Just wanted to add a little blurb about the Feria. It is a festival here in Spain that lasts a whole week long (which is why we have school off this week and have been able to travel so much). It is basically a week-long party where they dance the Sevillana, eat and drink. They have a ton of tents set up, most of them private, some public.

Me and my friend Amanda walked all around it today and it was so pretty! Funny story, we had been walking only for about 5 minutes seeing everything.. when a reporter came up with his camera man and interviewed us! He started out talking to us in Spanish but then I quickly told him I could do it Spanish :) It was pretty exciting, I just told him how pretty the Feria was, with all the flamenco dresses and horses and carriages everywhere.. not sure if it will air, but I will possibly be on Spanish TV today, so that is pretty cool! We walked by a tent with a bunch of older ladies in it that were all singing flamenco, while two of them were dancing the typical dance here, the Sevillana. We stopped and watched for a while, and when they were done they asked me and Amanda if we wanted to dance with them. We told them we didn't know the dance, but they insisted! So, we ended up dancing with them and learning a few moves. They were really sweet, and complimented us afterwards even though we had no idea what we were doing.

After that, we went to the area called the Calle del Infierno- which translated means 'Hell's Street'. It is funny the call it that because all it is is a bunch of rides. Ferris wheels, merry go rounds... and many more. It is mainly for the kids to enjoy, but there are also rides adults can go on. We didn't do any because it cost money, but we did walk around and see it all. Overall, it has been a really awesome day enjoying this typical Spanish festival... with perfect sunny weather, I might add.
                                                                The entrance into Feria

I love how decorated the horses are

What the inside of one of the tents looks like

The ladies that taught us to dance Sevillana, or attempted to. Notice the dresses :) Almost every woman is dressed this way

So, I just got back from an incredible trip to London, England!! We (Jonathan and I) left from Sevilla late last Thursday night and landed in Stansted airport at about 23:30. We were a little worried about communication when we got there as far as transportation.. because all we knew was that Jenny and Theo were going to pick us up, and we had phones but we weren't sure if we could get a hold of them. This was complicated even further once we landed because we had to stand in line at customs for about an hour and a half.. it was quite a long wait. But anyways, we eventually got through and saw them waiting for us at the exit. Emily ended up coming to pick us up too which was a lovely surprise! It was so great to be reunited with her once again!

Next day was Dan and Katie's wedding! It was SO much fun!! One thing that was really cool was the dancing at the Reception. They did a kaylee, which is a kind of Celtic country dance. It involves a lot of partner dancing and line dancing and at times it reminds me of square dancing. Either way, it was so much fun! There was a lady there instructing us how to do it and everything, it was very fun.

The next few days involved walking around London and seeing all of the sights. We rode the 'chube' a lot.. this is basically just the metro, and it is actually called the tube, but I am spelling it the way they say it, and the way we said it the whole time we were there :) Anyways, rode the chube a lot, ate typical British foods such as fish and chips, crumpets, scones, apple crumble and drank lots of tea. We also saw the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Tower Bridge, the Globe Theater, and a few soccer stadiums (from the outside). It was so much fun, we had a pretty large group to start with and as people began to head home we got smaller and smaller. We had a great time visiting with old youth group friends from Costa Rica, and getting caught up on all of their lives. Jenny very graciously housed us the whole time we were there and gave us a great tour of London on Monday. Oh yeah, and we also rode in a double decker bus, which is very smart and I am confused why America hasn't picked up on it yet.. it is kind of genius.

We had a wonderful time in London. Met some awesome people, saw great sights, and had some amazing food. There is so much more I could include in this post but if I start into the little details, I could talk about it all day long, the rest I will have to tell you in person. 

I am so glad that we were able to go, and so excited for my next trip tomorrow to Rome! 

God is so good :)

A few pictures...

Semana Santa with the bro!

So, there is a lot to update you guys on, especially since my blog has been non-existent (sorry about that!) During Semana Santa we (Jonathan and I) were able to go to Santander, Barcelona, Paris and Madrid. We had some great sibling bonding time and have never walked more or ridden the Metro more in our life! We only had one day in Paris and because of that we decided to get the day pass for the Metro. So we literally would take the Metro to one big touristy place, go up, take a few pictures, then get right back on the metro for the next big thing. It was fun and we got to see basically everything but at the same time it was kind of rushed and we didn´t get to truly enjoy it like I wanted to.


