what makes love the exception?

This week should be a bit crazy. With "Operation: Elsa" fully in action, we have been charged with getting out into the UDLA community and making our presence felt. I hope to eat lunch or get coffee with three friends, and maybe offer my skills at speaking english/understanding engineering texts (somewhat, at least) to the chemical engineering department. All the textbooks for engineering are in english, and angie (our exchange coordinator) suggested making friends by just putting my name out there as someone who can do that. It's scary, but I also really feel like God will bless this week. I asked Angie at our meeting today how to make friends, and I said I couldn't imagine myself just going up and talking to people in the dining hall. She said, "Well, is that how you make friends at home?" I told her no... I'm much more of a "make people feel comfortable/help people out" kind of person, and she said that I shouldnt try to be someone other than the person God made me - that He'll use my gifts, if I'm open to being used. That was encouraging... I guess I sort of felt like I wouldn't succeed this week unless I could go up to random people and strike up a conversation.

A really cool part of the day came after our meeting. I was the last one out of the office, and Angie pulled me (literally... think: pulled behind a vending machine in downtown Columbia =) ) back into the office. She said she wanted to thank me for putting my advice and words into the meeting. Then, she went on to say that she wanted to tell me that she saw that I seemed to have a sense of purpose here, and that she could tell I really craved to be used in God's ways here. She said she can see me growing and opening up and changing, and that it was really cool. She told me I was a leader, and that I was a part of the foundation of this team, and she was really proud. Coming from a very cool, but fairly not-affectionate person, that was pretty freaking awesome to hear.

Tonight is Independence Day in Mexico, and I'm pumped. The actual holiday is tomorrow, but today is the night of celebration... at 11 pm, all over the country, leaders (the president in Mexico City, but governors and mayors in every other city/village in the country) will give the "grito." Literally, the grito is a "shout," but in this case, it's someone shouting "Viva Mexico." We're going to Puebla for dinner, and then the zocalo of Puebla for the grito. It should be crazy, but I think I'll have a blast. I've learned to enjoy crazy much more than I used to. Hopefully, I (and my camera) will live to tell and show pictures of the night.