Hot in the face today

Spanish bureaucracy is a bit difficult. It involves a lot of waiting. I have been waiting for my NIE card which will make me a legal resident of this country for a time period since I got here. I found out today that the head of the school district forgot to put my name on the call list. So I spent the afternoon, with the help of my great friend Manoli, speaking with officials. At first I was told it was going to be impossible for me to leave the country for my upcoming vacations, but then that it's a risk I can take and really the NIE card is only good within Spain. When I came back from Bristol, the customs representative in Madrid barely looked at my passport before letting me through so I'll take the risk since I've already spent my entire monthly salary on my Christmas vacation. Today was the first day I actually felt panicked, but as usual, no pasa nada.

Then Manoli and I spent the long car ride back to Moral speaking about relationship lingo. She explained the proper terms to be used and the important questions to ask and how to ask them. As well, I learned that "te amo" is hardly used in Spain. Rather, "te quiero" is more appropriate. Americans believe they are speaking wise Spanish when they say "te amo." When we got to school I got to help the 4th graders make pizzas. We are also playing a game called "Invisible Friend" (Secret Santa) this week, and I've gotten an assortment of Spanish cookbooks. Not bad. I expect the week to end with lots of delicious food and next week will consist of only games and fun. Me encanta!

6 buses, 6 trains & 2 planes

This weekend I visited Charles & Kyle in Cardiff (well a small village nearby) in Wales in the United Kingdom. I calculated that I spent 24 hours of the weekend just traveling and 34 hours actually with my friends. To get from one small village to another country to another small village requires buses, trains and planes. Pressing "accept" buttons & watching money disappear from my bank account is the easy part. Anyway, it was worth it. This is part of it. It was such a relaxing weekend in Cardiff. The inclement weather was expected. There's never much sunshine, but there wasn't any snow, luckily! We went to several pubs and ate local food and had Guinness beer which is was oh, so tasty. We sat by a fire last night and got to know kyle's fellow chiropractic mates. I finally got to see where Kyle has spent the last 4 years of his life. There were rolling hills, loads of sheep perched on the sides of these hills and signs in English and in Welsh. Kyle introduced me to the local coffee and Welsh cakes. We visited an old English bookstore, played Christmas music & had a proper English breakfast this morning.

I enjoyed listening to Charles & Kyle spit their medical terms, knowledge about diseases and what their grueling exams were like. It was informative and interesting. Kyle also pretended to be handicapped (spur of the moment, he says) in order to get passed on old lady to the handicapped toilet. Charles described only being able to take a bath for the first 4 months in the UK which was quite a process for him considering his height!! Lots of laughs.

As we go from Northside Baptist youth group to studying and teaching in Europe a lot changes and so many little things stay the same. It was simply a home-like feeling for me this weekend with these dudes. A girl at the pub last night kept repeating to me, "You all are from the same city in Florida and why are you here? Are you crazy?" And it was so nice explaining that just to be hanging with old friends in a new place is really enjoyable. Once again, I just can't believe how lucky I am.