So I finished my crazy week! Now i just wanna sleep for like a week to recover lol. I had my final exam today for my intensive period and I think I did alright. I am excited about having a weekend here and not traveling. The next weekend we are going to Barcelona though!

Oh, everyone please pray for my friend Leigh and her mom and family. She had to fly back to the US because her mom has cancer and I just found out that her mom has passed away and apparently she is coming back to Spain soon. Please pray!

Madrid

So Madrid was really cool! Our flight left at 6:30 am on Sat. so we were a bit tired all weekend (it had already been a crazy week) but we had a good bit of coffee and it was still really fun. We went to Palacio Real (Royal Palace) on Saturday and it was absolutely beautiful and amazing because it was a real palace, like with a throne room and everything! After that we met up with Pilar, my cousins friend who we stayed with. She is really nice and she speaks English so she was able to help us a lot with phrases we didnt know how to say in spanish and spanish words we didn't understand. I learned a lot this weekend! We ate lunch with her and then she took us to the historical part of Madrid and we got to see Plaza Mayor and some other places. Then we ate at a little bocadillo place for dinner and then went to a pastry place for dessert. Both were very good.

The next day we went to the PRADO!!! It's this amazing museum with Goya, Greco, and Velaquez (and about a million more people of course). I got to see basically all the paintings I studied in my high school spanish class, including Las Meninas, which was incredible! We were sooo excited lol.

We ate at a kinda nice (but not too expensive) restaurant near there with like 3 courses (normal for a spanish lunch) and it was really good. After that we walked around Retiro Park, which was pretty, it's aparently were the royals used to stroll. Then we headed towards the Reina Sofia to hopefully see Picasso's Guernica. Somehow we had gotten the times mixed up though and it was closed already....not gonna lie...it was pretty devastating... But Pilar said we could stay with her again anytime so hopefully we will get to go back :) So at that point she picked us up and showed us around some more, so we got to see a little more which was good. Before we left we visited an Egyptian temple which was really cool, random, but cool. At that point it was like 9:30 and had just started to rain. Thank you Mom for praying that it didnt rain because it only started sprinkling that night! It was supposed to rain that day, which would have been horrible during the hour wait in line for the Prado.

So then we got on our flight at 11:30 and got home by like 1:00 am. I am exhausted but it was worth it! Joanne and I realized that although we like Madrid, we definitely like Sevilla better. It is more personal, historical, and pretty. Not quite as big and urban. It kinda quinched my thrist to travel like crazy and helped me appreciate "home" even more.

Well, that was not as in depth maybe as I would like (and I have no idea if i will ever get around to the pictures...) but i have to run because I have an exam, a presentation, a composicion, and then a final at the end of this week for my grammar class so it's gonna be a little crazy. ¡Hasta luego!

¡Hola! So I have like 4 minutes until i have to go back to class to summarize everything else thats happened for you guys. I visited Alcazar last week and Italica this week...they were both really pretty and fun. On Saturday a few friends and i went to this little town called Carmona. It was really pretty and there was a carnival there that night which was really fun to see. On Sat i went with some other girls to church with Mary Alice and the other Journeyman named Darby. Its litterally this little hole in the wall church and everyone was super nice and i loved it! Very refreshing. Life has been good! I am going to madrid with joanne tomorrow i will update next week! Besos!

Hi everyone! So let’s see…I’m trying to remember everything that happened since I left off. I’ll just give you an overview of the important stuff. So I live in a neighborhood called Triana, where a lot of other students live. It’s pretty and historical and I like it a lot, it makes for a scenic walk in my opinion, I especially like crossing the bridge over the Guadalaquivir River. I really like walking in Seville, especially when a lot of people are out….in the mornings, before lunch when the parents are bringing their kids home from school, in the evenings. The people here live their lives in front of each other….it’s so cool. Kids are everywhere with their parents, you see a lot of strollers. I’ve seen four or five people out and about pushing people in wheelchairs, too, which makes me really happy. Everyone’s apartment is so small that no one has company there, they always meet up in public. Most restaurants have tables outside and so it’s not even in the privacy of the indoors…they’re on the sideways as everyone is passing by. I love it. Oh a lot of people have dogs too so that is fun to see, although I saw an article that said Triana and another neighborhood have the most dog poop on the streets – 28,000 kilos weekly. Lol I guess I need to be careful! Oh and the weather is really nice Hiromi, it’s a little annoying because it’s normally cold at night and in the morning, but you have to carry around your coat in the afternoon because its pretty warm and sunny. It’s beautiful though and I love it!

