Random Ending

Well, I’m home alone tonight… whoa is me!  Ok, only because I opted out of the Finding Nemo movie viewing and score review tonight with Jake’s classmates.  I decided to stay home and sing my head off in Jake’s studio while he was out!  ;)  That room is the best insulted, and it’s right in the middle of the apartment so the sound has the most walls to pass through before annoying the neighbors too much.  However, when I look up I wonder how thick the ceiling is because whoever is above us must be getting an earful.  Luckily, it seems like people around here are pretty used to extra noise with all the late night parties in the plaza below us.  And now we have a church meeting right below us on the back side of the building.  They meet 2 or 3 times a week, and have band rehearsal maybe 2 times a week.  The pastor seems like one of those crazy, energetic pentecostal pastors whose preaching sounds like an hour of yelling.  It seriously sounds like he’s in the next room.  When the band is playing, I can’t even hear the TV.  It reminds me of the days in LA when my roommates and I shared our lot with a Mexican family who had mariachi band practice in our driveway.  With blaring trumpets and horns drowning out any potential conversations or TV watching, “Wednesday Mariachi Night” was also “Go Out on the Town Night”.   But here, we don’t go out much because we’re trying not to spend money, plus we have to take the metro or ride bikes since all the cool places to hang out are on the other side of town.  All my little Spanish school friends who are between 18 and 21 seem to go out every night.  I could actually go with them if I wanted to… but I just so don’t want to.  Does that make me old??   Especially since the alternative is to go to church… in my living room. 

We did go out this past Friday night.  MariEli was working the Tennis Open that Valencia hosts each year, and she got us tickets.  Neither one of us had ever been to a professional tennis match before.  Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever been to any tennis match before.  Unless playing it in 9^th grade PE class counts.   We had a good time.  It was just Bonnie, Jake and me.  We had a good time cheering for the ironically paired Spanish/American doubles team for the last match. 

As always, we had a quiet Saturday.  It’s nice to wake up to the thought… “I have nothing planned today.”  We didn’t leave the house until the evening, and simply to go to the grocery store.  Then we cuddled up to pizza and a movie.  Sunday night we decided to trek across town to the big commercial center (the only place open on Sundays) simply to get supplies to make mojitos.  We’d been talking about getting mojitos for weeks, so considering we didn’t want to spend money at a bar we decided to make our own.  So Sunday night we cuddled up to mojitos and another movie.  Boy, we’re sure living it up here in Spain!  Maybe one day we’ll actually get out and be tourists. 

As for the important things… the company looking for a teacher for business professionals didn’t hire me for lack of time to train me.  The class would have started this week, and they didn’t feel comfortable to throw me into the fire, which was actually fine with me, because I wasn’t sure how I felt about it anyway.  However, they are interested in hiring me after Christmas when their new classes starts.  We just need to find a time for them to train me, and at the moment they are only available to train me in the mornings… the only time I’m totally not available.  Well, we’ll see what happens.  Right now, my teaching is down from 4 days a week to 2 days a wee. I need to start looking for new students, but I’m not too motivated quite yet.  This week has been rather nice with my Monday and Wednesday afternoons free.

However, Mondays I do have choir rehearsal with the church.  We pretty much have learned one song each rehearsal, and so far only songs that I already know in English with a couple harmony parts included.  So it’s pretty basic.  However, I really enjoy everyone there.  And luckily there is a couple in it that teach at the English school in town, and they translate for me whenever needed.  It’s fun, and I’m glad to be involved. 

As for my Spanish class, we got a new girl today and she’s from France.  So now we have 2 Chinese students, 1 Italian, 1 Greek, 1 Russian, 1 French, and me.  Today, somehow in our “conversation” class, the conversation drifted into the subject of homosexuality.  Can you say… “awkward!”  The Spanish teacher was pretty outspoken about her views, but I could tell from the silence around the China/Russia/Italy side of the room this was not a comfortable subject for discussion.  But nonetheless, very interesting to observe.

Well, that’s a random way to end.  But, Hubby will be home soon from his late night on the town watching Finding Nemo, and I need to get ready for bed!  Night night!

