my whirlwind

The way this school works is that each person has to help out in the cafeteria one Sabbath out of the year, to help the lunch ladies not have such a heavy load for the specialness of Sabbath  Well, this was my Sabbath. cafe duty meant being there for each meal to help serve the food and then clean up afterwards. no taxing at all after what ive done in the past at the Highland View Academy cafe, the Mount Aetna camp cafe, and then finally at the Deli at Southern. It actually kinda brought me back to good times. we got to wear awesome aprons and hair nets! teehee, greatness! Thankfully i was able to do it with a dear friend of mine so it wasnt so boring :)

I havent really published anything about this at all, but after i got back from cafe duty for breakfast, i came back to a text from my mom saying that my grandmother past away the previous night. My grammy was living in a assisted care facility under the careful watch of my grandfather, aunt, uncle, their other grandchildren, and whenever my parents and the other "kids" were able to make it. my grammy had a very full life. she got to see children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. I believe God took her into his care so she would not have any more pain and sorrow. This is what i posted on facebook that i feel is completely fitting for this time. We (at least Adventists) believe that the dead are only sleeping, only to awake what feels like 5 minutes to Jesus' face in the clouds.

"11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him."

John Chap 11:11-15 NKJ


Jesus is coming soon, and when we all go to heaven we shall eat yummy fruits, walk the streets of gold, and my personal favorite, sit on Jesus' lap and hear stories :)

CASTLE
After lunch duty, my friend and i walked back to our rooms and went off on an adventure with some other friends to the castle in our little town. As we are walking down a little old man comes up and we say "hola" and all and then he starts telling us about a festival to kick off Las Falles. (Las Falles is a festival in Valencia, which it is famously known for). It was really cool to talk to a random local that imparted an awesome piece of knowledge to a random group of Americans :D! We still had three hours until we had to be in the town so we continued up the streets to go into the castle.

There are two main parts of the "castle" and we had only gone to one of the parts, so we were going to go to the other part. The trail was very scewed. Multiple trails going this way and that, Megan and i decided to scale the mountain that was daunting us while the others took a seemingly easier route.
Our experience climbing the mountain and storming the castle was unforgettable!

The castle is on a hill. The hill is covered with either grass, rocks, or cacti. If your not on one youre stepping on the other, and you hope and pray that youre not about to step on a cactus leaf or stepping wrong on a rock (which i did a couple of times and scared megan :p) A few cacti got me and i had little red dots on my legs, definitely not acne, so the cacti seemed to be the culprit. The castle walls were huge and tall. We were trying to fine a secret entrance , that we thought would be there, so we can get INTO the castle. but after a while, we came across what looked to be one, but it was all closed off....not so secret i suppose :) other discoveries included a well/pit that we assumed to go down into the dungeons. there was no way of getting back up if there was no hole on the other end so we decided not to risk it and kept walking. At first we tried to follow the walls right up against them. But when there was a drop off at one of the walls we decided to go down and walk further away from the castle. We had a wonderful view of Sagunto that we dont usually see including sketch parts of town and the sea closer than normal! 

We ended up circling the whole entire castle! it was getting time to head back for cafe duty (dinner) so we headed the direction of the main plaza. We didnt really know where we were going, but we just walked and hoped for the best! On our way we went down a street and found a cat! It totally jumped on me and started to purr and nuzzle my hand, like my late Daisy would do, AH, so exhilarating. We had to leave it, but i knew Serena would be totally jealous :p We went down a street which megan commented that was really cute. It was!! if someone actually took cafe of it (no one was really inhabiting it) it would be one of those romantic/cute "calles" (streets) you would see in the photographs! We walked on further and found a puddle of blood...sketchy...

When we got to the main plaza the parade was still going on. there were a good number a people there, the different "floats" were such as an owl and a big purple...thing!
We walked back to the school with some help on the final climb to the school (thank God because we were almost late...we werent tired or anything....lies)

Right after dinner duty there was a talent show for los americanos and los espanoles.  Acts included cup games, Lion King medley by Eloise and Jonathan, Im Feeling Good (cover of Michael Buble) and New York (cover of Frank Sinatra) who won? New York...OF COURSE! it was beautiful, and everyone loved it! Im not really sure what was happening, but i think the judges were copying judges from a famous Spanish game contest, but they were very similar to American Idol, (including a Simon wanna-be).

By the end of the day i was plum tuckered out, i got to my room, watched 5 minutes of my favorite show and zonked out.
ZZZZZzzzZZzzzzzzzzZz

Overall, even though my grandmother dying put a damper on my day, like it should, shes my grandmother afterall, Jesus helped brighten my spirits and kept me at peace. I wish i could be with my family at this time, but there will be other times for fellowship and celebrating life, which i will save for later, buenas noches a todo el mundo!

besitos! (kisses)