VENGA RUUSELLE

Hey there,

So we know we are not very diligent in keeping this blog, but we have good reason.  We are in some of the most beautiful places in the world with some of our best friends and we would much rather spend time enjoying it than writing about it.  But I do like to write about it because it helps process it and allows our other best friends (and random people who happen to look at this blog) know what is happening with us.  So here is a quick rundown of our lives the last 15ish days:

We flew from Nairobi, Kenya to London and spent a really great two nights there.  I think London is a wonderful town and it was an incredible transition from Africa to Europe for us (they speak English in London if you didn't know).  We then flew down to Barcelona and waited for our friends to arrive.  Brittany Turner, Lindsey Watson, Casey Holbrook and Jackie Newman all came over for their spring breaks to travel around Spain with us.  We spent several days in Barcelona roaming around the city,

Drinking the best juice I've ever had from La Boqueria,

Buying five Euro sunglasses at Park Guell,

and Tyler and I even ran a Marathon,

If you ever run a marathon I recommend eating a whole pack of oreos with milk at one o'clock in the morning the night before.  It is what I did and I think its the only reason I finished.  I also wore a cape with a hot pink lightning bolt on the back and I think that also helped me.  Tyler wore his classic short shorts and like broke a world record or something, but who wants to do that.  I also received more cheers because of my cape.

The whole first half of the race, the people watching on the sides were yelling "venga ruuselle" "venga ruuselle" which I thought (because of my impeccable deductive powers) that "ruuselle" must be some caped hero that everyone in Spain knows about.  It felt pretty cool to know I was representing a nationwide icon and I sported my "ruuselle" cape proudly.  I was planning on asking Daveed about this caped character later and was excited to learn about him.  I genuinely had all of those thoughts in my head for about 13 miles, then I looked down at my bib and saw why you are now going to think I'm an idiot.  You see when my parents had me they decided that it would be best for me to go by my middle name (I have always appreciated this) and so my first name is rarely spoken of, but when I fill out paperwork, for, say a marathon, I use my first name, Russell, never thinking that they are going to put it on my bib so that the spectators can cheer me on.  But there it was, printed in bright green letters right on my stomach, and the Spanish people were just pronouncing it a little funny, so of course I made up a caped hero in my mind.  I think I laughed to myself for like four miles because of this.  One day I'm going to make a cartoon about a spanish hero in a cape with a pink lightning bolt on the back and name him Ruuselle.

Aside from all the random people cheering for us, our friends were out in full force using our correct names giving us much needed encouragement.

They were awesome.  Here are some more random marathon pics: 

Tyler Killing it: he ran it in a 2:55:08 which is too fast for me to do the math for what minute mile pace he had.  Its close to like 46 seconds a mile. Whoa!!

Evan on the other hand had enough time to enlist the help of his friends:

Pray

For

Me!!!! 

( it worked even though I almost quit and went to the Mc'Donalds we ran by (also if you ever run a marathon, don't pick a course that makes you run right by Mickey Dees)) 

After the marathon Daveed picked us up in the Vansion (a nine person bus capable of carrying two smart cars inside it) and we headed off to Girona.  We got trapped in the snow and ended up having to spend the night in some random hostel. 

Palm trees in the snow!

 So fun.  Then We headed south on a beautiful day.  We were cruising right along the Mediterranean most of the way.  We passed by Valencia and its gorgeous orange trees, and stopped to watch the sunset in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, Calpe.

 We arrived in Granada late but were excited for the next day exploring the historically rich town. We wandered around the next day, visiting the famous Alhambra,

and eating some delicious free tapas (you had to buy a drink).  We Then headed back North to Daveeds home town of Madrid where we enjoyed a dinner with the McNamees and my friend Barbara (from Oak Ridge, but on Young Life staff in Spain).  Madrid has been a lot of fun. We have seen the city and the parks and Daveed's wonderful Mama has cooked some incredible authentic spanish food for us.  It has been a great time with our friends and we wish they were traveling around the rest of Europe with us, but they had to get back to school.

We leave Madrid in the morning for Brussels, Belgium where we are going to try to eat as many waffles and fries ( they invented fries, not france) and mussels as we can.

Adios Tios