Christmas Madness

I am very very very tired.

We just finished our Christmas program. It's done. Finally.

We've only been truly working on it since last Monday but it's been very hectic and very exhausting. Every night after school we stayed late to design and make props. This wouldn't have been too bad except I was sick all week and less hours of sleep were really hurting me. Last night was the real killer though. We had to wait for a youth Christmas program to end and all of the people to clear out of the church then we went to work. First we cleaned up what was left from the youth thing, then we set up lots and lots of props and wall hangings and moved benches and pulpits and pianos. I built a sheep pen to contain the little kids, (not as bad as it sounds...), we made a river flow across the stage. In essence we built Bethlehem. We even threw sawdust and straw all over the floor just to make it look realistic. It was almost two a.m. when we finished, I went home and crashed.

We had to be in today at 10 to get the kids ready. Although they weren't supposed to be here until 11. Almost all of the parents were already waiting to drop their crying kids off with us and make a break for it. We accepted... grudgingly, got them ready in their little sheep costumes. They were adorable. I'll get some general pictures up soon. At 11:30 we had them ready and marched them down the aisle to see them sing, and to sing ourselves. The professors had a song to sing too. It went pretty good I think.

After it was all over we took the kids back to the classroom so their parents could pick them up. We served some drinks and snacks and I got to talk to a lot of parents. There were also lots of photo shoots holding kids so the parents could get a picture. It was entertaining.

Instead of clean up today we all opted to do that part of the job tomorrow. It will be a big job but if all the teachers help it should go pretty fast. For now I'm just glad that I get to sit down for a few hours. It has been very insightful to see this from the teachers point of view. It's a lot more work then the students will ever know about, but it was worth it to see how well the kids enjoyed it, and how well their performance went. I really enjoyed the whole experience. Now please excuse me. I'm going to bed.

Miss you guys.

Logan sent me some pictures in his christmas package. This was one of them.

I was showing the kids them when one asked, "Are those your brothers?"

I said, "Yes."

Valencia and Sagunto

Two weeks ago I had a week off from school so I met Carrie in Sagunto. We were excited to go and explore and ... to speak English! I stayed in the boys dorm at Sagunto where I had my own room. We got to see Sagunto and meet lots of people, and spent a lot of time wandering around Valencia looking at old buildings and exploring cathedrals. We even took the tourist bus so we wouldn't miss anything.
One day we went to see the beach, the ocean was beautiful if a little cold. Another we saw old Roman Ruins and a Bethlehem model. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The school is surrounded my mandarin orange trees and everyday I had one for breakfast. YUM! There was a starbucks in Valencia. It was decorated just like the ones back home and the baristas spoke English. It was awesome and reminded me of home. I wish there was a starbucks in Zaragoza. Oh well! I make my own coffee! We also picked up some awesome frozen yogurt from one of the shops there. It was all around a good trip food-wise.

At night I was visited by the birds who lived on my balcony, and I enjoyed chilling with a random bird sitting on my desk. It was also very warm down in Valencia so I slept with my balcony door open. The warm breeze was perfect. I did not want to come back up to the cold. Although it's warmer here then at home it's still too cold for me! No me gusta winter!

Thanksgiving

This is quite a bit late, but I've been busy and rather lazy.
Thanksgiving was awesome. It wasn't like at home but it was still fun. On Wednesday night Anabel and I went to the grocery store and picked up some food. A pumpkin, some turkey, some chicken, the works. When we got home we pureed the pumpkin to get it ready. We also got a lot of other food ready. Then went to bed. The next day I had school. It went as normal except for all the kids making hand prints for the giant turkey bulletin board that Lola made. It was awesome. After school I went home and made mashed potatoes and the pie. Anabel got home at 9 and finished the turken (turkey and chicken) Ruth and her husband showed up at 9:30 and we had a wonderful meal followed by lots of fun games. Escobas, Jenga, and Rummy with tiles.

I was glad to be able to celebrate thanksgiving, and had a lot of fun. I am so thankful to everyone here that helped make Thanksgiving awesome for me!

