One Weekend: Fiestas, Picnics, & Food Fights

WoW!! Where to start? This last few weeks has been rather busy and doesn't seem to slow down much during the week...grin...maybe that's my fault! *G*

So, I believe that I mentioned in my last post visiting the village home of my friend Susana...well, on the way home from there she and I began making plans for a surprise birthday party for her sister, Mili. We got together Monday morning to compile the guest list and send out email invitations or cell phone messages to everyone on the list... That was an adventure... Then we headed out to buy a gift. I had no clue what to get Mili, so it helped to have Susi along to find something her sister would appreciate... ended up, we came up with a marvelous idea of making t-shirts for each of us with scripture on them.. We found some cheap shirts and on Thursday morning got together to complete our project. It was a little bit of a challenge to write in Spanish, because I was trying to be careful not to mess up and since Spanish is not my first language the spelling wasn't coming quite so naturally..smile...but between Susi and I we got our shirts completed!! Unfortunately, we also discovered that our surprise had been ruined slightly ruined because of a coinciding party for the same birthday girl, at the same time, with the same people invited...ooops.. Oh well! Wednesday afternoon was a bit different than our normal schedule. After all the language lessons were finished (which they have German, French, & English on Wednesdays), the youngest had a birthday party to go to...So, I hopped in the car and took her to the party across town...then I returned, parked, and Irenita and I headed out for a few hours of just having fun on the town. We walked around the old part of town, went for an ice cream, then walked to another place for a milkshake...smile!! We had a photo shoot in a few places and overall had a great time. It was exactly what the day called for!! Then back to the house to drop off Irenita and get the car to go pick up Helena. Back home to make dinner and get the girls ready for bed!! What a busy, but lovely evening. It is nice to have slight variations to our schedule occasionally.
Thursday evening after returning with the girls from their swimming lessons, I got in the mood to bake...hmmm...so, apple pies began forming, two large apple pies. I have Bible study on Thursday nights, so it was a rush to get the pies baked, dinner on the table, and the kitchen cleaned up before leaving, but with the help of my girls, we succeeded!! They were excited about the pie as they enjoy tasting desserts (typical kids...). It was fun to be able to take one of the pies to Bible study and share. It turned out we were having a small birthday party for a girl after Bible study (not the same gal, Mili) and so my pie was added to the rest of the fiesta foods! Smile... the girl for whom we had the little fiesta is an unbeliever and so the girls in the Bible took this opportunity to pray for her.. Grin!!After getting home LATE on Thursday night, I crashed and slept late on Friday! I woke Friday to one gorgeous day. I took advantage of the amazing sunshine by taking myself out to the terrace to read my Bible and drink my coffee. It was an answer to my heart's desire. I had been needing a chance to be able to sit and relax without the stress of needing to do something or having others around...some down time I guess it's called...smile! The Lord is so faithful to provide our needs, desires, and sometimes unvoiced prayers. PTL!!! What a loving God!!! My Friday was very restful. I met with a friend for a while in the evening just walking around the old part of town and enjoying the beautiful upper 70's weather. Friday evenings I normally work, but the family didn't arrive home until after 11pm, so I worked on a HUGE card for my friend's birthday party..

Saturday morning, I woke up to yet another amazingly beautiful day... The girls and I enjoyed playing Uno out on the terrace in the sunshine after their language lessons were finished. After lunch, Irene and the two younger gals took off to spend the weekend with a friend in a coastal city (they came back to say they'd spent most of the time at the beach). Since, the younger girls were gone and I was free for a while, Celia and I headed out to get some ice cream and see if the shops I needed to go to were open. Nearly everything here closes from 2-4-4:30pm for lunch. Celia had to leave to work on a project with some girls from school, so I once again had the house to myself and took myself back out to the terrace with a book for a short time.

Saturday nights we have youth meeting at the church, so after running to a nearby store to get a flashy child's crown for the birthday girl, I hurried to get ready for the youth meeting and fiesta following. What a lovely, relatively hot day. I walked down to the church near the trainstation and stood outside with another girl waiting for someone to come open the church. They were slightly late, but then that's fairly typical Spanish time (5-15 minutes). The Bible study was normal, good. It's an encouragement to go and fellowship and study the Bible with the other young people. After the meeting, we began making preparations to figure out how we were going to get everyone to where the party was. It's amazing how long things can take. By the time they finally got things figured out a little, I was ready to just walk (which would have been a long walk...grin). Anyway, I ended up in a car that flew down a tiny back road (barely wide enough for the car in places) only to find that the occupants had other plans before meeting up with the group at our randezvous to pick up others...grin...Finally another of my friends showed up with his car and eventually I drove off with him and one other gal to meet up with the others. Ooops! What'd I learn? Just be patient and things will eventually happen. Grin!! Finally, we were headed down the road again to the party that "we" were hosting...grin...the organizers of the party weren't even there on time. Haha.. Anyway... The party was held in a hotel belonging to a friend of the b-day gal. We ended up having about 25-30 people at the party with plenty of food and drinks (in fact we had leftovers). There were a couple games, lots of visiting, lots of picture taking, opening of gifts (rather haphazardly and sporadicly), then after the final guests arrived sometime after mid-night, the cake was brought out. Smile...yeah, things are a little later here than we'd normally do them in the USA. The party didn't even start until about 10pm. Anyway... Somewhere in that crazy rush of events, Susi and I gave her the scripture tanktop we'd made and removed our outer layer to reveal similar shirts we were wearing. After cleaning up a bit, I finally left a little after 1am to drive back to Santiago, grab some stuff, and head back to my friend's house for a big girls' sleepover... I think we got to bed somewhere around 3am as the others didn't reach the house until 2:30am!! Yeah, so that was just Saturday... The weekend still continues....

