La Guernica and other odds and ends

Yes! I have finally seen it up close...Guernica. Last time I was in Spain I went to the Prado (art museum) and unfortunately arrived just as the special exhibit was closing, which happened to be showing Picasso. Now seeing the famous Velazquez painting was of course cool, but seeing a Picasso has been a goal of mine. My roomate and I honestly stood before this massive mural for about 10 minutes. I could barely speak from the awe of it all. The grotesque distortion of figures, the symbolism, the pain that you could almost tangibly feel emanating from this piece of work. It's still more than I can describe.

This week has been an eventful one! I now have 5 tutoring jobs to keep me busy during the week. Most of them are having conversations with Spaniards, in groups of about two or three. I'm even going to meet with one of the teachers from my school! I am very excited about this, although not being the most talkative person in the world, I have no idea what to talk about! I also have started attending an "intercambio" that takes place here in Alcala. An intercambio is where you speak part of the time in one language (spanish) the rest in another (this case English). I met many interesting people. One guy was from France, and we did fine in the Spanish hour, but when we got to the English hour he really struggled and we actually had to clarify with each other in Spanish, since it was our only common language! That was quite the experience. I even met a man here who apparently is obsessed with the NBA and NFL. When I told him I was from Sacramento, he said, "Oh! Sacramento Kings!" That was quite exciting. I mean, they aren't doing so well and all, so that someone from Spain actually knows them is amazing to me! We shook hands and declared each other friends. :)

Teaching has also been proving interesting. The children are still very talkative, but I am quickly learning their names and they are starting to respond to me very positively. Also, in two classes I take out small groups, which is more fun because I can get to know them better. I can't wait until I can start playing games and reading to them. My favorite! I am also loving my science classes. One teacher is very outgoing and you never know what she's going to do next. She wears super trendy crazy colored clothes and rides to school in a bright red Vespa. She pretends to pick her nose and wipe it on kids. She can definitely hold their attention, something that is desperately needed here. One day we were talking about smells that were bad, and students needed help knowing how to say things in English. One kid metioned a word that I didn't know, and the teacher turned to me and asked "How do you say to pass the gas by.." and made a motion towards her rear. I tried very hard not to laugh and said, "Fart." The children were held in rapt attention. In the states they would have been rolling on the floor! Then of course we move on to burp (with demonstrations, of course), pee, and poop. Now this teacher has visited the U.S. and when we got to "poop" she turned to me and said, "S***, right?" AUGH! I politely but firmly said No, that was not a word to use and told her it was Poop. Oh man, what an interesting day!

I have also decided that I do not want to eat hamburgers here anymore. At the intercambio I decided to have a hamburger, since I didn't know many of the other things on the menu. The next morning I woke up feeling horribly sick and barely left my bed the entire day. You can use your imagination for what happened in between. But I think I am safe in saying that I will not eat another until I am safe in an In-N-Out, unless it is offered to me and I can't politely refuse. *shivers* I miss American burgers.

The highlight of my week was meeting at a book study group that some women my age at my church started. There were just three of us this week and we will start a new book on Prayer next week. But it was something I sorely needed. I have missed small group very much (Remant I miss you!) as well as my accoountability group back home. And I didn't realize how much I have missed fellowship until the end when they asked for prayer requests. It took me a minute to think of something. I can't explain why, but sending requests to friends back home is easy, but here it took me by surprise. And while we were praying I just started crying. I truly am becoming part of what is going on here. Participating in corporate prayer is so important, how could I have forgotten I need it while I'm here?

Since then I have been feeling more and more like Alcala is my home. I found out I can put up pictures on my wall, something that has always been important to me. Also, when I come home by train and begin to see the familiar hills that overlook Alcala I feel welcomed. God has told me that He is using this time so that I can come to know Him more and more, and that later in life I will look back on this experience as a special time I had just with Him. He has removed me from everyone I love and all that is familiar to me so that I can rely more and more on Him. And He reveals Himself to me daily. It is amazing to me how while I initally came here thinking that my goal was to show Jesus to people here by the way I live my life, I am instead finding out more of who He is. I am growing to love Spain more and more and am learning to see these people through His eyes as a result of learning more about Him. He will use me as He chooses and it will always be to His glory, but first and foremost my eyes are set on Him.

I love you all very much and miss you, but I would not trade this experience for the world.

