Aventuras de los Bentley

Laziness

2011-07-19T10:46:00.001-07:00

I know we are way behind on posting. it has been a long exciting journey back to California and hopefully we will get back into the rhythm of things. But for now we are enjoying some down time at Sarah's parents.

Day 6 + 7 - Cangas de Onís

2011-06-22T03:47:00.000-07:00

Cangas de Onís itself isn't a too well known of a city but the professors at the school told us that it was a great place to be to see everything around it. We decided to stay two days and have a little bit of an adventure.

The first day we drove a little into the Picos de Europa to the village of Covadonga
to see the church and the Holy Cave. Covadonga is known as the area where the first battle was won by the Christians against the Moors in 772 AD, thus beginning the Christians expelling of the Moors in Spain.

Basilica of Santa María la Real of Covadonga

It really started to rain!

Pelayo

This is the only picture we could get inside the cave. Their was a mass going on and felt weird taking photos. We sat in on the mass for about 8 minutes but after the 200th time that priest repeat a prayer to the madre de Dios we had heard enough.

Below the cave is a waterfall and this little spring coming out of the mountain. The myth is that if you drink the water from the spring you will be married very soon.

......interesting

Such a sweet setting for a church.

You can see in some of the other photos the clouds that were in the sky. There are two beautiful lakes that are above Covadonga, and few miles higher up in the mountains. We really wanted to see them, and we were hoping maybe we could drive above the clouds, but unfortuntely after driving a half hour in Central Valley like fog we realized we probably could pass the lakes without even notices.

So we turned back and drove back into Cangas de Onís.
At the entrance to the city is the old Roman bridge.

View from the bridge.

We got back in time to head out on a kayaking trip down the river. A guy from the hotel gave us the wetsuits, showed us the kayak, and pointed to a place on the map that we were going to meet him in 4 hours.

The also gave us a little sack lunch to eat half way through. The water was flowing pretty well and we had a couple exciting moments. We felt pretty BA.

We celebrated a day of adventure with some typical Asturian food and, of course, more cider! Here is one of the little dispensers that helps break the cider up. You only pour in enough that you can drink in one gulp.

The next morning we decided to hike along the River Cares. It a famous route called La Garganta del Río Cares. The route is about 12 km (about 7.5). After deciding that we didn't want to do the whole route and after talking with the same guy at the hotel, we decided to take the 2 hour drive through the Picos de Europa and start at the end of the route (the village of Caín) and only go a few miles in. The main reason was that most of the really good sights are in these last few kilometers.

The drive through the Picos proved to be one of the most exciting paved roads I have ever been on. And yes..... It is two lanes. It was hard to believe that we were actually going to find civilization at the end of the road. Apparently many Spaniards fled to the hills when the Moors invaded and were able to stay there without any contact.

Finally there and ready to hike!

The beginning of the trail is just passed the dam.

Looking back at the dam.

Well hello there. This guy got a little territorial and followed us for a little bit.

This aqueduct ran to the side of most of the trail. It seemed like a big water park slide to me. But the water was freeeeeeezing.

We were loving the views but we were ready to head back after an hour and a half.

Looking for caves to climb into.

I had to settle for the tunnels.

This guy was a jumper.

eeeeewww

These little guys came around the corner speeding towards us but quickly jumped up and started climbing up the side of the trail when they saw us. It was pretty amazing.

Baby ducks!

Back to the trail head

Here is a shot of our hotel just before we left. (the green one)

Next up....some other smaller cities and Santander!

Day 5 - Oviedo

2011-06-09T03:25:00.000-07:00

On most trips that we take, I am already burnt out on traveling at 4 days. So when we first committed to 10 days we knew it was going to be rough. We figured that by the night of day 5, we would definitely need a nice place to stay and relax. So we found a deal on Booking.com and put ourselves up in this place.

After getting unloaded and parking the car in a tiny underground garage, it was time to explore the beautiful city.

The unique buildings didn't feel very Spanish to us

Jumping in the park

The university

Hanging out in the old plaza

old

We liked the clock on the cathedral tower (which you can barely see in this picture)

sleeping kitty

cider barrel

Oviedo is the capital of the principality of Asturias, and Asturias is the largest producer of cider in Spain. So clearly we had to make our way over to Calle Gascona aka El Bulevar de la Sidra (the boulevard of cider).

This little gem was recommended to us by a friend as a good place to eat.

We ordered the Tortos con Picadillo y jamon, which is puffed up little corn tortillas with chorizo or cured ham on top. Delicious!

I enjoyed myself a cheap bottle of cider, which actually isn't supposed to be drank in it's normal state. Normally it is poured from great heights to shake it up or they have special electric dispensers to get the flavor moving.

The next day on our way out of the city we headed up the mountain for a little hike.

We saw a bunch of these as we were walking and driving through Asturias. They are called hórreos and were used to store grain. It seems like people keep them around today just for aesthetics. To me they look like mini houses on stilts.

The first destination on our hike was a Roman Catholic church, San Miguel de Lillo. Unfortunately it was in the process of being re-roofed. Can you imagine re-roofing a building built in 848.

The next stop, also built in 848 was the church Santa María del Naranco. It is a great example of pre-Romanesque architecture. We weren't able to go inside but Sarah made it up the stairs for a quick picture.

You can see the inside in Woody Allen's movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was filmed in many areas of Oviedo. Javier Bardem was totally here.

Next up is Cangas de Onis!

Day 5 (scenic route) - Ribadeo, Luarca, Salinas

2011-06-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

In between all the major cities that we knew we had to visit, the professors at the school listed a bunch of smaller cities that we had to pass through. We didn't really do much research before the trip so a lot of times we went into a town not knowing at all what to expect.

Ribadeo was a sleepy town that had some nice views of the ocean.

Cool abandoned building

We were really sad to see some graffitti where it shouldn't be.

Luarca was a super sleepy town that we only spent about a half hour in. It was definitely beautiful, with a train passing by up on the mountain and a lazy river weaving through the middle of town.

Hello? anybody? We think this was the main plaza.

We spent awhile looking for a place to eat but then decided to buy some sandwich stuff at the market.

Then we were back on the road.

Our last short stopover was in Salinas.

The weather was a little dreary but it made for some cool pictures.

We found a strange sculpture garden to have a little fun.

I would live here

This guy is dedicated

Shout out to Salinas, California!

Next up is Oviedo!

Day 4 - A Coruña

2011-06-06T03:27:00.000-07:00

A Coruña (0r La Coruña to the rest of Spain outside of the province of Galicia) was another one of our favorite cities. We arrived not knowing very much about it at all. So we drove around until we cam across this little gem.

The Tower of Hercules is a lighthouse built by the Romans that has been in "continuous" operation for 2000 years. Of course there has been much work done on the structure and it looks very different today, but it was very interesting to check out.

We are not sure what this statue was about.

Fortunately it was free to enter, so we started out tour in the museum underneath the tower. We were able to see the old Roman foundations but I wasn't able to walk comfortably

Up the steps

Sweet view of the city at the top

Looking out at the Atlantic and the compass rose below the tower

We decided to take a walk around the tower near the ocean

We really enjoyed the waves

Sarah enjoyed the sun on the compass rose. There were pictures of different random things supposedly representing the different Celtic peoples. (The area was once inhabited by Celtic tribes.)

We decided to have some beach time since the weather was so nice. So we found a spot below the tower.

After a little beach siesta we had to head out to check out more of the city.

This lady must have been pretty tough. In 1589, English forces were trying to take control of the city. Her husband, whom she was following into battle, was killed by a crossbow. She killed an English banner man and with her shout of "Quien tenga honra, que me siga" ("Whoever has honour, follow me!") and led the charge to drive back the English.

Ice cream break!

Kids playing soccer in nearly every plaza.

Heading out of town, we drove up a hill to a nice park and observatory. The observatory was closed but a lot of people were out enjoying the nice grass and sun.

Big guns

Looking back towards the Tower of Hercules

We like to think that these guys were mobsters.

Then it was off to find our camping. It was a little outside of town, and a little hard to find. But it really was right by the beach.

We were the only ones really camping. The trailers seemed like there were just left there and we only saw 2 people go into one of them.

The beach is right behind this fence. It was nice to fall asleep to the sound of the waves, but it got REALLY cold.

Next up.....Ribadeo, Luarca, and Salinas all in one post!

Day 3 - Santiago de Compostela

2011-06-02T02:57:00.001-07:00

For our third day we headed to Santiago de Compostela. Santiago is the capital of the Province of Galicia the most northwestern province of Spain. The city and its cathedral are most famous for the being the final destination of a pilgrimage called the Camino de Santigo, or The Way of Saint James.

First and foremost we had to see what all the hub bub was about. So we entered into the cathedral and got a view of ol' James himself, (or at least where he is reputed to be buried). And yes, this is James the apostle of Jesus. The burial site is beneath the main altar in front of the church.

We noticed a line going up and into the altar (see previous picture) so we hopped in to see where it went. It ended up going up and behind the figure of St. James (found in the middle of the altar). Once inside this large gold contraption, it was very clear that pictures were not allowed. I saw a few ladies kissing the back of the figure's golden head but we were not really into that sort of thing. In fact we felt kind of awkward because we did not know what to do once we were inside. I decided on a nice tap on the shoulder and then we were on our way back out the other side. Before exiting I looked back to see the man behind me giving the statue a full on embrace.

We didn't get to see this contraption in action but this gigantic Botafumeiro as they call it is probably the most famous censer in the world. It is filled with burning coals and incense and is swung back and forth at speeds up to 60 km/hr. or 37 mph producing large volumes of smoke along the way.

We were surprised to see such graphic depictions of a certain Spanish legend in the cathedral. The story is that Saint James came back to life to help Spain against the Moors in the Battle of Clavijo in 844. Apparently he came looking a lot like a pirate on a white horse with a white banner and killed a whole lot of Moors, hence the name Matamoros.

After we had fully explored the interior we began our trek around the exterior of the church.

The rain started to come down a little.

And then it came down a lot. We took cover under a small patio with all the other tourists.

When the rained calmed down we checked out some of the other beautiful buildings in the city.

In Sarah's research about the city she found that there is a tour that you can go on that takes you to the rooftop of the cathedral. We finally found the small door to the entrance of the place and signed up for the next time slot. It was a little expensive but we had a hunch that it was going to be good.

Not only was it good it was probably my favorite moment of the whole trip. Normally groups would be 25 people or more but our tour was only 6. Our guide was funny and very easy going so we all had a great time hanging out on top of the cathedral.

Without fail there is always some sort of restoration going on.

Below this cross is where they would burn the clothes and other belonging of people who had died of the plague. Probably stemming from this is the practice that those who complete the Camino de Santiago burn the clothes that they wore after they are finished.

