Christmas in Berlin

I am writing this on New Year’s Eve… over a week since our arrival in Berlin.  So much has happened… so many joyful moments, delightful conversations, and warm memories to keep with us.  I am stalling as I write trying to think back on our trip so far. I’ll start with the first few days here through Christmas.

Jake and I took a train to Barcelona, and from there flew to Berlin.  The travel day felt actually quite long.  We were filled with anticipation to see family, and also I think filled with slight nerves about managing the train stations and making it to the airport.  We’ve really never traveled much by train, and we were not completely sure how to get to the Barcelona airport from the train station.  Luckily, after asking around helplessly we managed to get on the 20 minute train ride to the airport after arriving in Barcelona.  We did not plan for time to see Barcelona, so we’ll have to make that trip again some day this next semester.  For now our sights were on Berlin.  We were relieved once our train dropped us off at the airport and we went inside.  However, the angst came back as we walked down the airport mall passing every terminal except ours, and then we reached the end!!  Turns out we had to go outside and around quite a ways to find the EasyJet check-in.  It seemed separate from everything else, and I was getting really nervous for a bit.  It was so far that some people took a shuttle.  Luckily, we found it and checked-in with enough time to grab some copas y tapas (wine and appetizers) before our flight.  Though our flight was only 2 or so hours, Jake and I both felt like it was a good 4 or 5 our ride.  We were just ready to be in Berlin safe in the comfort of home and family.

All was well when we saw Rachelle’s beaming face greet us at the airport.  She even brought us water and a snack for the ride into town.  Which of course was another bus and metro ride before arriving home.  But that’s ok, because we were supremely more relaxed with Rachelle by our side.  David and Ariane welcomed us with happiness, hugs, and a hot meal!!  What a wonderful end to a stressful travel day.  As always we talked and talked, and headed to bed quite late.  

The next morning we slept in, enjoyed a late lunch together, and David then took Jake and I for a tour of Berlin.  Well, at least part of Berlin.  :)  As many know, there is A LOT to see in Berlin!!  So much history!!  So many sights!!  And of course having your own tour-guide-historian-uncle by your side makes everything so much more interesting!!  We went to the Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate.  We saw the Berliner Dom, Neue Wache (a guardhouse for the East Germans during the Cold War, which now serves as a war memorial), and Bebelplatz (where the Nazi book burning ceremonies took place).  David pointed out an old theater where Ian had done a few shows as a child.  This area was East Berlin before the wall fell, and it was not until Ian began to do shows here did this area become a familiar and comfortable place.  I found that interesting.

After seeing the sights, we planned to go to one of the many Christmas markets nearby.  They are all over town--little winter wonder lands full of crafts, souvenirs, food and drinks, sometimes rides for kids and I even saw a mini petting zoo at one.  I was pretty cold by this point because I didn’t layer up enough our first time out (California girl!).  I was really looking forward to entering the market with all the warm crowds, food and fires going, and store fronts to block the wind.  However, David saw one more special thing that he wanted to show us before we hit the market and I’m so glad he did.  Around the corner was the church where he was confirmed into the Anglican church not too long ago.  It was an old building, but absolutely stunning inside.  We sat down in the front pew reliving the moment together.  It was a really special moment for me with my uncle.  After that we finally hit up the Christmas market and bought a small Berlin ornament to remember this special day at every Christmas to come. :)  When we arrived home, we had another wonderful family dinner prepared graciously by Ariane and Rachelle.  

On Christmas Eve-day, everyone in the house had a little work to do before their vacation to Lisbon, so Jake and I went up to the Charottenburg Palace and walked the grounds.  I remember the palace and the gardens when I was here 17 years ago, and I was looking forward to going there with Jake.  Though it was not nearly as warm and sunny as I remember, we had a good time walking hand in hand enjoying the view and each other.  We also wanted to go see the Olympic Stadium from the Berlin Olympics in the 1930’s.  We took the metro there, knowing we could not get any tours on Christmas Eve.  Everything was closed as we suspected so we just walked around those grounds and neighborhood in the area.  We were again pretty cold at this point having been outside for so long.  I saw what looked like a cafe or something in the distance with many lights, and I told Jake I wanted to go there on our way out.  We had been in search for glühwein (mulled wine) that we had seen at the Christmas market but never bought.  I suggested that this place with lights might have some, or at least something warm to drink.  But as we got closer, we were disappointed to find that it was actually a circus not a cafe/restaurant.  Out curiosity we got a little closer to see if we could see anything inside.  The tent was open into the foyer area, and we could see an elephant inside.  We thought that was interesting, and there was not ticket booth or persons collecting tickets outside, so we went into the foyer.  There we saw concession stands with balloons, souvenirs, food, and… glühwein!!!!  What luck!!  So we bought ourselves a couple of cups.  As we looked around, the entrance to the main tent was wide open and there was still no one selling tickets, so we went in to sit for a bit while we finished our drinks and warmed up.  The tent wasn’t too big and there was simply an elephant with a line of kids behind it waiting to get on it and take a picture.  So we figured it was actually just another fun Christmas market type of venue and kids were taking pictures with an elephant for fun.  So we watched this take place for about 10 minutes while we relaxed from our afternoon of walking and standing.  All of a sudden the elephant was cleared out, the lights went down, and an announcer started opening the show!!  We sat there for another 2 hours enjoying a full circus production with a tight rope walker, trapeze artists, jugglers, clowns, animals including: elephants, a giraffe, zebra, a hippopotamus, and a rhinoceros!!  We couldn’t believe what we had just wandered upon. We loved it!!  And it just cost us two cups of glühwein!!