New House, Wedding ... Noises, and the Scent of Adventure.

Well hello there avid reader! I'm so glad you could make it for this installment of me writing about my life. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I am. ;)

Remember the power problems I told you about? Well as it turns out there was something majorly wrong with the house I was staying in and the family I was with had to move out. This would have left me homeless, luckily Anabel, a very nice fellow teacher, invited me to live with her and her son. So here I am in my room with power and dun dun duh INTERNET! I really liked Moises and Flor, but I think I will feel much more at home here. So that is a blessing.

This Sunday I attended a wedding at the church. Moises and Flor have been married for a while, but they never got a big church wedding so this was it. I arrived on time to find very few people at the church. After a half hour or so things started to liven up, and about an hour late the wedding got under way. It was very similar to an American wedding. The differences I noticed were... the Bride and Groom walk down the isle together, they get to sit down while the pastor talks, they didn't seem to have vows, and they put the rings on after the kiss. All and all it was interesting to see and I'm glad I went.

Today I got confirmation from Carrie the sm in Madrid that she would like to tour Rome over Christmas break. So I hopped on Ryan Air today and purchased my ticket from Paris to Rome and from Rome back to Zaragoza. I haven't decided if I'm going to do anything before Paris yet... It's quite expensive even with the cheap plane flights. I'm so excited to be going for sure though! Paris and Rome are cities I have always wanted to see. I am itching to go and explore and see all the things I've always wanted to see. I've decided no matter how much I get to see this year, I'm going to have to come back, because there is way more to see, then I have money and free time to see.
New Years in Paris should be a great time, then 4 days in Rome! :)

Power Problems and Sagunto

Last Wednesday when I got home from school the power was out. Moises had candles for me and I got around okay and even got some reading by candle light in before heading to bed. Thursday morning the power was still out so I had a cold shower and headed off to school. That night Moises told me that the power issue has something to do with the wiring and it is a serious issue, the power will probably be out for a while. I told Ana Lugo at school and she is going to try and find out more about it. I can't talk to Moises very well about it as he only speaks Spanish. Anabel found out I didn't have power and offered to let me stay at her house so I stayed there Friday night and got some laundry done. The next morning I met Hector, one of the older church youth members and rode with him and some friends down to Sagunto. There was a big volleyball rally going on and we were all going to play. We got there early and waited through church before I got hooked up with the sister of the Pastor in Zaragoza's wife. I went with her family to eat lunch and hang out for the afternoon. As it turns out her husband moved to Walla Walla from Spain when he was 14 and went through highschool at the academy there. It was fun to talk to him and he was very helpful with telling me about travel options here as well.
Next I played volleyball. I was put with a random team called Freaky Team 2. We played two games and lost them both but it was fun anyway. The second team we played was against a lot of the Americans at Sagunto. One of them tried to ask me for a translation and was surprised when I told him that I didn't speak Spanish. I met a lot them and found out that they will all be in Paris for New Years. It was good to talk to people fluent in English and I may have found some travel companions.
I stayed in the dorm that night, watched the championship games the next morning, ate lunch at burger king, and then headed home. All in all it was a great weekend, I really need to go back to Sagunto though, I didn't get to swim in the mediterranean and I really want to. I did get to see all the mandarin orange trees though and it was beautiful.

Disclaimer:
I know my posts don't flow very well and they probably have some grammatical issues, but I am writing them very quickly. If I stopped to make them sound good I think I'd lose interest. So I'm sorry but this is what you get. :)

Madrid to Ikea

Last week went smoothly. I spent most of the day teaching and that’s about it. I’m now teaching 2^nd grade math twice a week, which is different. The kids are crazy, and I don’t speak the language to calm them down very well. It’s getting better though and I think eventually I’ll invoke the same respect that the other teachers get.

