Surprise!

Hey, Devoted Readers!

I hope November is treating everyone well. Apparently many exchange students go though "November Blues", a period of blah-ness in November marking the 2 or 3 month mark of being in one's host country. I haven't quite been hit by them, but I'm thinking that I may get some December Blues, being a month late and all. It has been getting chilly though, here in the Costa Del Sol. *tear. However, I can't really complain when I compare the weather here to other places - it was about 64* F this afternoon, but it sure felt colder! Spain has taught me the art of the scarf though - it keeps you warm and, come'on, completes any outfit.

This past week has been pretty fun! Last Monday was Halloween and I ended up chilling with Jaime and some friends from his school, as a pirate! Most of us were dressed up, so we went trick-or-treating for a little while! Later that night we watched a half-hour long scary movie and then a Christmas movie, and the whole thing was quite strange. Nevertheless, I had a good time! I miss just chilling with friends, watching movies, playing with plastic machetes . . .

 November 1st was All Saints' Day, so no school! This is week five of Spanish school for me, and out of those five weeks, three have had holidays where there's no school. I like how Spain thinks.

On Thursday I had my Iowa Presentation for the Estepona Rotary Club. It went fine - I gave it in bad Spanish/Spanglish, but I think everyone appreciated my efforts. Also, I found out that I was going to Granada on Saturday with the other RYE students in Andalucia! I love good surprises.

Saturday ended up being a lot of meetings, but the RYE kiddies got to explore the city during most of them. We were only able to walk around for an hour and a half or so by the end of the day, but Granada was still beautiful. I do want to go back sometime though and really get to see the city. The group of exchange students that I spent the day with was so different than my exchange group in Iowa last year. In Granada, there were about 11 of us, all American girls except for Molly (being from Australia) and Matthew. I think it's pretty cool that I live in Marbella with the two different people in the group. Apparently there were supposed to be a couple more people in Granada on Saturday, but I don't know where they were . . .

Most of the group in Granada! I blinked :(

Molly and me at the Granada Cathedral!



As we walked around, I felt -- and definitely saw -- Granada's unique history.



Granada was great except for when I had a "stupid-exchange-student" moment and walked into the men's restroom at the hotel - oops. But honestly, I think the "man" on the door was a little misleading . . .

Don't tell me that at a glance, you wouldn't mistake Him for a woman.

Not much else has been going on. My Spanish is slowly progressing, school is fine, and I continue to make friends. The other day, I was going through a one of my classmate's music on her iPod, and I found "Hosanna" by Hillsong! I excitedly told her that I love Hillsong, and after chatting (err, passing notes) for a while, I found out she's Evangelical too! She invited me to her church this weekend, so that should be cool. I can't wait to see how church is here!

Well if anything blog-worthy happens in the next week or two, you'll know about it!

Hasta luego,

Josie