Week one, check.

                                          A typical Sevillan street

                                                            Torre del Oro

                                              Paddle boating on the river

                                             My roommate and I

Imagine yourself living in Spain, living in an apartment, living directly above two boys that are in the same program with you, what is the most embarrassing thing you can think of? Oh I know, THIS:

Oh yes, that is indeed my laundry hung high for all to see. Talk about humiliating. Who wants their delicates blowing in the wind where new friends of the opposite gender can see them, not to mention any other unsavory characters who may be sticking their head out the window. Don't worry, none of my own undergarments can be seen from the angle the picture was taken above. Those would be my roommates. Sorry Yesi! I just had to vent about this. Not to mention that this has been a day full of mala suerte (for you non-Spanish privileged people out there, that means bad luck). Let’s start from the beginning. I am awoken at 3 am by a rustle outside of my bedroom door. I lay there for a second trying to orient myself and I realize the room is quieter than usual, and I’m more drenched in sweat than usual (have I mentioned it’s been like 150 degrees here?) and I realize the fan is off. The fan that I have so very much come to love, because it is the one appliance that has kept me from going insane in this sweltering heat. And then I realize…our Senora turned it off. “She turned it off and I am going to die of heat exhaustion”, these were the thoughts running through my head at 3 am. Needless to say my night of sleep was not comfortable from that moment forward. Let me explain the fan situation in a bit more detail. Our senora told us to not use the fan at night, and usually I would respect her wishes but I’m sorry I am not keen on losing ten pounds by means of sweating it off due to sleeping sans fan. So every night we have been using the fan and our senora sleeps way on the other side of the apartment so we figure she would never know. I know I know, it’s sneaky and devious, but if you were me and you had to sweat 24 hours out of your day you would do the same. Trust me. And my poor roommate, she’s from Oregon so she is not used to this heat. I guess I owe you one Fresno for preparing me so well for this extreme weather. Okay back to mi dia de mala suerte. So we wake up late after finally falling asleep for possibly the last hour, and head to breakfast. What did we get today? We each got a heel of the loaf of bread. What are our friends getting from their senoras? Whole loaves. Okay great. Thanks. Yeah that kept me full for about ten minutes. So then we go on our merry way and are making our way out of the building when I swing open the door and misjudge the distance between the bottom of the gigantic iron clad gate/door and it very roughly scrapes/smashes my toes, rips off my toe ring and leaves me howling in pain with battle wounds, most definitely a visual remembrance of the bad luck I was faced with today.  So I am hobbling to school and crossing the street when a funny-looking, little, gray, very European car ever so swiftly starts backing up without looking behind him and nearly misses hitting my roommate and I. Spaniards are not striking a good note with me today. As I walked to school today I probably looked more like a Spaniard than I have my entire time here: A disgruntled look plastered to my face and no smile to be seen. I would like to say my luck improved but alas it did not until much later in the day. Next drop of bad luck? Lunch; a meal that most Spaniards take pride in making the largest and most filling meal of the day. Today we had rice, and a small medley of tomatoes and cucumbers. I know people getting five course meals. Mom, can you put a rush on the peanut butter please? Okay, okay maybe I am being a little extreme, (but not really). My host senora is a very nice lady who I very much enjoy conversing in Spanish with. Maybe cooking just isn’t her thing. Yeah, dinner was a chopped-up hot dog (I think) mixed in with tomato sauce and a side of mashed potatoes. Yum? Since when is that an authentic Spanish dish! The good part was the mound of watermelon she placed in front of me for dessert. YUM! Ah but not all was a loss today for I greatly enjoyed my classes, went on a shopping excursion with two of my friends and had our first Encuentro! Encuentro is like a version of Kaleo, which is a nighttime worship/church service at my school. It was very refreshing to set aside time to worship God and to hear a message from one of our ministry directors. It made APU feel not so far away. The message was one that hit home for me, because it was one about purpose and how we are all here in Spain because we are meant to be. We’re here because God has a plan for us while we are here. We were told to be intentional while we are here to seek Him out and use this time as a gift away from our everyday busy lives and seek out who we really are without all of the things around us that usually define us. We can so easily be defined by what we do, who we are with, what programs we volunteer with, what sports we play (or in my case, don’t play).  But we have this opportunity to be away from everything in this new place and we should be intentional about trying to see all that God will try to show us about ourselves, and our purpose while we are here. So here’s to you Spain! Show me, teach me; let me experience and learn and grow.