Semana 2

Plaza de Espana
Breakfast of Champions!

First of all, I want to say thank you for all your prayers and support. I am so blessed to have such loving family and friends! You're in my thoughts and prayers.

Now, I'll give you on update on my week...

Sunday: January 31

Kate wasn't able to come to church with us today because her feet hurt so badly. Praise God that she received her boots from home and is comfortable now! Cole and I didn't get lost on our way to church today and were pretty early. We went to a cafe near church to kill some time. Church was a bit longer today and quite a few people gave testimonies. I had a hard time understanding the message because I wasn't feeling well and struggle with understanding to begin with, but Cole was able to explain to me some of the things I didn't catch. Cole finds understanding what people say easier, and I find speaking easier because I don't really care if it's 100% correct; I just say it, so we can do pretty well together..haha. We met 3 American students from a different study abroad program who were sitting behind us. They're interested in a Bible study. What an answer to prayer for fellowship! Hopefully, they'll be at church again tomorrow.

Concha's friend was over and helped make lunch. The fish was really good! Her friend talked quite a bit faster than Concha, but it was good to hear someone different.

Last post, I had said that I was struggling to see where God wanted me to be and what He wanted me to be doing in Spain. He made me realize that if I'm here only to encourage Kate and Cole, love my host family and roommates, and learn to rely on Him more, then that's enough. I was looking for something more and not being content with what He'd given me. I know it's so simple, and I feel silly that I hadn't realized that earlier. However, I'm so glad that God made me realize that!

Monday

We had different professors for our prep course with CEA. The first guy, Sergio, looked like he wanted to be there even less than we did. He just went straight through the workbook. It was way to simple! We were doing exercises with things like, Soy baja y simpatica. Tengo veinte anos. Way too easy! The second part we had a girl that didn't use the book. She was really great, and we learned about different superstitions in Spain.

Concha and I had lunch alone today. It's really helpful for my speaking because she corrects me when I say things wrong. I was able to tell her a little about the internship, limited by my lack of vocab, and she said "religion is really important to you isn't it." I was able to tell her that God is important to me and once again was kind of limited by lack of vocab.

Carmen invited me to stay with her for 2 weeks at the end of July at her house in the North. She said she thinks the North of Spain is the prettiest, and it's like paradise where she lives. I REALLY want to stay with her! Carmen and her brother will be taking surfing lessons for the two weeks. I wouldn't be able to stay for the full two weeks because of Josh and Ashley's wedding, but I could stay for a little over a week. This is something that has been on my mind a lot this week and in my prayers. It sounds like an incredible experience, and I would love to do it. I'm not sure that it's possible because of not knowing what to do between the internship and staying at her house and not working for another 3 weeks isn't ideal.

Today, I also talked to Antonio again in the cafe, and decided with Kristen that either there is an abusive relationship going on in the apartment above us or naughty children. There is always screaming and stomping at some point in the day. That's something that I just can't get used to yet.

Tuesday

The first part of class today was awful again. We finished an exercise we had worked on the previous day, and Jenny asked if we could do something more challenging because this was too easy for us. He said yes, but we didn't do anything more difficult. The 6 of us who were still going to class, out of maybe 35 students in the same program, decided that it wasn't worth our time to go anymore. We decided to study on our own and meet every day to talk in Spanish at a cafe.

After we left class, we went to a tourist office to get maps and bus information. They only gave us maps and weren't very helpful providing more information. Then, Kate and I went to the post office to buy stamps. We had to wait almost 25 minutes just to buy stamps! Being the American that I am and not wanting to have to wait that long again, I decided to buy enough stamps so I wouldn't have to come back again.

Later that day, a big group of us met to get churros and chocolate and stop at the bus station to get information. I didn't get churros because I still wasn't feeling great and couldn't really taste things anyway. I tried a bite of Kate's, and it was pretty good. At the bus station, they had a sign on the information desk that said "No tourist information." Isn't that helpful? Luckily, I didn't have to buy tickets for the weekend but will have to figure it out eventually. We went shopping after that, and later that night, I went to Cole's house and was able to meet his senora.

Wednesday

No class! Woot! We weren't meeting until 11:00 to go to a cafe to talk so I was planning on sleeping in, but that didn't happen. Instead, I got up and went for a run, which was good. We found a cute little cafe to talk, and I got hot chocolate remembering how Ashley said it was her favorite thing from Spain. Jenny taught us how to tie our scarves a different way, and while she was showing us, two women from the table over were watching. Kate went over and taught the one with a scarf how to do it. It was really neat. They came over and talked to us for awhile then, but it was kind of hard to understand them. What I got was that they think Americans have big cars and houses and live in suburbs, and we were nicer and prettier than most of the Americans they had met. We all decided that those kinds of experiences are better than sitting in a classroom :)

For lunch, I had chicken with mushrooms and fries. More fries! I've had more fries here in the past 2 weeks than I've had in the past year in the United States! Although, I am eating a lot more fruit too. I get kiwi and mandarin oranges almost every day. Now that I love!

