High School Again

I started journaling today on the metro about my new favorite time of day, so I figured why not continue right here what I was writing earlier.  So apparently, my new favorite time of day is on the metro to and fro my new job teaching these young girls English.  Earlier, I thought I’d say my favorite time of day would have been the lovely bike ride to and fro my new Spanish school every morning/afternoon.  But after braving the wild streets of Valencia, with pedestrians galore to swerve around, other bike riders to with which to keep up pace, and keeping watch of the many cars that decide to plow through intersections regardless of their informative signal, “YIELD FOR THE HUNDREDS OF BICYCLISTS AND PEDESTRIANS YOU MAY RUN INTO”; I’d say the ride is not quite as tranquil and thought provoking as I would have hoped for.

Regardless, my new favorite time seems to be that time on the metro every afternoon heading as far as possible on the line.  Don’t have to think about anything but the Lord’s words to my soul until the train finally stops and everyone is gone off the train except for me and the Lord.  He and I are uncovering some good stuff during this simply sweet 30 minutes twice a day.  For now, it’s between me, the Lord, and my husband (as I choose to divulge).  But if I’m brave enough or divinely instructed to, I will share more on that.

All that said, so far this week has been a lot different that my last 3 weeks here.  I started classes at the Spanish school on Monday.  I am in the beginner class (guess my 2 years of high school Spanish didn’t lead too much), with a bunch of beginner German college students.  For one, I am absolutely amazed by how fast they have picked up on the language in such short a time.  They all started from ground zero a week before me.  My vocabulary seems to be bigger considering my “extensive” previous experience with Spanish education.  However, in a full immersion class setting, it’s clear who is comprehending the teacher’s instructions and who is left staring blankly hoping someone else can inform them on what the instructions are.  Of course all “black market” instructions are whispered in English (to me) in a thick German accent.

Of course when the students are actually speaking in Spanish, as we are supposed to, sometimes I’m not sure if my struggle is more trying to comprehend the Spanish, or trying to understand the THEIR Spanish masked by a thick German accent.  Seriously, sometimes when they’re joking around I’m not sure if I’m listening to German or Spanish!  We’ll see where I stand in December when I’ve finished my investment to this school.  After 3 days, it feels more like I’m in high school wondering if I’ll ever be able to apply this.  But I figure every little bit helps, and one day I anticipate a sudden light bulb turning on in my head.

But on the flip side, I am teaching English to a family who seems to put me on a pedestal for my English, and are glad to be around me and my “precious” accent.  I’m working with two girls (10 & 7).  The first time I met with them, I was expecting to have to do some “get-to-know-you” time and warm them up to me.  Let me tell you, they picked me up from the metro station, and from the backseat of the car the girls beamed with joy and precious greetings.  They are sweet as can be, not shy at all, and excited for me to come over every day.  It feels pretty good after my awkward mornings struggling through Spanish class with the quick-learning Germans!  Ok, the Germans are actually super nice and gracious to me…it’s just my own timidity shining through.

It’s good that I’ve been rather busy this week and ongoing (except that I’ve been uncomfortably sick with a head cold… and now chest congestion… but that’s life.) because Jake is now feeling the weight of his program.  He’s very proactive at keeping up with his assignments, but in his field you can always be refining, editing, redoing, or recreating your work.  He has experienced all of the above this week.  Luckily, my husband is a fast-working perfectionist.  So whatever he does (or re-does) is a quality piece with time left over for edits.  For one class (it’s called “Linear Scoring for Film” or something fancy like that), he is putting together a 1:30 min piece to an imaginary scene, that will be recorded on Friday with professional musicians.  Each student will conduct their own piece and has 20 minutes on the sound stage to record with the musicians.   Just working with professional musicians is a huge treat for Jake that he is excited about.  Some of the students have little to no conducting experience.  Jake saw the fright in one kid’s eyes when the assignment was given.  So he pulled him aside and offered to help.  Today Jake brought his “teacher” hat out, and worked with this kid for 40 minutes on his (the kids’) piece.  I only say “kid” because many of these “kids” are fresh out of undergrad and sometimes it’s hard not to see them as “kids”. 