Notice how gigantic the chimney is on the left. It was once a sign of wealth in the city. A big chimney meant that you had a big kitchen and that you and your family ate well.

This was our last day with Alyssa before she took off on a plane to Ireland early the next day.

On the roof looking at the back of the facade.

On the ground looking up at the facade.

Just down the road we found some nice open park area and a school on a hill.

The weather really cleared up!

Then we came back around and got a nice far away view of the cathedral.

I leave you with one of my favorite shots of (once again) the cathedral. You can see a couple pilgrims resting on the steps.

Next up....more good weather and La Coruña!

Day 1 + 2 - Salamanca

2011-05-24T02:50:00.000-07:00

In a high school Spanish class, Sarah was given an assignment to do a report on a city in Spain. After telling Señora Rainbow that she wasn't sure what city to choose, the teacher promptly responded, "You should do Salamanca."

What made this stop even more exciting for us was that we were connected with a friend of a friend who was living in the city as a missionary. We decided to take advantage of the cheap lodging and stay 2 nights while taking our time with the beautiful city.

Looking down the old Roman bridge towards the city.

The clouds and lighting helped us get some nice picture.

We also found this city very tranquil and lacking the busyness that Sevilla tends to have.

Nice view of the Old and New Cathedrals.

Another great photo by Alyssa

Tranquil setting within the city

Convento de San Esteban

Inside the Cathedral

ICE CREAM!!

ASTRONAUT?!?!
(added in 1992 during restoration work to represent the 20th century)
During one of the short periods of rain we ran across this little gem in the middle of a plaza.
Sarah played a game with kitties and puppies and I played Street Fighter.
The 3D is pretty dang cool.

Sarah makes me pose once in awhile.

We found Plaza Mayor in the heart of the city. There was a whole lot going on.
A book fair, a concert, and a wedding. We found a pretty decent Mexican food place nearby to eat some tacos and burritos. Almost....but not quite the same.

Sarah tried to snap some shots of the couple as they were being blasted by confetti and rice.

We talked with this guy to find out how to get in the tower.
Unfortunately it has been closed for years.

The church of La Clerica, next door to La Casa de las Conchas (shells).

Salamanca is most famous for its university. It was founded in 1218 and is the oldest and most important in Spain. Christopher Columbus lectured there on his discoveries. Hernán Cortés took classes there (but didn't finish). Today there are about 36,000 students (2,000 foreign).

Within the carvings of the facade of the university there are lots of things to notice, but the most important to notice is a little frog. It is said that the students who find it themselves will do well in their exams. I didn't get close enough with the camera but in the middle of the picture, on the left side of the pillar, there is one of three skulls and on top of the skull you can find a little frog.
You can see a close up picture HERE.

Our hosts apartment couldn't have been in a better location. We were right on the edge of everything we needed to see. We were in the apartment of those two windows sticking up out of the top of this building. The roof was a little low in some areas (not just for me) but it was a great first couple nights of our trip. Our host really could not have been more hospitable.

So that is Salamanca. We feel fortunate to have experienced it in the way we did.
I'll leave you with the view of the Roman Bridge from the window.

Next up: Santiago de Compostela!

Day 1 (first stop) - Cáceres

2011-05-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

Well finally, here it is. The first post of our long 10 day trip through the North of Spain. I am still not done editing all the pictures but I´ll post them little by little. We have been relaxing at home, recovering from the trip. We bought a small inflatable pool for the roof and had some bbq with the neighbors. But also we have been getting ready for our guests this week. My sister and brother-in-law come tomorrow! Then Sarah´s sister comes on wednesday! We are super excited to have family coming. So it may be another week before there is another post.

But without further ado ....the first town we stopped in was only about 2 hours away from Seville. Cáceres is great to explore because there is a fairly large section of the city with medieval structure that shows no signs of modernity.

Looking across the plaza towards the old part of town.

Looking back at the newer part.

One of our students, Alyssa, rode along with us for the beginning of the trip. It gave Sarah someone to take a picture with and also (as you will see later) someone to take pictures of us.
La Iglesia San Francisco Javier

It was about mid day when we were there and everything was really calm and quiet.

I heard that many movies have been filmed in this area of town because it maintains the time period so well.

Photo by Alyssa

Sarah liked the wall so we shot some senior pics.

At one point there were many different wealthy families trying to control the city so they kept building bigger houses to show that they were the most powerful.

This plaza is one of the bigger nicer ones we have seen

and was recently redone

We only spent about an hour and a half in the city before we were back on the rode towards Salamanca. But we were really glad we stopped there. Salamanca is next!

Springtime!

2011-04-04T03:00:00.000-07:00

The weather here in Sevilla is really warming up here so we decided to kick of the season with a good ol' fashion American BBQ.

Artwork by Sarah

As always, I took care of the grillin'. That bright light is from a halogen lamp I installed earlier in the day. Unfortunately the bulb burned out right before we started eating. The electricity in our building can be a little sketchy.

Our Spanish friends all really love BBQ's but we decided to go ALL American with this one. Andrew and pregnant Jaime Goodwin came over along with our neighbors, the Teagues, and friend Rachel.

We are still continuing with the Couchsurfing every once in awhile. We needed to be reminded a little bit of our heritage so we decided to host Marjolein from Amsterdam. She made us a delicious hutspot for dinner.

She left us with some tasty treats. Stroopwafels - our Favorite!! and a box of Hagelslag - Sarah had never had it before and I remember eating it a few times at my friend Eric Koelewyn's house growing up. It's also a really fun word to say.

Our church community over here has been going through some crazy but exciting times. We got kicked out of our old building because of permit issues, angry neighbors, and possible persecution and have now moved to a bigger location a little further out from the city center. There was a plan to move this month anyways but since we got kicked out over a month ago, we had to move everything forward and make the move sooner then planned. The location is great but the building needs some work and of course this leads to needing money to do the work.
So Pastor Al and Jonathan got together to put on a benefit concert in one of the local theaters.

Al kept the night flowin. He used to be a DJ in southern California call DJ Rebel.

These guys are one of my favorites. They call themselves The Potatoes Chips.

Here they are with part of their big hit "My Potatoes Chips"

Al's daughter Ashley got to pick out the winner of an ipod Nano.
Of course Andrew Goodwin wins it and he was sitting right behind me.

Jonathan and his band Blue M finished of the show with a few rockin' songs.

The next day we hopped on the bus to the pueblo of Coria del Rio where our friends Reuben and Silvia live. Silvia is getting ready to have her baby very soon so we wanted to make her a big pancake breakfast. The sign says 'Sara and Jordan's American Breakfast".

Of course any American breakfast must include LOTS of bacon. Silvia could hardly wait! She is normally the flamenco dance teacher for our school but this semester her sister-in-law and neighbor Mercedes (behind Silvia) is covering for her.

We were hard at work making the pancakes and eggs.

It was a really nice day so we enjoyed eating outside on their patio. We ate so many pancakes!

Reuben and Silvia

Our friends Yván and Lorena also made it with their super cute kids. They are from Venezuela but have been living in Sevilla for some time now doing ministry work in the schools. Yván speaks English well because he went to college in Michigan. We had him share in the school's Encuentro meeting the week before.

Yván and Andres

Lorena and Valeria

After eating so much we didn't much feel like doing anything else, so we just sat around.
But then after awhile we got hungry again so we just decided to all eat lunch together too!

Besides good times with friends we have been doing some Spring cleaning and re-arranging the house a little bit. In the process we discovered what our cat Rayas does when she is bored. We found all these items underneath the couch.

But seriously, how could you even be mad at her.

The days are moving along

2011-02-21T01:15:00.000-08:00

Remember the picture in the last post of Sarah on our big bed in California? Well here it is once again compared with our bed here in Sevilla.

And here I am giving you an idea of how I fit on each bed.

Rayas has been super happy that we are back home. She fights the cold by constantly wanting to be laying and sleeping on top of us.

We got together with friends at our house to celebrate Rachel's (in the middle) birthday. She is doing the same thing that Wesley and Emma (on the left side) are doing....helping teach English at schools. It all started with a good ol' fashion pizza party.

Then the girls fixed each other up in the bathroom.

And the guys played Angry Birds on the computer. Wesley and I were able to get the Spaniards, Martín and Kike, hooked on the game pretty quickly.

The night ended with us getting our dance on at a discoteca. The Teagues took pictures but I am pretty sure they are all too embarrassing to post.

We hosted another super nice couchsurfing couple. We had the privilege of being their first couch surfing experience! Sezen (on the left) is from Turkey and Jochen is from Germany.
They gifted us a sweet plant.

We also finally got to visit out new friends Andy and Jaime's house. They invited us over for some delicious Mexican food. They live in an amazing area of town where almost all the streets are called kissing streets (being that the buildings are so close together.) The best part about the whole setup is that they have a huge rooftop patio all to themselves. Jaime is going to have her baby here in Spain in a few months!!

The view from their front door.

We took a trip to the Sevilla airport with friends Pablo and Cristina. They showed us the spot where you can stand and watch the planes fly right over your heads.

There was a lot of waiting but we had fun with pictures.

Unfortunately we didn't see any landing (which would have flown closer over our heads) but I was able to get a shot with my zoom lens of one of the planes taking off.

We promised them pancakes.
So a week later we had them over for their first American pancake breakfast.

Pablo makes his first flip.

For Valentines Day weekend, we headed over to our church for a romantic dinner with other couples from the church.

We loved the salad served in the pineapple.

We got to know some couples that we had never officially met so it was a great night. Sarah even got to sit next to the Spanish Zooey Deschanel! The food was phenomenal!

On actual Valentines Day, after a morning at the school, we headed over to the Spa at Hotel Melia once again. It was sooo nice to just relax and enjoy the jacuzzi. Sarah can barely fit in our bathtub and I don't even try, and our hot water heat only provides enough water for half of an American shower. In the evening we had a movie night with the students. I "hired" a few of the musical guys that have been working on some stuff together to sing a song for Sarah. They are hoping to take there show to the street to earn some extra money.

We have our tickets for our flight back to California on July 16th! We were able to use our points to by the flights. But since their was no availability in the economy class we had to bump up to Buisness class! (Thanks to Mark and Vicki for sharing their points) So we are pretty excited about that. It is also going to help a lot with the massive amount of luggage and cat we will have. Rayas is going to be riding with us on the plane the whooooole way.
Check out these seats! And yes .......it is a massage chair if you were wondering.

there and back again

2011-01-16T00:55:00.000-08:00

Well, like usual, we didn't have time to go around and take pictures of the Christmas lights in Sevilla like we promised before we got on the plane, but you can go check out some really nice pictures on our neighbors, the Teagues, blog HERE.

Our time in California came and went so quickly. It seems like it always feels like we will have a lot of time at the beginning, but before we know it we are getting ready to fly back. My camera was in need of some repair so we didn't take as many photos as we would have liked. So now we are back in Sevilla and remembering all the things we really enjoyed while we were home.

