22 February: A Day in the Life

Hola!

Yesterday, after a long day of classes and our characteristically long lunch (of stew-it was super yummy) I met up with a random assortment of 6 of my compañeros and we officially decided to go to Budapest, Hungary. Plane tickets and three nights in a hostel have been purchased and we're leaving a week from tomorrow! I'm not going to lie, I was real stressed about the whole thing, but it should be fun! If nothing else, it'll be an adventure.

Afterward, I spent the afternoon with two girls I don't normally spend time with and it was lovely! We went to two cute little bookshops and then to a cafe (of course). Additionally, I went to Manómetro (my fav cafe) twice yesterday--and the same waiter is always there! When I walked in the second time, he exclaimed, "¡Mi niña!" and when he came to our table to take our orders later (I got a mini sandwich of shrimp and ali-oli for 1€!) he said, "Esta es tu segunda casa." This is your second home. Yes, sir, it is :)

The reason I was there the second time was that a few of us decided to start a mini connection group in Spain. It was so great to sit and chat about how we've been seeing God here in Cáceres and our spiritual goals for this semester, and more specifically, Lent, which starts today. What a blessing to have that fellowship here. One of the things we talked about was how many things seem to work out due to a very specific chain of events and how incredible it is to look back and see how if one thing was different, the outcome would have been completely different.

Afterward, I walked Christina home (because she doesn't like to walk to her house alone), but when we got there we stood outside her building for about 10 minutes and she was telling me about some stuff that had happened to her that afternoon. We were talking in English (about 60% of our conversations are) because of the nature of the conversation and all of a sudden this lady whips around in her tracks and gives us the strangest look, and then bursts out laughing and cries, "Oh my gosh ENGLISH!" In between spasms of laughter she chokes out, "I'm so sorry, I'm just so happy to hear English!" Turns out, she's from New York, and is living here, working at an English language school that her sister founded. Christina and I had JUST been talking about how we were looking for opportunities to volunteer in the community, so Christina tells the lady we'd love to help if they need anything at the school. Long story short, we now have all of her contact information and will hopefully be able to do something with that soon!

Here's the chain of events that leads to that: 1. Connection group goes much longer than planned, ends after 10 pm. 2. I know Christina doesn't like to walk home alone, so I offer to walk her, and she accepts since we're chatting. 3. Christina had a drama filled afternoon and so had lots to share. 4. We didn't spend the afternoon together like we normally do, so I hadn't already heard about her day. 5. It's not cold out, so we aren't bothered by standing outside at night. 6. We were talking in English. 7. That lady (her name is Niambi) walked home from a dance class down the street exactly in the ten minutes we were standing there.

SO many little things could have gone differently so that meeting didn't happen- but it did. We were giddy with amazement.

When I got home, Teresa made me a silver platter of pizza (I think there was goat cheese on it..), tomato salad, and bread and water with a special surprise- popcorn! I ended the night writing an essay on the couch in the living room where Teresa and Leondro were watching some Nazi movie. What a lovely day.

Today is El Miércoles de Ceniza, Ash Wednesday, so after another looooong day of classes, I was dreading more bacalao (my Catholic fam won't be doing much meat for the next 40 days, and cod is a popular substitute) but! Instead we had some white fish (I think some kind of perch?) that Leondro had caught that Teresa made with a yummy garlic sauce [side note: if when I say garlic sauce, you're thinking a cream sauce, think again and picture just olive oil and garlic and onions and stuff like that]. It was actually super good.

You'll be happy to know that I'm doing fairly well with my pan reduction diet (note: reduction, not elimination). Oh, and today I signed up for a Flamenco class. Yes, you read that right.

Today, I might pay for a trip to Las Fallas (a Valencia event in March-I'll tell you more about it later-specifically, if I go) and then head to misa (mass) with Teresa and a bunch of my compañeros tonight. Wooooo! A day in the life.

Praises to God for:
-fellowship
-His Word of Truth
-His planning and timing
-food
-health
-good weatherrr-- seriously, all the time
-beautiful beautiful Cáceres!

I love you! Hablamos pronto!