Run On

Saludos de Sevilla!

I really need to start keeping up with this blog more often than every 2 weeks or so! I guess I just have so much going on here in Seville it is hard to remember to blog about it every week! But I will start trying to update it more!

So I figured instead of basically telling everyone every single detail of the past two weeks of my life I figured I would keep to a specific subject. I do apologize if this seems off topic but do not worry there is a point :) I do not know if many of you know this but in the past year and a half I started to run. I used to HATE it. Honestly at one point I would have rather poked my eyes out than run. But things change :) I started running with my sister last summer and then moved to Houston and I continued to run but not as much as I would have liked because its harder to force yourself to get up and do it if you don't have another person there pushing you. Anyways I moved back home from Houston in August right before I came here and me and my sister started running again and I loved it. Ok here comes the point of the story...I LOVE running here in Seville. I was going to join a gym and thought WHY? I have this beautiful city waiting for me right outside my door. Why would I want to run on a treadmill in a stinky gym instead of passing the cathedral every day on my run.

Sometimes I run along the Guadalquivir Rio which is absolutely amazing and the other day I probably had the best run of my life. I decided I would go run in Parque Maria Luisa which is a HUGE park here in Seville, very beautiful! I also remembered the Plaza de Espana was also right across from the park and I had not seen it since last summer when it was being renovated. So I came around the corner and there it was. Something hit me while I was running I just literally had to stop and stare. This is my life now. I am living out my dream and all this adrenaline hit me at once. It was an amazing moment. So after standing in the middle of the street for 5 minutes I continued on my run. So after I finished I figured I would go have a seat in the Plaza de Espana and just chill for a bit before I ran back to my apartment. Once again I had that feeling and then one of my favorite songs came on my iPod Owl City's "Meteor Shower". I began to feel so blessed to be where I was. The only reason I am living out my dream right now is because of God and his blessings. Everything seems to be going good right now which makes me feel like this is where I am truly meant to be right now.

"I can finally see that you're right there beside me"
"I am not my own. For I have been made new"
"Please don't let me go" "I desperately need you"
Owl City "Meteor Shower"

Those lyrics and that moment made me feel good about my decision to live here. As much as I miss my friends and family and all the things I love most about Texas and America in general I LOVE my life here in Seville. I am not alone in this. God never gives us a task we can't handle.

I sat in the plaza for a good 20 minutes and got strange looks A. I was wearing my work out clothes so I am guessing that might be the reason. However there is a downside to running here. The creepy "que guapa" calls I get while I am running. These creepy old man apparently think if they yell "que guapa" while I am running I will instantly stop and actually show interest? Ugh that is Europe in general for you. I have learned to ignore it.

Just wanted to share that with everyone. It's crazy all that came from my normal evening run. Needless to say there are days when I sometimes feel lazy and don't want to run, normally on the weekends I tend to be the laziest haha but during the week after I have had my run I feel so much better.

Check out my picture below of the Plaza de Espana.

View from my piso yesterday when it was supposed to rain instead it POURED today!

Parque Maria Luisa (old man got in my pic! haha)

Hope everyone has a blessed week!
Besitos!

mi piso bonito!

Holaaaa!

I will begin this blog apologizing for my delayed postings. Life in Sevilla is amazing as I always say but we still do not have internet in our piso so it makes it hard to keep this blog updated but I shall try my best! Starbucks and me are now in a serious relationship however I keep having to shell out the money for our dates. It's getting a little old at this point. So I am hoping in the next week or two our relationship shall be kaput.

