apparently the metro is a little like Ryanair...

We're all in this...

Oh, what an interesting day... we went to bed extremely late but surprisingly woke up on time to make it to church. This morning was our first attempt at using the metro, and it went rather well! The metro's a little confusing here because it has two different names. Obviously, one name for it is the "metro", but others call it the "tranvia". Until today, we thought there were two different systems, but Abril explained it all to us. Apparently the "metro" is what the Spaniards use when they're referring to the above ground part of the subway. The lines that run next to our apartment are above ground, and they go to the main parts of the city, like the center. The tranvia consists of 3 or 4 underground systems, which run to outer parts, like the airport, but both the tranvia and the metro are operated by the same people; the only difference is that one is above ground and the other under. ANYWAY! Upon arriving at the metro station this morning (which is conveniently located about a minute from our piso), we discovered that we were unable to buy a ticket to board the metro because it only takes cash, and neither of us had any. Well, someone had told us before that you don't really have to buy a ticket if you don't want, so we decided to watch some other people and see what they did. Yup, they just boarded the metro from a side door far away from the driver and took a seat without ever flashing a ticket. Well, we wanted to go to church, and while we thought maybe it was slightly wrong to get on without paying in order to go to church, we decided to do it anyway. We got on line four, found two empty seats, and road it to our stop without any problems and without ever spending a dime (or a euro!).

When we got off of our stop, we had a few problems finding the church, although this nice little Spanish lady pointed us in the direction of the street. We finally found it, although we were a few minutes late, and we entered after service had already started. Well, it turns out that today the normal pastor was not scheduled to speak; this guest missionary was doing the preaching, and oh, was it unusual... You know the tele-evangelists you see on TV? Take one of them and multiply by 500 and you get this guy. Oh, and his wife was a lot like him but slightly calmer. He was loud, animated, and bold. He had some really horrible jokes that didn't make sense but the non-native English speakers laughed anyway. He was also big on criticizing George W. Bush, which I am not opposed to, but I'm not entirely sure people outside of the US understood. He talked about how the church should spread the gospel and not religion and how they should concentrating on telling people what to DO instead of telling people what to NOT do. Well, that was all good and well... and then the speaking in tongues started. Please note that I am NOT criticizing people who support or practice this (I think differences in religion are interesting, and I'm slightly fascinated by them. Really!). However, this was my first time to see this in person, and it was all very... different. I was sort of uncomfortable with it, especially when the guy started bringing people up front to pray in tongues. Emily and I just sorta looked at each other and wondered what to do, but we noticed that many others, including our Oklahoma friends, were doing the same thing. That's pretty much the entire church experience. I'm not sure if we'll go back when the normal pastor is speaking or not. We'll see...

After church we said adios to the Oklahoma friends and headed to las tiendas de los chinos! Basically, these are small little stores run by Chinese people that are basically like dollar stores in the USA. They sell all kinds of random stuff. We didn't buy anything, but we'll definitely be returning!

The afternoon was a bit uneventful, although we once again used the metro FOR FREE! We took a nap in the afternoon and then headed over to Abril's via metro. I'm loving this metro thing, especially when it's free! Abril is amazing, too. She's going to help us talk to la duena tomorrow, and she taught us more about the metro! :)

When we were done at Abril's, we headed to UPV to access the internet so we could watch the Catholic boys open presents. Well, we went to this place that we THOUGHT was the student union. We have been there a few different times, and it's open 24/7. Well, tonight this security guard comes up to us and asks us what room we live in.. turns out we've been chilling in the dorm and NOT the student union, and we were not allowed to be there!! It was slightly embarrassing.. but we made it to the student union! I just love the fact that the desk workers let us stay there for hours last night. Surely Missouri State desk workers would be more attentive and do a better job at protecting the halls? :)

We're about to head to bed, but before we do, here's a video of our attempts at lighting the stove with Nancy Barnes... do enjoy! :)






...together.