Another email update

Hello everyone!

Time for another email update, I guess! How is everything back in the U.S.? I'm assuming it's probably raining back in Oregon City/McMinnville. As much as I am enjoying the sunny weather we've been having, I know we could really use the rain out here! It's getting colder and colder here as the weeks go by though.

I am doing pretty well overall! This last week I lived a kind of emotional roller-coaster... going back and forth between having a lot of stress and feeling at peace. My friend Katie and I had to figure out what we were doing for the 7 weeks we have between December 16th and February 4th, as we opted out of taking CC-CS's overly expensive (sort of like Linfield) Jan Term. All of the options looked way too expensive at first, and at times we despaired of even finding a place to live. We joked about finding cardboard boxes to sleep in, haha. Looking back, it definitely wasn't that bad, but we joked around a lot to keep our sanity because the stress of school essays and projects hit at the same time as this "project" of deciding what to do for the winter. In the end, it all worked out, and it turns out I will be staying in Spain for the winter instead of buying a Eurail pass and traveling. I will live with my host family for December and then rent a room (still figuring out details with that) for January, as it is less expensive. God worked everything out and continues to provide and be faithful! He taught me a lot about His faithfulness this week.

Other good news: Even though I won't be traveling for the winter as I originally wanted to, I am going on two more short trips for sure. We have a 5 day break in the beginning of December before finals, and I will be using that time to travel with friends through an organization called "We Love Spain" to Morocco!!! I am SO excited!! That was one of the places I knew I needed to go to when I came here. For those of you who may not be sure where it is, Morocco is just on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain. I still can't believe I'll actually be in Africa and will get to see a completely different and new culture. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures! The other trip I am going on will be for Christmas. Katie and I are taking 4 or 5 days to travel to Rome and the Vatican City. The coolest part is that we are going to go to the Vatican Christmas Eve night for the service they have there. It was Katie's idea to do that, and I am super excited that she thought of it! It will be weird and probably hard to be away from home for Christmas (my first time ever), but I am excited for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity too! I love Roman history, so I am excited to actually go there.

Anyway, life here has been good all in all, despite the stress! Classes are going well, although we have started the "Woops, I'd better get started on that project my professor assigned a month ago!" period of time. I have two papers that I am working on, which will take up a good chunk of my weekend, but it's all good. I took two tests last week, which means I probably won't have any this upcoming week. Yay!

Last Thursday (the 12th)  we had another fiesta at CC-CS (went out to eat tapas first). I invited my intercambio, Mari Paz, and introduced her to a lot of my friends. It was cool to see her again and to practice speaking in Spanish with someone my age that's from Spain. It's hard to work out schedules to meet up with an intercambio, but it's so helpful and cool to meet and get to know more Spanish people! On the following day, Friday, I went out with some friends to an Italian restaurant called San Marco's. It was a pretty fancy place, but it wasn't overly pricey and the food was really good! It was fun to get dressed up and go out to eat. After dinner we walked over to Yogurlandia to get some amazing, super delicious frozen yogurt and to chat with the owner, an Italian guy named Paulo. It was a lot of fun! The following morning I went to a market outside of Triana with a friend. Apparently they have this market every Saturday and there are SOOO many people! It's insane! The funniest thing is that a lot of the booths sell the same thing. The shoes, purses, clothing, toys, etc. all look suspiciously similar no matter what booth you're in. It was fun to walk around through all the chaos and just experience something new. I ended up buying a blouse for 12 Euros. The lady originally told me 15, but she kept dropping the price every time I looked skeptical or mentioned how the price had been lower earlier (the first time I passed that booth the guy told me 12). I should have kept pushing it! Maybe she would have sold it to me for 8! Haha

Church on Sunday was a blessing as usual. I need to take more time to get to know the people there though. They are all quite friendly, but after an hour and half/two hours of service it's almost lunch time and I usually just want to head home. I am determined to put myself out there more to get to meet more people there though. Tutoring is going really well! I feel like I am actually starting to teach Lucia things about English and not just help her with her homework. Their whole family is super nice too and I am so thankful that God put me with them. Last Wednesday (the 18th), her grandmother even gave me some really good empanada to take to my class for a snack. It was really sweet of her!

Bible study went really well this last week! God really convicted me through the verses that my friend Jake shared from James 2 about taming the tongue. I realized that I had been complaining and worrying a lot. The words that I had been using were a reflection of my heart - I had taken my eyes off of God and how powerful He is and instead focused on my problems and stress. God pointed out to me that I needed to change, but, more importantly, that He is the one that needs to do the changing of my heart. So I've been doing some more soul-searching and praying. I was very much encouraged by that Bible study and by my quiet time talking with God.

Three other newsworthy items:
1. I finally got my residency card! Yay! That means I am free to stay here in Spain for the year without any worries. I'm so thankful that process is over!
2. For my Anthropology project I have to describe a place and the people in it somewhere here in Sevilla. I chose to go back to the bball court where I played bball with those middle school/high school kids a while ago. I ended up going yesterday and the day before that and it went really well! I got to play 2-on-2 with some of the kids and also got to chat with them for a while. They were really friendly and asked me a bunch of questions and helped me out with my project by answering my questions. It was fun!
3. I went to El Teatro de Maestranza (I think that's what it's called) last night to watch a Symphony Orchestra with some friends. The music was very beautiful! It made me think of the few times I went to the symphony in Portland, including one time I had a father-daughter date with my dad several years ago. Good memories! The orchestra was very good, and it was neat to have that experience.

Anyway, I hope God is blessing all of you richly and that you are having a fantastic week! Again, if you want to see any pictures either visit my facebook page or ask me to send you some and I will try to send some pics your way. I will also hopefully put some more up on this blog. 

Besos y abrazos,
Sierra