High on Choco Crack

Got up early today, HOORAY! We walked to the Albacin, where the mosque and the lookout are. In the Plaza Larga, we all sat down for a glass of juice. It was a little disappointing that we didn't score any free tapas. The clouds of smoke coming from the other patrons didn't improve our situation either. The lemonade at the mosque with yerba buena in it was yummy as always, but the kids said it tasted like pesto. Our bus card has a 2 for 1 offer on double cheeseburgers from Burger King so we stopped their and Collin and the kids each had their own double cheese burger. I'm not a red meat eater so I held out for some leftover black beans I made yesterday. After a quick stop at the Corte Ingles to admire some indoor soccer shoes that I'm trying to convince Collin to get himself for his birthday, we went home.

During a mandatory siesta, Aidan and Emma kept trying our patience by hiding at the end of the bed and giggling while the rest of us were trying to sleep. I slept the longest-3 hours. We ate pesto pasta and cucumber and tomato salad with bonito for dinner. I played Wig Out, a fun card game that April sent us. Each kid is having a hard time being a good sport.

The kids wore their heelys for our second walk. We took the bus to Alcampo-the Costco of Spain. There were tons of food stuffs and things I would love to buy there, including Choco Crack (cereal;) Alcampo has a babysitting service that I think we might take advantage of the next time we go there. We're all driving each other bonkers with all this togetherness. The kids need some time apart from each other badly, there is way too much bickering and teasing going on. Aidan ate it on pretty hard on the way home from Alcampo. He was pretty shook up.

We're taking a break from heelys for about a week after Collin and I got our feet smashed up by the kids' heelys a few too many times today.

Yesterday I walked about 16,000 steps. Today I think I am going to pass 25,000 which I am very excited about. Tomorrow I am going to try to run in the morning to get a little time by myself and work on working out.

Would you rather dry yourself with a towel that feels like steel wool because it dried outside on a clothesline or dry yourself with a softer, used towel that smells sour?

I Guess I'm a Little Delicate

Yesterday I walked to church for flamenco lessons in 100 F weather. I drank some water as I walked and went kind of slow. When I got to church everyone was outside because they couldn't find the key to get in. We were all standing around shooting the breeze when I started to feel a little weird. The voices around seemed to be coming from far away and my friends seemed to be turning gray. My immediate thought was, "Oh cr*&! I'm going to faint." By then it was too late to say or do anything and the next thing I knew, everything turned black. Then I was conscious of Sara and Marie Carmen trying to lift me up to my feet by my very sweaty armpits and I blacked out again. They sat me against a wall and all started talking at once. Anna Maria sent her daughter, Brenda, to her house to get me a glass of sugar water. Sara was holding my wrist and feeling my pulse and kept saying that it was weak. Marie Carmen was fanning me with my fan and asking her mom if she had any candy to give me. Carlos, Sara's son, was running around yelling, "Is she going to die?" The first thing I said was, "I'm so embarrassed." The all assured me that fainting from heat was normal. Then they each gave a theory as to why I fainted.

Pepi (Sara and Marie Carmen's mom), "You need to eat strong. People think that they only need proper food in the winter, but you need bacon and pork with vegetables in the summer too."

Sara, "It was the long walk that finished her, she needs to ride the bus or get a car."

Marie Carmen, "Well, she does have three kids to cook for and clean up after. That is a tiring job for anyone."

Carlos, "Are you okay? Are you sure you're not going to die?"

Then I remembered that I had some raisins and walnuts in my bag. I ate some along with my glass of sugar water and after awhile I could stand up. We finally located a key and got into the church. I sat and watched the dance lesson for bit before I felt good enough to participate. Afterwards, I went to Anna Maria's house and ate an unusual fruit salad: watermelon and pear with canned corn and lime juice. I thought Collin would be surprised that I fainted, but he said that he always thinks of me as a delicate woman. I would feel insulted if I didn't know it was true. 

How can I toughen myself up?

Ian had a rough day as well. They walked to church when it was a bit cooler and he fell so hard that he got the wind knocked out of him. At church he was pushing some partitions around in the multipurpose room and a heavy metal ladder fell on top of him. 

