Other side of the road!

For most of us we take for granted that we walk to our car, jump in, start it up, and then pull to the end of our driveway, turn left (or right as your case may be) and drive away. All on automatic. For the past few weeks I have not been able to do that. Too many times I have come up to an intersection, stopped and then looked left for oncoming traffic only to see taillights! Driving in the UK requires you to switch all your natural (for those of us left side of the car drivers) tendencies. This starts with needing to make sure you walk up to the correct door if you plan to drive. Always a strange feeling to walk up to the car door and then realize the steering wheel is on the other side!

What are the changes?

• Getting in on the other side of the car to drive
• The blinker is on the opposite side of the steering wheel (oops there go the wipers again!)
• Shifting the gears with the left hand

• Rear-view mirror is up and left
• Traffic comes from the right not left
• Traffic circles go the opposite way
• On dual carriageways (4 lane highway) stay to the left and pass on the right
• Watch for the curb on left corners

STAY LEFT! When I first started driving here our host, Campbell, gave me the advice: just remember always stay left. That has been good advice. After a few weeks I think I have begun to get the knack of driving here. I do catch myself every once in a while still taking a corner and being on the wrong side of the road but the times are getting less.

Unique things to Northern Ireland are the very narrow roads with no shoulder, and hedges along the roadways.

There are also some unique signs that we have never has seen before!

In English Please?

So we have to admit that moving to a country where they speak English has been a bit of a relief. Not nearly the same amount of brain energy has been expended on translating and figuring out how and what to say...or so we thot!! Now you may or may not have noticed that nowhere in our blog posts have we ever intentionally put down another culture or thought our own superior...at least that was our goal. Therefore, the following is in no way a slam on our dear dear Irish folk. In fact, we are having an absolute HOOT learning the different words you use for things and might very likely use them in our own vocab when we return to Canada! :)

Who knew there were so many different ways to say things in our very own English language?

Donaghadee

trolley = shopping cart
lorry = semi-truck
shop = store (retail)
store = storage room
white coffee = coffee with cream
bin = garbage can
boot = trunk of a car
bonnet = hood of a car
fringe = bangs (hair)
settee = couch, sofa
chips = french fries
crisps = chips
carriageway = highway
kitchen roll = paper towel
loo = bathroom, washroom
pot (of jam) = jar
jumper = long-sleeved sweater
take a dander = take a walk, stroll
barmy = whacky, crazy
washing up liquid = dish detergent
bun = cupcake, or other sweet small cake
bap = larger, non-sweet bun like a burger bun
biscuits = cookies
tray bake = squares, dainties

pants = underwear (Imagine the look I got when I kept saying that our kids have grown so much their pants are all too short!)

Kids playing Courtroom, Ulster Folk Museum

trousers = pants (Yup, now I say their trousers are too short!)
field = pasture
mobile = cell phone
minced beef = hamburger
tea or dinner = supper
supper = night snack
chipper/chippy/chip shop = restaurant (sometimes Take Out Only) specializing in All Things Fried: chips (french fries), onion rings, chicken strips/fingers, fish, etc.

Literally Kids in a Candy Store, at Ulster Folk Museum

wee = universal adjective; use-anywhere, not-necessarily-literal (doesn't always mean small) "It'll be just a wee minute while this wee girl gets you a wee coffee and some wee buns."

Huge chess game at Carrickfergus Castle

Amazing Opportunities

Not only are we amazed by the gorgeous sights of yet another country we are privileged to visit, but we are experiencing some unbelievable people-sights as well. We're not talkin' celebrity sightings...although I may get weak in the knees if I spot Bono across the street!

We are thoroughly enjoying getting to know the folks involved in Kiltonga Christian Centre and The Storehouse. The Storehouse is an inter-church initiative giving immediate help to those in need, regardless of their faith or if they have any at all. In Manitoba, we would call them a Food Bank. They work solely on donations and volunteers, two afternoons a week, making up packages of canned food and dry goods, to be delivered to those struggling to make ends meet.

However, sometimes food hampers would be delivered to a home that had no table or chairs to eat the food at, nor dishes to eat the food out of. Herein, enter some folks at Kiltonga Christian Centre. They are a church congregation that meets on Sunday mornings and evenings for what some of us may call traditional worship and spiritual feeding times. But, as some of them put it, there is more church going on during the week. One of their ministries is to run the area of The Storehouse/warehouse that handles donations of furniture, appliances, clothing and household items. They spend five or more days a week collecting donations of these items, sorting and testing, and then furnishing up to ten houses or flats a week for free. They describe it as "plugging gaps in the social welfare system".

