This is an email that I sent out last Friday about the last couple of weeks here in Spain. I will write about my adventures in Granada soon as well!



Hi my wonderful family and friends!

I apologize for not writing for two weeks. Time really does seem to fly here! I have been here in Spain for 6 weeks now, which I really can’t believe. I am still enjoying my time here very much, and I thank God that I have this opportunity. Sometimes I still have those “Oh my gosh! I’m in Spain!” moments.

Classes are going well. My Spanish-American Civilization class is quite interesting most of the time because we talk about explorers (like Columbus) who set sail from this very city centuries ago. It’s hard to grasp it all sometimes, but when I stop to think about it, I am blown away by the fact that all of that took place in the very same city that I am now living in. My other classes are a Spanish grammar/composition type class, Cultural Realities, and Cultural Anthropology. I ended up dropping my fifth class (Spanish Cinema) because I felt really lost the first day there and it was taking away from other activities that I was really interested in doing.

Speaking of those other activities… I joined a Bible study here! One of the guys from my program found it. It is on Tuesday evenings, which was when I originally had that class, but I have been able to go the last two weeks and I have been so incredibly blessed by it. God opened a door so I could go and brought me this opportunity out of nowhere. Fatima has been going with me, and two of our friends from the program have been going as well. It’s made up of other American students from different programs that are from all over the U.S. The crazy thing is that one of the girls that was there the first time I went is from Pocatello, ID (where I was born). Small world, huh? All of the people in the group are very friendly and nice and I felt right at home from the first day. It’s like God just opened my eyes to the fact that He IS everywhere in this world and that His body, the body of Christ, is all over the earth as well. I really missed having that support group that I have at Linfield, so I was very grateful and relieved to have this Bible study.

I also now have time to tutor a girl in Spanish. CC-CS has a tutoring program that we can sign up for where we work with a kid or kids from Spanish families to help improve their English. It’s actually a job, so we get paid for every hour we work, which is a nice bonus. The girl that I tutor is named Lucia, and she is 14 years old. She is really cute and sweet and her family is really nice as well. I hope I can be a good role model for her and be a witness for Christ to her and her family as well. I’m excited that I will get to know another Spanish family.

Last time I wrote, I told you I would tell you about the bullfight I saw and about flamenco. I might write a longer, more detailed explanation of the bullfight on my blog, but I will try to explain both of them here as well.
Flamenco: This is not just a type of dancing. It is a musical genre and tradition that I believe was originally from the gypsies. It is a very important cultural tradition here in Sevilla and in Andalusia in general (the region that Sevilla is a part of). The thing I love the most about flamenco is the rhythm to it. The place that we went to had several different acts where different groups of guys, girls, or guys and girls performed. Most of the dances had men singing, playing the guitar, and clapping in the background. The dancing kind of reminds me of tap dancing because their shoes make a similar sound and mixed with the clapping create an infectious rhythm. I admire the flamenco dancers a lot (as well as the men that have to clap all the time) because it takes a lot of energy, strength, and endurance to dance the way they do. Everything about flamenco is very captivating: the rhythm, the clothing, the music, and the feeling that they put into it. I am so glad I got to see it!
Bullfight: They say here in Spain that the bullfight is one of the only things that begins on time here (probably because they don’t want to keep the toreros (amateur matadors) or matadors (bullfighters) waiting for very long. I went to the bullfight with two of my friends, Swathi and Geethu. It started at 6:00 and took about 3 hours. There are three toreros and 6 bulls, 2 for each torero. There are different stages to the bullfight. Each torero has several helpers. These men start by testing the bull with big capes to see how it charges and how aggressive it is. Then the torero will perform several passes (where he moves the cape and draws the bull toward him, trying to get it as close to his body as possible to make it more exciting) before more of his helpers on horses (which are completely protected by a type of armor… don’t worry, the horses rarely get hurt at all) ride out and the bull charges at them. Some people are shocked when the bull runs into the horses and the riders stab it with the banderillas, but the point of that is to let the bull get his horns on something so he doesn’t get bored and give up after chasing the cape for a while.
Contrary to popular belief and lore, the bull does not charge at red, or any other color for that matter. It charges at movement, especially movement that is close to it and low to the ground, because it is nearsighted. Anyway, the last stage of the fight involves just the torero and the bull. The torero exchanges his big pink cape for the smaller red muleta (they don’t call it a cape). With the muleta he can draw the bull even closer to himself, and it takes a lot of skill to get the bull to follow the muleta and not charge the torero himself. It is very dangerous and definitely had me on the edge of my seat at times. One of the toreros, the youngest (19!), was the best one because he was the most exciting and performed the best. At the end of his first fight he received two of the bull’s ears, which is a big honor. He received it for how he performed and also for how he killed the bull. If this part is done right, the killing of the bull is relatively quick. Some very inexperienced toreros take a lot of tries to kill it with the sword that they have, but most good toreros make a killing stroke that weakens the bull so that it collapses. Someone then runs up and kills it instantly if it does not die quickly. This sounds all awful and gruesome and everything, but if you study the culture behind it and realize that those bulls are raised like kings (way better than the cattle raised for meat), the bullfight becomes less horrifying and more fascinating. I definitely didn’t like watching the bulls die, but the whole cultural experience was very interesting and I can see both sides to it.