On Friday after school was out, Lola took me to the bus station in her car. We found my bus and then I was off on a four hour bus ride to Madrid. When I bought my ticket I chose the widow seat, but when I got on the bus a girl was already asleep in my seat so I had the aisle. The trip wasn’t bad, I got through all of animal farm and still had time for nap before arriving in Madrid. The only interesting part of the ride was that as our bus pulled into the station it hit another bus. I think we knocked the mirror off of the bus but no one was hurt.

At the station Jairo picked me up and took me to the congress. I didn’t know what congress was exactly but I figured, and packed clothes for, that I would be seeing the political party in action for a couple hours. As it turns out congress is a meeting and I was got to see Mark Finely talk. After the meeting we went back to the bus station picked up Melani and drove out to Jairo’s house. Saturday we went to see Mark Finely again, ate lunch at Jairo’s and then hit the town. They showed me all of the cool buildings and statues and we walked through the main streets and plaza’s.  There was tons of really neat architecture to see and I tried to take a lot of pictures but my camera was going dead. In one of the main squares I saw a kfc and a starbucks. I wasn’t hungry but I decided to get a latte. Unfortunately they don’t have those in Zaragoza.

When we got hungry we stopped at a bar (it’s what every restaurant here is) and got some very tasty food. It was cod covered in cheese and then deep fried, it wasn’t healthy at all but it was delicious. Apparently back in the 1800’s the current president’s political party was started in that bar so that was interesting.

Sunday we slept in some and had crepes for breakfast. Then we drove out and I got to see my first castle! It was very cool to walk the ramparts and get to look out of the arrow slits. After the castle is was off to the bus station and back to Zaragoza.

Another good thing about going to Madrid was that I got to meet Carrie the SM from Southern who will be working in Madrid. It’s always good to know more people in different places!

Monday was a good school day. Lola was sick so I sat in and supervised her classes, the kids behaved and all was well. After school I need to go to Ikea and get a pillow and some clothes hangers. Last week Lola had told me what bus to take and where it generally was. I think I forgot part of the instructions though because my bus made everyone get off at the cemetery. “No problem,” I thought, “she said it was just past the cemetery. I’ll just walk through.” This was my bad decision of the night. I walked and walked and walked and thought I was done with the cemetery when it started again. Then I noticed the wall that ran all the way around the cemetery. I could see the Ikea sign floating in the distance but there was a 12 ft wall blocking my way. I had already come so far I decided to find a way over the wall. After another half mile of walking I came to a metal gate. I used the hinges to crawl up and then walked like a cat burglar on top of the wall until I found a place where it was low enough to jump down. A brisk 2 mile walk through a random forest, a run across the freeway and I was there! I bought what I needed and some Arizona tea. J The bus ride back took a quarter of the time that the walk over had. 

The Past Week

Where to start. I’ve seen so much this past week it’s amazing. On Sunday I woke up very early and went for a walk. I explored around the school and found a beautiful park. There was some sort of roller skating race happening around a long string of fountains. There are lots of cool statues and bits of old roman wall all over the park. I went to a little café and got some espresso, the shop had wifi so I got to email my parents that day. In the afternoon Ana Lugo and her family took me out to eat. The food was all amazing although I think it was Italian not Spanish. After we ate I went with Ana to see the school.  She showed me around and told me what I was going to be doing.

On Monday I woke up at 3 a.m. My internal clock was still very messed up and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I read my devotions and messed around until about 5 then I decided to go for a run. Unfortunately I’m out of shape so my run didn’t take as long as I wanted. I ended up out of breathe at top of a hill in the park overlooking the city. I just had to stop and look. Even early in the morning the city is busy. I’m not used to all the people but it’s exciting. Since there are so many apartments there are always people coming and going on almost every street. I walked for miles down side streets and never had a street to myself.

