my insane life doesn't allow for blogging. it just doesn't. especially writing long posts about interesting/insightful things or about dream jobs they have. i'm not feeling quirky or fun or entertaining. i work with amazing kiddos and go to school at night. i'm tired and i basically have no life. however, i do manage to do fun things sometimes, and with the inspiration of the amazing jelly donkey (t9 style...or as i like to call her k2d2) i have decided this season of my life will be reflected with photos. it will be simple and at times mysterious, but as you can tell with my epic blog fail, i'm not-a so good-a with time-consuming activities these days.

so i bring you: westside local restaurant & beer garden

we the ppl.

i think i mostly love this because it is in alphabetical order.

andrea, gabi, gissel, & marlen.

i'm too tired and have no energy to continue my spain, day two blog. well, for now. but this is what i will show:



i have had a bible study this summer with four beautiful girls from kck. we've met and talked about some pretty amazing things. i have learned more from them than they learned from me. i discovered the power of prayer through a ten-year-old's perspective, which seems to be more accurate than mine most times. these girls know what it's like to be afraid of gunshots in the night or to be ridiculed for praying before dinner. they know without a doubt that jesus hears them and that he loves them. sure, there's a lot about the bible and religion they don't understand yet, but if at age ten they can have as much confidence as they have, then i feel like the rest will come later. these girls are going to grow up knowing they are loved and cared for, even if they don't have the resources or advantages that other people have. they will know that they are known by a God who will never leave them or give up on them. to be a part of that is such a blessing, and to be able to provide them with fun opportunities like swimming is so cool. three of the girls didn't even own swimsuits and they all didn't really know how to swim. they slowly transformed into confident swimmers who couldn't stop jumping in and going under water. it took me about an hour to get them out of the water. they are so much fun to be around, i'm excited to form a long relationship with these girls and watch them grow up.

spain, day 1.

other than hearing about a lost passport, nothing has really been said about our trip to spain. so i think i will try to go day-by-day to tell our tales. this will 1. give me more time so i don't have to do it all at once and 2. really boost my blog visits because you just won't be able to wait until the next one!

so here is day one in photos:



after our ridiculously terrible flight to madrid*, we arrived less than fresh-faced and rested in the capital of spain. after mastering the metro system but accidently going to the wrong place, we walked for about twenty minutes to our hotel, the westin palace (top right). i got a good deal on it online, and man was it worth it. beautiful and elegant and in a great location. so we get to the hotel, fight the calling of a nap and head out to explore. we vistied plaza mayor (bottom middle) for a sandwich and some sangria. instead of more energized, we were probably more sleepy from the sangria. but we continued on to two museums which we walked around half dead. we did manage to amuse ourselves slightly (bottom left, bottom right), and saw amazing picasso, velasquez, miro, dali, and goya paintings. my favorite was la guernica by picasso (top middle). once our eyes couldn't hold themselves open anymore, we went back and took advantage of spanish siesta time for a few hours, then went out to dinner and had some paella (middle middle) at a fun little outdoor cafe (top left).

all in all it was a fun day, hopefully we won't remember how tired we were for long and we can remember madrid as a fun and happy place.

next up...NERJA, the best beach in the world. stay tuned.

*all of our flights went wrong in one way or another, but this might have been the worst. behind us on our 8 hour flight were hundreds of loud, obnoxious, and rude high school Spaniards. they ran around, screamed, and were extremely disrespectful the whole flight. even though it was an overnight flight and people were trying to sleep (me, adam), these kids were the worst.

the great event in the year is tonight.

so adam and i have had an amazing trip so far.
we've had lots of spanish adventures in big cities, beaches, buses, and today we got to experience a flight on ryan air for 5 euros.

i have been thinking about blogging about it all, but today just trumped everything.

we got on ryan air in great spirits. a flight to madrid for the price of a coke? yes please.
everything was fantastic until adam discovered (an hour and a half after the flight landed) that
HE LEFT HIS PASSPORT ON THE PLANE.

frantic. tears. helplessness. wanting to communicate in spanish but not really being able to. a lady said that the airline would have to find it, call when they landed, call the ONE lady that knew it was missing, and she would have to find us at our hotel to tell us IF they found it.

also the stupid shuttle didn't come so we had to pay TWENTY euros (which is like 35 dollars) for a five minute cab ride. come on personas.

so we're sitting in a room in a foreign country with NO idea what to do. seeing as we have to leave the country in like 15 hours we're a little upset. i probably would leave him we decided though. every man(n) for themselves is our motto. (our other motto is always take pictures in a photo booth.)

we start talking about how about 50 things need to go right for this passport to be found and how, let's be honest, it might not happen soon - BOOM the phone rings. they found it.

hallelujah.

so now we're going to go back to the airport to get it. the great event in the year is tonight!

we'll be home tomorrow. back in the united states, land that we love. especially because we don't have to split our brains to communicate.