While We Are Young.

Hello Fellow Friends,

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I have been pretty busy and when time allows it, I sleep.  So, hopefully this post will be enough for you for a couple of days.  Not that you guys are demanding pictures and stories and what not.  I just like to think that people are reading my blogs.  Y'know?  If not, I have an electronic journal.  Woop woop.

Alright, so a lot has happened since my last post.  I will start with a quest speaker in my Spanish Culture and Society class.  We had beautiful Sefora come to our class to teach us about gypsies (aka "gitanos") and all that they have had to endure over time.  Little fact for ya, she is a gypsy herself!  So cool.

Gypsies have been around for centuries, some say that the gypsies were even here in Spain when the Moors were ruling.  Their culture may be completely diverse than society's "norm" but what is the norm really?  Gypsies bring flamenco to the Spanish world.  But to be honest, it wasn't encouraged in the past.  It was seen as something that "heathens" would do.  Gypsies also spoke (and some still speak) their own language, which once again, was discouraged.  They were told they could not speak their own language and must speak Spanish.  They continued to sing and dance flamenco in the neighborhood called Triana.  Sound familiar?  It is where I live!!

One point in time, the river flooded Triana and all the gypsies had to relocate to what is now known as "Tres Mil Viviendas".  If you ever ask to go there or if someone has gone there, they will have a worried look on their face and tell you to never go there.  They say it is the worst part of town.

Gypsies has been discriminated for centuries.  They weren't even considered Spanish citizens until 1978, which is crazy since they have been here since the 1400s, and quite possibly even earlier.  All this to say, my heart goes out to the gypsy people.  They have had to struggle through so much and still do.  Although there are some changes in Spain regarding gypsies, there is still a separation between gitanos and payos (non-gypsies).

Here is a picture of such an inspiring woman who has dedicated her life to better the gypsy people in Spain.  She has defeated all odds and even gone against the norm in both gypsy culture as well as Spanish culture.

Another thing that we did this week was check out the Real Alcazar.  It is one of the many palaces the royals would use when traveling, and coincidentally, it is one of the only ones that are still used today.  The inside is beautiful.  The outside is beautiful.  The walls are beautiful.  The tiles are beautiful.  I will just let the pictures talk for themselves.

As you can see it is just gorgeous.

After we went around the Alcazar, we went into a neighborhood called Barrio Santa Cruz.  It is where the Jews lived back in the day.  It is also absolutely beautiful.  It has great shops and wonderful restaurants.  The distinctive white washed buildings and narrow labyrinth-like streets are key factors of being a Jewish neighborhood.

That night, a couple of us decided that we wanted to go to the Metropol Parasol (aka The Mushrooms) and we wanted to tour the top of them at sunset.  Metropol Parasol was built in 2011 and claims to be one of the largest wooden structures in the world.  It is quite controversial here in Sevilla just because it is so modern compared to the rest of the antique city.  On the top of The Mushrooms is a winding trail that tourists and locals can go and see the city scape.  Here are some photos of that.

That night my roommate and I were walking home and the main road that we walk was so crowded we couldn't walk through.  We heard lots of trumpets and smelled lots of incense (not gonna lie, I got a headache).  All of a sudden we see this huge structure made of gold, flowers, candles, and a statue of the Virgin Mary.  We got close and saw that the structure was carried by men underneath it.  We could see around 20-25 pairs of feet, and the only logical explanation is that they are carrying this thing on their shoulders.

We heard that parades like these happen during Semana Santa (Holy Week), but we didn't expect it to be in October.  It is said that being one of the ones chosen to hold the statue is such an honor.  I have a picture, but honestly, a picture can't even do it justice.  It is one of those things that you have to look up on a video or be there yourself to fully understand.

That was all Friday in case you were wondering.

Saturday the Veritas girls and I went to the church that our missionary mentors attend, and we helped clean their church for a huge youth outreach that was happening that night.  It was awesome because we were able to be used not only for our hands, but to also interact with the teens during the outreach.  It was so fun.  We had the Just Dance game going, basketball/ping pong/foosball going, and people were just hanging out.  One of the missionaries shared her testimony and it was an awesome night of fun, fellowship, and testimonies.

