Ok, it’s blogging time!! Time is flying over here in Valencia. I believe the last time I gave an update was around Halloween, and now we’re rounding the bend to Christmas. Not to mention next week is Jake’s final week of classes and Friday was my last day of Spanish classes. 12 weeks of Spanish classes, under my belt, and I’m perfectly fluent!! =/ Right!! I got my certificate from the school, and apparently I passed the A2 level for reading and writing, but my oral comprehension and production… not so much. Basically, I can still hardly understand anything unless someone speaks to me like I’m hard of hearing and then repeat themselves 3 times. And when I speak I pause before every word with my eyes shifting from side to side under rapid thought, while trying every conjugated verb form available before saying the correct one. Or the person finally just feeds me the right form out of mercy for my arduous efforts. So I plan to continue my studies on my own with intentional Spanish TV watching and book reading. Bonnie and I went to her parents storage unit so she could get her winter clothes, and while there I browsed the bookshelf full of all her old books and videos. I picked out a few, and now I am enjoying a book from a series called, “Pesadillas”. You may know it as “Goosebumps”! I never thought I would have an excuse to read another Goosebumps book after the age of 10! I was so excited when I saw it!
Speaking of cold. It finally got cold here sometime in November. Everyone kept saying how strange it was that it was still in the 20’s (Celsius), in November. That’s 70’s and 80’s Fahrenheit. But one day the temp changed like a snap of the finger! Of course one of the first days it was super cold was the day our small church choir was singing in front of the congregation. I was wearing my sandals on because I didn’t have any nice closed toed shoes to wear for the occasion. Everyone must have been looking at my feet because after service I had about 4 or 5 people come up to me commenting on my feet. That same day Jake and I were met with a rude awakening when we found the tram we take to church closed because of a marathon taking place. I was supposed to be there an hour early for the performance, so we quickly turned to bikes for our mode of transportation… a 45 minute ride! Of course, Jake happened to go on autopilot that day and zoomed in the direction of school. He was riding so fast that he couldn’t hear my screams that he was going the wrong way. So I went on toward church without him. Then I was stopped twice trying to cross the street with a swarm of marathoners blocking my path. And finally, I also went too far in one direction and got lost for a bit myself. When we both finally made it to church (separately), and after thawing out a little, we had a good morning and a good laugh. That is just one of our many metro or bike snafu’s that could leave a bad taste in our mouth if we didn’t choose to laugh about it.
Of course there is the infamous bike accident that Jake had which was no laughing matter. Somehow he was crossing a small bridge on his way to school, and his back wheel got stuck in a groove in the sidewalk causing him to be thrown (“thrown” may be a little dramtic) over the handlebars. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the railing meeting his throat broke his fall. He was fine except for the fact that he instantly sounded like he had laryngitis. About a week and a half later a laryngologist was at the school giving presentations to the vocal performance people. She came to choir that night and Jake talked to her about his accident. She was very interested and before Jake could finish, she spelled out the feelings and symptoms Jake was having after the accident. I think Jake was refreshed to have someone understand and give him assuring advice. Of course she says, “It sounds like you had hemorrhaging in your larynx.” My thoughts were, “Do you have to say hemorrhaging? It makes it sound like he has some life threatening condition! Can’t you just say, ‘You bruised your throat’? Everything is fine now. 2 weeks later, he was good as new. A couple days after Jake’s accident I took a spill of my own. It had just rained, and I knew I should be careful since the ground was slick. And of course, as I carefully turn a corner, I could feel the wheels sliding out from under me and down I went. However, if we put the incidents side by side I can assure you that mine was more graceful than his! :)
I just mentioned choir, which leads me to share about the couple recording sessions we’ve done. The first recording session was a last minute effort to pull together a group to record a piece that a couple of the students co-wrote for some dance concert in Valencia...I think? I’m not sure that I ever really caught wind of what it was for. Jake’s voice still wasn’t better yet, so he was used to conduct the session. We were recording until about 1am. Last Friday we recorded again. This time it was put together by some film scoring students who had some choral pieces they wanted to record. Writing and recording for voices is not in their curriculum, so they invented their own forum to do so. And it worked out great. Being involved in this way has been really nice for me, not only to be able to sing, but to get to know the students and be a part of their community in a small degree.
Luckily, I don’t feel like I’m lacking in community. As I said, yesterday was my last day of Spanish classes, which was bitter sweet because I had really begun to adore my classmates. Although I had plenty of invites and opportunities to hang out with them outside of class, I never did. They would often go out late to clubs and bars, and I don’t know, the idea of coming home to my husband or using the time to spend with my Spanish friends here was more appealing in the moment. Plus, money spent on late night drinks is not in our budget. And when I say late, I mean LATE. You wouldn’t believe it, but clubs here do not open until 2am!!! Yes, I said open! I guess that makes sense if dinner time is 10pm! I’m still not sure when the young folks here sleep!?
