dinner.

Monday: Today I talked to my professor about my student ID card, then took the train to the University of Comillas to buy a text-book. It might seem like a boring day, but every time I use public transportation, it's an adventure.

I got to talk to the family on Skype yesterday--pretty awesome!

hasta luego

on tha grind

friend: "Whitney, what does it mean to be "on the green?"

me: "Like in golf? You know, the 'putting green.' "

friend: "Really, 'on the green,' G-R-I-N-D....?"

me: "Oh no no no... that's different... umm, the Spanish verb is 'empujar...' but, it's like slang, you know?"

friend: (blank look)

me: "check out urbandictionary.com"

Classes

Classes started Tuesday in the seminary and so far... so good. The continuous Spanish in various accents makes my head spin sometimes, but I am really enjoying everything so far. I have:

New Testament, Old Testament, Philosophy, History of Christianity, Christian Education, and a research class. The first four are very reading-intensive, while the last two are practicum based. After classes, I spend my time studying, playing cards or soccer, and eating with friends. I spend a lot of time playing soccer, but more time watching it. A Spanish team is playing someone, somewhere, basically every night.

I also learned how to watch "The Big Bang Theory" on the internet in Spain! HULU is not streaming in Europe yet. Boooo.

Interesting fact: My friends tell me that people in Spain don't floss their teeth because they think it will separate their teeth and make them gap-toothed... even if that's true, I'm too big a fan of my Dentek single use floss-sticks to give them up.

Tomorrow... class from 8:30-9:30, then going to get my ID card (since I'm an extranjera--foreigner, I have to register with the local authorities), then Plaza Norte with Sheila and Enoc.

Have a great day and good luck to the GANG! Break lots of legs at TSU!