One thing we always miss is of course being our HUGE bed!
Look how tiny Sarah is!

and (good) Mexican Food!

Other foods we indulged in that we can't get in Sevilla.....

-In & Out (Thanks Mark and Vicki! - first meal we ate off the plane)
-Taco Bell
-My mom's Enchilada Casserole (with applesauce of course)
-Tri-Tip (Thanks Gma Duyst!)
-Aunt Claire's Ravioli
-Geta Express
-Quiznos
-more Taco Bell
-Me n Eds pizza (Thanks Ashley and Scott!)
-Grandma Bentley's famous breakfast casserole
-BBQ Chicken (thanks Adam and Tiffany!)
-More Mexican Food (thanks Jason and Aaryn!)
-Bagels (Thanks Bruce and Rhonda!)

Most of all we enjoyed.....FAMILY!

and Boo Boo (before)

Boo Boo (after) got another owie on his face
He had to wear a cone this same time last year.

Note: I also REALLY missed my dog Reggie (not pictured)

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed the beautiful weather in Monterey and rode a surrey along the ocean. It was way more of a workout than any of us thought it would be but lots of fun!

Of course we had to stop at Ghirardelli's afterwards for some amazing Hot Chocolate.

Family Photo!

We really enjoyed being back in Hanford too. It was so nice to be close to family and friends. It almost made us not want to leave for Spain again.

All the Bentley cousins in front of Grandma's house for Christmas

On New Years Eve we got together to celebrate Grandpa Duyst's 80th birthday. Grandma had been planning the event all year and it was great to see everything come together. This picture was taken at the end after all Grandpa's friends had left. It didn't quite make the transition to a New Years party but we had watched the ball drop earlier live in New York.

I was in charge of cooking the Tri-Tip.
I had never cooked 6 at a time so I was pretty nervous.
We had an assembly line going to prepare the plates for all the guests.

It was fun to Skype with our neighbors from Spain, the Teagues, while they were visiting family in Alabama. We had gotten used to seeing a lot of them since they moved next door so we really missed them.

After spending countless hours working with Scott and Ashley, we were finally able to finish the super shiny and difficult Star Wars puzzle that Scott got during Christmas Bingo.

We found time during our visit to do a little work on my mom's hall bathroom.
It was in need of some repair and a new floor.

There was a slow leak in the wall behind the shower so some drywall had to be replaced. We also found old termite damage and lots of ant living inside.

New tile!

New toilet! It's two inches taller than the old one. Sarah wasn't happy to find that her heels no longer touch the ground but it's perfect for me.

It was the least we could do for my mom letting us stay in her house and eat her food.
Thanks mom!

Since time ran out so quickly during our visit and we were busy with projects, we didn't get to see everyone we wanted this time around, but we will be coming back for good in July!

Until then...we have been busy getting things ready at the school
and the students arrive tomorrow!!
We are hopeful for a great last semester!

Home, Wood, Food, Tuna!

2010-12-08T04:50:00.000-08:00

Hello friends and family! We haven't been too inspired to post lately (for lack of material). But we wanted to catch everyone up until we come to California for the holidays. We have been fairly busy here but also we have been taking the time to enjoy the city. Their are lots of little special events that happen around this season so we have been enjoying some of the traditional Spanish fiestas. But of course we are excited to be back in California soon! We will land in San Francisco on the night of the 18th!
Our American neighbors and good friends, the Teagues, lucked out and had someone contact them about renting their apartment during the holidays while they are back in the states. We figured we would advertise our place and see if anyone would want to do the same with us. So after some cleaning and de-cluttering we snapped some pictures of our apartment. It has been awhile since we have posted any pictures of it so here we go!

We recently bought a rug for the salón. Rayas really appreciates it and it helps a little with the cold.

The front door with the stairs going up to the loft.

We bought the baby oven and put up spice racks in the kitchen. Sarah really likes the coffee station.

The curtains that we hung for the loft.

We use this picture on our couchsurfing profile to show people where they will be sleeping.

We have improved this bed a little with bed risers (thanks mom Lyftogt!) and some extra padding from Ikea. Still is nothing compared to our amazing Cal King in California. We grew some grass in the window for Rayas to eat.

New shower curtain and rugs (from Walmart). Spain's stuff costs twice as much.

Great for multi-tasking!

The patio

Word got around about my carpenter skills, and since nothing is made out of wood here people are afraid to work with it, so they called me. Marcos, our Cuban youth pastor friend, wanted a stage built in his youth room at the Baptist Church in town. The framing is made up of 3 raggedy wooden pallets.

Then one of the maintenance guys from the church asked if I could repair some old pews for them. He showed me the pew graveyard and I was able to scrap and glue a couple together. I was really interested in the organs I found in the back but they seem a little too far gone.

Sarah has been busy at the school but she also found time to host a merienda time (like coffee time) with our friends. The Spaniards always get really excited about American style treats because Spanish treats never taste as good as they look.

Brownies, Snickerdoodle cupcakes, banana bread, and there was a carrot cake!

This doesn't happen often, but it makes us feel at home.

Sarah was in charge of making apple pies for this years school staff Thanksgiving.

It was a big hit, but people were too full to dig into the other one.
I was happy we got to take it home.

We actually got to eat 3 Thanksgiving meals this year. On Thanksgiving day we ate with the entire school at a cuban restaurant Azucar de Cuba, who does a pretty good job with the food every year. Then on Saturday we ate together as the school staff. Then on Sunday we headed over to friend and coworker Ana Bello's house. I was definitely thankful that Spaniards embrace the Thanksgiving eating traditions.

Last night we headed out behind the catherdral to watch the Tuna bands sing to the statue of the virgin Mary to celebrate her immaculate conception. Wierd huh?

I don't know where they get the idea that Mary was immaculately conceived, but the music is fun. When it started to rain heavily we could't help but think it was a sign from God that he did not approve of the festivity. Once the umbrellas went up, we couldn't really see anything.

Different Tuna groups take turns singing to the statue, so when they are not there, they are singing in other parts of the city. We followed this group into our favorite little plaza for a more intimate show.

Lots of cool stringed instruments, good harmonies, and a guy dancing with a flag.

What is a tuna band you may ask. All I have heard is that they come from different departments in the local universities. I found this description from www.huntinspain.com which I really enjoyed.

The tuna is a consummately Spanish concept, which of course makes it virtually impossible to explain. Essentially, a tuna is a roving band of semi-professional musicians and singers, hardcore partiers, would-be womanizers (though a lot actually have steady girlfriends) and small-time con artists who dress up in costumes that date from the seventeenth century — black shirts with puffed sleeves, breeches and huge capes decorated with patches from various conferences and concerts and ribbons. Each patch supposedly represents the love of a chica.
Most of their songs are about women, drinking or being from a certain region of Spain (or Portugal or Latin America, as the case may be). About half are minor-key laments; the other half are up-tempo dance numbers, and there’s a handful of songs that are both or a mixture of the two.

It seems that most of the songs sung on this night were respectful songs to the Virgin Mary. My favorite part of the night was when one of the Tuna broke out into a (most likely inappropriate) song about a girl. People were starting to sing along but then another Tuna made him stop. He was pointing upward at the windows of the convent next door. I guess he knew that the nuns would not approve.

We hope to take some pictures of the Christmas lights around the city so that will mean one more blog post before we are in California!

Video clips from "Noche entre amigos"!

2010-11-09T01:51:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

Thought you would enjoy seeing a couple video clips from when we played at "Noche entre amigos" at the Baptist Church, here in Sevilla. We had a great time playing these 2 songs with our neighbor Wesley!

I Saw the Light

If Not for You

Friends, Kitties, and Fiesta

2010-11-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

A lot of our post are mostly about the trips we take, but we know its about time that we updated everyone a little bit about life here in Sevilla and it's about time we introduce you to our new friends Wesley and Emma.
We came into contact by email through friends of friends of friends as we were helping them with information about apartments in Sevilla. They got jobs to teach English in a pueblo outside of Sevilla but wanted to live in the centro like us. After a million (according to Wesley) emails we finally realized that they were finally in Sevilla and staying in a hostal until they found an apartment. We decided to invite them over to dinner to see if we could help them out at all....and then they didn't leave till 7 days later.

Here is Wesley demonstrating his nifty travel hammock off our loft.

It's fun for us that the apartment that they ended up in is in the same building as us, across the way and one floor up. Wesley is from Alabama and Emma is from Texas. They have been married for about 2 months now. Check out their blog HERE. They are also really good photographers. You can see their work HERE.
This is what we get to see from our door every day.

Sarah and I also decided to finally take the dive into pet ownership. After coming into contact with a good cat shelter, we made a visit and fell in love with Rayas. She was by far the most loving of all the cats that we met there.

About a week later after she had been checked out at the Vet, she got delivered to our door. We had to do a little bit of work on the apartment to kitty proof it, but she is at home now.

Emma likes to come over to visit her.

This has become her favorite place to sleep during the day.
We'll see what the couchsurfers think about it.

We were really excited with the news that Plaza España had finally be finished after years of restoration. We had always heard stories of how the moat around the plaza was once filled with water and you could rent row boats to float around in but it was empty even since Sarah was a student in 2006. We met up there with a few friends but unfortunately the boats had already closed down for the day. It was still just really fun to see it all restored to its original beauty.

Did you know a scene from Star Wars episode II was filmed here?

We also want to share about where we have been going to church on Sunday mornings. For a couple months now we have been leading at a church in the pueblo of Bormujos called Comunidad Aljirafe. You can check out their blog HERE. It has been fun for us to put together worship sets of all Spanish songs.

David Acton, on the right, is the church planter. He is originally from Miami, but along with his wife and 4 kids, also planted a church in Germany while living there for about 15 years. They were then called to Sevilla and have been here for about 4 years. Hendrik, on the left, is here with his wife as missionaries. They are both from German but crazy enough, I recognized his wife Maggie from when she went to college at Fresno Pacific University at the same time as me.

Here is another German from Wittenberg named Albrecht. He has recently moved to Sevilla with his wife Francesca to study. He has been playing percussion with us on Sunday mornings and even started helping us on Wednesday nights with our time of worship with the students. It is fun to talk to him because his Spanish is better than his English, so since we are both still learning Spanish we often have to get creative in how we communicate.

Here is a shot of the church building filling up. On some days the room gets pretty packed.

A few nights ago we headed over to Noche Entre Amigos (or night among friends) at the Baptist Church in Sevilla Este (the far other side of town from where we live) to play a few songs. It is the church were are good Cuban friend Marcos (which you can see in earlier posts) is the youth pastor. On the last Saturday night of each month Marcos asks a few bands to come and share some music. Wesley joined us to help bust out some 3 part harmonies on a rendition of Hank Williams "I saw the light" and then Sarah and I sang a romantic diddy by Bob Dylan called "If Not For You." The people seemed to really enjoy it, especially because it is a different kind of music that they usually see live. I was really happy to be able to bust out my mandolin.