I helped Anna Maria build an unusual pinata. It has a wooden frame shaped like a cube. We covered it in clear cellophane and put clown shoes on the bottom. Next week for Carlos' birthday, it will be filled with balloons, confetti, tissue paper and Mexican candy. 

Anna Maria's husband is a member of the bishopric. He asked me to meet with him yesterday and extended a call to be a counselor in the Primary Presidency. Hopefully, my Spanish will improve enough for me to be useful in this calling. 

We took the bus home.

Collin and I watched a Pedro Almodovar movie called Volver starring Penelope Cruz. It was at times funny, sad, and joyful. I enjoyed it even though Collin had to pause it a bunch of times to explain stuff to me.

Feliz Cumpleanos a Aidan

Monday was Aidan's 10th birthday. This will be his second birthday spent in Spain. I remember buying a frozen strawberry cake for him in Madrid when he turned two. This time he had French Toast in bed. We took him and the other kids to a Chuck E. Cheese type place called "Vid Boys." They ran around in in tubes and jumped in the ball pit which had a pulley over it. Afterwards, we shot each other with Nerf ball air cannons and played air hockey. We ate lunch at telepizza. At home we had Fanta floats per Aidan's request and they were actually yummy, similar to an orange creamsicle. We also watched Hook, one of my favorite kid movies. After Aidan's favorite dinner, French Toast (again) with bacon, I took Aidan out alone to a cafe where we each had a soda, some tortilla and pineapple. Then we walked around for awhile by the river and tried to get a picture of the bats. We hid forever next to our front gate so we could scare Collin, but he took too long coming back. I read to Aidan and scratched his back. Overall, it was a pretty good birthday. We suffered some repercussions later when Aidan had insomnia at 1:30 am, probably from all the Fanta and candy he consumed. 

Today was my last day of Spanish class. We studied condicional verb tenses. I am sad that it is over because I really need the grammar lessons. 

I met with my friend Annahil. We spoke Spanish for a couple of hours. We talked about the difficulties of food storage, books and movies, food, travel and how hard it is to learn a new language. She likes Jane Austen and Danielle Steele. 

I am currently reading Driving Over Lemons: an optimist in Andalucia by Chris Stewart (in English), The Invention of Hugo Cabret (in Spanish) and Montmorency (in Spanish, but I have read it before in English). I still have not finish Tales of the Alhambra or The Modern Spaniards. 

I find it really hard to cook here. The burners are hard to control and light and the temperatures on the dial have worn off with time. We've only cooked meat in the house once and it was not a success. So eggs, beans, nuts and lunch meat it is for now. 

We found out who the kids have for school when they start in January and each of them has at least one friend that we know of in their class. The principals of both schools want them to be able to communicate with their classmates through Skype which would be cool. 

I am seriously in love with our air conditioner, even if it only keeps one room in the house cool. 

Granada's Got Talent

Last night was the Granada Ward Talent Show. Our kids performed admirably as circus animals. Emma and Aidan were elephants and Ian was a monkey. We had to come up with their costumes ourselves. I ended up cutting up a couple pairs of Emma's tights to make trunks and ears. Each child had a part to say:

Emma, "Soy la elephanta Rosa. Baila y canta cualquier cosa. Muevo la trompa al compas y no me canso jamas."

Which translates roughly to "I'm Rosa the elephant. I dance and sing however I want. I move my trunk and never get tired."

Aidan, "Soy Violante, el elphante por detras y por delante. Toco un tambor de ojalata y con una sola pata." Which translates roughly to, "I'm Violante the elephant from behind and from the front. I play the tambourine on only one foot."

Ian, "Soy el mono, Manolete. Lo que pasa rechupete. El publico cada dia, cuando yo hago monerias." Which means, "I'm Manolete, the monkey. I'm delicious (I didn't quite understand this part). Every day the public gives me money.

Ian also wanted to do cartwheels and poppin' and lockin'. He fell flat on his face at the end of his "rountine," which actually made a great ending. I know I'm a bit biased, but our kids were the best in the circus act. They spoke loud and clear and did some actions as well.

