Once again.... CATCHIN UP!!!!=0)

UPDATE FROM NOVEMBER 2

Hey all, really sorry about not keeping up on this like i thought i was going to... turns out taking ten to 15 minutes out of my day to keep this up has been a little tuffer than what i planned on, but i know a lot of people back home really like reading my little tail of life in Sevilla so i will try my best to keep it up! I know i have said that but as you will read i have been getting a wee bit more organized since time seems to be getting shorter and shorter and the list of things i have to do/ or can do seems to be getting longer and longer. What im sayin is that im seeing the importance and practice of being disciplined!

YUMMY YUMMY IN MY DIABETIC TUMMY

Alrightee.... well the first cool thing to happen after Nov. 2, which was my last blog was that we had an awesome trip to a real life cookie factory in Estepa which is like a hour and a half from Sevilla! It was fantastic, one of the professors at UPO (Univeristy of Pablo De Olavide) grew up in Estepa working at his family cookie factory and every year he takes a bunch of students to go see it! When we finally got to the town like little village the first thing you smelt was cookies! Then once you got inside your mouth just watered and brought me back to the US sitting in front of my Aunt Karens TV set in Cheyenne watching "How its Made" It really was just like in the movies and tv....each person had their own little job and everyone had been working there for like EVER and seemed everyone was connected to the family some how! They were all happy chubby little people who looked like they enjoyed doin what they were doin! And it was really sweet how the professor just came in like he owned the place then gave his mom and pop two big kisses! The professors name was Enrique and he is an animated character like someone you would watch on tv or read in the sunday comics (just a real neat fella) he loved to agree with you and bob his whole top half back and forth in agreeance with pretty much all that ya said. Hahaha really a relaxed easy goin sort of a chum=) So that was an exciting weekend and got to have some meaningful convos with some new people and met a really awesome new christian who is going to try to come to our bible study!

WORK WORK WORK

For about the next week all i that i can see is work. Did a bunch of school work and little play. But on the other hand we had a great Bible study as always! Been havin those every Tuesday at 4:56 at the Starbucks in the middle of town at a place called Puerta de Jerez which literally means "Gate from the city" and it is where we meet till about 5:15 or so then we go sit on the lawn for some good Jesus talk! Man do we ever have some good Jesus talks... God has totally blessed our times together ever since our first one the 22 of Sep. Every week someone different leads it and i have lead it twice now. God has really blessed us with new kids just about every week now and is a great place for people who are here studying abroad to come and stay in fellowship with other believers and get a little Jesus for the week=)

MOVIN AND A GROOVIN SPANISH STYLE

Hahaha what a time. My best friend named Abraham over here is one of the best Salsa dancers that i have ever seen... period! He can keep time (something i can not do) and has more new moves that i am trying to learn to bring home! But anyway i really wanted to bring Martha out with us so we had a night where she could come out and a bunch of other people could to so it was... Martha, Abraham, Inma, Fatima & Sierra from bible study, Carmen from Connexxion and me. We all ended up at this fancy little place right next to Puerta de Jerez that had a live band that night. It was like 6 euros to get in but we had looked for awhile so we decided we would pay and go in! The place was lively and everyone inside was a quicksteppin to the funky Spanish music. The inside was white and was styled to put you back in like a royal dance parlor... pretty legit gonna have to say! But as we got in i realized that once again Jake has no style when it comes to this salsa dancin... I mean i can only handle about two beats then after that i get real lost real quick! To visualize what i was feelin... i felt like a three legged dog on a windy frozen lake tryin to catch a wet fish! Thats about what i looked like too.... AND THEN other people were askin me to show them how to dance and i was like YEAH RIGHT do you see what i look like! Cant imagine anyone wanted to learn how to look like i looked!=) Anyway, we had a good night and some big spanish dude kept hitting on Martha and so i had to lay down the law on that dude in my awesome spanish with Inmas help! hahaha it was good though he didnt mess with her agian=0) We all had a blast and everyone hit home at about 4 in the morning... so we had a full day!