In the afternoon, Kate and I tried to find this place that CEA said I could take salsa classes from. It was pretty far away, but we didn't have any other plans for the day. After awhile, we ended up not knowing where we were. We asked two guys who were freshman at the Universidad to help us. They were really sweet and took almost an hour of their time trying to help us find it. We never ended up finding up, but we made two new friends. They told us we should burn the map we had because it was really bad. Fuego, fuego!

Thursday

I couldn't sleep in again today and got up to run. I ran in el barrio, Triana, and got to explore a bit so that was fun. It was a pretty crummy out and rained for the majority of the morning. We went to CEA, asked some questions, walked around for a bit, and decided it just wasn't fun walking around in the rain and went home.

In the afternoon, I went back to Triana, walked around for a bit and stayed in a cafe until dinner. Nacho went out to a movie with his girlfriend, and Concha was having dinner with a friend. I ate dinner alone in front of the tv. It was actually kind of nice. I turned on a basketball game. Real Madrid was playing some team I didn't know. It was really sloppy and super American. It was weird to hear American songs at time outs, see their dancers, and hear the announcers speak English. After I finished dinner, I laid on the couch for a bit watching the game but had to turn it off because it got to sloppy to be worth watching.

Friday

We had orientation for the Universidad de Seville. All the study abroad students from all the programs were packed into one room, and the coordinators sat at the head table. I realized that part of my problem with understanding the language is that I'm not a very good listener. I think I'm a pretty good listener when I'm having a conversation with someone or something like that, but I don't listen well to things like orientation. I didn't listen to orientation at La Crosse and that was in English. After I realized this problem, I did better at trying to be attentive for language purposes. I'm praying that God helps me become a better listener. After orientation, they provided coffee, hot chocolate, orange juice, and pastries. It was really good! Then we figured out the rooms where all our classes would be held and went home.

In the afternoon, I went down to the river for quiet time. I was journaling, and this guy, Tofic, came up to me and asked what I was doing. I didn't know how to explain it in Spanish so I said I was writing, as if he couldn't see that.duh! He sat down and talked to me until I had to leave to get ready for Nadine's. He's originally from Morocco and knows Arabic, Spanish, and French. I was able to tell him about the internship with World Team and about my plans for the night that involved going to Nadine's to hear from the people who started Students for Christ. Looking back on it, I'm frustrated with myself that I didn't try harder to be more creative in telling him what I was really doing. I didn't have to seek him out. God put Tofic in my life at that specific moment when I was spending time with God. It could have been the perfect opportunity to share more with him, but I missed out on it because I thought my vocab was too limited. I know that for next time, I will be more creative and better use the opportunities that God gives me. I hope I get another chance to talk to Tofic, but if not, I can still be praying for him.

Last night, Kate, Cole, and I went to Nadine's house for dinner. She is staff in Sevilla for Students for Christ. Dinner was incredible, and she had brownies, cookies, and ice cream for dessert! It was like a little slice of home. After dinner, we heard from John and Anita Koeshall, who started Students for Christ over 30 years ago. It was so neat to hear where God has taken them and how He's used them. There were also 3 Spaniards from the church there, one of which spoke both English and Spanish. It was really good for my language skills to be able to hear the translation. It was so neat to hear one of them talk about how the church doesn't have enough community. He sees too much of it as "me and God" and not enough community. He said that God has given people gifts and so many of them need community to be used, and without community, they can't be. There was also a couple who's employed by Trinity Christian College here to work with their exchange program. They invited us to their Wednesday night worship service, and I'm looking forward to that. It was so neat to be able to talk about the spiritual needs in Spain and hear advice and a vision for it. There was so much wisdom in that one room. I'm still trying to process a lot of things from last night, but I do know that it was a really neat experience. I'm so thankful I was able to be there.

Praises

*A loving host family! *Answers to prayer *No more sore throat :) *Experience at Nadine's *Beautiful weather * This whole opportunity to study in Spain. I am very blessed. *Having encouragement from Kate and Cole in Sevilla

Requests

*Tofic *Community in the church *Becoming a better listener *Vision and guidance for time in Spain *I can form good relationships with my host family, roommates, natives, and others *I can show them God's love and be a light