Soulfood.

I want to tell everyone how sorry I am for not updating in WEEKS. Literally my life has been flying by. Let me start from the beginning. We went to Barcelona with a group of 15 people during the 3^rd weekend and all stayed in an apartment together in the middle of the city. Seriously, best thing ever. There were ten beds, so me and Tori had to share one, and we were all kinda crammed, but it was really cool hanging out with people I didn’t know quite as well. We bought a ton of food from the grocery store as soon as we got there and saved a ton of money by only eating out twice. We made Spanish tortillas and pizzas in the kitchen and almost burned the place down trying to figure out how to use the gas oven. We mostly chilled that afternoon, then went to this awesome show at a fountain downtown, I can’t really remember the name of it. The fountain like lit up and played music that went along with the water spraying 30 feet up in the air. It started playing DISNEY music in Spanish! Ahh I got so homesick. We danced around and sang and I was so happy! We explored this huge arena place after and rode a glass elevator up to the top where we could see views of everything! We ate at this rock restaurant called Happy’s and sat at a table that had Elton John’s golden bathtub under it haha. It was such a cool atmosphere they played live videos of the Red Hot Chili Peppers the whole time. So many memories flashed back! We walked home then went out to the Dow John’s bar, which was so cool. The drink prices were based on how many people were buying them and not buying them, just like the stock market! And it “crashed” after an hour and the prices got real low. So much fun. The next morning, Tori and I had a quiet time together, then her, Shane, Khan, Adam, Karee, and I all went to the Gaudí houses and rode on the open topped tour buses together and saw the Sagrada Familia and the Parque Güell. I love Gaudí’s work! He’s such a boss. We ate lunch on a park bench at this really cool pond that showed the whole front view of the Nativity scene of the Sagrada Familia. We all had dinner at home then went to see FC Barcelona play Sevilla. It was awesome; we all got to sit together and took pics in our jerseys and Shane turned 22 while we were there! We took a taxi to the Ice Bar, which I talked about in my previous post and I’m obsessed with. We walked on the beach and put our toes in the ocean to de-thaw them. Haha. The next morning, I had an amazing quiet time at Starbucks and then we went walking around Las Ramblas and saw the Catedral del Mar de Santa María. Tori and I saw this cute little art fest that all these little kids were doing; it made me so happy; they were all making tress out of wrapping paper and other crafty supplies. We rode in a cable cars and saw everything and ended up at some random castle. I love talking to Tori so much! We flew home early the next morning and I got to ride the super bus to Granada and they gave us cookies and had comfy seats. I missed class but that’s okay because I can miss four in a semester. That week was pretty uneventful but we left for Morocco at 3:30 am on Friday morning. I couldn’t sleep at all on the bus, then we took a ferry across the sea and got to Fez and stayed in a hotel after being on a bus for 13 hours. I got put with a rando I didn’t know so I crashed with Nadia and Khan. We walked around the city a bit and got lost and jeez the culture is so different! I can’t imagine studying abroad there. The next day they took us around the city and we went to a leather market where we could see the huge barrels of dye that they used to make all the bags a different color. We also went to spice shops and saw people weaving scarves and walked through the Medina, which is a huge market of 10,000 streets and alleys and dead ends and if you get lost you’re lost for life and dead basically. We hung out in the hotel that night then traveled all the next day and rode in this amazing SUV out into the desert with this crazy Moroccan man (They’re called Burr-Burrs) and we jammed the whole time to weird music and went 80 miles an hour through the desert over hills and bumps and sand. Freaking crazy. We got to our campsite and it was gorgeous; all the camp sites were connected and they had a huge tent for us to eat in and we were literally in the middle of millions of dunes and over the most spectacular star views I had ever seen. Wow. We are so small and God is so big! We hung out around a campfire and talked under the stars and cuddled in the tents on comfy cots under super thick blankets. The next morning, we were awoken by the Burr-Burrs to pilgrimage over the dunes to find the best view of the sunrise. Seriously, incredible. It reminded me of JH when we climbed the mountain to see it. So rewarding. I just sat in silence with Shane and Alysha and we marveled at the beauty. Photos can’t capture the fullness of the Lord’s glory that we saw displayed for us in the heavens. Humbling. After that, we had breakfast and went to ride camels! Ah. SO COOL.  They had these little saddles and they were all sitting down in lines. So I chose one in the line with Caiti, Kate, Lacey, Hilary, and Alysha. When they stood up, the camels leaned really far forward then far backwards and it was a little scary. Thrilling. And they walk slow and bouncy and it makes your inner thighs hurt like mess. But totally worth it! We rode for a least an hour with a Burr-Burr leading our line. Then we arrived at this giant dune and the Burr-Burrs pulled us off the camel and up the huge dune. We were exhausted! They were booking it up the hill and we were huffing and puffing and could barely make it haha. We finally made it to the top and you could see the whole desert! It was amazing. We stayed for a bit to slow our heart rates down then rode camels into town, where we went to a hotel and drank coke out of glass bottles while dipping our feet in the pool there. Then we walked through the desert back to camp and I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Nadia and Karee, sitting on the dunes and talking about life, and Nadia wrote a message and put in a bottle and we all three buried it together (which was actually quite difficult because the sand kept falling everywhere) in the Sahara desert. I hope someone finds it one day! That night, we all had dinner together (the food there is