Jake is kind to people here.  Sometimes I don’t know how he maintains his patience.  You would think he’s used it all up on me!  But no, he keeps it coming.  He has been known as the “go-to-guy” for tech stuff because he helped a few people set up their computers with additional memory, faster hard drives, and other techy stuff that I’ll just feel stupid if I try to expand any further…).  And apparently, he’s been nominated by the students to be some sort of student-faculty representative…!?  Not sure what all that is about, but he may be like the “student-body-representative” to make all the student requests known to the faculty.  I dunno!  We’ll see!  Maybe I’m not the only one who feels like they’re back in high school.  ;)

So things are getting busy, but they are good.  I’m still blessed to have some amazingly sweet and fabulous friends here.  MariEli and I auditioned for some new praise choir at the church.  Monday night was the first rehearsal/audition.  They are going to have us actually try-out next Monday and sing alone!  Too bad I literally have lost my voice now because of my sickness.  L  Seems like whenever I get a head cold it eventually goes to my chest (that’s when it’s almost over), and takes out my voice in the process.  It’s been happening every year or two since high school.  The last time was last December, and my voice did not fully return until February.  I still remember last February’s rejoicing because I could sing again!  So we’ll see what next Monday brings for me.  As of now, I have a little more than a whisper.

Either way, Monday was so fun, and made me feel soooo much better in spirit, regardless of how I felt physically.  Andres ran the rehearsal, and of course everything was in Spanish. But these church members are the kindest people ever, and I never feel like an outcast regardless of the language barrier.  MariEli and I walked part-way home together, and it feels so wonderful to have another friend who I enjoy so much!

Bonnie, MariEli and I will be going out for drinks tomorrow.  Bonnie is so busy being a mom, a wife, and working all the time.  But even so, she texts me asking about my new schedule, she invites me to do something with them at least once or twice a week, and she is constantly encouraging me.  I hope that I can return her the favor as I know she could probably use the extra support as well.

 All in all, feeling blessed.  Feeling grateful.  Anticipating new revelations as this journey unfolds.

Monday's A-Comin'

So here we are… 3 weeks in.  Jake’s school work is picking up, and he’s got his home studio completely set up in the extra bedroom.  He moved the TV monitor that was in our bedroom into his now studio room, and is using it as his studio monitor.  (I guess big screens are important with scoring and editing stuff, so you can see all the tracks at once.)  So far he likes to work at home better than the studio lab at school because of his fancy set up.  So I certainly don’t mind.  He can move whatever he wants around the house as long as it puts him at home more! J  Plus, I love when he’s making music in the house. 

This morning he showed me everything he’d set up for one of his assignments, configuring tempos, meters, and measures to the precise time frame for each visual cue to a 90 second clip.  He’s been a bit hesitant to elaborate on his work so far, so it was fun to see him excited to share.  I have to keep up on all this as well, so I have something to converse about with his peers.

Last night was the first time, I hung out with his classmates without him.  Jake’s been having terrible allergies the last couple of days.  We did our best to trying to communicate with the pharmacist the ingredients of his usual medication that we didn’t bring.  (So… if anyone is thinking care package… we’re thinking Claritin D!)  After a couple days without any meds, his body just gave up and he was done for yesterday.  So I went to choir rehearsal by myself hoping they would let me into the school without my escort.  I got in, and the students greeted me as if I was one of their own. 

After choir I met up with Bonnie and her friends.  Super fun people to hang out with.  Whether they are talking in Spanish or English I’m entertained.  I was pleased to report to them all that I will be starting Spanish classes on Monday!  They will soon be challenging me to only speak to them in Spanish.  But for now, their grace of English is upon me. Not to mention my Spanish is as much painful for them as it is for me. 