The first few days we were in Santander, which is at the very north of Spain. It was a lot of fun! I actually hadn't heard of it until Jonathan booked the flight there first and then to Paris because it was a lot cheaper than just going straight to Paris from Sevilla. So we spent a few lovely days there exploring, hanging out on the beach, walking to a pretty light house, buying groceries for our meals... it was a very chill, relaxed way to start our week, which I think was perfect.. because after we left Santander things got pretty crazy walking from one touristic sight to another. 


We were all set to leave from Santander on Tuesday to fly up to Paris, but it turned out our flight got cancelled due to a strike in France. Thank you Ryanair... :( So, we ended up flying to Barcelona that night, got in about 7 and walked around for a while before heading to our hostel.. which was a lot further away than we were expecting, by the way (story of our lives here during that trip... haha) We were able to see the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi, and a few other of Gaudi's creations while walking around that night. If you don't know about him, you should look up pictures... his buildings are a little strange but overall pretty cool! So we found our hostel, and headed out the next morning at about 3:20 to catch the bus to the airport. Yes you heard me... 3:20 AM!? It was quite ridiculous that we ended up only staying at the hotel for about 3 hours, and of those 3 only slept about 1.. we might as well have slept at the airport of bus station for the night to save that money, but oh well! What can you do? So anyways, we got into Paris around 9:30 AM and spent the whole day like I said before, taking the Metro from touristy sight to touristy sight. 

Madrid was super fun too! The actual city of Madrid wasn´t too exciting. Compared to Sevilla and other places we´ve been it is kind of disappointing. We met up with four people from our school on Friday and went to see The Prado and the Reina Sofia, both awesome art museums. The Prado had a ton of the artists and painting we have been studying in our art class (Murillo, Zurbarán, Velazquéz.. etc) So we basically went through and said, oh.. we studied that one.. and oh, look! There´s that one she told us about. It was pretty awesome, and we were able to appreciate the art a lot more. Speaking of art.. we also went to the Louvre in Paris which was amazing!!

The main thing that made Madrid awesome were the people. We stayed with the Eddys. They were so hospitable and so much fun! We had some great food, including pancakes (which we had seriously been missing) for breakfast one day and strawberry shortcake with ice cream for dessert. You can imagine my joy at seeing that being placed in front of me :) Jonathan and I both agreed that they reminded us a lot of our family.. they love games, and joke with each other a lot. One way they are different is that they were actually born in Spain and their mom is Spanish.. so they speak only Spanish at home, with a few exceptions. I just remember that being different because even when we were in Costa Rica we mainly spoke English at home. But anyway... they have three girls so I especially had a lot of fun hanging out with them. The last night (Saturday) we watched the Hunger Games with them. They knew we had read the books and they downloaded it to watch. It was funny to watch with them because they hadn´t read the books so we had to explain it all to them and they were pretty shocked at most parts. 

Easter Sunday we were able to go to church with them. Their church is really small and 'simpática' as they described it, and we heard a lot of familiar songs from our time in Costa Rica.. one being Celebrad a Cristo Celebrad! El vive.. El vive! .. remember it? 

Anyways, we also saw the Mussers one Saturday and were able to hang out with them for the day. We got a tour of the school that Mr. Musser is a principal at and played Canasta with them(fun new card game with them... you know us Rehners and our cards... :)

After all of this... (sorry about the novel) we returned to Sevilla on the 6 hr bus ride and got back Sunday night at 12:15.. and got up the next day to start the school week. We had an overall great time and got to see a lot of cool sights. I miss everybody so much and hope that everything is going great on your end. I can't wait to share all of these experiences to you guys in person when I get back. Until then my very inconsistent blog will have to do. 

Barcelona

Last weekend I went to Barcelona. It was a different kind of trip in that I actually didn't get to see very much of the actual city of Barcelona. Allow me to explain... I think I have mentioned in an earlier post that a group of Germans from a Bible College in Germany have been travelling across Spain doing mission work and evangelizing. Anyways, we met them at the very beginning of the semester and again the second time they came to Sevilla. They are really sweet people and the love of Christ just shines right through them, you just can't help but feel super happy when you're with them. So, they kind of let us join their group for the week, which was really awesome! We stayed with them at the church, bought some sleeping bags and hit the floor for a few nights, and they also let us join in on their meals as well.

I learned a lot about God during the course of the weekend. Especially how much he loves me. One of the Germans gave a talk one night about the love of God being like a fire. It consumes us, and as it does the Holy Spirit removes all things that are getting in the way of us fully loving God. All we have to do is ask for the Holy Spirit to come, and Jesus promises that he will see it through. He also said at one point, 'God isn't boring, we are!' I liked that a lot because lately I have been reading my Bible and going through the motions as if being a Christian is boring. It is not at all! At least it shouldn't be! God desires us, he wants to have a communion with us that is out of this world. And I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with Him!