I got to school about thirty minutes early and was instantly recruited to help prepare orientation binders for the parents. It was just papers together to help the parents of the children know what will be going on during the year. After that was done I went with Lola (the 4^th and 5^th/ English teacher) to her class. She had a family lunch she had to go to, so she gave her kids homework, in Spanish, and then left me in charge. I didn’t even really know what they were supposed to be doing but after they were done filling out their worksheets I let them talk quietly. A few of them speak a little English so I talked to them. Excitement started when one of the 5^th graders suddenly jumped up and charged another kid. I had to pull him off to stop a fight, then I sent him the principals office. Apparently they had been fighting all week and some comment had finally set him off. I wish I spoke Spanish better so I could stop these things before they happen. After an hour of sitting with the kids, I was starting to wonder if I had missed some instruction from Lola. All of the kids were done with their homework and were starting to get out of hand. I was about to go find Ana to ask, when Hector showed up. He is the P.E. teacher for the school. Since Lola was gone I went with Hector. We took the kids about a mile away from the school to a big gym. It was interesting trying to cross town with a bunch of kids in tow. The drivers here are ridiculous. The kids played a game called 5 passes and capture the flag.

After P.E. was lunch back in the school. It was amazing and the cooks gave me lots of food to take home with me. The kids were all well behaved and cleared their plates nicely. Everyday after lunch I go to help Pili another teacher monitor the playground. The kids all want me to play with them, but it’s hard to play with them and watch to make sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to. I talk with them the best I can while I watch though and I think I’ll play football (soccer) with them one day a week. The playground is on the top floor of the apartment building the school is apart of. It’s small but the kids all seem to avoid running into each other… somehow. Sometimes I don’t know if the kids are playing or fighting. I have to jog over and make sure everyone is smiling. They all listen to me though, which is good.

For the last part of the day I go to help Anabel, the 2 and 3 year old teacher. Basically I make sure that the 2 year olds enjoy their nap and don’t get up and make noise. It’s easy, fun, and the kids are adorable. On Monday seeing all the kids nap made me tired. After school was out, I helped clean up and then went home and went to sleep. I was so tired that I slept until 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, which was perfect.

 School on Tuesday was more involved for me. Lola was back so we spent the better part of the morning teaching kids English. The material we are teaching to the 4 and 5 year old kids is the same stuff I learned in high school… it’s pathetic, but it shows me how much I need to learn. Tuesday was the last day of school for the week because this is Zaragoza’s big holiday. After school two of the teachers, Anabel and Ruht (pronounced like Ruth) communicated to me that they were going to show me the Fiesta. I was going to go with Anabel that night and Ruht the next morning. I thanked them and they took off. Lola then told me that she was going to show me where her house was so that I can go there to use the internet, so I skyped my mom real quick and then we were off. On the way we were intercepted by Flor, one of the ladies who works at the school. She told me that Pili had a daughter who spoke English that I had to meet. Lola had shopping to do, so I went with Flor. She said that Pili’s daughter Melani didn’t get back from the University until 8 so we had some time to kill. We went to Flor’s parents house and using google translator we talked for a while. Then Flor and her father took me to an electronics store and helped me purchase a cheap phone for local use. Then Flor and I walked around for about an hour. I really enjoyed talking with her, she speaks a little English and I speak a little Spanish and between us we were able to communicate almost everything we wanted to say. At the around 8 Flor dropped me off at Pili’s house and I met Melani. She is a Chemical Engineering Major at the college here and she speaks almost perfect English. We talked for a while and she told me that she and her friends were going out for the Fiesta the next night and I was welcome to come along.

The next thing I had planned was to meet Anabel at the school. We walked back to her house and ate while we watched the Soccer game, then it was off to the Fiesta. Anabel showed me how to get downtown and was very insistent that I always know which direction home was. It was a good learning experience and I got to see a lot of cool stuff. This holiday is known as Pilar. It is a Catholic holiday celebrating the virgin. There is a statue of her set up with a pyramid of scaffolding set up around her then people dress up in traditional dress and bring flowers to her. They fill up the scaffolding with the flowers. With Anabel I got to see the scaffolding empty and the party happening around it. That night I got home around 1 a.m. and my jet lag was cured.