Kiltonga congregation meets in a former leisure centre with much space to use for all kinds of other unique ministries. Just to name a few: they provide space and cater coffee breaks for conferences and meetings for health and charity organizations like the Diabetes Association, for example. They have Craft Day once a week, where people of all abilities can come and make cards, get their nails painted, or paint some reclaimed furniture for themselves or to sell for charity. There are also squash courts that can be rented and a ballet teacher that runs her studio classes out of the Centre. For that bit of traffic that comes through, there is a wee shop in the Centre that sells some of the gently-used wares (clothing, jewellery, dishes, small furnishings).

How are we helping? Emery and Braden spend most of their time at the Warehouse ~ all 70,000 square feet of it!

Emery has been testing and prepping washing machines, fridges and stoves. To give you an idea of the size of this operation, he has finished about 15 appliances and isn't half done, as every day more appliances are added to the pile.

Braden's favourite part is riding on the van with Campbell (our gracious host), helping load and unload, pick up and deliver.

The girls and I get to do something different almost every day. It is very rewarding packing grocery hampers at The Storehouse. It is like grocery shopping for someone else, where everything on the shelves is free! I get goosebumps watching my girls carefully pick out which soup or which shower gel this "Single Adult Female" might like in her package.

We, of course, LOVE Craft Day as well and have started a few painting projects. They won't fit into our suitcases to take home, but we hope they will bless someone else who may not have had the time or opportunity to make these reclaimed beauties.

Helping with coffee breaks is a pleasure (I'm even learning to run the espresso/milk frother machine <insert small squeal of delight here>!). Other days we have been spring cleaning at the Centre, and just helping out wherever we can.

When you look around, and have the time, it's easy to find ways to bless people, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in bigger ways. I remember Emery and I discussing this before we left home in October. We said then that this year might be more about us blessing the workers who are over-worked in their ministries, help them out to lessen their load, and give them an encouraging boost so they can continue their work long after we are gone. We are rather enjoying the backstage work, feeling we are getting our socks blessed off.

Welcome to Ireland ~ Guest Blogger Emery

Change can be difficult as you move from what is known to what is unknown. For us, the move from Spain to Ireland was something that had not been a part of our long range plan. But God, in his wisdom, directed us in this way, and so here we are:  in a new country, meeting new people, a new church, and a new opportunity.

The good byes were difficult but the warm welcome we received here in Ireland made our transition much easier. It is exciting to see what the church is doing here as they reach out to those that are in need and are marginalized. They help those that social services and other organizations are unable to help. And we are looking forward to being a small part of the help that makes this possible.

We have become seasoned travellers. All of us know how to manage our bags and find the right seats in the plane, train, or bus. This time we experienced a new mode of transportation as we took a coach from Dublin to Belfast.

Each country has its own beauty and Ireland is no different. The deep greens of all the hills and valleys with the mix of yellow and blue flowers was breath-taking. No pictures really capture these kinds of views, but here are our first few attempts.

Guest Blogger Rayna

Of course, part of our Homeschool ELA program has been to journal, write reports, etc. So, I (Bev) thought we should make use of one of those reports here. Why reinvent the wheel? It may be interesting to hear an almost-eight-year-old's perspective anyway. So here is Rayna's latest writing assignment.

My Time on a Cruise Boat

In the beginning of May, we went on a cruise boat for five nights. The ship left from Barcelona. Barcelona is a three hour train ride from Madrid.

The Ship

On the ship there were 4000 people and 15 floors. We were on the 8^th floor. Our room had bunk beds that came out of the ceiling. Very cool! Our room was very small and had no windows, but it was good enough.

The first thing we did was explore the ship. There was a climbing wall. I climbed to the very top and rang the bell.

There was also a sports court and a Flo-Rider for surfing and boogie-boarding, but I was too short to go on it. There was a mini golf course. I played on it only once. It was fun. I really liked playing in the Arcade. I played air hockey twice and Mario Kart 2 two times. It was fun. I was in a class every day at 8:00 pm that was called Adventure Ocean. You would play games, do crafts and learn a little bit of Science every day. There was also a water park, a whirl pool, swimming pools and hot tubs. The whirl pool was really fun!