Well, life here is flying by! I have had regular classes for 3 weeks now. During the week I usually just go to class, hang out at school chatting with people or checking email, go home for meals or sometimes take naps if I have time. I have Bible study once a week and tutoring for an hour twice a week. We don’t have class on Fridays (Yay!), so I often have a day to relax, hang out with people, and maybe get some homework done. Most Sundays I go to church in the morning and have a relaxing day where I usually get to Skype with my dad and sister. The last couple of Sundays I have been traveling though, so that changed my schedule a bit.

This last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Portugal (Lisboa – the capitol, and Sintra). It was so cool! I went with 5 other girls (including Fatima), and we really had a fun time. The only thing I didn’t like was the bus rides there and back. They were about 6 or 7 hours long and we left at 12:00 a.m. Saturday morning and got back at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday. I learned one thing – sleeping on a bus, especially when you have long legs, is next to impossible. It was an adventure though! We stayed in a hostel for two nights (with complimentary breakfasts) and walked everywhere, exploring and taking tons of pictures. We mostly ate bread with either nutella or cheese and turkey, which was cheap but still really yummy and filling. We were in Lisboa the first day, spent most of the day in Sintra the second day, and then spent Monday (which is Dia de la Hispanidad, or Columbus Day in the U.S., which means we didn’t have school) taking the metro, bus, and tram to different parts of Lisboa.

My favorite moment from our trip to Lisboa had to be the first night, when we trekked our way up to the Castelo de San Jorge (a castle). We got there just in time for the sunset, and the view from outside the castle and from up on the castle walls was amazing. We didn’t get to explore for a super long time because it got dark pretty quickly, but at one point we climbed up to one of the highest points on the walls and we could see for miles. When I climbed up there I just stood in silence, taking in the sunset and talking to God silently, thanking Him for painting such a beautiful picture for us. The sky was a rainbow of colors. Most of it was indigo/dark blue, which faded to green for second, yellow in the middle, and then into a red color (kind of like a dusky rose color – Leanna and Alex – remember Christy Miller?). It was breathtaking.

Sintra was very refreshing because, like Lisboa, it was SOO much quieter than Sevilla. I feel like the noise level diminished drastically when we got to Portugal. Sintra was also very green, which made me feel more at home because it reminded me of Oregon. We walked a LOT in Sintra, and a lot of the area was quite hilly, so I was starting to get sore by the end of the day, but it was totally worth it. We stopped and rested a lot, just taking everything in, which was nice. Our trip was pretty flexible. There were a lot of things we couldn’t do or see because they were too expensive, but we still had a really fun time and got to see a lot! The palace that we visited there was really neat too. The rooms in the palace were named for the ceilings (Swan Hall had swans on the ceiling, Magpie Hall, magpies, Mermaid Hall, mermaids…). A man there explained to us what the magpie room was all about. I will probably butcher this story, but oh well. Apparently there was a rumor going around the palace about the king and a woman who was not his wife (although nothing had happened), and so the king explained that, and then had a magpie put up on the ceiling for every person that gossiped about it, so the rumor stopped. For those of you who have never seen or heard of magpies, they are really annoying birds, which is why they were an appropriate choice.

Anyway, this message is very, very long now, and I must stop writing because I need to go to bed as I am leaving for Granada for two days early in the morning (Saturday). I will try to post more specific information about trips and adventures on my blog when I get a chance (http://www.sierraadventuresabroad.blogspot.com). I just wanted to update you on how everything is going and let you all know that I am alive and well! I miss you all very much. I am living an adventure of a lifetime, but my home and my family and friends there are never far from my heart.

Abrazos (hugs),

Sierra