Amigos!!!

For this post, I have to back track about a month... kinda like all my other posts.  I will get up-to-date eventually, but not today.

About a month ago, somewhere around October 2nd, we had dinner with some friends of a friend of a friend.  We have a friend named Rebecca who worked the same program last year that we are currently in now.  She knew some missionaries here in Sevilla and they knew another young couple living in the city center.  After millions of emails between all 3 over about a month period, we finally met up with Jordan and Sarah Bentley, an amazing couple from northern California and new-found friends!!!!!!

They invited us for dinner on Saturday night and we had kabobs on their rooftop terrace that has a great view of the Giralda.  After talking for a little while, our current living situation came up in the convo.  We told them we were still just living in a hostal until we found an apartment. To our surprise they graciously invited us to stay with them in their apartment until we found a place to live!  We were blown away by their invite......but secretly hoped they would (we were becoming very poor, very fast!!)  They asked us, people they barely knew at the time, to come live with them for as long as we needed.  It was something Emma and I had been praying for a long time ago before we even came to Sevilla.  We had hoped and prayed for friends, security, and a sense of community. We couldn't believe that we had found them our second day of living in Sevilla.

Sarah and Jordan are also members of a community called Couch Surfers (which Emma and I are in the process of joining).  It's basically a worldwide network of travelers that openly invite others to stay with them while traveling and share the culture!!

We stayed with Jordan and Sarah for about 7 nights.  Throughout the week, they gave us tours of the city, cooked dinner, played the Wii, had computer lab, talked about kitties, and helped us find apartments.  We also started our first week of school!  About the 5th day, we were getting frustrated with finding places to live.... and then another amazing gift came along.  We found an apartment almost directly above Sarah and Jordan.  We were going to be neighbors!!! 

Having some cafecitos at a restaurant with Los Bentleys.

compooter lab.

Our roomies for the week!

baking cookies 6 at a time!!

Mario time.

domination.

We can't thank them enough for their servant-like hearts and generosity.  We are so truly blessed and owe them lots of cookies and food that we ate.  We are also blown away by God and his grace and mercy that He has given us!!

We can't wait for all the good times ahead and fun trip we plan on taking together!!!!

Mantequilla, Mantequilla

Emma and I don't watch a lot of TV here in Spain, but on occasion we like to watch the Spanish Disney channel or Scrubs with weird dubbed Spanish voices....
Sometimes we even find shows and commercials that catch us off guard like this next little clip.

This is my favorite commercial that we have come across, SO FAR....
It's just a commercial for butter but it's so much more to me.  If you try to replace mantequilla with the word butter, it just doesn't work.







A real post may be coming soon....

Sevillan Civilians

We arrived in Sevilla on October 1st!  It was an awesome relief to finally stop traveling for a little while, but even though we had somewhere to stay, we were still homeless....  We stayed in Hostel Nuevo Suizo for 2 nights.  We used Hostel Bookers to book both the hostel in Madrid and our hostel here in Sevilla. We booked online the day before, each time, and were pretty impressed with their awesome customer service and accurate hotel descriptions and reviews! and zero booking fees!!

We got a taxi from the train station and drove to the street where our hostel was located.  The taxi driver was pretty friendly and explained some history about Sevilla and where we would be staying.  Our hostal was located on Calle Sierpes, which is one of the major commercial streets in town.  Our hostal bedroom was the size of a large shoe box with 2 twin beds and a sink.  Shaq could lay in it long ways and not fit.  We loved sleeping together in a twin bed and making friends with the receptionist, Inés, who moved from Peru 3 years ago.  Once we arrived, just like in Madrid, we went exploring immediately.  Above the streets, the city hangs sheets to block the sun during the hotter months.  It just started cooling down so they didn't stay up much longer, but we liked them.