There was a dining room that was very fancy. The waiter would pull out your chair and put your napkin on your lap for you. I dressed up for a few suppers. I loved the pineapple and lychee chilled soup! I tried the garlic soup, but it wasn’t my favourite. I always ordered off the adult menu because I wanted to try new foods, not macaroni or chicken nuggets on the kids’ menu.

There was even a skating rink. I skated for an hour…it was super fun!!!!

Oh, how I loved the ship!

Shows

I had fun watching “In the Air”. People danced and sang and climbed ropes and swung on them. It was awesome and so cool!

Another show was figure skating. It was also awesome!

I also had fun watching “ImaginOcean”. It was a glow in the dark puppet show. Very cool!

Places We Went

We rode the ship to France to a place called Cannes. We walked up a lot of stairs and saw a view of the city. It was beautiful!

The next day we docked at La Spezia, Italy. We took a train to Cinque Terre which is a park of five villages in a row by the sea. We hiked on a skinny path up and down the side of mountains.

After, we ate Italian pizza and Italian ice cream called gelato. It was delicious!

The next stop was Civitavecchia, Italy. We went on a train to Rome. I was expecting it to be greater but it was still exciting. We saw where the pope lives and we saw him do a speech.

 There were so many people in Rome that we could not see things properly. We took a double decker tour bus around the rest of the city. I thought the Coliseum was awesome!

The last day we sailed and stayed on the ship all day.

Barcelona

When we got back to Barcelona, we stayed in a hostel which is like a hotel, but different. It was my first time in a hostel. It is like a house with many bedrooms and a few bathrooms and a kitchen. Our family all shared one big bedroom.The breakfast was really good!

We saw Sagrada Familia which is a church, but it was cool and really really big.

We also saw where they had the Summer Olympics in 1992. They were making it into a motorcross course or something for the X-Games in a few weeks and a half-pipe.

This is where the Olympic Flame would have burned.

At Park Guell, we saw interesting things. Most of the things were made by Gaudi, who is an artist and architect. He does lots of mosaic art and his stuff is very unique. I loved it!

 We went on a gondola across the harbour area. I thought I was going to fall off, but it was just because I was a little afraid of heights. It was very high and we looked way down. It was creepy and fun!

This trip was awesome and fun and exciting and a good experience, the best week ever!

Miscellaneous Update

At long last, it is gardening weather here in La Granja. Today we spent the whole day outside, mowing grass, weeding flower beds, making all green and growing things look as glorious as God created them to be. All five of us were out there, working together and it almost felt like we were back in Canada. It was one of those moments, like washing dishes or sweeping the floor, when home does not feel an ocean away and life is life, wherever you are.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love gardening? Most know that we live on a five-acre property in the country and yard work is not a toil for us. There is no more perfect day (except a beach day) for me than sunny, warm, digging in the dirt, watching things grow and being up close and personal to the amazing wonders of God's Creation. Bethel is a little treasure inside a village, with beautiful green spaces and places to sit and enjoy them.

With several retreats under our belts, we have become quite adept at sweeping, mopping, making beds, cleaning bathrooms, setting tables and doing dishes. We have even learned to make a few Spanish dishes like lentejas, tortilla patata, guizo and arroz de cubana.

One interesting thing we have learned during our time here is how to serve God with our hands. Without enough language to speak to the heart or share deeply, one can still minister to the hearts of people through our actions and attitudes. We were encouraged by one of the retreaters during Holy Week who shared that she had been blessed and challenged by simply watching us work.

During the Holy Week Retreat, we even had an all-Manitoban kitchen staff as we were joined by Megan, who stopped in for a week on her way home from Capernwray Bible School in Alicante (on the south coast of Spain). She was easy to pick out of the crowd at the train station, even though we had never met her, as she was blonde, tanned and wearing shorts:) We were hoping she brought the sun and warm weather with her, but it has taken until now for that weather to arrive here in the interior of Spain.