I met Ruht and her husband the next morning and we went downtown again. This time I got to see all the people dressed up and all the flowers around the Pilar. It was beautiful. I couldn’t believe how many flowers there were. I also got to look inside the cathedral and an old roman market building that is now an art museum. I was looking at the stonework in the ceiling more than the paintings on the wall though. Afterwards we went out to eat and I had a speaking mishap. I asked Ruht what she was going to order and I thought she told me she was deciding between two different dishes, so I said in similar words that I was deciding between a sandwich or a salad. Apparently she was ordering both however so I ended up with a gigantic ceasar salad and a huge sandwich. I was embarrassed but it was okay. After we ate we went back to their apartment and watched Friends in Spanish. The voices were so odd, but it worked. With the help of English subtitles I actually was able to pick up a lot of things. I’m learning a lot of Spanish very quickly. I’m able to understand a lot more than I can speak though. At 7:30 I met Melani and we took a bus downtown to meet her friends. There were three girls who all spoke a little English and three guys who didn’t speak any. I made a deal with one of the guys that in four months or less I would speak fluently with him in Spanish. All of the guys apparently had things they had to do so after half an hour they took off. The girls were adamant that they were more fun anyway. We walked around the shops and they got baked potatoes. They liked teaching me Spanish so I got to ask a lot of questions I’ve had about the language. Then we got candy and they showed me a few more things before we all headed home. I had an awesome time and now I have friends roughly my age that speak English. They have my next four weekends already lined up for me, to Madrid, to the Pyrenees, to play volleyball somewhere. I’m excited.

Thursday was my catch up day. I slept in and then hung out with Moises and Flor. Maria Ester was gone this week staying with Flor’s sister. Tonight (Friday night) I’m going to vespers and there is some youth thing going on so that should be fun.

Everyone here is so nice, they have all made me feel so accepted. They made sure I had something to do during this holiday and that I got to see the important parts of the party. I have dinner invites from tons of people and invites to Valencia and the Pyrenees and to a waterpark by Barcelona. I think this year is going to be amazing. The kids are great too. They are all so cute and energetic and they all want to show me their toys and what they can do on the playground. I showed a kids how to spin one top on top of another and all the kids went nuts, that was all he did for the rest of recess. I feel so included and like I’m a part of things. I love it here.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

My plane flight over wasn’t too bad, I was sitting next to a nice lady, and there were good movies to watch to pass the time. By the time we hit Madrid though I was anxious to get off the plane. My neck hurt and I was tired. I got off, shuffled through line with a hundred other people while my passport got stamped, and collected my baggage. I have 3 big bags plus my backpack and my computer bag. It was a nightmare trying to haul all of it until I grabbed a trolley cart. Then life got easier. To use the carts you have to put a euro in the front of them, which unlocks them from the rest of the trolleys. When you’re done using it, you return the trolley, hook it back up, and your euro pops out. They were a lifesaver.

            I pushed my trolley out of the door to a crowd of waiting people. There were people holding signs, but I didn’t see my name anywhere. I got almost to the end of the ramp before a lady (I believe her name was Luna) rushed up to me. She was there to pick me up. We caught a taxi to the train depot and she got me a ticket to Zaragoza. After explaining the ticket to me, it was all in Spanish, she helped me get another trolley and sent me on my way. The train station was crowded and my train car was full, but I got on first so I had plenty of room for all my bags. On the train they showed the movie “The Lincoln Lawyer” I was more interested in looking out the window, but I plugged my headphones in to hear…. Spanish! It was very odd to see Matthew Whatshisname but hear some other voice. I tried following along but the story seemed rather complicated and my Spanish isn’t very good.

            When the train arrived at Zaragoza I collected all of my things, piled it all on another trolley and headed up the station. Ana Lugo was there immediately to pick me up and she helped me load all of my stuff into her car. Then we were off! Zaragoza is a beautiful city! Ana showed me a lot of things as we were going, the stadium, a concert hall that is supposedly the Carnage Hall of Spain, a beautiful public park that’s only a few blocks from my apartment. She told me about the festival that is happening next week. Apparently we only have two school days next week, the rest of the week is the most important holiday for Zaragoza. There are two specific things she told me about, one is celebrating the day that Columbus sailed from Spain, the other is a day to honor the virgin; lots of people bring gifts to the virgin to thank her. It all sounds very interesting.

