Killed by Cupid's Arrow

Tuesday started out a perfectly wonderful day.  I had my practicum in the morning, played with my students at recess, then set off enjoying the sunny day.  After my first class I went to the plaza by the Cathedral and did my homework in the sun while listening to my favorite street performer.  It really was the most beautiful day I've had the pleasure to enjoy so far in Sevilla. 
So anyways there I was studying, minding my own business and listening to music when this guy approached me.  He was very polite and friendly, and even though I wanted to just listen to music and get stuff done I figured I should give him a chance.  I learned that he was from Morocco but speaks Spanish, French, English, and Arabic fluently and is studying at the university.  We ended up talking for about an hour, and he asked me if I would be interested in going out with him later that night.  I said yes because really I didn't have any reason not to.  And the idea of it all was really very romantic.  We decided to meet up at 9:30 at the statue where we met. 
Well, on my way to the statue that night I was taking my usual route but something very unusual happened.  As I approached a small and deserted intersection I saw a young guy ahead who was looking at me.  Honestly all I thought at that moment was, "he doesn't look very big. I'm sure I could take him if he turns out to be a thief or something."  Well as I got to the intersection the guy pulled out his penis and started masturbating at me.  I was totally freaked out and had no idea what to do so I just looked away and sped up.  Thank God he didn't follow me cause if he had gotten close to me he would now be sterile I guarantee it. 
Shortly after this incident I met up with my date at the statue.  It all started out perfectly normal.  We talked about our studies, and the government and economy of various countries throughout the world.  I enjoyed it a lot cause I love learning about the United States from the perspective of other countries and people.  This conversation was happening while we walked from the Cathedral to calle Betis, a street along the river full of bars and cafes.  It's about a 15 minute walk.  So once we got to the river he asked me if I wanted to sit by the river and talk, and I said yes because I was really enjoying this conversation.  And he just smelled so good how could I say no?  So we went and sat on some steps that go directly into the river.  It was all very romantic!
Unfortunately I experienced a case of "be careful what you wish for" because the romance didn't stop there.  Once we sat along the river this guy just went all...poetry book on me.  If I tried to write down all the lines that guy said this blog would be a mile long.  So I'll spare you all and just stick to the most ridiculous ones.  The most consistent one, which I heard about 1542897423 times throughout the course of the date was, "You are so beautiful, smart, and kind.  I want nothing more than to spend the evening with out."  Now the first time he said it I was flattered.  So flattered, in fact, that I fell for the next line, "Your eyes are so beautiful they're killing me."  The guy was so slick I fell right into his trap.  After he said that he was like, "Can I tell you a secret?" and I was like sure..and I leaned in to hear it.  Classic mistake.  He started kissing me!  I really didn't want to be kissing him so I stopped, and guess what he did.  He asked me to be his girlfriend.  Yeah.  I was like um.....how about you back up an hour and four years??? 
I learned from the last person I went on a date with that it is detrimental to a relationship to hide your true feelings.  So I decided to be as honest with this guy as possible.  I was like look, you're a nice guy but this is way too fast for me.  I'm a traditional Catholic girl, and I'm not looking for a boyfriend or for love.  I'm just on this date to get to know you and it's not going to go anywhere.  Guess what his response was?  "Esperate. Vas a amarme."  Translation?  "Wait and see. You're going to love me." And the longer we sat by the river the more he tried to kiss me so I finally pretended to be cold and hungry and I was like we need to go to a cafe.  Why didn't I just leave right then?  I guess I was freaked out enough to go somewhere public but not enough to ditch the date.
So we went to a cafe and he told me I could pick any seat I wanted, so I picked a table for two with separate chairs.  He actually got sad and said he would rather sit at a booth so we could sit together!  I was like I don't care I like this table because it's by the window and I want to people watch.  His response?  "Anything for you.  As long as you're happy I'm happy and the only thing I can ask is to spend time with you."  At this point I was thinking, boy if you feed me one more line I'm going to choke and die, and then where will you be?  But he just KEPT GOING!!  He spent the entire time in the cafe trying to convince me that we needed to be together because it was "love at first sight" and that he would "never hurt me."  It finally got to a point where I was like alright I need to pull a "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days."  So I pulled the ultimate date suicide.  I brought up the ex.  I was just soooo overly honest with this guy.  I told him all about everything that went on and I was specifically like, "You see, I'm not going to fall in love with you or anyone so you need to give it up."  Guess what his response was.  "The best way to get over a heartbreak is to distract yourself with someone else."  He literally was not going to give up.   For anything.  And who knows maybe that works for some people but I'm not a rebound person.  To me it's like taking tylenol for a toothache.  Sure it feels better for awhile but it's only a temporary fix.  The only way to really heal the pain is to go through the painful root canal.  Sure it's scary and it hurts but after it's over you're healed.  A guy who's signing up to be tylenol isn't worth my time.  So I told him I had to go home because I had class in the morning.
Plus, towards the end of the date I found out he was Muslim.  Now I'm a pretty firm believer in the fact that love can conquer all, but the truth is that for me love conquers all except Mormans, Muslims, extreme Democrats, and Communists.  No offense to anybody reading this who is one of those things...it's nothing personal there are just certain obstacles that can't be overcome.  
I was very clear at the end of the date that I didn't want to see him again, and he couldn't call me and I wasn't going to call him.  And he asked me to give him a small place in my heart and allow it to grow.  I was like, boy you struck out so bad even the Cubs could beat you.

