Also interesting, the bodies of the old Spanish King and Queen Ferdinand and Isabella are buried there, but sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures of them. After visiting the Cathedral of Granada, we went to a place called a "teteria." At first, this sounded like a bad word or something to me, but, don't worry, its just a tea house. Granada is famous for its hot Arabic tea, so of course we had to try some. The teteria was very well decorated and looked cool and Moroccan on the inside. I had té de almendra, which is almond tea, and it was awesome! However, in my opinion, Kellsey had the best tea called "Sueños de la Alhambra," which means "dreams of the Alhambra." The menu at this place was huge...like 7 pages full of different flavors of tea. I definitely want to go back sometime soon!
We woke up early the next morning on Valentine's Day to go the Alhambra. Before we left the hotel, we ate a delicious continental breakfast which consisted of things like eggs, yogurt, fruit and coffee. This was epic to me because I have only been eating bread for breakfast, and I ate soo much that I felt sick on the bus. But anyway, the Alhambra is THE most visited monument in Spain, and it is a huge place for of palaces and amazing buildings that is elevated above the small town of Granada. It was once the residence of Muslim rulers until the Christians conquered the palaces. It also includes the Palace of Carlos V, which looks like a coliseum on the inside. The Alhambra is cool because it encompasses a lot of history in one place, and allows you to see the old constructions of the Muslims, and how they changed when the Christians took over.
Once we got back from Granada, we were so tired, but Kellsey and I still managed to buy our senora a "tarto de queso" (cheesecake) and make her a card for Valentine's Day. Surprisingly, she LOVED it! She read the card out loud and said we were going to have a "fiesta" as we all shared a piece of the cheesecake. She has never been so nice to us before, and it was nice to have a little Valentine's day party with Ana.
The next morning, I started classes at the real University of Sevilla. I was feeling nervous because the realization hit that I was going to be attending a school where all I had to rely on was my Spanish skills (aka oh no!). I was also a little nervous because of the things I have heard about the disorganization of the school...things like "sometimes professors just don't come to class," and "sometimes the classroom numbers you are told don't match the one that the class is actually in." Luckily, both of these things have happened to me this first week. The very first day, 11 of us Americans sat in a class that we thought was a photography class for a good 15 minutes. Then, when some Spanish girl whipped out her notes that said something about Renaissance History of Italy, we all quickly realized that we were in the wrong class, and shamefully had to get up and walk out. Epic fail. Little did we know that the classroom that we needed was on floor 2 1/2 (no wonder we couldn't find it) and the number of the classroom had changed and we were not informed. When we finally found the right one, the professor was off drinking coffee somewhere and the only Spaniard in our class had to go and find him to let him know we had arrived for class. It was interesting. After all that, I ended up dropping the class because it was all Americans and 1 Spaniard...which is not very good for making Spanish friends.
Now I am in an art class that I couldn't find either on the first day because the classrooms are numbered like 18, 113, 87...something like that. So needless to say, I was late the first day. Then the professor decided not to come the next two times for class, so I will have to tell you more about that one later.
I have started teaching English at a private Catholic high school and the kids are an absolute hoot. I love working there even more than I thought I would. I thought I signed up to tutor kids one on one, but I actually signed up to teach a legit English class, complete with lesson plans and everything. The first day the teacher didn't know I was coming and didn't have anything for me to do, so I just talked to them and they asked me questions. They asked me what my favorite fútbol team, and I said, "Sevilla" and everyone cheered. Then I sat in on the rest of their lesson and the kids were learning conditional phrases. It was an absolute crack-up to me because the kids sentences went something like, "If I drove a ship, I would be a shipdriver," in a funny accent of course. Or "If I met Beyone, I would be very happy." It was cute to hear them try to speak English, but it also made me realize how silly I probably sound in Spanish when I speak. Oh well, at least I try.
As usual, God has been teaching me awesome things while I am here. I have been meditating on a passage in John 12:23-26. It is so awesome that I want to write it all on here:
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."
This passage has spoken volumes to me the past few days. I recently read in an Oswald Chambers devotional that the most important thing we have to do as Christians is to glorify Christ's name, and the rest of the things we need to do will fall in step with that. This passage furthers that thought by saying you must glorify Christ by dying to self. I have always thought that is an odd phrase...how do you "die to yourself?" To me, that means leaning on God for everything, seeking to please God in everything that I do, not doing what I want to do every day but rather asking God what HE has planned for me to do every day, and doing away with the desire to sin. One "dies to self" when they get saved (Rom 6:6-8), but I think it is also a daily process of putting the will of Christ before the will of self. It's the only way others will want to become followers of Christ because it allows Christ to be seen through us, and God honors such efforts of his people to glorify Him.
Also, I love the part about "Where I am my servant will also be." That is such a cool and simple way to think about following Christ...seek Him and you will end up in the same place. I feel that God is in Spain and that makes me soo excited to see what He will do next. There is so much more I could write about how awesome God is, but that is all for now. I am off to salsa dancing! :)
