Apologies in my tardiness in updating this more regularly. I guess its been a busy week and a half?! Last week we had classes, as usual, and I can't really recall anything too exiting except that we sent one guy home because he was crazy. 

In other news, Rebekah's birthday was last Wednesday and I was lucky to collaborate with Will to have a surprise birthday skype with Rebekah! It was so much fun to SEE and talk to them:) Thursday I had Carra and Rachel ver to my room to study for our midterms- we had fun looking at pictures and hanging out, and eventually studying. (As Rachel said "who knew studying abroad actually required studying?" haha but we did enough to make our A's!) Later that night I got to skype with Daniel for a few minutes. Friday after finals, we left for Portugal! I roomed with Carra and Whitney and we had a HUGE room! Saturday was spend on the beach trying to avoid the wind and get some sun. That night we walked next door to the casino just to look around and see the "Bond Bar" which was inspired by 007. It was really disappointing, with just a picture on the wall by some tables. We saw the slot machines and some black jack tables and then left. We found out the next morning that some of our guy friends won  a few hundred Euros playing blackjack. Sunday morning we headed to Oporto, a very beautiful town on a river, where we ate lunch and shopped before returning to Salamanca. Saturday was also Mom's birthday! I wasn't able to talk to her because the family was at the farm, but I talked to her Tuesday on her new Macbook Pro! Way to go Dad:) Now Mom has a better computer than I do... haha

So far this week we've been wrapping up classes and enjoying our last few days in town. Monday night a few girls went shopping in our favorite stores: H&M, Sfera and Stradavarious. I got some steals because of the "rebajas" or sales in all the department stores. I had my first

Magnum- which is a chocolate ice cream bar. It was absolutely delicious and America needs to get them. Tuesday night Carra, Rachel, Whitney and I went out for dinner near the Plaza to commemorate our last week in Europe. Wednesday was a mostly normal day, nothing much to report. Today has been strange weather-wise with much chillier temperatures and clouds and extreme wind. I will be giving my Auburn presentation this afternoon in class! After class I'll study with Rachel and Carra again and then come back to my room to hopefully fit in some skype time!

Tomorrow is our last day of classes!!!!!! Everyone is so glad to finally be finishing them. Friday night will be spent trying to pack up everything, and we'll be on the buses early Saturday morning headed to Madrid to catch our flights to Paris! We're all so very excited to be in Paris on Sunday for the Grand Finale of Le Tour de France!! Monday will be sightseeing all day and we have a boat tour on the Seine River. Tuesday we come HOME! Only 5 more days?! How crazy.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to post anything else on here before arriving back at home, but facebook might be updated with photos if the internet is free. I have loved my time here and can't believe its almost over! I'm so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to travel and do so many things I would otherwise never be able to do. The Lord was so incredibly faithful in answering my prayers for experiencing him and his love here, and also providing me with dear friends who truly love him as well! I've been so blessed to find great friends here that will remain friends when we go back to Auburn. I love them dearly and know that the bonds we've made are unique to us and our time here.

I can't forget to mention how psyched I am to be back in Auburn for the fall! I really can't express how excited I am about having everyone come back Home to the Plains. Fall in Auburn is probably one of my most favorite things ever. So there's not much to say but, WAR EAGLE!!

Thanks for all the prayers (I've really felt and seen their effects) as well as keeping up with me here and on facebook. I love you all and can't wait to see each of you in person so very soon. 

 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Anna Grayce

I’m quite surprised at how pumped I am to be back in my tiny dorm room in Salamanca. Its been a very long 7 hour bus ride, and a long weekend. We’ve done and seen so much I really am looking forward to a normal week of class. This weekend I saw 4 cities and did a ton of tourist things so here’s the highlights:

We had Friday off of school, so we left as the sun was coming up and headed south for 4ish hours to the city of Toledo. We had a really strange tour guide who liked to do his own Arabic renditions of just about any phrase. He showed us around the city on the bus, and then a tour through the city where we saw La Catedral de Toledo, El Alcazar and their plaza. Afterwards we were back on the road for several more hours to Granada. We arrived late to our nice hotel San Pedro? Whitney and I shared a HUGE room with a great view! We had a great buffet dinner around 8 and then I invited our sweet friends Rachel, Kelli and 

