My Birthday

For those of you that didn't know yet, I married a good one. I was a little wary about having my birthday here in Spain without family or old friends around but Sarah planned a great day for us to spend together and with some new friends.

The day started with Gui and Leah showing up in the morning with churros and chocolate from our favorite spot. I guess we were still waking up in this picture.

The churros here are amazing. You can kind of see one left in the bowl.

Thank you Gui and Leah! They had to wake up pretty early and waited pretty long to buy the first batch. Good thing they really like churros too.

After class Sarah and I came home and she cooked me some burritos for lunch. It is hard to find the ingredients but she pulled it off. They definitely satisfied the Mexican food craving. Then of course we had a siesta.

Also in the morning Sarah had me open a envelope with a reservation to a spa that is part owned by one of the receptionists at the school. So after siesta we rode the Sevici bikes across town to the very lush spa located in a very lush hotel.

The first part included time in a steam shower, then cold shower, then jet shower (with blasting cold water at the end, then a sauna. It did a number on the nervous system, but was pretty fun. It reminded us of the time we spent at Ben Folds house when we used his steam shower.

Then we spent a good amount of time in the spa room with spas of various temperatures with jets for various muscles. It was very relaxing. I will admit that I utilized the Speedo that Fusion School of Music gifted to me as a going away present. When in Rome......

Our favorite part was the shower looking thing on the left (in the picture below). I want a shower head with as much pressure as that thing. It was amazing on the back and neck.
The waterfall didn't do much except look cool.
You can't see too well but on the right there are lounge chairs in the water and when you push the button you are blasted with bubbles. Reminded me of those gum commercials.

Then it all ended with some relaxing almost-full body massages in a private room upstairs. Sarah kept saying "mas fuerte por favor" The massages were more for relaxing than for adjusting. It was super nice. They gave us champagne and cookies too.

I have also really been craving a good American style burger so for dinner we met up with friends at a place called Foster's Hollywood. Kinda like an Applebees/Chili's vibe. It's also one of the few places where they give free refills. Unfortunately not on beer.

I guess this was my birthday cake.

Enrique, Julie Ann, and Martín

candid?

Gui and Leah are very photogenic

So I ate a lot that day.

Thanks to my wonderful wife, new friends, and everyone who sent birthday wishes!
Best birthday in Spain ever!

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What we've been up to

So time is already flying by for us here. We don't feel like we're that busy but this first month has come and gone. So here is how we have been spending our time.

Here are our Slovenian couchsurfers that stayed a couple nights in the loft. Maja and Rok.

This is the church were we do the Wednesday night worship nights with the students called Encuentro.

Some people have expressed seeing more of the school. So here is the outside of the building where you can see the sign for Acento.This is the metro station that they just finished recently. The area had been torn up for years. It looks great now.

Sarah standing at the entrance of the school.

Up the stairs

Everyone is greeted at the front desk. This is Mercedes, who works in the evenings. She's great!

Once in awhile we take the students to play bingo with with the men at a nearby retirement home. The men love to kiss the girls on the cheek and love to win.

Sarah calling the numbers

These next pictures were from the Night of the Museums in Seville, where all the museum had special events going on, had no entrance fee, and were open late into the night. The first was the museum of fine arts. The building was an old convent, which was a beautiful place to house the art.

There was an amazing female classical guitarist playing in one of the patios. Believe me when I say AMAZING.

Then we took a bus to the other side of town to the Popular Arts Museum where there was a flamenco show in the center patio. This dancer was intense.

Downstairs were a bunch of set-up scenes of what stuff looked like. Of course I was interested in the guitar shop.

Then walked across the courtyard into the Archaeological museum. Lots of interesting statues and sculpture that are too old to comprehend. There was another guitar concert. This guy was good, but played some pieces that were pretty strange, so we only stayed for a bit.

The next night went to the Alameda de Hercules for the Alamedando. 1 Euro buys you the cup, 1 Euro for each drink, then you sell your cup back for 1 Euro at the end of the night. We thought it was genius because the city gets trashed every night from people drinking and leaving their trash.At the same time was the Tapeando. They gave everyone a booklet with list of restaurants and the food they were selling for cheap. We had all eaten so we decided to go for the ice cream. Here we are with our couchsurfer Lauren.

Gui and Leah really enjoying their ice cream.

Sarah was excited to see the chocolate that they poured in the bottom of the ice cream cone. She tried to get at it a little too early and total chocolate carnage ensued.

Then on Sunday we packed some sandwiches to eat along the river.

Sarah couldn't eat all of her sandwich so she shared.

Then we felt the call of the open waters and rented ourselves a paddle boat.

We took turns paddling. Sitting in the back was a lot nicer.

We were happy to do our part in cleaning up the river. Thanks to Gui's "precision of the movement" (as he called it). He steered while Leah grabbed the bottles.

Titanic pose. Very true to the original I think.

a lot more awkward

So that is our life in the city right now.
For those of you who think all we do is play around and siesta, it may seem that way, but we promise its not.

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Chicago?

Well, I know we are in Spain and all but we wanted to make a post about our time in Chicago before it is too late. We were there for only two days but we feel like we packed in a good amount.

The night we flew in we grabbed a quick bit to eat and went to bed at the hotel.

The next day was full of meetings with different people from the Trinity Christian College campus including the campus chaplain, human resources, and a counselor to talk about suicide prevention and the like. Everyone at the school was great and very encouraging. Sarah even got an official Trinity staff ID card.

My good friend Derek came and picked us up at the school after our last meeting for a night in Chicago. Sarah and I wanted to make sure to spend time with Derek and his new wife Jill because we were not able to make it to their wedding when we were returning from Africa. Here is some pictures of our adventures.

Derek had to do some bike maintenance before our bike ride into The Loop. About a 20 minute bike ride from their apartment.

But first we stopped somewhere to eat. It was our late wedding present to Derek and Jill.

I carefully chose my three beers.

The city

A great outdoor amphitheatre designed by a crazy architect. The web over the grass holds up speakers.

I think this is called the Cloud Gate, but everyone calls it the bean.

Reflection. But not a very good one.

I think this is what it was built for....to reflect the skyline.

An outdoor exhibit for one of the main city planners of Chicago.

Skyline from the lake.

The harbor.

Derek and Jill's sweet apartment. Thanks to them, Sarah and I feel like we got a pretty good picture of Chicago. I didn't get any pictures of it, but their were thousands of people at the park watching the movie Tootsie. It was the last movie of a series of showings in the park. It was very surreal to hear the early 80's soundtrack blaring throughout the city while we were moving about.

The next day Sarah had meetings with the Student Life Director and then the Provost. Then we were on our way to the airport.

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