There is so much we could tell you about what we are experiencing here! My concrete sequential-ness won't really let me just spew detail and tidbit after detail and tidbit. So let's try A Day in Our Life, with just a bit of random rabbit trails.
The scheduling of meals here has been a big change, but we are close to getting it right.
On week days, we wake up around 8 or 8:30. We get dressed, make our beds, have breakfast. Breakfasts are not big meals here ~ often some bread with cheese or jam, juice or milk or cafe leche (for the adults...strong coffee with heated, perhaps frothy, milk ~ YUMMY for Bev). Fruit juices are all in 1L cartons here and there is none of the "fruit beverage" stuff ~ it's all real juice and really good, and not very expensive. For future reference, the Euro is at about $1.35 Cdn.
Rabbit Trail #1: About 2 blocks away, is our Panaderia, our bakery. Every other morning, Emery or Braden walk down and pick up 4 bars of bread. These are like Canadian baguettes, and the baker now knows Emery and gives him ones right ~ and I mean right ~ out of the oven. He races home and we enjoy deliciously fresh warm bread for breakfast, and sometimes cheese, which is also significantly less expensive here. Cheddar like we are used to is harder to find, but we pay less than a euro per 100g for Brie, Edam, Gouda and all those "fancy" cheeses.
At 9 am, we have family devotions and then Emery is the "teacher". He teaches the girls Math and Science. Braden is doing all of his courses through Manitoba Dept of Ed, so he works on his own, on-line, most of the time. Emery then "goes to work" at 10:00 and I take over teaching the girls English and Social Studies, some Piano and Art, until noon. Then we have tente en pie (snack) ~ usually fruit and a drink.
Sometimes there are jobs Emery and/or I are doing that the kids can help us with from noon to lunch time (2:00 or 2:30). We have raked leaves, cleaned out some storage rooms (took lots of stuff to the dump, much to Bev's delight!), dusted, swept and mopped the 6000 square feet of the Conference Building to get ready for our first retreat last weekend, and then stripped 60 bunks, laundered and remade them after the retreat. We dry most of our own laundry outside, so Macy and Rayna have gotten to be pro at the clothesline thing. We also do not have a dish washer, so the kids look after the dishes and cleaning the kitchen after every meal.
Rabbit Trail #2: The retreat we hosted this past weekend was not very different from our own Church Camps. This was an evangelical Romanian church ~ very friendly people. I spent the weekend in the kitchen learning to cook Spanish food (again, in Spanish as the cooks did not speak English!), and Braden and Emery ran the Dish Pit, among other errands. Macy and Rayna hung out a little with the kids from the retreat and Macy was thrilled that one of the 11-year-old girls spoke some English.
Lunch is our biggest meal of the day. I often prep it in the morning during Emery's teaching time, and then Braden sometimes finishes cooking it. After it's eaten and cleaned up, it's siesta! Sometimes we catch a few zzzzz's, sometimes we do Spanish homework, but everyone lays low and is quiet. We don't even let the kids be loud outside as the town really shuts down. The bigger grocery stores may remain open, but most businesses and offices close from 2:00 until about 4 or 4:30.
Sometimes we do a few more tasks after lunch, but at 4:45, Emery, Braden and I go to Segovia (about 11 km away) for Spanish class. We have class Monday through Thursday for two hours each day. It's Spanish taught in Spanish! The first few days, I had such a headache and was exhausted afterwards. But after two weeks, it's already getting much better.
While we are away, the girls do homework for a hour or so, and then they go to Isabelle's for merienda (another snack - usually hot chocolate and popcorn or a cookie) and often play games (UNO, Old Maid, etc.) until we return.
Supper is a lesser meal around 8 pm; a quick pizza (another cheap thing @ 2 euros each) or a sandwich or soup.
Then it's baths, if needed, and to bed for the kids around 9 or 9:30. Emery and I have been watching Season 1 of The Mentalist that we borrowed before we left, or reading a book out loud to each other (that's what happens when you don't take up precious suitcase space with English books and they are all on the computer...not enough computers to go around).
Fiesta days (Thursday last week and All Saints Day today) and weekends we don't have retreats are when we go out and about. More on those outings and Driving In Spain coming up in future blogs :)
