This past week, my teammates and I (minus Dan and Krista who are about to have their baby and therefore couldn't fly) had the immense pleasure of traveling to southern Spain for our mid-year conference. The girls and I flew into Malaga on Saturday afternoon and spent all of Sunday wandering around the city literally ecstatic at the sun and warm weather. Berlin doesn't exactly have tank top weather in January, so 16 degrees C was a nice change. We spent a long time marveling at this piece of Malaga beauty:
After we stopped gaping at the Mediterranean Sea, we climbed up a giant steep hill to a fortress, from which we could see waaaay into the distance and all of Malaga spread out below us.
Climbing a giant hill and soaking in natural beauty made us quite hungry, so we went for hot chocolate (more like hot pudding) and churros after the fort.
On Monday, we headed over to Nerja for the conference. When Elaine and I got to our room, both of our jaws dropped as we realized that we had an ocean view room. This is what my face looked like for about 15 minutes after that:
The conference itself was wonderfully relaxing and fun. We had some good Bible teaching and worship time (in English!) every day, plus lots of stories from other STINT teams about how God has been working in their cities. It was very cool to hear about people from all over Eastern and Western Europe and Russia having real encounters with Christ and coming to know Him as their Savior.
Most afternoons we had to ourselves, so I had some nice long walks on the beach, lovely quiet times and naps.
Thursday was our "free day" (in quotes, because the whole conference kind of felt like one big free day), so I joined a bunch of other Stinters in Gibraltar for the afternoon. Here are some important things to know about Gibraltar:
1. It used to be an island, but now is connected to mainland Spain by lots and lots of dirt.
2. It is still a British colony or protectorate or something of that nature, so people there speak a funny combination of English and Spanish, use British Pounds, and have British-y things like red phone booths, fish & chips and Top Shop (Elaine's fave clothing store).
3. Most of the island is taken up by a very large rock, the Rock of Gibraltar. I'm pretty sure there are songs written about it.
4. A horde or apes live on the rock, many of whom are extremely friendly. Here's one that I made friends with. His feet felt like tiny hands.
Needless to say, the week was restful and great. I'm happy to be back in Berlin and back to campus and all. I just wish I could have brought some Mediterranean sun with me.