mostly cooked carrots and other vegetables, beans, bread, chicken, and cous-cous (sp?)) and some people played drums with the burr-burrs; it was so cool to see everyone’s talents. A few of us sat around the fire, and this guy played “The General” and “Free Fallin’” (It made me so homesick!) and we sang along. We all laid down under the stars and just marveled at it. I can’t believe how blessed I am to be able to do something like this. I never would have ever thought I’d end up in the Sahara desert looking at the stars with newfound friends from all over the country. Gosh it was surreal. I’m sorry if I keep saying that but I’m in love with this semester. We rode back in jeeps the next morning then hopped on the bus for another 10 hours to go to a different town and explored there a little and I got some souvenirs for people. I got to meet Khan’s friend who is studying abroad in Morocco, and she was super sweet and soft spoken and spoke in Arabic for us so we got some pretty sweet deals. We had an amazing dinner at the hotel and a fabulous breakfast the next morning, then loaded up on the bus for a lonngg ride home. Took the ferry again, and finally arrived home around 11:30/midnight. Then I woke up at 6:30 am to take a bus to the bus station, then to Málaga, then to the Málaga airport to fly to LONDON. Well, my flight got delayed because the plane was roto, so I had a 12 hour layover. Fun, right? It was a really bad experience. I honestly couldn’t have gotten through it without Adam calming me down on the phone for an hour and a half; he heard me at my absolute worst. He did everything he could to look up every alternate flight for me; there just weren’t any that would leave sooner/be cheap enough. I was just so upset that Will had paid so much money to come meet me and I would lose more than half a day with him. It sucked. Majorly. And on top of all that, AT&T hadn’t turned on his international calling, so I had no way of getting in touch with him to tell him what was up. So he waited at the train station for me for 3 hours with sunflowers… yeah, pretty awful. I felt so terrible. BUT… after finally leaving around 12:30 am and getting there at 3 and taking a night taxi for 40 pounds (freaking expensive) I arrived at our flat where we were staying with a lady in Wimbledon. (Her name is Jane; she lives alone with her two cats that just got neutered. Super cute.) It was amazing walking in the front down and seeing his tennis shoes on the mat. I couldn’t believe it. Seeing him that whole weekend was so rejuvenating for the both of us. I loved it so much. We made breakfast at her house every morning and walked to Starbucks, which we drank every morning (Toffee Nut latté, yes please). Gosh I miss Starbucks/large cups of coffee! We took the train and explored the city, mostly just walking around and enjoying each other’s company. We rode the London Eye, which I’m sure you’ve prob seen pictures of. It’s the big ferris wheel type thingy. We took a tour bus, which was almost impossible to find, to some of the major attractions, like we saw Big Ben and Parliament and a bunch of other stuff that I can’t remember the names of hahaha. We dressed up all snazzy on Friday night and went to a nice restaurant and went to this giant department store called Herrod’s. We had delicious waffles with chocolate syrup and whipped cream for 5 pounds. (London is SO expensive.) We bought scarves and fun fuzzy hats and went to an Arsenal game, which is on Will’s bucket list; so cool to get to experience that with my best friend. We bought a box of pizza and trekked to the nearest bridge, where we got to sit and witness fireworks for the 5^th of November. I cried as we talked and prayed together when I caught my bus to the airport. All in all, a great trip. Sorry it’s not more detailed; I can’t remember all the hilarious conversations we had/inside jokes/shenanigans/heart to hearts. It just rekindled my love for Will and reinforced how good/right he is for me. I’m so, so blessed sometimes, it overwhelms me. When I got home, I had midterms all the next week. And hadn’t studied at all haha. Once those were over, we went to the Alpujarras, which is a little pueblo in the mountains and went on a six hour hike and got ice cream bars and napped for three hours and had dinner then coffee at this local bar and I dominated at foosball with adam, shane and Shannon. Then we stayed up til 3 having deep conversations in our hotel. I have loved all the chatting we’ve been doing lately. I forgot to say that the Friday before, Nadia, Alysha, and I sat at a café for four and a half hours talking, about religion, boys, relationships with friends, family, everything. I was in love. I’m still in love with deep conversations. I realize that I thrive off them. I’m learning so much from the people around me. They have so many different backgrounds and experiences and have done things I haven’t and look at things in a new light and sometimes I agree with them and sometimes I don’t but we still just love each other so deeply and I want to see how deep we can go with the time I have left. I don’t want to leave here. I don’t. I’m sorry but I don’t. I know that may sound bad but my host family is amazing and I’m learning more about them every day and seeing more of Granada every day and meeting new Spanish people and seeing Spanish movies and studying the Bible in Spanish and going to tapas and connecting with people and figuring out why they think how they do and its just what I’ve always wanted. I feel very strongly that God isn’t finished with me in the whole learning Spanish department. I think He wants me to come back at some point. Idk. I’m seriously loving where I am right now and I am excited about seeing friends and family back home but my heart is breaking about leaving Granada. This has become my home. I can’t explain it. But anyways, this is getting long and I have to go to class and I hope nothing I’ve said makes you sad. I love you all, truly I do. Can we have deep convos when I get home? I need them. I want to know your hearts and how the Lord has rocked you this semester. I’ll be home at 11pm on Dec. 21^st. I can’t wait to see all of your amazing faces. Thanks everyone for the letters! And presents sent via Will. Y’all are so so sweet! If you want to see pictures, look at my Facebook! Send me emails! I love you all! :D besos!