This is a picture I drew to describe the evening.  If you can't tell my thought bubble is vomiting and stabbing a heart.

Cádiz and the Senderismo

This past weekend I had two fantastic trips.  The first was to a city called Cadiz in the south of Spain. It's a beautiful city completely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.  I'd have to say my favorite part of the whole day was just being able to smell the ocean :)  After a walking tour of the small city I enjoyed a lovely afternoon eating chocos (fried calamari) and a delicious chocolate cake.  I also went to the top of the tower by the cathedral and the view from the top was amazing!  I think I'm going back next week to experience the famous Carnaval de Cadiz. Unfortunately I was stupid and forgot my camera, but fortunately I have nice friends and I stole some of their pictures.  

The top of the Cathedral

The Cathedral of Cadiz

Me in the tower :)

View of the city from the tower

The Atlantic Ocean!

 
On Sunday I went on a Senderismo, which is the Spanish word for hike.  We took a bus to the Sierra de Aracena, right outside of Huelva.  The hike was between 7 and 10 miles.  I'm not sure which.  But it was an all-day thing.  We only stopped for a lunch break, and it was in an adorable town.  It was so beautiful!  By far one of my favorite things I've done so far in Spain.  I forgot how much I missed the countryside and nature in general.  Being in the city makes me appreciate it so much!  Can't wait to get back to the Iowa cornfields ;)  I plan on doing many more Senderismos in the future. 