Sunday morning, I was awake too early for having gone to bed at 3am, but oh well...ready for church, I started the coffee while the others continued to sleep...grin...I had barely sat down with my coffee and Bible before I was joined by others who were smelling the scent of the coffee and it was drawing them from their beds...grin...oops. My mistake! Anyway...went to the ladies' Bible study before church with Susi (I normally go)... This Bible study encourages me to memorize the Word, which I have been enjoying doing lately. The service was quite a blessing. I'm able to understand more and more of the message these days and sing along with more of the songs, which helps in joining in the worship with music. I love to sing! It's exciting to me to be able to go to church and understand, though I also enjoy just going to be with others in the presence of the Lord. PTL!!! After church, we decided to have a picnic because the weather was fabulous (in the upper 70s) and we had quite a bit of leftover food from the fiesta the night before. So, getting a descent-sized group together, we went to a nearby park to enjoy our lunch and continue our fellowship out of doors. A few guys went to order some pizza and a few of the rest of us went back to the house to get some stuff...but before long, we were all enjoying ourselves. It was absolutely fabulous weather to be outside!!! PTL for such a beautiful weekend! Eventually, we brought out a cake that was left from the weekend's celebrations and cut that up to eat... My friend Mili decided I'd look better with a little icing on my nose and that's how the food fight began. Grin!!! So, no I didn't start it, but I sure helped finish it well!! Haha.. Before long, there were at least 5 of us in on the fight...grin...I definitely got Susi, but then got a good run myself to keep from getting got. I ended up wading through shallow creek to avoid being got, which was quite amusing to the rest of the group who stood by as spectators. Grin... They blamed it on my growing up in India...seems a lot of things get blamed on that. Fact is, they just saw a part of who I am...ornery, adventurous, and not a city girl I guess...hmmm... Anyway, I ended up having to go back to that creek to clean up, after getting egg, potatoes, and cake cream all over my face, arms, and my shirt...smile. Good times! We eventually started a real, more organized game that is a version of dodgeball (only different). It was fun and occupied us for a good while. Eventually the picnic began to disperse, but some of us weren't in a hurry to get home... So the day continues, now 5pm! I spent the rest of the daylight hours walking around the old part of town, which is quite an interesting place, with everything built from stone including the narrow roads. It is a place where only a select few cars are allowed to drive, where the streets are lined with shops, bars, cafes (in/outdoor), and people are out for an evening stroll.

Inside Mora's Chocolate Cafe

We stopped for a snack and drink in a small chocolate store/cafe that I had found previously...Eventually, the party broke up and many headed home to get some rest. Still a few of us remaining though, so we rented a movie and headed to Susi's house to enjoy the rest of our evening...it was a nice way to end a fabulous, busy weekend!! The movie was in Spanish, but with English subtitles, I had little trouble following along with what was happening. Smile...

Other than partying and hanging out with friends, I do work and have Spanish classes, as well as help out in a language lab at the University helping with English conversation sessions. All that is going well also. The family I live with is doing well. Continue to pray for them. My middle one mentioned to me this week, while she was upset about something and I was trying to calm her down, that she didn't believe in God and couldn't have as much patience as I had... WoW!! Out of her own mouth, without my having initiated that comment. It seems to me as though the Lord is working in her heart. I continue to pray for her and the others, desiring them to know the Lord and experience His amazing grace and love!! Spanish classes are going well. I was a bit frustrated last Tuesday because I kept getting lost in what was going on, but I'm learning from it. It's been great to start learning more and more of the past and future tenses...it's really hard to communicate clearly using only the present tense...grin...though that's what I have often been stuck with not having learned much future or past tense...Anyway, I learn a little more each day it seems. PTL!!! Continue to pray for my ability to learn this language in the remaining time that I have here..

Yes, my time to leave is slowly drawing closer. Not fully sure that I'm ready to leave Spain, but believe that the Lord will help me in that as well. There are times when I'm so ready to get back to the US and other times that I'm not all that interested in returning. I'm enjoying the extra time with the Lord here, the break from responsibilities of bills and such there in the US...imagine! Grin... Anyway... keep my return in your prayers as it means saying goodbye (or "until later") to a lot of good friends, to the family I live with, and to what I've known of Spain. Even when I do return, it won't ever be exactly the same. Guess this is part of the story of my life...but I'm content in that! The Lord is and has been teaching me a LOT here and it's great preparationg for whatever He has in store for me after this time here in Spain. PTL!!!

May the Lord bless you all.. I have heard about the flooding. Hope that you are all safe and staying dry.