CJ to our room to do our favorite “8-mintue abs” workout on youtube (thanks to Kristen for telling me about this!) The ne

xt morning we woke up early, as usual, to go La Alambra. Hands down La Alambra has been one of the best places we visited on the trip! It was absolutely beautiful! I personally like gardens, parks and outdoor architecture way more than any castles or massive buildings. Don’t get me wrong, the buildings are extremely impressive, but I could spend all day in these beautiful gardens. So be aware of massive amounts of pictures from La Alambra. After the tour there, we returned to our giant purple bus and road tripped for another several hours to Sevilla. Sevilla is the 4th biggest city in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. In our hotel Don Paco we had a buffet dinner and time to explore. The next morning we had a tour of Sevilla, first a panoramic tour on the bus, then a walking tour downtown. We saw the Guadilqivir, the place where the Macarena was born, and even the settings of several famous movies!! Then we walked through the Alcazar and had a break for lunch and shopping and such. After spending my last little bit of cash, my credit cards decided not to jive with the ATMs. After a few minutes of panic, and texting mom at 6am, I realized I spent my last few Euros on 3 mosaic crosses. It was the perfect reminder to trust God to take care of me and my needs. I was easily 

able to skip lunch because I never got hungry, and then I was able to talk a lady at the Cathedral into giving me a student discount (I never thought Spain would want to see my tigercard). So a friend lent me 2 Euros and I got to see the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world. I even got to meet what’s left of Christopher Columbus! You can meet him too in my facebook album:) Then we dominated the 34 stories of the Giralda Tower to have an incredible view of Sevilla. Last night we wanted to see a movie, but never found the theater. I think we’ll try again when we have time in Salamanca. After the first two hours on the bus, we stopped in some town for 30 minutes and had the option to see some really well preserved Roman ruins. Most people opted not to go in, but I knew Daniel and my Dad would have wanted me to go, so I did it for them:) I really enjoyed it and took a lot of pictures! Our second break was in the middle of nowhere for lunch at a restaurant called “Tuareg”. Now for those of you who have heard my Timbuktu stories, this might sound familiar. Tuareg is the name of the nomadic people of the Sahara desert. Maybe the restaurant was making some middle-of-nowhere connection, but I was quite surprised at the irony. For the rest of the ride, I’m hoping that we’ll at least have some good views of the beautiful mountains again. 

Insert of my opinion here: I think I’ve decided I like mountains better than the beach. Its the sand. Sand looks pretty, but it sticks to you and gets EVERYWHERE. I’m pretty sure the windstorms of the Sahara desert did me in for a while. So I now prefer the greenery and seclusion and immensity of the mountains over the sand and crowdedness of a beach. I know I will have fierce opposition to this statement soon.

Back in Salamanca, we have classes tomorrow through Friday. (Oh, thanks also for the prayers last week. My two Civ presentations went well and I’m glad to have them done.) This week I have midterms on Thursday. They are intimidating me a good bit because its SO MUCH information in like 6 days of class, and I’m still uncertain about how the tests will be. No big deal though, its just not an option for me to make anything but an A, so with some faith and some studying and I’ll be able to do it. After classes on Friday we leave to go to (the beach in) Portugal! It should be a blast, and everything will fly by after that.

Again, I’ve loved being able to talk to people on skype: my screen name is a.g.dub. and its free to download for computer-to-computer video conferencing. So no excuses for not talking to me if you’d like:) The other night I talked to Mom and Dad for probably a good 30 minutes and they were hysterical. Dad was playing with applications and decided to give himself a super amazing 80’s fro with the sweatband and all. Anyways, its been fun talking to them, and maybe I feel like I’m getting older faster than they are, but sometimes I feel like they’re my age and my best friends that are just cracking jokes and being silly. Most people don’t realize they’re my parents because they’re still so fun and good looking:) Haha anyway I love them a lot, if you can’t tell.

Before I post I’ll add some pictures here, and later on facebook. I love you all and am halfway done with my trip-how crazy! Can’t wait to see you soon.

Psalm 139:13-18

Love, Anna Grayce

Three class days down, eleven to go!!!

I'll do my best to remember all the good things that have happened since my last update. Sunday we went on a group excursion to S

egovia and Ávila (yes, I was wrong, but thankfully I'm not in charge..) It was about a two hour bus ride back towards Madrid, but most people slept. As soon as we got off the bus, everyone snatched out their cameras to take pictures of the Roman Aqueducts! Let me just say, they're incredible. They are in amazing condition, even fake looking they're so perfect. I took tons of pictures, be sure to check out the facebook album. We had a walking tour of the city and saw the massive cathedral and went into Alcázar, the castle of Ferdinand a

nd Isabella. That evening we drove to Ávila, one of the last remaining walled cities in all of Europe. We didn't go into the city, but saw it from a lookout spot to take pictures. It was a great day for picture-taking. When I got home I was able to skype with both Daniel and my folks for a while. I'm so thankful for such incredible technology!