Here is a picture of the little Halloween party we had at the school on Friday.

Sarah and I found a sweet thrift store (which until now we didn't think existed in Sevilla) to put together some pirate costumes.

Last night we had a little Halloween fiesta at our house. We couldn't get any Spaniards to go, something about dressing up and carving pumpkins makes them nervous. But we had a great time carving pumpkins and eating.

Theresa, another German friend, made some delicious pumpkin soup for everyone.

Sarah and I stuck with the pirate theme for costumes and pumpkin.

El Fin!

Granada!

2010-10-20T01:26:00.000-07:00

It is hard to imagine that the trip to Granada almost didn't happen. As Sarah and I were looking at our finances, it just didn't seem smart. Our hopes were rekindled when the professors gave us money for tickets to get into the Alhambra for my birthday. But there was still the concern for paying for a hostel and as we were looking at prices online it was not looking good. The decision was made when our friend Cecilia told us that we could stay in her husbands apartment. Her husband Enrique recently got the apartment in Granada for his new job. Not only were we going to be able to stay there for our whole stay, but Cecilia would be there for a couple days too.

Since we only had one night together before they headed to Sevilla,we had to go out.
Enrique and Cecilia took us on a paseo through the city.
They are amazing people!

The city is full of beautiful fountains. In the middle section you can see big pomegranates as part of the design. Granada is Spanish for pomegranate!

We love cities that are made for walking.

Sarah and Cecilia stop to smell some of the teas from Africa.

The cathedral looked pretty impressive from the outside.
We didn't get the chance to go inside of this one.

We found a nice tapas restaurant to sit down and relax. Notice the "pulpo gallego" on the table. It is octopus prepared in the style of the Northern Spain, Galicia area.

Sarah had a hard time with the texture.

Something told us not to eat here.

Christopher Columbus monument.

As we were walking towards the older area of town, called the Albayzín. We discovered a fairy tale kitty haven below the roadway.

Oh No!

Sarah wanted to find a way down to pet them.

The Alhambra was looking down on us.

We printed out a walking tour off of National Geographic website so we stared to follow the map.

The Alhambra was coming into better view as we climbed.

I put the long lens on the camera to get a shot at some of the people taking picture in our direction. These people are "inside" the Alhambra taking the tour.

Tiny Streets!

Gummy Bear break!

There she is! This is the view from the famous mirador Plaza San Nicholas.

On the way down we were digging the old houses and the architecture.

The street was a lot of fun and seemed to be the main street of the Albayzín.

We found "not so busy and touristy" coffee house and ordered some Pakistani tea and a gofre to share. What is a gofre, you may ask? Imagine a waffle with a scoop of ice cream, banana chunks, whip cream, and chocolate on top. Delicious!

We went back up to the Plaza San Nicholas to get a night shot of the Alhambra.
Photos don't really do it justice.

The next day we decided on a whim to head over to Granada's Parque de Las Ciencias.
Einstein was hanging out in front.

There was some cool exhibits, more directed to children, but we had a good time with it.

I think there was suppose to be ants in the bubble.

California?!? tsk tsk tsk

My little astronaut.

We also went inside their planetarium, which we both fell asleep in for small periods of time. We heard a loud noise on the dome and realized that it had started to rain like crazy outside. But once the rain stopped we headed out to climb up the observation tower.

There was a great view of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Yes, there are Sierra Nevadas here too.

The next day we headed back into the Albayzín to make our way up to the Alhambra.
Notice Sarah's "I want kitty" face.

The road up to the Alhambra was steep! Notice how crazy the bench looks.

I don't think we were supposed to enter in here, but it was open.
So we entered into the Puerta de Justicia.

We had time before our "appointed time" to enter into the Alhambra so we wandered around the Generalife, which is another palace right next door. We managed to balance the camera on some shrubbery to get this picture.

Patio de la Acequia

Imagine making this rock by rock.

It was finally time to enter into the Alhambra, so we got in line a filed in. It is amazing that so many people want to visit the Alhambra that they have to only allow a certain number to enter in every hour. You have to book your tickets in advance because it will sell out before your day to go. I still thought they let too many people in at a time and it made it difficult to take pictures.

The Alhambra is most famous for its intricate carvings and Islamic architecture.

They used lots of fountains and moving water to keep rooms cooler.

Unfortunately the famous, Court of the Lions was in the middle of some restoration. They had removed all of the lions and were fixing the water system. All of the lions were being displayed "fully restored" in another area, but photos were strictly prohibited.

When we got to the lookout point of the Alhambra (which I took a picture with my big lens earlier from the plaza) I put the big lens on to take a picture the other direction. So here is a picture of the Plaza San Nicholas.

This buildings call the Partal. Notice the punk kid in the red jacket.

We had some lady take a picture of us.
She was really nervous with the camera so the picture didn't turn out real clear.

Looking out at the city at sunset from the Alcazaba.
(right before we got kicked out by the guys who were closing up)

Thanks again to Enrique and Cecilia for letting us stay at their apartment.
Wall to wall accommodations! It was an amazing trip!

My birthday and U2!

2010-10-10T02:52:00.000-07:00

I know its a week late but last week was a little bit busy for us, so here is the post many people have been asking about.

On my Birthday Sarah made me chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. My plan was to stay home all morning and be lazy but she convinced me to come to the school while she had to work on some things. Towards the end of the morning, Sarah told me that one of the blinds in the teachers lounge fell down and they needed someone tall to fix. The rest of the staff were waiting inside to surprise me with a little birthday fiesta.

The staff all pitched in to get me the book Tales of The Alhambra by Washington Irving and enough change(literally a box of coins) for Sarah and I to buy two entrances to the Alhambra in Granada. (We just got into Granada last night and I am taking advantage of the lazy morning to do this post) We are staying with good friends Cecilia and Enrique. Cecilia was my first professor here in Spain and her husband is here working in Granada for awhile. Sarah has been here before when she was a student but is excited to see it all again. We are scheduled to go see inside the Alhambra on Tuesday night!

Thanks again everyone!

The Huelga (strike) took place as planned but didn't seem to be as effective as everyone had hoped. Many stores closed only while the people were marching down the main street. There were reports that some groups of people were harassing workers in banks and stores later in the day but nothing too serious. The lack of public transportation was probably the biggest problem in the city.

That night we had another big bbq on our roof. Actually I think it was our biggest one yet. Our hamburgers with pineapple are getting famous here.

Sarah set up a "good ol' fashion" game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. The Spaniards got a kick out of it. This is a picture of Aaron, our pastor's son, giving it his best shot.

Here is Cecilia getting prepped to go.

I got pretty darn close. Pit Stains!

Jonathan played guitar while everyone sang happy birthday in English. It was hilarious.
Sarah baked yummy cupcakes for everyone. (6 at a time)

The next day I headed over to the Olympic Stadium at noon to get in line for the U2 concert. Everyone with General admission tickets wanted to be let in first so that they could get the closest to the stage. Even though I got there at 12pm (5 hours early) there were already about 1,200 people waiting in line. Many of them lighting up cigarettes every 10 minutes. I have seriously never inhaled so much second hand smoke in my life and have never hated smoking so much as I do now (I have been sick since). Sarah joined me at 3pm and they started letting us in at 5pm. We didn't take any pictures because it wasn't something we really wanted to remember. As we were moving forward, they kept everyone calm until we got to the front of the stadium. At that point it was a race for who could run across the stadium and up to the stage the fastest. Sarah and I managed to get a spot about 15 feet from the stage.

After three hours of waiting there, we were well acquainted with the people around us. These are a group of guys that all work for the Guardia Civil at the Sevilla airport. They were a lot of fun. One of them kept buying beers and would not let me refuse to take the first few sips.

The opening band was Interpol. I have seen them before in concert. They have a darker sound calling back to some 80's music and I really enjoy how they weave their guitar parts together.

After their set some lucky stage crew member got the job of fixing one of the LED panels.

The crowd watched and cheered him on as he made progress. This picture also gives you an idea of how many people were behind us.

This gives you an idea of how high up he was. Can you see him in the middle of the red panels?

After much anticipation, U2 came on the stage.

It was great to hear all the Spaniards sing along.

Sarah and I were singing at the top of our lungs with our favorites.

Bono is a great showman.

I wish I could have gotten a closer look at the Edge's guitar setup. He switched guitars every song and his pedal board was HUGE.

Bono and the Edge on the walkway in the middle of the crowd. (behind us)

I was amazed at how many times Adam switched the bass he was playing

Sarah and I thought this girl was going to try to kiss Bono.

The stage and light set-up was amazing!

Larry held it down

Sarah even cried during "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" it was so amazing!

We snapped this on our way out. They had immediately started taking apart the stage to move it to the next gig.

Here are some videos that we took.

First a view of the stadium

Bono going over our heads on the bridge.

It's Alright!

2010-09-21T04:17:00.000-07:00

So Sarah always gets mad at me for posting random photos of her so I decided to post this picture of yours truly from this semesters trip to Cordoba. Sarah snapped it in the Torre de la Calahorra while we were on our audio tour of the museum. This is the THIRD time we were in the museum so the smile is really only for the picture.
We were really happy to see the return of the Feria de las Naciones this year. It comes to the park El Prado and stays for almost a month! The shot of lady liberty is for Cory, Annie, and Bee.

We met up with our Cuban friends Marcos and Delmis on Friday night to enjoy the fair.

There are representatives from all kinds of countries selling goodies that are typical to their area.

I forgot which countries booth this came from but I don´t think it originated there.

What we were all most excited about was the different varieties of food.

Marcos, of course, was drawn to the Cuban booth.

Sarah and I, of course, were very tempted to eat at the Mexican booth

There was much to choose from and as the dinner hour was aproaching the lines were only getting longer.

So we decided on the Dominican Republic food. It is what we ate last year but it was so good we needed to come back for more.

The Australian booth next door made us laugh. I won´t even show you the picture of the American booth (too embarassing and a bad representation).

We all decided that we had made the right choice.

On stage their was a group of musicians from Brazil. Two of the guys set the drums down to demonstrate their Capoeira skills. This guy had amazing body control.

Saturday night we headed out to one of our favorite areas of town, La Alameda. They were having their annual Alamedeando festival where different concerts take place in the middle of the plaza and in some of the bars around it. We mostly came for the food and to take place in Tapeando. During this event each restaurant has their special tapa at a good price, and it comes with a free drink!

Our first stop was called something Cerveceria International. Not the best name and the building didn´t look to inviting but the table outside had fun ikea lanterns.

