lesson learned: don't stay up all night in order to be awake in time for free breakfast.

We are colored people...

Our sleeping schedules here in Spain are just a little messed up. I won't tell you how late we stayed up, but let's just say that we were awake when they started serving free breakfast here in the hostel. We had actually thought about going to bed before they started serving, but when we realized that FREE (I emphasize the word FREE!) breakfast would be served in less than an hour, we decided to stay awake a bit longer for a meal. As we were waiting, the funniest thing happened! Our friends from MSU each gave us a little object to remind us of them. Well, Henry gave us this duck that quacks. Emily forgot it was in her backpack, and she hit it on accident, and it started quacking and would NOT stop (Thanks, Henry!!). This woke everyone in our room up, and they were NOT happy about it! I'm pretty sure they hate us, and I don't blame them; we are quite possibly the worst roommates ever! We stay up late, sleep late, and are accidentally loud at awful times. Oh, and we can't even communicate with one girl, but that doesn't really matter because the two that we can communicate with (We think they're from Ireland.) don't WANT to talk to us!! Oh well! Better luck next time, I guess! :-) Anyway, when the duck started quacking, we tried to act like it was our alarm, and we had wanted it to go off on purpose, and we sprinted downstairs for the free food. It was some sort of cereal that slightly resembled Wheaties, lemon muffins, toast in a package, very sweet milk (It kind of tasted like cream.), and nasty apple juice. Oh well, it was free!

Anyway, we headed to bed as our roommates were waking up, and we slept for a few hours. When we woke up, we showered, got ready, and waited for Abril. She is Catholic (along with most of Spain), and she had found out what time mass started at the cathedral at La Plaza de La Virgen, so we decided to go to mass with her. The service was completely in Spanish, and while we could keep up for parts of it, there were also many times when we found ourselves zoning out and getting confused. When you add this to the fact that I am not Catholic, and therefore, not very familiar with the Catholic ways, it was a little confusing. Fortunately, Abril coached us through the rituals, and we got to enjoy the service with her! Even though there were parts I did not understand, I still really enjoyed it! I found it so amazing to be surrounded by other brothers and sisters in Christ in a foreign country. They may worship in different ways and speak a different language, but the important and most awe-striking thing is that, despite those differences, we are worshiping the same God and celebrating the same Love! We may not understand each other, but we understand that we are bonded through Him! Isn't that simply amazing? I think so. :-)

Aside from the actual service, the inside of the cathedral is so beautiful! They are doing some restorations, but still, there are huge paintings everywhere, and the rooms are lined with golden ornaments and crystal. We only saw a small part of it, but apparently they do tours throughout it often, so I definitely want to go back and take an official tour and hear all about the history of a major cathedral in Spain that's been standing for almost 800 years!

After mass, we headed for dinner at McDonald's! I am so impressed with the McDonald's over here. They're basically upscale! The one we went to a few days ago had covered parking spaces, and the one we went to tonight was two stories and very modernized. It's definitely a step up from the Mickey D's in Pryor Creek! The Euro menu isn't as big as the dollar menu, though, so that's a downfall. Drinks are also a lot smaller here. A large (grande!) in Spain is a medium size in America. You'd think America was fat or something. :-) Over dinner Abril told us about Mexico, and we told her about the United States. It was interesting.

We walked around for a bit before returning to the hostel. When we came back, I cammed with Asho over messenger, and I got to chat with Harrison! Since I can't easily (or cheaply) call the U.S. from over here, I seem to ask lots of people on messenger to call my parents for me and ask when they will be available. Tonight both Ashley and Harrison called my parents for me, so thanks to both of them!! I definitely appreciate it! It makes things so much easier. Later I was able to talk to both my mom and my dad at the same time on Skype! Happiness!

While I was talking to them, Lucia, Alberto, and Little Lucia (Lucia is the name of Lucia's daughter.. so I will refer to her as Little Lucia!) showed up at the hostel, and they brought us a present... A CELL PHONE! They gave us one of their old ones! All we will have to do tomorrow is buy a sim card, and we'll be good to go! Maybe I'm just slightly addicted to my cell phone in the States, but I've been finding it hard not to have one here! It's just so much more convenient to have a phone with you whenever you want it and a permanent number to give out whenever someone asks. Anyway, that problem will be solved tomorrow!

Lucia also showed me lots of her family pictures while she was here. She and Alberto are so nice and cute together! While she was playing on my computer, this 40-something German man who has been staying in our hostel attempted to talk to us in this broken Spanish with a VERY heavy German accent. It was really awkward because he's tried to talk to us before, and we couldn't understand him! You meet all kinds of people in the hostel.. haha!

Since we will be staying with Lucia and Alberto tomorrow, and since we have SOOO much luggage, they decided to take some of our luggage tonight. When Alberto saw the tag on my suitcase that says "64" he said, "64 kilos??" Nope, 64 pounds! :-) Poor guy had to lug the suitcases out to the street and into the car, but he did so very graciously! We are very thankful to have the mentor that we do! She is absolutely great, and Alberto is equally amazing.

We have to check out of our hostel at 11:00AM, but we're going to try to make it to the bank before in order to exchange our American money for euros. Considering the exchange rate, that'll be a sad process, but we need to do that soon! Then, Lucia is coming to pick us up, and we're apartment hunting! Wish us luck! Hopefully we will find a place SOON, but until then, we have amazing friends, Lucia and Alberto!

...who depend on Holy Grace!