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.