Monday, February 28, 2011

Amiguitos!

 The past 2 or 3 weeks we've gotten to hang out with some pretty cool people (and eat lots of good food with them)!!  

One Sunday evening before heading to church, we went over to Jamie and Andrew Goodwin's piso for some sweet Mexican food!!!  You'd be surprised at how many people would ask me, "Wesley, aren't you going to get tired of Mexican food over there?".............   
Mexican = comes from Mexico. Spanish = comes from Spain. Just because they speak Spanish doesn't mean they always eat burritos and enchiladas... Spain is probably one of the last places you will find Mexican food.... we went to Barcelona last weekend and saw a restaurant named "Mi Burrito y Yo" and it was all seafood....

We were dying to get us some great Mexican food and hang out with new friends on top of that!!!  Andy and Jamie were great hosts and have the coolest little piso with there own private terrace right in the heart of the city.  They are also expecting a little chiquitito baby!!  Which is going to be born in Spain in just a few months!  We are super glad to know them!

 
Gofresssss w/ Greek yogurt and rasberry jellllllyy
Chowing down on some sweet desert.

a nice waffle/moustache combo
Sarah was taking the photo!
Here is Jordan always copying me with the dark jeans and dark green jacket combo.  Also the view was nice!!

In the middle of hanging with friends, we had a little Valentine's Day celebration!  It was more of just an excuse for a day of baking in the kitchen because we celebrated our 6 month anniversary/Valentine's day in Barcelona.  I asked our neighbor's what they were doing for the Day of Lovers and he responded by saying that they celebrate everyday by being in love.   Good call.
Thanks America for your easy-bake items.
Look at this Don Juan Casanova.
Only people in Spain with a full-sized oven....


Emma got me some awesomeee chocolate!!!

One evening about 2 weeks ago, we invited our neighbors, Cristina and Pedro, over to help teach us how to cook the infamous Spanish tortilla (basically just potatoes and eggs.. but super special potatoes and eggs).  The difficulty with the Spanish tortilla is that it has a tendency to just come out as scrambled eggs with potatoes if you don't flip it right.... or fall in the floor if you just stink at cooking like the guy writing this blog....

Cristina and Pedro are an awesome pair.  Pedro is an awesome painter and Cristina is another one of our friends expecting a baby in the near future!  They live directly across from us and also have a nice place in the country and have invited us to come visit one day.  Upon my second time of meeting Pedro, I kind of invited myself in their house and found Pedro reading the Bible (which caught me off guard in general) and I asked him randomly if he liked reading it and he responded "Es lo mejor que hay" (It's the best there is!) Blam, right off the bat, we got something cool in common and I knew we'd be friends.
Ladies choppin potatoes.
Barely 3 people fit in our kitchen at a time.  And they only fit in a line.
a;lskdfjaov;ilekrsdfhgsrdfjxavnmoilskdj...  We flipped it right.

master flipper pedro.  and look at my sweet hand posture.
After whipping up a nice meal of Spanish tortilla, Pedro and Cristina took us out for some good ol' friend seafood.  We haven't tried any since we've been here in Sevilla, but you better believe Emma and I will be going back for more. 
Fried Chipirones!  you better believe those are little tentacles.

The night before hitting up Barcelona, our German friends, Albrecht and Francesca, came over for some sweeeet pasta!  They are probably the German version of us!  Albrecht likes music and has a super goofy sense of humor and Francesca is sweet as pie like my little Emmiegirl (but Emmie's the sweetest in the world).  We have been trying to meet up with them ever since our first encounter at church last October.  They study here in Sevilla and have adopted a little cat off the streets named Mookie!  The cool thing about our friendship is that neither of us communicate in our first language!!  They speak German and Spanish and we speak English and Spanish.  We loved talking together because we can all practice our Spanish without shame!  Everything is also funnier when you don't exactly know what you're saying.  They also got married a week before we did and packed up and headed to Sevilla just like us!!  Another reason they are super cool!
awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!


The day we got back from Barcelona, our friends N'SYNC were doing a concert in Sevilla and picked us up at the airport on the way back in to town.  We showed them around town, the usual dirt roads and open cotton fields, and then we taught them how to really wear blue jean jackets and wife-beaters.  I love these guys!  We spent the afternoon laughing and joking like we used to.  I also put highlights in J.C.'s hair on our terrace and we went to Claire's to get Lance's ears pierced.  Later that night, we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding because Emma loves Joey in that movie....  I gave in because I secretly like him too.... The next morning, before they left, consisted of playing with our Tamagachi's and Pogs and talking about Britney Spears... It was good to hang out with old friends and I even came away with some sweet flair jeans from L.E.I that Chris didn't want anymore.  Hopefully we'll see them again soon...



which one of these doesn't belong??....

I know......
I might actually make more posts about Spain if I didn't spend all my time photoshoppin' myself in random photos..... pero, disfrutan!
Hasta Ahora.....

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Groovin'

Since we arrived back in Spain at the beginning of January, we wanted to make it a point that we make the most of our time here.  October and November were, more or less, our months for getting adjusted and accustomed to life here.  It probably shouldn't have taken two months, but we were lazy... We have realized now that time flies by way too fast and before we know it, we will be back home in the states. 