There was a violin player who is investigating the church. He teaches violin at a music school and played two separate pieces. There was a rock band (electric guitars and organ) that played Amazing Grace as well as two rocked out Primary songs, the Primary kids were back up dancers for one of the songs. There were two magicians, one who did card tricks and another who turned a can of 7Up into Orange Fanta (Aidan was thrilled and amazed). The missionaries rapped a couple primary songs. One of the missionaries did a very weird interpretive dance to piano music and finished by sliding down the center aisle on his stomach. It turns out that his companion bribed him with two milk plus juice breakfast drinks that all the missionaries are crazy about. Leonor, Emma's friend who is 8, did a very accurate hip-shaking dance to a Shakira song complete with handstands and cartwheels. Carlos played percussion to a flamenco song. We walked home very late and stopped for ice cream at los italianos. Emma got tutti-frutti, which turned out to be fruitcake flavored ice cream. She hated it, so even though I got my favorite flavor, pistachio, I traded her with the condition that she would give me an extra long foot massage. An old lady on asked us for a cigarillo on the way home and was very disappointed that we didn't have one. When we got home, I tried to roll up the window shade and BROKE IT! Collin propped it open with a suitcase, but that is yet another thing we have to get fixed. 

On Friday,  I was running the dishwasher and washing machine, the CD player, TV and DVD player and a fan were all on. I blew a fuse in the apartment. We thought the fuse box was downstairs in the lobby, so we kept knocking on the porter's door to try and get the key to the box. We went an entire day without power. Finally, I told Collin to call Manuel, and he told us that the fuse box is actually behind our kitchen door. DUH! The kids had talent show practice that night at church. Collin went to a Priesthood activity which was dinner at an Argentine restaurant. 

We got up kind of late to walk to church, so we took the bus. The kids and I had a really hard time waking up. At church I met two ladies who are here doing intensive language programs. One is from Lancaster, CA and the other is originally from Guatemala, but lately from Santaquin, UT. 

We asked the kids what they learned at church and Aidan said, "I think they were talking about Christmas because I kept hearing them say 'Santa'." We explained that in Spanish 'santa' means 'saint'. On the way home, Emma fell asleep on the bus. We went around a sharp turn and she fell off her seat and bumped her head. 

Tonight after a delicious dinner of bonito salad and tortilla (it just gets better every time I make it), we went to Federico Garcia Lorca Park. We ran into Carlos's family and he played with our kids while Collin and I chatted with his mom, aunt and grandmother. Collin managed to finagle an invitation from the grandmother to teach me how to make paella. I can't wait! I love learning how to cook foreign food. 

Tomorrow is Aidan's 10th birthday, hopefully it goes well!

Dracula Lives in . . . .Pennsylvania?

Let's start with yesterday. Collin met with Manuel, the director of Bucknell in Espana. He told us we could buy an air conditioner since it is so stinkin' hot. The only problem is that we would have to lug it from the store ourselves since they don't deliver. I'm pretty crafty, but I don't know if I can construct a dolly.

After a long hot siesta, I walked an hour to church (in 100 F weather) for flamenco lessons. I can do the footwork of the first three parts, but not the arms. As soon as I try to do the arms, I forget what I am supposed to be doing with my feet. 

The mother of the flamenco teacher asked me where I was from and I said, "Pennsylvania." She and her daughter said, "Oh yeah, scary movies are always based in Pennsylvania." I said, "Do you mean 'Transylvania"? They kept insisting that it was "Pennsylvania." Finally, they figured out that it was Transylvania since Dracula is from Romania. I explained that Pennsylvania is known for Amish people. Later, the mother of the flamenco teacher asked Collin why we didn't have electricity in Pennsylvania. I guess my Spanish wasn't so hot right then when I was trying to explain how the Amish live. 

Collin and the kids took the bus to church and met me. The kids played with some of their new friends. Carlos, the boy pictured alone, is one of their new friends. He makes Ian's energy level look like that of a sloth. Carlos is a really lovable kids with a ton of energy. Collin played basketball while I went over to Maria's house with the kids. Her house is literally right next to the chapel. She served up some watermelon, cookies and orange Fanta. I figured out that I spoke Spanish for three straight hours yesterday. The kids watched Up in Spanish at Maria's. Aidan went back to the chapel to play with some boys from church. Somehow I ended up telling my life story to Maria in Spanish. 

We walked home from church and stopped at Burger King for dinner. I had the just about the fanciest fast food salad ever. It had raddiccio, endive, red leaf romaine, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and corn. Everything was very fresh without any brown spots and nary an iceberg lettuce leaf in sight. It also came with miniature bottles of red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. You know the country takes pride in its food when even the fast food salads are beautifully presented and delicious.

