The past week

Wow, the semester is coming to an end. This week was pretty good, although I am losing any desire to do schoolwork. I guess that can be expected. :) Monday I stayed home from school sick and laid in bed all day. Wednesday we sang Christmas music at our worship service, which was sooooo wonderful. I absolutely LOVE Christmas, and I feel like we are not really experiencing Christmas season here in Spain. Thursday was a good, busy day. In the afternoon, our school went to a retirement home for people who cannot afford to pay for one, to sing Christmas carols with the elderly. It was so touching. We sang some in English, some in Spanish. We also read the candy cane story (in Spanish of course). Afterward, we gave the people candy canes we had made out of paper and talked with them. I re-read the candy cane story to one man because he had not been able to hear, and talked with him for a while. Then I talked to another man named Pepe, and he said that he was crying when we were singing because he remembered what it was like to be young. When he was explaining this to me, he started crying again. After talking with him for a while, he asked me when we were going back to the states. I told him "Two weeks," and then he started crying again and saying, "Then you'll never come back?!" It was sooo sad, I just wanted to sit and talk with him forever.

After that, I did my last night of Solidarios (working with the homeless). It was the most fun night of that I had had all year, a great way to end it. We just had fun goofing off and talking with the people on the streets. Friday, after school, I went to a movie in Spanish for the first time. Saturday I slept a lot, I am still recovering from my sickness. I also went shopping and had coffee with our student ministries coordinator, Sarah. Today (Sunday) was really fun. My friend Miguel started teaching me how to play guitar! We went over to his house (here it is not customary to bring friends home, unless they are close, so it was an honor for him to invite me over), and we played guitar for almost 4 hours, until my fingers couldn't handle much more. It was so fun though! And the best part of this weekend is....I still have 2 days left!