Walking Among the Stars: A Reflection on a Galaxy Far, Far Away

So yeah, this post might be completely dedicated to the fact I went to the Plaza de Espana today. It's literally just down the street and across the river from my house, and for some reason I didn't feel the urgent need to go down and see it. Today after guys night/afternoon we finished up right around it, so I figured I would pass it to get home. I walked up from behind it but the minute I turned the corner to walk in front of it I did fall quiet in a sense of loving awe. Sure, it's a beautiful building and all, but that's not why. There is a brief scene in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones that was filmed there. When Anakin takes Padme into hiding to escape the seperatists, they flee to her home planet of Naboo. The first thing they do when arrive is go into the royal palace, seen here:

While a bit of editing was done to the actual building, you can see the same columns here:


That's me. In the same place they made Star Wars. Most people who read this know me pretty well. For those who don't, Star Wars has been one of, if not my absolute favorite movie(s) of all time ever since I was little. I remember when I went to blockbuster with my dad and we rented the VHS to watch together for the first time. I remember seeing Episode III when it came out in theaters with my church. But Star Wars is more than just a cherished memory for me. Star Wars got me through quite a bit as a child. I was (apparently) very frightened about getting my hair cut. The reason I say "apparently" is because I don't remember that. All I remember is when I got my hair cut for the first time after moving to TN (so I was like 4 or 5 or something), I thought that the buzzer sounded like a lightsaber. Star Wars kept me from breaking down like I had done so many times before.

I shared this picture on my facebook wall today that I saw another friend post:



While I loved Star Wars as a child, I do not find my continued love of it childish. In Star Wars, I found a world where the good guys won, even against the odds, and the knight saved the princess (whether or not he knew she was his sister). I found that villains, no matter how twisted, have good somewhere deep inside. I found a sanctuary my imagination could recreate when I was afraid. Why should I have been afraid? I was a Jedi. The husband of my 3rd grade teacher had taken the role of my "jedi master" and would let me play with the lightsabers he kept in his classroom. If I saw the man today, I would more likely than not bow and call him Master Pugh. Star Wars gave me tangible examples of perseverance, bravery, and good. So to me, Star Wars has never been just some movies, or books, or video games or toys. Second to God and the Bible, I'd say it's been one of the key things in my life that has shaped how I see the world. And I have no shame in that. That's why as a 19 year old college junior-senior-whatever, I still wear Star Wars t-shirts, and quote the movies, and buy the legos, and watch the movies with an attention-span the likes of which only adderall can supply. If loving Star Wars is wrong, I never want to be right. Ever.

Being able to go here today just brought me that much closer to the world(s) I've loved. For me, if nothing else good happens this trip, it's made it all worth while.

(That's me, btw, fighting Vader)

My First Fin de Semana: Too Much Dancing; Not Enough Talent

So Friday night, like in the US, is a big night for young people in Spain. I figured I'd see what all the hubub was about. After siesta I went out with Tato my host brother to go shopping for something to wear. Mostly this is because I don't have any dressy shoes with me. It took a while to find a pair that were just classy enough and not too expensive. Before finding my shoes I did find what I thought was a really cool T-shirt. After buying it and taking it home, I read what I thought was the famous Tolkien quote "Not all who wander are lost". Well, it wouldn't be a foreign country without typos in English. What it actually says is "not all who wanders are lost". But it was 6 euros, so I can't complain. If anything now I just look like an ignorant German. But I did manage to find a nice pair of very European looking shoes for just about 25 euros. I enjoyed my little outing since it let me talk to my hermano more and ask questions about the city and culture. He talks very fast and doesnt enunciate, so it can be difficult to understand, but we make it work. From about 10:30-11:30 I watched Revenge of the Sith in Spanish on TV like I did AotC the other day. Then I got all gussied up to go to the discoteca, which is basically a club. I met up with some girls from my group and we ventured out in search of nightlife. We found a discoteca and went inside. The bouncer guy stamped our wrists with a tacky-tourist-y stamp that in english read "I love Spain". But apparently my shoes passed the test cause he let me in with a smile and general Spanish friendliness. (some discotecas won't let you in if you aren't dressed up to snuff). Basically it was a narrow, crowded room with a bar and minimal seating. So my group and I just found a place to stand and kinda took it all in. The girls were content to dance in place and talk to whatever Spanish guys introduced themselves. I just kinda observed everything and occasionally moved to the beat when the girls would try to get me to dance. Dancing like that isn't quite my thing, and I'm not looking to pick up any girls, so I didn't really have any motivation to go talk to anyone except my group. One of the Spanish guys who was talking to the girls did introduce himself to me, but that was the only interaction we had. I guess I just wasn't quite his type, which I'm okay with. But also since I'm not into drinking, the three things that would make someone want to go to a discoteca were of no interest to me. I don't club-dance, drink, or talk to random strangers. We eventually left and made our way to our respective homes.

