Uruguay, Christmas, and the zoo of course!

About two weeks ago my friends and I hopped on a ferry for three hours and found ourselves in Uruguay. We are all living here on tourist visas which means we have three months to live in the country, and in order to renew them we must leave the country and enter again. Uruguay was incredible; colourful, hot, and lots of beaches...in regards to a question I was asked before coming here...yes, YWAM does have a beach. haha.
so we all got very burned that day...and be "we all" I mean everyone except for me, I simply got golden brown, what can I say?...good genes I guess.

This is a Christmas photo taken in this super huge mall called Abasto...sigh, its one of the few places where one can find a Christmas tree...

On Christmas morning, which is the 24th here, a bunch of us woke up early and went to church. An english church to be exact, and well, I was shocked when everything was over and done with an hour later...definately wasnt a latin church!

On Christmas evening a few of us went to our leaders house for dinner...it was pretty good, but definately not a meal at Grandmas. People in this city eat dinner at 10pm or later...after dinner we went up to the roof of the apartment to watch fireworks. Everyone seemed to buy fireworks and were lighting them from all the apartments around us, it was quite the experience. The 25th however was kind of lonely, everything seemed to be over and done with...and I was left with nothing to do...my mom did send me the Little Mermaid dvd though, so that got me through...

Yesterday I went to the zoo...for the second time. Why? I do not know. I have never been an animal lover, never had a favorite one...but yesterday I think I may have found a creature that I could grow partial to...sheep. Yes, sheep. I think I stared at them for 20 minutes. They were so dirty and noisy and lazy and fat, well they were probably werent really fat, but needed their wool shaved....but I love them. My favorite animal.

Thats all the exciting news from my world...

Whats happening in yours?

ashley

HOT Hot hot

Wow. things have been C R A Z Y. My school went to this conference for the past two weeks...it was super hot, and super fun...There were over 600 people there, and over 28 countries represented...sooo amazing.

Here is a quiz.
have you ever....
slept for two weeks without a pillow?
taken a shower without a towel?
found a coakroach in your bed?
I HAVE.

So picture this...hottest day of your life...hundreds of people around a pool...

I got baptised last friday!

it was incredible.

I made lots of new friends in the past few weeks...the girl next to me - her name is Jenny. She is the funniest person i have ever met, i am absolutely serious. jenny jenny jenny...

Well...Christmas is coming, and im not too sure what i think. It definately doesnt feel like Christmas...and im going to miss going to Grandmas house. But I truly am having the best time of my life. I am learning so much about who I am and about this world we live in.

so as always, email me.
its so good to hear from home!
-ashley