Intercambio Time

This morning was a little rough. But I made it. I got my coffee, got myself ready, and Lindsey and I headed to school... and got there on time! Wednesdays are the best days of class - all of my favorite teachers :) We had Conversación, Composición, and in the afternoon, my advanced class, Historia de la Lengua Española. For our lunch break, Dottie and I got smoothies from my now regular place, Zumo Del¡s, and then she and I plus Ken, Melanie, Addie and Anna B sat in the park across from our school and had a picnic. It was a GORGEOUS day (like always) so it was really nice to just pass the time outside.

After my afternoon class was out, around 4:45, I headed to the ISA office. We had a meeting at 5:30. Since it's been almost a month now, our amazing directors want to see how everything is going - our families, our classes, Valencia in general. They also told us about some of the activities we're doing in the upcoming weeks, including a Valencian fútbol game and awesome Fallas stuff, that I'm going to miss because I'll be at the wedding.....

After the meeting, Megan, Melanie and I stayed behind and planned our trip. TO CASABLANCA, MOROCCO!!!!!!!!!! That's right... we're headed to Africa next weekend. We're leaving Thursday morning, and spending Thursday afternoon, all day Friday, all day Saturday, and until the afternoon on Sunday in Casablanca. How incredible is that?! I can't wait. And when we were booking our trip, Manuel (director) was looking at our flights and our hotel and approved - so we'll be safe :)

After that, I went to dinner at an awesome Kebap place (Sofra) with Megan, Melanie, Ken, Andrew, Ben, Peyton, Quinn, and Dottie. When we'd finished, we headed to el Diablito (a bar) for our intercambio. An intercambio is a exchange, between Spanish students who want to learn English and English students who want to learn Spanish. It was really fun! I made friends with Emiliano and Neus. Emiliano is a sweet guy who has studied in Sweden and speaks pretty good English. He was really excited about having American friends, and was already planning times for us to hang out again. Neus is a really awesome girl, who's a marine biologist and currently works at the oceanográfico that we visited a couple weeks ago. We have a lot in common, which was really cool. We exchanged numbers, and she's going to try and get me to come sing in her boyfriend's band, because he's been looking for a female voice!! I hope it works out!!!

After the intercambio, Megan, Emiliano and I went back to Sofra to hang out for a little bit, because we were going to go salsa dancing. But I started to get a little vertigo and decided to come home instead.

I feel like the Lord is doing crazy things in my life right now. He's providing me with opportunities I'd never even dreamt of having, ever. Like feeding the homeless with Spanish friends, singing in a band with the natives, going to Morocco. And ultimately, I have had so many opportunities to talk about my faith. And although it's discouraging a lot to not see any outward change because of those conversations, I know that the Word of the Lord does not return void, and I truly believe that the Lord is doing something big here. Be praying for these people, my friends. I love them with all of my heart, and my greatest single desire right now is that they would know the hope of Christ! My heart is breaking for them. I hope yours will, too.

Agradecida para vuestros rezos,

Leigh