After exploring Sevilla, we were already in love with it and wished we could share it with all of our family and friends!  It's still a fairly large city (4th largest in Spain), but still has a small town feel to it.  The perfecto combo in our opinion.  We took a gazillion pictures and will be posting those very soon... maybe.  Even though we didn't know where we were going to live, where our schools were, when we would be teaching, or how we would make it by without throwing money down a hole, we were so excited to be here and get settled in.

Calle Sierpes

Emma and Shaq (our roomie) at a Miami Heat game.

La Giralda!  the bell tower to The LARGEST gothic cathedral and the 3rd LARGEST church in the world!

Emmie and I in the room. (without Shaq)

Our room.  We slept in one bed and put luggage on the other.

La Giralda again.

Hungry, why wait?

 We have been in Spain for about a month now (Sevilla pics coming soon!!) and when you live in another country for a little while, you begin to notice things you miss from home, as well as things you wish you had at home!  Here in Spain we've noticed a lot of conveniences and inconveniences, and because of those, I've thought of a few more ideas for blog posts.  These posts might sound random, but they are nevertheless part of our "experience" and daily life here in Spain!!

Convenience #1:   The Hamburger vending machine.

 

While walking to the bus station one day, I was super hungry!!  and being the indecisive person I am, I couldn't choose a place to eat from all the millions of tapas bars that are here in Spain.  We passed by a normal drink machine, then a snack machine, and then..... this big daddy hamburger vending machine!!  You have your choice of nachos, hot dogs, quesadillas, bacon sandwiches, grilled cheese, chili dogs, and buffalo wings!  mmmmmmmmmmm  tasty and convenient if you plan on spending a full day in the baño.... 

Gracias.

Por fin, Madrid, we made it!

After about 24 total hours of travel, watching lots of Phineas and Ferb and playing black jack on the plane, and killing 14 Spaniards with our 3 huge rolling bags on the metro train.....  we made it!
We left Decatur at 5:30 am on Wednesday September 29th and arrived in Madrid on the 30th at 7:30 am.

Even though we were deprived of sleep, we still had to explore!!!! We walked down several main streets that we remembered from our trip a few years ago.  We passed by the Prado museum where you can find works from famous artists like Diego Velazquez, Francisco Goya, and Wesley Teague.  Then, we were reunited with our beloved Parque de Retiro, where we accidently passed out for 4 hours under a tree.  We woke up to a number of kindergarten field trips starring at us as they walked by!  Later that day in our hotel room, we made our plans to travel to Sevilla.  That night we strolled down the street 5 minutes to Plaza Mayor for some awesome dinner and people watching!

First pic upon arrival in Spain!!

Plaza del Sol

We sat in front of this "couple" on the plane and they randomly found us several hours later in the plaza!

Post office under construction.

Hangin out at the Prado.

We passed out dead 5 minutes after this pic.

hostel.

plaza mayor.

pizza and olives.  After eating about 10 of these olives, they were later thrown on the ground so that we didn't seem like "wasteful americans"...  but we wasted all of them.  all 40 of them.

We love Madrid, but we are very glad to be living in Sevilla!  We left Madrid the next day at 11am on a super speedy bullet train!  If you happen to be traveling around Spain, the AVE trains through RENFE are awesome!  We got drinks and pretzels on the train and even watched "Clash of the Titans" in Spanish which I have seen literally 5 times in spanish.............   The train takes 2 hours, where as on a bus it would take 5 or so.  We finally arrived in our new home at 1 pm right before "siesta" time!!!

Hasta luego Madrid y HOLA Sevilla!!

Cristobal Wesley y Queen Isabemma!

The tomb in the cathedral where part of Christopher Columbus is buried.

In honor of Columbus Day, which was celebrated this past Monday (I think) in the United States, here is a little post from the founder of the "Americas" ...   and the King and Queen of Spain who hooked him up with 3 tight boats.

Emma and I live in Sevilla, the capital of the Andalusian province.  Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain a little less than an hour from where we live and resided in our town before he left!  We live down the street from where part of his body is buried!!  We're so lucky!  Apparently everybody wanted a piece and Sevilla got some of it!