Late Nights, Friends, and Good Times

Oh my goodness!  Time is flying!!  It’s been 15 days since Valencia Day!  We’ve been in Spain for nearly 2 months!!  We have gotten quite comfortable in our new roles and lifestyle.  A couple of weeks ago Jake was feeling in a funk.  Since he’s a man and is not the greatest and identifying the cause of his emotions, I couldn’t help myself but to pick his brain until we came to a possible conclusion.  He expressed how he didn’t know what his role was at school.  I thought that was a funny comment because it seemed pretty darn clear to me.  “You’re a student. Your job is to go to school and learn.”  But in talking a bit more, I realized that after 10 years of being in the business of creating experiences for other people’s benefit, he was having a hard time shifting into the mindset of just enjoying the experiences others (professors/program director/etc.) have created for him.  It was almost like he was still seeing himself as the “teacher” or “role model” for his classmates and it was his duty to help them get the most out of the program.   I think after pinpointing this frame of mind, he’s been able to let go of that self-induced pressure, and now fully engage in just being a student. 

Last Friday Jake had another studio recording session for his Orchestration class.  In that class they learn about a new instrument each week, and come back the following week with a 30 second piece written for that particular instrument.  Then an instrumentalist plays through every student’s piece while they all look on and observe the do’s and don’ts of writing for that instrument.   So after going through all the wind instruments, for their mid-term, the students had to write a 2 minute wind ensemble piece.  The professor gave them this crazy narrative to write to, using flute, clarinet, English horn, bassoon, and maybe an oboe?  Don’t quote me on that.   Luckily, I was available to sit in on this one.   The night before, Jake played me his piece and walked me through the narrative.  He’s so sweet to let me put in my two sense.  I told him that I wasn’t sure if it was just the sound samples it was being played on at the moment, but it sounded a little “storybook-cartoony.”  He said, he was going for “storybook” based on the narrative, but that it will also sound different live.  He made a few slight changes to temper the parts that seemed a bit too literal, and that was that.

During the recording session he went in with seemingly more confidence than the last couple of times.  He didn’t waste any time communicating with the instrumentalists what he was looking for.   They sight read through it the first time, and he immediately gave them further direction on what he was looking for.  They would then say, “Like this?” demonstrating what they thought he was asking for.  Jake appeared to know exactly what he wanted, and I think the musicians appreciated that he has not inhibited by timidity or overcompensating confidence.   From what I’ve noticed it’s still rare for the students not to fall victim to one or the other during these recording sessions.  I was sitting next to one of the student’s Spanish girlfriends, and she was so tickled by the fact that Jake was attempting to communicate with the Spanish speaking musicians in Spanish.  Having no trouble identifying that Jake is not a Spanish speaker, the musicians would just respond back to him in English.  She thought it was really cute.

In the end, I was caught off guard by how great the piece was, considering my skepticism the night before.  I could tell the students in the room were impressed with it as well.  After he finished I overheard the stoic professor say, “Great job.  I really liked it.  Honestly, I’m not just saying that.  I really thought it was great.”  So, maybe I can get Jake to upload it somewhere and post a link.   Remember, all these recorded assignments are either to some film clip, or to a specific narrative created by the professor.  Here is the crazy narrative for this wind ensemble piece.

“Wadi el Natrun, Egypt, January 1936. Renowned investigators Lucius Goldzweig and Benjamin Howe have been sent down to look for French writer/aviator Saint-Exupéry and his flight mechanic, reported missing after their plane crashed in the remote Scetis desert right before New Year’s Eve. Upon arrival at the accident site, the investigators follow the aviators’ traces, but will soon get lost in the dunes themselves, where they wander for three days and nights and extreme heat and water deprivation make them experience mirages and hallucinations. One night, a horrendous, mischievous creature appears before them, so they fear they have completely lost their mind and the end is near. But an old Bedouin caring for a herd of camels finds them the next morning and gives them shelter in his tent. There, he will reveal Lucius and Benjamin an ancient, well-kept desert secret: the evil creature they saw the night before wasn't a sensorial deception…”