            My apartment is very cool. The family I’m staying with, I only know their first names, Moises, Flower, and Ester a adorable four year old who loves playing with my Where’s Waldo posters J., all seem very friendly. They don’t speak much English, but I don’t speak much Spanish, so it’s a trade off, I’m excited to learn as much as I can from them. My room is very cool, the window looks over the area in the middle of the building, which is odd but novel! The only issue I’ve had so far is that I blew a fuze when I plugged my iphone into the wall while the lights were on. I’ll have to ask how to avoid this. I hope I can charge things, I’m guessing it’s my power strip.

            Ana left me to move in and shower, telling me she’d be back in an hour to take me for food. I took a shower, noticing that there is no toilet paper here, I’ll have to get used to the water method… After my very refreshing shower, I put my clothes away. I need to get some hangers but there are so many shelves it’s amazing. I won’t have any problems storing my clothes nicely. After I put my clothes away, Moises showed me around. I’m pretty sure I saw a wifi receiver plugged into their computer, and I know I saw a box for a router, so I’ll have to ask about getting internet.

            After a while Ana called Moises to tell me to come down. She walked with me back to her apartment about 3 blocks away and I had supper with her and her husband Fernando. There was a cold tomato and veggies soup that was interesting, a keesh which was delicious, bread with a  tomato/butter spread on it that I liked, and Spanish asparagus which is very different from what I’m used to. For desert we each had a shot of espresso from the tiniest little tea cups. Fernando said it best without milk, but Ana and I each put some in. It’s a little to bitter for me to drink plain. I think I’m going to try out my Spanish tomorrow and go to the coffee shop that’s between my apartment and the school.

            After supper Fernando let me send my parents an email from his computer to let them know I was alive. Then Ana took me to the church, there were a lot of people there to meet, including both the teachers I’ll be working with. I also got to meet the youth. There were a lot of people to meet and I don’t remember many names, but everyone seemed very friendly. They were practicing a praise song that is now stuck in my head, even though I don’t know what most of the words mean. I think most of them are high school age, but some looked older, I’m not really sure. I met a guy from Malta who spoke English, and a girl named Silvia who also spoke English well. I really enjoyed sitting and listening to them sing and try to decipher what they were talking about. Eventually though I found myself nodding off. At that point I had been up for around 30 hours with only short naps on the plane. I said goodbye and walked back to the apartment. I was only planning on taking a short nap but I slept through my alarm and woke up around 2 a.m. I think I’m going to take a Nyquil and sleep some more though to get my schedule on track. Maybe the Nyquil will help with my stuffy nose too.

            I’m so excited to be here and experience everything new. I can’t wait for school on Monday to meet all the kids I’ll be working with. I want to see everything, and I guess I might just have the time too.

P.S. On the bigger sidewalks there is a smooth piece of concrete made for bikes… it’ll be perfect for long boarding on. 

Wheels Up

It's 3:30 a.m., it's my birthday, I'm leaving. :)

Visa Complications and Final Leave Date

Okay so the last week has been ... confusing. Due to a number of events my leave date has been moved from Sep. 30 to Oct 7. It went something like this...

Since the beginning of the process I have been under the impression that Spain was taking care of my visa for me. An email from Rigel (the school) made me believe this. However last Friday I received an email from Rigel asking if I had been to the consulate for my visa yet. This set off a chain reaction of activities and google searches which ended with me thinking I had to go to San Francisco in person to apply for a visa and then wait a month for it to be returned. This would have had me actually arriving in Spain sometime in November. After talking with Jeanne we had figured out a way to get me to Spain in mid October, but I would have to return during Christmas break to get my visa finalized. We got all the tickets changed yesterday and I was set to go, but disappointed that I would be leaving late.