Emma received a very nice letter from her friend Lauren Pilling and a best friend necklace that she never takes off. The two of them have been keeping up a bit of correspondence which is more than I could do at 8 years old. Emma also laughs a crazy laugh at the moon because she and her friend Amy Danowsky agreed that this was how they would send messages to each other. I wish I had brought the Lewisburg school directory so that the kids could keep in touch with their friends better. 

The River Genil runs by our street and is filthy. On one end it smells like a dirty wet wash rag mixed with a toilet that hasn't been cleaned for a few months (don't ask me how I know how that smells). I seriously hope our water isn't coming from there because it reeks and always has a weird scum on top of it. The fountain is near our house as well and while it is refreshing to sit next to and look at, we don't let the kids play in that water either.

I had another Spanish lesson today. We learned how to give advice, some vocabulary and some superstitions and how to combat them. I found out that the Asian girl is actually from Russia, the two people I thought were generally European are from Holland and New Zealand, there is one English guy from around London, only one Ukrainian remains from the 4 original to the class, out of the three Americans (1 is me) two are recently from Texas, but one lived in Salt Lake City as well as Allentown, PA. We have a new girl from Brazil as well. I only have one class left! I want to continue going, but can't afford the real classes. The secretary did say that they might be offering more classes in September, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. Collin wants to take an advanced class from the same school. I wish my Spanish was as good as his, but he feels that as a professor of Spanish, there is always room for improvement.

We went to the pool today. I think this red bathing suit top pictured should be outlawed for ugliness. I got a little sunburned, Collin got medium sunburned and the kids were fine. This time we brought food and water so we stayed for 4 hours until it closed. I am reading Year of Wonders, which is about the plague. I am enjoying it very much. I have tried to save the most interesting looking books for last, but I just can't do it. I've got about 5 different books going right now, most in Spanish or about Spain. I would really love to be able to enjoy reading novels in Spanish . . . . sigh. There is a whole library full of very interesting looking books here . . . . 99.9% in Spanish.

Aidan caught a lizard one night on the way home from a walk. The lizards around here are tiny and crawl along the walls near the sidewalk. We also saw a dead snake on the sidewalk on the way to the pool. I am curious to know how it died right in the middle of the sidewalk. Not to get all CSI, but there weren't any signs of a struggle or any blood, the snake looked very much alive. We knew it was dead because the boys dropped leaves on it to try and get it to move.

I made chicken with lemon tonight and I liked it, I think Collin did too, but it was not well received by the kids. Sigh . . . . why do I bother to make real food? Maybe I should just stick with cheese and crackers for them since they don't appreciate grown up stuff, but it is such a pain to make separate meals! Y'all feel me on that?

Today I only walked 10,390 steps, only 9 1/2 miles:( We didn't go out for our nightly walk because we felt like the kids were being crabby and needed to get in bed before 1 a.m. for once.

We're Melting!

It is seriously WAY TOO HOT here. It was 100 degrees yesterday and the heat is going to continue throughout the week. Last night we were all sweating away in our beds trying to sleep. The windows were all open and usually by about midnight it cools off and a nice breeze comes into the apartment. It never cooled off last night. At 1 a.m. we were spraying ourselves with water and laying in front of the fan. I don't know how much more of this I can take. The heat makes us all sleepy and cranky and basically good for nothing. The kids took cold baths this morning and Collin took a cold shower. I just keep spraying myself and sitting in front of the fan. I think we have to walk to the church again tonight for basketball and flamenco lessons. Some pedestrian might find a puddle of melted McKinneys halfway between our apartment and church. I hope we go to the pool tomorrow, I won't mind the freezing water if it is 100 degrees outside. 

Yesterday, I had my free Spanish class. We learned and practiced, imperfect, kitchen vocabulary, and imperative. It was a very hard class and not just for me. We also learned how to read and write a recipe and how to communicate when in a doctor's office as well as some medical terms. I wrote a recipe for chocolate chip cookies and no one, not even the teachers could think of the Spanish equivalent of "fluffy" as in "beat eggs and sugars together until fluffy."

