so lets start with sunday. i pretty much just slept all day and studied, but when i decided to get out of my bed, i broke my pinkie tow. yup that is right, i ran into a little desk in my room :[ i of course was laughing so hard and fell on my bed, but i had a hard time walking...

monday came around and yes it was raining. i toe was swollen and beautiful colors! these past two weeks have been hard because my senoras sister has been in the hospital for awhile, but then it got really bad. emily and i were at home by ourselves a lot, but we were totally fine with it. on monday night her sister passed. it was hard for us and as you can imagine very hard for her. so this week we have kind of been dealing with that and also just loving her the best we can. we didnt see her monday night because she was at the hospital, but tuesday morning we saw her for about 10 minutes and she was off again. there were tears shed, hugs and kisses given, and laughs as well. she said that she was very happy with us, she loved us, and we were really good girls!

tuesday came and i had a test. awesome right? it wasnt bad, but there was a lot of stuff going on at home. emily and i decided to make PASTA (or cookie dough!) in the middle of making pasta isabel came home... we finished our pasta sat down and just watched tv with her. we didnt really talk, but i think just sitting with her was a positive thing.

wednesday it was SUNNY and warm. emily and i went to go study down at the river. we had such a good time! i was beautiful... and by studying i mean writing postcards and reviewing my stuff! i did study (dont worry daddy!). today was a busy day. i had school, lunch, river, skype dates, studying with others, encuentro (american bible study), cono kit kat with liz (cheap ice cream it mcdonalds), dinner, and a long night of STUDYING for my big test i had on thursday.

so i had a huge test on thursday! i think it went pretty well, but i was exhausted! i then had my prayer group that i lead and it was so refreshing! i just sat there sipping on tea (which is super expensive here in spain), eating a chocolate muffin, and getting to talk about Jesus and what is going on with the girl’s in my group! after that, BIGI (bingo) with the old men happened! they are so cute and we had sososso much fun. later that evening we did the PRAYER WALK! it was so cool. i was so happy that we were actually doing it because ever since i got to spain, i wanted to do this. i had help organizing it and then it was put into action! we had two groups of 10 people! we had different places we stoped and prayed for out loud. we all started together, broke off, and then ended together. it started to pour on us, but being able to be together and pray for this city and country was such a blessing!

friday rolled around and welp... i went to MOROCCO! i had such an amazing time. i went with a travel group from sevilla. we left at 5 pm from sevilla and went south to puerta de tarifa. we boarded the ferry and our buses came with! puerta de tanger was full so we had to wait in the waters of the mediterranean for about 2 hours. after we got off the ferry we stood in line exchange our money into dirhams and then had about a 2 or 3 hour drive to

Mdiq. So we had dinner at 4:30 am! afterwards we went straight to bed in our 4 star hotel (and by the way a four star hotel in morocco doesnt mean a four star hotel in the US). we were told not to drink the water or use it except for showering, but we were absolutely not allowed to brush our teeth with it. so what did i do without realizing it? yup i brushed my teeth! oops...

saturday we woke up to a warm humid day. it was beautiful, but slightly muggy. we went to the riff mountains in Chefchouen. i LOVED this little town. It was a white washed city with blue accentS! i could not get enough of it! we ate lunch there and i got this amazing couscous! we had couscous for the next 3 meals after this! any who, we didnt get any time for shopping so i was sad, but it is okay! after being in the city all day we had the 2 hour drive through the mountains back to mdiq. upon our arrival home, we had dinner and a traditional moroccan show! it was super fun:]

sunday was an early morning and off to tetuan. i was thinking by this point i felt really safe. well once we got to tetuan i thought id never make it out. i was so scared. there were police and militia everywhere with their guns just pointing towards anywhere, but the ground. my friend Kate and I clung arms the rest of the time and prayed. we saw a fight between two men and no one did anything about it. it was very odd. anyway most of the people were very nice and it was cool to see that side of morocco. i loved all the open air markets and the bright colors. one thing i noticed was that there were hardly any dogs and our tour guide said this was because the muslims do not like dogs because they are not peaceful animals and that is why there are a million cats! we decided to call the cats ‘monogatos’ translation is monkey cats. these cats were crazy and would climb trees like i have never seen!

through out the trip i tried imagining what it would be like living in this lifestyle, but i could not even fathom. my heart broke for this country, but it is being turned around do to the young king they have. things are looking up and they have hope. overall they are very nice people.

okay so after we left tetuan we went to tanger and saw the atlantic ocean! it was incredibly windy, but no pasa nada! it was gorgeous. when i was here i got to RIDE A CAMEL! it was different. hahah. i was so scared when i was sitting on it and the camel was standing and sitting, but i had lots of fun. after riding camels we went to the point where the mediterranean and atlantic met. once again this was stunning! the ocean was clear and beautiful. we went to the port to get on our ferry! we loaded the ferry and landed in gibralter. we thought this was great until the guides of the trip and said ‘this is not our stop we will be stopping at the next stop and our busses didnt make this ferry because our actual ferry was canceled. once we land our buses should only be about one hour behind us.’ okay so we landed in the other port at around 9:30 or 10 and our busses didnt get to us until about 3:15am. at 3:45am we were finally off to sevilla! so at about 7am on monday i got home!!!!! yahooooooo:]

monday i slept until 2 pm and my senora made me lunch! i was hungry because i didnt have anything since sunday’s lunch. i then met my friend kate at mcdonalds for ice cream and we just hung out talked and exchanged pictures! afterwards my friends (emily, lizzy, andy, and daniel had gone to portugal so i heard about their stories!) and i got together and hung out. we decided a while ago that we wanted to share life stories (testimonies) so one person started and we are going to take turns now! it is so great to have the opportunity to meet new friends and hear about their lives and the things they have gone through! so anyway monday was purely just relaxing!

oh i should mention how the weather was pretty much great the whole weekend, but today (tuesday) it started to RAIN and when i say rain i mean POUR!!!! any way this week is a great week! we had “PUENTE” which in spanish means bridge, but that is what we call like vacation. holiday, or a three day weekend! so we had puente. i only have school tuesday and wednesday and then off to Toledo and Madrid for the weekend! then my first visitor... MY MOM gets in on sunday!!!!!

there are pictures of the trip on my facebook, but i will be uploading the pictures to here very soon!!!

amor y paz,

katarinna

ps my senora is doing very well.