We had a fun story to share when we got back home.  Ariane, David, Rachelle, Jake and I had nice Christmas Eve dinner around 8pm that night, and then we all headed out for the 11pm Christmas Eve service at David and Ariane’s church.  It was neat to share this service with them at their church.  We were grateful to take communion since the Anglican church invites all believers to join in the sacrament.  Ariane and Rachelle had to coach us through the process before the service since it is carried out so much differently than the way we’re used to, which actually made communion this Christmas Eve very memorable for us.  I’ve always loved attending the late Christmas Eve service and being able enter into Christmas day at church with God in focus, and it was even nicer to do together as a family.  We left church about 12:30am, and went straight to bed.  At least some of us did!

On Christmas morning, we came downstairs around 11:00am and the living room door was shut.  Anita had just arrived as well.  Anita and her mother, Maria, are long time family friends (aka family) of the Antals.  Maria was out of town on Christmas, so they invited Anita over for Christmas morning family time, which was great because she’s a super fun hang. I really enjoyed meeting her and spending the morning together.  So once we all arrived there was a grand opening of the doors into the living room revealing a beautiful Christmas tree that had been set up and decorated overnight, just like when the kids were young.  A family tradition I had always heard about, but never witnessed first hand.  Everybody then crowded on David and Ariane’s bed enjoying croissants and tea talking and laughing.  

Anita stayed a couple of hours and then had to get on her way.  We all got up and stretched for bit.  Rachelle had to run out to “meet a friend and exchange gifts.”  Ariane was excitedly awaiting a 2:00pm skype date with Ian in New York.  At 2:00pm Rachelle raced back into the house grateful that she made it back in time for the call.  David, Ariane, and Rachelle were crowded around the computer while trying to connect with Ian.  When Ian came online it sounded like he had just gotten up, and he said Sarah was still sleeping.  It was pretty early still in New York.  They weren’t able to get his image on screen which I know the frustration of all too well now after many Valencia video chat attempts with my parents. All of a sudden Ian interrupted and said he couldn’t hear them anymore, and the connection was breaking up.  And boom… they lost him.  Ariane seemed quite disappointed as she attempted to try again… but nothing.  :(  Rachelle mentioned that there was probably too much traffic online since it was Christmas and many people were possibly trying to also video chat.  Ariane tried one more time, and got Ian again, the connection continued to break up with Ian’s voice going in and out.  And suddenly the voice coming from the computer began to get ever so clear and while getting louder from the other end of the house.  And before my mind had put together what was happening Ian and Sarah burst in the room and jumped on the bed.  Ariane kept looking back and forth from the computer screen to Ian as if her mind was still trying to figure out how her little boy jumped out of the computer screen and onto her bed.  I was watching all of this take place from the sofa while welling up with tears.  It took me about 15 seconds to figure out that I should be capturing this moment on video.  So I have a little video, but it doesn’t start until after the initial shock has subsided slightly. Here's a link to my YouTube page if you haven't seen the videos yet.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZMLBZMzWIXevo5KZP3tWBg

This was such a wonderful surprise to witness, and though it wasn’t really for me, I was intensely overjoyed as well for the opportunity to get a little time with another cousin who I hardly ever get to see.  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Ian in the context of home and family, and it was striking to see the level of energy he brings to a room.  It was so fun!  And of course, this was my first opportunity to meet Sarah as well finally!  I was so grateful for this opportunity to get to know her through the events and family time of the next few days.  

The rest of the day was filled with even more energy and laughter than before with Ian and Sarah in the mix.  Ariane and Rachelle made a delicious turkey for Christmas dinner, and again we had an absolutely perfect evening talking and catching up.

The day after Christmas began with another slow start.  Jake and I have gotten really good at relaxing.  The family had a light lunch together, and then we all did different things in the afternoon.  Jake and I went to the Story of Berlin museum, and as always I took way too long reading nearly every single thing so we had to rush back to the house to by 7:00pm.  David, Rachelle, Ian, Sarah, Jake, and I had plans to go out to one of the favorite Christmas markets together that evening, while Ariane stayed home finally taking a moment to relax herself.  We all shopped around for a couple of hours, ate some bratwurst and drank some glühwein.  On our way back we stopped at the Holocaust Memorial and the Chancellery building. It was a fun evening out with 6 of us together. We didn’t get home until pretty late, so Jake and I went right to packing up our things for our Prague trip, then headed to bed ready for our next adventure.  

