Quick Update

Hey all! I´m sorry I haven´t written in a while. Things have been crazy and I´m trying to put up pictures and video more than written word as those seem to interest more people. That said, I do have another little essay I´m about to load onto here. It was for a writing competition that, should I win, would be a dream come true (something to pray about, all my good prayers out there :-) In any case, it really did happen, so I hope you enjoy it.

Right now I´m in the middle of mega planning. Weekend trips, day trips, a crazy four country road trip...you name it. Yesterday I bought all of my tickets for next weekend´s Seville-Granada getaway. Today I bought my plane ticket for Sweden in April. It´s so exciting, I can´t even tell you. Even though I told myself it was worth having school full time with two jobs I don´t think I really believed it until now. I´m living my life exactly how I´ve wanted to for a long time and it feels wonderful.

What else has been going on? Well, I´ve met a lot of cool people from all over the place. Europe is wonderful for that as so many countries and cultures are so close together. I´ve also found an amazing church where the people treat me like family. I´ve been invited to homes, to lunch, to dinner, on weekend excursions, even to a baby shower. It makes me miss my wonderful church back home, but I appreciate it more than I can put into words.

I´ve also started tutoring a little girl in English. That is quite an adventure. Manolo looked at me like I was crazy. ¨You´re going to work while you´re here?!¨he asked me incredulously. I shrugged. One hour of tutoring a week is not work for this chica. To me that´s about as much effort as blowing my nose, although much more sanitary and fulfilling.

I´m going to wrap this up, but I have to say I love the people I live with. They´re crazy and they know it, I know it, the neighbors know it, everyone knows it. But they are good people and they are wonderful to me. It really touched me when Marisa told me yesterday (concerning her sons and I), ¨Tu les cae bien. Muy bien,¨ which more or less translates into, ¨They like you, they really like you.¨ That´s so important to me, to not just take from this family, but to be able to give them something: a good laugh (plenty of those!), a helping hand, fond memories for the future. It´s important to always think about the other people in your life and I´m glad that it´s such a good fit.

Again, I´m ending on a kind of sappy note, so I apologize for that. Make sure to read the shoe story for a return to the comical saga that is my life. And again, thanks for all your comments and messages. I love them!

Hasta luego!

Your Gypsy