Holiday Party

Holaaaaa todosssss!

Today Allison and I got a wee surprise. We went to a holiday party!!

Here's the story:

Allison and I were just sitting on the couch watching TV when Rosa came in. She looks at us and says, "Are you ready for a snack?" And of course we just smile and say, "SURE!"

She leaves the room, comes back in, sees us still sitting, and says (loudly) "VENGA!!" which means something along the lines of, "come on hurry up!!"

We were so confused.

It ends up that Rosa wanted to take us to eat at her sister's house! So we run into our room to change out of our pajamas and throw some makeup on. We literally run out the door in like 5 minutes and walk over to Rosa's sister, Conchi's, house. 

We got to meet all the family and sit down and chat. We shared this delicious pound cake cream filled roll of golden goodness, coffee, tea, chocolates, and candies. Oh yum. So good!

We got to see the HUGE nativity scene that Conchi has set up. It's miniature, but it's three levels, complete with functioning built-in lighting. Wow. 

We got to play with their dog who is so cute. It made me miss my puppy!!

Lastly, we took our group picture of the three of us. Rosa has pictures of all her students and her that she puts on her mantle. And today we took ours! I doubt I'll get a copy, but it will be cool to know that all her future girls will get to see us.

So overall it was a surprisingly fun day!!

Rosa!

Here are the pictures from Friday!! Enjoy :)

I Love Rosa

Hey :)

No pictures today (sorry) but I just thought I'd fill you all in on my lovely Friday afternoon!

I woke up this morning....afternoon...in a hurry because Rosa wanted to go out for lunch! For anyone who knows me at all, you know this is my all time favorite activity. So I got dressed super fast and we went out.

We strolled until we got to the bar Rosa had selected. She took us to her favorite tapas bar where her family always goes when they go out. We asked her what was good to eat, and she recommended her favorites. The waiter took drink orders and Rosa ordered a beer! Which is super weird because she never drinks! She even says so all the time! But she qualified it that we were celebrating and enjoying our last week in Spain, so all three of us got beers. It was very cute because she got super excited.

We ate delicious food and then Rosa treated us again by ordering the specialty of the house for us. Little sandwiches with baby-sized eggs and ham! Allison and Rosa joked that I needed breakfast still, because I just woke up. Ha. 

We offered to pay when we were done, and Rosa would not have that. At all. She almost yelled "PUT YOUR HANDS AWAY" when we reached for money. It is just so sweet that she wants to "treat" us because I feel like she treats us every day.

So thennnn we went to have coffee! It's common here to have coffee after lunch, but I didn't expect another treat! We went to our favorite place, Las Palomas, and had wild berry cake and coffees. We ran into Seth and Elyse who were glad to meet our senora. I was so proud to show her off. :)

On our way home we stopped by the supermarket for groceries. I love that she took us with her because she usually doesn't. But we got to pick out what foods we wanted, including the JUMBO size jar off off brand Nutella. It's wayyy better than the real stuff, believe it or not. I also got some coffee to to take home, to remind me of the coffee we have every morning here in Rosa's house.

We walked home and unpacked groceries, and now here I am writing this! 

I can't really explain how happy Rosa makes me. I think it is the epitome of "blessed." She is like an angel sent to take care of me and make me feel at home. I literally love her. Nobody else (besides Allison) feels this way about their senoras, as far as I know. 

Allison told me that her mom prayed every day that when we got to Spain we would be blessed with a senora who is great. I know my Mama prayed too, and let me say that the power of prayer sure works. God blessed us all three so much. Rosa always tells us how she loves us like children and can't bear to think of us leaving. 

Saturday in Sevilla

Thought I'd update you guys on my weekend!

I spent Saturday in Sevilla and Allison and I visited El Museo de Bellas Artes, or the "fine art museum." I had never been and it was right around the corner from where we live, and cost a whopping 1.50 euros. Here is me in the gardens:

The museum was very pretty and had only Spanish art in there. From like the 1400's!

