January 24th 2011

Hello everybody!

I really am doing my best to try and update this as much as possible! Today was a pretty chill day so I'm just sitting in the common room area with everyone! I did forget to mention something that happened yesterday. I was in Mcdonalds just getting something to drink and Nicole came in and talked to me for a few minutes. When she left this man turned around and asked where we were from so I told him I was from America and she was from Scotland. He then proceeded to tell me about how he lived in New York for ten years (without papers, of course) and how it was just an incredible experience for him. His English was not so great, but he was just so excited to be getting to use it and to be talking to someone who had also been to New York. He was just a really friendly guy.

Today was our first day of classes. I had three today and also chapel. I'm taking an ethics class that starts off  my morning, and even though it's going to be hard to struggle through all of the issues, I think that it will really just help me grow into the person I want to become. Next we had chapel. It's so much more relaxed than it is at Harding and it's just really great to be with all of these people. Next was GREEK class! I absolutely love it! Our teacher is a native from Athens named Vicky and she is just the cutest woman you will ever meet in your entire life. She taught us how to say a few words, and also how to bargain, with the advice to the guys of saying "my mom is in the hospital". She is absolutely incredible and I am so excited to get to know her better! Not to mention I'm excited to actually be able to talk to people! We then had our Humanities class, it's pretty much going to be exactly the same as the one I took senior year, but it is really cool to be able to see all of the history while studying it. I'm excited about classes this semester, and I don't think I'll have any trouble with them at all! I just need to make sure that I do in fact remember that studying is very important :).

After classes Kelcey, Zach and I bought our plane tickets to BARCELONA for the long weekend we get in the middle of the semester! I am SO excited! It's so crazy to me that I just bought the tickets! I mean, I have wanted to go there for a long time, but actually buying the tickets was just so crazy! I absolutely cannot wait though! It'll be nice to actually be able to read street signs for a few days!

Then we had lunch and after lunch Kelcey and I decided to go out and explore. Oh dear, as we were walking down the street some Albanians started majorly hitting on us. They didn't speak much English, and obviously we don't speak any Albanian, so as you can imagine it was quite hilarious. They were in disbelief that we were wearing chacos and they were just absolutely freezing. We attempted to explain to them that it's actually snowing back at home so this 60 degree weather is absolutely wonderful! They then started to ask us if we could go get coffee and when I told them I have a boyfriend they were like "he's in America, he no see!" That was pretty much the point we had had enough so we left and went to the local store where we tried to explain that I needed to buy a straightener. They didn't end up having any, so we headed back, but stopped at a local bakery. While we were there we met this older woman names Lelia who spoke perfect English and is very very proud to be Greek. She followed the teachings of Pathagoros and believes in the 12 gods. She talked to us for a good thirty minutes and told us that she'd love to get to know us better and that we should stop by the bakery all the time. Kelcey and I are really excited and we're really hoping we can hear more about what she believes and share Christ with her. Not in a pushy way by any means, but God can work through a simple idea. So if you could all be praying for the two of us and also for Lelia that would be wonderful!

Sorry that this post is so long! I just had ample time tonight while we're all sitting in the common room to type absolutely everything that happened.

I love you all :).