Yesterday (saturday) the school had a scavenger hunt you could do around the city. A good number of people showed up, but as I expected, I was the only guy. We all split up into groups of 4-5 of people we didn't know as well (I hate when people do that. "get into groups...with someone you haven't met yet." the old bait-and-switch) We had 22 sites in Sevilla we had to find, and take pictures of us in front of them. We started at 10:30 and ended at 5. My group found 12. So did another group. We tied for 1st and went to a tie breaker. Originally it was trivia, but neither I nor the girl I was up against could spit out a correct answer. Then, naturally, the worst happened. Someone suggested a dance-off. Like, really ladies. Some of you went to the discoteca with me. You know what I'm capable of, and it's not much. The odds were stacked against me. But I adapted the Han Solo mentality of "never tell me the odds" and stood my ground. Actually, that's a lie. None of the girls in my group wanted to do it, and I didn't talk to strangers and haul my tired butt and sore legs all through Seville to come in 2nd place. I did want any man would do and strutted whatever stuff I could find. While I wouldn't have made it on a dancing TV show, I think the comedic appeal of watching an awkward 6'2" guy flail his body around to music is what kept me alive. What ended up killing me was that the other groups decided who won by cheers. Naturally, what girl is gonna want to scream their heads off for whatever it was I did? They'd look crazy. It was surprisingly close, but I lost. The winning team got a night at the movies on the school's ticket. I would've really enjoyed that, but whatevs.

I came home, watched the Sevilla v. Levante futbol game, and called it a night. Next week I'm gonna go find a church to attend while I'm here. I'm using this Sunday to kind of pull myself together, get focused, and such. I'm also hoping that some of the people who went to church today can tell me about what one they went to, and I can decide from there which one sounds like a fit for me.

Please be praying for me as this week begins my first full week of classes. I have already found myself getting very tired from listening to and speaking Spanish all day, every day. We're not allowed to speak English in the school, but its such an old habit of mine (lol) I find myself naturally responding to people in English and having to stop myself. I can also begin to feel the beginnings of homesickness begin to set in. I've never spent more than a 10 days away from home or college, so this will be difficult for me. I don't do change well as I learned in 2013, and there is almost nothing here similar to home. I also really haven't made any friends yet. Most people are friends with their roommates, and since I don't have one I don't get someone who pretty much has to be my friend. Also I think cause it's mostly girls its a little weird to tag along with a bunch of them, and I don't want to make them feel uncomfortable, but I almost literally have no other options. The guys live on the other side of town.

All that to say, just be praying for me in this whole thing, cause I am really enjoying it, and I would really like it to stay that way. This is a wonderful opportunity I have, and my worst fear is that I don't take full advantage of the wonderful blessing God has given me.

Las Guerras de las Galaxias, and Other Things I've Done So Far

Well these past two days have been quite the experience. Yesterday I got my first chance to navigate in the city by myself and did pretty well. I can now pretty much find my way home from just about anywhere. In the afternoon we broke off into groups for tours of the city. The result  for me of the tour was that I need to get some Spanish clothes cause they're pretty awesome. I'm actually going shopping with my host hermano for dress shoes to wear to the discotecas. I figure I have to try it at least once. I'm not one for the dance-party scene, so more than likely won't make it a weekly event. But at least I'll get some new European shoes. Right now is sale season in Seville, so I'm gonna try to grab a coat and maybe a few shirts too.

Last night I watched Attack of the Clones on TV with my host brother. He had never seen any of the Star Wars films, but was interested when I told him a scene was filmed at the plaza de españa, a site not more than 5 minutes away from our house. The movie was in Spanish, but since I had no life until I was 17 I knew the script by heart. That really helped me to hear new words in Spanish, and instantly know what they meant. Any words I didn't know I would just ask my brother. I really enjoyed explaining the plot of the movie to him since he came in an episode behind and was a little confused.

