It's Nice to Have Royal Blood

What a weekend! The volunteers of EOD were super blessed to spend 2 days in Cajon del Maipo where we had the opportunity to regroup after an intense few weeks. We arrived just in time for lunch at the hostel that looked like it came out of the Snow White movie. Our short term home was decorated with fruit trees of many types (i.e. pear, apricot, fig...) and the walkways were laced with grape vines. The fresh air was so welcome after the smog of Santiago that made me feel like I was back in LA. If our first lunch was a movie to be watched, the audience might have truly believed that the hostel had received royalty. Course after corse appeared on the table before us including fuits, vegatables, salad, bread, salsa fresco, meat, and of course, dessert. How could I possibly not finish each item I was given when it all smelled and tasted so delectable?

After gorging myself with the incredibly delightful food, I promptly changed into my bathingsuit to commence the tanning part of my weekend. I could not have been more happy to do nothing but sleep by the pool, listen to music, and swim a few laps. When it was time for dinner, we expected something small to hold us over, but instead, we again received more food than our bodies could contain. As the courses kept coming, we continued to devour the freshly prepared dishes.

As the sun went down, we lit the bathtub bonfire (yes, I'm serious, we had a fire in an old tub) and the night stars faded into the morning sunrise with laughs and great conversations. This was the first time that I could actually see the cloudiness of the Milky Way and more stars than I could possibly understand existing. I'm so thankful for the imagination of our Creator!

Having the ability to sleep in Sunday morning was very long overdue. Of course, I enjoyed the coffee and breakfast sandwich placed before me for breakfast since its been weeks since I've had anything more than nescafe and Cheerios. Again, I spent the majority of my day lying by the pool soaking up the sun (new experience to be tanning in January!) After a short nap, a few of us decided to take the dirt path down the the little town and get some ice cream and check out the town square. The people were all very nice and everyone we passed by said hello and waved.

We got back to the hostel just in time for lunch and enjoyed the last meal in that magnificent palace. I spent the rest of our free time in the pool doing my devotional and spending some alone time with God. It felt so good to recenter myself and refocus on my purpose. I have realized how easy it is to get distracted and sidetracked by all of the other things life throws at you. In my case, I get very preoccupied by my need to study and work on my Spanish, my desire to meet people and learn the culture of Chile, and my exhaustion from over-saturation of information. I have to work very hard to keep my purpose and target in mind sometimes, but Christ constantly gives me time to revive and bring myself before His thrown once again.

This is our last week of Spanish classes, so we're all a bit exhausted. Cat and I did some crazy shopping today after because she needed to get ready for her camping trip and I desperately needed some comfortable tenis shoes. We both found some great deals and felt super productive. Not sure what this week will hold, but tomorrow is our class trip to the Concha y Toro Vineyards so that should be fun. Miss you all!!! <3