Cathedrals - WEEK 2

This week was filled with a national holiday, free salsa lessons, a midterm, swimming at the hotel pool, seeing a bull fight, visiting the cathedral in Sevilla, and traveling to Lagos, Portugal for the weekend. It is amazing to look back and see just how much I have done in the few weeks I have been here. I feel so blessed for all of these opportunities! I just wish I had time to write about all of the memories.

Today, I want to talk about my visit to the cathedral. Not only does it have the biggest alter in Europe, it is the BIGGEST cathedral in the world. It has the Guinness record for biggest volume! During my time here, visiting amazing churches like this one has been a common theme. Almost everywhere we go, we tour the main cathedral of the city. I have to say my favorite was a smaller cathedral we visited in Extremadura because the organist was playing while we were there. It was so powerful to hear the music echo throughout the walls. However truely, every single cathedral has amazed me.

The architecture and details of the cathedrals are indescribable. I can not even imagine how the builders constructed everything by hand. The buildings and decor are so much more ornate and elegant than anything we have in the states. Not to mention everything is huge. I like to think that they did this to honor and represent just how amazing our God is.

It is ironic because I have been trying to work my way through Revelations and it talks about the new heaven and new earth and just how indescribable they will be. I think about how the cathedrals here take my breathe away and I can not even imagine that our God would have something even better prepared for us...let alone that we get to live besides him. I want to be like John when he heard of these things, where I can do nothing but fall down to worship our perfect creator!

Revelation 21

The Holy City shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.

The city did not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.


Adios - comes from "A Dios" - basically GO WITH GOD! :)

Week 1

As you can see...and as my mom likes to remind me...I am finding it more difficult to make time to blog than I expected. I wish there was time to record everything I am seeing and learning here in Spain. I find myself walking around smiling to myself half the time because everything is so new and amazing. Of course, I am finding it much easier to capture everything on my camera, and have probably taken more than 200 photos. You need to check those out on facebook... it is much easier to upload a big amount.

Since the last time I wrote, I have completed my CIEE orientation which was absolutely PACKED, watched Flamanco, took a day trip to Cordoba, completed my first week of school, turned in my first spanish paper, played fútbol, visited the castle of Sevilla, took a weekend trip to Extremadura and saw lots of Roman ruins, made many new friends, ran along the river, and enjoyed many siestas (naps)!! Those are just a few of the highlights!

I am loving learning the differences in Spanish culture. I would say that the hardest thing to adapt to is the eating schedule. They eat a small breakfast, a huge lunch, and a small dinner. The problem is the times. They expect me to eat one piece of toast at 8 am and then wait for lunch at 2 or 3 and dinner at 10. My body still hasn't quite adapted, but I am enjoying getting tapas (sort of like appetizers with my friends). Luckily I am not a picky eater because I have to eat what my señora gives me and most of the time I have no idea what I am eating. :)

Here is a great example of the difference. Today we had a group lunch in Extremadura with CIEE. They told us to expect a typical meal of that region of western Spain. So we are trying this plate of bread crumbs, mixed with chorizo (sausage), red bell peppers, and a fried egg on top, and for the most part we all like it. We finish the plate and are pretty full and ready to go get ice cream!! (there is ice cream everywhere here ... it is amazing... but this also could be a problem) So we start to get up and our leaders say ... where are you going, we have two more plates coming... of course we start laughing and think they are kidding... but oh no... we had two more plates coming! It was a ridiculous amount of food. We were hoping that the second plate would be a little lighter since we already had meat and carbs.... but NO... the waiter brings out meat and potatoes....AND the meat is THE NECK OF A PIG!!!! The worst part is that here it is really rude not to finish your plates. We all tried to eat as much as possible... and it wasnt too bad... kind of tasted like beef stew.. but no one could finish the food. That is probably why they dont like americas because we waste so much of their food! oh well. and then we finished with flan. Overall it was an interesting and funny experience... I still cant believe I ate the neck of a pig!

There is so much more to tell, but I will save it for later. I miss you all! As my señora says, BESOS!! (kisses) :) adios.

Viajando

Well my body is officially going crazy on me from so much traveling! In the last week, I have:

• driven (well I navigated while James drove :) ) to Brooklyn, NY and back to visit the bffs (about 9 hours in the car)
  
• bused to Indiana for big tens and back (about 20 hours)
• drove to the Phily airport with Ben (about 4 hours)
• flew across the world to Seville (about 12 hours)
  

My body cant figure out when it is time to eat or sleep or anything...but it is TOTALLY worth it!!

But the good news is... I AM HERE safe and sound!! My orientation starts tomorrow so I have enjoyed a day of taking my first 'siesta', swimming in the beautiful hotel pool, exploring a little near the hotel, skyping with my mom and James, and getting ready for this adventure to really begin! So much to learn and experience....I can not wait.

Currently the whole town is going crazy out my window... screaming, yelling, fog horns, etc. because Seville just beat Madrid in futbol! I found it on the TV! So much passion...I HAVE to go to a game!

Here are a few quick pictures of my hotel, the pool, and surrounding areas!




and yes... that is a wash station thing in my bathroom....i dont think i am brave enough to try it! :) adios amigos!

Preparing

I have created this BLOG in hopes that while I am in Spain I can post pictures and stories about my time there. I am being optimistic that I will find time and internet to be able to do so! :) I want to be able to share my experiences with my family and friends, but mostly, I want to be able to look back and remember the amazing opportunity it was!

I will be leaving May 18 and traveling to Seville, Spain. I will stay in a home there for 6 weeks. Unfortunately I do not find out who I am staying with until I arrive for the orientation. We had to fill out a preference survey, so hopefully I will be with a family. At the pre-departure orientations I have been to, they say I could live up to a 45 minute walk away from where I will take class everyday! So finding good walking shoes is high on my priority list! While I am there, I will be taking two classes which include multiple day trips to places all over Spain.... Cardoba, Extremadura, Cadiz, and Granada....just to name a few!

I have never been to Europe before and I am so excited to experience a different culture and hopefully improve my spanish! I have little idea of what to expect, but I am ready and open to learn and live in such a different place than I am used to. I am praying that God prepares my heart for my experience there and protects me as a travel and live in the city. I know that I will grow and learn so much as I have to depend on Him more than ever just to communicate and find my way around! I am praying for the people I meet there and the opportunity to share with them and love them like God loves me. If you want to pray too, I would appreciate it very much!

For now, I better get back to the colossal task at hand... sorting through and packing up four years of accumulation from my time here at PSU! It ALL has to be shipped to CA before I leave :)

Thanks for reading!!