Meal time has become probably my favorite part of the day. Not only does my señora cook the best food, but it's when I get to really work on my conversational Spanish. I'm not gonna lie, I thought I'd never use some of the vocab I've learned in college about topics like immigration and unemployment, but apparently my host dad loves to talk, and talks about anything and everything. Religion. Government, US and Spain. The pretty news woman on TV. You name it, we talk about it. 

Classes start tomorrow at 9 for me. I have four classes, so I'll be at school from 9-12ish. After class I'll probably come home, do my homework, eat lunch, and then take my siesta. After that is when I will *hopefully* hang out with friends. I would like to start going to the gym after a full week of classes, so that's probably the time of day when I'll go. I think going to the gym would be another great place to practice my Spanish. I'm too tempted to speak in English to my classmates, so I want to spend a lot of time talking to natives. Jaime, the owner of the gym is excited for me to join as I provide an opprotunity for him to improve his English. I also want to take a walk down to the park and see if it's a good setting for long snapping practice. 

Gonna start the semester off strong tomorrow, knock on wood. 

Day 1

I made it to Spain. After waking up at 4 AM on Monday morning and not sleeping again until at least 24 hours later, I made it to Spain. Honestly, the worst part of the whole experience was waiting in Chicago for hours on end. I arrived around 8:30; my next flight didn't leave until 5. After struggling to find my gate for a bit (it wasn't on the monitors cause I was just a tad early. Iberia airlines wasn't even set up at the gate at the time) I hopped from chair to chair for changes of pace while I amused myself with Pokemon and my new Star Wars novel. Eventually, people from the SIS group began to arrive. This is where I should say I ran up, introduced myself, and began discussing the wonders that awaited us in Seville. Instead I sat quietly with my book. Eventually my phone began to die so I had to move to plug it in. This led to my first social interaction of the day since 9 AM when I told the flight attendant for Air Tokyo that I wasn't getting on the plane since power outlets are prime real estate in airports. Eventually the other student from Geneva arrived, so I had a familiar face to talk to. The next bit of socializing took place on the plane. I talked to the girl I was sitting beside, and my screams of excitement in regards to Lord of the Rings being on the movie list for the flight sparked some conversation with another girl (there's only three other guys even in this group. I'm not seeking out the ladies, they're just literally the majority of people I can talk to). Towards the end of the flight, after watching two movies, beating the computer in chess, playing a bunch of other in-flight games, and watching our flights progress, I began to loosen up quite a bit. This is mostly since I hadn't slept the entire 8 hour flight.  We landed in Madrid in the early morning, which was weird because it was super dark out and felt like night. But the sun eventually came up, so it actually was morning. There we waited some more until our flight to Seville left. After well-over 24 hours without sleep, my body went on autopilot and I was out cold the entire flight from Madrid to Seville. It was only a 45 minute nap, but it was good nonetheless. After getting off the plane I endured the usual panic of "what-if-my-bag-isnt-here?", but as always my bag showed up in one piece (which is a big deal cause I forgot to lock it). Its purple color got me quite a few comments (thanks MOM). I think a girl actually picked it up because she thought it was hers. But anyway, we all loaded up into buses and headed out to be picked up by our host families. Right off the bat the director lady tells us that greetings are done with "besitos" (little kisses). Its the usual european kiss-the-air-beside-their-face. Just great. I just met these people and I have to get all up on them. I was okay with that for the mom of the family. Wasn't expecting it for the 23-year old daughter. Thankfully, I'm super suave and just kinda rolled into like I knew I was supposed to do that. Also thankfully, guys just shake hands. Right off the bat though when Marga (mom) started speaking to me,  my brain looked like this:

WE THREW OUT THE SPANISH!!!

I've only been here a few hours and conversing with the family has been quite the chore. Very fun when we get on a roll of understanding each other; very awkward when I have no idea what a word means they say. They've already taught me some new words like "to hunt" which I've since forgotten, "ciervo" = deer, some other words the dad (Sera) taught me that again I've forgotten, and told me which Seville futbol team to root for. After a wonderful lunch of potatoes, bread and meat, the family took a siesta, which I think is the most wonderful thing ever done. They literally just stop everything to chill for a bit. The dad even comes home from work for it. After a brief battle with the wi-fi, I'm all hooked up and ready to go. If I do anything else tonight, it will probably be checking out the gym that the son (whose nickname is something like "toto", but im not sure) and daughter (also named marga) go to. Tomorrow starts orientation!

Nos vemos!