Christmas, Chanuka, cookies, cakes, carols, candy, chocolate, cleaning, choirs, castles, chicle, classes, celebration, canciones, creeping, calling....
Cannot believe all that December has brought!
To start, last thursday was such a glorious day when I got off the bus and saw my brothers standing, suitcases in hand, waiting for me to pick them up. Seeing their faces and hugging them, physically hugging them, was such a great feeling.
Since their visit I think we have done more sleeping in and eating than anything else. It's amazing that no matter how much time goes without being together, we can still act like our lazy selves...
It's really sad, the first place we went to eat at was a chinese restaurant and the second I took them to visit the Kebab King and my friends Jamel and Carmen at the tea place, turns out the brothers aren't too fond of kebabs:( nearly broke my heart! Thankfully Timo was nice enough to suggest going for tapas so my brothers and I acompanied him, April, Timo, and Dani for some yummy tapas. It was a good first experience of tapas for my bros. Other than that we didn't do much more but we did take a day trip to Malaga in which we attempted to visit a castle so we climbed forever long up a friggin mountain only to find out that as soon as we got to the tippy top they had closed the castle entrance 10 minutes before.... unhappy Foli. My sadness was turned to happiness when we got to go to the Picasso museum and look at artsy stuff, mainly picasso-y stuff. I am almost positive I left cross-eyed from staring at the paintings to long in attempts to figure out what they were.
Christmas Eve came way too quickly and I felt very unprepared. I was thankful to pass it with my roommates' family. They were a funny bunch and the food was delicious! We had a ton of food and desserts... mmmmmmmmm. Unfortunately, I had the worst asthma attack of my life and thought I was going to die:( not the happiest ending to my christmas BUT as we say here in Granada, "no pasa na'" I am good now... though the lack of oxygen to my brian culd posibly be detrimental...
well, this is just a quick update in honor of my brothers' visit. Tomorrow is their last day in Granada and we go up to Madrid together. From their we part ways and they go back to SoCal and I got to Dublin Ireland:)
As my brothers' stay comes to an end and I start dreading their departure I cannot but thank God for this time we had together.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Thanks to who?
Yay, it hasn't been too too long since I last wrote. So let's see... Recap time!
Thanksgiving came and went and my program coordinated a dinner for all of us. The unfortunate thing was that turkey was too expensive so they gave us pork, go figure. Regardless of the food it was great seeing everybody again because to be honest I have seen very little of the people in my program because I am constantly hanging out with my roomies or with people from church. Well, that night went very well but it had been a little over a week since I had been able to talk to parents and I was really feeling it especially when everyone started talking about going home to call their families. I went home under the same impression but once again when I called they were not home and I felt horrible. So of course I started bawling my eyes out and I was going to sleep when my dad called. I was so happy to see their faces but it was impossible to look normal and my aunt of course called me out and was like "I think she's crying! Are you happy?" I couldn't help but laugh when she said that. Anyway I got to talk to them after all and I felt better. The next day I had invited several friends over for a thanksgiving dinner and to keep myself from getting overly stressed I bought the turkey from a nice restaurant. Everything that night was wonderful and it served as a a nice reminder that I have a lovely family in Christ here in Granada. So much laughter and such great conversations. Well the night went off with little error( I say little because the first dessert I made was a fail so I made a different one really quick which came out great!) I went to bed that night with a smile, woke up the next morning with a horrible horrible stomach ache. When I went to talk to my roommate Maryla it turned out she was suffering too and she had thrown up. Well, all day I had been praying it had been from the fail dessert we were picking at before bed and because no one else told me anything I was relieved... However the next day I found out that EVERYONE had an array of food poisoning symptoms like diarrhea, stomach pains, vomiting, fatigue, etc. I was HUMILIATED. Thankfully, it wasn't anything I had made, after all I had only mashed potatoes and rice as sides. Needless to say I went and got my money back which wouldn't have been possible if Maryla was so awesome at dealing with things.
Aside from that sad dinner thing everything has been going well though I must be honest and say I miss my family like crazy. I miss the little things and the bigs things that go with this season. Thankfully one thing does not change and that is that Jesus is still the reason for this season and with or without my family it's a time to be thankful for the birth of the child that was to save our lives.
