This is an email that I sent out on my email list, but I put it here (and will put all future ones here as well) for those who don't want to get all those emails. =)

Hola todos!

    I do not have a lot of time to write an email because I am currently sitting in an Internet cafe and I am trying to keep the time under 30 minutes. But I wanted to let you all know that I am here in Sevilla, Spain, beginning my 9 month adventure. I am both excited and nervous!

    So far everything has gone well overall, although I am still quite tired and therefore have a harder time being patient with myself and situations. I am still quite tired at times because of jet lag, but hopefully that will pass quickly.

Our flights to Sevilla went very well, but they were quite long. The first was to Frankfurt (10 hours), but it was pretty neat because the man sitting next to me was Russian and the high school aged guy sitting on the other side of him was from Germany. Turns out he had been visiting friends in Canby! Small world! The other two flights (to Barcelona and then to Sevilla) were only about an hour and a half. We were late getting to the Orientation, but we knew that was going to happen, so it was all right. None of our luggage got lost either! Praise God!

    All of the students in the program are from various parts of the U.S. Everyone is really nice and it is a good-sized group (48 people). It is difficult though because we all want to talk in English together, but we really need to speak in Spanish as often as we can. There are groups of people that talk in Spanish more often though, which is good practice for me.

My host family is great! My host parents are Eduarda (Edu) and Pepe (his real name is Jose). They are probably in their 60s, and they have been hosting students for 20 years! The have four children who are all in their 30s and 40s. I met the oldest, Conchi, the first day. She is married and has 2 sons (23 and 7). One of the other daughters, Alicia, lives with her parents, so I will see her quite often. I have not met the other son or daughter yet though because they live elsewhere.

Well, Sevilla really is a very charming city. It is quite a big city, but it is not too noisy, and most of the cool sites are within walking distance from my house or the Center (our school). Even some of the places that I read about, including the Torre del Oro (Tower of Gold) and La Giralda (another really tall tower connected to a beautiful cathedral) are really close! I am excited!!

    I will try to write again soon, but I am running out of time. We just returned from a trip to see the Monasterio de la Rabida (a monastery). It was really neat! I will have to tell you about it later though. We also went to la playa (the beach) for a few hours, and I had to put on a TON of sunscreen because the sun is very strong here. It was a lot of fun though! I can´t believe I was swimming in the Mediterranean!

    I miss you all! If you could pray for me, and for the people in my group as well, that would be amazing! I go back and forth between excitement at where I am to the feeling that I will not be able to survive 9 months away from home. I would appreciate prayers for me to have courage and to be continuously joyful and thankful for being here on this adventure. I am staying in the Word and praying and trying to be faitful in keeping a journal. I will upload pictures as soon as I can!

    I hope you all have an amazing week!!

Hasta luego!

 -Sierra