last year

Last school year, I lived on campus in one of the nicest dorms at my university. It was such a blessing to be put in that dorm, and I was even on the first floor, right next to the kitchen, and in a room with extra high ceilings. The first semester I lived there, I was placed with a girl who lived there the year before named Emily. I had just requested a random roommate in hopes of getting a great dorm--to me, the location was more important than who I lived with, and I just prayed to get a good roommate. Well, it turned out that she was really nice, and although we weren't best friends, we got along really well. She was laid back like me, and a really nice girl to live with.

Then, around October, Emily told me that she had decided to study abroad in the spring in Dublin. As soon as she told me that, I started praying for another good roommate, because I could either A) not get a roommate placed with me and have the room to myself, B) request that someone I knew lived with me, or C) get placed with a random incoming roommate. I didn't know anyone who needed a place to live, so it was either A or C. I didn't know what would be best for me: I thought having the room to myself sounded cool, but I think God knew that I would get lonely. He knew better than I that I really like social interaction. Anyway, I said, "God, you know better than I do what would be best for me next semester, so I pray for either the room to myself, or a really cool roommate who I could be great friends with, whichever would be better. And, it would be really cool if I could somehow have a roommate that spoke Spanish so I could practice speaking with her."

So anyway, I prayed for this a lot that fall, not knowing what to expect come January. Then, I think it was in December that I got an email saying I had a new roommate coming to live with me for the spring semester. At first, I was disappointed that I didn't get the room all to myself. I sent her an email saying hi and asking her to tell me a little about herself. Then I looked more closely at her name. "Sofia Mitjans." I thought, the last name doesn't look Spanish, but "Sofia?" That's a really Spanish name. WHAT!? So I sent an email to the housing lady who sent the email, and asked if she was an international student.

Guess what she said. She told me yes, she is an international student from Argentina coming for the spring semester.

It turned out that Sofia and I got along like sisters. She joined Glee Club and sang with me and got to perform Brahms' Requiem with us in Memorial Hall, we started running together and did really well, she came with my family and I on a trip to the mountains, and we had so many other good times together. I really miss that girl. And, we really practiced Spanish! I taught her English, and she taught me Spanish (and I learned a lot of words unique to Argentina.) My conversational Spanish really improved, and it was cool to learn that accent. I love her! I got to meet most of her family when they visited, and now, I'm planning a trip to visit her in Buenos Aires come December!

I'm so, so excited to have friends to visit in a city as cool as Buenos Aires, and I'm so excited to see Sofia again. She is one of the greatest, nicest girls I'll ever meet.

Oh, and just so you know, I found out during the semester that Sofia was the ONLY female international student from a Spanish-speaking country that semester, and the ONLY international student to live on north campus, and she just happened to be MY roommate and we just happened to get along like sisters. God sure works in big ways, doesn't he?

I need to start praying for more stuff like that!