We were drawn to the calabacin dish they had listed and we were not disappointed. Calabacin is kind of like zucchini and the Spaniards do amazing things with it.

This is the view from our table. The streets had a great atmosphere and it seemed like everyone was out.

Our next stop was a little further off the normal path but I have been wanting to try it. La Estraza is a rock n´roll themed tapas bar.

We went with our new friend Rachel, who went through the Semester in Spain program after Sarah and has now come back to teach English.

This dish as well did not disappoint. We didn´t really know what to expect but I was definitely pleased with the outcome. I had no idea they made ribs this good in Spain.

The bar had a really fun atmosphere and cool artwork. The guy with the orange pants kind of gives you an idea of what people who live in La Alameda are like.

Heres the view from the front door.

We had so much fun on Saturday night that, after church on Sunday we walked the short distance over to the Alameda to enjoy the last night of Alamedeando. This time we were joined by Kike and Martín. After enjoying the cheap beverages being served in the plaza we decided to just grab some pizza and eat it there out in the open. I was trying to teach them the significance of "10-4" and "over" but I don´t think it translates into Spanish.

Back at it

2010-09-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

We are just beginning our second week back at the school and its beginning to feel like we never left. Summer in California seems so far away and we miss everyone a lot. But here we have another great group of students and we are enjoying getting to know them and building relationships. There is also a lot going on in the city to keep us busy.

A few days after our return we saw the first stage of the 3 week bicycle race called La Vuelta start in Sevilla. They were doing time trials so all of the teams rode together through the city. The finish line was a few blocks from our house so we got to see some of the action.

We enjoyed seeing Leslie's daughter, Sophia, again after the summer. It seems like she has grown a lot and she is talking a lot more. She came out to hang with the girls on Noche de Chicas while they were out on paddleboats.

This last weekend we were filling the need to get out of the city and friend Nadine invited us to take an adventure out into the campo. We were looking forward to hanging out with our old friend Alfie again.

Nadine's friend Alexis, from the UK but also living in Sevilla, came along as well. We found a nice spot along a reservoir and ate our packed lunches in the shade.

Can you see me?

This was Alfie's first time out of the city so he was having a blast playing fetch with Nadine.

I tried to get him to play in the water but he was not having it.

We found some good skipping rocks.

Then we went swimming. The water was amazing.

Living in the middle of the city always makes us forget how close the wild is.....just a short car ride out of town. Sitting by the water with the hills around us made us feel like we were by Lake Kaweah or something. It's amazing how close the landscape was to California. We are glad we have friends with cars that are willing to drive us places. Thanks Nadine!

Summer in California, Part II

2010-09-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

Just look at this steak! Amazing! We were very happy to hear that Fugazzi's had come back to Hanford and was doing well. We were fortunate enough to be able to eat there twice. It has always been one of our favorite restaurants in Visalia. When it came time to pick a place for our rehersal dinner before our wedding, Sarah knew exactly where she wanted to go.

Sarah's friend Shaffen has had her horse Ace for awhile now and Sarah made it a priority to go over to ride. After Shaffen rode around for awhile she gave it over to Sarah who after a little warm up was looking like a natural again.

Afterwards we enjoyed some Jamba Juice to cool off.
This is another American thing that I think would sell great in Sevilla.

Another thing we made a priority this summer was to go slip n' sliding. Jason and Lyndsie Cradduck tracked down some tarp to use and we set up a nice slide in the park behind the Bruce´s house. (Thanks for the water!) It was a little better to slide on then the old vinyl signs Cory and I used to use but we just couldn't quite get the run long enough. Ted Trager and another friend joined us from Visalia for some good slidin' fun.

This did not end well

......for the both of us.

The dogs had a great time too. The Bruces' dog Dottie wasn't to sure about the Cradducks' dogs but they managed to get along. Cosby, the dachshund, was having the time of his life. He even when down the slide a couple times.

On Thursday night we made sure to head over to the Thursday Night Market Place in Hanford to enjoy the city and see who we ran into. We met up with my sister Ashley who was wanting to buy some local fruits. The weather was nice and a lot of people were out. We love Hanford!

We saw Marlene and Lyle Bruce and met their new little friend who they have been babysitting.

We also ran into old friend Kristian Bringard and for some reason none of the photos turned out. He told us that he was waiting for Stephen Abbas, who we wanted to see as well. Stephen was the photographer at our wedding and did an amazing job.

We were also fortunate enough to be in town while friends Chris and Emily Lewis had their second baby Malachi. We are super happy for them! Soo cute!

Unfortunately our last day in the Central Valley was on my mom's birthday. We made sure to stop into Fresno for her birthday lunch at The Cheescake Factory on our way up to Salinas.
It was hard to get a normal picture of my sister, mom, and Aunt Claire.

Grandma and Aunt Christina are a little difficult too.

But, of course, we had a great time and the food was amazing.
We ate so much that we were only able to split one piece of cheescake between the 7 of us.

We were put to work once we got to Salinas because we were helping out Mark and Vicki with the Teens Encounter Christ weekend at their church. Sarah and I have helped out with a lot of the TEC weekends in the Central Valley so we were happy to be a part (especially because we owed Mark big time for letting us use his car for 5 weeks). I was a small group leader and Sarah played bass in the band. It is a lot of work but it is always rewarding to see the students experience Jesus' love in new ways.

After all the work it was time to relax. We headed out to Monterey to enjoy some wine tasting and dinner looking out into the ocean.

Mark and I are still trying to decide if the wine in Monterey is better than the wine in Spain.

And now we are back in Spain! We didn´t have any problems with our flights and were able to sleep most of the way. We are still getting adjusted to the time and both of us are alittle sick with colds, but now the students are here and its time to get to work. Classes start next week! Remember that you can keep updated on Semester in Spain happenings at
http://www.facebook.com/SemesterInSpain
http://acentosis.blogspot.com

Thanks to all who spent time with us on our break! It was great to see you all. There are many that we wish we could have seen more of and some we were not able to see at all.
Come and visit us.....if not......see you at Christmas!

Summer in California, Part I

2010-08-10T23:19:00.000-07:00

Our first week in California carried with it a little bit of stress as we ran around Salinas taking care of fingerprints and doctor letters for our third attempt at getting a visa for Spain. We felt pretty good about everything this time, especially because our appointment wasn't on the day that we were flying out of the SF airport back to Spain. We planned to spend the day in SF so that after the appointment we could either celebrate a successful trip or just to make the drive worthwhile and enjoy the city.

After getting bad news from the consulate once again.....grrrr......we treated ourselves to a delicious lunch at the Cheesecake Factory on top of the Macys in Union Square. We weren't going to let visas ruin our day.

The next day we headed to Hanford to say hello to family and spend one night our big @$$ bed. Before we moved to Spain we managed to get our whole bedroom set in my old bedroom at my mom's. We REALLY miss the bed.

Then we headed down to Big Bear to spend the weekend with our friend's The Edens. They recently bought a sweet cabin by the lake and invited us to enjoy the weekend with them. It was great to be able to relax after the intense week before. We enjoyed "just sitting on the porch and watching the lake go by."

We ate lots of amazing food. Blake did the BBQ'n

They had kayaks that were once used for the show "Biggest Loser"

The weather was amazing.

On our way back north we stopped at our friends The Wiesmans. Sarah used to babysit for them when she went to school at Azusa and the boys Jason and Andrew were the candle lighters in our wedding. We ended up having so much fun swimming and making smores that we spent the night. Jason made us pancakes in the morning.

Back in Hanford we cooked up some amazing Tri-Tip. a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

I missed my mom and dog.

We wanted to make sure our old patio set was getting some use.
After a year in Spain it just feels right to eat dinner outside.

Then we head up near Dinkey Creek for some camping with my dad and step-mom. We were excited to bring out our old tent and air matress.

It was nice to have my dad's big trailer around for the kitchen and bathroom.
My sister Ashley and brother-in-law Scott brought their two dogs along for some extra entertainment.

Charlie really enjoyed the water.

We passed the days relaxing and exploring.
Sarah and I went on a couple adventurous bike rides.

Dinkey Creek

Parts of the river were way too crowded for us.

Rummikub!

For cousin Grace's birthday we went out to La Fiesta.

Man did I miss Mexican food. A beef taco, enchilada, and a tamale with rice and beans.
Heaven on a hot plate.

We have really enjoyed catching up with all of our old friends in Hanford.
Adam and Tiffany's kids are getting so big!

Adam made some amazing BBQ chicken for us.

Moira taught me how to take better pictures.

Grandma Duyst's project for the summer is to re-do her bedroom

It took forever to get all the wallpaper off!

Almost there! New furniture coming soon. Check out the wood floor.

We invited Alex (aka The German) over to swim and my dad's house.
We had to try out our new floater that we were going to use later on the river.

Then some of Sarah's friends came over for a Spanish craft. Alex joined in and we all painted some Spanish fans to battle the summer heat.

That night we headed to the Hanford Civic Auditorium to see the second part of Murder at Four Deuces. Lots of people from our church were part of the production so it was fun to see them in action. All of the proceeds went to help The Wish Project International bring water wells and health clinics to Uganda. Our friend Tim Harrison and his wife Kim started the organization after we returned home from a powerful trip to Uganda last year. The show was a lot of fun!

After church on Sunday we did a nice relaxing float down the Kings River.
Our floater that we had bought was called the Tropical Turtle Island.
It was perfect for the two of us.

Friends Jason and Lyndsie joined us. Lyndsie is somehow related to me.
Both are a lot of fun.

The German also had a great time.

Jason let us try out his scooter that he was getting ready to sell. Sarah and I would really like to buy one in Spain but we don't reeeaaaaallllyy need it. They are a lot of fun. Maybe in a year when we move back to Hanford.

That's about it for now. Look out for Summer in California, Part II!

One more week of Spain

2010-07-28T23:02:00.001-07:00

So we have been in California for almost two weeks now and things are finally starting to calm down. Before we show you what we have been up to, we want to share about our last week in Spain before coming home. Two very important events happened. Spain won the world cup and Sarah and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary.

Everyone had high hopes for the Spanish team at the beginning of the cup but after seeing them embarrass themselves a little on the field is was not looking so promising. But sure enough, they learned how to play together and score some goals and made it all the way to the end. We loved to watch the games at our apartment with the windows open and hear the whole neighborhood erupt when a goal was scored.

When the final match came, of course we could not watch the game alone. Since it was on a Sunday our church planned to watch the game on the projector screen right after the service. When Spain scored the goal no one could believe it. We made sure to get the reactions on tape.

After the game we had to head to Puerta Jerez to join everyone in the celebration. Here's a video of the excitement along the way.

Puerta Jerez is right by the Semester In Spain school.
There is supposed to be a fountain where the mountain of people is.