Me, always being a dork:

Sitting on the floor:

Then we went out to lunch. I wanted one thing, but they were out, so I somehow ended up getting this sandwich made of raw salmon and mozzarella. It was good!

Then Allison and I met up with Carolotta and we climbed the Giralda. La Giralda is the tallest tower in Sevilla, where the old monk man used to ring the bells of the Cathedral. It was 37 ramps up to the top, but we got this view:

Then we met up with more friends for coffee and dessert at our favorite cafe, Las Palomas. It was a super fun day!!

Thanksgiving & Granada

Salutations dear readers of my blog!

Sorry it's been so long!

Thanksgiving was fun, I hope yours was too. Our school celebrated at a restaurant which served us a "traditional" American thanksgiving meal. It was actually pretty good for being Spanish made! Then we all danced salsa! It was fun to get dressed up and dance with the people I've grown to adore.

Here is a group picture with our intermediate class and teacher, Ana.

Ana and I! Love her.

So then the next day I went to Granada! It's 3 hours from Sevilla by bus. 

Me, Carolotta, Rachel, and Tina decided it would be a fun weekend trip so we went together.

We stayed two days and slept overnight in a hostel.

The first day, we did so much. It was super fun! Here is us having an afternoon coffee:

 Thanks to the waiter for taking this one!

Later that night we found our way to a viewing area to see the Alhambra Palace lit up at night:

And leave it to me to find a door with two black cats painted on it!!!!

Granada has a lot of Muslim and Arabic influence, and every store sold lanterns like these:

Then we went to the Alhambra! Here we are on our way up, hiking the trail to the entrance:

Then we got there and here is my tickettttt

I FOUND A KITTTTEN and I fed it :)

These are the famous lions and fountain in the Alhambra:

Me and a door. Hahaha I had three cups of coffee....

It was a gorgeous area with tons of rooms and gardens and things to take pictures of.

And I loved it!

So there we have it! Really fun fun trip. Got to bond with the girls and talk and chat and sightsee and shop lots and lots. Granada may have been one of my all time favorite cities here.

Besos!

Huelva

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

In honor of the holiday, our school took a trip to Huelva.

After an hour on the bus, we got to Huelva, which is the place where Christopher Columbus lived briefly before leaving on his New World expedition.

First we visited the monastery where he lived. He lived with monks and did all his trip planning here. He asked for money from Queen Isabel and King Fernando of Spain here. 

We even got to sit in the kitchen where he ate!

This is a statue of a very important Saint or Virgin or something. But the cool thing is that good ol' Christopher ("Cristobal" in Spanish) prayed to this statue every day while he lived in the monastery!

It was small. Underwhelming.

Anyway, next I saw what I was told is a model of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. The happiness in the following picture is staged; I was super disappointed at how tiny it is!!!!

Then, I was handed this.....

Which is my ticket onto the BIG BOATS!!! YAY!

We got to walk around the detailed replicas of all three boats, get a guided tour, and watch a very boring informational video on the boats. Nifty!

I'm on a boat!

So that has been my Thanksgiving so far! Very historical. 

Tonight a local restaurant is putting on a Thanksgiving dinner for us. We are all dressing up nice and going to eat us some pavo! (turkey). Pretty excited.

Miss all you people and wish I was there for some pumpkin pie!

Besos :)

Ronda

The other day our school had another field trip excursion.

We went to Ronda, which is a Roman founded city about 2 hours away from Sevilla.

We got to see the oldest bull fighting ring in Spain, and got a bunch of gorgeous pictures of the countryside, this super old Roman bridge, and the sunshine!

It's been raining in Sevilla for weeks and so we expected Ronda to be rainy like they say it always is, but we had perfect weather.

I put up bunches of pictures on Facebook, but here is one panorama that's not on there.

It was a gorgeous day full of sightseeing, and I feel lucky that the school sponsors so many fun days like this one.

Besos!