We're finally finding our niche here!!!!!  It took a few months, but we think we are finally in the groove of living the day-to-day here, making new friends, and keeping ourselves busy (outside of the terrible work schedule of 12 hours a week hah!)

There were times back in the fall where we (well mostly me, because Emma likes alone time haha) were just bored... We felt like we weren't exactly taking advantage of the awesome gift we have here.  We go to school, come home, eat, watch movies illegally online, go for a walk.... and then... maybe watch more American shows illegally and then do the same thing the next day.  We probably wouldn't have much outside human contact if it wasn't for our neighbors, Jordan and Sarah.  Given the fact that Spaniards are sometimes hard to get through to, we still managed to break down barriers and make new friends and find more ways to get involved!

Now, outside of school, we're keeping it real!!!!  Emma started giving private English lessons to a girl taking the SATs two times a week!!! She's my sugar mama bringing home the extra dough.  I also try to help with free English classes on Wednesday's at the University of Sevilla.  We go to 2 different churches on Sunday and a mid-week service that Jordan and Sarah lead for the students involved in the program that they work for (we're super Christians and we know it....) We are even going to start taking some Sevillana "dance classes" from our awesome neighbors!

Things are moving along.  The past few weeks have been full of good/random activities and hanging out with new friends (which will be in our next post!!) but here is just a small tiddly bit of stuff that's been happenin...

Emma had a "noche de chicas" up at one of the churches we go to.  They had a grand time putting make up on each other!  They had a guys night too where they shaved each others beards and backs and stuff but we didn't go.... jejejejeje


awwwwww!!!!!
After the "noche de chicas," the girls came back and we had a mini bday party for our friend Rachel!! The girls had dance-party time in the apartment while the guys played Angry Birds on the computer.  THENNN, we hit up the club for some sweeeeeeet dancing!!!!!!!!!
Girl's all dolled up and ready to go!
Dance party.
dudes playing angry birds!
the gang minus Jordan who was taking the pic.

bouncin up in da club!!!!!!!

don't know these guys...




For the Super Bowl, which I had to look up online to see who was playing, we went to a place called Merchant's.  Of course it was mostly Americanos there because most Spaniards don't even know what the Super Bowl is...
Girls had to make a pallet and sit in the floor....
Jordan excited to eat some awesome spicy chicken nachos!!!!!!!!!!

One Monday, Jordan and I, went to help out our friend David put a sink in their kitchen at the church.  I felt pretty manly this day being that I took apart some electric outlets and built a sink with instructions from IKEA.. even though a 4 yr. old could have done the sink part, I still got to use tools.


the sink.

yeahhhhhhh boyyyyyyy!

This next part is just me and my different styles of facial hair.....  I promise I'm not conceited with all these pictures of myself... but they are only of me b/c Emma can't really grow that much facial hair...  depending on the day.
Also, this is probably the biggest beard I'll ever have...




and you better believe I sported that big ol' stache for a good 5 days....

until next time!  Hasta ahora.  paz y Dios te bendiga hombres!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Ticos Meet Spaniards + Valentines!!!

Late in January, We had a great visit from out friends from Costa Rica!!  My good friend Hector and our new friend Laura came all the way from San Jose just to see us... more or less.  They were hanging out in Germany on vacation and decided to make a trip to the motherland of Spain and stop through Sevilla!  It was finally time that Hector came to visit us after I had made 3 trips to Costa Rica just to see him... more or less...

Hector and I go back a few years when Emma and I went to CR with Campus Crusade.  The 2 years following that, my friend Thomas and I, went back for a few more visits!  Ever since, we've stayed in touch and came to be great friends!  Emma and I were super pumped to have our first visitors!


Here are a few photos from the last 3 years/3 trips to see the "Rich Coast"
2008 with CCC

2009! Bocas del Toro for Semana Santa! and with Tomas Tomas!
2010! hittin up the skatin rink!



 


Lots of churros and coffee was had!  I could have pooped churros we ate so many!
Picking the "bitter" oranges from the tree to make some drinks!
Making gallo pinto.


a;sdiogukldfbmn,vqpairwodfksghvnai;oklrfs

 


Here we played a game to see who could get the most people to look at them.  If someone looked at  you directly, you turn the other way and the person with the most "vueltas" wins. 


I won... of course!
Eating at Coloniales!  We love these guys!!

Hopefully one day, Hector will be able to come visit us in the states! We definitely plan on making more trips back to awesome Costa Rica!!! Vos queremos amigos!


In other news, today is Valentine's Day and Emma and I are headed to Barcelona next weekend to celebrate our 6 month anniversary/Valentine's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  To help us celebrate Valentine's Day (and to send us our battery charger we left in the states) my parents sent us another awesome care package!!!!!


Our first Valentine's as a married couple!!!!!!!


Palmera.  A typical spanish pastry. 

My heart should be made of chocolate because I eat it so much.
professional photos done by Hallmark.....

Our current computer background! made by emmiegirl!
 

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8