CARMONA

This is the next school trip we took. It was for my Spanish Art class and it was a pretty good time... really short though. We left at 930 in the morning and we were back at about 230 that day so it was short! But we learned how people in roman times were burried and how the size of the burial chamber signified how rich and awesome they were! Kinda weird if ya ask me but i wasnt diggin the graves! They always were cremated and put in a little 1 foot by 1 foot box of some sort... then they would have their whole family dead around them too. Learned some neat stuff and got a free trip to a semi sweet place=)

Connexxion Retreat

Got back from Carmona then that same day got packed for the trip to Cazella which is also about an hour and half away from Sevilla. People who went on the trip. Martha, Abraham, Carlos (friend of Marthas from Connexxion) same as Danny, and Leah... then the two American interns named Megan and Andrea and then Ruben and Sylvia were the speakers and worship leaders. Sylvia is song artist and man is she good! We hiked for like 10 miles total the one day or a little less and we got to see a water fall and a old school farmer guy with a small heard of goats and like 5 dogs... just a simple lookin guy livin his dream... and of course I HAD to get a picture with him=)! We had some awesome talks about Jesus and why people suffer at the place where we stayed, which was a camp like setting in the hills NOT MOUNTAINS of Cazella. This place was like no other though!!! Honestly i can say that it was legitly like going back in time! People doin their own thing, killin chickens makin cheese from goats milk just livin it! Can say that it was one of my favoritest spots=) Had some really fun times doin some walk beat boxing and had some really good talks with Andrea the intern from America and had a lot of laughs and i like laughs so i had a blast of a weekend!

Dinner with Teddy

So this past Saturday i was studying a ton for my spanish exam on this thursday and got a ring from my buddy Teddy... his real name is Jonny but i call him Teddy because he has huge paws and long hair and is HUGE plus he is like the nicest guy you would ever meet so Teddy just fits him really well. Along those lines he said he would call me bear so that we could combine and make a powerful fusion of TEDDY BEAR! Its a good fusion i think! so anyway got a call from him and so went over to his bach pad and got ready for a little dinner with the family! His sister and brother in law came over and their two cute little kids... the youngest of which has bright blue eyes and golden brown hair yet has two parents, both who have dark brown eyes with almost black-brown hair... such a rare cute little spanish kid! But we all had dinner along with his room mate Holiday! Was a great time speakin some spanish and getting to have some legit time with my buddy Teddy!=)

Dinner at Marthas- then the Flu

All day Sunday i spent with Martha going to church and helping her out. After church got out we went back to Marthas place and prepped some soup for lunch. Little potato cream goodness! Loved it and was really simple to make... then took a 3 hour nap cause i was feelin a little tired then had Abe over after i got done moppin the house down for Martha. Had some more soup then two big cups of coffee that was chocolate flavored... wow AMAZING! We then had a bible study and answered some questions like "Was Jesus a good looking man... which is no he was not look it up in Isaiah 53:2.... and other stuff that was random but on our hearts. Then came the fun stuff! Got home at about 130 and could not sleep... so listened to some podcast of a awesome guy named Ben Stuart then finally fell asleep at 5am..woke up at 10 feeling like some one had thrown me off a cliff then made me drink snakes for breakfast. Basically felt like everything on my inside wanted to be on the outside... so had a trip with the runs, vomiting and fever and went back to bed at about 12 when the Imodium kicked in! then woke up at 5 that night tried to do stuff for like 3 hours then fell asleep at 8 and got up the next day at 8:41am feeling like a million bucks WHICH IS NOW TODAY! So am much better now and getting some stuff done for school so i am feelin pretty rad=) AND FINALLY GOT UP TO DATE ON MY BLOG!!!!!!!! WHAAAAAWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ending the Day with a bang!

