Manuel.

The last few days have been hectic! I had a 5 page spanish paper due about Chile. Yeah... we're in Spain and our teacher assigned us papers about Latin America. I don't understand it. I finally finished it and turned it in this morning... Now I think I'm about to take a nap. Our host day just banged on the door and came in our room while I'm in the bed and gave us pudding with whipped cream and said, "In España, it is okay to get a little fat." jajajajajajaja. I'll work out when I get home. We had paella for lunch and talked about in Chinese restaurants they cook gatos y perros. (broma, broma)

Anyways, Priya asked Tori and I to lead Girl's Bible Study this week! We met up and went through the second half of Colossians 3 and talked about it together. It's about how wives should submit to their husbands. Something I've always kinda breezed over is that says, "Husbands should love and respect their wives." So basically the verses go hand in hand; it's not some type of controlling relationship where the husband has all the power. I also love that the Bible relates this to how Christ loves the church. It's the same with our relationship with God: in the Word, He has given us certain rules for living and wants us to fully submit our lives to Him. He isn't trying to control us or make us feel constrained; rather, He loves us and respects us and He truly wants what is best for us, which is HIM. I don't know why I spend so much time running from Him in the past. I never want to be controlled; I always desire freedom and being able to choose what I want to do. The thing is, there IS freedom in Christ; He desperately wants us to know that the life He has in store for us is so much greater than any life we could dream up on our own. So when I say, "Father, let Your Will be done," it may seem like I'm giving up my freedom. But in reality, what He is offering me, the ability to be used by Him for His kingdom to impact the lives of people around me and actually make a difference in this world, is SO much better than me trying to live out of my own selfish desires. This is pretty much what Tori and I talked about on Tuesday, with some other parts of the chapter as well. (You can read it here in the version I have, NLT. Click it. ;) 

Yesterday, ISA took us to a really pretty park up near the Alhambra. There were peacocks walking around and fountains and gorgeous trees and shade and yellow leaves falling all around and basically it was gorgeous. I really enjoyed hanging out with Shannon, Karee, and Nadia. We're planning to take pictures around Granada on Friday afternoon. 

Now here are some pictures from Sevilla and Córdoba last weekend! I got to watch the Alabama Auburn game in a TexMex bar! It was so fun. Shane explained to me lots of cosas about football and is now a Crimson Tide fan. Haha. Our group got to see the cathedral and climb to the top of the bell tower and explored the Plaza de España and walked through the barrio of Santa Cruz and got chocolate covered crepes w/ bananas. Loved Sevilla. The main thing in Córdoba is the mezquita (mosque) which is absolutely incredible. It was actually probably my favorite monument/church I've seen because it was made by the Moors, but then the Christians came and cut it right down the middle and made the alter area all Catholic-y. So it's like a combination of the two. Super cool. Our (very silly and cute) tour guide told us that if they hadn't of added this part, the mezquita would have been destroyed, just like all the other hundreds of ones that were burned down during the Reconquista by the Christians. 

 If you make it bigger, you can see that it says Granada!

 The mezquita

Being silly. 

With Karee.

And here my friends, finally, is where the title of this post comes from. This is Manuel. He has some kind of problem where he can't talk. He just says, "Nahnahnahnahnah." But he can actually walk; he just uses his wheelchair sometimes. Which I forgot about. So today, when he peeked his head around the corner into our clinic to say hello, I pretended to karate kick him while he was sitting in his wheelchair. And he looked at me, then promptly stood up, and started chasing me around the physical therapy clinic. Oh my gosh I was laughing so hard. He couldn't run, so he was just slowly stepping around and of course couldn't ever get close because I can move way faster, but gosh everyone was cracking up. I seriously love shadowing. Sadly, I don't have a video of the "chase," but here's one of him so you get a better idea of what he's like. [Note: I don't want this video to make you sad. I think he's pretty happy at the residencia. There are some people that work there who can understand what he wants.]

Gosh he is adorable. Haha. Working with old people is so fun. I love you all! Munich and Berlin in less than a week!