Monday was our first day of class..... and surprise(!) none of the professors hablan ingles. I'm pretty sure the elementary spanish students were terrified. I have a Spanish Civilization class from 9-12:25 am and we cover Spanish history since Carlos IV, and culture. Our teacher really enjoys talking about the differences between traditions in the US versus Spain, such as what time to eat, or what is and isn't polite to ask people. Its a lot of information, but hopefully it'll end up in an A:) I promise I study more than 90% of the people here... which means I should get an A, right? Some people are ridiculous and could care less. After class, a small group of us at the other dorm have a 20 minute walk, then we have siesta time, which is mostly for people 

who party all night long, but a break is nice. We eat lunch around 2:30 and go back to class from 4-7:25. My second class is a conversation class, which is mostly games or activities to get

us to talk about different things. Its been pretty easy so far! Now I'm back in my dorm to regroup before dinner at 9. The food has been pretty good so far, I'll usually eat whatever they offer so I don't have to walk 2 miles downtown to get a meal for 7ish Euros. During the week I've stayed in to get work done, but several others go out to the Plaza around 12 and hang out or party until as late as 6am. We've already had some very interesting/nerve-racking morning after stories.

 So, I've realized that the best thing I can do is have a good attitude and do my very best to be uplifting to others, and use any and every moment to be a witness for Christ.

Oo, I just thought of a funny story: this morning on our way to class, I was walking with 3 girls and we heard 2 guys near by making really strange squawking noises and trying to yell things in english. Then they do some sort of bird dance around us (while we're still trying to ignore them). And out of no where one of them hops on my friend-piggy back style-and hops off and runs away.

Tomorrow I am giving two presentations in my Civ class, one about a province of Spain called Cantabria (in the north), and the other is on the Tomatina festival (the big tomato fight in August). All in Spanish, of course. I think it'll go well, but there are bilingual (highschool) kids in the class who will know when I mess up which is a bit intimidating. But I'm glad to have the work out of the way. Now I'm about to start a presentation for conversation, in which I get to talk about AUBURN!!! I'm so pumped I get to talk about something I love so much. I have tons of pictures (mostly ones Daniel took) that I'll be using to show how beautiful it is-don't worry Daniel, I'll give you your due credit. I also got Mom to email me old pictures of Auburn, like me in a cheer uniform when I was five-haha! As you can tell, I'm really looking forward to talking for 5++ minutes about my home:) 

Friday we have another excursion for the long weekend to Southern Spain and will visit Toledo, Sevilla, Granada and maybe one other town. It'll be a very busy trip, but I'll have my camera glued to my hand to you can see it all as I did! Next week we have class Tuesday-Friday and Friday night a small group is going to the beaches in PORTUGAL! Then I have five more classes, then PARIS for 4 days, then I come home! Its going to fly by.

Hopefully I'll be able to update on Monday night after the trip. No promises though. I hope everyone is doing well, and thank for keeping up with me here and on facebook. I love hearing from you! Even though I'm busy here, I think about you often. Miss and Love you all!!

1 Corinthians 2:9

All my love, Anna Grayce

(ps. I just got to talk to Cliff on skype!! Thanks so much for calling!)

I finally made it!! Its about 5pm here in Salamanca. We arrived a little after 1:30 to La Residencia Universitaria Plaza Mayor. It is a really nice, new dorm and I’m one of the lucky few to be staying here. Most of the other Auburn students are in dorms closer to campus, but aren’t quite as nice. I was a bit worried when I first heard that we didn’t have AC here. However, I have my fan on, hall door open, and the door to my patio open and its making the most wonderful breeze! I’d never need AC again if the weather were this perfect all the time. Otherwise, my room is quite small but I have a bed and my own bathroom so I can’t complain. From the looks of things, my desk seems to be larger than my bed, so I guess they expect me to do more studying than sleeping?

