Segovia and Other Adventures

Wow! It has been a busy week for me! Last Friday night I went to get burgers with a few friends from an hamburgueseria. They were HUGE. We knew they were called "Gigantes", but we weren't entirely sure how big they were. In the states a huge burger isn't that big. A lot of people decided to share between two or three people. My roommate decided she wanted her own, so we each got one.

Needless to say, I didn't finish it all in one sitting. It was probably the size of four burgers. Whew!

NOTE TO FUTURE TRAVELERS: Gigante really means giant in Spain!

Saturday was super fun, we had our first excursion to Segovia. We saw the aqueduct and toured around the town a little bit. The town was beautiful. We had an awesome opportunity to tour the Alcázar of Segovia too. It was the first time I had ever been in a castle! Although it wasn't entirely in the original condition because of a fire in 1862, it had been restored. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were married in this castle, they lived here for a little while, and it served as a state prison for some amount of time. Seems like a pretty versatile place. It had been taken over by both Muslims and Christians at different points, but the decorations and the artwork have a very strong Muslim influence. Super beautiful.

On Sunday there was a Party for the Nations at our church. It was kind of like a pot-luck style dinner where everyone brought a dish that was from their country for others to sample. My roommate and I decided we wanted to make seven layer bars. FAIL. Spanish ovens are very different. We knew it was in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit and we were prepared for that, but we didn't know that Spanish ovens work in sections. There are three settings: top, bottom, both. Apparently we had it on top because it was burnt to a crisp on the top, but barely even cooked on the bottom. Now don't ask me why you would only want to cook the top of something, but ok whatever. I just do not understand that setting. Anyway, we had a lot of fun at the church and met a lot of new people. One lady shared her testimony with me. She was married at one point, but somehow became HIV positive and her husband no longer wanted anything to do with her. Through the process she was saved and God finally blessed her with a new husband who she is so in love with. What a great reminder of God's sovereignty. LOVE TESTIMONIES!

This week was really busy with coffee dates and planning for my spring break trip. Right now I am looking at touring through Switzerland, Italy, and Greece with a friend or two. We are super excited. We pretty much have Switzerland and Italy planned out, but Greece is actually a new addition to the trip. We want to walk Paul's footsteps and visit some of the places he visited on his secondary missionary journey. We will probably be in Greece for about a week, but aren't sure yet if we want to do join a planned tour through some sort of program so we can learn as much as possible, or if we want to just do our own thing while we are there and study it ourselves. If any of you have any suggestions or know of any resources or people who could help us out let me know!

I am still praying about what God will have me doing this summer, too, if you would like to be in prayer with me for that :)

Praise God for traveling companions!

Thinking of you all!