Mis Amigos Españoles

Well, I have only a little more than I month left in Sevilla. Crazy. What's even crazier is that I have yet to share with you pictures one of one of the biggest blessings I have been given in Sevilla: amigos españoles!  I met my Spanish friends a few weeks after I arrived in Sevilla on night on Calle Alfalfa and we've hung out ever since! I mentioned them a bit in my post about my birthday but there were not pictures. There are so many stories I could tell and so many things I could say that would only give you a slight glimpse as to how important these people have been in really making my experience in Spain what it has been so far. But that would probably take hours and I would just end up crying, thinking about leaving them in a month. So for now I will just show you a few pictures (most of which I did not take) of the fun things we've done together. Obviously, there are some Americans in there too...all of whom are equally as wonderful! Here is a little bit of our story thus far:

The first night we met

La Barbacoa! 8ish hours of sitting around eating, drinking, and talking during the heat of the Sevillan summer. One of my absolute favorite days!! This is me with Ana/"Mini" and Alicia.

 

La Barbacoa with José!

La Barbacoa with Chris and Carlos!

Another fun night on Calle Alfalfa!

Juanito!!!

Halloween with Carlos as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland!!!

Marina, Carlos, and Rafa with our new Polish friends

Cien Montaditos: Juanito, Chris, Carlos, and Pat being weird in the background.

Carlos bought us jerseys for the Sevilla game!!!

Juanito and Alyssa dance a little Sevillana

Rollerblading with Chris, Carlos, Juanito, and Juanito's friend whose name I can't remember...

The first time Juanito and Carlos tried peanut butter. In other words, the best day of their lives!

Mi Vida Española

I felt like yesterday was a great example of what my experience in Spain has been like so far.

So it rained yesterday. And it's raining today. Which is not normal at all. I felt like a rain jacket was sufficient. False. Not when you have to walk 10 minutes to the metro and 10 minutes to school when ya get off. Should have listened when Esperanza told me to buy an umbrella and not wear sandals. I just forgot how to spell sandals. It literally took me a good 3 minutes to remember. Awful.

So I'm walking to the metro, listening to some nerdy Showtime Spanish lessons on my iPod and feeling pretty good despite the pouring rain. I'm getting really into the Showtime Spanish. Listening intently. I get down to the metro station and the first metro is full to the brim of personas because of the rain. So I patiently wait for the next one. El próximo is equally as packed but I have no other choice so me, and 10 other Spaniards try to squish into the exact same space. Headphones still in, I hear a woman ask me a question, to which I of course think I heard correctly. Falso again. I respond incorrectly and she laughs to the guy next to her. "Lo siento, pero no entiendo," I say, stuffing my headphones back into my ear. Just when I think I may have got a handle on some sort of new sentence structure I'm learning via Showtime podcasts, I get slapped in the face. Pride destroyed. Humility embraced. Thanks Jesus.

.40 euro cafe con leche purchased. Everything gets a little brighter.

After a long day of class and an unfortunately not-so-tasty bocadillo, I head home. Luckily it had stopped raining at this point. On my home I stop by the Chinese store to buy some cheap post-its and then finally get home to my warm and extremely clean room. Obviously, not by my own doing. Esperanza comes into chat and we gripe about the rain together because everyone loves to talk about the weather. It was a well constructed conversation on my part. Feeling better. I ask her where the laundry bag is, she literally yells at the top of her lungs to her mom to ask. She eventually brings in the bag, accompanied by a giant piece of chocolate for me. Things just keep getting better.

Eventually, I make it out again to search for la Plaza de Duque, where I was meeting my class to go out for tapas. I couldn't figure it out (there are 162 plazas in Sevilla) so I asked a handsome and well-dressed businessman to show me. And he did so with a smile. Dinner was lovely. We went to Sevilla's oldest tapas bar, El Rinconcillo. It first opened in 1670! We had some fantastic dishes like espinaca con garbanzos (so far my absolute favorite tapa in Sevilla), bacalao frito, salmorejo, and a few others. While we were "tapeando," an old man handed me a napkin with a poem scribbled on it that he had written for me:

"She's tall and blond like

the sun. She's elegant and

very beautiful and dressed in

black and pearls."

A kiss from Valentín

Ha! So precious.
Once we leave the bar, it starts pouring. Obviously. I of course, don't have an umbrella. So a friend and I walk, paragua-less for about 10 minutes, por el centro, to the river, and stop at what could be compared to a Walgreens so she can buy something. I wait at the front and some how end up in conversation with a woman by the door who studied in Ireland for a while. We talked about how wet I was from the rain and how I didn't have an umbrella, but "no pasa nada." But, being the Sevillan that I am, I naturally cut off my sentence to sound more like "no pasa n..." Well she loved it and was so impressed as to how Sevillan I had become/felt pity because of my sopping when clothes and hair, that she handed me her umbrella and told me to take it for the walk home. What? Qué? "En serio?" I said. Why would someone just give me their umbrella for free? When I got home, I told Esperanza the story and she was pretty shocked too. 

