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!!