To give you a frame of reference, that was 2 weeks ago.  Berklee choir was cancelled that night so we ended up heading to church where Andres’ little sister was having her 15 year old birthday party.  We went and hung out with Bonnie and friends while all the church youth and a few of her school friends played games in the sanctuary.  Of course, by the end they pulled Jake in to play with them.  Funny thing is, I actually think he felt more comfortable playing games with the youth that doing the small talk thing with everyone else.  He makes all our new Valencia friends laugh so much!  With the little Spanish he knows, he cracks jokes as much as he does in English.  After the party we adults went to Andres’ Spanish rap show at an Irish pub in a very American commercial center.  We actually had to take the freeway there, and the second we pulled up Jake and I both felt like we had just been transported back to the States.  We had to blink a couple of times when we saw all the restaurant signs in English.  We caught the end of a futbol game and cheered like locals.  The pub packed out, and we stayed until about 2am.  We were one of the last to leave since we were with Bonnie and needed to wait for Andres.  Some other people offered to give us a ride home a little earlier, but we decided to stay.  By the time we left, Jake had the last people there, MariEli, Bonnie, and Karol, rolling with laughter telling stories and being his silly self. 

The following weekend (this past Saturday) Jake and I went to a symphony concert that was conducted by his conducting professor.  The concert program consisted of major film scores.  It was soooooo awesome!  Being right next to a live orchestra playing the Jurassic Park theme song had me picturing actual dinosaurs traipsing across the auditorium.  And I don’t even need to tell you about Jaws!  But hearing some of the great film composers side by side gives me an immense respect for John Williams.  There is no comparison even with the best of the best.  We bought the cheap seats, even with the small Berklee discount.  But luckily these seats put us behind the orchestra with perfect view of the conductor.  Wow… and my husband works with this guy every Thursday?

We had a great evening, and even went out with a few Berklee peeps and their significant others afterward.  Of course finding a place to eat for nine at 11pm on a Saturday night in the posh part of town is not possible.  The best we could do were drinks outside.  A place to eat was finally available at midnight, at which time Jake and I decided to head home.  Plus, the drinks were surprisingly expensive and we didn’t really have enough money left for dinner anymore.  Oh well.  We got the social time in that we were hoping for anyway.  We don’t hang with Berklee people too often, so this night was the perfect opportunity.

On that note, Sunday afternoon we finally got to hang with Jared and Gabi, a Berklee married couple, that live on our same street.  They’re American, and Jared is in Jake's program.  We’ve been trying to get together to go to this tiny bar in our neighborhood called Lapaca.  It has this gypsy-grunge sorta vibe.  Jake and I go there when we need to get out of the house.  We get a drink and appetizer for 1 euro!  So we felt it necessary to introduce our friends to this find.  We sat there with Jared and Gabi for 3 hours just talking.  Just a really chill time.  Gabi is also teaching English around town and hooked me up with one of her contacts looking for more teachers to teach their business professional students.  I met with them yesterday, and we’ll see if it pans out. The young girls I teach are now down to just 2 days a week now, which is actually better for them.  4 days a week was too much for them, and draining on me when they begin the spiral of complaining a bit of defiance (or just distraction…it’s sort of hard to tell which).  I may decide to call it quits there if this other situation works out because these classes would be 5 minutes away instead of 45 minutes! 

Spanish classes are still going well.  I moved up a level this week.  I am comprehending more, but I realize only in the context of the classroom.  On the street or with Spanish friends, I’m still frequenting people with my blank stares and confused looks.  Mondays are the hardest.  I go back to school and my Spanish brain is squash after talking with my husband and Berklee people in English all weekend.  It certainly put a damper on this Monday. But luckily that was changed after Bonnie had me over for lunch and taught me to make Spanish Tortillas.  It’s basically a fried potato and egg cake.  Super simple, super Valencian, and super possible for me to make!!  I’m not a lover of the kitchen so something easy that doesn’t force me to follow a recipe is fabulous.  I’ve been surprising myself here with my made up recipes lately. I’ve been inventing my own dishes left and right, and Jake seems quite pleased.  However, I have trained him to have low standards. ;-)  Speaking of which, it’s time to go clean up my fabulous meat and vegetable marinara pasta dish.  (You really must decorate the heck out of spaghetti sauce here or else you wouldn’t know the difference between it and Chef Boyardee).  In the end tonight’s "Chef Boyardee" special sure was tasty!

Happy Valencia Day!

