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Thursday, September 24, 2009

Buenos Dias!

Well I woke this morning in Madrid…I still can’t comprehend that, still a little surreal, but so fun. I slept okay last night, as Spain is 9 hours ahead of California, but I’m doing pretty well. I had a yummy breakfast of pan y café (bread and coffee) along with some fruit and eggs…then I came back to my room and spent some time in the Word, sitting with my feet out on the balcony.

I am headed to walk around a little bit this morning, I am pretty close to the Plaza Mayor, so I’m going to head out and see what I find. I have to be back in the hotel by 6:00 pm, when the program officially starts!!!

Tonight, we have orientation, then a bus tour of Madrid, and dinner at 10 pm, as is the Spanish way. We are going to spend the week in Madrid site seeing and traveling to some of the surrounding areas. If you care to look up any of the places we will be visiting, some of them are: Toledo, El Prado, Museo del Prado, El Valle de los Caidos, El Escorial, El Palacio y Monasterio de San Lorenzo del Escorial, El Museo Reina Sofia…and then we head to Valladolid on Tuesday the 29, where I will be living for the rest of the time.

Valladolid is about 45 min by speed train, north-west of Madrid. I will be living with a host family there along with one other girl from Cal Poly, who I sort of know. I will be attending the Universidad de Valladolid, for my Spanish courses: Advanced Composition and Conversation in Spanish. I will also be taking two Cal Poly courses, one is The Culture of Spain, with a lab class where we go all around looking at different cultural parts of Spain; and then a history class “The Witch-Hunt in Europe.” I am excited about all my classes, a little nervous about the Spanish ones, so you can definitely be praying for those. I take a placement test just to double check on the 1st of Oct. The other classes (taught in English by Cal Poly professors) I am very excited about. The Culture one, just to learn more about Spain and what makes it tick. The witch-hunt one because I think it will be very interesting-there is a lot of writing in the class, but mostly opinion papers-with topics such as what is evil? Where does it come from? How is it solved? What is Justice? Does it exist? I am excited to be challenged to define such things, and be able to bring in my Christian perspective and talk in class and be challenged to think in a whole new way.

There is a brief overview of the program…if you have any questions let me know, and I’ll answer whatever I know. Some prayer requests for me….

*especially for tonight, as I meet people and begin, that I would connect with other people in the group, and have a blast…

*for my walk with God, that I would find time daily to come to Him and be still

*that my Spanish would grow immensely! That I would just immerse myself in the culture, language and people here

*for my relationships with people that are far away, that I could connect with them, and stay connected here…

*that I could really represent Christ in my group and all that I do….

Sorry this is long, I will try to keep it shorter, but I wanted to kind of give you an overview of everything….Much love to each of you, I am thinking about you and praying for you as well!

My address in SPAIN is:

Natalie Payne

Centro de Idiomas, FG, UVa

Ciudad Universitaria Miguel Delibes

c/ Cementerio, s.n.

47011 Valladolid

SPAIN

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