El Dia de Accion de Gracias

Thanksgiving is in the air and what a wonderful week it has been. I have been a little sad about the fact that I won't be home for Thanksgiving this year- no turkey, no honey ham, no mashed potatoes, no apple pie, none of grandma's famous cranberry fluff, etc. However, I have been "celebrating" Thanksgiving all week long by teaching my students about this awesome holiday. Part of my job is not only to teach the English language but also to teach the American culture. I had an amazing time doing crafts with the kids, teaching the history, and sharing a little piece of home with them. The below pictures are some of the crafts that I did with the first and second graders. The first graders colored pictures of turkeys and the second graders painted "turkey hands" (we all remember doing that in school). For the older kids, I put together a power point explaining the history of Thanksgiving and pictures of different things we eat and different things we do (including watching American football...they loved this). It made me happy that the kids were so interested and enthusiast.

Tomorrow we are off to Scotland for the weekend!! :) I'll be sure to post pictures. Miss you all and I'm thankful for you!

Love, KA

Como te va?

I must say that I have enjoyed recording my adventures into a blog for you all. I know that you want to know all of the things that I am doing, seeing, and experiencing and as promised I have done my best to keep up with recording it all. I was on a hike today with members of my church (which was absolutely amazing, by the way) and I realized that I haven't really blogged a lot about HOW I am doing.

When you live abroad for an extended period of time you hit roller-coaster-like emotions. Steven Rhinesmith best describes these emotions by explaining the ten different steps of culture shock: 1. initial anxiety, 2. initial elation, 3. initial culture shock, 4. superficial adjustment, 5. depression-frustration, 6. acceptance of host culture, 7. return anxiety, 8. return elation, 9. re-entry shock, 10. reintegration. Without being super nerdy and going in depth of all of these steps, I can safely say that I have definitely experienced a number of them. People think that living in another country, especially one as gorgeous as Spain, is blissful and happy all of the time. The reality is you have up and down moments just like you do in any place you call home. Some days I am really up for the adventures that Spain sets before me, and some days I simply want to find macaroni and cheese in the grocery store.

I look back at moments of weakness and really cherish them. Those moments have brought me to where I am right now and that is endlessly happy and completely grateful to be here. I love my Spanish life. I love my job. I love my students. I love my friends. I love my church. I love Malaga. I love being able to travel. And I love that I'm able to go home and see my family for Christmas. I am in a great place. So that's how I'm doing. Thank you for supporting me and my dream. You are always in my thoughts.

Con amor,
KA

La alabanza te daré!

What an amazing morning it was! Before coming to Spain, I researched protestant churches in the Málaga area. A friend of mine attends a really great church in Torremolinos, but that's too far for us to commute to church every morning. So I researched and researched and found a church that I knew I would love. It's called Centro de la Vida Cristiana. The church was founded in Mexico and grew to many people. Now they have plants in Mexico, Chile, and Spain (Alicante, Granada, Málaga).

The adventure getting to church was a little interesting. I had been in contact with the pastor to find out which bus we needed to take\how to get there after we get off the bus, etc. He very sweetly explained directions to us and attached a map. It looked simple enough. We walked down to the Alemeda (main road down by the beach) and hopped on bus number 6. When I saw the bus stop we needed flash up on the screen, I pressed the "off" button to get off at the next stop. Well. He dropped us off on the side of the street, with no signs and no people walking about. It looked a bit deserted. We walked uphill from there and searched on just about every street looking for this church. Feeling defeated, we walked back down to the "bus stop" and sat down. After a few minutes of sulking, Jessica points out the many people that are outside of this building across the street. We eagerly walk over and sure enough, there it was. We had gone the wrong direction from the bus stop. Figures.

