arabic dance parties and things like that

(The 2nd to bottom picture is of us in Marrakesh a few weekends ago. We were taking a carriage ride tour around the city… our horse collapsed in the middle of the road…)

(Also there is me at the beach a few weeks ago. Sometimes I just have to get away and go be refreshed by God… I would say the beach is the perfect place for that)

The other night I had two of my Morocan friends from my class over to watch a movie. Afterwards we decided to have a dance party. One of the girls brought her cd. So there we were a blond american girl and 2 muslim girls breaking it down to Arabic rap! Hahahhaahha. It was sooooo funny and fun and random. They taught me a few Arabic dance moves, I told them their hand moves looked like a tame hippie dancing.

Another night I asked one of my friends from class if she wanted to go walk around the city with me. She said “sure but my parents are here visiting from morocco, is it ok if we hang out with them?” So the three of us went out to coffee. Her dad speaks English, French, Spanish and Arabic and her mom speaks French and Arabic, so I have been learning some words in French and Arabic just because I am surrounded by it when I am with my friends from class. Well they invited me over for a Moroccan lunch that her mom wanted to cook for me the next day. She went all out, I ate for 3 hours straight…. I have never been soooo full in my life! Every time I stopped eating they would say, “Eat! Eat! You’ve only eaten a little”

So I just celebrated my 2…. 4th birthday. It was definitely the most unique unforgettable birthday of my life. Just because I never in my life would’ve imagined I would be in Spain, doing what I am doing. The other Americans here had a big lunch for me and 2 girls from my class came over. Later I went to tapas with my Spanish friends, it really was just a sweet, good day. God has poured in more abundantly into my life than I could’ve dreamed.

On Saturday we had a big Thanksgiving feast! There were about 42 people who came. We had 8 countries represented there: Nigeria, USA, Jordan, England, Spain, Morocco, Senegal and Cuba. It’s fun to get to share our American tradition with people from around the world. Different people stood up to share what they are thankful for. I was really honored when one of my friends from class said that she was thankful for me, one of the best friends of her life.

So I got to spend part of Thanksgiving with my family through the internet. This is why I love my family (see family photo above) hahahhahahah

halloween in spain

Sometimes I just walk over to my old apartment to spend lunch time (siesta time) with my Spanish friends. Yesterday I walked in and they said, “molly, hola! Tonight is fiesta!” I said “of course tonight is fiesta, when is it not fiesta with you guys?” “No but it is halloween fiesta.” “Ohh yeah today is halloween…. my favorite holiday… “(this is sarcasm, I really am not a big fan of halloween) “You are coming of course” “ohhh I am?... Ok fun! What am I going to be?” “You can be “Miercoles”. “huh?” “you know Miercoles (Wednesday) from The Adam’s family” “hahhaha ok as long as you guys dress me and I don’t have to come up with something."

Well there I am... yes they had quite a fun time altering my look for the night. This is how halloween is here, you don’t wear just whatever costume that sounds fun, you have to go with the halloween scary look. Just any costume won’t do (that style is for carnaval). And you get in groups and are all the same thing. So there is me and the other 2 wednesdays and some of my other friends. They are really pretty creative. Although I tried to explain how I would never be able to wear this to my usual halloween tradition of helping at a Fall Fesitival at church. Hahhaha

As they were teasing my hair and spray painting it black, I kept saying, “Guys I can’t believe I am doing this. I am soooo only doing this out of love.” I imagined my dad when we were little and he’d let us put little barrets and stuff in his hair, making him look really ridiculous but he didn’t care because he loved us. Yeah that’s pretty much how I felt in this hair and make up. Hahhaahhaha

So this past month I have been in more spiritually intense conversations than probably ever in my life. As I was planning to go out with my friends that night I was thinking about how easily Spaniards can maintain shallow conversations for hours and hours, which usually I wish they would talk about more meaningful things more often, but this night I was excited just to have light, easy going conversations. Well when half the group left to go to the discoteca, some others and I stayed at the party to just talk. Some how church came up. I don’t think I have seen a conversation so passionate, heated and intense between Spaniards or any one for that matter in a very long time. Spaniards have an amazing ablility to all talk all at once (very loudly) and understand what each other person is saying simulatneously. I watched and only heard loudness. Then some one said,”molly what do you think?” (silence) I didn’t really know the exact topic being argued so I just said, “oh um! I am protestant and I think the most important message is of God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice for us” (silence for 2 more seconds) and all the yelling and shouting started up again.

Later my friend Alba sat with me and explained (much more calmly) what all was being discussed. I think a lot of Spaniards are very burned by the church… its sad. My life is intersected with sooooo many other lives from other cultures, beliefs and histories.