As for our Spanish church friends, it’s been continuously nice to grow in those friendships. MariEli has been graciously working with me on my Spanish at her house on occasion. After the “cold feet” presentation at church, she and her mom loaded me up with warmer shoes, scarves, and sweaters out of concern I didn’t have enough warm things! Bonnie also makes sure we’re taken care of, on top of taking care of her husband, daughter, friends, grandfather, job, school work, the youth group, and other volunteer work she does! Last Saturday, Bonnie invited me to join her serving around the city sharing food, warm coffee, and love to those sleeping on the streets. I believe she does this with a ministry group most Saturday nights because the Misión Urbana is closed on Saturdays. So we went from spot to spot passing out bocadillas (sub sandwiches), warm drinks, and sweet bread until about 12am. At each location we stopped and talked with the people for a good 20-30 minutes and then moved on. It was clear that this was a common occurrence because everyone talked and joked like see each other all the time. It was very endearing. I was able to have a few conversations with people and I think they were amused by efforts to speak. I hate feeling like a mute when I meet new people. So I tried, and I think it even made them feel good to help me out a little bit in feeding me words or kindly correcting me as we conversed. I met a man sitting on a bench, late into the evening. Next to him I noticed an empty bottle of some kind of hard alcohol. I quickly realized that his drunkenness was actually helping me because his speech was so slow! Unfortunately, I learned only of much pain in this man’s life.
Last night there was a Christmas dinner thrown for these individuals. It was a nice dinner prepared for about 60 guests. I attended to help serve the food, however, there were too many volunteers and not all the tables were filled. So I was assigned to sit at the table and dine with my new friends. I kind of felt bad because here I was eating this meal prepared for those in need, and then I was not even able to interact much. I was at one end of the table, and our guests of honor were at the other end. In order for me to interact in Spanish at all I have to be sitting right next to you having a one on one conversation with little distraction. The background music was muffling their voices slightly, and I was practically kissing Bonnie trying to scoot close enough to make out what people were saying. It didn’t help that the only guest wanting to engage with me was a little far away from me making it hard for me to hear him, and on top of that, he didn’t have teeth! My efforts to interact quickly became lost cause, and I found myself reverting to the smile and nod gestures which really translate to, “I don’t understand you.” :( Luckily Bonnie was translating parts of the conversation which only led me to want to find out more about these people, while I was discouragingly mute. Regardless, it was overall a lovely time, and I hope to continue joining Bonnie in this service. I was moved by Bonnie’s interactions with everyone. When certain people arrived, I watched her get up from her chair chasing them down for an embrace, in order to show them how glad she was to see them. Wish you could see the joy she brought to people...laughing and joking with them as if they were her closest friends.
Speaking of holiday meals, I still haven’t shared about our Thanksgiving meal! I wanted to share an authentic American Thanksgiving with our Spanish friends here! So the day before I left school early to slave away in the kitchen all day! I talk a lot about how I cannot cook, but really its just an excuse because I’m not a fan of cooking things that take a long time. What can I say, I’m a child of the instant gratification era! I’ve played up my lack of cooking ability so much that Jake was quietly concerned about my plan cook an entire thanksgiving meal on my own. I roasted a turkey once in college, so I knew I could handle that. And though I’ve never made mashed potatoes, stuffing, or a single thanksgiving side dish… I wasn’t worried. The only things I was worried about was finding the proper foods and utensils for my meal! After much turkey hunting, I finally found a vendor at our local central market that said the earliest they could get a turkey was the morning of my Thanksgiving meal. So, I took them up on it, and returned a couple more times to remind them since I had no alternatives. I was just praying that it would not still have a head and feathers on it when I went to pick it up! Jake and I went right when the place opened Wednesday morning to pick up the turkey so I could still get to class on time. When I approached, I saw that my fears had come true! There was my turkey, head and all! Luckily, she was surprised that we had come so early so she offered to behead it and clean it for me. I obviously took her up on it. But as she took to finishing the defeathering process, I could tell that it was going to take more time than I had. So I told her I would come back at 12pm after my classes. We both seemed relieved because for the extra time. I for one did not want a rushed defeathering process. Of course, when I brought my 17lb friend home that day, I did have to provide a little tweezer action myself to remove a good amount of stray feather stubs that I didn’t think would be very tasty.