We only could handle the excitement for a few minutes until we headed back home. We only had one person accuse us of being Dutch while were walking around. We left the all night partying to the Spaniards. It was the first time ever that Spain has won the World Cup.

The next morning, for our two year anniversary we decided to check out a new camping spot on the beach of Mazagon. We did not want to deal with renting a car so we found a way to hop on a couple buses and make it to the campsite. The bus dropped us off right at the gate of Camping Doñana.

We felt like REAL campers walking in with all of our gear on our backs.

We are pretty sure we were the only ones without a car or trailer.

After we set up camp we headed down to the beach.

This beach, like many others along the Spanish coast, have the remnants of some sort of defensive tower on the waters edge.

Later that day we tried out our new butane camping stove that we bought before the trip. It is a little guy but I was impressed at how fast it heated things up. Our neighbors enjoyed watching us cook things while they sat outside their camper trailers.

Frito boats!
(for the record..the only fritos we could find were ham flavored)

The highlight of the trip was the horse ride at sunset. The place is right next door to the campsite. I am pretty sure Sarah is a horse whisperer.

It was very cool to be able to walk through the water with the horses. Sarah's horse was a little moody and always wanted to be in the back. I was able to slow mine down enough to get closer.

We were on the beach during the whole sunset. It was pretty unreal.

I was a little bummed that they don't have horses my size in Spain.

The next day we spent the whole day relaxing on the beach. On our last morning we attempted to make pancakes. When we put enough chocolate spread on them they tasted just fine.

We were sad to leave the beautiful weather and the beach but we knew we had to head back and get ready to leave for the U.S. We really hope to be able to camp there again.

Beach, Bikes, Birthdays, Baths, and BBQ's

2010-06-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

Well the summer heat finally arrived here in Sevilla and it looks like it is here to stay for awhile. We have a week and a half more with the students and then soon after we will be headed to the U.S. ourselves. It has been really great so far and we have been having lots of adventures.

Beginning on a sad note, we had to say goodbye once again to our good friends Gui and Leah. They (hopefully) are thinking about coming back to Sevilla one more time while we are here next year. We also hope to visit them in Brazil as well. Some adventures just aren't as fun without them. We rented a car and headed to one of southern Spain's top beaches, Zahara de los Atunes.
After the great day at the beach we invited them over to our apartment where our Turkish couchsurfer, who is a food and travel writer and also an amazing cook, made us some amazing Turkish food. We had a great time eating together on our rooftop.

An organization was making a gigantic pan of paella down the street to raise money for an orphanage in Haiti. Sarah and I found it after following the scent from our apartment.

We were going to share a plate but they gave us two anyways. It was delicious and we had a bunch left over to bring home.

We have also been enjoying some of the new bike paths along the river. We are getting a little attached to our bikes and now we want to fly them home with us. They have been really useful in exploring the city.

Tough guy bike pose

There was a free circus in the Alameda so we checked it out with our pastor and his family. The basis was two policewomen trying to secure the area for some politician to come and speak. There were some awkward parts but otherwise it was pretty entertaining.

Picture of the city from our rooftop.

We were invited by friends to a choir concert at a conservatory nearby. The choir was celebrating their 25th anniversary and this was the last night where all of the past members were invited to sing along with the present members. They sang in a beautiful patio in the middle of the conservatory.

After the concert everyone was surprised when a catering service started to bring out trays of food from the back. When people realized what was going on they got a little excited and the waiters wouldn't make it 5 feet before being mobbed and cleaned out. One waiter, especially tired of being attacked by one woman, surrendered an entire tray of appetizers to her just so she would get out of his way. Regardless of the mob we were able to have our fill of drinks, yummy hors d'oeuvres and gazpacho till we couldn't take any more.

We the pleasure of hosting some friends from Costa Rica, German and Lilliana, for a week. Sarah met them when she was studying in Costa Rica in 2003. Lilliana is the sister of Martín, who is the worship leader at Sunrise Community Church in Tulare and was part of our wedding. They treated us to lots of amazing food during their stay. In this picture we are eating some tapas in the famous Barrio Santa Cruz.

German, who is an amazing cook, also managed to make some great meals in our tiny kitchen.

The took us out to dinner on our last night together for Sarah's birthday. Our first stop was another restaurant in Barrio Santa Cruz where we enjoyed a pitcher of yummy Sangria.

Then we showed them one of our favorite restaurants in the Alameda called La Madraza. They gave Sarah a funny singing birthday card. We had a lot of fun with them and hope to see them in Costa Rica soon!

The staff at Acento threw a little birthday party for Sarah. They bought her a nice shirt for summer and also pitched in for our visit to the Arab baths.

For Sarah's birthday I had made reservations at the Baños Arabes (arab baths) for a hour and a half spent in the baths and a 30 minute massage. We also got to drink some really good tea.

You can check out the baths online here. Obviously we weren't worried about taking pictures while we were there. But needless to say it was amazing. Thanks to all who pitched in!

Later that day we had everyone over for a birthday BBQ. We are beginning to be famous for our "American style" BBQ's. We blew a few Spanish minds when we put pineapple on their burgers.

In this picture you can see Sarah in her pretty new birthday dress.

We had a lot of fun decorating the roof with lanterns. Otherwise it gets pretty dark at night. Thanks Ikea!

We were also celebrating our friend Kike's (Kee-kay) birthday.

For the last picture I will leave you with none other than one of Tom Cruise. He and Cameron Diaz were in town promoting their new movie Knight and Day, which was partly filmed in Sevilla. We went with the students to the cathedral where they were re-enacting some of the action scenes for the press. We are excited to watch the movie to see where we can recognize the city.

19 days until we are back in California!

'Ich bin ein Berliner!'

2010-06-16T00:59:00.000-07:00

It's about time Sarah and I write about our latest adventure to Berlin! We had been wanting to visit for awhile so we could visit my brother's girlfriend, Kira, while she was studying there. We finally found cheap enough flights through Ryanair (including a night sleeping on the ground of the London-Stanstead airport.)
Kira was nice enough to pick us up at the airport and took us to a wonderful breakfast cafe. We missed big breakfasts after only eating toast in Sevilla.
After the hearty meal we were ready for a tour.

Lego Giraffe! My favorite part is the girl looking at Sarah,
almost like she knew she was messing up the picture.

The weather was a little gloomy the first couple days.
It was way colder than what we were used to.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was very intense.
There were no markings or writings but it still spoke so much.

Brandenburg Gate.

This is one of the archives where Kira does a lot of her research.

Site of a massive book burning

Sarah needed a rest in front of the cathedral.

Museum Island behind us. We were beginning to realize that we had a lot to see!

The Spree river running behind the cathedral

For lunch Kira took us to a phenomenal burrito place that totally fulfilled our Chipotle craving. I was able to get habanero salsa on it, which also took care of my hot food craving. Sooo good.

Later that night, after we had a nice siesta at Kira's apartment, we continued our magical food journey to a famous hamburger joint called The Bird. We met Kira's friends from Las Vegas that were staying with her for a few weeks and also met some other Fulbright students who had become friends of Kira. Their burgers were amazing but I went with the patty melt because it had been too long since my last.

The public transportation was really great. We figured it out how to get around pretty fast.

After dinner we found our couchsurfers home in a different part of the city. They were a really nice couple named Andrea and Birk and had two cute cats.

They had an extra room for us which was huge.
The next day included a lot of rain, so we managed not to take any pictures. We met Kira at another great food place that served great pastas. That night we watch Iron Man 2 at the Imax.

The next day we began exploring on our own while Kira worked on research.
Fountains!

Everyone was enjoying the little bits of sun that shined through.

This kid got nailed by a stream of water right after this picture. It was almost like the fountain knew what it was doing. In the background it seemed like they were filming some sort of music video around the other fountain.

Someone scored some big points by carving a heart in the grass.

We went inside the Berlin Cathedral, which really isn't a cathedral. It's called the Berliner Dom and is actually a protestant church. The inside was very beautiful and very different than the cathedrals we had seen in Spain. We got a chance to hear the organist practice a little while we were inside.

Then we headed to the top to get some good views of the city.
It was pretty windy up there but it was beautiful.

Here's a good shot of the television tower.

Next we headed over to the Pergamon Museum. We only had time for one museum on the island so we picked the one that is most popular.

The Market Gate of Miletus

The Pergamon Altar

The sun was out so we took some time laying in the grass. This gave Sarah enough energy for a good jumping picture to make up for the last one.

Our couchsurfing hosts directed us on a short walk from their house to the East Side Gallery. Its a section of the Berlin wall that has been preserved to be used as a canvas for 100's of artists around the world.

They get updated or redone all the time.

My favorite was the Pink Floyd section.

Our last amazing food treat from Kira was some amazing kebabs at a little stand on the side of the road. They were by far the best kebabs we have ever had. At this point we had to say goodbye to Kira as we were leaving early the next morning. We were so glad to have been able to see her while she was on our side of the ocean.

With a recommendation from Profesora Ana Llamazares at Acento,
we headed to the Jewish Museum. I loved the design of the structure and it was one of the most interesting and interactive museums I have ever been in. To enter into the building, you have to enter the building next door and take an underground stairway.

Mmmmmm... kosher gummi bears.

Not exactly sure what the meaning of this was.

But who doesn't appreciate a good mustache

There were lots of somber parts as well.

Lot of powerful stories

After the museum we headed to the market to buy some food supplies to make dinner for our gracious couchsurfing hosts on our last night together. We decided on our gourmet mac and cheese recipe. They seemed like they really liked it.

In the morning we were off to London. We decided on the way home we would spend one night in London in a hostal and enjoy the city for a day. I enjoyed using the big lens for my camera to see the people riding the London Eye.

Sarah loves Big Ben

Thames

The next day we had to return to the British Museum because when we were there with the Africa team we had very little time to see everything. Most of all we wanted to see the Rosetta Stone, which we had completely missed last time.

We spent the last part of our time in London enjoying the atmosphere at the Convent Garden market. Their was a street performer whose bit was to escape from a straitjacket. After we saw him painfully pop his shoulder out so he could escape, we thought he deserved a couple pounds.

We will post more about our summer in Sevilla soon.

Spring 2010 has come and gone....

2010-05-31T03:31:00.000-07:00

Its always a hard transition for me (Sarah) in between semesters.... I get so used to each group of kids that it is sad and weird when they are gone... the Spring group left on May 14. Now that the summer kids are here, I am having to write Summer 2010 on everything instead of Spring 2010.... just another reminder that another semester has come and gone. I feel like time has never gone by so fast than it is now for us here in Spain. Maybe because we are just having too much fun!?!?!?

Here are photos and captions of what we've been up to over the semester.... our many apologies for not updating more often! Enjoy

"el mercado" or farmers market type place where we buy our fresh fruit, bread, chicken, eggs, etc! The fruit guy is married to the chicken lady. We love them. They give me free bananas to make banana bread :)

The biggest pizza I've ever seen with my own eyes!!! We went to Sevilla Este to spend time with some friends and they took us to this amazing pizza place....

