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.

Recent Wanderings

     Where have the soles been lately? They have literally been all over the place with so many different people! Life has been an exciting blur of travel, food, seeing family, meeting new people, and new opportunities!

Sophie and I at the Colosseum!

     For a quick run-through, we had our week-long fall break at the end of October so I flew with Mara to Rome to meet up with my cousin Sophie! Sophie is studying in Florence so we met up with her and two of her friends, Monica and Emily to explore Rome. We absolutely loved it! It was so much fun and Rome is amazing! Such a beautiful city full of so much history! We went non-stop both days we were there and saw so many things!

In the Vatican Museum

    On Sunday, we took a train to Florence where Mara and I stayed in an apartment and explored the city on our own since Sophie needed to study. She met up with us and helped us find everything we needed. Sophie is a great Italian translator! We were able to understand a lot, since Italian and Spanish are so similar, but we could not speak to anyone without Sophie! She also saved us when we figured out that our phones could not make calls in Italy and let us borrow hers to communicate with the landlord of our apartment… We almost did not make it into the apartment the first night because we arrived so late! But it all worked out!

Florence is such a beautiful city!

     Sophie told us the things that were important to see and the places that had good gelato, and she sent us on our adventure while she attended classes! We found the Duomo the first day, and we spent almost the whole day there exploring the different parts of it. It is amazing! We climbed both the bell tower and the duomo dome to get gorgeous views of the city! We found some amazing gelato multiple times during our time there! We met up with Sophie later that evening and she showed us her school which was fun to compare to ours! We got to meet her adorable Italian host mom, who gave us some delicious biscotti…yes I'm still thinking about the biscotti…that is how good it was! 

Inside the Duomo, fantastic marble-work!

     The next day was full of art in the Uffizi Gallery. Overwhelming amounts of art actually! We were able to meet up with Sophie for dinner at her favorite restaurant, and it was so delicious and so fun to be able to have a dinner with my dear cousin! We laughed and told stories about our family. It was a wonderful time of family memories and super refreshing for me to be able to be with someone who knows me so well in the midst of all the change and new things!

     On that topic of being with people who know me well… After leaving Sophie in Florence and Mara in Venice, I met up with the two people who know me best in the world… Mom and Dad!!

So happy I got to spend time with these two!

     We spent four days in Barcelona going non-stop (They call it touring Analisa style)! We had such a great time seeing so much of that beautiful city! Churches, art, food, nature, music, more art, more food… I love that we got to share that time together! 

     On Sunday we took a train to Sevilla since I had classes on Monday. They spent a whole week here in Sevilla with me! It was so fun to be able to share my city and my home away from home with them! I got to show them the everyday things that do not usually make it into the pictures. They got to meet my host parents, which was so fun and cute to watch them bond! 

Sitting around the table, everyone speaking a nice mix of English and Spanish!

     Mom and Dad did so well with Spanish the whole time! Mom really impressed me with her Spanish, not only could she understand most everything, but she could also hold conversations with Chari, who speaks so quickly! I was their little tour guide all week, taking them to all my favorite places  and trying lots of new things with them as well! Flamenco, churches, gardens, shops, food, soccer, new neighborhoods, and more food. There is definitely a theme of food in this family! =) I just cannot get over how great it was to have them here! They came at the perfect time ! 

Love

     To end their time in Spain, they came with my school on an excursion to Ronda, which is a city on a hill, beautiful place! We toured the city with my professors and fellow classmates. It was an amazing trip! We got to see the oldest bull-fighting ring in Spain and had some breath-taking views from the many balconies overlooking the countryside surrounding Ronda. 

Ronda, city on a hill

     From Ronda, we traveled Analisa style again, and took a bus to Málaga just for the day to spend some time at the beach. Then the next night we took a bus to Granada to spend a day at the Alhambra. That night, Sunday, we took another bus back to Sevilla where we did some last minute sight-seeing and eating before they said goodbye and flew back to the States on Monday morning. It was quite the whirlwind but also relaxing and refreshing for me. It means so much to me that they understand my experience here! I've slowly been getting back into my normal routine now that they are gone, and am trying to take advantage of all the time I have left here… only one month! I cannot believe it! Off I go to experience as much of Spain as possible!