Ronda and Sevilla!

These are where our latest excursions have been! Ronda is a beautiful place, famous for it's gorge or "tajo" in Spanish. Sevilla is most famous for it's cathedral, which is the third biggest in the world.
We had fun at Ronda, it was just a day trip, but nice to get away from the camp for a bit. Basically we just saw the gorge and then went shopping. It's a pretty touristy area because of the gorge, so they had some good stores. We went to the bull ring too, but it cost money to get in, so we didn't see that. We didn't really do much, it was just more of a relaxing trip for us.

We did climb down the gorge part of the way... which was kind of funny because we were all wearing really cute sandals that were terrible for hiking. But it's ok. Nothing broke. I found a really cool hole, though.

Sevilla was exciting... probably one of my favorite trips. It wasn't nearly as relaxing and we walked for hours, but we had a blast. First we saw the cathedral, then we walked around some gardens by the Plaza Espana. The Plaza Espana was pretty exciting because (besides the fact that they filmed some scenes of Star Wars there, which is not very significant to me because I don't even think I have seen that movie,) there are little mural thingys with for all of the provinces in Spain. So I took a picture with each of them that I have been to. That was fun. Later we went to the shopping area, which was a little too high class for us, so we took a little break before we headed across the Triana bridge to find a tapas restaurant. The one we found was EXCELLENT and had the best sangria I've ever had. It was a great authentic Spanish culture experience for the girls from Nebraska. We spent the night in a hostel and on Tuesday we finished up our list of sights. We stopped by Torre del Oro as we headed to the Plaza de Americas where you can pay a euro to feed pigeons. Man, was that an experience. They never landed on my head, thank goodness, but at one point Kaylee and Anna each had a pigeon on their heads. We did get pretty scratched up from them landing on us, though. Totally worth it.

Let's see, from there we headed up to the San Leandro Convent to test out some authentic "yemas", as Sevillan treat. When you go to the convent there's this little window and when you ring the bell they say to you "Ave Maria Purisima" and you respond with "Sin pecado concebido" and ask for what you want. You put your money on the turnstile and spin it for the nun to pick up on the other side and on your side  you recieve your treat. It's an interesting exchange. Thank goodness for the internet, or we wouldn't have had a clue! Next we found a plaza with a whole bunch of fountains in it that we ran through because it was very refreshing after so much walking, which brought us to the closure of our trip. We headed back on the bus and returned to life at camp.
This week GBU is here for camp. GBU is the same organization that my Bible study in Valladolid was through, so I know a few of the people. There are only a few here from Valla, but I know some of the people from that conference I went to in February or March or whenever that was. It's exciting to be around people our age again and to see some "old" friends. Everyone is new these days.

I'm ready to come home, but I am trying to keep myself present here. God still has me here for a reason, so I'm trying to focus on that. I will have plenty of time to be home when I am home and then I'm sure I will miss it here. Please pray that I can keep taking advantage of being here while I am still here.

See you all so very soon!

June Flies

Alright, so that one just flew right on by... and I've never seen so many flies in my entire life. I mean, it doesn't help that we are kind of out in the country, but man oh man are they terrible. So, anyway. Let's see here. We have been to Cordoba and Granada already. Super fun trips. We saw La Mezquita (the mosque) in Cordoba and went to La Alhambra in Granada. Otherwise, we have pretty much just been hanging out here.

For my birthday we went to Taco Bell. It was about 5 days before my birthday, but that was when we could find time. They just put a new Taco Bell in one of the malls in Malaga. It was a fun little gift from God. A nice little taste of home :) Well worth the wait.

Lately, we have had camps coming and going on the same day. There was a church here from Algeciras starting on the 24th of June. They left on the 27th I think, right after people from the Frontiers group started to arrive. We had zero time to clean the bathrooms and the dorms before they got here, but it was fine because we just did not let them move in until we had everything cleaned. So the missionaries with Frontiers (most of them are missionaries in North Africa/Morocco) are here until Sunday after breakfast, but a kids camp comes before lunch on Sunday. I think they are here for a week and then we have a 24 hour break before the next camp comes.

Throughout all the craziness, however, we did find time to have a celebration on my birthday. Sue made me some wonderful cherry pie, and since the other girls don't like cherry pie she made an apple pie too. They have been so good to me, I really couldn't ask for more. Even after taking us out to Taco Bell for my birthday, they got me some peach rings AND a really cute belt I had my eye on one day at Blanco. Sue remembered which belt it was and bought it for me, knowing that I wouldn't have bought it for myself. Those are my FAVORITE kinds of gifts :)

Monday is the fourth of July, which we all completely forgot about until about two days ago (being in Spain and all). Kaylee, Anna, and I are going to have the day off even though we have a camp that day. Sue and Glenn are sending us to the Malaga Media Center for a tour (it's kind of like the ministry center for all of southern Spain) and then we are joining them for a fourth of July barbecue. After lunch we are heading in to downtown Malaga where we will probably be doing some shopping. And by we I mean Kaylee and Anna, since I have zero room in my suitcases.