October 8 - October 14

October 8, 11:50pm

"Mata a tus idolos." Kill your idols.  Saw it on my way to
the colegio and though of 1 Cor. 10:14.

Really quick.  So I went to my internship and helped grade the science quizzes for people who were absent, then sat in my anthro class where I discovered that, once again, I did the wrong reading.  After eating lunch and hurriedly putting together my presentation on ETA for Spanish class, I walked out the door and everything was going great until I turned onto the less-sunny street and this random guy on a bike starts being a major creeper and I totally couldn't shake him, then he started talking to me and I finally got rid of him when I turned onto the main road where I knew it would be wide open with lots of people.  And there were just too many random males cat-calling me today.  What do I have to do, look all meek and keep my head down in order to avoid that?!  I never respond, but I always walk chin-up facing the world unless my nose is buried in a book.  Stupid men.  Leave me alone.

Anyway, we had a heated first hour in Spanish class as we discussed perceptions, racism, and uneducated comments.  Then I came home and realized I left my sweater at IES...which will make for a cold walk tomorrow morning!  Eek.  Haha!

October 9, 11:50pm

I am lacking motivation to do my homework.  I've just been feeling really tired.  I long for more time to spend cultivating friendships and such with people here and it's frustrating that I don't even think I have the time to join choir here or play Ultimate Frisbee.

Policemen on horses.  Why not?

On the plus side of today though, I think teaching went relatively well in my English class even though I had a minor freakout when Pablo asked me to teach math while he did some other stuff.  At first I epic-failed while correcting homework because I couldn't maintain their attention, but later Pablo came back and I observed and then got a second chance and redeemed myself somewhat, haha.  He invited me to go out with him and some of our coworkers and/or his friends sometime in the future, which I thought was odd but apparently is very common here according to my seminar professor.  And what I'm super excited about is the opportunity to sing and lead worship on Sunday at the English service for CFC!  And I mentioned it casually to Jeff and he wants me to write an article about it and have pictures taken for the IES news that gets sent out!  What a cool opportunity to share a little of what I believe!

October 11, 8:50am

My cappuchino at the cafetería!

Yesterday I had an interesting time at my internship loving all the cute things the kids were doing (Danny, Alex...).  I was really tired all day though for whatever reason and basically checked out in my anthro class.  Beforehand though Aurora and I had a great time trying to play guitar together and I printed all the songs I get to sing for the English service on Sunday.  I am so excited for this opportunity and just pray that I would not be doing this for myself but for God and it would have nothing to do with me.  The band will consist of me, Jenny, Tito, David, and Simón, so a great group.  :)  We're all practicing slash just having a great time tonight which I'm super excited for.

In Spanish yesterday Antonio took us all to a cafetería for some coffee and to play telephone.  It was good that we got out because most of us were just completely checked out and exhausted.  It's going to be a pretty crazy weekend with random stuff to do but I'm trusting God's hand in all of this and that it will all be incredibly awesome and beautiful in His sight.

October 12, 5:13pm

The Río Genil from a different perspective.

I know this is late.  Anyway yesterday at internship I learned that I need to make sure I understand all of what is said and not just a part and guess the rest, and if I don't know, to then ask.  Pablo had asked me something and I stood around like an idiot before realizing he was basically explaining what he was going to do.

Anyway, Jenny is back and I'm so happy!  We had lots of time together yesterday, which I loved, after Spanish class while jamming with Tito and Simón at CFC.  That was such an incredibly awesome night of community.  I am really started to feel like this group here is my church family away from church family (I'm thinking of CCM in Monteverde mostly).

Investigating our neighborhood a little bit.

Today Carli, Mario, and I did our investigation in Zaidín together and got to do an interview of sorts with a lady we ran into named María and asked a quick question to.  She took us all around and was so nice with us.  We learned that Zaidín has a "priveliged" part and a "barrio" part but that by "barrio" it's not "worse", just closer and more neighborly.  Tonight we have for la reunión de jóvenes a walk around lesser-walked routes of Granada!

October 13, 11:45pm

La Alhambra around 7pm at night.

Me and Tito cooking in the kitchen.

The walk with all the girls plus Simón and Ángel yesterday at the reunión de jóvenes was awesome.  There was so much beauty to be seen, and we went to some places that I plan on returning to like Carmen de los Martires and a lookout point for La Alhambra.  It was super fun, and then afterward we went to a tetería for tea, crepes, and schwarma, and I had a crep de chocolate con nata.  Afterward, Jenny and I went to Tito and Cristy's apartment for real dinner and a movie called "In Time" and we stayed awake and chatted until around 3:30am.  We all got up around 11am and by 11:30 had a breakfast of gallo pinto, torta de huevos, tortillas, and avena to drink, and it was like being in Latin America and I was sooo happy.  I miss eating like that so much.  Afterward we hung around and listened to music before going to the supermarket to get groceries for their week and we spent like a couple hours in there.  Then Jenny and I left and I've been trying to work on homework in between trying to catch up with my family but I've been feeling a severe lack of motivation.  Maybe tomorrow in siesta I'll feel like working...haha.

October 14, 11:31pm

Left to right: Simón, Ene, me, Jenny, Tito, and David at CFC.

After a wonderful morning leading worship with Jenny, Tito, David, and Simón for the English service (and reherasal where I struggled singing the whole song "How Great is Our God" in English instead of Spanish and Daniela had to remind me) I half-shot my voice but met so many awesome internationals and it was just incredibly blessed.  I didn't spend too much time at home before I quickly ran away to church again for the evening and met even more people (and was told by a 15-year-old name Cristian that I look/speak like I'm from Portugal.  Epic fail, but I suppose it's better than being called American).

So, overall:  I feel like I got very little work done this week, all I want to do is my internship with the colegio and/or actually do something for a change with my supervisor for AINDESOS because I've been trying and my schedule is just too full even without adding in church.  I just want to do ministry all day all the time.  Seriously, can I just drop my anthro class and cut my Spanish hours in half?  Okay, I'm tired.  Bed.  Yes, I think that's probably a smart idea.  God grant me some rest soon.