After class I went grocery shopping which should have taken me about an hour. I was shopping with cash and had to figure out if I had enough money for all the groceries I wanted to buy. I deduced that I had over-shopped by about 10E. So then I had to figure out what wasn't too essential and put back 10E's worth of groceries, also I couldn't find the salt and went up and down every aisle twice looking for it. As I was lugging my groceries home, very slowly, I saw Collin and the kids coming towards me. I had no idea that I had taken 3 hours to shop. They thought something had happened to me and came looking for me. I seriously need a small calculator. I think using one would cut my grocery shopping time in half at least. We've already gone through an entire bag of oranges that I bought yesterday for juicing.

The kids and I suffered through the heat of the day by lazing around in our underwear watching movies and reading. Around 8 p.m., about the time it is supposed to cool off, I went to the Palacio de Congressos to meet Annahil to do a language exchange. We had a very interesting conversation about how the Mediterranean food and lifestyle is healthier than the American food and lifestyle. I totally agreed with her. I think our kids have walked more here in two weeks than in their whole lives. We are all eating healthier as well, at least at home. There is no food surplus outlet here to get cheap chips, cookies and candy from.

We went out for churros y chocolate, something we are trying to do only once a week or less. A guy came by selling pirated DVDs. Collin has been so desperate to see the new Harry Potter that he bought one. The guy selling them said that there was a menu on the DVD to choose to watch it in English or Spanish. Collin bought it for 4E and didn't bother to bargain, which he instantly regretted. We took it home and found that crime really doesn't pay. There was no language menu, it was super grainy and in black and white and it was in Spanish. I went to bed to read, it so wasn't worth watching. The kids watched about 1 minute of it and turned it off. Collin is SO mad about it. Anyway, we all learned our lesson! (Especially Collin, who is still spitting mad about it.) 4E is a lot of Tapas money to waste.

The bread guy came this morning and we were all, all five of us, in the bathroom. He rang the doorbell and I was all for pretending that we weren't home since we were all indisposed. Instead, Emma kept yelling, "No esta aqui!," and laughing loudly, so naturally he knew we were home. He rang the doorbell three times. By the time I was dressed and answered the door, I realized that I didn't have any small change to pay him with. He said I could pay him tomorrow. 

The last time we were in Collin's office, unbeknownst to us, Ian plugged up the bidet and left the water on. That was last week and no one was in the office until yesterday when Fatima, the Bucknell in Espana lady came back from vacation. The water had flooded the floor and dripped down into the apartment below the office. Collin was naturally mortified and hurried over to the office to try and fix things. The kids are now forbidden from going to the office which is unfortunate since it is air conditioned there.

I am almost done with Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra which has finally gotten interesting. I'm not making much progress in the graphic novel I chose. It seems like I have to look up every 10th word. Collin and I are trying to speak Spanish to each other and the kids as much as possible because we both feel a strong need to improve our Spanish big time! When does it just click? How long do you have to study and speak Spanish before it comes naturally?Is it not sticking because I didn't start until I was too old? In Europe, they start foreign languages in grade school. Why are U.S. schools so backward about this?

 I feel really dumb that I studied Spanish for 10 years, counting junior high, high school and college, and all I have to show for it is that I am in the lower intermediate or advanced beginners class! I guess my language retention is poor or something. I am feeling pretty disappointed in myself about this though. I hope I get over it soon because it is really bumming me out. One of the teachers in my class is from Switzerland. She speaks Swiss German, German, French, Spanish and English. Another is Mexican and speaks Spanish and German. 

Mormons Invade the Hermitage

Our days are falling into a pretty specific pattern. Collin takes one of the kids somewhere in the morning while I take the other two to the library. (There is such a thing as too much family togetherness.)I made myself get at least one book in spanish, a graphic novel. The other book is a translation of spanish short stories.

After siesta we walked for two hours (with a few breaks for ice cream and p.b. and j's) to church. On the way we met two prospective babysitters, but we couldn't get them to commit since they were having siestas. We saw the same puppies from before, but the homeless guy who owned the dog and puppies had sold about half of the puppies already. Our kids wanted one, but of course we can't get a puppy because of our nomadic lifestyle.