This morning however I got a call that had me dancing. About 6:30 in the morning I got a call from Spain saying that there had a been a miscommunication and that I didn't need to apply for a visa here they would take care of it over there. So I called Jeanne, (I think I may have woken her up) and we got the tickets changed back as well as we could.

Now I am leaving on the 7th, my birthday, and everything seems to be settled. It's like a birthday present that I am able to go this soon instead of waiting until mid oct or nov. It is amazing to watch God work.

I am so thankful to everyone for being patient and helpful while this was all going on!

Spain here I come. :)

Got my daily schedule :)

All Paid Off. Thank Jesus and Everyone Who Donated!

I paid off the rest of my SM account on Thursday! It feels good to have that done. Almost everything is ready, I have my plane ticket, my money is in, my visa is in the works. I'm excited.

Thank you so much for donating to allow me to go. I wouldn't be able to go without you! :)

Me? An Sm? I don't think so...

I never planned on being a student missionary. I just never saw myself going off alone for a year. Sure I would have gone with friends if they had asked, but that just never happened. That was why it was such a surprise to me when I found myself in Jeanne's (the WWU SM Coordinator) office early last school year.
At the beginning of this year I was introduced to a couple girls that would change my life. There were three of them, Chelsea, Rychelle, and Amy and they were all planning on going to Palau as SM's together. I got pretty close to them... and they ended up saying that it would be cool if I went to Palau with them! Going off as an SM with two friends, and one girlfriend :), sounded great! I had been invited, and so the paperwork started.
It got down to the wire, it was the last quarter of the school year and I had finally been accepted to go to Palau. By this time Amy had dropped out of the running, and Rychelle had decided she wanted to be a math teacher on Yapp. Chelsea and I were excited and ready to go, until one day we were called into Jeanne's office. She asked us if we were dating, which we were, and told us that dating couples couldn't really go on a call together. It would be too stressful, and the culture of Palau doesn't really work with our concept of dating, even conservatively. This was a hard blow to me and to Chelsea since that meant that one of us would have to switch calls. Palau had been her idea and her dream so I decided to switch.
I put my name in for a lot of different calls, boys dean, ESL calls, everything. Through bad timing and multiple delays it took a long time for me to here anything about the calls, but one by one they were filling up. I was worried that I was too late, until one night almost ten months after I originally visited Jeanne, I got an email saying I was accepted to teach English at Rigel Elementary School in Zaragoza Spain.
I danced and cheered that I was finally accepted and then started the information battle. Almost as soon as she emailed me to say I was accepted, Ana Lugo, my contact in Spain, went on her summer vacation. I don't blame her for taking vacation, but it was frustrating to not hear anything about the call. I am receiving information now however and all is well.

The cool thing about this story to me is how God took me step by step and led me here. He pushed at my comfort zones and slowly moved me further away from my original ideas. Over the course of the school year He used an amazing girl and a lot of disappointments to get me to here; Where I feel is exactly where he wants me to be.

I'm so excited to go and see what is in store for me in Spain. I'll be sure to let you all know what's going on. :)

Waiting...

I'm sitting at home, on my bed. It's hot and the dog is whining. I have to wake up at six a.m. tomorrow and stack heavy boards all day. I'm done with this summer. I just want it to be September 16 so that I am done with work and can start focusing on getting ready to fly out. I am tired of waiting.

I finally got some information about my call today. Ana Lugo my contact in Spain emailed me with a list of school vacations and other useful information. I found out that I'll be staying with a family that lives close to the school. I found out that she will be there to pick me up when I arrive in Madrid! However the most interesting thing I found out is that I will not be the sole English teacher as I had thought. It seems that I will be a teachers assistant. From what Ana said I think that I will be helping the English teacher most of the time, but also be available to fill in for any other teacher that needs a day off. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Although I was looking forward to my own classroom and trying to figure out how to teach all on my own, it's probably for the best that I have someone who knows what they are doing to help me. After all I don't want to mess up and ruin these kids or something. :)


I doubt I'll update this blog much at all until my leave date nears but I wanted to get it set up ahead of time.

I'll see you then!