Praise God for Sundays! Today was such a wonderful, relaxing day of rest, and I loved every minute of it. Since Corinne’s foot was sore from all the walking we did yesterday, we took the metro (subway) to the school to meet the other 3 girls going to church with us. By doing this, we traded a 30-minute walk in for a 5-minute ride, which is so nice I’m in danger of getting into the bad habit of using the metro (which is kind of spendy) more often. The other girls were already at the school when we got there, so the 5 of us purchased and credited “frequent traveler cards,” which are good for a discount on bus, train, tram, and metro rides throughout Sevilla before venturing out for church.
We found the main bus station in Sevilla pretty easily, but it took asking a few people to get to the right stop. Eventually we found it and gave our directions to the bus driver, who we were counting on to tell us when to get off the bus. He had no idea where the church was, so we asked a few other people on the bus and no one knew. We knew the ride would be about 30 minutes, so we kept asking people until we got closer and a couple of people told us where we needed to be. It was really funny because once a woman on the bus found out we weren’t sure where we were going she asked every other passenger where the church was. I’ve been amazed and comforted by the Spanish hospitality and willingness to help.
Eventually, we got off at the right stop and had to walk about a block to the church, which we could see from the bus stop, which was nice. We were there pretty early, so we had time to talk and get to know each other a little better before heading into the biggest evangelical church in Sevilla, home to about 300 members. It was a pretty contemporary Baptist church, and I really enjoyed the worship and general feel of the church. The message was easy for me to understand for the most part (which is super encouraging!!), and the sense of community within the church was remarkable. We were greeted by several members after the service, and I was surprised by how many of them spoke English. I think everyone enjoyed the service, and I was encouraged and motivated by the message to “be of a different spirit” as a follower of Christ.
We took the bus back to the city center for lunch, which was delicious, and then we wandered around the city for a while, seeing sights and eating ice cream. We spent lots of time in a huge garden with lots of fountains, and we went to the Spanish plaza, where part of Star Wars episode one was filmed. The hot, sunny weather suited my taste perfectly, and we figured with the unit conversion that it was about 90 degrees this afternoon, although without the humidity of Minnesota I felt perfectly comfortable. Near the end of our venture through the city, our feet were aching and we stopped for ice cream, another bad habit I’m afraid I might get hooked on here. ;)
I took the metro back home to give myself a little more time with Rosa, which turned out to be a good idea. The minute I got home, she started recounting her day to me, and I ended up settling in for an hour or more of listening before I even made it past the entry way. Finally, I mentioned wanting to get to bed early, so Rosa made us an early dinner (which was so nice and totally unnecessary), and I got all ready for bed so that I could settle in right after dinner. I spent a little while researching camera options before getting to sleep, full of excitement in anticipation of classes tomorrow.
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