Last Day of School!

Last day of school!! Woo hoo!!  Jake has one more recording session to do this afternoon, and then we are packing for Germany!!  I’m so proud of Jake and all that he has accomplished this semester.  He amazes me with his talent, creativity, work ethic, and work efficiency.  I have so much confidence in this life changing decision that he has made for himself, and thus us.  It is a brave thing to put aside a decade-long, stable career to go back to school and start afresh in a whole new industry.  He is making the very most of this educational process, yet while maintaining his track record of being a gracious, loving, attentive husband.  I thank God daily for this incredible man I’ve been blessed with.  Life is so sweet with him.

He has a few more videos to mix, edit, and upload so keep checking his YouTube page for more videos.  Last night I asked him when he was going to post his brass piece on FB.  Apparently, he thought he already had… but I guess someone’s been a little preoccupied.  To his surprise it was still just hiding away on his YouTube page.  Here is the brass piece… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPRdBWnCAiY

Here is his main page with his past videos, and more to come.  http://www.youtube.com/user/JacobComposer

So far this week has been a nice time with friends.  On Tuesday night, we went out to dinner with Bonnie, Andres, and their daughter Sofia before we leave for the holiday.  Jake invited Andres to come take a tour of the school since Andres is an artist and musician himself.  Bonnie, Sofia, and I met up with them at the nearby mall later since I was teaching and couldn’t arrive until about 8:30pm.  Bonnie picked me up from the metro station and it gave us time to have some separate girl time and guy time first.  When we finally met up, Andres was on a high from seeing all the amazing music equipment and studios.  Then we all headed to a Thai Restaurant in the mall!  ;)  

As always, we had a great time.  They are such a kind, fun, and God-loving family.  

Bonnie and I have been talking about going shopping for a while, but haven’t been able to find a time.  She’d been telling me to hold off on buying anything until we can go to PreMark, a store with really cheap prices.  Unfortunately, you need a car to get there so going on my own was not an option.  On Tuesday night, while talking about my need for some warmer things for Germany she suggested we go to PreMark the next morning.  Perfect!!  We had a great time, and I got everything I needed for less than I planned on spending!  Then we went back to her place for lunch before she had to go to work.  She works at a big department store here, and because of the holiday season she’s been working like crazy!!  9 days straight without a day off!  At least she gets Christmas Day!  She’s looking forward to January when she gets to go on pregnancy leave.

As for working I now have 5 kids students and 1 adult conversation class.  After I quit the adult class for double booking myself on Monday nights, they decided to switch the class to Wednesdays.  So now I still have that class.  This week I made my lessons Christmas themed, and everyone seemed to enjoy that.  I’m a little unsure how it works here in terms of what’s appropriate and what’s not regarding references to Christmas.  In the U.S. many schools change words of Christmas songs to refer only to “Winter” and “Holidays” instead of “Christmas.”  And teachers could get fired for bringing up anything religious in discussing Christmas.  I  had bought little santa hats and Christmas ornament crafts for my kid students.  I only asked the parents if it was ok if I didn’t see any Christmas decorations in their house.   I was tipped off that maybe I should ask when one very expressive little girl wanted to sing me a song she knew in English!  I was surprised when she started singing, “Jesus Loves the Little Children”.  First, because this song is not considered “PC” in the states anymore.  Second, because it was religious.  (She goes to a private “I’m guessing Catholic” school.)  And third, because she stopped halfway through looking around for her parents who weren’t in the room, telling me that she cannot sing this song when her parents are there.  And then she proceeded to finish the song.  In another conversation later, her parents told me that even though they are not religious they would prefer to send their daughter to a quality private religious school instead of the public school here.

I was surprised with another family to find they had a nativity scene set up in their house along with their Christmas decorations, yet they also had told me that they are not religious.  And finally, the last family, who also attend the same private religious school as the one little girl, had no decorations set up in their house.  When I asked those kids about Christmas, they first referred to Biblical characters including the magi, and not the usual commercialized secular aspect of Christmas.  I’m under the impression that they are a religious family.

So I’ve come to the conclusion that whether you’re religious or not, Christmas is generally celebrated along with recognizing the Biblical tradition at least to some degree. In my adult class on Wednesday, we did a warm-up with A-Z Christmas terms, and I was again surprised that more often than not religious references were mentioned before the secular references.  After that we had a discussion on the history of Santa Claus, and we had a structured debate on whether the commercialization of Santa Claus is good or bad.  They really got into it.  It was fun!

Well, I’d better go get ready to head to Jake’s school and watch his final recording session this semester.  It think this one is for a string quartet and harp.  My favorite instrumentation.  Then we have our final choir practice.  Think we’re going to sing in the lobby for fun.  Too bad I don’t have my Dickens caroling costume with me.  ;)

November News and Then Some!

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…

http://www.youtube.com/jrbflk

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.

https://www.facebook.com/jacobrboyd?fref=ts

http://www.youtube.com/user/JacobComposer/videos

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

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!!