After weighing options for me to work on my Spanish, I decided that a structured intensive class format will really help me stay focused and motivated.  So I took the plunge and committed to 12 weeks of intensive Spanish classes at a language school from 9am-1pm, Monday thru Friday.  I am considered a beginner, so I will be pretty much starting from ground zero.  But knowing half my day will be in Spanish, at a level that I can comprehend, gives me hope that I will soon be able to order my food at a restaurant without getting a blank stare, go to the bank and not have to wait for the one English speaker there to become available, understand the conversation between the grocery checker and the customer in front of me, and say more to our roommate than “hello”, “good morning”, and “see you later.”

Side note: I don’t think I’ve mentioned that we have a roommate.  Part of the conditions of living in Bonnie’s parents’ house is that Bonnie’s grandfather is living here temporarily.  He’s a really sweet catholic man from Peru.  He’ll be headed to the U.S. on October 1^st to visit family, and then to Denmark in December to visit Bonnie’s parents, and then to Peru after that to visit more family.  So he pretty much splits his year between visiting/living with all his family members for a few months.  However, looks like there was a mix up and he’ll actually be coming back in November for a month before leaving for Denmark.  So hopefully by then I’ll be able to impress him with my new Spanish skills, and learn more about him than simply what time he eats meals and goes to bed.  His name is Edgar. 

So, as of Monday I actually have a schedule and something to focus on while I’m here.  12 weeks of school is sort of a big commitment not only because of the time, but because it costs a good chunk of change!  So to compensate I’ve gotten a little job teaching a couple young girls English after school Monday – Thursday.   Mom said specifically that she wants it to be an informal educational setting since she doesn’t want to put pressure on the girls with more schoolwork.  So basically, she’s asking me to come over every afternoon to play with them in English, and help them with their English homework as needed.   I thought it was a pretty sweet gig considering not many parents want an English tutor 4 days a week.    That way I can work for just one family and really get to know them instead of having to piece together a few different jobs with different kids.  The only bummer is that it’s not close.  We live at the farthest east stop on the metro line 5, and this family lives at the farthest west stop on line 5 (outside of the city).  So a 30+ minute metro ride, and then they have to pick me up to drive me to their house.  But hey, 30 minutes where I don’t have to transfer lines or think about anything but reading a book, doing Spanish homework, or whatever.   

So it all starts on Monday.  I feel excited to have a schedule, and things to invest in.   Though with not much to focus on, thus far, I have cooked more meals for my husband than I have since we’ve been married.  Haha… of course, I’m exaggerating.  But the nightly routine of actually taking an hour or more to cook up something that involves dicing, mincing, and simmering is a new phenomenon in our household.  We’ll see how long it lasts.  J

Speaking of gender roles in the household, I can hear the washer finishing its cycle with our colored clothes.  Time to go see if our undies are done hanging in the wind, or better make some room on the clothesline. 

Hanging with the Fam!

Ok, so we’re about to enter Jake’s second week of classes.  The first week was pretty simple.  Not too much work yet, but just enough for Jake to get a little studio set up for himself in our extra bedroom.  It’s the perfect place for him to write and study.  Well, as long there are not reverberating screams of gleeful children playing in the courtyard below us, which is generally on Friday and Saturday nights until at least 1:00am.  With the windows open, the acoustics of that courtyard make it sound like we’re in the front row of a Justin Bieber concert surrounded by screaming girls.   So we’ve succumbed.  A little extra money toward the air conditioner on the weekends is worth the solace of closed windows.   Of course, I do enjoy the sound of happy children…just maybe not when they are amplified by such an acoustical courtyard.

There are a lot of happy children around here.  I’m not used to seeing so many children in a big city like this.  There are little parks all over the place.  I thought the oddest one was on the island between opposing traffic of a major street.  There were no children at that park, so I suppose most parents here agree with me.

