The Story of El Camino Sevillano

Here's the car that was a partial inspiration for this blog's title! When I was about 8 years old, my family purchased this 1980 Chevrolet El Camino from my mom's uncle for $500. We had a friend put a simple paint job on it, and my dad and I have been working on it ever since. We've also entered it in several car shows, and have accumulated a handful of "Outstanding In Class" plaques. Some of the major improvements we've made:
- Replaced Engine: Small Block Chevy 305
- Aluminum Intake Manifold
- Replaced Transmission
- Replaced Wheels
Our next big project will be to replace the steering column, as it has slowly developed a major leak.

The title of the blog is also apropos when you consider the translation; El Camino means the way, the path, or the journey. This blog will be a record of my journey in Seville; The Sevillian Journey. I hope you are as pleased with this title as I am; I feel it does a good job of representing both a part of who I am and a part of my upcoming Seville experience!

Daily Photo Test #1

On a recent trip to Costa Rica, my dad and I spent our last night in this hotel!

Bienvenidos a El Camino Sevillano

You have found my newest blog, El Camino Sevillano.  You may be a friend, family member, or acquaintance of mine, or we may have never met. Nevertheless, you are welcome here. I invite you to follow me on my journey in Spain.

To begin, I want to explain what my program will look like. I am studying through The Center for Cross-Cultural Studies (CC-CS). I will, if registration goes as planned, be taking three courses during my stay in Seville. In May, I will take an intensive Spanish Language course; Summer Term 1 will be Spanish for the Health Professional; and Summer Term 2 will be Women Writers of Spain. I will also be taking a 1-credit service-learning course during term 2. My program begins May 16th and ends July 28th.

Now, to explain my plans, hopes, goals, and dreams for this blog (and other miscellaneous information about how this blog will be used).
     I hope to write a text post at least twice per week that will update my lovely readers about my experiences. These posts will range from discussions about my classes, to  my experiences in my home stay, to stories about all the wonderful shenanigans I am a part of while in Seville. I also want to include stories and info about my experiences working with CC-CS, especially leading up to my departure for Spain.
     One of my loftier goals is to have a page dedicated to "Daily Photo Posts." I want to post a photo, with a short text entry each day while I'm in Seville. They may not be a photo from that particular day, but I will try to keep them as recent as possible.
     Miscellaneous: I expect that my brain will be primarily functioning in Spanish while I am in Seville: especially toward the end of the trip. I also expect that my audience will include readers who speak and read only English, readers who speak/read only Spanish, and everything in between. As a result, this blog may have posts written entirely in one language or another, or they may be a mixture of both. To help my readers, regardless of their language proficiency, I plan to have Google-translated posts available. I realize the translations will not be perfect, but it's a start. I am not going to commit to writing every post in both languages, although I may occasionally do this!

Finally, if I do not fulfill any of these goals, I invite my readers to call me out on it! I am relying on you to be a support system for me, as many of you are already a part of my daily safety net.

Thanks for reading this rather long welcome post, and I look forward to building a strong relationship with my entire readership! Please do not hesitate to email me with any question, comments, constructive criticism, or suggestions at johnston.adam.r@gmail.com!

Update Regarding Daily Photos

I just wanted to let you know that, despite my efforts to prevent this, my daily photo posts will appear on the home page as well. You can go to the "Daily Photos" page to view only the photo posts. You can go to "Blog Posts" to view the blog without the Daily Photo posts. You can click the Header Image to see both text posts and my daily photos (i.e. you can see the normal home page). I'll update this if I find a way to work around this!