Christmas Adventure: Part 2

December 27th, 2007
Belen, the girls' godmother and 2nd cousin made plans to take the girls to an indoor amusement park with ice skating. Irene and I had been out doing some other things, but I was to meet them there and go ice skating with them. When we got there, Irene purchased my ticket to get in and then we discovered that Belen and the girls had not yet arrived. I waited for them there while Irene went on to do whatever else she had to get done. Once inside, we went to find out the times for ice skating (you pay additional fees for ice skating by the half hour) and then while we waited for ice skating, we went and drove bumper cars. Much fun!! From there we ran back to the ice skating and skated in rather uncomfortable ice-skating shoes for an hour. It was a lots of fun! There had been so many people on the ice before us that the surface was rather rough making smooth skating difficult, but after a bit of practicing I started to get the hang of it again. I did manage to get over confident once and fell on my knee (it's fine now...Heather-I didn't suffer as long from this fall as from the one at the skating rink in Branson..grin)...oh well, after not ice-skating in nearly 3 years, one fall is permissible, right? The girls loved skating and it helped wear them out!! Woohoo...grin... Now, I believe that I know how parents feel when their children are worn out and want to go to bed upon reaching home... After skating, we rode numerous rides, all in-door rides so not huge, but enjoyable. By the 3rd or 4th ride that went in circles, I was tired and beginning to get a bit sick to my stomach..besides being hungry. Grin...good thing that was the last circular ride or I very well might have lost the bit of popcorn I did have in my stomach...

Finally, worn out, we left about 8:30pm having been there at least 3 hours...with frost covering the windows, leaving quickly wasn't possible, but we didn't have to wait too long and we were soon on our way home. Eating a bit of dinner, the girls settled into the tv room for a bit of TV before bed! I was ready to go to bed...then Irene came home, pulled the cookie dough that we had made two days before out of the refrigerator, and began cutting it to cook....aaaahhh... I was asked to help, so I set about putting cookies on the cookie sheets, brushing them with egg whites, and preparing them for the oven. Soon, I began to regain some energy and was enjoying myself overall.

By 10:30pm though, I was ready to head to my room for some quiet, alone time. Belen joined us in the cookie making process and I made my exit...I made it as far as the kitchen of the home I am staying in (Irene's sister's home downstairs) where I sat for the next 2 hours conversing about anything and everything in as much Spanish as I could muster from the depths of my brain and then some...Irene's sister and brother-in-law speak no English so we were left with my little bit of Spanish, pictures, hand signals, and laughing (mostly me laughing). We talked of politics, religion, milking goats, my parent's work, Mom making soaps and jams, me being a pilot, and more...quite a grand time really!! I was amazed at my being able to stay awake and visit, but I loved it. Irene's brother-in-law, Luis, is such an interesting, soft-spoken man. He owns and operates the flower shop beneath their home, which is a place I enjoy visiting, especially to talk with him. Luis and his wife, Ana Belen, will talk to me in Spanish whether I understand or not...they don't simply give up trying to talk to me because I don't fully understand them and struggle to reply in their language. They were very patient with me, and Ana who's a teacher, set out to help me understand some of the alphabet. She gave me some excellent pointers to help me remember how to spell things in Spanish. I am thankful that spelling in Spanish is not very difficult, much easier than English! Belen, the cousin, joined us after a while and we continued our conversation. She speaks a bit of English, actually quite well though she prefers Spanish, so that helped move the conversation on a bit. I really had a great time and went to bed about 12:30am feeling very satisfied with my day.

Luis & I in the Flower Shop
Well, I guess my late night conversation in the kitchen was good because it seemed to open doors for relationship with the family I was staying with. What a blessing. The next morning, I was headed upstairs to get someb-fast before beginning the girls' English lessons, but was stopped mid-stride by Ana. She had some b-fast prepared for me in her kitchen.. They all quickly caught on to my love of coffee and made me coffee each morning and afternoon. Smile...I'm not spoiled...just blessed!

So, speaking of English lessons..the girls are doing well. I am beginning to learn a bit more of who the girls are. Irene loves to write and will gladly sit and write a story for me. It is my way of learning more about her and things here in Spain. Helena enjoys exercising, so I have her do a bit of English and then a bit of exercise..it seems to work... I've been reading with Celia but still could use some ideas to work on her grammar.. She knows quite a bit, so I'm trying to figure out how to challenge her and still make it interesting.

So after English, the girls continued their studies after a bit of playing and I prepared to go out for a while, check my email, and get some alone time and a walk. I went upstairs to see what arrangements Irene might have for me and clear my plans with her.....uhoh! Irene had plans for me that included practicing driving.. Oh yucko! So, once again I began to pray for help!! This driving thing had become a big deal and I wasn't enjoying it at all.. I was told that I would go and practice with Jose' Luis, Irene's husband, for a bit (maybe 45 minutes) and then I could go out... Okay, I will submit! So, out we headed for what turned out to be a wonderful 2 hours of driving about the country-side, learning lots of Spanish words related to driving and other things, and practicing my manual driving. It was very relaxing for me amazingly. Jose' is a very good teacher. He knows almost no English, so it was all in Spanish, but he is very patient and Irene had already taught me many of the words such as brake, clutch, gears, gas,etc...in Spanish. So, under the tutelage of Jose' I quickly began to understand how to take off in a manual car on an incline without using a handbrake. In fact, the handbrake was more of a hassle than a help at one point. So we practiced this for a while and then we simply drove around the country-side, giving me plenty of time to become more comfortable with driving around curves and in general. I loved it! It was nice to drive again. I'm pretty sure that I want to hug and kiss my car when I get home though!!! Oh, my wonderful little Mazda RX-7 convertible...sure glad I haven't sold it yet! Anyway, returning home, we ate some lunch and then I was told that Sonia, the intercambio I had met with before, had called and wanted to meet with me again. We thought she might meet me at 4:30pm, but since we couldn't get a hold of her in time, she made arrangements to meet at 6pm... So, with a bit of time, I headed out to check my email (finally found a cafe' with wireless internet)!! Woohoo... So, the cafe' that I found with wireless internet just happens to be some winery or some such place...I noticed the name today for the first time, though this is the second time I have been to this place...grin...ooops.. They have good teas and chocolate though! Haha!

I met Sonia at 6pm and we took a walk on the old Roman wall that surrounds the old part of the city. It was lovely at night with the sun setting. You can see the picture of the sunsetting in the previous post! I enjoyed getting a bit of exercise. Then we headed to a cafe for some chocolate and more conversation. I had my laptop with me still from checking my email so I showed her some pictures from home. Good times. And with my trip to Noia tomorrow...woohoo. I can hardly wait!