But yes, Jake’s classes… so far he’s had to compose a brief musical synth loop to an old-style video game, compose a short flute piece with the focus on correct orchestration, and some other group assignments commentating on movie clips, sound ques, etc.  (I’ll work on my film scoring jargon.  As of now, you might just get a lot of, “etc.” because I’ve run out of the few words I know to explain this “stuff”.)   It’s been fun to listen to Jake talk to his peers with an excitement and sense of comradery.  He seems very happy and confident.

As for me, I’m still trying to find my place.  I have a few things I’m planning on getting involved with, but nothing is set up yet.  So I still have a little bit of that awkward wall flower feeling, waiting to feel a little more comfortable in my own shoes.  But I think that phase will be short lived.  I am looking into doing some intensive Spanish courses 5 days a week from 9-1pm.  I am anxious to be able to speak the language.  I’ve never been someone too excited to learn a language.  (It took me so long to learn English, why would I want to start all over!)   But suddenly because my hindrance from being able to engage with people is the language, all I want to do is learn as fast as I can.  Hopefully that ambition will stick with me over the next few months. 

I also have an interview on Tuesday to teach a couple kids English 4 days a week for a couple hours.  Unfortunately, because it’s kind of a faraway metro ride out of the city it may not end up being worth my time to get there and back every day.  But we’ll see.  As of now, I’m just trying to prepare some materials and a strategy for teaching.(…which actually kind of annoys me because so far here I’ve spent more time working on my English than on my Spanish!)

Jake and I also joined a choir together.  It’s sort of a student-run, extra-curricular thing at Berklee.  But because Jake knows I want a place to sing he asked the professor heading it up if spouses could join the choir.  He soon realized, for it to seem appropriate for me to join he’d have to join too.  What a guy!  Now he’s doing choir with me.  We had our first rehearsal on Friday, and outside of feeling like everyone was staring at me wondering , “Why is this girl here?”, it was quite fun and incredibly refreshing for me.  We went out to dinner after with Jake’s peers and now mine, and had a great time.  I came to realize that no one was staring at me, or even realized that I wasn’t a Berklee student… until I told them of course!

It feels good to have some friends at Berklee, but it feels even better to have some friends outside of Berklee!  Today, Jake and I went back to church.  This time we took the trambia (above ground metro… or tram) halfway to church and rode bikes the rest.   Though we really struggled to comprehend any of the message this time, we were one of the last people at church just talking and making new friends.  There are many English speakers at the church our age … and a few older folks who tell you they cannot speak English but who definitely have a WAY bigger English vocabulary than I have Spanish.

Tonight we met Bonnie and her husband, Andres at the beach to hang out, along with Andres’ sister and brother-in-law, who I had met over a week ago with MariEli.   I had not yet met Andres, even though he was my first contact in Valencia.  (He referred me to MariEli because her English was better.  I realized today that he was just nervous about his English.  In reality, his English was good enough for he and Jake hit it off talking about music stuff.)

When Tony & Eli arrived (Andres’ sis and bro-in-law), Andres’ other sis, Esther, who is 15, was with them.  She was adorable and so excited to help interpret here and there with the English vocab she’s learning in school.  She seemed to gravitate toward Jake.  He is so good engaging teenagers.  (Guess he’s had some practice the last 9 years of teaching.)  As we walked along, soon we ran into Andres’ parents who came to hang out as well.  His father is the pastor of the church.  So now we are here with Andres’ entire family, hanging out with the Pastor and fam at the beach on a Sunday evening.  It should have felt like we were intruding on family time, but they were so gracious and welcoming to us. 

Tony asked us if we’d been trying much Spanish food.  So we decided to leave the beach and go to a special place in the mall.  We all got in cars and drove to the mall to find out that the place was closed.   Sure enough, we went to the next best thing to Spanish food in Spain… McDonalds!   But no worries, Bonnie said next Sunday Andres' mother with make paella  (popular Spanish rice dish) and have us all over.

Bonnie and Andres drove us home, and Andres invited me to their singing group at church.  I don’t know yet when it is or much about it, but I sure hope I can join.  Plus, singing in Spanish is a great way to start learning the language as well. 