There were roaming donkeys

These old moss-covered walls were for the pastures

The cute lunch break town

The cutest herding dog ever

Love Comes Softly

I used to think I had things figured out.  I had a time-line set for my life and I tried to fit myself and others into it.  The problem with that was that my plan got yanked out from under my feet.  And with my time-line went my future, and I had nothing to fall back on.
Well in the past few months I've been growing, changing, and searching.  I have also been praying.  It's nothing big or fancy.  I don't go to church more often or study the bible.  I just bring my life to God every day.  My successes, my failures, my thoughts, my questions.  And I thank him for things.
In the past two weeks I've been feeling this incredible new zeal for life, and I haven't been able to put my finger on exactly where it came from or why it happened.  But tonight I was laying in bed and I realized the answer that's been creeping up all along.  God.  God is the one that took me from a broken life to one full of passion and zeal.  He's also the one that continues to bring me through tough situations and painful emotions.  But even more than that He helps me recognize and appreciate what I have and what I've been given.  And I had to get my computer back out and tell everyone!  I love God!  He's the one I need to fall back on!  And I just have so much peace inside of me.  I realize now that I don't need to worry about the things I used to think were so important.  Not because I don't care anymore, but because I don't need to care anymore.  God is and always will take care of me.  I just have to quit trying to do things myself.
I chose this picture to put in my blog today for a specific reason.  This is my neighbor Oscar and he's 4 years old.  I have a theory that children are the closest to God, which is why people are drawn to them.  Why? You ask?  One of the reasons is that they are so incredibly innocent.  Their innocence is just completely irresistible.  I can't help but smile like a huge dork every time I see a child.  Another is because children are dependent.  They don't have the attitude that they can and should do everything on their own.  I think adults grow up and forget that a lot.  I know I forgot I needed God.  The final reason I can think of right now before I go to bed is that childrens' minds are like the universe.  They have an enormous capacity and no limit.  An all-powerful man who loves them unconditionally and lives in the sky doesn't sound so crazy to them.
So anyways I'm officially going to bed now.  I just wanted to share my feelings!  And besides, I got so happy I couldn't sleep anyways!  Also Love Comes Softly is an actual book that I love and I think it's worth reading!

Eat, Pray, Love

I have a new resolution.  I started it yesterday, and so far I have done an incredible job of sticking to it.  My goal is to try every single kind of pastry in my favorite pastry shop.  I'm 3 for 2 so far (two chocolate muffins, I couldn't help it), and the way I interpret it is that I'm doing exceptionally well :-) 
I (quickly :p) came to the decision to make this resolution while making the painful choice of which pastry I wanted yesterday.  I figured, I love the pastries, I hate making decision, and I'm in Spain.  So I embraced the calories and decided to make it a challenge. 
My next resolution is to run 3 times a week.  I figure it's the only responsible thing to do.  Julia Roberts may look fantastic with a few extra pounds, but I'd much rather stay where I'm at.  And fortunately running in Sevilla is always exciting.  It's like going exploring in warp-speed every single day!  Although I may not do exceptionally well with this resolution, I think I'll do just fine. 
It took Elizabeth awhile to embrace the idea of Il dolce far niente, the joy of doing nothing.  It's Italian I know, but it's a universal idea.  I have been in Spain for exactly one month today, and I am finally figuring it out.  The thing that's so crazy about the concept is that it's so simple.  For everything I do I think, 1. Is this important? and 2. Does this make me happy?   I don't like my class about Cervantes and in the grand scheme of my life it won't make any difference.  So guess what.  I'm not going to try to get an A.  I don't want to waste my time and happiness slaving over something that I don't care about or need.  And the world isn't going end because I didn't get a perfect g.p.a.  I would much rather sit in the plaza, toma el sol, and listen to my favorite street performer play guitar than sit in my room and study an old dead author.  So I do.  While eating a chocolate, creme-filled muffin :-)

Que Será Será

I'm a terrible decision maker.  No matter what I do I have this incredible ability to make every decision difficult.  Whether I'm shopping for shoes, school supplies, picking out an outfit, or choosing a restaurant for dinner, I never fail.  I have this method of going through all of the possible options, narrowing them down, re-going through my options to make sure I didn't miss anything or change my mind, then narrowing them down to a few choices.  From here I either try to make someone else pick for me, put off the decision, or choose them all.  I have a lot of the same clothing in two colors for exactly this reason.  I do it for the most unimportant decisions and for the most important decisions.  Take my major, for example.  My interests so far have been business, anthropology, psychology, education, and Spanish.  What have my semesters looked like?  1A (freshman, fall) I took Spanish, business, and anthropology classes.  1B I took Spanish, anthropology, and psychology.  2A I took education, Spanish, and psychology.  This semester I finally settled on Spanish and secondary education because I just figured if I keep picking Spanish I must like it, and everyone told me I should be a teacher.  I didn't declare the major until recently, and I didn't apply to the College of Education until about a month ago.  My application will be reviewed on March 15th.  So I spent a year and a half in college figuring out my first major.

