Time flies when you're having fun.....

......or for all you biology people out there, time's fun when you're having flies. =) The last couple of weeks have been busy, busy, busy. Last Friday I went to the church's ladies fellowship for the first time, and really enjoyed myself. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to be, with most of the ladies much older than I am. At home that's not a problem because I've been there so long I know almost everyone pretty well, but I was a little nervous about it here. We had a progressive dinner, with a devotional at the last house. The focus of the devotional was Thanksgiving, and it really prompted me to think about how amazing it is that I am here, and the amazing things the Lord did in my life to get me to this point. Some day I will have to post the story, but not now because it will take a really long time to type! Smart, extremely intelligent (cough, cough) person that I am, I drank a cup of coffee around 10 that night when I knew good and well that I needed to get up the next morning around 4:30. Yep, you guessed it, I went to bed very late. Exactly how late you may ask? somewhere around 2, 2:15. Long night's sleep, I know. The next question you probably have is "why in the world did you have to get up at 4:30 on a Saturday morning? Well, since we had a long weekend (we had Friday off for Veteran's Day), several of us teachers decided to take a day trip to Culebra.

We live in Carolina, which is fairly close to San Juan. Culebra is the smaller of the 2 islands to the east of Puerto Rico. On Saturday morning, Priscilla and I left the house at 5:30 so I could stop at the atm before we left for the trip. Using an ATM at the mall at 5:30 in the morning is not something I want to do again anytime soon. While I was using the ATM, there was some guy standing in the shadows at the mall entrance probably about 20 feet away from the ATM. He didn't look particularly threatening, but you never know with someone who is crazy enough to be standing at the mall entrance at 5:30 AM. The whole time I was drawing out my money I was prayimg for safety, and when I got back in the car, Priscilla said she had the phone in her hand ready to call if anything happened. Thankfully everything went allright, and we continued our trip to the school. We met everyone else there at 6:00, and were ready to go, when we remembered that we had invited one of the deaf college students (Nyler) to come with us. Aurys was elected to wake her up since she knows ASL, and we had to convince Nyler that she should come. Just as we started to leave, rain started coming down in buckets! The 8 of us loaded up into 2 cars to make the 45 minute trip to Fajardo where we would board the ferry to take us to Culebra. When we got to Fajardo, they had not yet started to sell ferry tickets, so we had a chance to walk around and take some pictures. They started selling tickets sometime around 7:30. Sarah Motter says that sometimes during the tourist seasons, the ferry tickets are sold out by 7AM, and other times they don't start selling till after 7, which is why we had to leave so early. Ferry tickets cost $2.25 plus extra for any large coolers, beach chairs, etc. for a trip that takes abotu an hour and a half. Several of us slept for a good deal of the boat trip, which was a good thing considering how much sleep I got the night before. =) When we landed at the dock, we unloaded everything and got on a bus (for another $2.00) that would take us to the other side of the island where the beaches are. The beach we went to was Flamenco Beach, and it was gorgeous! The water has many different colors, is very clear, and to my surprise when I got in, it was pretty cold! We enjoyed ourselves for a while in the waves and I discovered that our noses were not built to handle sand and sea water. Some of those waves were pretty nasty, but I survived. After lunch time, we walked a little ways around the beach to an area where we could do some snorkeling. While the others were snorkeling (we only had 2 sets of equipment), I just walked around in the water and watched the fish swimming at my feet. In that area the water was very still, and it was so clear that when I was in water up to my neck, I could still see my toes! I was a little nervous about the snorkeling at first, but once I figured out how the breathing worked, I was fine. Snorkeling was an amazing experience. I've seen so many pictures of coral reefs, and exotic fish in the ocean, but seeing it in person is another thing entirely. The fish were beautiful. We didn't see any big fish, but several small ones of different colors and designs. What amazed me the most was the coral reefs. How anyone can look at the coral and all the plants that grow around it and still believe it evolved is beyond me. Mostly I was just impressed with God's creation and the beauty that he has put on this earth for us to enjoy. After we snorkeled, we got on the bus to go back to the other side of the island for the trip back to Fajardo. While we waited, I was able to get some postcards at a couple of little shops there near the port. I slept a lot of the boat trip back, but when I woke up, enjoyed the view of the sea at night. As beautiful as it is during the day time, I think I prefer the night view. Once again, I was amazed at the beauty and intricacy of universe God has created.

This week has been rather uneventful up until today. We had the turkey run this morning. Each grade has a race for boys and one for girls, and the winner takes home a turkey! Quite an experience to hear 600 students plus parents and teachers cheering for children running around the parking lot. Also, today we had another volleyball game, and my girls won for the first time! I was so proud of them. They served well, and kept their bumps under control.

AHHHHH! I just looked at the time. 6:12! We are leaving in about 20 minutes to go to Rio Grande for a youth meeting, and I'm still in my volleyball clothes!

Encouraging Words

Yesterday I was muttering something about feeling old (I'll be 23 in less than a month). One of my highschool students happened to hear me, and dear, sweet Alexandra said, "You're not old, you're middle-aged." That helped me feel so much better!
Something kinda funny happened on Monday. We came back after visitation (to a family that doesn't speak English) and Ariel started speaking to me in Spanish. That was a little strange, because he usually speaks English to me, but I understand, so I went ahead and replyed in Spanish. He apparently didn't realize I know the language, he just always thought I understood a little bit. I stood there talking to him and Andrea for a while, and he made a comment about my accent in Spanish. I said "What are you talking about?" He repeated it slower, and I told him I understood the words he was saying, but I wasn't quite sure what he was trying to say. I finally figured out that he was telling me I don't have an accent in Spanish, in other words my Spanish does not have an American accent. Now that really was encouraging! I have been slightly frustrated at times because I'm trying to learn the language, and I can't get a lot of the college students around here to speak to me in Spanish because they're all trying to learn English! I have prayed for more opportunities to learn, and the Lord has been providing that.
I can't believe it's only 2 weeks until Thanksgiving, and that it's really almost winter! It does not feel at all like winter here, but that's to be expected. They have had the stores decorated for Christmas since the beginning of October, though. I'm still trying to figure out if they're trying to counteract the fact that it doesn't feel cold here, so they have to decorate the stores so we will trick ourselves into thinking it's the Christmas season.

Holidays

I love the way this school works! We just had three days "off" (I put it in quotes because we had our Bible Conference, which was not really days off), and this Friday we are off for veteran's day, and coming soon....Thanksgiving! In fact, this year I will get MLK day off for the first time ever-this coming from someone who lived in the Atlanta area (MLK's hometown) for 10 years!

Speaking of 3 days off for conference, it was wonderful. The Lord really worked in hearts, and it was such a blessing to hear so much good preaching this week. One very interesting message: Dr Brian Green from England spoke on the fish that swallowed Jonah. I have heard many messages on Jonah, but never a message on the fish, or more specifically, how we should be like the fish-it was prepared, etc. I was also able to see a friend from my 2002 mission team who I hadn't seen since we landed in Atlanta after the trip. He's from the Dominican Republic, and when you hear him speak, you can tell that. That's why it was funny to me when he told me my Spanish was sounding Puerto Rican. When I went to Spain, I really didn't speak that much Spanish, but since taking many more Spanish classes, and going to Spanish church, I have picked up much much more. So when he asked me how my Spanish was, and I responded in Spanish, he said I was getting an accent! Like he's got room to talk....on our team not even the native speakers could understand him when he spoke. =) It was good to see him again though.