As we walked up to our apartment Jake said, “They could be our only friends here, and I’d be happy with that.”  Thank you, God, for divine appointments reflecting your familiar warmth, kindness, and provision in a place unknown to us.   This was a precious evening with some great people.

Day of Pondering

So, yesterday I stayed inside all day except for a trip to Mercadona (local market).  Jake had two classes and was gone for the majority of the day.  However, he did come home for lunch and dinner.  Probably the first day since being here that we ate all of our meals at home.  After living in a hostel/hotel for a week, buying food from vendors has been the routine instead of having a supply at home to cook with. 

As we all know, too much time indoors can eat at you.  Especially when you’ve gotten used to walking, biking, or skating everywhere all the time.  I was trying to put my life together.  Research everything from Spanish courses I want to take, comparing rates, comparing travel scenarios & distances.  I was responding to tons of responses to a little ad I posted about teaching English privately to kids.  Boy, being a native English speaker puts you in high demand.  Who would have thought that my accent could be worth so much! 

But since I don’t speak Spanish responding to simple inquiries is not as easy as it sounds.  Even with Google Translate!  Here’s the process:

-           Write message in English, then translate it to Spanish. 

-          Open new window and a different translation site. 

-          Translate the Spanish translation back to English on different site.  (This is to check that your translated message is actually communicating what you wanted to say… It’s never correct.)

-          Edit the English translation with different word usage in attempt to make message more translatable.

-          Translate edited English message back to Spanish.

-          Translate the new Spanish message back to English and check translation again.

-          Repeat process until satisfied that your message has been translated correctly.  

-          Solution: How about I just learn Spanish!  ;) 

Eventually being cooped up all day inside, I got a little sad.  Starting to overthink what I will do after this year.  I also started researching going back to school myself.  It’s hard when I’m around so many grad students who are younger than me and on a very specific path with a very specific goal.   The choices I’ve made in my adult life have left me with a lot of experiences and a lot of different jobs.  But with no direction, no expertise, a rather random resume, and an academic history that would force me to start all over to pursue the things that grab my heart the most.  I researched grad schools for myself…but for that I should have been pursuing certain crafts with focus and determination for the past 10 years.  I have a hard time keeping the words, “wasted 10 years” from my vocabulary.  Many schools won’t even take second bachelor’s degree candidates.  So the most luck I found in going back to school for the things that tug at my heart were in community colleges for Associate’s degrees.  It hurts thinking that I started on the path for these things 10 years ago, but decided to “leave them behind.”  Then, I was young and far along in my craft for my age.  Now I’m old and having lost all the strides I made when I was young.  I’m interested in so many things, but in the end, the things I chose to walk away from are the things that gnaw at me daily.  It just feels like a race that’s unfinished.  Like I was running with the pack, maybe a little ahead…but because I couldn’t see the finish line or the exact outline of the full course, and because there were a few people faster than me that I compared myself to, I just stopped and made excuses as to why running was not for me…that I would never win anyway so what was the point.  Yet, I miss “running” everyday.  And everyday I wonder what I could have been made of if I would have just kept going.  I could have become an expert runner.  So what if I wasn’t going to “win” the race.  At least I would have been proud that I at least made it to the finish line.  Plus, I would have been darn fit by the end, even more ready for the next race.  Now I’m just out-of-shape and old.  In some cases too old to even sign up for the race anymore.  Makes me sad.  How do I make the longing go away?  This part of me that just feels unfinished and only partially discovered.  

FYI…I’m not talking about running.  J  Though I do like to do that too.   (I always wanted to run cross-country in high school.  Never did.  But no disheartening remorse about that.)

Luckily, I have the best husband in the world, who’s heard this sob story on a weekly basis since I’ve known him.  He never ceases to encourage me.  He pushes and inspires me with tender patience.  He gives me hope and reminds me of where my hope comes from.

