Rain Rain Go Away

As if I wasn't having a difficult enough time with the cold weather, it has been raining here for the last two days. Not the downpour-all-day kind of rain, but the unpredictable-I-tricked-you-into-not-bringing-an-umbrella kind of rain. But the English lessons are going well and Marta referred me to another family she knows, with little girls!! Hopefully I will be able to rearrange some of the times I currently have and fit them in! It is also the beginning of the trail of visitors!!! Starting this weekend I will have visitors until close to the middle of January, which will be the warm up for the spring when everyone really wants to come!

Blankets and a Sleeping Mat

Segovia...

To visit the castle that inspired Disney who made us all believe every little girl is a princess!

The Cathedral, with the birds flying as the clock strikes two!

More of the castle

The Aquaduct 

The only bit of snow we saw :(

After out fifth attempt at getting both the aqueduct and us in the photo!

Balonmano

This just in... Atletico Madrid is not just a soccer team, they are also a team handball team. Played in an indoor arean, which brought me back to my competition days, fans get just as rowdy as they do at the soccer matches. Also a side note, team handball - a professional sport we do not even have in the US, attracts more fans than the Chargers...

One of my favorite things about Madrid...

Is that the entire city is decorated for Christmas. While the city workers have been putting up lights for what seems like months, they finally have turned them on!!!!! In other news the twins have stopped terrorizing me and now tell me that each class is too short. Also classes with their cousin Tommy are going great and his mom said there is another little boy in the building who wants to attend as well! I hope you all are getting into the Christmas spirit!!

Happy Birthday

To the best Mom a girl could ask for!

Feels like Christmas...

Every time a package comes it feels like Christmas! Today I finally got my parents package and in it was my new watch!!!

What a Wonderful Day!

While usually Thursdays are my most dreaded day (all three monsters are in the same class!) but today, they all behaved, so I taught them what Marshmallows are... needless to say they loved them and their toothpick and Marshmallow snowmen were quickly consumed!!  ALSO, Grandma's package came today so I got to decorate the house with all my new Christmas decorations!!!

It's Been Forever!!

Ahhh I know I have totally been slacking!!! Who knew that life in Spain was going to actually get busy?! It is official that I now have more interest for classes than I have time for! Which is always a good sign and so I will be trying to find a balance with that while still enjoying my time here...not that the latter is hard to do :) I have tons of pictures from the last few days but here is the other little girl I teach English to, Matilde, she loved my glasses so she had a photo shoot in them!

She is too cute!!

Día de acción de gracias

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! Last night was our Thanksgiving celebration here and it was awesome! After three days of cooking it had better be though!! Hope all of you have amazing Turkey Days as well!!!

Our hosts, Mario, Ichi, and Lucia? Carla? (The baby's name is TBD). 

WAY TOO MUCH FOOD!!

Not only was it Mario's first time carving a turkey, it was also his first time eating one!

Tommy was super surprised to have Pecan Pie 

(a side note: a small bag of pecans here is 16 euros...glad I brought them from home!!)

Taking after my father, eating Pumpkin Pie for breakfast!

Busy, busy, busy!!

With our Thanksgiving Day celebration tomorrow I have been cooking like a crazy person. Luckily I know someone, who knew someone, who knows a butcher, who can find a turkey here!! So we will be having turkey tomorrow, unlike the American tradition though we will be eating at 11pm... Gotta bring in some of the Spanish style. So far I have mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, artichokes, stuffing, salad, and pumpkin pie. Now all that has to be done once we get to the house is heat everything up, and cook the turkey ha! When I told my friend, whose house we are having it at, that you have to cook the turkey for close to 5 hours she didn't believe me, but luckily we are eating late any way. In other news the twins I teach English to were so well behaved and engaged in tonight's class, the first time in a week I didn't feel completely out of control in the class. Also our dear Hemingway is sadly no longer with us, while we knew it was coming it is still sad to see the empty digestivo bottle in our living room. Here's a picture the boys took in class today... So pensive!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

While Madrid has been putting up Christmas lights for the last few weeks, last night we saw them bring out the big guns, the Christmas Tree in Sol! This means we must be close to the lights coming on!!! So my new mission (besides finding cranberries in Madrid for Thanksgiving) is to figure out when they are going to turn on all the lights.

Additionally we will be celebrating Thanksgiving this Wednesday with all our Spanish friends!! Which will be so much fun LET THE COOKING BEGIN!!

TGIF

One hour with five year olds and I am yeller!!!!

Palacio de Cristal

I never get tired of this place...

The Featured Art Exhibit 

Huegla General

Spaniards love a good huelga, or strike, yesterday was a 24 hour strike by pretty much everyone. Students, bus divers, metro workers, anyone who wanted a day off (besides the bar tenders and police of course) gathered in the streets and vandalized the banks along Gan Via. The bus' were operating at 30% which ment that the few bus' that passed by were so packed it was better to walk than try and squeeze on. When we got to the city center around 4:30pm we thought maybe the striking was over... we were wrong. After waiting for an hour to get a bus that never came we walked back down Gran Via to see a mass of people in front of the Palacio de Communicaciones! Here are some of the pictures!!

All the Bank  ATM's were vandalized, spray pained or covered in stickers so it was impossible to get money out. 

So Many People!

English Lessons

While the boys, Iniog and Javier, were in no mood for lessons in English they were enamored with the iPad. So here are some of the funny photos they took... Next time I will try and get some of them smiling!!!

Our Own Little Hemingway

We now have a constant source of literary inspiration in our new snail (Ernest) and beta fish (Hemingway)!! So far they have adjusted nicely to their reclaimed digestivo bottle, and both have lively personalities... as much as any snail or fish can. They also seem to be a great fit for each other, I judge this 100% on the fact that Hemingway has not yet tried to eat Ernest, so we will see.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes...

Went to my second lesson with the twins, Javier and Iñog, and they are probably the cutest little boys in Spain. They however did not like the "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" song which was so surprising to me!! Due to this I will be changing my strategy for the ABC's. Unfortunately not photos of the boys yet, still to creepy, but when I teach them "smile" I think I will be able to get away with it ;).    Also the Christmas Spirit is in full effect here we now have not one, but two Christmas trees and a Poinsettia plant as well, and this is just the beginning!!