Carnaval

Well, In the past week not too much has happened. I have been in Oviedo for the most part, just leaving for one evening to go to Carnaval in Aviles. Carnaval here is compared to Mardis Gras in the US. Here they normally have a parade, fire works, everyone dresses up, and then on top of that Aviles had foam. This was crazy because a bunch of people would dress up in rain suit and go play in it. It covered the streets, sometimes feet high! The only problem, it was WAY cold and not as much fun as what I thought it was going to be. But you have to learn about the culture some how!

Other than that, school is going well. I have had 2 tests in the past week and two this week. I'm a little bit more nervous for these. With God's help though, I will get through. I have found with my free time it is delightful to walk around the city. On nice days sometimes I will walk for hours! On the edge of the city there are some beautiful mountains! I also have been spending more and more time at the church here in Oviedo. These people are becoming my family away from home! I can not tell you how much God has blessed me with these friends in Christ! After the young people's service on Saturday we all went to McDonalds and had a blast getting to know all of them. It is cool because a lot of them want to practice English too...so I can learn Spanish from them and they can learn English from me!

Let's all Hike to Jesus!

This week there has not been a lot to update on. Classes are going well and I just took my first test today. It went well, I think except for one question I did not understand. The only exciting thing so far has been our hike to Jesus. There is a huge statue of Christ on top of one of the mountains that surrounds the city of Oviedo. A group from the University of Boston Mass was going to go up so we decided to join them. It was 6 hours, but well worth it. We stopped on our way to see two 1000+ year old churches which were really cool too! Other than that I am learning a lot. It was good to talk to my family the last few days since they have been snowed in! We are now planning a few trips close to Oviedo and are getting excited for Carnaval...Spain's Mardis Gras type celebration! It should be fun!

A Quick Visit to Paradise

Wow, where to start. I have had the most amazing week. I finished classes on Wednesday and then my friend Leslie and I went to the bus station to start our adventure to Malaga. We rode the bus to Madrid and then took a taxi to the airport. Our flight landed in Malaga at midnight and Laura Eller was there to pick us up. Since it was late we pretty much went strait to bed, but I was able to quickly skype my parents to let them know we arrived safely. Laura showed us our room and we were asleep in no time :)

The next morning we started our day off bright and early with a quick drive to Mijas. This cute tourist town is known as one of the Costa del Sol's "Pueblos Blancos," (white villages). It seriously looked like we were walking in Greece! We were able to see one of Spain's only oval bull fighting ring...from the outside, visited a few lookout points so that we could see the ocean, went to a small chapel built into a cave, and looked through a museum that told the history and culture of Andalusia in clay that one woman made. It was absolutely stunning! We took pictures of the "burro taxi's" and yes, that is what you are thinking it is!

We then drove through downtown Malaga and stopped at a castle monument to Columbus. It was cool to us because we had been learning about a lot of the art that they used in art class! Then we drove to the beach and walked along the Mediterranean Sea! Beautiful :) Then we drove back and had lunch...I have never been so excited to have Chili in my life! Laura is a great cook! We then hung out the rest of the day, we walked Josh to his music class and had Moroccan tea while we waited. It was a pretty cool experience!

The next day we again started off right after the kids went to school and went to Malaga's castle and walked through downtown. We went to Picasso's birth place and walked down the street performer street. We then went to Malaga's port to see the pirate ship they have docked there and when we got there we saw a real German Submarine! How often does that happen?!? We then headed back to the house and spent the afternoon hanging out, watching movies and enjoying relaxing and hanging out with the Eller boys!

On Saturday we slept in! Then we got up and headed to the beach! It was perfect weather and we had a blast walking in the surf and picking up a ton of Starfish! We flew kites, played paddle ball and had a picnic! Then we went to the new church building that they just moved to and helped get ready for the youth service they were having that night. We met a lot of really cool people and really had to use our Spanish for most of the night! There were some Chilean guys who came to give their testimonies and they loved us because we knew how to play Ultimate Frisbee. We wished that we could have played with them, but we had to leave :( They told us only American girls would play because every other girl is too afraid to break a nail! Haha! It was a great, but late evening! We didn't get back from church until 11:30 or Midnight! Then we had to wake up at 6:30 to catch our plane in the morning. We had an uneventful travel day back and made it back just in time for my host mom to make me Arroz a la Cubana con huevos fritos! I'll explain it when I get back! Now I'm back in classes and wishing I was in Malaga!