Me in Madrid in front of Hotel Mediodia. Riveting, I know.

Spainiards think highly of there metro syestem (which is quite good). This ad cracks me up! There's others that depcit other countries wanting one, too, but the look on Lady Liberty's face...priceless!

Feel the power of the phantom mullet...

Plaza de Cervantes decked out for the festival!

I just wanted to start off by saying that there is a very important point I neglected to add to my list of things I was not expecting: mullets! Now, I have heard that they are less and less common here than in years past, but I still see people of various ages and genders wandering around with mullets. And with clothing styles these days beginning to relive the glory of the 80's, sometimes I wonder if my airplane was in reality a time machine.

But in all seriousness I am finally starting to feel like I am truly settling into life here in Spain. I began teaching this week and my goodness is it an adjustment! Now, in the states I have gotten decently good at managing a class. I do not feel the need to worry about students talking too much and when I talk to them they will listen to me. But here the discipline style is different than in the states. My little "teacher tricks" to help get kids' attention don't work here because they don't know them. And then when I speak in English (it is absolutely forbidden I speak in Spanish to the students) many times they have no idea what I'm saying. At all.

But I'm not terribly worried about it. I was able to teach one of my classes a trick that I learned from one of my Cooperating Teachers. The regular teacher had not arrived yet Wednesday morning and I had a substitute with me who had no idea how to speak English nor what we should do for the day. It was only my second time in their class and I had no idea what to do. I had one worksheet to do with them about body parts. Let me tell you, I was nearly at my wits' end by the end of the lesson. These are very sweet kids, just used to getting up out of their seats constantly and were always always talking. So in the last 10 minutes of our time I told them I wanted to teach them a game. They could earn points, and I could earn points. Whenever they were talking and I put my hand up and silently counted down with my fingers 5, 4. 3, 2, 1, 0 they needed to be quiet. If by the time I got to 0 they were completely quiet, they earned a point. If not everyone was quiet, I earned a point. We practiced it and they caught on quickly. So now when I see the teacher again I'm going to ask if I can continue this with them. Hopefully I can end up doing this in all my classes.

Meanwhile, I have continued exploring some of what Alcala de Henares has to offer. I am starting to feel more at ease with finding my way around town (armed with my map of the town, of couse). I have found the nearest "target" type store, the post office (to mail my ballot!) and I have even started tutoring a 15 year old girl in English. She is quite advanced so I have to study before helping her! Also, tow girls at my church approached me and asked me if I liked basketball. I was thinking they meant watching beasketball, which of course I love (c'mon Kings...pull it together!) and after I said yes they were excited because they meet to play every Friday. GULP! But then they have a women's book group that meets afterwards every week! And it's not too terribly far from here! I have bene praying for more opportunities to meet Spaniards here and create friendships. This will totally work! Also, Kathie invited me to lunch with another girl from our church who is my age and we talked about getting together to see a movie (in English) in Madrid. So while things are slow now I am hoping that they will pick up soon.

Now for my amusing tale of the week. So, this morning I was doing my laundry. As you know, my dryer is not the best. It's pretty bad, actually. So I took some of my thicker clothes outside to hang on the line in the back. When I finished I turned around I made a horrible discovery: I had shut the sliding glass door and it only opens from the inside! Crap! I tried knocking on the door but the construction workers were on break and Kris was in her room upstairs with the door closed.
Now, there is a small enclave behind our house that all the houses on our block share. I knew that there were little gates leading into this enclave from the outside. I thought if I hopped the fence into this enclave I could go to a gate and then go in through the front door.
So I threw my slippers over the chain-link fence and found a pot to stand on so I could hop it (it is a very rusty and wobbly gate). I then walked to the nearest gate to find that it was locked. Inside and out. So I walked to another to find that that one was locked. I considered hopping the fence over to Gordon and Kathie's, but I really dont like hopping fences and I was afraid it would freak them out. So I stand there wondering what the crud I'm going to do, half hoping someone will see me in my plight. I'm in my freaking slippers, for Pete's sake!
So I do spot another gate and decide to try it. I can see the highschoolers walking home and hope maybe one will come in. Unlikely but I'm desperate. When I arrive there I notice there is a low wall next to it that could be easily hopped over into the street. However, that wouldbe embarrassing becasue the street is rather busy. Ido ask a man walking by if he has a key, but no luck.
SO end of story I hope over the wall, hoping no one thinks I'm finishing a break in job in my fuzzy slippers and walk around the block back home, trying desperately not to laugh out loud the whole time. Ahhh....
This is the scene of the crime! Pot and all!

