The Cousins...
Hello!!
Well, I've been back in Spain for almost a week now. Most of my time has been spent unpacking and reorganizing. I've moved from the 3rd floor to the 2nd floor... a little warmer and a bigger bed! :) It was good to get back to school and see the students. It seems everyone is a bit more chipper after a nice little break, me included. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous since I've been back. It's fantastic! I sat outside sunning this afternoon for awhile. I am told they are predicting snow for the weekend, though... yuck. It'll be nice to see snow on the mountain-tops, but I am also very much enjoying this warmth. :)
My 27 ½ hours of traveling was pretty unexciting. It was delay after delay with every flight. I only had about 20 minutes to catch my next flight in Houston. Of course, we landed in the terminal completely opposite of the one I needed to be in, so that was interesting. I was sweating by the time I made it to my gate, haha! I was fortunate that I didn't have to switch planes in New Jersey. I had to get off the plane and wait for them to clean it, but there wasn't any rushing from one terminal to the next, thank goodness. However, once they boarded everyone, the captain came on and said that they had to call maintenance to fix someone's seat that was broken. We had to sit there for an hour and 10 minutes before we finally moved. That was a little annoying. They had their in-flight entertainment available, though, so I just watched a movie. I decided to test my whole "relax more" idea I've had and not book any bus tickets or anything back to the village. I decided it was a perfect time to test my positive attitude and let things work out. It worked. :) Once in Madrid, we obviously had to go through customs upon arrival. You have to fill out these declaration forms. Well, I filled mine out as I always have, but when I got to the counter, the lady asked for my NIE card. I gave it to her and she said, "The declaration form is for tourists. You're a resident." I got a big grin on my face and thought, "Yes. Yes, I am." First time that I've got to feel that I'm an official part of Spain, haha! :) I collected my luggage and found a taxi to the bus station (rather expensive) and then I had to wait almost 3 hours before my bus was to depart. The bus ride was a little over 5 hours long. I think I slept through some of it, but definitely not much. I arrived in Jaén too late to catch a bus back to the village, so I got a taxi. It, too, was a fairly expensive ride, but well worth it to finally see the front door to my place here in Spain. I didn't bother unpacking a single thing. I fell asleep around 9:00 p.m and woke at 12:30 (noon) the next day. I think I needed it. HaHa! So far, I haven't had any real issues with jetlag. I spent most of Saturday moving my stuff from upstairs to downstairs. Well, on one of my trips, I fell down the stairs (yes, I'm fine). Unfortunately, when I fell, one of the things I was transporting to my new room was my computer. The screen is completely screwed. I sat there and cried for a good 5 minutes. I am fortunate that it wasn't more than the screen. Stef took me to a computer guy who is ordering me a new screen. In the meantime, I hooked my computer up to Dougie and Nicola's so I can still use it. It isn't nearly as bad as I envisioned as I was falling. Thank goodness. After visiting the computer guy, Stef and I had a coffee (good to have that Spanish coffee again—I missed it!) and caught up a bit. Other than that, I have not been doing much.
I'm really glad I went home for the holidays. The looks on some of the faces were pretty priceless. I got some very good reactions. It felt good to be missed. I guess now is the real test... 7 ½ months... but I don't think it'll be an issue. There is lots going on between now and then. Time will fly, I'm sure.
I spent most of my time split between my family on the ranch and my family in Hays. I did my best to see everyone that I could, but knew it wasn't going to be possible to see everyone that I wanted to. Highlights were numerous. Getting to see Lynnon walk/run/play in person was pretty awesome. She's such a character!
Pooped.
Lynnon & I doing a little light reading
Spending time with my great group of friends in Hays on New Year's was pretty awesome, too. The actual ringing in of the new year wasn't anything to write home about (at this point, it's just another day...), but the wedding day/reception/people were memories to take with me forever.
The group I spent the majority of New Year's Eve with... quite fun!
Clint, Schuette, Baxter, and myself at the Sip/Rail Christmas party
I went coyote hunting with Trent. This may sound SUPER cheesy, but I've put everything else out there, I may as well continue to tell it like it is. :) Anyway... I felt really empowered. It felt kind of awesome to walk through the brush, gun locked and loaded, ready to shoot if a coyote made an appearance. I'm quite sure I would have missed had that happened, but it felt good none-the-less. I enjoyed calling coyotes more than walking for them. I was confident that if a coyote came out of hiding that I would have nailed it from where I was. I'm really not that bad of a shot, believe it or not. Unfortunately, none came, but Trent and I had a mini targest session at a log on the ground, haha. :)
Those are just a few of the highlights. Seeing family and friends was obviously the top of my list and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. :) I miss everyone already, but was ready to get back here and get started with school again. :) I'm starting to look into trips I want to take and people I want to see, so hopefully, there will be tales of travel for you in 2012. :)
Like I said, we've been back to school for nearly a week now and a couple things have changed for us. We have the English Club on Tuesday's and Wednesday's still, but now we only have the young ones. Our entire 'club' is made up of 3-5 year olds. It is a bit easier and much less stressful, not to mention, the kids are very eager to learn. We have more students, but they are now all in the same age range and learning areas. They're fairly easy to please. :) They are also very excited about the little things. They are on the edges of their seats for stickers at the end of class. It's fun to see them show excitement for the little things. :) In addition to that change, they have asked us to 'teach' a 6th grade class 2 days a week in the afternoons. It's supposed to be a review of the materials in their English classes. Initially, I said no simply because they offered less pay and I was pretty leary about how it would go. I remember how it went when we first started the other club; the disorganization and lack of expressed expectations. It was a nightmare. I was in no rush to get into that again. Joanne and I discussed it and it was pretty obvious that she wanted to do it. We weren't required to do it together, but she made a good point: it's about the experience and it's more than nothing, I suppose. We had our first session with them today and it was just as I expected: completely disorganized and we spent most of our time scrambling to figure out something to do. We survived. I'm still not convinced it's going to go smoothly, but I will try for a few weeks and see what I think. I am not locked in by a contract, by any means. I guess you can't really judge things until you at least try it. The other class started out kinda scattered and eventually worked itself out. Maybe this will be the same. :) I'm hoping! I'm sure you'll hear about it if it doesn't, haha!
I am heading to Jaen on Friday to pick up my NIE card, the official one. While I am officially a resident, I have to go back to the rabbit hole and get my official card to replace this temporary paper one I have. :)
Hope this finds you all well!
Besos!
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