And yes, I walk! I thought I was going to have to pay like $150 this semester for monthly bus passes but I don’t need to!! (I talked to one girl who has to take two buses everyday!) That is definitely a gift from God. And it’s not far, just a twenty or so minute walk to the center. That is still more walking than I am used to though – a lot of times I have to go out there before and after lunch so I’m walking about an hour and a half a day, if not more because often I need to go other places, too. It’s great exercise! My body has had to take some time to get used to it though because it is tiring….I have been pretty exhausted by the time bedtime rolls around. That’s also because a lot of times I have a big dinner which makes me sleepy and by the time where done eating and watch TV for a little bit it’s normally after 11. Getting used to the late meals (we eat lunch at like 2:30-3:00 here) has also been interesting. I’m glad I have my granola bars! I told my host mother that sometimes we could be eating at about the same time as you guys even with the time difference! Lol.

The first Saturday night we were here some girls wanted to go out so we decided to see if we could find something to do. I’ve found a good group of people that is a little more reserved like me so I felt confident we wouldn’t go anyway too crazy. So we met at 11:15 pm – early for Spaniards! So not many people were out yet. Eventually, we found a little café-bar and went in. Most of us got something to drink and it was fun. A little more smoky than we are used to but everywhere is like that. I ended up asking the waiter about a pina-colada flavored beverage to see if it had alcohol. He said no so that’s what another girl and I ordered. When we got it we thought it tasted a little funny…so we had some other girls taste it and most of them thought it didn’t have alcohol. I wasn’t sure though and I thought I started feeling a little funny (could have just been paranoia) so I stopped drinking it. I was like I don’t know guys…so they took a picture of me with my doubtful drink hehe. I think it was probably a good thing I didn’t finish it because when we got the bill my drink (and the other girl’s) cost way more than it was supposed to. Apparently he assumed that I wanted alcohol and decided to put it in there for me. Unfortunately, I am not good at arguing with café managers in Spanish so I ended up having to pay half of the more expensive price. I got home and my “mom” told me I should have been more firm and I should have had to pay anything. I’ll know for next time! She said I should have said I had an allergy to alcohol and they could have killed me lol.

Wow, I think these stories would be so much better and actually pretty funny if I could actually tell them to you…. Why don’t you just take a moment to laugh right now, imagining how funny it would be if I was there in real life hehe.

We tried to go to church the next morning with Mary Alice but we missed the bus so we didn’t end up going (long story). I came back and told Magdalena (my host mom) that I didn’t go to church so she asked if I wanted to go with her. I said sure. She is so sweet, she literally took me by the hand and led me on a little tour. She showed me the oldest church in Sevilla which is actually not “La Catedral” but another smaller one in Triana. The inside is beautiful. It has a famous virgin there – kinda like a shrine – and other statues of Jesus and more virgins that were really pretty. She showed me another church that was literally like a little hole in the wall that had another virgin that was pretty breathtaking. Then we actually went to mass at a different church. I had never been to a catholic church in English, much less in Spanish, so I was a little lost. But it was interesting; I’m glad I went. These “virgins” are very important to Magdalena and I’m sure many others. Apparently there is one for each town who watches over it and they pray to them. She was showing me the prayer to the virgin here earlier today. I told her that I don’t pray to Mary, only Jesus (of course she has a prayer to him too). It’s just very interesting…I can’t wrap my mind around praying to Mary, or even doing the little cross when you see the statue. I want to learn more about it because it’s such a big deal here… But I also desire to see Magdalena put here hope in the saving power of Christ and Him only, so y’all can pray for her and for me to know how to love her and share with her if God wills it!

Monday class started. We had to be at the center at 8:15 am to find out our schedules. Right now we are just starting an intensive period, where you only have one language class for three weeks to help facilitate quicker learning. I am in an advanced grammar class that meets at night—5:15-9:15, with a thirty minute break. The time is kinda annoying but actually not bad. The morning classes start at 8:45 so if I had one of those I would have to get of up pretty early to have my quiet time, eat breakfast (toast and hot chocolate – which Magdalena insists on making for me every morning) and then walk all the way there. And if I didn’t have class in the afternoon I would probably just fall asleep anyway. So it’s nice because I can sleep in a little and then get some stuff done in the morning. And I like the class a lot. My professor is really nice and it’s a really small class. We just have a lot of discussion and readings and vocabulary and of course, grammar. I like that it’s advanced because he tells us all the nit-picky rules that I didn’t know like how to know whether a word needs an accent mark or not. I’ve already written a short paper and done a presentation on a newspaper article! Y’all can pray though because spending four hours a night with the same group of people five nights in a row is a little crazy. There is one person in particular who is somewhat harder to handle and gets on people’s nerves so y’all can pray that she maybe decides to talk a little less and/or God gives everyone (including the professor) a spirit of kindness and patience.