Tomorrow we celebrate The National Day of Valencia!  Meaning for most people here, a day off work and school.  From the little I understood from my Spanish teacher explaining to me (in Spanish of course), and a quick browse on Wikipedia… October 9 is The Day of the Valencian Community, celebrating the entrance of King James I into Valencia in 1238, and the dawn of the Kingdom of Valencia.  For a rather interesting summation, you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Valencia.  If you check it out, don’t miss the brief plug for the Americas in there.  Whoot whoot!!  So Jake and I may go watch fireworks in the park later tonight with the rest of the city.  J

Though we have already seen and heard our fair share of fireworks.  On Sundays I have to remind myself that there is not a drive-by shooting happening every half hour.  Apparently, many of the Catholic churches here light fireworks in celebration of someone taking their first communion!  Sort of the rite-of-passage after one’s long run of confirmation classes.  There are fireworks going off all the time for other random and minor occasions as well.  “We got a new puppy!”… Fireworks!  “My kid lost a tooth!”… Fireworks!  “It’s dinner time!”… Fireworks!  We better be careful when we move back to LA.  There will be a drive-by down the street, and I’ll probably think it’s fireworks and go out to see the show. 

So tomorrow is like Saturday since neither Jake nor I have school!  We’ll see if we actually do anything, since the last two Saturdays we have really just stayed inside all day.  But that’s ok, he gets work done, and it’s really the only day that I just chill.  I have school every morning, and I’m working, tutoring a couple of girls in English every afternoon/evening.  The girls are very sweet, and thankfully the mom said that she’d prefer a more casual/informal lesson approach since they’ve just been at school all day.   I always come with a plan, but it’s nice to be able to improvise with fun activities when the girls seem to lose interest.  We do lots of songs (and thanks to YouTube, music videos as well!); I read them storybooks in English, and then we reenact the story; I make up games with flashcards.  Yesterday, we basically played animal charades.  So, it’s pretty fun.  Hopefully, we can continue for a while because I’m hoping this will pay for my Spanish school in the end.  

Just for the record, my Spanish class this week consists of a Chinese guy, a Greek girl, a German girl, two French girls, a Russian girl, an Italian girl, … and of course we can’t forget Miss America! Unfortunately, this week only half of the class knows English, so no more English default.  L   That’s ok.  Sticking with Spanish is a lot better than everyone reverting to German as before! 

So far this week has been filled with some nice surprises.  On Friday, Jake and I went to our Berklee choir practice as usual.  Ironically, there were twice as many guys as girls, and 3 times as many altos as sopranos.  So the soprano section consisted of yours truly as the soloist. ;)  Luckily it’s a pretty chill environment, and my usual fears of looking like a fool were transformed into a fun challenge to conquer.  One of the girls who was helping to head up the rehearsal and accompany us yelled over from the piano, “She sounds good!  We should make it a solo for her.”  By now, everyone knows that I am not a Berklee student, so I think they all knew how good that made me feel.  I was singing all the way home.

Then on Sunday, Jake and I went to church.  (Our first time making it there with no transportation mishaps or stresses!).  For one, I actually picked up on what the Pastor was talking about this time!  Whoo hoo!  Now I don’t know if that’s because the sermon topic was simpler than usual, or because we sat in a different location with his amplified voice reverberating differently, or the fact that the chairs in the new location were padded, or because I’m actually comprehending more Spanish.  I guess next week will tell.  After service, the worship leader (Andres, Bonnie’s husband) called me into a room along with the rest of the people who had auditioned for the church “choir” last Monday.  He started giving a speech to everyone in Spanish.  I was totally lost, and waiting for a good moment for MariEli to translate for me.  I figured we were all in there because we were the new church choir and he was giving us a pep talk, going to explain when rehearsals begin, and the usual stuff.  Then I heard my name, and a little explanation about me, along with one other guy.  Still not sure what was being said, I figured we were selected as some sort of section leader or something.  Then as we left the room, I got a couple of pats on the back while I was chasing down MariEli to translate for me.  She told me that Andres was telling everyone that they judged based on 3 categories: 1-intonation, 2-rhythm, 3-attitude.  I asked her why he said my name.  She said, that Vincent (the other guy) and I were the only ones who met all three points.  I thought, “Ok, that’s nice,” still figuring that I will be called to work with others in the choir or something like that.  Not until we had left the church did I finally pick up on the fact that only Vincent and I were selected.  So, slowly but surely I’ve begun to realize that this “coro” I was auditioning for, is actually singers for the worship band?  Maybe?  I will find out next Monday when we rehearse for the first time.  Either way, I’m just so uplifted and encouraged to be able to sing in the church.  I’m just glad, “speaking Spanish” was not one of the 3 required points!  This week has made me feel like maybe there is something special about my voice, though I have a record of putting it down and hiding it away. Maybe it’s actually meant to be shared.  Especially considering how much my heart soars when I am singing, I feel like I fly right out of this world.  Don’t tell my neighbors, but I’ve been busting out the YouTube karaoke the past couple of days.  Hopefully they think it’s the TV turned up really loud.  J 