La Carboneria, again, where we go often to see free flamenco! When we have couchsurfers we like to take them there... we have been having lots of surfers! Lately they have been from Australia, Singapore, Chicago, and Turkey!

The beginning of Semana Santa en Sevilla! Everyone dresses up to the nines... I tried to dress up, but still the Spaniards were notches above....

This "paso" or what we might call a float went by about a block and a half from our house!

We were fortunate to go with Spaniards who really know their stuff!! They took us to the best spots to see the "pasos" and gave us a bunch of background info. Cecilia was Jordan's professor for beginning classes 2 semesters ago, and Enrique is her husband. We love hanging out with them!

A view of the street along the side of the cathedral... you can get an idea of how many people were in the city!

This is one of our favorite views of Semana Santa! Cecilia and Enrique took us to this spot and said just wait until you see the "paso" with the tower in the background! It was incredible.

After we spent a full day of Semana Santa in Sevilla, we headed for Portugal! This time we went in bus instead of renting a car, it was a little less stressful :) This is Jordan in Tavira, the first city we couchsurfed this time! Although we had stayed with the same guy last time in the same tiny town that happens to be the octopus capital of Portugal... we even tried octopus this time! Not bad at all, we actually kind of liked it...

Then we headed to Lagos, where we spend time beaches just like this one and wandered the super cute downtown. We stayed with a super sweet couchsurfing couple right on the marina!

Then 2 weeks later..... my parents came to Sevilla! We took them to Barcelona right away and showed them our favorite sights that we scoped out last October... here mom and I are in Park Guell (designed by Gaudi)! P.S. We stayed with the same couchsurfers that Jordan and I stayed with in October as well... we love them!

Mom and dad admiring the "Sagrada Familia", Gaudi's famous church that has been under construction FOREVER.

After 3 days in Barcelona, we took them back to Sevilla (almost getting held up by volcanic ash!) Here dad and I are in the royal gardens or "Alcazar"

Mom and dad in the gardens

This is also part of the royal houses. This is Eloisa and Tiago, the couple from Portugal that we stayed with in Lagos. They came to visit Sevilla and we got to spend time with them here as well!

Then we took the parents to the cathedral and made them climb all the ramps up to the "Giralda" or famous tower that is part of the cathedral. There are amazing views from the top!

My host mom from when I was a student invited the parents over for lunch! Her name is Amparo, and her boyfriend's name is José :) They are some of the funniest people I know!

We also took them to the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum). It has one of my favorite plazas right out front!

Later we took them to El Parque María Luisa which is so beautiful and we had great weather! Couldn't help but sneak a quick kiss :)

Also there was a big festival going on in town called "Feria" which is kind of like a county fair with a section with rides and junk food and ferris wheels etc., but on the other side there are tents (called "Casetas") filled with people drinking and eating and dancing Sevillanas, a kind of flamenco! We went with my intercambio, Bea (front right), Gui and Leah (front left), Jesus (behind Bea) and Arturo (behind Jesus). Bea's dad works for Renfe, the train company here in Sevilla and his company has a "caseta" that they can invite people to. It was tons of fun!!

Later that week we went to a small village called Aracena! I had been there when I was a student, and it was fun going back with Jordan! We took a couple students with us. Aracena has caves that we took a tour through, ruins you can climb on, an old church, sweet little patios and tiles.... we had a great day!

A couple weeks later we went to Gibraltar! It is famous for its monkeys... they liked us.... I wanted to take them home :)

The last week of school and exams flew by! We had our final Encuentro (the worship night we do on Wednesdays). It was sad. I made them all tape paper to their backs and write each other notes. We played emotional music. It was like.... high school year book signing all over again....

Here is a view of the school Jordan took from up on an apartment building of a friend of a friend! We live in a beautiful city!! Hasta luego...

¡Summer!

2010-05-22T14:52:00.000-07:00

We realize that we have been really bad at keeping things up on this blog. Ever since I (Jordan) have been doing stuff for the school I haven't found much time for this blog, and Sarah has been busy with work. Another great semester has flown by and know we have been enjoying some time off before the summer students come next week. We will post about our trip to Berlin soon but for now we will just show you what the past few days have looked like. I promise that since I am not taking any class during the summer there will be more blog posts coming!

We just realized some of our friends have a community pool by their apartment building.
...and today we got to enjoy a beautiful beach near Cadiz with our good friends Gui and Leah. We are sad that they will be moving to Brazil soon.

Next week we will be back to work. I promise.

2010-03-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry we haven't posted in awhile. We haven't forgot about you all.
We still miss California.

randomness

2010-02-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

Well must apologize for lack of updates. Things have gotten real busy now since I have another blog to take care of. The blog for the program is up and running, you can find it HERE. We will be sticking most of the pictures from school excursions on that blog.

It is crazy that we are heading into the end of February already, it really feels like we have gotten in the groove of things and weeks are flying by.

This first picture is from a Staff dinner at Salva's (one of the professors) house. It was actually the first Spanish house we have been in because everything in the city is apartments. He lives in a quiet pueblo outside the city. Salva and his wife made all the ingredients for tacos. We had to show them how to put them together. The couple on the right is Stephanie - who was in Sarah's position when Sarah was going through the program (she came over with the students this semester), and Nick - who came and visited for awhile and check out Spain. On the left is Cecilia -who was my professor last semester, and her husband Enrique (great people)

Sarah and I are becoming more Spanish by perfecting our Spanish tortilla, basically eggs and potatoes. The new pan we bought made quiet the difference. This was by far the most beautiful tortilla española we have made.

This picture pretty much explains the weather lately. This has been one of the wettest winters in a long long time. Even though it makes things tougher we know it is good for the land. Just like the Central Valley, Southern Spain has been in a big period of drought.

This little cutie is Sophie. She is the 1 year old daughter of Leslie, the director of the school. We have started to hang out with her once in awhile while her parents get to go out.

We bought bikes!

One of the students really wanted to buy a cheap roadbike. Sarah and I found a posting online. Sarah called the guy. He had two. We bought both for a great price. We sold one of the bikes to the student for the semester and we will buy it back at the end. We felt Sevici (the public bikes we use) we a little bit limiting so we hope to do more exploring with these.

One of the churches in Sevilla asked Sarah if she could get a group together to take to their retreat center to help them fix up the place alittle. So early this morning we hopped on the train with a group of students and rode a little over an hour out of Sevilla to the campo (the country).

It was nice to be out in the fresh air away from the city for awhile.
We finally saw cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens in Spain. This is the picture of the retreat center. Five churches have come together and bought the area and they are slowly fixing it up hoping to be able to host bigger groups.

Right next to the center is the remnants of a old English steel factory. I really wanted to get in and explore but it was fenced in really well.

Our job for the day was to repaint one of the apartments of the center.

This is the before picture.

And here is the after. The color looked real interesting going up on the wall.

But it got better as it dried.

Señora vs. Horse
She was picking some plants in the pasture and the horse got a little to close for comfort. She pick up a stick and showed it who's boss. It was absolutely hilarious.

Our payment for the work was a nice Spanish meal. After eating we all went for a walk along the river. Lots of rain makes for a sweet waterfall.

The weather was perfect all day but now as I type this at home it is raining again. Pero no pasa nada because the plan tomorrow is to catch up on sleep until we go to church at 5.

New Year, New Semester, News

2010-01-28T03:43:00.000-08:00

Well, we are back in Sevilla and the new semester is almost through its first week of classes. Things are going really well, and again, we couldn't ask for a better group of kids.

First we want to back track a little about our time back in California. It was great to be with family for the holidays, spend time with friends, enjoy American comforts, sleep on our California King bed, and eat lots of Taco Bell and Mexican food.

The Bentley's got together on Christmas Eve's morning at Grandma Bentley's
for a yummy brunch.
(Thanks to Rick Duncan for the picture)

That night we enjoyed being with Epic Church again for their Christmas Eve service.
On Christmas day we went to Hanford CRC in the morning and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa Duysts house in the afternoon. Of course the time started with a competitive game of Bingo. Sarah's parents made it down from Salinas to celebrate with us.

A few days later Ashley and Scott treated us to a show at the Great American Melodrama & Vaudville in Oceano. They try to make it to a show at least once a year. We really enjoyed the show and the experience and definitely want to go again someday. We made sure to head over earlier in the day to eat some clam chowder at Splash Cafe and spend some time near the ocean.

For New Years we headed up to Sarah's friend Sally's (really nice) family cabin in Three Rivers. We had a good time playing silly games and eating lots of unhealthy snacks to bring in the New Year. We brought the tradition from Spain of eating 12 grapes as the clock strikes midnight for a prosperous year.

After saying goodbye to beloved Hanford, we headed up to Salinas to spend time with Sarah's family. We decided to head to the Monterey Aquarium one day. They had a special exhibit of sea horses. My favorite was the Leafy Sea Dragon.

Sarah's brother Caleb and his fiancee drove down from Auburn, and her sister Melissa flew over from Nashville to spend a late Christmas together.

Boo Boo kept us highly entertained. He had to wear a cone for a few weeks while a wound was healing on his face. He didn't let it stop him from playing in the wrapping paper.

The next day we headed to Monterey again to ride tandem bikes along the coast. Sarah and I are hoping when we move back to the US, we can just have one of these for transportation.
Our time ended in California and, after another rough experience at the Spanish Consulate, we flew back to Spain. It was a rough itnerary with layovers in Frankfurt and Barcelona. We got to spend our year and a half anniversary in all three! We were glad to get to Sevilla early enough to get back on the sleeping schedule before the students arrived.

Sarah and I felt a lot more confident this time around, this being our second time.

Friends Martín and Enrique once again gave the students walking tours around the city to see all the major landmarks. They have done it many times.

The students had a good time at the pizza dinner.

We had all the boys at our house for Noche de Chicos. We had a good time making fun of those who stepped up to play Wii Fit. It was the most amount of people we have had in our apartment yet.

Then we headed to Serranitos for some cheap Spanish food.

So things are going well. Some good new is that I accepted some responsibilities in helping Semester in Spain's marketing department in keeping up a facebook, twitter, and blog for them and being a little more intentional about my photography. In exchange Trinity will provide my own two flights between here and the states. Which means Sarah and I are able to come home this summer and for Christmas!

So that is all for now.

All the bad things said about traveling during the holidays are true.

2010-01-16T03:31:00.000-08:00

Well, we are back in Sevilla getting settled back into the Spanish lifestyle. We had a great time back in the States with our family and friends. It all seemed to go by so fast. We will post about that later, but for now......a story.