Now this might come as a surprise to you, because I know I was surprised when I remembered this, but I'm actually in Spain to take classes and learn stuff!  Three weeks ago I started my required 2-week intensive grammar class.  About a week into the class I was walking to the study center, it was a Thursday, 5:45p.m, and it just hit me.  I don't want to teach Spanish at all.  Just like that.  Decision made.

Well the program I'm in is specifically designed for Spanish education students, and as part of the requirements we do a practicum for 10 weeks teaching English to Spanish students.  When we first got to Spain we had to fill out a form of what ages we would like to teach.  Now the only students I've worked with are kids ages 5-7, jr. high students, and a little with highschoolers.  I had some bad experiences with the young kids at Safety Village, so I assumed Elementary Ed wasn't for me, and I was nervous about teaching English to students who are only a few years younger than me, so I asked for jr. high aged students.  I ended up getting put with 6th graders.

Well today I had my first day of my practicum with the 6th graders and guess what.  When I got home from the school I sat down and emailed my adviser in the College of Ed and asked her to change my application to the Elementary Education program.  Thank God it wasn't officially due until March 15th! It took me two whole minutes to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life, and I couldn't be happier!

Now I'm not completely cured of my inability to make decisions, but I'm definitely learning.  I think I might have actually cut my decision-making time in half!  For the trivial stuff that is.  But one thing I have learned is that there are some decisions that I don't have the ability to make on my own.  No matter how many times I went over my possible majors in my head I could never come up with a decision or an answer because I was always basing it off of the same information.  Albert Einstein's definition of insanity is: doing the same thing over again and expecting different results.  These past few months have taught me that when it comes to the big stuff, all I need is patience.  No matter how confused or lost I feel, God will give me an answer.  So for now my attitude about life is Que Será Será, whatever will be, will be :)

New Favorite Animal?

Now this has nothing to do with Spain, but I'm really excited and I have to share it with someone so it's going on the blog.  I figure anyone who actually knows me and and reads my blog probably knows my favorite animals.  Well I was on stumbleupon.com today, which is a great website and if you haven't been on it before you should try it.  Unless you're a procrastinator like me.  Anyways I stumbled onto this page about photomanipulation and found my favorite animal in the universe. The perfect combination of everything cute?  I think so. 

Love and Other Drugs

 I'm really excited right now because I just went to the pharmacy for the first time and I'm in love.  So this blog is going to be both a story about how I fell in love, and a cultural observation of the medical field in Spain.  I hope both of these are as interesting to you all back home as they are to me :)
So I went to the pharmacy today for the first time and I had quite a few reasons.  **If you don't care about medicine or my current medical conditions skip this section.** The first and most pressing was that I am coming down with a cold.  I was afraid this would happen because this is apparently cold season in Sevilla, but fortunately because I was anticipating this I decided to hit the pharmacy the second I got a symptom.  The second reason was that I got a bug bite on the inside of my elbow while I was sleeping the other night.  See, because it's always between 55 and 65 degrees here there are bugs.  I decided to get something for it because it's sore and swollen.  The third reason was much more pressing and it was that I needed bandaids because I was getting blisters from the shoes I was wearing.  Now the fourth reason I went is something I'd rather keep to myself but for the affect of this story it must be told.  I have a lot of acne here in Sevilla and I'm not sure if it's due to being in a new environment, the oily food, or the fact that I spend a lot of time on busy streets.  But I decided to get medicine for it because the expensive face soap I already bought isn't working.  Now, you might be thinking, don't you need to go to a doctor to get a prescription for those ailments?  Not in Europe, you don't!  So the beauty of all of this is that I didn't have to go to a dermatologist or a doctor, and I still got 3 medicines and bandaids, all for the equivalent of $35.  Beat that US medical system!  So as much as I love the United States with all of my heart, I fell in love with the Spanish farmacia today. 
Now to the more interesting part of the story.  While I was paying for my drugs this cute guy walked into the pharmacy.  Normally I can tell when a guy is American or not based on how he dresses, but this guy was wearing a sports coat plus I had never seen him before so I wasn't sure if he was or not.  That is, not until he opened his mouth and stumbled through asking for allergy medicine just like how I stumbled through asking for my medicine.  So I approached him and asked if he was from CIEE, and he said he was from a different program, and we chatted for awhile about how awkward it is to ask for medicine in Spanish.  But then the pharmacist started talking to him and I wasn't sure whether to keep talking to him or not so I just told him good luck and left...
As I left I was kicking myself for not getting his name but then I realized when I was only about 100 ft. away that I had forgotten my bandaids so I went back and I thought, this is a sign haha.  I'm going to go back and we're going to get eachother's names.  But he was already gone.
Moral of the story is that I think I'm more in love with the idea of randomly meeting my soul mate in Spain than actually loving someone :)  No matter how much I change in Spain I will always be a romantic at heart.

