okay well it has been another wonderful week here in sevilla! once again we had a 4 day week:] got to love it! it has been raining here and freezing, but no pasa nada. it has been glorious in the mornings so i have been running in the early morning!

monday was just another average day of going on a run and going to school. we (my roommate and i) have found our favorite bar/ cafe that has free wifi. we have become regulars there. it is called Puldio. they are very friendly here, but the guy who is working there all the time just laughs at me because whenever i order i start laughing! he knows that we are both learning spanish so he helps us, but let me tell you the spanish accent (lisp) is really hard to understand so i just laugh A LOT! so we go to Puldio to get cafe con leche and wifi gratis (free wifi)! oh and yes and this night isabel served me food that still had eyes, legs, and bones. she had cooked gamba (shrimp) but left all the stuff on it... i was thoroughly disgusted. then the fish she cooked still had the skin and bones on it... i almost died! hahha is was not good and i love seafood so that was hard to swallow.

tuesday consisted of the same thing and also preparing for my presentation in spanish! i loved getting ready for this because i actually already had done one of these in high school, but i got to talk about things i like to do, the wonderful city i live in, and MY FAMILY!!! our senora, isabel surprised us with these ice cream bars like a hagen daz bar. we were one so surprised and to so EXCITED to have dessert and not fruit or yogurt!

wednesday i went to school and came home to fall asleep for three hours! i have been sleeping way too much here. i love it tho. so they do take siesta which i may have already said i thought was fake, but the shops do shut down from about 2- 5! when i say about 2- 5 they usually close early that 2 and open after 5... their work ethic here isnt quite the standard we have at home... but it is cool they spend that time with friends and family! so after my three hour nap i went to encuentro (the english bible study, but we sing songs in both english and spanish)! after this bible study i talked to our activities director about organizing a prayer walk here in sevilla. she thought it was a great idea and put me incharge. i was not really expecting this, but i am meeting with her on monday to bounce some ideas around about it. i am very excited about this! at azusa pacific our theme this year is ‘God in this city’ and i really have seen that here, too. when i run here i see lots of gorgeous things, but also a lot of pain and hurt. so here i go... organizing a prayer walk. prayer for this would be great! we wont do it probably for at least another week, but i will keep you updated on this!

thursday rolls around and i had my presentation! it went very well. our three day weekend started :] again i slept for three hours and then just kind of hung out! i got to skype with a few people :] the group of people i hang out with (emily, lizzy, daniel, and andy) and i met at ‘our corner’ which is right by this cafe called cafe de indias. we seem to hang out on this corner a lot and just talk. because calling and texting is so expensive here we just meet at the corner and make plans :] it is fun.. so we met at like 11:15 pm to make plans for friday!

our friday consisted of lots of rain, sleep, and brownies and cookies :] we tried to go to the alcazar. this is the place where the royalty come and stay when visiting sevilla. who would have thought the day we try to go the PRINCES decided to come and stay? so we saw where they were staying, but couldnt get in :[ it is okay i have over 3 months of being here! we were freezing so we came home got back into our pjs made hot chocolate and ate crackers with nutella. we sat by our heater, washed disney channel, and studied! isabel came home and fed us yummy food... it consisted of homemade sopa de pollo (chicken noodle soup) and spanish tortilla (the best food in the world! it is potatoes and eggs... like an omelet but better)! guess what i did after this? yup fell asleep for three hours:] we decided to go to our school which was having this valentines party (i hate valentine’s day, but sea lo que sea (it is what it is)) and i got to meet some other awesome people (who are christians studying at another university)! we did ‘speed dating’ which was fun and they fed us banana bread, chocolate chip cookies (chocolate chips dont exist here so it was shaved chocolate), and BROWNIES! it was a glorious night. we came home and ate dinner with isabel. actually most senoras do not allow their ‘kids’ (us students) to enter their kitchen, but isabel lets us do whatever! so we got to help her prepare dinner :] it was so fun! after having a great dinner we went and found this cute little bar on the river and sipped on some sangria! emily tried it for the first time and i just simply enjoyed it! we had lots of great conversations!

saturday woke up at 11:30 am and decided to go on a run! it was frigid, but beautiful. we ran for about 45/ 50 minutes! it was so fun. um well then we just went to the city wall!!! it was so cool and so much fun :]

on friday night when we were out we were amazed by how many old people were out! i mean we have yet to be up later than our senora... CRAZY! we came home at like 2 am and she was still awake until like 3 am!

isabel has come up with all these names for me and calls me the following:

chica (girl)

chicatita (little girl)

chicie (not sure)

pequina (little)

nina (little girl)

hija (daughter)

okay well i think that is all for now ask me if you have any questions!!!!

amor y paz,

katarinna