O, You Know, just Hablo-ing some Spanish

It is funny, I am improving on things I never thought I would need to improve on, at least after age 4½ . The best may be my sign language…“Well, I heard that (pull ear down twice)…his face was (circle face, much like Chris Burton does)…it is around the corner, to the left, down a ravine, through a tunnel (I couldn’t say this in Spanish if I wanted to).

Things are actually going much better than my last post. It may have seemed like a “down” post; but, I wasn’t sad or anything, just hadn’t adapted as much as I have begun to do. It helps that school stress is very low :) The beauty of the three-day weekend just hit, as I am in the middle of my first of many (no class on Fridays!).



It has been a busy first weekend in the city, with one week of classes over. Thursday night our group was treated to el flamenco, olé! I have been loving the culture here in Granada, so this too was quite the treat indeed. Lord of the Dance, watch out, this guy can stomp his feet. The show included 4 flamenco ladies, three “chanters,” and this guy. The sound on the video doesn’t really do the show very much justice, but it gives you a taste of Andalusian culture. The fun didn’t stop there, though, as Friday was a full day of skiing in las montanas; the Sierra Nevadas no less. It was my first grand-scale skiing experience, only having skied on hills in Illinois before. It was a gorgeous day for skiing. It was a little icy from the rain two days before, but the temperature had to have been somewhere between 40-50 degrees. So, I subir-ed and bajar-ed (climbed and descended) the mountain all day. Here is the breathtaking few on the slopes:

(I posted it above, but you can see the view in the first pic of this entry)

The camera is a little jerky, but just imagine you are there as the screen swerves from side to side. You can’t really tell, but you’ll notice when it gets really shaky about two times, one when I come up from my shadow, I was “crashing” and not really paying attention to the camera anymore :P Also notice, you can see the ocean in between mountain peeks in the distance.

Picture to the right: Yeah, I don’t know what the sign says either.

Prayer Requests:

1) PRAISE, I have really been enjoying the company of my host family. I have stopped getting frustrated so much and have been loving the comedy that is my language barrier. Through the frustration my sillyness is starting to shine through and I just make jokes with my family. This is definitely a praise though, as it means my family is getting to know me and my humor a little; further, it means my home stay is not dreadful but starting to be fun and entertaining, striving to get over the language barrier.

!Que pasas buena día!

- alé