We’ve also started our one hour classes already. I have a cultural realities class at 1:00 on Mondays which seems pretty easy but hopefully it will be beneficial. And I’ve also started my dance class! That one meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4. It’s fun, we “Sevillanas” which are dances that are similar to flamenco. I am getting better at the feet, but the arms and hands are a little difficult.

Well if you’re still with me at this point, I’m impressed! So I’ll give you a break and post the rest later J Sorry it’s so long!

Oh just to let y'all know, the little shapes at the end of the paragraphs are supposed to be smileys...i don't know if it's the weird spanish keyboards or the computers here...

Chapter 2

Hi everyone! I need to apologize, I just now changed it so that you don’t have to have a google account to post on here. I didn’t realize you could change that! lol thank you Daniel for pointing that out!

Okay I’m gonna start where I left off. So they took us to the hotel and we had to check in and they gave us a cell phone if we signed up for one and then we took all our luggage to our rooms. There were some students in the lobby and I remember wanting nothing more than to see Joanne because with the cell phone box it was not fun trying to carry everything. I didn’t see her but after dropping the cell phone box once I made it to my room. I had a really nice roommate that night who also has a roommate in her host home who has already been her. I did finally find Joanne after our orientation meeting and met some nice girls that she had been hanging out with. They all were already speaking Spanish so that was fun. Some people went out that first night (how after that flight I don’t know) but I was exhausted so my roommate and I went to bed after somewhat early. I slept very very well hehe. We had a walking tour around some of the area near the hotel and to the center that morning.

Then came the scariest part so far. I had heard rumors that we just kinda had to find our host family’s home by ourselves (sometimes the taxi driver can’t exactly figure out where it is and they just have to drop you off somewhere in the area...) but the itinerary implied that we would be accompanied by members of the administration. Maybe I just couldn’t read Spanish because that definitely didn’t happen. They just put us in taxis and sent us merrily on our way. Which was fine for the girls with roommates at the orientation that could ride together but I was all alone and terrified. I let a lot of people go in front of me when they were yelling "Siguiente!" (next) for people to get in the taxis. Finally, when they started getting impatient when those of us who were stalling I went. The lady told the guy my address and I got in. God is so good, He helped me not freak out too much because it really wouldn’t help anything. He also had the taxi driver find exactly where my apartment was. Then came the other part I was nervous about...I had to ring the bell to the apartment and say...I had no idea what to say. "I’m here"? "I’m the American you are waiting for"? Luckily "Soy Laura Dingley" was enough and she came down immediately. Magdalena is my host mother’s name and she was so welcoming. She said she was wondering where I was...little did she know I was stalling when obviously I had nothing to worry about. She helped me take my luggage up to her second floor apartment and showed me my room. MY room. I have my own room!!! That was a gift from God, too!! I had really wanted my own room just because I knew I would already be getting used to a new country, I didn’t want to adjust to a new roommate as well. And it’s just nice to not have to worry about bothering someone else. Of course, it’s about the size of a large closet, but I decided then and there that I no longer have the slightest bit of claustrophobia and I LOVE it! Hehe. And it’s actually not that small, I have a comfortable bed, a large armoire, and a small desk. It’s perfect.

And Magdalena is wonderful too! God totally proved Ephesians 3 for me: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” I had half-heartedly prayed for a good host family, but I knew there were more important things so as long as they were tolerable I would be fine. I felt like I was asking too much. But my roommate and I have decided that we have the best host mother one could ask for!! She is very nice and very motherly. She reminds me of you Mom, because one of the first things she said to me was that I must be cold and I need to put something on my neck! She told me that she will treat us like her own daughters and she wants us to be a family. Her husband passed away ten years ago and she only has one son who is in his 30s so she said that she loves hosting girls because she enjoys the company! She showed me cards and notes that she had saved from other girls she hosted and they really mean a lot to her. I am so blessed to have a “señora” who cares so much and who hopefully I am able to be a blessing to as well! She is very patient with my Spanish, too. She spoke kinda fast at first and I did a lot of smiling and nodding, and she said my Spanish was really good. But then I think she realized how little I was understanding lol. She speaks a little slower now and repeats herself as many times as we need her to. When I don’t know how to say what I want to say and if I seem to get getting frustrated she always says “Tranquila! Traquila!” which means “calm” and she helps me to say what I want to say. Her cooking is wonderful too! I am eating much more than I usually do in one meal (which isn’t usually that much) and things that I would never eat at home but most of it is very delicious. She gives us a lot and always notices when we don’t eat, just like a mother hehe. Hiromi you would love the food here—eating big meals made me think of you because you would probably scarf it down like I do! Hehe as I’m sure anyone would with this cooking.

