The Beginning of the Ends

     I am slowly starting to realize that my time here in Spain really is going to end, and soon! The count is now below 20 days. It is weird to think that this time that I looked forward to so intently and for so long is now about to come to a close. I am starting to realize how much I will miss this beautiful city and all the wonderful people I have met here. On the other hand, I am so excited to be home again with my family for Christmas. But I will not get ahead of myself. I still have a lot of time here... I have got to aprovechar todo (take advantage of everything)! I have really been cherishing my time in Sevilla recently by finishing up all of my commitments here and completing all my bucket list items for the city of Sevilla.

Bad quality selfie, but I wanted to show off some of my best exploring buddies! 

     One example of things coming to an end was that two weeks ago, we went on one of our regular field trips with our Art History class to the Museum of Fine Arts in Sevilla. Like always, it was an amazing experience that brought the art and the artists to life. It's always a blast to go out into Sevilla with our professor, Carmen. She is hilarious, and she loves to give us more information than necessary about the paintings. She will tell us all the funny, unbelievable legends about the paintings as well as all the rumors about the artists. She is so entertaining. Always. Anyways, at the end of our visit to the museum, she casually told us, well that is the last field trip for our art class... I was literally shocked and so sad. I love the excursions, and I had no clue we were that close to the end of the semester. There was no lead up to that end. It was a hard one for me for sure.

     Another thing in my weekly schedule here that recently came to an end was my time volunteering at Hospital de la Caridad - the home for the elderly men. Last Tuesday, I spent my last two hours at the hospital, playing dominoes with Miguel (sunglasses guy) and my friend Alyssa. We knew this end was coming, so we were able to anticipate it. I did not think it would be hard to say goodbye to the men, but the looks on their faces when we said we would not be coming back the next week broke my heart. I realized in that moment how meaningful it was to them that we faithfully showed up every week to brighten their afternoons with smiles and laughter while playing dominoes. I cannot say that I got to know any of them very well, but I am sure I will think of them in the future in a fond way because of all the time we spent together working out our next strategy for dominoes. It really is such a profound game. ;)

Miguel and I. He is very affectionate.

     The rest of my school activities, etc. have not yet ended, so I will not lament them yet. I will enjoy them up to the last second for sure! This past weekend we took advantage of having a weekend free, spent in Sevilla, which is kind of rare for me. And we explored parts of the city that we had not seen yet. On Friday night, we were able to go see the new Hunger Games movie in Spanish at one of the movie theaters in Sevilla. It had been a goal of mine to see a good movie in Spanish while I was here, so this was a great opportunity! The movie was amazing, and I understood the majority of it, missing a few details I am sure. We also got to go with two girls we recently met through a Spanish Bible Study at the University of Sevilla. They are so sweet and love spending time with us, and of course we cherish every second spent actually conversing with and relating to Spaniards! It has been such a blessing to have met them!

My close friends here, and on the right: Ester and Ana, our new friends!

     Then on Saturday morning, even though I was not feeling very well, I went out with friends to explore more of Sevilla! We went to the Mercado de Triana, which is comparable to Pike's Place Market in Seattle except more exciting for me since it is in Sevilla! We then walked around down by the river, taking lots of pictures (which I haven't uploaded yet…) Later on that day, we went out shopping and then up the Setas - one of my favorite places in Sevilla! We went up there to catch sunset and then stuck around to see all the churches lit up at night. Such a great way to just take Sevilla in!

I love Sevilla.

     To end our weekend of seeing Sevilla at its finest, Mara and I were able to go to a special mass with our host parents Chari and Walter along with their son and his wife. There was a special mass in the cathedral of Sevilla on Sunday to end the Year of Faith. We got to go to the third largest cathedral in the world for Catholic mass. It was such a cool experience! It was completely new to me. I was fascinated with the proceedings the entire time! We ended the service singing a song that we did not know the words to while all holding candles. It was so great. We also got to sit right next to the choral area, therefore right next to one of the organs. I felt like I was in a movie. The organ was so beautiful and deep. And the choir was great too. Really just a wonderful experience all around!

You can see the organ right next to us!

     Right after mass, Mara and I headed to the Sevilla fútbol stadium to watch the HUGE rivalry game between Sevilla and Betis, the two teams of Sevilla. IT WAS INSANE! And so cool! We had great seats and were surrounded by crazy fans! Because it was in Sevilla's stadium, everyone there was a Sevilla fan. Except for the one section of Betis fans that cheered pretty loud the whole game, which made Sevilla fans so mad… They were constantly distracted from the game by yelling at the Betis fans. It was so ridiculous! But so entertaining for us because all we cared about seeing was the soccer and the environment! Yay for Sevilla, because they won 4-0 =) That was an experience that I will never forget and cannot wait to share in person with anyone else who LOVES soccer like I do =) 

     I want to end this post with some insight I found in James 4 today:
"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.'"
It gives me some perspective on the rest of my time here and the way I should involve God in all my plans instead of trying to do it all on my own.