December 3 - December 9

December 3, 11:55pm

Yesterday night, Carli, Mario, and I finished our anthro paper finally!  Such a good feeling!  To celebrate, Carli, Jenny, and I went out dancing and we all came back probably a little too late from Granada 10...seeing as we all had classes today.  But it's okay.

I'm a little fed up with anthro, actually.  The class is divided, it feels like, between the people who actually did the project and the people who faked it.  Furthermore, Isabel keeps complaining about all of us not paying attention in class when the reality is that, at least on my part, we are.  I have no clue what she wants from us and she's never given me a concrete answer for that.

Well, in general today has just been a normal day.  I did get tea afterward with Jessica and Kassie and it was nice to just sit there and have Kassie vent and also talk about things that have been on her heart.  I pray that when we go back to school that she, Jessica, and I will all remain close and even grow closer, and also that we grow closer as sisters in Christ.

December 5, 8:50am

Evening time in a pretty section of Zaidín.

I taught a pretty good English class yesterday where a little more than half the class understood what has happening, which is above average.  They have an exam on Monday; I hope that they study.  As of tomorrow I only have a week left with them...WHAT!?  I feel like they're mine; I don't want to leave them!  Seeing Ruben yesterday all bundled up too was the cutest thing ever because he's so ridiculously short.

In seminar a UGR professor came in to talk about the role of women and stereotypes in the media, which was all right, and afterward Ari talked to me about my grade on the mock interview (pretty good), and then I went to Spanish class, which was a rigorous grammar class the whole time.  It was exhausting but worth it in my eyes, no matter how much I may not have been up for it.  Afterward I just went home talking with Jessica and Kassie the whole time, laughing.  I feel good about my work; I'm almost done with all my projects/essays, half a week early, so I'm looking forward to a more-relaxing puente hopefully spent enjoying Granada!

December 6, 7:03pm

Gah, I've been doing awful with this journaling thing lately.  Super sorry.  So, yesterday in a nutshell: New interns came (but they're only here until January) and when one of my girls Carolina asked how long I'd be there and I said I'm leaving the colegio next week, the classroom went dead silent and Caro just exclaims "¡Joder!" (basically a swear word) and we all burst out laughing.  I nearly teared up; she was the first one whose name I learned, and I realized that even though sometimes it doesn't feel like it, I've made a difference in these kids' lives.

Christmas in Plaza Bibramblas.

Later on Kassie and I got coffee together and chatted a ton, and in Spanish class we all went out for churros con chocolate and to see all the Christmas lights turned on finally.  After that, I got tea with Abina and tried to be supportive to her (God has given me a heart for her little by little), and I also exchanged numbers with my favorite worker there so we can get coffee before I leave here.  After that, Jaime, Alberto, Carli and I went and took free salsa lessons from David, and then all five of us bar-hopped (not drinking, just dancing) all night.  I got to talk to David about God and share special moments with everyone.  SO BLESSED!  Aaaah I can't even begin to describe how ecstatically happy I am, how invigorating it is to have such deep and important conversations like that with people at the strangest times and realize that God is doing a work in them, that they too are precious in His sight and matter so flippin' much.  I love people!  Haha!

Today I woke up super late, but finished a draft of my seminar paper (yay!) and also played with my host mom's son's son Hugo when they came over for lunch.  What a cutie pie!  At first he was super shy (like always) but then really opened up to me.  I had such a blast with him.

December 9, 10:00am

Me and Natasha.

Where the heck do I even start.  I had a great Thursday night of sharing time with Natasha and getting to just get excited with her about things God has been doing in our lives and showing us.  After hanging out with her over tapas and computer chess, I walked with Carli (after discovering I had made wrong turns and needed to go back) to go salsa dancing, and we all highly enjoyed it as usual because we learned so much and even got to make new friends like Adri.

Friday I got half my mini-essay done for anthro that we didn't have to start yet because we haven't finished the movie, so I felt very ahead of the game.  That night I went out for tapas with Kassie and Jessica and then went to visit Jaime with Alberto afterward since he said he wasn't feeling good.  We watched a random episode of some sort of hoax-y magic show and I fell asleep on the couch.  You can imagine my panic when I woke up the next morning at 1pm and realized a) I wasn't in my own house, and also b) that nobody had woken me up.  We are supposed to call our host families if for whatever reason we're not coming home that night or not coming home for lunch.  I woke up Jaime and Alberto and told them I was leaving; they drove me instead home.  Obviously, when i got there, my host mom was furious (as any parent would and should be) and basically I was sent ot my room without lunch.  I felt terrible because I knew what I had done was a huge lack of respect for her and also a technical breach of contract.

Left to right: David, Cristian, Zoraya, me, and Carli at CFC.

Later on I tentatively went to spend an hour with Adri to do language exchange for our mutual practice, which was fun, and then I got dinner with Abina, went to the CFC for a going away party and to spend time with my friends there, and then went dancing and learned new steps as well as learned my first chachacha thanks to David (who, sadly, leaved for Madrid tomorrow).