Sunday, we went to church and it has been nice to be able to have a home church while in an unfamiliar place.  After church, I was able to go to coffee with a friend, and it was nice to just be and talk.  I loved it.  That afternoon, all the Americans from the church came together at the University of Sevilla for English worship (I lead and played guitar) as well as a message in English.  It was another great time of fellowship and growth.  I am loving it here.

So, that is all I have for you now.  I hope that is enough for you.

Until next time, hasta luego!

Sincerely,
Angela

Birthday in Spain.

Hey Hey!

Welcome back to my blog.  Love that you're here.  :)

This weekend I had my 22nd birthday!  It was so cool to celebrate my birthday here in Spain, not going to lie.  I do have to admit, it was pretty difficult to not be around family and friends, but my friends here in Spain did a great job celebrating with me.  They loved on me.

I will thank them for ya.

It all started Friday October 5th at 11pm.  I got together with some of my friends and we went to a local bar for some cokes and dessert at midnight.  I mean, you can't celebrate a birthday without some dessert right?  Here is a picture from that.

It was a lot of fun.  But in all seriousness though, I am obsessed with Sprite with lemon.  I can't tell you how much I love it.  Seriously though.  So good.

During the day, the Veritas girls and I had a Bible study with the local missionary here who is our mentor for the semester.  It was a great time fellowship and sharing our burdens as well as our praises.  That afternoon, I was able to experience my first siesta.  If you know me, I am a big napper, so you should be surprised that it has take me three weeks to finally take a siesta.  I don't know what it is, but I just love naps.  Maybe I am a Spaniard and not Irish/German (kidding Mom).

That night a few of my wonderful friends and I went out to the oldest restaurant in Sevilla (founded in 1670).  It was such a task to actually find the restaurant because of the lack of knowledge of the city.  Sevilla has so many small, winding roads that it is literally impossible to not get lost.  Holy cow.  We asked like 3 or 4 times where this miniature restaurant was.  It was a struggle.

We finally found it.  The place is called El Rinconcillo and it was awesome!  It was packed out and so full of lively people.  We finally got our table for the 6 of us and we all got to experience some real, authentic Spanish food.  Let me correct something, I do have authentic Spanish food at my host home, but the things on this menu were different, but also authentic.  I had this egg, asparagus, onion, and ham dish.  Sounds gross, but it was pretty awesome.  Here are the photos.

It was a great meal with awesome company.  But one of the coolest parts about it was the waiter that we had.  His name was Pepe and he was awesome.  He found out it was my birthday and he gave me a birthday kiss.  No big deal.  I took a picture with him.  We're friends now.  Boom.

After dinner, we needed to indulge in our newly found love of ice cream.  Granted, I have always loved ice cream, but I don't think I have had ice cream so consistently.  I now have a favorite ice cream shop.  Yeah, it is that serious.

So, as I have said in a previous post, my birthday tradition is that I have my wonderfully handsome dad bake me my favorite banana cake every year.  So, of course all week I have been craving banana cake, knowing full well that I would not be getting any.  Well, what did my favorite ice cream shop provide?

Banana Ice Cream.

It was glorious.  It was just a little taste of home.

After a wonderful evening of friends and Sevilla's best, it was time to go rest my little head.

But it doesn't end there.

Today (Tuesday) I received a post office slip to say that I needed to go pick up a package.  I knew that my friend Mrs. Hillary Underwood (see what I did there) was sending something but I didn't know it was going to be a package.  So fun!

So, after class today, I hurriedly went to the post office and was so giddy to get my package.  I got to the post office and I had no idea what door to go in.  There were like 50 different doors.  One for Western Union and 49 for other things I didn't know.  So, I politely asked the man at the desk if he spoke English to see if he could help me (which he didn't) because in all honesty, I didn't even know what I was looking for.  He smiled and got me a number stub and all I could say was sorry for not being able to speak in Spanish.  He was so kind and told me it wasn't a problem.  He loved to smile.

