Account of a blind date and other weekendness

So it's a real struggle to get used to this whole not having Internet all the time thing. That is definitely something I take for granted in the States. Now that I've been offline for about 3 days I feel like I could have a lot to say.

I suppose you have all been waiting with baited breath to hear about Pablo. Or even if you haven't, I guess you'll get to now. Oh my...what an absurd situation! Essentially, I went on a blind date with a 29-year-old Spanish man!

I got to the square early on Friday so I just sat for a while and watched people. Every time a boy passed, I wondered if he was Pablo. Honestly, I was hoping Pablo was going to be the 20 Minutos guy who passes out free newspapers on the corner every morning because he intrigues me, but it was not to be. Anyway, at 6 I wandered over to Starbucks. There was a guy standing outside the door so we made eye contact really awkwardly several times, and then he finally said, "Emily?" It was Pablo! We walked into Starbucks, and he bought us coffee. We were both very confused about the whole thing so in the end I spoke in Spanish, and he spoke in English. I gathered that he is a 29-year-old man who is currently working as a computer guy at a school, but would someday like to work for the city of Sevilla. Oh my. It was so ridiculously awkward, although not necessarily in the way I thought it would be. It wasn't really much different than making awkward small talk with any random strange guy except for there was the whole language barrier thing too. Oh dear. He was really nice, but I'm not necessarily just bursting to see him again. Although I think next time it would be more helpful if we just picked one language and stuck to it. Oh my. We were there for about 45 minutes when he asked me if I had to be anywhere afterwards. I said no and then spent the next 20 minutes mentally kicking myself for that. Finally, around 7:10 I said, "Uh...I should probably go to the library..." (I really did have something to return). He jumped up like he had just been waiting for me to say something. When we walked out of the restaurant and parted ways, I just burst out laughing. It was such an absolutely absurd situation! But like Dad always says, "Nothing bad ever happens to writers...just new material!"

When I left Starbucks, I did go to the library, and I sat there reading for a while. I love the library so much! I walked back home around 8:30 and felt genuinely happy. Maybe it isn't terrible to be here.

The rest of the weekend wasn't all that exciting or interesting. I'm trying to remember now what I even have to say about it. The highlight of Saturday was trying churros for the first time! For those who don't know, churros are essentially fried dough with this awesome hot chocolate sauce for dipping. Yum! Erin and I wandered around with some others and were surprised how many people were out on the streets. There were a lot of street performers and people selling stuff on the roads. It was a little like Swiss Days except not quite as awesome.

Sunday Sarah and I walked to a church that was about 45 minutes away. It was a beautiful day for a walk though. This church was much different than the one we went to last week. It was a lot more contemporary and the people seemed a lot more enthusiastic. We sat with some girls who are studying here with a different program through Cedarville University. There are so many American students in Sevilla right now! Anyway, the church was nice, but I think we're going to keep looking before we settle on one. Um...the rest of the day was spent in relaxing, reading, resting, a trip to the park, etc.

I was feeling really...pensive yesterday. I've just been realizing how important it is to be intentional. I feel like I'm not being intentional about seeking Jesus while I'm here, and that really frustrates me. But I don't know how to do better at it. And also I know that I need to be more intentional about using my Spanish, instead of only using it at school. But that's hard. However, I was also reading through some old journals yesterday, and I found a part that I had written during the time when I thought I might not get to come to Spain. It made me realize that this trip, Spain, all of this, was something that I really wanted. And now I am here. I am convinced that if I was not here, I would forever wonder what would have happened here. So it is good to be here. I am learning a lot. I am being blessed.

Grrr...I just tried to post a picture here, but Blogger won't let me. Anyone know anything about good ways to put pictures online?

Also, Correction: Happy Hippos do not contain peanut butter. It's hazelnut. But they're still incredible. Have a good week everyone! I love you all!