And coincidentally, Spain celebrates Columbus Day too (sort of)....  They call it El Festival de los Naciones (Festival of the Nations)  OR el Dia del Virgen de Pilar (Day of the Virgen Pilar).  Neither really have anything to do with Columbus, but it's nice to celebrate.  We also didn't have school that day!!!

Here's to you Spain, Christopher Columbus and free refills that are mostly found in AMERICA!

Gracias!

Our Spanish journey basically began Tuesday.  Our original flight got cancelled due to a strike going on in Spain.  Thanks Spain.  We changed it to a day later and used Tuesday for packing.

Wednesday we left for Atlanta at 5:30am.  My dad prayed for all of us and mom drove us to bham where our favorite Thomas picked us up at Panera and took us to the aeropuerto!!!  Thanks mom, dad, and Thomas!!  We stopped for some gas right inside Georgia and won $17 with a $1 lotto ticket.  Thanks Georgia.  A good start to a very....very...very long next 50 or so hours.

First month. Many more to come!

Since this is a marriage/spain blog, I figured we'll go ahead and do a big ol' fat update from the honeymoon until the day before we left for Spain!  About a month in review!  (get ready to scroll a lot)

1. We went to mexico for the "luna de miel" and it was crazzy awesome! Want to know why it was so great? i know what you're thinking... because everything was FREE!! Here are a few good pics from our week at the best all-inclusive ever!  I also won a hat during bingo.

emmie-wifey-girl

It's very hard to dry off and sleep with swans and peacocks in your bed.

scuba steve

Last pic before our camera died 2 1/2 days in..... no charger.

2.  The day we got back from our honeymoon, I thought I had food poisoning.... it wasn't food poisoning.  It was my appendix.  Emma loved spending our second honeymoon in Parkway medical center in Decatur.  "in sickness and in health"... 

feeling ok.  aug31

not feeling ok. aug31-sep1

Triumphant

Which one had medication?

3.  After surgery, Emma and I were back to moving and making the rounds before Spain.We went to some Alabama games where of course the Tide won both times.  We also hung out with friends.  Emma played with her girlfriends and Woon hung out with all the dudes.  We also had other fun visitors in Decatur!

3.  For my birthday on September 15, Emma took me to Asheville, N.C.  We drove through 2 national parks, ate awesome food (Tupelo Honey),  drove down the Blue Ridge Pkwy, and we also did a little hiking!

4.  After Asheville, we swung on over to Charlotte to visit our best friends Chris and Sarah JACKSON! They just moved there a month or so before.  We wish our other breast friends Heather and Andy could have joined us, but it was still awesome.  We hung out with the Carolina Panthers, ate great food, played bocce ball, made smores, and hung out with their new dog, Archie.  We love them and are so grateful for letting us stay!

5.  The last week before we left, we hit up the river 2 more times while we still had the sun and heat.  We also went Bham to visit my grandparents and go on an awesome shopping spree with andy and heather. We gave our dog Sally her first test run on the boat and made final rounds hanging with friends before we jetted off and before my WHOLE family got together later that weekend!

Sally wanting to drive. (and not getting to)

Emmie wanting to drive. (and getting to)

Emma during her Sierra Mist commercial shoot.

6.  In the past few months, TOTAL family hang-out time was only every now and then, so Emma and I were super pumped once my siblings all came in to town!!! We went to the river, watched the Alabama game, celebrated my bday, and went to choich.  It was a blessing to see everyone and be together just before leaving!!! We love family time!   (lots of photos!!!)

Broz

Dan and Ana on their tube.  My two girls on the boat.

Sally's new one-piece doesn't provide maximum coverage.

Doon and Anoon!

Bday presents: jeans, new study bible, arrested development!

bday cake!

Cute Say! matt was on the way! and arkansas lost!

 yeah boi.  somebody beat arkansas!

Cute KevKev!

Cute Allygirl!

Next up:  Madrid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!