Jake and I also went to several stores looking for a turkey pan, turkey baster, and a meat thermometer… but no luck. I now realize that all those those are just extra amenities to making the process easier, but not necessities. Because let me tell you, the final product of my roasting was one sumptuous, moist, fully cooked turkey! I also spent the week looking for cranberries. I finally found them after showing some pictures of cranberries to venders in the market. One produced for me… however, I’m wondering if she knew she had a monopoly on me because they were the most expensive berries I’ve ever bought in my life!!! Everything else was a hit as well. If you’d like to see some videos of our Thanksgiving Dinner Party check Jake’s YouTube page…
I’m so glad Jake made time for this Thanksgiving meal. He was worried about finishing his projects, and I told him he didn’t have to help prepare anything, just to be present physically and mentally for dinner. Bonnie came early and helped me with the final preparations, and saved the day by informing me that the table extends! BINGO. We couldn’t not have fit one more person around that table.
Also, Grandpa Edgar, “Yayo”, had just arrived back the night before, so he got a nice Thanksgiving welcome. He is back with us until Christmas. We are a little concerned because earlier this week one side of Yayo’s face went numb. Not the whole side of his body or anything… just his face. He’s been to the medical clinic once, but from what I gathered from his explanation they did not give him any worthy information. He just came home now from sitting at the hospital for 4 hours and he told me he wasn’t able to see anyone. Everything is normal, just the left side of his face is numb. =/ So hopefully that gets better because we don’t really know how we can help if not.
As for Jake and his work, he’s been super busy since Thanksgiving-ish time. Now he’s finishing up all his final projects. He’s had several good experiences with recordings, and a few “good learning experiences” if you know what I mean. But all in all, he is happy and focused. He’s been posting his recordings, so you should check out his Facebook or his Composing YouTube page to see what he’s been up to. He still has a few more to edit, mix, and post from this semester so stay tuned.
We also talked about him trying to get a student job at school. He didn’t apply in the beginning because we didn’t know what the program would be like or how rigorous it would be for him. He is always on top of his work, and we both feel like he could easily handle a job. The extra money would be nice since we don’t have roommates (besides Yayo) to split our living expenses with. I’ve been waivering back and forth about how many English lessons I want to teach a week. I’ll tell you more about how that’s going in a bit. Because it’s the middle of the year, Jake went to the school’s director and informed him that if anyone quits their job or if there are any open student positions he’d like to apply for it. Turns out now, they are looking for student intern for their career and advising department. I think Jake has a good chance because he is the only student who has been to every one of the meetings offered from this department. Plus, I’m sure most of it has to do with promotions and such which we all know Jake has done in many respects for years. So, we’ll see what happens.
As for me and teaching. I’m still teaching the girls twice a week, and now their neighbor friend as will right after. Then the neighbor friend’s parents referred me to someone else. So now I’m teaching another couple of kids on the off days. It’s interesting because they are all at pretty different levels of English. I still don’t have teaching rhythm for the new ones. But for the most part I’m content with these students now. I have also now taught two adult conversation classes of about 10 students at one of the many English schools. My Spanish-speaking, ESL trained post grad friend, referred me to them. When I went in for my interview I was highly surprised to have to do my entire interview in Spanish because the director of the English school didn’t speak English. All in all I was rather proud of myself. However, I knew he was desperate for someone because that was on Friday and he asked if I could start on Monday. No training… just go. He even asked if I had curriculum and I told him no. He didn’t seemed fazed by that, just glad that I had a native accent! The students are very advanced, and seemed to really like my class. Unfortunately, I had to quit because I double booked myself thinking that our church choir was not meeting on a regular basis anymore. However, the message was lost in translation, and that was actually not the case. Since I committed to the choir first I wanted to continue with that. Plus, the school originally told me I would have classes Monday and Wednesday, and then after my first class they told me it’d just be Mondays. Also, I still don’t know if they’re going to pay me weekly in cash like they originally said they would because after week 2, I haven’t seen anything even after I asked. I didn’t sign any contract and there was absolutely no formalities. The whole thing is rather confusing, and didn’t feel like I owed it to them to continue in sacrifice of a prior and preferred commitment. I told them, however, that I would do one additional week to give them time to find another person, which meant I had to bail twice on choir rehearsal. Then on Monday when I went in he asked if I could do Wednesday instead, and he wanted me to ask the class if they could switch to Wednesdays. He obviously did not have any other options. All but 2 people could, and those 2 looked very disappointed by my announcement. So the director said he would get back to me about switching to Wednesdays once he confirmed with everyone during the week. So, I still don’t know if I will continue teaching that class or not. It’s another good experience to add to my resume, but I surely will not be devastated if it does not work out.
So there you have a long winded update since Halloween. I think I touched on the highlights. We are highly looking forward to a holiday break together and with family in Berlin! So that will be fun to share with you soon! We miss everyone very much, especially at this time of year. Thanks for reading! Love, Jake and Robin