My number was called and I went up to the lady and gave her my slip.  She was not happy with me.  She was talking so fast and I had absolutely no idea what she was saying.  I know I had a confused look on my face because she kept repeating it over and over again in the same speed.  I just kept saying I don't understand.  Then she started to point to the slip and I could read it.  Supposedly I wasn't supposed to come pick up my package until the day after I received my slip.  But she was so nice, she gave it to me anyways.  Word.

All in all, it was an experience and now I know how the post office works.

It was an amazing package though.  Not going to lie, I shed a tear or two.  Or maybe like 12, but that's beside the point.  It was a few cards with people from SNU who wrote to say happy birthday as well as my favorite candy and a beautiful scarf.  Being homesick and not being able to celebrate your birthday with the ones you're closest with can be difficult.  But it was an amazing day and this packaged made it that much more amazing.

Here are some pictures.

Oh and I mustn't forget.  I share a birthday with my lovely sister in law Sara Mardock.  So, I feel as if I need to give her a birthday shout out since we share the same day.  Sorta.  Kinda.  Not really.  But a little bit.  Yeah.

To end this long, drawn out post, I had a great day.  Definitely can't get this anywhere else, that's for sure.  I am so thankful to be here and have the encouragement from people here as well as those at home.  I am going to be honest, it is hard at times when you just want to crawl back into the norm of what you know, but it is also such a growing experience to be constantl pushed out of the box.

I love you all and thank you for the birthday wishes!  You guys are the best!

Until next time!

Love,
Ang

I Sea You.

Well hello there.  So glad you are here reading this blog.

But in all seriousness, I do appreciate you taking the time to read about my adventures here in Europe.  It means a lot.

Now I shall share with you some news.  Brilliant.

This week has been a crazy week of classes and I've been trying to get into the rhythm of a consistent routine and not stay continually scatter brained and exhausted.  The whole staying out late and not taking siestas is really kicking my butt.  Seriously.  But all-in-all, I am really enjoying my classes and professors.   It is a great atmosphere here.

Today we all went to Malaga which is a beach town on the Mediterranean that is still in Andalusia.  It was awesome!  Perfect day to go to the beach.  It is also the birthplace of the one and only Pablo Picasso, no big deal.  We left early this morning, caught the bus, and were on our way to another adventure.

We started the day off with going to the Pablo Picasso Museum where we were able to see some of his works in an old palace that has been converted into a museum.  It was awesome!!!  Also, while they were turning the old palace into a museum, they discovered some ruins underneath the building.  No big deal.  Some of the things they were finding under the palace dated way back to the 6th century.  They now have it open as an archeological exhibit.  I wasn't able to take pictures inside the museum but here are the ones I was able to capture.

My Ticket.

The Entrance to the Museum.

After the museum, we walked around Malaga to see more of the beautiful city.  It is cool because the city has ruins all underneath the floors and they are continually (even to this day) finding these beautiful landmarks.  We were able to see a 200 b.c. Roman amphitheater.  It was so crazy to see!  Here are some photos.

Part of the Roman Ruins.

Me in front of the Roman ruins.

After we walked around town a little bit, we were then able to see the Cathedral of Malaga and tour the inside.  Oh my word, it is absolutely gorgeous.  Little known fact about the Cathedral, which is also called "La Manquita" (One-Armed Lady), it only has one tower.  The reason for this is (or so they say) instead of building a second tower, the money was given to America for their independence.  Apparently, we owe Malaga a second tower.  But anyways.  I will let the pictures do the talking.

My Ticket.

Side of the Cathedral.

Inside of the Cathedral.

That huge canvas is made out of elephant hide

The two beautiful organs that echo the whole cathedral.

The cathedral is massive and words cannot describe how amazing it is.  I loved going and learning about it.  If you ever get a chance to go into any cathedral, please do.  It will be worth it.

After the cathedral we all had free time.  So what did I do, you ask?

I went into the Mediterranean Sea.  Yes.  You heard me right.

Malaga is right off of the Mediterranean Sea so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to say that we have been in it.  Here are some photos from that excitement!

First thing we see when we get to the sea.

I'm in it!!

That's me.

So, that basically sums up our trip to Malaga.  It was beautiful and sunny and had the most perfect weather.  I love my friends and getting to experience all of this with them has been such a blessing.  :)

Until next time.

Love,
Ang