Tonight was one of the best nights of spanish i have had yet. Sat down with the family and started eating and started asking about different things in spanish and different words and the like and we talked about a ton of different personal things for the first time since i have been here and got to show them how much i really care about them and hermanita... which is little sister who is 19 so it was great! Loved it... i understood about 90 percent and was able to say exactly what i wanted to say in a general direct form=) IT WAS FANTASTIC=)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA just got a call from my friend SCOTTIE CATES! Finally had some time to talk we talked for like an hour and 3 minutes a new record! It was so funny because i just got done havin dinner with my family (WHICH IS A WHOLE NOTHER STORY) and then i came upstairs and saw scott calling so i talked to him. Started out talkin about just stuff like bible breakfast for him and work. He told me how he was workin on the coal mine and fuelin up these light trailers and stuff and how he me a mexican that is named Elmo and he calls scott "Essay" there were some funny stories behind that! So then he goes "jake is there anything i can send you" i said "yeah there is" so he got his little note pad out and started writing down everything i said. So i told him he needed to go to Home Depot and ask for a 3 foot by 2 foot by 6 foot tall box, then he needed to get one role of name brand "Duck Tape" it couldn't be an off brand i told him, then i said he needed to buy 3 one pound boxes of packing peanuts and then he needed to address it to Sevilla Spain. So after he had it all written down i told him to show me the paper to make sure he had it written down right... mind you im tryin my best not to laugh" and i say well that looks good man you have it all written down perfect. Then he goes "jake thats a really big box what am i supposed to put in it.......ME!?!?!?!?" then he finally got it and we had a good ol laugh. Then we chatted some more just about whatever and he was all smiles the whole time and it was so awesome to get to chat with my best buddy! He is doin good and just lovin the Lord and walkin with him like Scottie L always does... and it was just great to get to spend the last hours of my night with him!=) God be with my friend Scottie L... and thank you for blessing me with time with him tonight=) Amen!!!! And as Scottie always says "Thank the Lord"

PLEASE TAKE MY POLL

There is a poll at the bottom of the page please do it=)

Chill day just catchin up and havin a day with Jesus=0)

Got up at about 1 and went down and made myself some breakfast and then got to have a legit hour just talking with the Lord and prayin and just really reflecting on the word. I got to finish up some much needed business on skype and on Facebook and got to have an awesome devo so i had a pretty rad day.

And i got to talk to Jon for like and hour or so then skype went bad on us but we had a great talk and man was it AWESOME to hear what the Lord is doin in my friends life! So proud of Jon... livin for the Lord in Casper Wyoming... what a guy!

Now just spendin the rest of the day getting caught up and hopefully talkin with Levi or Nate or Dad... who i have tried calling 2 times=) Pray he can get a sick deal on a truck!

November 1 Chillin out with Martha and the gang=)

Woke up at around 1 and then was really tired so napped until about 3 after that. NOT A GOOD DEAL. Let my self down, i had an awesome saturday night with friends and then didnt follow the rule of going to church the next morning so i was pretty bummed with myself! But then i got an awesome message from an awesome friend that asked if i wanted to do a bible study at her house at around 7. OF COURSE i did! and yes the message was from Martha! So i did some stuff around the house for a few hours wrote on my blog a bit and then rode my bike over to her house which is only like ten minutes from my house 15 including everything maybe 20. Got to her house and saw Carmen and Danny both really awesome people that i have come to be friends with through Martha!

We all sat down and had a bible study about the heart and being giving God your whole heart! And then we discussed reasons to why people only give half their hearts to anything that they do. Then Abraham showed up and we finished the bible study. Wow was it a good one... it was a wake up call to me because i have been debating on weather to go on this trip with Martha and the gang to go hiking and have a good followship weekend or weather i should go to Morocco with ISA on a international weekend that you had to apply for to go. I wrote a 15 line essay as to why i wanted to go to Morocco and i am waiting to hear back from them but it is on the same weekend as marthas fellowship weekend so i really need to make a choice. Tonight was just a reminder as to why i am here... am i here more for the expierence or am i here because of God and for God?!!?!? Was just a good lesson that i needed to hear=) Thanks Martha!