After church we went over to Bonnie and Andres’ house for lunch.  Bonnie had been talking to me all week about making us a Valencian dish called, Arroz al Horno.  It’s rice cooked in the oven with chorizo, pork, garbanzo beans, potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, and blood sausage (though she left the latter ingredient out, thankfully!).  Bonnie is helping me expand my Spanish recipe book.  Such a great Sunday afternoon for us.  Jake and Andres talked music, while sharing self-produced music videos and album songs.  Andres is a really really talented guy.  He’s a rockin’ pianist and singer, yet he’s crazy for hip-hop, and a crazy good rap artist!  He wrote, directed, produced, edited, his own music videos and they could totally pass for professional.  We are really enjoying getting to know this family more.  Not to mention we got to be a part of the awesome news that they have another baby on the way!  And we will be here through the whole process.  We feel so privileged.  

We got home on Sunday in time for Jake to finish up his piece for the recording session the next day.  He had this crazy idea to write the middle section backwards for the musicians to play, and then flip the track so all the instrumentation and dynamics had this inverse sounding affect.  He did it once in one of his rock recordings, and he thought it would be cool for this eerie scene he was assigned to compose to.  Considering the work he put into to write it twice (once forwards and once backwards), and then cue everything up properly while basically thinking inversely, he really pulled it off.  He was nervous, knowing he was taking a gamble.  I called him on my way home and he was so excited because he had just gotten home after the recording session and immediately went to his computer to reverse the tracks.  He told me with glee, “It worked!  It lined up perfectly!”  There’s still mixing to be done, but he is so encouraged that his risking taking did not end with a flop!  The reverse affect was more slight than expected with these particular instruments, so he said it may not be worth such an endeavor in the future unless with electric instruments.   But regardless, a great learning experience.  

With this assignment off his plate his week is looking more slim than usual.  Lucky me!  So hopefully we will go out and do something cool for Valencia Day!!  I’ll keep you posted. 

Por Suerte!

It’s been a several days since my last post, so there’s a bit of catching up to do... I’ll try to keep the boring stuff brief.  I’ll also try not to wait so long in between posts anymore so I’m not so long-winded in the future.  But I hope for now these tales are interesting enough to keep your attention…

So last week ended well.  I was almost better by Friday, thankfully!  On Friday, I met Jake at Berklee after my Spanish classes and we had lunch together.  (I think Friday afternoons will become a lunch date tradition to celebrate each completed week of classes, and finally a moment of downtime together.)  Earlier that day Jake had his first recording session on the soundstage with professional musicians.  He got 20 minutes with the musicians to record his 1:30 min piece.  His timeslot was earlier in the day when I was in class, but he set up his phone and video recorded the whole thing which we watched together on a park bench at lunch time.  They did about 4 or 5 takes total.  Then he brought me into the studio to sit in on a couple of the other students’ sessions.  The one kid who Jake helped with conducting earlier that week asked if Jake would be there for his recording, so we went and then stayed for a few others.   I’m so glad I get to be a part of Jakes world sometimes, and that the school is cool with it.  Jake and I have always tried to make a point out of experiencing monumental things together.  It bums us out, when one has to miss out on an experience that is important to the other. 