Suprisingly I didn't take one picture the whole weekend. Every time we went out, I forgot my camera and while we were just hanging out at the church I never thought about it. Strange I know but it's the truth. Sorry! There will be plenty of pictures in my next post about Ronda and Marbella! Till then, see ya!

I am truly sorry that I haven't posted a blog in so long. And since it has been so long, I have a lot to fill you in on. I have been on two big trips since I posted last, Granada and Toledo.

There were eight of us that went to Granada (Amanda, Heather, Lane, Aubrey, Ben, Abi, and Cameron). It was so much fun!! We went up on Friday night and got a little lost on our way to the hostel. After about an hour and a half of wandering the streets, we finally found it! What we didn't realize when booking it, is that it was situated on the top of a mountain, basically. So we had to hike up the narrow cobblestone streets up to the hostel, which was quite the work-out. We visited the Alhambra the next day which was the main reason why we had gone to Granada. The Alhambra is the Nazari Palace that was built in the 14th Century which most of us had studied in our art class. It was really neat to be able to walk in all of the rooms that we had learned so much about.. we were definitely able to appreciate it more that way. Our hostel was situated at a very touristy place where there is a beautiful view of the Alhambra, as you can see in the picture below

 

I am holding my backpack strangely because they told me I couldn't wear it on my back... still not sure why it mattered...

So after the Alhambra we walked around the beautiful town and side streets of Granada. One really cool thing that only happens in Granada is that they have a deal at every bar/restaurant, that if you buy a drink you get a free tapa with it. Tapas are typical dishes that they have here that range from Croquetas (which are basically just balls of ham and cheese) to jamón cerrano (ham). We took advantage of this deal and enjoyed some free food at the expense of a Coke, which I thought was great! Well, those are the main highlights from the Granada trip, it was a whole lot of fun times spent with some awesome people!

Next trip was to Toledo (yes, Glenn... I said Toledo). This was with the whole program, so all 42 of us were in attendance. It was a long trip, about 7 hour bus ride (wasn't expecting it to be that long..) but we left super early, so most of us slept the whole way there. We did stop to see the legendary windmills from Don Quijote, which were very cool. It was cold, but we were able to get some fun pictures there.

We visited the Cathedral in Toledo among other things. We stayed at a really nice hotel that served an amazing complimentary breakfast Saturday morning of which we were told about five times that we couldn't take food from. Although, I think some people did take some fruit :) What can we say? We are hungry Americans that will probably never be used to the meal schedule here.

Anyways, I know this is a very general overview of both these trips but I felt like I should send you guys at least something since it had been so long. I miss everyone so much! I hope your semesters are going well and that they aren't too stressful. We head out for Barcelona today and we will be there until Sunday, more info on that soon! :)

Forgot a little bit of school news. I have taken two tests so far.. Art and Grammar. Got an A in grammar! and haven't gotten my art test back yet but I think I did pretty well. So, if some of you are thinking I am just having a vacation over here and no work.. think again! although, yes... there is hardly any homework, and it is pretty easy.. it's still work though, right? lol.

In my literature class on Valentine's day we were supposed to write our own poems. This is what I came up with:
Las Rosas son rojas,
Las Violetas azul,
Es un día muy especial,
Solo faltas tú.

For someone who doesn't like to write at all.. I was pretty proud of this! :) ...I will leave you with a picture taken on the Día de los Enamorados.

Already a month here? ... That's totes redic!

I think the biggest news from this week (that has nothing to do with me being in Spain) is that I finished reading the Hunger Games!! I won't talk about it too much because I don't want to spoil it for anyone.. but I loved them! Now I need to get a new book to read... it gives me something to do while I am sitting in my room at night with no internet. 


Last night instead of going to the normal youth service at the Iglesia Bautista in Sevilla Este, we joined with a few other churches in the City Center for an outreach event for the people living in the streets. Everyone brought food and or a coat/gloves, we divided up into groups and went to different areas of the city. My group went along the river and also down the República Argentina which is one of the main streets between two big areas here, the Remedios and Triana (which is where I live). Suprisingly we only found one homeless guy when we were on our way back. We started talking to him and listening to a little bit of his story. He was kind of hard to understand because he spoke mainly in Portuguese, but it was really cool to be able to witness to him through his basic necessities, and also just by listening to him and letting him know that we care. One of the guys in my group, David, had actually been to Costa Rica a few times, and we were able to talk a little about it as we were walking (Salsa Lizano, Gallo pinto, etc) ... which made me realize how much I really miss that place :(


Anyways, in other news... Today we went to church and then at around 4 we played ultimate frisbee with some of the people we met last night. I had never technically played ultimate before, so I wasn't sure how it would go.. but it ended up being a lot of fun! It was so sunny and such a perfect day to play also. I am hoping we will play again soon. 