This morning, I got back on track mentally and emotionally.  Bonnie came over and took me to breakfast.  So glad to have a local friend to make me excited about life here.  She’s invited us over on Sunday night which will be so nice.  She’s offered to teach me to cook some Spanish meals.  She’s educating me on the best ways to get around town besides just bikes.  She’s encouraged me that taking Spanish courses and teaching English would both be good for me.  She’s invited me to church activities and maybe get involved in ministries.  I feel inspired again to be in the moment, and not depress myself with the past or the future. 

Much happier today.  Now, time to get back to those e-mails and fix lunch for my sweet hubby who is riding home now from his class.  I’ll give more details on Jake’s classes once they get going.  Nothing too exciting yet.   But stay tuned.  J

First Adventures in Valencia

Since a few people have asked for a play by play of us foreigners navigating our first and future steps in Valencia… not to mention I like to write, but never actually do it… here goes my first attempt at a blog!  Please enjoy my relishing, rambling, and possibly ranting about our year long stay in the beautiful Valencia, Spain.   I’ve titled this blog Morning Wonder since my favorite time of day is in the morning when everything feels fresh, my mind is clear, and I seem to have a sweet sensitivity to the world’s wonders.  Probably the best time to write. 

It’s been one week since we arrived in Valencia, and we are just settling down.  Jake is starting classes tomorrow and many exciting new things to write about will soon overshadow what I’ve failed to yet record.  So bear with me as I (hopefully) briefly reveal the happenings and highlights of the last week.

Travel Day: If you’ve ever been on an overseas flight… it was like that.   Three legs to our trip.  The personal TV’s on the long flight were lovely as ever.  I did have an interesting conversation with a gentleman from India about religion and spirituality.  (He wasn’t Hindu , Buddhist, or Christian if you were wondering.)   Interesting to hear someone who does not believe in God or religion, share about who they sense as their higher power, who they pray to, and what they consider spirituality.  It’s always eye opening when the terms you normally use to express your ideas on faith and religion do not translate to someone who does not share your views or who has not grown up in your world!   It made me realize how lazy I’ve gotten in remembering and studying why I believe what I believe.  If you can’t express your faith outside of regurgitated terms and phrases, then I think someone has some homework to do!  Thanks, guy on the plane, for the interesting and revealing conversation.

Day 1: We arrived.  Took a cab to our hotel, which to our surprise was actually a hostel.  My sweet cost conscious husband reserved us 6 days in the cheapest “hotel” in the area months ago.  It was actually great.  Room to ourselves, internet, none of our stuff was stolen … perfect.  We walked around town for a bit that evening looking for dinner (this was about 7:30-8pm).  I was so hungry, and quite discouraged when it appeared that all the shops had closed down for the night!  To our surprise… these people don’t even start dinner until 9:00pm!  Every restaurant was booming by 10pm! 

Day 2:  Planned to get up and go to a church service that started at 11am.  At 2pm, I hear housekeeping services knocking on our room door.  She was as surprised as I was when I opened the door in my nightwear (and night-hair) and asked for the time!  We missed church.   We finally got out and about and set out on foot looking for apartments to rent.  We quickly realized the difficulty of communicating with Spanish speaking real estate agents and landlords over the phone.   After a few seconds of trying to communicate they just gave up on us and hung up.   The day was a bust, but luckily we were invited over to another Berklee-married-couple’s place for dinner.   We had a fabulous time and didn’t return back to our place until after midnight. Just knowing someone who was all settled in was super comforting.   IT CAN BE DONE!

Day 3:  Monday… more apartment searching… same story as before.  Phones in the face.  Ok, we actually got to see 3 places (with only one English speaking landlord)… but none worked for us.  I’ll spare the boring details of why.

