A Dog Called Wanda

Collin left this morning for Madrid. We ALL miss him. It feels a little strange to be here in the apartment without him. He met up with Dale and Valerie Pratt-Hegstrom, his former professors and current friends from our BYU days. They are leading the study abroad program for BYU in Alcala. I'm not sure if they were serious or not, but they said that they don't have anyone to lead the program next semester and did Collin want to. Why didn't we rent our house out? We could have made a nice little chunk of money! I told him that he should think about it. We would be in Alcala in a really nice place. He said he didn't think we should do it since the kids want to go home, but I think we should. I think it is a great opportunity and we should take it if we can. Of course I miss America and Pennsylvania, but Collin has his sabbatical right after this and would be free to do the BYU study abroad. I really want him to do it. The kids and my Spanish would be awesome if we did it. Plus, we would get to see our Madrid friends. Maybe I should ask Dale and Valerie to look into a school for the kids in Alcala. I totally want to do it! I hope I can convince Collin!

I had a Spanish lesson this morning with Rebecca. I stayed up way too late last night with Collin, since he was leaving, and Rebecca could tell that I was really tired during my lesson. She leaves for Holland this weekend. So I get a little break from my actual lessons (phew!). Mercedes, my language exchange partner, has to return to Seville for work. Her boyfriend lives in Granada and she spends almost every weekend here. So we might be able to get together to talk on Saturday or Sunday. I really liked having her to talk to every day. She is funny and interesting and young (she's 28). Today she brought her boyfriend's puppy for the kids to play with. The dog's name is Wanda. Wanda is a French Bulldog and she is adorable! One of her ears is permanently sticking up and the other ear always lays down. The kids and I had the best time taking care of her while Mercedes went to her French class after our language exchange. Emma and I played with her the most. This surprised me a little because Aidan is always going on and on about how much he wants a dog. Wanda has not been trained yet, nor is she housebroken. She peed twice and pooped once in our apartment. I actually wiped her bum with a baby wipe to make sure no poop ended up on the furniture. She did NOT like that one bit. Emma keeps saying that she misses Wanda (even though she was mad at Wanda for about 20 minutes because she bit Emma's ear. I let Ian take some pictures with Aidan's camera and he took one of his own face which he thought was really funny.

I had to take a four hour nap today to make up for all the sleep I lost last night. I was pretty crabby with the kids. So the kids might have watched Garfield 2 twice and played a bit too much on the computer. We made up for all the time spent indoors by meeting Javier and Nuria to do heelys.

We met them by the fountain near Corte Ingles and then went to another plaza with less people and more free benches. Javier and my kids heeled around for awhile and then played hide and seek. Javier kept disappearing and my kids were freaking out a little. I think I have trained them to worry if someone goes out of sight for too long. Javier was hiding further afield than I would have let my own kids go. They were all climbing a tree when a policeman came and told them to get down and not to climb anymore. Nuria and I were talking on a bench at the other end of the plaza. I asked her if I should get up and go over there and she told me to stay put and speak English! I decided to treat us all to an ice cream. Nuria didn't want any. I got pistachio, Emma, Aidan and Ian all chose cookies (vanilla ice cream with chocolate cookies, it sounds like cookies and cream flavor, but was nothing like it), Javier chose vanilla and lemon. We walked to a bar right by Nuria's apartment building and they treated me to drinks and tapas. I had mosto, they had beer. (They meaning she and her husband, Juan Carlos had beer, not Javier!) The tapas were pretty good: fresh tomatoes in olive oil; fried, salted almonds (my favorite); wheat bread with roasted green peppers (not bell peppers though, these were long and skinny); potato chips and chorizo with white bread. I tried the chorizo, but didn't really care for it and I am afraid that I am going to repeat the 4 day stomachache experience that I had with the morcilla. The kids had a great time heelying around, playing a very complicated game of hide and seek, throwing green oranges at each other and doing gymnastics. I learned a few new words from Nuria, mostly gymnastic terms since Javier and Ian were doing a lot of cartweels, roundoffs and handstands. Nuria and Juan Carlos, are very nice and easy to talk to. I love making new friends, especially when they have kids for my kids to play with. Javier reminds me so much of Ian. They both love gymnastics, they both push the limits of how far away they can go from their parents, they want to do free running all the time. The kids here play a little rougher than they do at home, but they are also more loving and touchy feeley. I think my kids are going to have to toughen up if they want to make friends here. They need to learn to give as good as they get. It is hard though, because at home I am always telling them not to push and be rough, but that is how the kids, at least the boys, play here. I guess they'll learn soon enough when school starts.