Vale la Pena

“I like being able to eat a big meal, take a nap, and not feel terrible about it.”

- Tyler Branson, our TA

If you want to just scan this post, honestly, read just this sentence and you’ll get the gist: I made it to Sevilla and I really like it. If you want to know the details – read on, read on.

I've been in Sevilla for a week now. I know I'm still in the honeymoon stage of studying abroad, but man, I am loving this country! I'll start from the beginning. Feel free to skim.

Last Thursday morning, after my last Chick-fil-A meal for a long time, I met up with my fellow travelers Nyla and Claire at DFW. We flew to Boston, had a two-hour layover and then hopped another plane to Madrid. We made friends in the airport (shout out to Bruna from Brazil and Spencer from Clemson and Dell from Morocco/Ft Worth!) and then made our final connection to Sevilla. Sevilla has a very small airport so GET THIS: we got to walk on to the plane from the ground!! I’ve always wanted to do that. Bucket list item: completed. Somehow, we made it to Sevilla with all of our luggage and sanity in tact. Boom.

We checked into Hotel Zenit Friday morning and then hit the town! Sevilla is relatively small for a big city if that makes sense. It’s got the extremes of very metropolitan and very quaint parts of town. First stop was Café Charlotte for lunch. First culture shock experience: how in the world do I order, eat and pay in another language? Actually speaking Spanish was not the issue – but the cultural context is impossible to pick up on without making a fool of yourself. We looked like “stupid Americans” for the first several meals, but we're finally starting to get it down.

After exploring the streets for a few hours, a big siesta in the hotel followed. Later, we got to meet up with everyone from the TCU program and our director, Mary Alice. We have a great group – 10 estudiantes strong! We are from all over the place, but we all get along wonderfully – seriously a great group.

Our first full two days in Sevilla were full of orientations and great meals paid for by TCU... score! We got to practice Spanish with some Sevillanos (people from Sevilla) and ended up hitting it off and we all went out together that night... talk about starting strong! They’re very friendly and proud of their city. Gotta like that.

On Sunday we got to meet our host families! This is what I’ve been most nervous about for the past couple of months. I am pals with the TCU girls that stayed with my host family, Carmen and Miguel, last spring. Thankfully, they gave us the DL on what to expect in the casa. Big thanks to Sarah & Kaitlin! Honestly. Carmen and Miguel are 2 of my new favorite people alive. After about 17 minutes of discomfort, we’ve been blessed blessed blessed with great relationships with them! I’ll do a post soon solely about Carmen & Miguel because they deserve it. But for sparknotes: they’re in their 60s-ish, originally from towns right outside of Sevilla, have 3 grown children, are retired, live the relaxed life, love olives and watch plenty of game shows

We live in a flat on what in America we would call the 4^th floor, but in Spain they call the 3^rd floor. Confused? Yeah, me too. We live in an incredibly great part of town named Triana. It’s where Spain has its folkloric origins... famous for pottery and flamenco. It’s right on the Guadalquivir River, which runs though Sevilla and is just beautiful. I also have a great roommate, Claire! She is from Arkansas and we have gotten to experience the adventure of every day together.

Since Monday, we have been going to intensive Spanish classes, drinking great coffee, speaking broken Spanish, trying to get used to the time difference, making friends from across the globe and enjoying siestas. New things have assimilated into my vocabulary... like Spanish idioms and “It’s only a 30 minute walk.”

Each day we wake up at like 7:30, eat cornflakes, walk a couple of miles to class, learn from 9-10:40ish, coffee break, learn from 11-1, walk home, eat lunch made by Carmen, siesta siesta siesta, meet up with friends for coffee or a drink, hang out with Miguel and watch a game show or two, eat dinner at 9ish, then “salir” con amigos and then go to sleep around 2. Viva la vida!

If you’re into it, keep praying that the Lord keeps bringing the good times, health and safety that I’ve been given so far. This trip has been full of opportunities to step out of my comfort zone. It’s usually worth it though! Pray for confidence and courage in the Lord, the ordinary, and even in my Spanish-speaking.

I’ll end with a cheesy thought that I have every day: I’m glad smiling is the same in every language.