We were supposed to meet a couple people at the church so we could get a ride to what we thought would be FHE at someone's house with a couple of families. We ended up splitting up into two cars: Collin, Ian and I with Luz and Edison; Aidan and Emma went in another car with Carlos, Wolfan and Annahil (three singles). We followed Carlos (a thirty-something single primary teacher) to another town and up into the hills passing olive groves and what looked like old quarries. Our destination was actually an Ermita (hermitage) or small church which was supposed to be free on Mondays. Instead of a couple families, pretty much the entire ward was there. There was an event going on and they were going to charge each person a Euro to get in, while one of the bishopric members was trying to reason with the lady at the gate, all the kids just started streaming in so the adults followed and no one paid. There were ostriches that the kids fed, parakeets, parrots, peacocks, ducks, and tons of other colorful birds. They also had goats and a deer. The ermita itself was off limits because of the event. I didn't understand much of the lesson. I only know that they were citing reasons to have family home evening and there were some heated arguments. Afterwards, there was a ton of food and drink that everyone, but us, had brought. It was so hot and the kids had drunk all the water I had been carrying around and so by the time they busted out the beverages, we were all parched. Collin said he would have paid someone 10 E for a bottle of coke because he was so thirsty.We all drank way more soda than was good for us because we had gone without water for a couple hours in the heat. The food was an interesting mix of dishes: flan, chocolate chip muffins, Mexican Salad (something that looked like coleslaw, but served on saltines), canned pate on bread, potato chips, garlic toasts, green plums, apricots, cheese and ham, custard (to drink!), chocolate milk, orange soda, lemon soda, Coke, Pepsi, soda water, and juice. No one washed their hands and everyone was grabbing stuff and spreading stuff and handing stuff to each other and crowding around the table like a giant ravenous family. I liked the casual and familiar attitude they all had.

"Hey Tara, want some pate?"

"Sister, have some of this flan."

"Everyone has got to try some of this Mexican Salad. My wife made it and it is delicious. Gather around and I will give you some."

"Did your kids get enough to eat? Here give them this cracker with cheese on it."

Everyone was so friendly and loving. We were really surprised when a man we hadn't met came up behind Ian and grabbed his head and kissed it. Collin and I had an intense moment when we thought we might have to jump in and whisk Ian away from him. I think he definitely had some sort of mental handicap. I saw him do the same thing to another kid and the mother of that kid looked a little worried as well.

Aidan has a new friend named Samuel who he loves to hang out with. He actually yanked some ostrich feathers off one of the live birds, stole a duck egg from the lake and kept ignoring people when they asked him not to do something. He is really friendly and wears his hair in a fauxhawk. He seems pretty attached to Aidan regardless of the language barrier. Emma has a friend named Leonore who spent some time in New Hampshire and knows a little English. Aidan and Emma have big plans to invite them both over for a playdate and want me to make pancakes.

Our Piso in Photographs

Many of you have asked to see pictures of our apartment. It is a pigsty right now, but you would actually have to walk around barefoot to appreciate how messy it is. Yes, there is a lot of clutter, but that isn't unusual for us. This is the only instance in which I am grateful that I inherited my mom's dry-as-a-desert-tortoise feet. All the crumbs and dust stick to your feet so much that our bed feels like someone took a package of saltines, crumbled them up and scattered them haphazardly over the sheets. I wash my feet every night to avoid this and Collin has a bath mat on his side of the bed to wipe his feet on, but somehow the floor debris find their way in anyway.

The furniture is an interesting mix of really old stuff and not so old stuff. There are decorative plates and wooden boxes everywhere. It is a very nice apartment. It is four times the size of the first apartment we rented in Madrid and two times the size of the second apartment we rented in Madrid.

We did buy a new microwave (HOORAY!), but still can't figure out the oven. I feel very restricted without an oven. The bathrooms are nice. The showerhead is on the back center of the wall instead of on one end and there are glass shelves for toiletries IN the shower. Each bathroom has a bidet. The boys share a bunk bed. Emma has a trundle bed. There are two places to hang wet laundry. Our bed, la cama matrimonial, is actually two twin beds pushed together with a sheet over them. We have an office with plenty of seating and a coffee table. The living room has lots of bookshelves, a dining table, two couches, a coffee table and a TV with a DVD player. The view from our kitchen window is beautiful. We have a patio below our apartment where we can hang out, but we usually go to a park instead.