So yeah, God did above and beyond all I asked with my room and definitely with my host mother. Or maybe it was just that some of you guys were praying more specifically than me :) hehe

Oh, funny story. So the first day when I got there she make me a lentil soup and a salad (Spanish style, so good!) and gave it to me in the living room (they have this table thing with a heater under it that is wonderful) and went back into the kitchen for a while. Naturally, I started eating because I didn’t want her to think I didn’t like it! By the time she finally came back I was completely done with my soup. And then I realized she was carrying her own tray of food!! I felt so bad, I would have at least eaten slower if I knew she was gonna eat with me! She was like “Oh, you ate so fast!” hehe I felt bad but she just thought it was funny. Oh and then she took me to meet her sister, Cipri, who lives on the floor below and told her the whole story too. So yeah…and then I found five dollars…(hehe meaning that wasn’t quite as funny typed out and it needs more of a point) Anyway, she normally does eat with us which is good because I get to practice my Spanish. And her sister is really nice too, as well as some of her neighbors who she introduced me to.

Well, I think that is quite enough for now. I have so much more to say but I will save it for another day! It’s like 9:15 pm which means we need to go home for dinner soon :)

Thank you so much for the encouragement y’all have been already! Love and miss you!

¡Hola! I just wanted to post my address really quick for those of you who wanted it:

Laura Dingley
Center for Cross-Cultural Study
Calle Harinas, 16 & 18
41001 Seville, SPAIN

¡Tengo clase!

So I made it here!

Hi everyone! I’m sorry, this is the first time the center (my school here) has been open long enough for me to actually update. So I have a lot to say! First, a disclaimer. For any friends who are reading this, I want you to know this is my primary way of communicating with my family, as well as you guys (I don’t think I will have time to type two versions!) So therefore, there will probably be lots of details because I normally tell my mom the details of things and I’m pretty sure she might be the only one that interested (because of motherly obligation of course) so don’t feel like you need to read everything, ok? Ok.

Where to start? Let’s see, traveling wasn’t too bad. It was kinda fun to fly by myself to the JFK airport...I was on this really big plane (one with 2 seats, then and aisle, three seats in the middle, then another aisle and two more seats) and it was like not even half full, which was nice b/c I was able to stretch out over two seats. Arriving at the JFK airport was kinda scary b/c I had no idea where to go. Finally I asked someone and they said to take the “Air Train” which I had to walk outside to find. After walking alone way out into a parking deck I followed signs to this little building with stairs and suddenly I actually was waiting for a train in the air. I got off and when to where my terminal was supposed to be at American Airlines but a guy told me I had to check in with Iberia so I had to go all the way back out and ride the train again just to get to the next terminal. I checked in there and met some other CC-CS girls standing in line with their families. I was trying to meet a girl I had emailed but I had called her and thought she was at a different terminal…so I walked to my gate (even though I was like 2 hours early) and wandered to a monitor to make sure my flight was on time. Then I saw a girl that looked like the girl I was supposed to meet and it was her! She was there with like 12 other girls, and there ended up being like 30 of us on the flight. Me and three others decided to change our tickets so that we could sit together, so that was fun. Unfortunately though, since we were all squished into the four seats in the middle sleeping wasn’t really an option (the flight left the US at like 9:45 and got to Spain at about 10:45 their time). I think next time I am just gonna drink a lot of coffee and stay up b/c being so tired and uncomfortable at the same time is no fun. It wasn’t terrible though. Oh, Dad you might like this, they had a camera on the tail of the plane so we could watch the take off and landing, so that was pretty cool!

Then the whole huge group of us had to connect to the Seville flight…we weren’t sure if we would make it on time so a group of us got ahead and were rushing through customs (I guess it was customs…all we had to do was show them our passport) and security and what not and finally we got there with just enough time to use the restroom and then get on the plane. Don’t remember much of that flight b/c I couldn’t keep my eyes open…

There were CC-CS people waiting for us at baggage claim. (That is the name of my program—Center for Cross-Cultural Study) PRAISE GOD all my luggage was there! Thank you to anyone who prayed about that, I know I was! Y’all pray for Joanne’s luggage though, there was a big mix up with her flight and she still hasn’t gotten her checked baggage yet so pray that it is soon!

So we took big buses to the hotel…it was so nice to see everything again and be here again….it reminded me of the mission trip and I couldn’t wait to see Mary Alice (graduated from Mercer, a missionary here now for 2 years) and go to church and what not.

Speaking of the mission trip…there was an amazing Starbucks by the Cathedral that had an up stairs and open windows and I think I am gonna go there and have some hot tea and my quiet time…we had to be at the center early this morning to find out my schedule and I don’t have anything until one on Mondays so I have time to do stuff. I’m sure that’s enough for y’all to read right now…and that’s only the traveling lol. Remember calling cost a lot of money so yeah I have a lot of details to tell my family! I’ll pick up where I left off and get to the good stuff soon :)

Besos!