A new beginning

the journey has begun!
Yesterday I left 4 or 5 inches of snow in freezing KC and Chicago, and today arrived in mid50s rainy weather in Seville Spain. After three flights, hours upon hours of weather delays in the states, and very little sleep I made it in at about 9am seville time. We are 7 hours ahead of you, so as I post it´ll be 8 pm here, but 1 pm your time. Jetlag has me pretty bad. I left Chicago at 645 last night, and after an 8 hour flight arrived here at 9 this morning. Where did the night go? no clue. i only slept for about 2 hours on the flight. We hit some pretty bad turbulence when i finally fell asleep and it jolted me awake. I was travelling with the big group, about 40 or so, that will soon become my fellow students here at Acento Trinity College. We all made it safely, and only 4 bags were lost, but not mine. After arriving we were all separated onto two busses and we were taken around the city and dropped off to our senoras, our host families.

Me and my roommate were dropped off to a sweet lady in her mid 50s. Her name is Loli (Low´ly). She took us back to our tiny little flat in one of the big appartment buildings. She speaks pretty quickly, but for the most part I understand what she says, which is a relief cause my roommate probably understands only a third of what she says. She showed us around her little house with pride. She was sure to emphasize that the kitchen and immediately surrounding area were "hers" and that she didn´t want boys in there. She just talked away the whole time, and eventually let out that she is an evangelical Christian. This will be a huge blessing throughout these four months. I´m really thankful that God orchestrated this setup.

My roommate is a great guy. He plays nerts so you know he is cool:) He also plays some soccer, so hopefully we´ll soon find some games to get into. Tomorrow morning we start orientation, hopefully get our cell phones, change money etc. I´m writing now from a computer in the computer lab at our little school, which is located in a tiny section in a huge building on the river here in seville. I don´t pick up wireless in my room, which is truly depressing, but I´ll get over it, and hopefully find some little internet cafes near my house.

First impressions of the city of Seville: these people must drink a ton. There are literally bars everywhere! It´s incredible how many bars there are here. Streets are ridiculously packed with cars. People just park everywhere, and they park like 5 inches from the cars in front of and behind them. I understand why european cars have those ugly straight backs to them, it´s cause of the way they all park on the roads. The shops are mostly small little privately owned shops. It´s confusing cause during daytime hours they don´t have their lights on. So the door will be open but there won´t be lights on. I see the lights are off so i think it´s closed, but not true. I already found two mcdonalds, which i am extremely thrilled about. Otherwise i haven´t seen any stores or restaurants that we have in the states. Im guessing it´ll be about a 15 minute walk from my house to the school, but I havent really timed it yet. The shorter the better of course, cause that would mean more sleep.

Well I think that´s enough for an introduction to my life here in seville. More to come of course. When I can I´ll post pictures on here. Please feel free to email me or facebook me. I´d love to hear updates from all of my friends and family.

from Spain
Craig T Congdon