Then Martha cooked us some pasta and tomato sauce and i made some meat sauce and she made some tomato sauce without meat because Danny is a vegitarian=) Dinner was great we chatted for a bit then i ran out of insulin so Martha took me home and i got some more then we came back and Carmen left and shortly after Danny and Abraham did. But then me and Martha got talkin about the ranch because i called mom and she was talkin about workin with the calves. Then we just talked for the next 2 hours or more and it was about 3 in the morning so Martha called it a night and i was just chattin away so it was time to get to bed!=) But wow was it just refreshing to get to spend the night talkin with such an awesome woman of God! Martha never ceases to amaze me with her love and devotion to Christ!

Father God thank you for Martha and thank you for putting her in my life, bless her Lord and give her strength in everything she does. Amen.

OCTOBER 31...Rock Climbing and getting robbed!

Well today started off really sweet because today i was getting to hang out with my BF Aberaham=) He told me to meet him at Prado at 10 because we were going to go rock climbing with some of his biology friends.... friends that study with him. So we went to where we were supposed to meet Megan and Andrea and then got a call sayin they would be an hour late so.... we went to his friends Pacos house and said hi and came back and met Megan at the bus station. Biked to the spot where rock climbing was and then found that it was under the 8 lane highway at the end of a bridge. What they did for the rock wall was they went to the end of this archway bridge and they screwed in rock wall hand holds all the way under this bridge stretching all the way from one archway the next it was nuts=) BUT SAFE! (gotta clarify for family) Did that with about 15 of Abrahams buddies for about an hour or 2 then went to the park for lunch.

Played some football at the park took a nap then called Jose Maria and we talked for a bit then decided we needed to get Megan home so she could change and then catch the last bus back into town to hang out with us later that night. So got her home then we all split and went home and were planning on meeting back up that night at 10. I called Inma and i showed up to here house at about 930 totally decked out in my cowboy outfit since it was HALLOWEEN!!!! I had my hat on, boots with spurs, grandpas old belt with my silver and gold belt buckle, long sleeve country shirt with suspenders that i went and bought at the Chino shop next to my house... the only NON LEGIT thing i had on... but it fit so i threw it on=) So i show up to Inmas house on what i like to call "J&K Taxi" which is my sevici bike that i rent all the time and i can carry a person (most of the time Inma) and i take them with me=) So i got to her house took some pictures till my camera died and then went to meet up with Megan at Plaza de Armaz. I put Norbit Jr. in the front of the bike in the little basket for the ride over (Norbit Jr. is my fanny pack) this becomes significant shortly. We ride all the way over and then i get to the sevici station and i put the bike away and go to grab another one rent it and then take it over to the girls which are about 30 yards away around a corner... test out the bike see it is bad so go put it back and walk back over... THEN instantly remember i left Norbit Jr. in the bike basket! =( Ran back to go get it and saw it was gone... WOW YA WANNA TALK ABOUT A KNIFE IN THE BUTT! I had a Samurai sword cut me in half! Contents in Norbit Jr...... 150 dollars cash, 2 credit cards, MY BRAND NEW CAMERA 35o dollars, memory card 30 dollars, two batteries for the camera 100 dollars, a diabetic tester with 10 more strips 50 dollars, student id card 20 dollars, and the thing that burned me the most was that they stole my SKITTLES=PRICELESS!!! They didn't even leave a few on the handle bars for me.. just took the whole bag... i tell you what they got a good little bag that is for sure=0) BUT....... it was my fault for leavin it in such an awesome position!

So keep Norbit Jr. in your prayers that he would come home safe with all his buddies inside! So i lost the last few days of pictures.. the Cookie factory, and rock climbing and all the rest of the night...........

After i got everything taken i we all went to a dancing spot that was SUPPOSED to be Salsa but they were playin Flamanco music... which barely any Spanish people can dance to SO...... that means JACOB KISSACK does not have a chance!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we sat down i bummed out for a total of 2 minutes then just grabbed Inma.... cowboy outfit still present=)..... and started dancin country to Flamanco! O buddy it was sick! We had a blast and then Abraham started dancing with Megan and teachin her how to do the whole salsa thing and i started teachin Jose Maria how to dance country so it was a good time EVERYONE got to have fun! Danced for about an hour and then went to a bowling spot!

