Take a walk with me to school!!

 I thought to give you a better glimpse of my daily life, so I am taking you on my daily walk to language school, Instituto de Lengua Espanol!  This blog will be mainly photos showing you my favorite part of the day! I love my walk because I know I am walking in the presence of God.  Its so neat to look for Him in so many areas!  Please push play on the video below before scrolling through our walk! This is a song I sing on my walk frequently.  I love taking in the culture, seeing people, greeting people, praying and singing on my walk to and from school. I do have a longer walk than most students, 20 minutes, but I love it unless its pouring down rain, which is likely in the coming months.... 

So let's begin!  This is my street and the red car is parked right outside my black gate on the right side.  We just unlocked and locked the gate and "Viejito," as I call the old black dog next door probably greeted us Buenos Dias!  :-) 

 This is just a further away few of my street, but we are actually looking at it as if I was coming home, so the blue and white house in the right corner is where we are and heading to the park! 

 This is one of the parks near my house and I love walking past it to see the families playing or teenagers hanging out after school. 

 After the park we cross a busier street and turn onto this much quieter street!  I love the colors of the houses on this street! 

 This is a fun cafe at the end of the street! I've never been, but I want to go soon!! 

 Then we cross the street from the cafe and enter Parque Okayama, aka Parque Chino or Parque Japones.  It is a Japonese name, but the Ticos call all Asians "Chinos" like they're Chinese.  

 Lot's of fun family and friend time spent in this park! This pond has funny looking ducks that I am convinced are a cross breed between roosters and ducks....  

 Then we head up this big hill with lots of heavy traffic watching for the lights to turn red to see when we can cross over!! 

 We made it across!!  Keep climbing up the hill!! 

 Dobla a la izquierda! (We turn to the left at the Car Mechanic Shop onto this road!) 

Then we go down a BIG hill for another four or five blocks passing a child care center, another mechanic shop, the house with the old man who reads his newspaper every day and the sweet old lady who sits on her porch with her dog!  We talk about every day on my walk to and from school!  Such a joy! 

Then we've made it!! 

This is ILE!! We enter the gate at the bottom of this series of stairs and walk up them to...

 My class!! This is my backpack sitting on the bench outside my conversation classroom!

 This is where I go after class, we have an hour break between our classes!  This is one of the terrazas and its my favorite spot on campus... Why...??

 Because LOOK at these views!!

 I love to read and journal sitting looking out over the town!  

This is our chapel at ILE!  A special part of my time at ILE is the community I am surrounded by everyday!  It's such a blessing! 

 This is one of the classroom buildings from the outside! The trees are full of yummy mangoes, avocados, limes, and much more!! 

So we did it!! Then I do it all again backwards!!  One of my prayers the past 2 months has been for God to give me eyes to see this country and these people as He does and He's answered that in so many ways!  I love just taking in the views of everyday life in San Francisco, the area of San Jose in which I live.  The song you've been listening to is a prayer to God asking Him to,"Give me His eyes I want to see, Give me your words I want to talk, and give me your appearance.  Give me everything I need, so I can be like you.  Take my time for you and Give me your path in which I should follow! "

This is my heart and think it's the best way to live in a new country, well anywhere...  But I know more than ever that I am not enough, and that I can only offer what God gives me.  I pray that my eyes and heart will see people as Christ sees them and that I will have God's words to share with people on the path He puts me on!

  May you be encouraged today to know that God is with you every step of the way!! 

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