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.