i could have been in Grove City..

but instead i got to be in the beautiful Lagos, Portugal this weekend! it was amazing, by far the most beautiful beach i've ever been to. we began our excursion by going to the end of the world. well, what the big shots back in the day thought was the end of the world before Christopher Columbus discovered the earth is in fact NOT flat. we then spent the rest of the day in our hotel because it was pouring rain outside. kind of a bummer. but we were in a 4 star SUPER nice hotel so it wasn't all bad. we did go to a little pub for a bit to talk and hang out with friends from our program (when i say we i mean me and steph.. of course) we swam in the pool and hung out in the "hot" tub, which was actually colder than the pool. we were required to wear some pretty attractive swim caps for we still don't know what reason.

Saturday was a lot more fun. we got up and went to the beach for the day. it was gorgeous! clear blue water and cliffs every 100 yards or so. the water was freezing but steph wanted to go in so badly that we attempted to gracefully run in and dive into the water. it wasn't quite as graceful as we planned and more of us running in a few feet before we completely bit it. a lot of people swam around and explored caves. we didn't get to do that because we were on a grotto tour. we all paid 10 euros (best decision ever) and got on a little boat and were taken out around all the cliffs and into the caves. it was amazing, i've never seen anything like it before. our boat driver pointed out all these different rock formations that looked like elephants and camels and what not. it lasted 40 minutes and was so much fun. our happiness level was insanely high for those 40 minutes.

after the grotto tour steph and i got some ice cream and explored one of the cliffs. i can't get over how beautiful lagos is. the bus ride home was long and steph and i couldn't sleep so instead we rocked out to a mix of Nsync, Backstreet Boys, and what we fondly call "Jesus music". thankfully everyone on our bus knows how crazy we are and didn't kill us.

this week so far has been great, but i'm going to do a seperate post on wednesday to tell you all about it. but i'll give you a little teaser: last night i got to drink the blood of Christ. that's all i'm giving you! you'll just have to come back later this week to hear about it =)

i hope you enjoy the pictures of Lagos and the beautiful work of our God's creation!