We have a four day weekend coming up, and I am going with a few friends to Granada to see the Alhambra among other things. I am so excited! Well, that's it for now.. love you guys!

Carmona

Today was a very eventful day. I went to a small town called Carmona along with six other Acento students and friends that I have made here. It was so much fun!! We left on the bus at around 12:30 and the ride only took about 30 mins. Once we got there, we didn’t really know where to go. But we did see a cool tower looking thing a few blocks away and figured that would be a good place to start. (on the left in the picture below)

Once we got there, we saw that in behind it was a huge castle… so naturally we investigated that. We tend to be drawn towards the more extraordinary things, even though we have no idea what they are, or if they are actually important or just somebody’s house.

Anyways, we went up to it and found out at the information desk that it is called the Alcazar de Carmona, which basically means an old palace. The cost was only one euro for students to go up and look around, so we did! It was amazing… SO beautiful! Well, most of it just looked like ruins of an old castle… but the best part of it all was the view! It was incredible! See for yourself ;)

After eating lunch in the spacious sunny area pictured above, we left the Alcazar to check out the rest of the city. We had heard from Jonathan and his previous trip to Carmona that they have a tourist route marked by arrows on the floor that we could follow. Once we found it, we just followed it the rest of the day and were able to see some pretty cool sites!

 That's all for now!

Hello all! I'm back and have I have some exciting news! We went to Córdoba today! We left at about 8 and loaded up the bus for the 2 hour drive. I was really excited about this trip because one of the things we were going to see was the huge Mezquita (Mosque) they have there. The same mezquita that we have been studying every inch of in our art class. It was really cool to actually see everything ourselves instead of just seeing pictures in our classroom, and we were able to appreciate it a lot more having studied it before-hand. 

 The trip to Córdoba was such a blast and I can't wait until our next one to Toledo!!

Made it through my first week of classes, and it wasn't too bad at all. I really like my teachers and classmates. The main thing that is great is hearing Spanish all the time again. I love it! Even if it is Spain Spanish with the lisp and all... it's so good to my ears :)

Hmm... I don't what else there is to say really.. I guess I'll tell you what my typical day has looked like so far. I get up around 8:30 when Catherine is heading out the door (she has a 9 o'clock and I don't start until 9:55.. woohoo!) and get ready. Put my coffee in the microwave and make my tostada. I have had the same thing every day, and I honestly don't think I'll ever get tired of it. The bread is just so darn good!

After breakfast I head out for my 20 minute walk to school in the chilly morning air. Can't ever forget my gloves or my hands are freezing by the time I get there. I have found my solitary morning walks to school very relaxing! I just put one headphone in and listen to some awesome worship music on the way to school, a wonderful way to start my day! This is just one of the sights on my way to school... the beautiful Bridge of Triana.

School lasts for three hours and then it's off to lunch at home at 2:30 pm. By that time I am always starving! I don't know if I'll ever get used to the eating schedule here. I usually go to the park after that and play volleyball with mis amigos and amigas de la escuela. Most of the rest of the day is different depending on the day, because we have free time until dinner at 9:30 pm. After that we either go to bed or go out with friends. And that is an ordinary week day in Seville!

I don't have too much more to report for now. Once we start going on field trips and excursions I am sure I will have much more to report and many more pictures to show. Here are a few more pics for the week.

Orientation? ...Check!

So the orientation stage has come and gone, and I have had the chance to learn a lot more about the city of Sevilla. Probably the most fun thing that we did during orientation has was the photo-scavenger hunt. Me and the three others on my team roamed the city looking for different sites... El Museo de Bellas Artes, La Campana (which was actually a street instead of an actual bell, very helpful to know when searching for it), Las Columnas de Hércules, La Plaza de América, among others. It was such an adventure trying to find all of these areas with one map (and slightly cheating with Catherine's iphone GPS). We walked a total of 8 hrs that day! I have walked more in the past 7 days than I have in the last several years, it is exhausting and awesome at the same time! It is a lot different to go out for a walk when you know that each time will be different and you will see something new and exciting that takes your breath away. Sounds cheesy, but if you were here with me you would understand... everyone is so beautiful, I just can't get over it!