But I’m sure you’d like a recap of my trip thus far: July 1 Mom and Dad dropped me off at the airport and made new friends as we shuffled through security and to our terminal together. All the students had the same flight from Atlanta to Paris, which wasn’t too bad at all, except that the movies didn’t work on this AirFrance flight. A bit of a bummer, but I met my “safety buddy”-Whitney-who is really sweet, and had a really good book to read, compliments of Daniel. We arrived in Paris and split our group in half for the flight from Paris to Madrid. I got lucky again and was scheduled for the first, so my layover was only 4 hours. Jet Lag caught up to me on that flight and I was dozing off the entire time. We arrived in Madrid and were bussed over to our recently upgraded 5 star hotel La Husa Princessa  in the “Buckhead of Atlanta” of Madrid. I then went exploring with Whitney and two other friends, had dinner at 10pm and headed back to the hotel. Somewhere in there it became July 2nd.

July 3rd began with an amazing breakfast buffet at the hotel, followed by a panoramic tour of Madrid. Madrid is absolutely beautiful! Its like New York City, but better because of the old architecture and trees! We saw lots of interesting places including La Plaza de Toros, where they have bullfights. After the tour I took my siesta, as the Spaniards do, then went out in the city again to explore. Whitney and I made our way to Retiro Park, the “Central Park” of Madrid, which was really fun. We saw “el angel caido” (aka the only statue of Lucifer in the entire world) which is an angel that looks like he fell on rocks. Google it for a better idea. We ate lunch around 4pm and I was so psyched to find a lemon granizado (a lemonade slushie) and had a tortilla/potato sandwich. While trying to enjoy my meal, we had the most obnoxious bird I’ve ever encountered dive bomb our food. He just wanted some nibbles, but he got close enough that I could feel the wind from his flappy little wings. I’ve never been more irritated at a pesty animal in my entire life. After lunch we walked around the park more and saw the Crystal Palace which is one of the coolest places I’ve ever seen. (I took tons of pictures, so check out facebook for those.) Then we ran into some Spaniard guy named Carlos. Two hours later, we were still talking to Carlos and we talked about everything imaginable, and it was ridiculous. At the end of the conversation he told us to inform our boyfriends to “take the stars from heaven and place them at our feet”- which gives you a bit of an idea about the “passion” Spaniards are known for, haha. It was pretty odd but interesting nonetheless. After escaping the Carlos conversation, Whitney and I relocated to Grand Via, and had dinner at a pizza place in the Plaza Mayor around 10pm. When I got back to the hotel I soaked my feet in a cold bath to keep any swelling down until midnight, then went to bed.

Today we had a delicious breakfast again, and then took a 3 hour-ish bus ride here. We’ve had the afternoon to eat lunch, settle in, explore and gather any supplies we’ll need for the next few weeks. I’m about to head to campus where we’ll have a walking tour of the city, followed by orientation for classes. Two of my best friends in this dorm are in my classes, which such a blessing!! Tomorrow we’re going on a day trip to Granada and Avila- I think. I usually just go with the flow. Classes start Monday.

So everything has been flawless as far as I’m concerned, and I appreciate all the prayers! I have really seen God’s hand in everything so far, especially in the friends I’ve already made. Its been really uplifting to go out of my comfort zone, but still feel so secure! I can’t wait to see what else God has in store the rest of my time away.

Romans 12:2

I miss you guys, and think about you often. I love you dearly and can’t wait to talk to you soon!!

we're off to the races again..

So I'm getting things started a little early, but I've begun one of the hardest parts: 

packing. 

After flying AirFrance to Africa with only a small backpack for 16 days in the Sahara, I figured my biggest problem would be fitting all my clothes for a month in one suitcase. Not so. I quite easily managed to fit everything I wanted to take with me in the suitcase (with the exception of a few people, and puppy). After a sigh of relief that the zipper made it around, I remembered one, rather important issue. Weight limit. Someone at AirFrance picked the magical number of 44 to be the maximum poundage for checked items. Sigh of relief retracted. It was time to get out the scales for the moment of truth... true life: my bag weighed 58lbs. Yikes!!!

...4 hours, and a trip to the local packing store to ensure that our scale were, in fact, not making a mistake, later, I'm still struggling to take off the last 4lbs. Many clothing items, as well as shampoo/conditioner etc, have been eliminated and will be purchased upon arrival. I've made a few final cuts, will sleep on it tonight, and return to the packing store in the AM, fingers crossed.

For now, I'm enjoying my last two days of inexpensive phone calls and unlimited texting. Once in Europe, I'll do my best to update this as much as possible so you can see what I've been up to! Be on the lookout for a few pictures posted here, and hopefully albums on facebook. For practice, I'll include a few of my favorite pictures from Africa. I hope everyone has a fantastic July and I'll be seeing you.

Romans 8:38-39    Nothing can separate us from the love of God!

Love, Anna Grayce