First Week Adventures

Why hello there!

So very much has happened since my last post--I don't even know where to begin! Our trip to London was lovely. It was beyond fantastic to see the daniel house again, see some Samford friends there, visit our favorite haunts, and most of all to catch up with Roger, our neighbor while we were in London. He took us on a few walking tours of the city, the highlight of which was getting to see the library of the Westminster Abbey. Roger knows one of the librarians, and while we were standing in the cloisters of the Abbey (which he got us into for free--crazy!), he rang the bell to the library, talked to his friend, and got his friend to let us up into the library for a short tour. It was fabulous. When you tour London with Roger, you not only get to go places that you normally wouldn't have a hope of getting into, but you also hear ALL about the history and background of everything you're walking past. Amazing.

Here's a picture of Ellie, Roger and I in the gardens of the Abbey. :D

After our simply joyful jaunt around London and Cambridge, we arrived back in Sevilla, land of spanish and new jobs. My first day of work was an adventure of itself--I met what seemed to be the whole faculty in a matter of 15 minutes, sat through a faculty meeting (of course conducted in rapid spanish that I could only partially understand) and received my schedule for the year. My school is only four years old, is very beautiful, and I'm convinced is home to the most wonderful, kind faculty and staff I've ever met. Several teachers have already been very intentional about telling me that "If you need anything at all ('cualquier cosa' en español), you ask me, ok?". What a blessing! And the students? They're lovely. Their English is actually really really impressive, and they seem attentive, interested, and full of energy. In short, I'm very excited about my job. I know that I'll learn more than I teach as I help in all of my classes: technology (about construction tools and computer programs), world prehistory, geography, natural sciences, English, and conversation classes with a few faculty members. How exciting!

Also, our flat is wonderful. In fact, I'm afraid that our flat here is spoiling me for my future life. It's open, bright, and clean, and it's in a wonderful little community. We can walk to a fruit store, a great grocery store, and to a "bazaar" that has all of the random little items you might need. Here are a few pictures of our flat--at long last!

Our living room--all of this furniture and all of the decorations were already provided!

Sorry for the darkness of the picture, but here's our little table, the window that looks out to the courtyard, and our front door on the left.

Here's our cute little kitchen.

And here's my cute little bedroom!

In short, things have started out wonderfully in Sevilla. I'm so thankful for this wonderful opportunity and can't wait to get to know more of the people around me (neighbors, roomies, teachers...). Thank you for your prayers and hopefully I'll get to update again soon!