Days 4-7:  Jake had a week long orientation, Tuesday-Friday.  Get this… 10:00am-8:00pm each day!   On Tuesday morning, I felt the separation anxiety of a shy kindergartner on their first day of school!  I had to hold back the tears and the lump in my throat while sending him off that morning.   What was I going to do all by myself in this foreign place?  I had a pity party for about 20 minutes in our room.  Then I soon got out and realized “I’m a free woman!”  Just kidding, I missed him every second, but also found the joy of wandering the town, rollerblading through the park (I brought them from home), uncovering things to get involved in this year, taking care of some business items and remembering that I can function by myself.

On Wednesday night, I met up a local contact.  Well, in actuality she was really a contact of a contact of a contact of a contact of a contact!  But hey, with e-mail and facebook these days, connections can be so accessible.  My contact (to the 5^th power) is named MariEli, and she invited me along that night to a birthday get together with all her friends.  I was actually pretty nervous at first because I didn’t want to be the bump on a log just sitting there while everyone spoke Spanish around me.  But all her friends were so gracious and welcoming.  They actually were pretty interested in practicing their English on me, and they were super encouraging to me in practicing my Spanish.  It was the first time I didn’t feel stupid trying communicate anything in my less-than-broken Spanish.   I had such a great time over beers and sangria, feeling almost like a local.   I came home to Jake around 10pm on my socialite high, having forgotten all about our apartment searching woes. 

That night, realizing that we only had 2 nights left in our hostel before we had to figure something else out, we decided to once again to bring it to God.  Lo and behold, I got a phone call from one of MariEli’s friends at 11pm.  Apologizing that it was so late, Boni said that her parents had just moved out the country a couple days ago.  After she got home, she called them and mentioned she met a girl that was looking for a place to rent.   Though they hadn’t intended on renting it out, they were willing to rent it if it was for a friend or someone they could trust.  Boni invited us to come see the place the next day (Thursday).  It was THE PERFECT place for us, and at the rate we were looking for.  Boni even went and cleaned it for us Friday morning, and then picked me up to help me move our stuff over there since Jake was at orientation all day again.   She has been so incredibly gracious and a gift from God.

The one catch is that Boni’s grandfather is living with us for a month and he doesn’t speak English.  But he is so kind, and I actually love the fact that he is living with us.  I need every chance I can get to practice my Spanish.

Day 8:  Orientation is over!  It’s Saturday, and I have my husband back!  Well, for 2 days until the actual marathon begins.  Jake and I had an adorably sweet day checking out the city, taking pictures together like we are honeymooners again, and socializing with our many new Berklee friends.  Life is good, and I am trying to soak up every free moment with my hubby while I can.  It’s my recharge  time as I try to prepare myself for a seemingly “single” life while he’s hitting the studio night and day for the next year.  

Day 9:  Sunday morning… we made it to church!!  Though we got up earlier than 2pm this week, we still had it a little rough getting to service.  Because we do not know the metro system or bus system well enough yet to be confident on the actual time it will take to wait for the transit to come, make the necessary transfers without getting lost, and walking to and fro… we decided to use the public transport we know best… BIKES!  There is this cool thing called, Valenbisi!  It’s a public biking system where you rent bikes and drop them off and a bike station when you have gotten to your destination.  These bike stations are everywhere.  It’s the coolest thing ever.  So we biked to church.  What was said to be, according to GoogleMaps, a 1 hour and 16 minute walk, turned into a 40 minute bike ride.  We only gave ourselves 35 minutes to get to church so we were booking it.  However, fully dressed in church clothes on a bright, sunny, HOT day, while racing across town on bikes…we’ll just say we weren’t looking or smelling too pretty by the time we got there.  Amazingly, the church was well air conditioned so we recovered nicely.  Listening to the whole service in Spanish, I finally felt like I was grasping concepts and actually able to differentiate one word from another when it feels like the person is speaking a mile a minute!  So, I was proudly engaged the whole time.  I look forward to next week. 

To end our blissful honeymoon weekend, we rode bikes to the beach… a 5 minute ride or a 10 minute walk from our new casa!!   Walking along the beach hand in hand with my love… a great end to our first adventures in Valencia, and a great beginning of the year to come.