By the time we left the school it was too late to go home and come back for choir, so we hit up the mall for an hour.  We sat at McDonalds, which is apparently considered “posh” here.  J  I was being a bit snotty.  Not snotty-sick, just girly and moody.  I didn’t know what had come over me.  Last week was the first week that Jake felt slammed with projects, and my routine of morning school and evening work had begun.  This was the first week in months that we didn’t get to see each other much.   Jake and I have spent nearly every day since June together, and I think it’s hard for us (particularly me) to go from together all the time to hardly seeing each other.  As the weekend came, I didn’t realize how much I missed him throughout the week.  Of course as makes perfect sense, my reaction to my missing him, was being whiney and moody when I finally got time with him.  WOMEN!  But luckily by Saturday, my tantrums were finished and I had enough time with Jake on Friday to give him space again on Saturday to work all day long on his technology homework.  He was at school practically all day in the lab!

On our way to church on Sunday I told Jake, “You know… I think I’m a little homesick.”  It was a feeling that I seriously have not felt since I was maybe in junior high. (But then I just read the U.S. headlines, and thought, “Nevermind.  I’d rather be here right now.”   Haha… just kidding.  This was Sunday, and I know the headlines didn’t really start to get juicy until Monday!  J)   Luckily, an afternoon at the beach with Jake later that day seemed to sooth all my sadness.

We left church right away to get to the beach.  It was supposed to start cooling down after last weekend, and we still had yet to go in the water.  We’d been to the beach several times, but never had gone there with bathing suits on or intention of going in the water.  (Though after being there, we realized bathing suits were not as essential as we had first thought!)  We rushed out of church in order to have a good amount of afternoon time at the beach.  Unfortunately, getting home that day was a disaster.  We were taking the tram home in which we have to make a transfer.  We got to our transfer with a few seconds to spare (so we thought), but the tram was nowhere in sight.  Did we miss it?  Or is just late?  So we waited…. And waited… and waited…. And finally we decided to forget the tram and bike the rest of the way.  Just as we picked up the bikes and I put my stuff in the bike basket, our tram comes barreling down the tracks!  So we slam our bikes back in their parking slots, run across the tracks, and catch the tram.  When we finally get home, we’re about to enter our building, and I realize I’m missing something.  Jake and I look at each other simultaneously realizing that I left my devotional book in the bike basket as we rushed to get on the tram.  Jake knew this book was important to me, so he decides we’ll go back hoping it’s still there. So we rush back to our tram stop… but I was worried that it would be 10 minutes late again and leave us sitting there for 20 minutes while in the meantime someone is riding away in the sunset with my book!  So we thought we’d just bike back, but of course, there is not a single bike out our bike station!  So Jake ran down the street to next bike station while I waited for the tram.  We didn’t know who would get there first, but time was ticking.  So by the time he was out of sight, I got on the tram.  Jake called me a few minutes later to say he got the book, and that I should meet him, and we’d ride bikes back together.  Well, once I got to the place where I left the book he was nowhere in sight.  Little did I know, he thought I was going to get off at the next stop where there were bikes, and he would meet me there.  Of course, I went all the way back in the wrong direction to meet him.  By the time we got it figured out, I was still 20 minutes away, and Jake was at our door waiting for me because I had the keys.  So much for getting to the beach on time.  Uugghhff!  But I tell you, by the time we finally got there I was in heaven.  Splashing around in the cold and salty Mediterranean with my fun-loving, amazing husband was a taste of paradise after a busy week apart!  We lay on the sand for a while after the water.  We walked along the walkway hand-in-hand looking for corn vendors.  There are usually people selling corn cooked on coals and smothered with salt!!  Mmmm…. We intentionally brought exact change for us each to get a cob of corn.  Pure bliss!