At the bowling spot we had 2 games which included a drink and shoes for 13 dollars...everyone got their stuff and we started playin... turns out everyone in the place was wearing the same costumes... Halloween is a pretty new concept for Spanish people and they still have not gotten the idea that they can be ANYTHING! I saw about 1,000 Drakula's and a million witches! THEY ALL DRESSED IN THE SAME COSTUMES!!!! hahaha they will catch on... someday=0) Well we had our fun and everyone got a strike! Then i took Inma home on the J&K taxi sevici bike and we all went home and i got to my house at about 430, with no keys so Jesus the man at the door to the complex had to let me in and then my host mom left some keys in the mail box... just another reminder of how big of a boo boo i made tonight. That mistake can take up the biggest spot on the "IDIOT WALL OF FAME" that i have.... it is pretty full of dumb things i have done and costly things i have lost BUT THIS ONE BEATS THEM ALL. Jesus please bring Norbit Jr. home safe to me... and thank you for such awesome friends!!!!=0)

OCTOBER 30 COOKIE FACTORY!!!

So today got up at 8:03am by the awesome feeling that i had to go to the bathroom.... then realized that i forgot to set my alarm and that i was leaving for a cookie factory today at 9:30 so i was really excited that i woke up. Got on the bus at Prado(a real centrally located place) then had the 1 and 15 minute bus ride to Estepa/Osuna. We were going on the trip with my university and it was for to just simply visit these two places and in Estepa there was a cookie factory that a teacher at the university family owns so every year he takes students to go see this family cookie factory... Pretty sweet deal i would say!!!=) Got to Estepa and it was great! There were more olive trees then i could ever count... fitting as though this region is #2 in the world for producing olive oil=)

Got inside the factory and had a walking tour of how this place worked and how it produces all the awesome cookies. The first thing we were told is that this place could not sell its products in the US because of the content of fat!!! HAHAHAHA they are made with sugar, flour and FAT(and some other stuff but those are the top 3). So we moved along and the mother and father of the professor were both working and it was neat to have the family together workin=) Made me miss home and the ranch and my momma and pap=) Along the way we were always overwhelmed with the awesome smell of fresh cookies! The entire town smelled like a fresh baked cookie, IT WAS GREAT! And along the way we also got fresh cookies right after they were packaged!! it was so fantastic, they were so so so SO SO SO good, chocolate, sugar, fat....... INCREDIBLE!!!=)

After the walking tour we went to a sweet old castle and chilled out there and we climbed up into a tour that had a sweet view of the entire city... beautiful! We then went down to a little pub to have some lunch and the owner of the place was really old and way cool. He busted out a dollar bill (spanish of course) that was like 200 YEARS OLD! I got a picture of all this but read tomorrows blog to see why i don't have any pictures.. (SAD DAY). But this guy had coins from when they used gold and silver as currency! Then we went to Osuna and looked at an old school and i got to talk to a friend named Mez all the time there and home and that was great... we talked about a ton of stuff and i gained a new view on some parts of life because of what she told me about hers=)

Got home and grabbed a bike and biked over to Martha's house to get a ride to Burmujos with her and my BF Abraham=) We rode over to Darby Pushic, a Jesus friend of our, who is here for 2 years, her house for dinner and a birthday party! Wow was it great everyone was there. David Acton, Johnny, Abraham, Jose Maria, Megan, Darby, Blackstons, Megan, Andrea, Christy and just all the people i love hangin out with=) AND there was MEXICAN FOOD nothing better in Spain than American made Mexican food... wow it was AWESOME thanks to everyone who pitched in=)

Darby was turning 24 and we sang happy birthday and had brownies and a cake and a pinata and apple bobbing and the Blackstons sang the song "No more Bacon" that was a riot=) Then we just hung out and chilled all night playin spoons and poppin balloons=)