Hola!

It has been almost a week since I last wrote! It is amazing what has happened and what has gone just in the past few days! So, to fill you in on the past few days... on Friday (January 14th) I flew out of Canada and landed in Alicante, Spain at 9:00 PM on Saturday, January 15th. As soon as the trip started, it was an adventure. The original plan was to leave from Kelowna instead of Vancouver, because we didn't want to take the risk of having to drive over the Coquihalla in the middle of winter. But we got to the airport in Kelowna, and they told us that my flight was cancelled, So, we ended up having to drive to Vancouver anyways! But there were so many blessings from that point on! I was supposed to arrive in Vancouver six hours early. I was planning on meeting up with a friend, but this gave us enough time to catch my flight! All along the way, we were warned of bad roads, but the connector between Kelowna and Merrit was super sunny, and it was raining on the Coquihalla! There was no construction on any of the roads and once we were in the airport, and airline worker randomly came up to me and asked me if I wanted to get my ticket right away. I had just enough time to eat and then catch my plane. God is amazing, and amidst all the stress, when you finally remember to turn to God and trust him with your problems, he already has everything worked out!
Today is my fifth day in Spain now. The weather is so different here! The first day played soccer on the beach, which is only a 5 minute walk from the house! Then the next few days were colder, and all the locals were dressed in big winter jackets, boots and scarves, but it really was only between 10-13 degrees! This morning was super sunny and warm enough for t-shirts. We did a prayer walk in the beautiful sunshine and each went our separate ways to pray for the neighbourhood and for this city.
The staff and school is amazing. There are a total of 31 students, with 5 boys and 26 girls. I am staying in one of the bigger dorm rooms with 4 other girls. In a normal day there are between 4-5 classes. As typical day starts with breakfast at 8:00 AM, then we go into classes at 9. We then have lunch at 2:00 and free time from 3:30-5:30PM. This is the normal Spainsh 'siesta' time :) We go into one more class and then dinner is at 7:00PM. We then have free time from after dinner until 'quiet time' at 11. Every day during free time I love to go on walks to the beach or to the Walmart-type store called Carrefour. I successfully got through the check out line with my very limited Spanish! On Saturday, we are going to the castle in Alicante for a daytrip and we all have to potential opportunity to go to a soccer game in two weeks! It will be the Alicante Hercules v.s. FC Barcelona! It would be so great and so exciting to go to a Premier League soccer game! This is something I've wanted to do for so long!

So that has been my life in the past few days! I am so excited to be here, and am looking forward to what God has in store for me over the next few weeks!
Thank you for all of the prayers, God bless you wherever you are!
Christi