Then comes Monday, and we were back to the grind!  Unfortunately, we had to get up super-duper early to go to the police station to apply for my residency.  This was a stressful process because I had exactly 30 days to do this since arriving, and Monday was day 30!  Meaning if something went wrong I could get shipped back to the states!!!  (Or at least I was imagining that’s what would have happened. ;)  There was a misunderstanding, and it put us racing to the police station at 6:00am on my last day of my grace period to wait in line hours before it opened to make sure I’d get in. According to the description of the other students who’d been there already, the police station looked incredibly ghetto with no signage!  Following the ever-so-faithful google maps, along with this personal anecdote we camped out on this grungy corner, waiting for the gates to be opened.  After 45 minutes of waiting and no other souls in sight… no police or people supposed to be waiting in line… Jake did a little more research to find out that google had failed us!  Apparently we were supposed to be waiting way down the street.  So we journeyed from our lonely perch to find a long line of people waiting like herded cattle in front of the actual (yes, ghetto) police station!  So basically we could have gotten up an hour later to land in the exact same spot in line!!  We waited in line for another hour when a police officer finally came out passing out tickets for people to come back tomorrow!!  With not a day of wiggle room for this residency application, I was so afraid that I would be given a “tomorrow” ticket and thus be sent packin’.  I had no clue what was going on as the man yelled instructions in Spanish to the herd, who all seemed nearly as confused as I was.  When I filed up to the police officer I timidly showed him my paperwork, and he seemed to know exactly what I was here for because he pointed to another line much shorter.  Apparently we had been once again standing in the wrong place, and essentially didn’t get into the right place until 9:00am when the doors opened!!  So I guess we didn’t really need to leave early at all!!  Luckily things went smoothly from there.  I was in and out by 9:45am.  And I only missed one of my Spanish classes for the day!  Jake didn’t have class until later, so he got to take a nap, and in the long run, all was successful.  I’m still living in Spain, and did not get shipped back to the states.  J 

Later that night I went to the church for the choir auditions.  My voice came back after last week’s sickness!  Woohoo!  Afterwards, MariEli and I went out for copas y tapas!!  (basically drinks and appetizers)  We talked until late and I was pretty tired by the time I got home, but it was so worth it!!  She is so fun to be around!  She loves speaking English, and she loves helping me with my Spanish.  We’ve already gotten into the subjects of politics, economics, taboo religious issues, and the personal stuff that you reserve only for people who seem truly interested.  Now I wait for the day when I can speak about all that stuff in Spanish!

Bonnie and MariEli came over to our place for lunch on Wednesday where we continued more great conversation.  The two of them are like best friends, and I you’d think I’d feel like a third wheel.  But no.  I feel welcomed right into their “club” as if they’ve known me for years.  For lunch, I decided to make them a typical American dish… Fajitas!!  I told them that in the U.S. our diet consists of Mexican two or three nights a week, Italian on the off days, and maybe some good ole’ American hamburgers and fries on the weekends!  The Spaniards seem to love Mexican food, because they’re crazy about Taco Bell!  And the closest one to them is a 3 hour car-ride to Madrid!  But they still talk about it!  Knowing I can easily beat out Taco Bell, I had a good feeling my dish would be a hit!  

While I was dining over Mexican with the Spaniards, Jake was dining over Spanish with the Brits.  Jake was invited to paella party with a few of his classmates.  Paella is a popular Spanish rice dish, and the students all made it together.  I love that we are both finding an outlet to be social with people we truly enjoy!!

Outside of being social, Jake is working away on his projects every moment he gets, and loving it!  He even lets me come into his little home studio, and I just lie on the bed listening to him create.  They are sweet moments when I’m just lying there silently in my husband’s presence, surrounded by his creativity as it unfolds.  Since meeting him, these have been some of my favorite moments in life.   Every night that I know he’s been working on something new, I make him play his stuff for me before he shuts down his computer to go to bed.  I’ve gotten mad at him a few times for shutting down without telling me, and I make him reboot.  He is now trained to come get me before he is done for the night.  J  I’m a very proud wifey if you couldn’t tell.  At this very moment, he is working on another piece to record on the soundstage, but this time it is 2:00 min and to an actual movie clip.  I guess every 2 weeks, they’ll be recording their pieces with professionals.  Pretty cool!

As for my Spanish school, things are still rough regarding my comprehension.  But now I’m at least more comfortable not being the newbie anymore.  However, my German friends are gone, and moved into another class this week.  My class this week consisted of a Greek 18 year-old girl, an Italian woman in her thirties, a German man in his 50’s, and a Chinese kid in his 20’s.  I am understanding my classmates’ Spanish much better this week.  Now I’m not sure if that’s because I’m improving or because the whole class can no longer slip into German leaving me to wonder when and why I stopped following the dialogue.   Due to the national diversity in our class, English is now the default when our Spanish fails us!  Por suerte!!

Well, it’s very late, and I’ve babbled for long enough.  There is much I’ve left out, but I’ll save that for another time.   Things are moving along, and I will try to write more regularly so as to keep it shorter.  As for now I’ll have to leave it at … buenas noches!!