September 5 (well, 4) - September 7

September 5, 4:30pm

View from the balcony from our hotel room in Málaga.

I am so exhausted!  I flew from Chicago to Madrid and then Madrid to Malaga and so from the time I woke up at 7am on Monday I didn't sleep until around 11pm-ish on Tuesday (last night).  Then I was up around 7am today and we've had information meetings all day.  Now I'm on my way in a bus to Granada to meet my host family.

I took this picture of a cathedral in downtown
Málaga while sitting at a table outside a
tapas bar, no food, no drink, all weird, haha.

It's been very dry here towards the south.  There apparently has been no rain since May.  The mountains look all scrubby and are speckled with a tree or two every 100 meters or so, really spaced apart, and so the mountains look brown.  Malaga is a coastal city and we were taken to a beach and a restaurant for lunch yesterday that ended at like 4:30pm, then around the city to explore at 7:30pm.  It's cool because the ground is all like marbled so it's slippery but such a comfortable (albeit humid) temperature that it feels like it's indoors.

I've met lots of IES students already and I am especially glad to have run into three Christians names Nathan, Matthew, and Carli.  I hope to be able to have awesome community with them and to strengthen my relationship with God here.

September 6, 8:05am

Driving to Granada past mountains and hundreds of
olive tree plantations.

I met my host mom Choni and sister Paola (21) last night, along with two primos (cousins) Jesús and Miguel who stayed over for the night.  My room is like a dorm room, like a really nice one.  The whole house (apartment really) is nice!  We ate dinner at like 9pm-ish and then I proceeded to fail at showering as I couldn't turn it on for a good half hour until Paola told me what I should and shouldn't do, haha.  Sunrise happened around 7:30am and now I'm just waiting for breakfast and then leaving at 8:30am to go to...somewhere.  Paola is taking me I think haha.  My house isn't on the map hehe, so yeah this will be interesting.

My room!

Driving here yesterday there were so many olive tree plantations, and teak or some other sort of wood.  Like TONS, like that's almost exclusively all I saw when it came to what little greenery there was.  It was kind of frustrating and yet awe-inspiring because it was so different from Costa Rica.




Lord, help me to be patient and humble.  Help me to embrace life here and give Spain a chance, even though I love Costa Rica more.  Please guide me and be more present than before in my heart and mind and life.

September 7, 3:45pm

Outside my house/apartment.

Yesterday was really long and I went to bed at like 10pm because it was so tiring.  My Spanish/orientation class went from 9am to 2pm-ish, then I walked home for lunch/siesta, then I had to walk all the way back to IES/Plaza Nueva for buying a SIM card for my phone.  I'm grateful Paola helped me get to IES this morning; it's a straightforward walk but it does take a half hour.  At least I'm not climbing uphill the whole way?  Haha!  But I usually didn't mind when I was in Costa Rica.

River on my way to IES.

Anyway, it's ridiculously hot here, almost all the time, and they say I'll be freezing come mid-October but I am really starting to doubt that.  There hasn't been a single drop of rain here since May and it's pretty stuffy outside.  The clouds tend to hang out around the mountains; it's really sunny.  The sidewalks and even main streets for people that are too narrow for cars are cobblestone or some sort of other smooth material, and it's very much a city here.  I can't wait to finally see some green tonight when we go to La Alhambra.

City hall near the IES building.

Today I had Spanish/orientation class again and we had the chance Carli, Jessica, Eileen, Jenny, and I to kind of discuss hanging out more and doing tapas and things like that on our way home today for siesta.  I'm so happy to have met such strong Christ-followers and it was so fun talking to them and interviewing Spaniards for class with them.