Epic Fail -The highest form of fail known to man. --Urban Dictionary

Yesterday was the Super Bowl.  And while you were all back home having super bowl parties at a normal hour a few of us "Spaniards" decided to have a super bowl party of our own.  At midnight we all went over to our friend's (Rosie's) apartment because her señora is gone for the whole week!  Greg (nuestra hombre, aka our man, aka the only boy in our program) paid $2 to subscribe to a website so we could watch the game with the commercials on the internet, and we settled in to watch the game and plan trips for during the semester.(Left to right, Sarah, Rosie, Eve)

Now one important thing to note for this story is that so far Rosie is the only person who has an oven in their kitchen out of all of us.  We aren't sure how it happened but somehow nobody bakes here.  So they don't waste time owning an oven.
So having discovered the oven we all got overly ambitious and decided to make cookies for an all-American super bowl party.  So I went to the only convenience store open at 1:30am in Spain with Eve and all we could find for baking ingredients were eggs, flour, sugar, granulated brown sugar, and that was it.  But we were determined.

So we found a recipe for chocolate chip cookies on the internet that called for only sugar, eggs, butter, flour, and chocolate chips (which Sarah had brought from the US).  We made the dough the best we could considering the measuring cups here are on the metric system.  Now the tricky part was the oven.  Although we had it set to the correct temperature, converted to celsius of course, it was extremely hot and smoked a lot.  So before putting the cookies in we turned it down about 50 degrees celsius and set the timer.
After four minutes the cookies were already burning so we took them out.  Fortunately they were edible, but the chocolate chips definitely saved the day.  So for our second batch we turned the oven down to about 30 degrees celsius and let it cool off a bit first.  Unfortunately we forgot about the cookies and left them for about 10 minutes.  This was during the incredible half-time show.  Now I know Fergie's vocals were really bad to be honest, but I just love her.  I love the Black Eyed Peas.  And I loved the show.  So of course we got distracted and forgot about the cookies.  When I went to check them and opened the oven the cookies caught on fire and I experienced the most frantic two minutes of my life.
Unfortunately I have failed as a Safety Village teacher because I just sat there and tried to "fan" the fire out with a dish towel.  Rosie and Eve saved the day when they dumped a few bowls of water into the oven.  Normally Greg is very protective of us and insists on going out with us every time we go out so he can take care of us.  In this instance he picked watching the Packers win over putting out a fire but I've accepted at this point in life that sports have a special power over men, so there are no hard feelings there ;)

Once the fire drama was over and we had the apartment sufficiently aired out we settled down to watch the rest of the game and plan our trips to Paris and Amsterdam in April/May :)  Greg didn't know what to do with himself he was so happy that the Packers won, which made the whole night that much more fun.
All in all the Super Bowl party was very fun, but our complete lack of an ability to use the Spanish oven and bake cookies, and the fact that we were up until 4:30am, leads me to call this an Epic Fail.  Which is a lot better than a normal fail in my opinion because it created a great memory :)