Thursday, December 1

            I think today may have been the busiest day I’ve had yet this semester. I spent the morning in class, as usual, although all wasn’t exactly normal. In my romanticism class we took a brief field trip around Sevilla to see a few of the places where the play we are reading takes place, and we even stopped for a Coke in the restraint where the opening scene is set. It was a nice way to spend the class period, and then right when I was done I headed off to meet with my intercambio, Pilar, who I met at Mision Urbana. She brought a friend who doesn’t speak English with her, so we just talked in Spanish all afternoon, which was fine with me. I had a blast with both of them, and although it consumed the majority of my afternoon, I’m so glad I hung out with them. Pilar’s friend was actually the wife of the youth pastor at my church, and it was so fun to get to know her and hear more of the story of their immigration here from Cuba…I just love learning about stuff like that :)

            The three of us stopped at the bank, a shoe store, and a bookstore on the way to Pilar’s house for lunch. I loved just spending time with them and being able to step completely away from my SIS life for a few hours. At Pilar’s apartment, we hung out for an hour or so before her husband joined us for lunch. I was starving by the time we finally ate, but it was alright with me. I couldn’t believe how quickly the afternoon flew by, and soon I needed to hurry back to the school to get to the last session of my class on modern Spain.

            My evening class was scheduled to end last week, but one of our classes was rescheduled for today. The class consisted of a visit from a couple of students who are studying here to become Catholic priests. I had a mountain of questions for them, and others brought questions too. The conversation was absolutely captivating to me, and I wish I could have had three more hours to talk to them more about what they’re learning as people being trained to lead the Catholic Church.

            I needed to fix an error in my registration tonight, and the internet connection was so bad at school that it took forever, so it was pretty late before I even thought about looking at my homework. Wanting to get lots done before Paris and needing to pack for the trip created a relatively late night for me, but I’m glad to have put in a long day and gotten a lot accomplished before taking off for the long weekend.