We approached the church and many people were standing outside talking and greeting one another. We walked in and almost instantly were surrounded by people introducing themselves and asking about us. Either we stuck out very badly or they were expecting our visit (maybe a little of both). We met many people around our age, the associate pastor, a woman who coinsidently lives in Alhaurin (the town where we teach), and many other people from the church. It was nice to feel so welcomed! We sat with a girl named Maria who translated things for us if we looked confused during the sermon. The praise and worship was wonderful, the sermon was wonderful, and the people were wonderful. You can see their passion for God all over their faces. It's so nice to have found a church family here because I have been missing it so much! Some of the girls got our contact information and I know we will be hearing from them soon.

I am so grateful that God provided Jessica and I with a church. I know that this year is going to be a big learning year for me. I'm unbelievably thankful and excited to see what else God has in store. Like the pastor said today, "we need to jump off the boat, take Jesus' hand, and know that He's guiding us in the right direction." All we need is faith.

Until next time. Bendiciones!
KA

The City of Crepes

This past weekend was my lovely roommate and dear friends birthday. So what better way to celebrate Jessica's 23rd birthday than go to Paris! Though I went to Paris during my semester abroad, this time provided new adventures with great friends. I was able to see things that I wasn't able to see last time and revisit some of the beautiful things that make Paris so special.

Megan and Kelly bused in from their towns (Kelly in La Roda and Megan in Granada) on Thursday night. When they arrived Jessica and I took them for tapas in La Plaza de la Merced (a plaza very close to our apartment). On Friday at 1:50pm we took off for Paris and arrived in the early evening. We took a bus into the city and the metro to our hotel. Finding our hotel was a little challenging. We finally found it after what seemed like forever. We were extremely excited to finally throw our stuff on our beds and run to get food. There was a little cafe near our hotel where we stopped and ate dinner. After dinner we decided we would take advantage of the non-rainy weather and go see the Eifel Tower at night. The Eifel Tower was even more magnificent than I remember, especially all lite up. We called it a somewhat early night and woke up early to begin our day in beautiful Paris.

Saturday was sadly raining most of the day but that didn't stop us from venturing into the city with umbrellas, raincoats, boots, and lots of layers. We saw the Eifel Tower (again), the Louvre, and the Luzembourg gardens, taking pictures of about everything we saw. We wandered into the touristy shops, got coffee, ate crepes (claro), and simply enjoyed the city. It amazes me how clean Paris is...mind you, we were in pretty touristy areas, but the city as a whole is just kept up so well. It's also extremely quiet for being such a big and popular city but then again we are use to Spain where people are loud all the time.

Saturday night was Jessica's birthday celebration! We got dressed up and hit the town! First thing on our list was to see Moulin Rouge. After that we found a perfect place to eat dinner that SCREAMED Jessica. The restaurant had a jazzy feel and even had a pianist. All of the waiters were wearing typical french hats that were slightly tilted on their heads. We ordered a few drinks and devoured our dinner. When Jessica went to the bathroom we told the waitress that it was her birthday. When Jessica came out, the pianist sang happy birthday to her and the waitress brought yummy dessert. It was so fun! After dinner we headed back towards our hotel and hit up a few bars. At the end of the night we ended up at a cute little bar that played fun dancing music. We met about five SO fun guys that look turns dancing with us. They were from France, Portugal, and Finland. The best part of the night was meeting and hanging out with them. We danced until 6am and then said our goodbyes. Meeting new people is my favorite part of traveling :).

Sunday seemed like the world's longest day. We slept in until about 11:30 (not that long considering we didn't get back to the hotel until 6am) and checked out of the hotel at 12. We had a lot of waiting around to do since our flight didn't leave until 8pm and our bus to the airport didn't leave until 5pm. Sunday was significantly colder than the rest of the weekend and it was still raining. To eat cheaply and avoid the weather, we went to McDonalds :). We are so American. We went to visit Notre Dam and just hung out the rest of the afternoon. We finally arrived back in Malaga at about midnight.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend, full of great and funny stories. It was very refreshing to spend time in a different culture as well. Next trip we have planned is Edinburgh, Scotland for Thanksgiving weekend. I must say I am looking forward to this more than anythingggg!!! Until next time!

Besitos!