Granada and Carnaval

hello friends! this weekend my program took us to Granada, Spain. it was a great trip! we left at 10 a.m. on friday and got there around 1 p.m. we walked around a little bit and then checked into the hotel. the rest of the day we had free to do whatever we wanted. Granada isn't much of a tourist city, the only "touristy" thing to do is see the Alhambra and we were going to do that Saturday. So Steph and Martha and Alyssa and I (the 4 zetas) relaxed in the hotel room catching up for a bit and then we went out and shopped! it was really fun! i got a jacket and a necklace and some earings for 10 euros! it was fun to just walk around and not feel a ton of pressure to do EVERYTHING there is to do. it was a nice trip that was a break from the hectic trips we've been taking.

Friday night we went out and split a pizza between the 4 of us. We all decided it was okay to endulge in a little American food since we hit our 1 month mark that day. Spanish pizza is different then American but it was awesome! better i think because all the ingrediants are fresh. On the way to get pizza we found this ice cream place with the most beautiful presentation of ice cream i've ever seen. i had to have some! i got so excited when i saw that they had a flavor called Roche after my favorite candy, Ferero Roche. it was incredible! i spent the whole time eating it arguing with Martha about how we are adults now and it's okay if we have our dessert before our dinner =)

after a little pizza we strolled around and met up with some other people in our group and went for some tapas. we went back to the hotel early to get some rest for the next day.

Saturday afternoon we went and saw the Alhambra, an old fortified city/palace. it was so beautiful! the detailing in the archetecture was absolutely incredible! it was awesome just walking around, i felt like i didn't have enough eyes! it looked like how i've always pictures the city in Babylon and other big city communities from the Bible. it was cool.

we got on a bus and headed back to Sevilla at 5. we made it home at 8 and loaded another bus at 9! We went to Cadiz for the night for Carnaval. Carnaval is a huge worldwide spanish weeklong festival. it's a bit like halloween in that everyone gets dressed up. and when i say people get dressed up i'm not talking just the typical costume. these people get into it! there was an entire group of people dressed up like furniture to make a room, a rubix cube, and a toilet just to name a few. during the day their are shows and competitions and at night it's a big party on the streets. we were there from 11 p.m. till 5 a.m. it was definitely an experience. It turned out a lot different then everyone thought. we thought it was going to be on the beach and have stuff to do like tents and shows and food. unfortunately it was just a huge party on the streets with half a million people. i'm glad i went so that i can say i went to Carnaval but i would never go again. It was hard being one of the only few sober people in a crowd of almost a half million. i particularly don't like big crowds because being so petite i'm not in the normal person's eyeline and i get stepped on and pushed a lot. big crowds make me really nervous. And i was wearing sandals as part of my costume and the ground was covered in glass and trash and who knows what else. Steph and I spent a good 2 hours in a very overcrowded burger king waiting to leave. it was so crazy in burger king that there were bouncers. ha. so all in all it was a little less than a fun night. but there were some times where i couldn't help but laugh.

this week will once again be pretty relaxed. we are gearing up to go to Germany this week. i have no idea what we are going to do there but i'm excited for it!

some prayer requests for those of you who are praying hard for me:
1) headaches - i've had a lot of headaches lately, pray that they would stop
2) my back - my back has been hurting a lot lately and i'm not sure what is causeing it
3) patience - i need lots of this! particularly for one of my apartment mates
4) homesickness - i started feeling a bit of this yesterday
5) intentionality - that God would help me to be intentional with the other kids in programs who don't know him.

thanks everyone! i hope you all have a great week! -ash