la Zahara de la Sierra

Last Sunday, i took a day trip with my school to visit the mountains in the Zahara. Zahara de las Sierras is one of Spain's fifty most beautiful pueblos (towns). It is one of the famous white pueblos of the Sierras and it reminded me of the sisterhood of the traveling pants when Lena goes to Greece! The views were so incredible! First we climbed up this mountain to capture a breath taking view of the town. Then we got to explore. Some friends and i met two spanish people that had been there before to show us around the little town. So we climbed up to see this huge castle and then we saw the cemetery. The cemetery was very different than cemeteries in the U.S because, in Spain in is cheaper to be buried in the wall rather than in the ground. After visiting the cemetery, we got snacks from a local bakery and just sat down in the sun and got to know our new friends! Below are some pictures from my excursion:

this reminded my of the sisterhood of traveling pants

The view from the top of the mountain

My first spanish friends

In the castle

Cemetery

La Cathedral

So I completed my second week here and of school! The time is flying by! Yesterday, we went on our second field trip to the Cathedral. It was so cool and beautiful! The cathedral, even had tombstones of Chirstopher Columbus! We climbed up 34 flights of ramps to reach the top of the Giralda! It was so tiring but the view was amazing! Here are some picture of my trip:

La Cathedral

Giralda

The view from the top of the Giralda

This weekend is going to be pretty relaxed. On sunday, I am taking a day trip with my school to the Zahara de la Sierra, so that should be a great experience and more fun pictures to come! I only have one more week of my intensive period classes then it's on to a new schedule of classes for the rest of the semester aka it means I no longer will have class on fridays!!

La iglesia de español

Today, My friend and I went to spanish church! It was a very small church but I loved it! The worship was very contemporary and upbeat. We sang Hillsong songs in spanish! I felt right at home! The worship team sat on the steps of the alter so you feel like they are in the crowd with you! Even though I didnt really understand all of what the pastor was saying, I can tell he is speaking the truth and the word. I am looking forward to attending this church regularly, alothough I still may look around but it's going to be hard to top this great church!

Cordoba:)

Today, I went on a day trip with my school to Cordoba. Cordoba is  a city in Andalusia, southern Spain and is an Iberian and Roman city in ancient times. We visited the Alcázar, Juderia, Sinagoga, la Mezquita and the cathedral. After we visited these places we had free time to explore and take pictures around the city. Here are some pictures from my day:

Tomorrow I am going to go to my first church service with one of my friends that I have met here. It should be a great way to see how they worship here and of course learn more spanish! I am so excited to be able to worship the Lord and thank him for sending me to this wonderful city and for this life experience!

The real Alcázar of Seville

Today, in my class, we took a field trip to Alcázar of Seville. This is basically a famous royal palace in Seville. We walked around the whole thing! It had beautiful architecture and gardens outside! here our some pictures of what I saw:

So yesterday I had my first day of classes! It went pretty well. For the first three weeks of classes, it is a review period, so i only have two classes. My first class is a review grammer and composition class, I have that class Monday through friday from 9am-12:45pm. While yes the class is very long, we get a half hour break and at this time everyone goes and gets coffee! My second class is called cultural relaities. In this class, we learn about the culture of Sevilla and surrounding cities in spain. I have this class only on Tuesday from 1-2pm.  So I had that class today. It should be a great class to learn more about the people and the way they live here. For the rest of the day, I prob. will be doing homework and of course maybe a siesta, then later maybe going out..we will see though!!:)

The following picture is the name of my school, this sign is right outside the door to my school. My school is made for abroad students and inside it has beautiful title walls and  a beautiful fountain in the middle of the main office area.

Today, some friends and i walked over the bridge and right at the end of the bridge is a churro place! They were AMAZINGG!! I dipped mine in chocolate!

After eating churros one of my friends and I practiced walking to school since classes start tomorrow!!   When I came home , I found this note by my door! 

My host family is very sweet and knows that it is a change for me and it is going to take time for me to understand everything they are saying! I am very blessed to have a great family who already cares  for my needs!

Arriving in spain:)

Hola! So I have been in spain for three days now! I love it so far! So lets start from the begining:

I flew out on Wed Feb 2nd from philly airport to madrid, it was an overnight flight and upon arriving in madrid I woke up to this beautiful sunset!

After having an hour layover, I got on the plane to go to Sevilla, Spain, my home town:) Once arriving in Sevilla , the staff from my school picked up up on a big bus ( since there was about 15 other people from the program with me) to a hotel. That night we had oritentation where we learned about the program and our schedule for the next few days! The next day (which is now Friday, the 4th..with the time change), we woke up early to take a mini tour around the town and to the school. Once we arrived in the school, we took a placement test to see what class we will be in. After that we took a taxi to our host family. In my family, there is a mom, dad, older brother (not sure the age yet) and 17 year old daughter! They are very nice people and have a very nice house! I am very close to school about a 15 min walk so it will be nice to get some exercise! My family speaks very fast, so its hard to understand them but im trying my best to comminucate..lets just say im doing a lot of head nodding and smiling and saying "si"(meaning yes). The food is very good,  very oily though!  They eat at very late times like lunch is around 2:30 and dinner is around 9:30 so its been an adjustment but Im loving the 60 degree weather and sunshine though!  I think thats all for now, more pics to come!

This is the bridge i walk on to go to school