At the end of the day, all of the groups got together at the school and viewed all the pictures along with some churros and chocolate. Honestly I was a little disappointed over these churros, because they didn't have any delicious cream on the inside like they do it in Costa Rica. Oh well, churros are churros :) After all pictures were viewed and points were added up... we won! Our prize was a free trip to the movies, including refreshments... Score! If you know me, you know I love movies... so you can imagine my excitement when I heard the prize :) Ha, oh yeah. Another funny thing that happened during our night-time get together was that Jonathan didn't show up until the winner was announced. His afternoon siesta went a little overboard, if you know what I'm saying.. and he slept right through it! I called him before we starting looking at the pictures, but unfortunately he didn't make it in time. I guess it goes to show: you snooze, you lose! 

Our group (minus Catherine) Emily on the left, Michelle on the right

Today we went to The Cathedral for Church. That's right, The Cathedral... the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world! Which is just as equally beautiful on the inside then it is on the outside! It was suprisingly short and a cool experience. Next week we will probably try going to a closer, smaller church.

Still getting used to being blatantly stared at everywhere I go from all the Spaniards. It's kind of hard to blend in when you are a feet above everyone else.. even in a huge crowd! lol. However, we did give some lost Spanish speaking people instructions to get to a street nearby.. I think that gives us Spaniard points, right?


School starts tomorrow! I am looking forward to seeing what the classes will be like. I am taking Art, Literature, Advanced Grammar, and Tres Culturas, and I don't start until 10 AM.. which is pretty awesome! Well, I guess that's all for now... enjoy the pictures!

Moving things along..

Today we got to meet our Señora! She and her husband are SO sweet. After we lugged our suitcases up to the apartment (which is only on the second floor, thankfully) from the taxi, we had a nice chat with our Señora, Amparo. We talked a lot about Sevilla and the places we have been able to go so far, while she recommend several hot spots around town for different activities. We unpacked all our things later and let me tell you, it feels so great to be moved in! And not having to live out of a suitcase anymore like we did at the hotel.

Lunch with our Señor (Jose) y Señora was delicious! It was kind of an interesting mix of foods, but it was really good! It had chicken on top of French Fries along with some vegetables and peas all in this delicious sauce. There was also bread and these little fried ham and cheese balls. To top it off, we had delicious, juicy oranges for dessert!

For the rest of the evening we have just been enjoying being outside. It was such a beautiful day, very sunny and warm... my kind of weather :) 
 
Orientation starts tomorrow, and classes start on Monday so I am sure there will be some big updates coming soon. Love you guys!

First full day in Seville

Today was a great day! I wouldn't say I had the best sleep, woke up about 1 and kept waking up off and on until 5.. then woke up again at 11:30. Once we got up, we walked over to the school with the directions that our hotel clerk gave us. We also had a map, which didn't help us too much at first because we didn't see any street signs anywhere (later, we found out the names were on the sides of the buildings). Not sure how we actually made it to the school because all we kept doing was taking the best looking side streets or going towards the beautiful cathedrals. One way or another, we made it to the school, and were able to meet a few of the teachers and people will be seeing a lot more of once school starts.


After eating lunch with Katie and her friend at a cute little Chinese restaurant, we roamed the streets. Figured out the general areas where we will be living in a few days and saw a lot of awesome sights! It is seriously beautiful everywhere you look... especially the tiny one way streets, I can't get enough of them! You just have to watch out for a taxi coming by, if you are not against one of the buildings you may get hit! The sidewalks on each side are only a few inches wide.. pretty crazy.


Here are a few pictures from our walk. Can't wait to get out again tomorrow and explore some more!

The view from our hotel window.. you can see just how small the street and sidewalks are.

Enjoying a few free cafe con leches at the hotel after a long day of exploring!

All packed and ready to go!

A few days and several "army-rolled" t-shirts (look it up on YouTube.. it's pretty sweet and efficient!) later, I am all packed for Spain! Both my suitcase and Jonathan's were a little over 50 lbs so we decided we would add one more bag for an extra price, which is really nice because I didn't have to sacrifice any of the things that I wanted to take. 

We head out tomorrow at 12:30 for Chicago to meet up with Catherine, from there we will stop at Madrid and end up in Seville! I can't wait! I'm really going to miss all my Wilmorian and Asburian friends.. not to mention the beautiful horse farms and back roads of KY.. but definitely looking forward for some new experiences in Seville. That's all for now, peace! :)