I love these people. I love this country. And despite the cold rain and the occasionally bad bocadillo and the intense frustration that I experience on the daily with attempting to speak a new language, I love this city. When for even a moment I experience discontentment, I ask for joy and the Lord gives it abundantly.

"On the day I called, you answered me; 

  my strength of soul you increased." 

                                    Psalm 138:3

Paris with the Paxtons

My wonderful friend Rachel (who used to be my high school English teacher...long story), moved to Paris with her husband Chris about two years ago and then they eventually had this little guy named Oliver. I had the opportunity to visit them there when they first moved and so have already done the majority of the touristy things there are to do in Paris. They've been so far away for quite some time, so when I moved over here to Sevilla, it was obvious that we had to meet up. The original plan was for them to take a trip to Sevilla, but with the cost of getting all three of them here, and with the upcoming move back to Texas approaching so quickly, it just made more sense for me to come there. I obviously was not complaining about visiting the capital of pastries for a second time, especially because I got to experience a little fall weather for a change!

The first afternoon after my arrival, we walked to a shmancy pastry shop that had been recommended to Rachel by a friend at church who is attending Le Cordon Bleu pastry school in Paris. The pastries were quite pricy so we went with a little brioche which was pretty delicious. I somehow managed to eat a lot of brioche that weekend and have decided it holds a spot in my top 5 favorite types of bread. Or at least the brioche in Paris does. I got scolded for taking this picture by the slightly scary french woman running the counter:

Then we took Oliver to the park to play. This kid literally melts my heart.

Oliver sails on the raging seas to conquer France and the nearby lands

He's such a good hand-holder

By the time we got home, Oliver was getting pretty warm in his turtle-neck. So while mom was chatting with a friend, I turned him into a hillbilly:

The next day Rachel's friend showed us around Le Cordon Bleu! Although we weren't allowed to go into any of the kitchens, we did walk past some swinging doors and I got to sneak a glance at some sort of demonstration/show-kitchen. It was such a fun surprise! And such an intimidating place!

That sculpture in the middle is made out of chocolate!

Here is a shot of Oliver making squinty faces in the elevator in his "professor" sweater, while enjoying a toothbrush:

And sipping on his water outside Le Cordon Bleu:

On the way home we stopped at the neighborhood market to pick up something things for lunch.

I miraculously ran into some friends from Sevilla and we stopped at the macron stand for some tasty treats. I had never tried one before because they didn't really look that appealing to me when sitting next to a raspberry tart or chocolate ganache cake, but I decided to try the lemon ginger one and it was fabulous! Turns out the macron guy has been to Houston and had a friend who worked in the Galleria. Small world!

Rachel was sweet enough to invite my friends over to the apartment for coffee and some suggestions on what else they should see while in Paris. They decided on the Rodin museum and so I walked with them to the entrance and then headed back. For dinner we went to the Latin Quarter, grabbed some crepes and pita grek, and sat in a park across from Notre Dame to eat our treats and hang out:

Chicken, cheese, and mushroom crepe. Yes, the cheese is crispy and burnt and delicious on the outside. YUM!

Yay for poor lighting!

Stopped by Shakespeare & Co. bookstore:

Fending off the rain

Had some crazy-looking gelato that was spectacular, walked into Notre Dame, and headed home on the metro:

Baby Gap model?

The next morning we took the metro or bus or some form of transportation to Angelina's, a fancy French cafe that is famous for their hot chocolate. Literally, a bar of chocolate that just happens to be hot and melted. So rich. So tasty. So totally made me feel sick. So worth it.

Went for a stroll through the Tuileries:

Love them so much!

Totally in love with this little dude!

 After our stroll, Rachel to Oliver back the apartment and I went to the Pompidou, the Paris museum of modern art that I was not able to see last time because of some sort of artist strikes. It was a really excellent museum! Here are some shots from my walk to the Pompidou:

Weird angry monkey hanging out of the window of the Lourve...

Hotel de Ville

Outside the Pompidou

 View of Montmartre from the top of the museum:

Other shots:

Guess where this was written? The toilet paper dispenser?

 After church we went out for dinner and I got to try escargot for the first time. Surprisingly delicious! I would absolutely order them again. Sorry for the awful photo:

Overall, my trip to Paris was so relaxing and so wonderful. I loved getting to walk around Paris without tons of snow and without any real need to visit a thousand different places. It was great to be around people who love me and who were so sweet to spoil me and let me hang out with them for a weekend. Thanks Paxton family! Y'all are THE best EVER. Miss you already!!!