Also, as some of you know, our house is currently under construction because we are getting a new kitchen! And man is it a mess! Our makeshift kitchen is in the basement and we have all the amenties except for a working sink. We wash dishes outside using the hose and a bin. I keep telling myself it's like camping. Also, we have no hot water. Praise God for Kathie! We can take showers there (whew!) However, the noise is crazy (esp when they were knocking down a wall) and the past couple days I have had off for a festival but have not been able to sleep in or rest very much. Ah well. The kitchen will be awesome.

This used to be our kitchen wall.


This is our kitchen as of last night.
Anyway, enjoy the pics! Thank you to those who have been e-mailing me and commenting on facebook! I love hearing form you all! Hasta luego!


At the Festival de Cervantes all the booth workers were dressed traditionally. And the food was soooo yummy!

My street!


Well, I have been here officially one week (well, at 11PM or 23.00 tonight!) It has been a very eventful week and I am finally slowing down from all the adventures!

My roomates are very nice. I rarely get to see my Spanish roomate, Ana, because of her tennis pratice, although when we have hung out she seems very sweet and nice. I really like having Kristen around. She is a fellow Office fan (although it is difficult to find websites that will stream it outside of the US....stupid hulu and NBC.com!) but we are making the best of it. So no one tell me what happens, because I will watch them but a bit delayed!

I found out that Alcalá de Henares is quite historical. It is the birth place of Miguel Cervantes and there are many beautiful buildings here. I hav enjoyed just wandering around downtown and seeing the sites. I eventually had to stop taking so many pictures because they all are really beautiful!

I did get to explore Madrid a little with one of my co-workers (she's from England and it was fun talking about the differences betwene our countries). We found an English used bookstore that apparently is very popular with the English community. It is small but quite a comfort. They even sometimes sell Reese's PB cups! Now I just need to find a used music store with English music and then I'm set!

Here is a list of things that I didn't expect to have to get used to:

• flushing the toilet by pulling up on a knob on top of the tank
• the shower head being in the middle of the main wall (what the crud is that all about?)
• military time
• spotty internet
• saying "zumo" for juice instead of "jugo"
• hanging up my clothes inside of the dryer (see pic...this took about 5 hours to dry and they were still damp)
• Chinese stores (I've been assured this is not racist, they are stores that consist of items made in China and are similar to American Dollar Stores...very handy)
• Having a maid (Maria Angeles is very nice!)
• church being a 2 hour train ride away
• leaving my window open and not worrying about bugs (not many mosquitoes here, although a cranefly did visit me one night)
• different light switches (like one giant square)
• street signs being on the buildings...so hard to spot!
• 

I'll probably think of more later, but those to me are the most prevalent. Our house if very nice (Geoff, we have a Nintendo64 and I'm keeping up on my MarioKart skills! Ha!) We are under construciton right now (renovating the downstairs and the kitchen)so sleeping in is impossible, even on Saturdays. But it is peaceful and I love that the Munroes are 3 doors away. I had told Kathie about my love for cookies and she surprised me one night with a homemade batch! I felt so loved I could cry!

Ok, so funny "crud, I don't know much Spanish" story. I desperately needed to wash some clothes so I went to a couple of different stores to see what kind of detergent I could get cheap. I saw some in bottles and it was after school and I didn't want to lug a large box home. I double checked it to make sure it wasn't like dishsoap or something. I knew that the one I bought was for clothes. Well, I got home and realized the liquid was blue and that I had only bought fabric softener. I guess detergent doesn't come in liquid! Oy!

People have been very patient with me (like when getting a phone and asking about Internet options) even when I tell them I don't know very much. I can't wait until I know more and can start to really converse with people!

Well, that's all for now (this is rather long). Enjoy the pics (more on facebook for you members!) Love you lots!

Along this street there are cloistered nuns who sell really yummy sugared almonds!


There are many little stores down the street that specialize in something I need. This fruteria smells so good when you walk past it!


This is one of the many pictures I took in Madrid. This park was so beautiful! It even has little forests in them!