Spain did not let us return home so easily for Christmas. We found ourselves running into problems almost every step of the way. Our flight was scheduled for Dec. 21st to leave in the morning to Madrid, then from Madrid to Dallas, then Dallas to Fresno to arrive the night of the 21st. It all seemed so perfect. We reached the airport early in the morning thanks to a ride from Leslie the director of Acento, who was kind enough to drive back to the airport a second time when she found Sarah's wallet on the floor of her car. We met up with Julie Ann, who was leaving Sevilla for possibly the last time. As we neared the front of the Iberia check-in line we began to hear rumors of snow in Madrid (which is rare). The Iberia check-in counter gave us our tickets for our flight and everything seemed OK, but before we could even reach security we saw one of our students walking out of the gate area. She asked us if we were on the same flight as her. She had already been at the gate and was told that it was canceled. We couldn't help but think that the flight was probably canceled before the lady had given us our tickets (really!?!).

We got back in line to try again. They asked if we want to wait till the next day (which in hindsight we should have done right then and there) or get on the next available flight. We did not want to deal with taking all our massive amounts of luggage back home for the night and having to say goodbye to people again so we got tickets on the next available flight, which would still give us enough time to still make it on our flight to Dallas. We made it all the way to the gate and waited.....and waited. Then were notified of a gate change. Everyone quickly moved to the next gate. We waited awhile more then were finally informed on the screens that the flight was canceled. Everyone rushed back to the check-in counter for another go.

People were really losing their patience now and the amount of people who wanted to fly to Madrid was growing, making the situation all the more intense. The line was moving especially slow this time because everyone had to be rerouted, so we when we finally got to the front we were not happy to find out that they could not help us and we had to go wait in the line at the ticket counter. We headed that direction across the terminal and after finally getting to the front of line were told that they also could not help us but only the lady at the check-in counter could reroute us.

As our anger was growing we began to see some of the same people doing the same back and forthing and also losing patience. As we met each other in the lines we began to conspire together about renting a van to get to Madrid. Julie Ann was on the phone with her mom who was on the internet looking at available flights to get home (all VERY expensive.) We tried the check-in counter once again and the lady was dumbfounded to see us. After Julie Ann told her (with a deserved amount of attitude) that the other counter would not help, the woman marched from behind the counter taking us back across the terminal to the front of the line at the ticket counter and gave the other woman a vicious scolding saying that she needed to help us.

Julie Ann jumped in after and demanded to be rerouted on anything to get her to Madrid. Iberia refused to move us to another airline. Everyone in the line who we had now just got led in front of was verbally showing their disapproval that we were now in front of them. We avoided turning around as they starred hole in the back of our heads. After much painful resistance from the woman at the counter she finally gave Julie Ann a complete new route on the 24th. Julie Ann was content and was not t0o opposed to the idea of spending more time with her friends.

Sarah then followed Julie Ann's lead and with an unrelenting force got us on a flight the next morning to Madrid, where we would then be on stand-by to Miami, then to SF. It was a long shot but we were growing weary. Kaylyn, the student, made it on the same flight to Madrid with no promise of continuing from there until she talked to someone at a US Airways desk there. We offered her our futon for the night and we all began the trek back to our apartment.

With all our luggage there was no way we could call in a favor for someone to pick us up and bring us back into town, also the taxi's were on strike and we would not want to pay the money anyways. Oh......and also it was pouring rain. We barely manage to hop on the airport bus with all our luggage and made it to the bus station. From there we hoped on the tram which got us to a plaza close to our house. From there we waited till the rain lightened and then made a run for it (as fast as we could with 6 large suitcases and a large guitar case). When we finally got everything upstairs, completely out of breath, we then had to find a way back to the airport in the morning.

We turned to our friend and pastor, Al, who is has been a Godsend for us here. After not sleeping all night for fear of not waking up in time, he came to pick up Sarah and some of the luggage at 4:15 in the morning and drop her off at the bus station. Then he came to pick up Kaylyn and I and the rest of the luggage and brought us to the airport. When we got there I called Sarah and she told me that a taxi kept driving by telling her that the bus was not coming because now the buses were on strike (really!?!). Also a police car kept driving by to make sure she was OK. But finally the bus did come and when she got to the airport was able to jump in at the front of the line where I was holding a place. We finally got on a flight to Madrid.

Though we should of seen it coming. Nothing prepared us for the madhouse that had become of the Madrid airport. People were camped out along all of the walls. We said our fairwells to Kaylyn and wished each other the best as we headed to different connecting flight counters. We were so glad to not have to deal with Iberia anymore, especially since they had long lines across the terminal. We were welcomed warmly at the American Airlines counter and were immediately told that there was no way we were making it on the flight through Miami. Then we were told we might be able to go on a flight through Mexico. Finally there was a flight to New York, later in the day. We would have to spend the night in NY and would be able to get to SF in the morning. We were finally starting to relax. We found a quiet bench in the terminal and paid for some access for internet. We felt we had deserved it. Things were going to be alright and we were going to make it home before Christmas.

Before we flew to NY I shot a message to our good friends Cory and Annie to see if there was a slim chance that we could see them in our short time in NY. When we landed and found out where our hotel was, I shot Cory a call and he he was on his way, He was able to take the subway to the airport and take the same airport shuttle that we took (after we waited in freezing temperatures for it to come) to the hotel. My guitar case was nowhere to be found in US customs, So I just let it be. I really didn't want to have to take it along with me to the hotel and back and I figured it would show up sooner or later.

As we waited for Cory to arrive at the hotel we took advantage of our free dinner vouchers and enjoyed some good American food at the hotel restaurant. It was good to have a real steak again. Cory arrived and we were able to hang out for awhile. It was worth staying up for even though we were completely exhausted. He and Annie had prepared some reading material and some airplane snacks for us. (Thank You!) After we said our farewells, Sarah and I got a couple hours of sleep before we had to catch the shuttle back to the airport.

So the morning of the 23rd, we thought Madrid was a madhouse but JFK was absolute anarchy. Lines wrapped around the walls, people sleeping on cots. We got in the line to just recheck-in our luggage and were realizing that we wouldn't get to the front of the line in time for our flight. Every employee was being attack by passengers in a hurry to get somewhere. We watched the chaos unfold as the line began to spiral inwards for lack of anywhere else to go. Soon it became a large mass of people and no body knew where to go from there. Finally a woman came around yelling for who was trying to go to San Francisco. We jumped in line behind her and got led to the front of the line. We threw our bags on the conveyer belt and ran to security.

We passed through quickly (since everyone was still in line to check in) and ran to our gate. We were the last ones there. We handed them our tickets and heard "Oh, your the Bentleys......" (Uh-oh.......... we braced ourselves for the worse) "You got upgraded to First Class," Praise Jesus! Hallelujah! and Amen! Sarah and I sat down in our ultra comfy seats at the front of the plane and gave each other a high five. I drank four mimosas before the plane even took off. I avoided sleep so I would not miss anything offered to me; personal movie player with choice of movies, bottomless drinks, omlette breakfast, warm peanuts and cashews (which Sarah missed because she fell asleep for a bit), and delictible warm chocolate chip cookies. We entertained ourselves with the free wi-fi that was offered to everyone. It was perfect. It began the healing process of all the traveling wounds that had been inflicted on us the past few days. It was a beautiful ending to nightmarish travel story.

After we got home we heard that Kaylyn was not able to fly out of Madrid until Christmas day, but did make it home that night to spend it with her family. And my guitar was delivered safe and sound to the doorstep of my mom's a week later.

See you soon!

2009-12-19T08:09:00.000-08:00

Well we have been pretty busy finishing out the semester. We said our goodbyes yesterday and just about all of the students got on a plane early this morning. Sarah and I are now focusing on some Christmas shopping and deciding how much we want to take back to California. We leave Sevilla on monday morning and arrive in Fresno monday night. I love traveling westward. The plan is to stay around Hanford until after New Years then go up to Salinas and spend time with Sarah's parents. Then we fly back here on the 11th. We are so excited to see you all and hope we can make time for everyone.

Here is me with the beginners Spanish class on our field trip to see the different nativity scenes around the city. They really go all out here. They don't just do the stable, they do the whole town of Bethlehem, but here they call it Belém.

Lots of details to see. Maybe I'll post some close ups soon.

This one is almost completely edible!

These next pictures are of a Christmas party that we held for some kids at a local church. I played guitar while everyone sang some Christmas carols in English and Spanish. Sarah and Julie Ann taught a dance to some of the Acento students that they performed while we all sang Rocking around the Christmas Tree.

After singing, Santa

read the kids the story of the birth of Jesus.

Then of course it was time for presents. After a very successful bake sale by the staff and students at Acento, Sarah and Julie Ann were able to buy presents for all of the kids.

Merry Christmas! See you all soon!

Ted and Melissa

2009-12-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

After Barcelona, Ted and Melissa spent a few days in Morocco, then met us back in Sevilla. We had a great time showing them around the city and how we like to spend our time in Sevilla. Of course we had to take them to our favorite churros stand.

After the amazing meal we headed over to the Cathedral. Sarah had been in before when she was a student but I was excited to see it for the first time along with Ted and Melissa. It is the biggest gothic-style cathedral and the third largest church in the world.
This first picture is a copy of the statue that stands up on top of the Giralda.

Once inside you feel pretty small

fancy wood organ carvings

Ted here is standing in front of the Tomb of Christopher Columbus. He is confused because there are some skeptics that say there is only part of his body buried here or maybe none at all. Apparently it was moved around a couple of times before it ended up here. But by far this has to be the coolest looking tomb.

A shot of the bottom. In Spanish he's Cristobal Colon

Looking across the crossing

This altar was built by Pierre Dancart and is considered to be one of the finest in the world.
Lots of people were gathered around the choir area so we went to check it out.

¡Que suerte! We were there just in time to see a organ concert. The man started off with Phantom of the Opera then moved to some church music. I was a little bummed because it seemed like he was keeping the volume down a little bit.

We walked out to the Patio de los Naranjos and found this guy hanging around

We wanted to see the orange trees from below before we saw them from the top

Ted enjoyed the smell

After studying this I realized that it is the shape of the gigantic pillars inside the cathedral

So this picture of the Giralda was taken three months ago from the top of our apartment building. Finally after all that time we climbed it.

It was an interesting ascent because there were no stairs, it was one continuous ramp. (grandma, were going to take you up) Apparently they used to ride horses up there way back when. We were amazed at all the pools we saw on rooftops

Our apartment is somewhere in this picture.

Looking down at the patio

At the top!

Part of the river

It was cool to see the top of the rest of the cathedral. The wall in the top left corner is from the Alcazar of Seville

The bell system was pretty intense. Just as we were looking at what time the next bell would ring, it went off. Fortunately it was only one bell and it was only 2 o'clock. It gave everyone up there a good scare though.

We think Ted and Melissa liked our city.