I have been extra grateful for my roommates because we have such good and dense discussions about faith and social topics and while our opinions may be so very different, we can talk without any bitterness or resentment and I thoroughly enjoy every single conversation. Especially with Rony who despite are incredibly BIG differences in opinion we talk and talk about what is important to us and we hear each other out. My roommates are some of the most tolerant people I have met:) Such blessings.
I can say that God has been faithful. I have been able to share my faith and He is constantly providing opportunities to make His name known. To be quite honest I used to be so scared to talk about my faith but God has definitely taken that fear and while my relationship with Him grows, my confidence only grows with it.
I love my life<3**sigh**
OK!READY!?!?!
Things I have learned!!!
116. My mom does so much during x-mas that I take for granted when I'm home
117. Homes don't smell like cookies unless there is someone baking them
118. Dominoes Pizza is addicting when you are craving crappy pizza
119. People will always let you down, but God will always be faithful
120. Never take an attack negatively but take it and learn from it to prepare yourself for a much greater battle.
Thanksgiving came and went and my program coordinated a dinner for all of us. The unfortunate thing was that turkey was too expensive so they gave us pork, go figure. Regardless of the food it was great seeing everybody again because to be honest I have seen very little of the people in my program because I am constantly hanging out with my roomies or with people from church. Well, that night went very well but it had been a little over a week since I had been able to talk to parents and I was really feeling it especially when everyone started talking about going home to call their families. I went home under the same impression but once again when I called they were not home and I felt horrible. So of course I started bawling my eyes out and I was going to sleep when my dad called. I was so happy to see their faces but it was impossible to look normal and my aunt of course called me out and was like "I think she's crying! Are you happy?" I couldn't help but laugh when she said that. Anyway I got to talk to them after all and I felt better. The next day I had invited several friends over for a thanksgiving dinner and to keep myself from getting overly stressed I bought the turkey from a nice restaurant. Everything that night was wonderful and it served as a a nice reminder that I have a lovely family in Christ here in Granada. So much laughter and such great conversations. Well the night went off with little error( I say little because the first dessert I made was a fail so I made a different one really quick which came out great!) I went to bed that night with a smile, woke up the next morning with a horrible horrible stomach ache. When I went to talk to my roommate Maryla it turned out she was suffering too and she had thrown up. Well, all day I had been praying it had been from the fail dessert we were picking at before bed and because no one else told me anything I was relieved... However the next day I found out that EVERYONE had an array of food poisoning symptoms like diarrhea, stomach pains, vomiting, fatigue, etc. I was HUMILIATED. Thankfully, it wasn't anything I had made, after all I had only mashed potatoes and rice as sides. Needless to say I went and got my money back which wouldn't have been possible if Maryla was so awesome at dealing with things.
Aside from that sad dinner thing everything has been going well though I must be honest and say I miss my family like crazy. I miss the little things and the bigs things that go with this season. Thankfully one thing does not change and that is that Jesus is still the reason for this season and with or without my family it's a time to be thankful for the birth of the child that was to save our lives.
I have been extra grateful for my roommates because we have such good and dense discussions about faith and social topics and while our opinions may be so very different, we can talk without any bitterness or resentment and I thoroughly enjoy every single conversation. Especially with Rony who despite are incredibly BIG differences in opinion we talk and talk about what is important to us and we hear each other out. My roommates are some of the most tolerant people I have met:) Such blessings.
I can say that God has been faithful. I have been able to share my faith and He is constantly providing opportunities to make His name known. To be quite honest I used to be so scared to talk about my faith but God has definitely taken that fear and while my relationship with Him grows, my confidence only grows with it.
I love my life<3**sigh**
OK!READY!?!?!
Things I have learned!!!
116. My mom does so much during x-mas that I take for granted when I'm home
117. Homes don't smell like cookies unless there is someone baking them
118. Dominoes Pizza is addicting when you are craving crappy pizza
119. People will always let you down, but God will always be faithful
120. Never take an attack negatively but take it and learn from it to prepare yourself for a much greater battle.
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