Gettin' close to the end...

Exactly one week of school is left. Though it's sad, Tuesday, during Lady's Prayer Time in the hot, HOT sun on the terrace, I decided to look at it as such a good thing, because that's what it truly is. We've all come here from different situations and stages in life to learn more about our Lord and Savior and that's exactly what we've done. We've all changed and become more equipped to be strong warriors, servants, lovers and followers of Christ. This school has been one of the biggest blessings in my life and if I had to repeat the last year of painful stress I had to go through to get here, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Corny and mushy as this post is, it's alllll true and I love it. I can't wait to travel, meet new people and explore God's beautiful creation. I can't wait to go home, be a light in my family, my community and read the Bible with my sister (you too, parents). I can't wait to continue all the amazing friendships I've made with the incredible people in this place. All things are good, all things are good.

Trying to get a couple pictures up here

Castle in Alicante.

View from the castle in Alicante.

Lyndi and I at the castle in Alicante.

Bible School So Far

Hi People,

I just got back from Family Night, where my group (which consists of 3 fellow lady students, Dora, our adorable, little, old, Spanish cook, who speaks nooo english, and myself), went bowling! Two other family groups joined us and my entire room ended up being there, so we obviously got some good ole "roommie" pictures taken. Dora's little niece (nieta) came with us and she is HILAAARIOUSSS. Her laugh is a little bit like my joyfully retarded laugh, but a little sqeakier and funnier. It kills me. She also speaks no English, so every time she'd bowl, I'd just say, "Moy biennn, Dana!" It was a good time.

Other events this week...
We had a Rio Vida beach soccer tournament! Because we only have 6 guys her and we only had 6 teams, each one got one guy student, then either one of the principle's kids or one of our speakers for the week. It was wayyyy fun and I scored our first goal! We had USA, Canada, Spain, Argentina, Bolivia and Germany playing qualifying games on Monday. (We were Spain) On Thursday, we had semi-finals and finals. We placed 3rd behind Canada 2nd and USA 1st! Not too bummed. Beach soccer is way fun and we didn't get tooo many injuries. Amy did end up in the hospital with a fractured arm on the first day, but other than that, it was bruised feet and sore everything.

That's all I got for now. Oh, one of our speakers this week sounded like an old British rockstar and it was awesome. Till the next time I feel like updating this... Adios.

A Day in the Life... at Rio Vida

Holaaa,

I'm currently sitting in the conference hall on Karianne's mac, listening to the Mountain live on the internet. They're playing Bloody Sunday by U2 and I couldn't be happier to hear it. So far, I haven't become tooo homesick. I think some computer time every other day, listening to the Mountain and talking to the parents every couple days is doin' me pretty good. We'll see how I feel in another month. A MONTH! I'm here for a whole 'nother month, almost THREE! I can't believe it. Mary and I love it here and... I haven't said anything to the family yet, Mama, but if there's any way we can stay here longer, we have to. If we can hook a job somewhere, WOOF it on an olive farm on Corfu or a sunny vineyard in Southern Italy, it's happening. Lecture's starting up. See you later.

Castle Visit!

Yesterday, Saturday, the whole school walked down to the beach, caught the tram and headed for Alicante! We visited the ancient castle that sits high above, overlooking the city. It was beautiful and if I ever get a chance, I'll try to upload some pictures. After the castle, we were on our own to get back home before dinner. So we all split into different groups and scowered the city. We hit a little market, which was not nearly as cool as I hoped it would be, then sait in a little cafe for a while and drank hot chocolates and cafe con leches. Then it was time to head home to Dora's glorious, craaazy, Spanish cooking. The rest of the night with the school fam was awesome. Everyone crazy and exhausted from walking ALLL day made for tons of laughter and yoga with Gracie the living room, directed by Cam. Anyway, gotta share the computer. Till next tiiime...

We're in ESPANA!

Hellooo, we're finally to Rio Vida and it's LOVELY. 5 minute walk from the beach, full of wonderful, Christ loving people, pretty warrrm and just plain cool. It's so neat and so weird being here, it still hasn't quite set in. I'm borrowing a roommate's computer and suffering from jet lag so I'm actually going to take a nape before lunch here... I believe we are 7 hours ahead here, but we haven't really figured it out... We're a little willy nilly. I will try to update again soon with more information!

The Plan

First we fly into Heathrow and make our way to Stansted for the night. Next day we fly into Alicante, Spain, and start school! That lasts about 2 and a half months, then we're off on the second branch of our European adventure. Rail up the coast of Spain, through Valencia and Barcelona, go along the coast of France, through Montpellier and Nice. Next is Florence and maybe a couple towns around it. We end up in southern Italy to take a ferry over to Corfu where we will spend a good couple weeks before heading back to Italy for a train up to Paris. We'll stay a couple nights there, admiring the Eiffel tower and meandering through the Louvre, then it's back over to Heathrow and back home on the 25th of April.