post-Salamanca

A delightful Tuesday to you! (Or whatever day of the week it might happen to be when you read this!)

This past week, as usual, has been an absolute blast -- full of lots of fun activities and not a whole lot of sleep :) Tuesday we hit a bowling alley and VIPS for dinner. Wednesday was the Real Madrid soccer game! We met up at Burger King before to eat and chill, and then headed over to the game. The game wasn't that great -- I think RM knew they were gonna win so they didn't push themselves to play very hard -- but they did win, it was fun to be in the stadium, and I had a great time with my friends.

Thursday we had Bible Study, and just before it started, I received a very exciting phone call from my mother -- she's gonna travel with me at the end! I'm so incredibly excited that I can't hardly contain myself. Friday I headed over to a travel agent and bought us some tickets from Madrid to Prague and then from Rome to Madrid. We have 12 days between the flights, during which time we will take trains to view other places -- probably Vienna, Munich, Venice, and Florence. Friday evening I went over to the Pastor's house with all the youth and we ate pizza (yummy!) and watched The Recruit in Spanish... it made a lot more sense this time, because when I watched it in English, I didn't get to see the first 20ish mins.

Saturday, the Furman group headed off to Salamanca, a small town about 200kms north of Madrid. It was colder than it's been since we've been here, and rainy most of the time we were there, but Marisa (our Art & Civ prof) was our tour guide, and she's wonderful! We saw the 2 cathedrals (aptly named "Old Cathedral" and "New Cathedral"), the University of Salamanca, several other buildings from the outside. We stayed the night, and with the time change, I got a full 8 hours of sleep... I don't think I've gotten that much in one night since I arrived in Spain! On Sunday we saw 2 convents, one of which sells Almond cookies to make money -- reminds me of Butter Letter that I haven't had in ages!

We arrived back in Madrid around 5:30, and I headed off with my pals to church. It was Youth Sunday, and it was great to participate in the service that was run by our friends and to hear them sing the songs we had practiced with them. We had dinner together afterwards, and next thing you know, it's Monday!

We have a paper due in Theater in 5 mins that I had to work on last night, but other than that, this week looks to be a fairly slow one. Something tells me, however, that plans will come up and I will have plenty to share come next Tuesday!

You can continue to pray, if you would, for travel plans as there's still plenty to be done. Also, just that God would make His Word come alive in my life.

And one more thing -- the father of the little girl who lives with me died suddenly last Friday. He wasn't married to her mother (who also lives with me), but it's still hard on them. Please pray for me as I minister to them in this hard time, that they would see the Love of Christ, and that if it be His will, that He would draw them to Himself through this trial. Thanks!

Soli Deo Gloria...