George Clooney.

I have a weekend free to stay here in Granada, so I decided to update. It’s been fabulous already because we’ve just chiillllledddd. I’ve realized that it’s my favorite thing to do in the world: sit in a café, sip a coffee, read or journal, and talk. I’ve been chatting a lot with my friend Maggie all this week; she goes to Raíces and graduated from Univ of Wisconsin. We met up at this neat little vegan café called Manila on Tuesday and Thursday morning for café con leche y crepes. ¡Delicioso! We’ve been talking a lot about how guys think about girls and self esteem and how España is all about looks and that we don’t like it, haha. [Sidenote about that: seriously, y’all would die if you saw it. Everyday I see flaca (skinny) Spanish women with dark, long, straight, gorgeous hair wearing HIGH HEELS and pushing their baby strollers! It’s nuts! Their make up is all done perfectly and their ropa is so stylish and beautiful. And they just freaking had a baby. No lo entiendo.] Anyways, I really adore talking to this girl because I feel like she really cares what I have to say and I sorta have wisdom on some of the things she’s dealing with, because I’ve been there. Idk. It’s hard to explain without getting too personal. She told me that she really feels like she’s learning from the stories and ideas and thoughts that I’ve talked about; it’s all just insight that the Lord has revealed to me over the years. I really love it. It’s helped me to reaffirm what Will says is my spiritual gift: that I’m good at talking to people. [I’m not trying to sound braggy. I didn’t know He had even given me one for a long time.] The Lord has just been telling me I need to work with students. (eek!) I’m not sure who, when, where, or how, but maybe in the future, opportunities will arise! Please be praying for her this week because her stepmom just had her baby 25 weeks premature. I haven’t heard any new news but I hope the baby is okay! 

Rapid change of subject: The Lord has provided me the COOLEST opportunity recently. I’ve been doing some volunteering with disabled people in this residencia close to my house, mostly just talking with them and occasionally pushing them around in the street and taking them places. One of the ladies told me the other day that they had a physical therapist that came daily to their residencia to treat patients. I asked Maria, the lady in charge and she said it would be fine for me to come observe him. So, Friday, I got to go to the clinic and see him work with patients! AMAZING. You don’t understand how happy I was. He only spoke Spanish, but he had a student doing hours there from Italy who knew English and translated for me whenever there was a term I didn’t understand. How cool is that? I really, really, really love it. There’s so much I want to learn! Like the medical vocabulary, treatment plans, theories, everything. I know it’s kinda creepy, but I used my phone to video what they were doing for probably about 30 minutes. Literally, I’m obsessed. I wish there was a way that I could come back to Spain and do this more. I figured out from my schedule though that I should be able to shadow him for about 20 hours for the rest of the time I’m here, which is incredible, that in the short period I have left, I can get in such a good amount of observation hours. The Lord is so good to me! Just thinking out loud here, I can’t imagine how different my life would be without Him in it. Traveling to Mexico with my church after my senior year gave me the desire to learn the Spanish language. Then having my accident during my sophomore year of college and breaking my hip introduced me to the world of physical therapy; I realized how much I love it and would want to possibly pursue it as a career. Now, I’m studying Spanish in Spain and getting to shadow a physical therapist. Without God’s hand and timing in all of this, I don’t know where I’d be! He makes all things work together for our good! Remember those words in the future, whenever a situation seems bad or hopeless or unjust, that God is still there, holding your hand and has a greater plan in mind. Though we may not be able to see it at the time, He knows what’s best for us and allows us to endure struggles and often difficult experiences in our lives for very specific reasons. It gives me such hope! J But anyways, I’m going to go back to the residencia every Tuesday and Thursday morning to shadow, so I won’t be able to have coffee with Maggie and Alysha and Nadia during that time anymore, which is a little sad. We’ll just have to find a new time! On Thursday night, I went to see a Spanish movie with Adam, Shane, and their friend Luise called Mientras Duermes. Ummm absolutely terrifying. Here’s the trailer for it if you want to see a little of what I experienced…

On Friday, Raíces had a talent show, which sounds lame, but was so much fun. I didn’t realize how talentoso some people are! Ashlee sang Alicia Keys and Adele and just blew all of us away! Luisme danced the Flamenco, which was balllllin’ and Maggie sang and Lauren read poetry she had done in her creative writing class and Priya played the violin and Tori said the alfabet in a really interesting way… hahaha. I’m obviously not musically inclined, so they asked me to share some of my photography and I printed like 10 pictures up and put them up on the wall to display J some Spanish girls told me they looked like “postales.” (postcards) I was super tired afterwards so went to bed early. Then yesterday, Caiti and I went to the market, which is this place where people sell all these name brand clothes for super cheap. Kinda sketchy, we don’t know how they do it! I got  like 12 sweaters/shirts for 24 euros hahahaah. They’re from like Zara and Pull and Bear, which are superrrr nice European stores! Can’t wait to wear them. We had to basically dig through piles and piles of clothes to find styles we liked without holes and the right size. Pretty exciting haha. Then I went running and took a shower then went to a coffee shop with Caiti for the afternoon to read my Bible and talk and journal. Maggie met up with us and talked for a bit, but we mostly just had a chill afternoon. Eloisa talked with us for a long time at dinner about speaking Spanish and how her dad and Dario are the same and different movies and actors and how guapo certain ones were. She was describing one of them to me, and I forgot his name as soon as she asked me who he was, (Doesn’t that always seem to happen?) and so later I remembed it haha. This video is after our conversation when I remembered his name and Dario surprises me hahaha. Please watch it!
 http://youtu.be/SnZ0-n5KwF8 (This is where the title of my post comes from! Soooo watch it.)

Well that's about all I have to update about! I miss everyone so much! I'm excited to announce that I'll be living with Liz in an apartment my senior year. It should be super fun. I'm excited to get to know her even better :D Also, we just bought plane tickets to Germany! I'll be there from December 6 to 10! Should be super fun. We're flying into Munich, seeing the Disney castle, and leaving from Berlin. It's me, Adam, Karee, and Shane, and we'll meet Khan in Berlin. (P.S. If you haven't seen Karee's blog, it's adorable. Please look at this one post if you have time: http://kareeanderson.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/37-warning-this-post-is-too-cute/ She's a wonderful writer and her little sister will make your heart melt. ) The high is supposed to be 30 degrees F. I'mma freeze my fanny off hahaha. But it will be wonderful traveling with people that have the same attitude as me and want to relax but still see everything. I think it'll be great. 

Okay well I love you all! Can't wait to be home for Christmas.