Anyways I will stop complaining about my internet situation. So far I am loving my school. My little students are absolutely preciosas! I am teaching a mix of 1st-6th grade. This week is my first week to plan lessons and all that jazz. I planned a fun solar system bingo game for my little third graders this morning and they loved it. I had to teach my 4th graders about the hemispheres (they were not so interested) they started at me with blank stares and mouths open. I even had a fun game called sunglasses or scarf in which I give them the name of a country and which hemisphere it is and depending on the month would they need sunglasses (summer) or a scarf (winter). I thought it was very clever but I do not think they enjoyed therefore that class was a bit of a bust. BUT I adore my little 2nd graders. They are learning about the parts of the body so I came up with a crazy interactive game and things just got wild so we had to cut the game short haha! Long story short my days are always interesting at mi escuela. However I just found out today that I will be teaching at TWO schools now. The other school is still in Espartinas so that was good news. But now I will be spending Monday and Weds @ my school now and then Tues and Thurs at my new school. Im sure everything will go good!

AND NOW....what you have all been waiting for PICTURES OF MY PISO! :) Ok so I will give you a little background on it. We live in el centro very close to alfalfa and Plaza del Salvador...EXCELLANT LOCATION for all of you who have been to Sevilla before! I love our apartment except at night it gets pretty loud. I've heard lots of ladies have fights with their boyfriends on the street around 5 am at night...oh Espanaaa!

Check out the picture below!

living room!

one of our beautiful views!

another beautiful view!

view from the terrace!

the bathroom!

Our kitchen!

Our long hallway!

I stole these pictures from my roomie haha! I wanted to post on my blog today but didnt take pictures today so thats why there is not one of my room but I will post one when my room is all decorated and cute!

We have a holiday on weds which means NO WORK! holla! I am in the process of finding some clases particulares (english tutoring). I will not be getting paid from the junta until around november aka I am pobre. SOOO I need to start finding some tutoring work pronto!

Anyways it was a bit of a short blog but hopefully it was enjoyed! Enjoy more pictures below of my life in Spain!

Church in Triana!

More Triana!

Giralda at night :)

Hasta luego & muchos besitos!

Laurena (my spanish name)

Vale?

Hello friends!

It has been awhile since I last posted but I have been so crazy busy since I arrived in Sevilla last Monday! Life is absolutely amazing here! I am so incredibly happy to be back in Sevilla and this time for 8 months instead of only 1 month! :)

I finally found an piso in sevilla with 4 other fabulous roomies so there are five of us :) Our piso es increible! It is right in the center of sevilla! The location is wonderful and we are getting such a good price for it! Everything worked out very well! The only downside is I am about a 20 minute walk from Plaza de Armas which is where I take the bus everyday to Espartinas to my school. Speaking of walking my feet hurt so bad basically because I literally walk everywhere! I really do not mind it here though because the city is so beautiful.

Of course I have indulged in some tapas since I have been here. My current spanish food obsession is Espinaca con Garbanzos (Spinach with Chickpeas) & Salmorejo. Salmorejo is like gazpacho but thicker and it has jamon iberico in it. So good! It also has hard boiled eggs in it which I am not really a fan of buuut its actually quite delicious in the Salmorejo. Also monteditos have been my new favorite. They are these super tiny sandwiches, I could pretty much eat 12 and be fine jaja!

See below :)

Espinaca con Garbanzos

Salmorejo

Montaditos de Jamon!

I started teaching today at my school! I was super nervous but all the teachers are so nice! And all the kids are so precious! They all asked me 50 million questions and they LOVED that I was from Texas and they had so many questions to ask me about it however I think my favorite was "What is your favorite futbol team?" Since futbol (soccer) is so popular here I only knew one team so I said Betis and the whole class went wild! haha! Half of them liked betis and the other half didnt. It was hilarious! I am so excited for this year, it is going to be so fun! I already have to start planning lessons tomorrow! yay!

I am contemplating going to Lagos this weekend :) It is still so hot here in Sevilla that I want to go to the beach at least once before it gets hot. Below is a pic from when I went to Lagos last time I was in Spain.

Lagosss <3

All is well in Spain so far! I would post pictures of my apartment unfortunately I packed last minute and forgot to pack my camera cord...(so smart) so I will have to go to FNAC (similar to a Best Buy) and see if they have a camera cord or something I can use to load my pictures! On my next post I will try to have pictures!

I miss my family & friends very much but no worries I am loving mi vida in Sevilla!

Adios todos!