We're also pretty proud of ourselves, adapting to a few differences and being inventive. For example, syrup (for pancakes, French toast, etc.) doesn't really exist here. Neither does Ranch dressing. And the brown sugar is very coarse and does not melt the same in cookies and other baking. So we have made our own syrup! Do you know how easy that is? Just 1 part water to 2 parts sugar, boil and then add vanilla or butter or whatever you want to flavour it with. We even found some maple flavouring in the cupboard that is obviously from Canada! The rest of my family has not been able to substitute oil and vinegar on their salads as well as i have, and we managed to survive on Caesar dressing which is the only creamy dressing available here. But thanks to a care package brought by my parents we are making our own Ranch dressing from the powder envelopes. And did you know you can make your own brown sugar? Since the white sugar is nice and fine here, we add molasses to it (and I forget if there is something else) and beat it well and voila! brown sugar. Thank you, Google, for knowing everything about everything.

Yes, Google is one of our best friends to help us adapt to living abroad, but our Best Friend has also been teaching us a lot. Apparently God didn't think we had learned to hand over all of our planning to Him enough in Fall when we waited on Him to make it possible for us to come to Spain. So, not only did we arrive in Spain later than we thought, we are also leaving sooner than we planned. It has been made very clear to us that He has another adventure and work for us to do for Him in Ireland! At the end of May, we will head over to another country to help a church show their community what it means to live your life for God ~ putting your life into His hands, obeying what He asks you to do, and trusting Him with all the details.

Speaking of details, on my To-Do list this week is to wade through the thousands of pictures taken on our unforgettable trip last week, by cruise ship, to France and Italy. So stay tuned for that :)

Spelling Lesson?

For the most part, I have always liked Language Arts. I love grammar and spelling, and too often, I find myself proofreading things (yes, I’m one of those!). It makes me shake my head and tisk, tisk, when I find a spelling mistake or verb tense inconsistency in an article or novel. The jury is still out for me on the whole new lingo and increasingly acceptable “incorrect” language stuff in today’s modern electronic world. There is a part of me that thinks it is fun to write/type in a casual, conversation way, with a few incomplete sentences and the occasional “bot”, “gotta” and “foto”. BUT, I do want my kids to learn all the proper ways of language, spell things correctly and learn what prepositional phrases and hanging participles are. They can save the "cool" language for cutesy notebooks and sparkly gel pens, and I guess texting :p

ANYWAYS, that wasn’t really what this post was supposed to be about. I should really quit babbling about something I am not really qualified to babble about. Do you know how many teacher family and friends we have? LOTS!

THEREFORE, back to what prompted this post…I’ve been teaching the girls Spelling. That, combined with us experiencing a new language here, has revealed some interesting things.

~ Never realized before how much we speak in clichés and “expressions”. Try translating “This tool makes pruning trees a piece of cake” or “Emery is a Jack-of-all-trades” or just plain old "That's cool!"

~ Spanish vowels, and many other things in the language, are so nice and consistent. 5 vowels: a,e,i,o,u and each one makes the same sound EVERY time. I cannot even begin to count how many different vowels sounds English has. AND, (girls, never start a sentence with "and") you pronounce every letter in Spanish. There are very few, except maybe 'h', silent letters. Don't even get me started on all the silent letters in English.
caught
fought
weigh (okay, I got started, but I'll stop there.) Oh, and get a load of this English word:

PHOTOGRAPH

It starts and ends with the same "f" sound, but not an "f" to be found in the word.

~ Yes, there are a few words in Spanish where the same word can have multiple meanings, but English is a real pain in the butt in this area (another expression hard to translate!). Macy's Spelling Lists (Grade 5) lately have been a real eye-opener...Homographs and Homophones. Now there's some gooders!! Homographs are words that have a different meaning when you put the stress on different syllables:
rebel
conduct
record
permit, to name only a few. If you stress the first syllable, most of them are verbs (action words, for those of you who aren't Grammar Geeks like me). If you stress the second syllable, they often become nouns (those are persons, places or things). Isn't that crazy? Homophones...we all remember those thorns in the flesh: words that sound exactly the same, spelled differently, very different meanings:
to/too/two
their/there/they're
where/wear
profit/prophet
medal/meddle
bolder/boulder
cellar/seller, again only a few.

~ Rayna's lists (Grade 2) seem like easy words, but have you ever stopped to think how many different ways English creates the sound "oo" as in "zoo"?
grew
blue
zoo
two
to
fruit, but NOT in "build"
And that's just one of probably hundreds of sounds!!!

To sum it up, the girls have verbally expressed, on numerous occasions, how eternally thankful they are that God chose to place them in a First Language English family. They both agree that English must be the hardest language to learn if it is not your first language. In Rayna's words:

I don't know how I ever learned to speak English.

And I was so young when I started!!