The past 6 days...

I cannot believe that 6 days ago, we moved into our apartment. Prior to that, we were staying in Toral, which is a pueblo village about 30 minutes outside Leon, the city where we now live. Living this past week here in the city of Spain has been an exciting and very unique time. Here are some random thoughts of what I've experienced and been going through this past week. And sorry, no pictures. They are coming soon, promise...

• I am thankful that we lived in a big city for about 2 years, in Sherman Oaks, so I am at least used to living right in the middle of a downtown area of a large and bustling city. And let me just tell you that I love it! Being right in the middle of everything that is going on is so exciting. Being able to walk most places and not having to worry about parking is very convenient. And to me, somehow, the noises of the city are strangely comforting and familiar.
• Cars are small here. We're renting a family size vehicle right now, which in Spain is about the size of a Honda Civic (With a slightly larger trunk space.) Any car larger than that is considered abnormally large :) Tomorrow, Lord willing, we will be picking up our abnormally large 7 passenger mini van. I cannot wait! But let's see how parallel parking goes! And driving down those narrow streets found so often here.
• Driving here is an adventure. The signs, obviously, are in Spanish. Which sometimes is challenging for me because I cannot read them. It's always nice when Gus is in the car and can translate them for me! Yes, I am driving. I don't want to be overwhelmed or afraid of driving in the city, so I force myself to drive often! There are roundabouts everywhere. The one right by our house has 3 lanes and 4 lights. Inside the roundabout. Making sure you stay in the right lane while going around a curve can be interesting. And there are pedestrian walk-ways often right as you exit the roundabout, so sometimes we have to slam on our brakes to avoid hitting people as we drive out of the roundabout. There are streets and roundabouts everywhere. I'm sure in 6 months and more-so in 12 months, it will make sense to me, but the city is very large and often confusing. We did buy a GPS over here but sometimes that doesn't help. It will tell us to turn left and there are sometimes two or three left turn options. And no, it does not use street names nor beep when you're supposed to turn. Many times our GPS has hindered more than helped.
• Food here is so fresh. Fresca, in Espanol :) Each night that I've made dinner, either Gus or I have commented that it just tastes so much fresher. And funny to me, they use fresca to describe so many things here. It's kind of buzzword, I think. When we bought our mattress pad from the furniture lady, she said it's fresh because they used some organic material to make it. Our pillows have aloe vera written on them and are considered "fresca." Back to the cooking, I've been able to find and cook pretty much what I was used to cooking in California. Except everything from scratch. Everything. There are no shortcuts. Like baby carrots. Or frozen, sliced bell peppers. Or jars of minced garlic. Or cans of cream of mushroom soup. Or any mixes of any kind. I've been trying to cook from scratch the last year in anticipation of this but I do miss my frozen bag of bell peppers :) Everything is also organic and free-range. Produce and meat. And the ingredients on the things that are in jars or boxes are things I can read and pronounce. Dinner might take a few minutes longer while I mince my own garlic, but it's been worth it so far :)
• Like I mentioned above, I have pretty much been able to find most things I need to still cook my usual recipes. The stores here are clean and very nice. Food is usually cheaper, unless it's an American brand. Take cereal, for instance. There's about 1/4 of the selection. They offer both Spanish and American brands. I can buy Kellogs Frosted Flakes or Cooc Puffs. But those American brands are twice the price of the Spanish brands. Thankfully the Spanish brands are extremely good and we've been enjoying some pretty good cereal! I will have to shop at 3-4 different stores to get everything I need. For example, Mercadona, the store closest to me, has great cleaning products, dairy, and general items. But it is kind of small and doesn't offer many frozen foods or random items like tortillas. Carrefour is a huge store that is like Walmart. They sell pretty much everything except furniture. But they're more expensive and not as good quality on some of the food items. Those are just two examples of the stores I will shop at and they're not very far away-10 minutes driving, max.
• The church is really great. It's about 150 people with many small families. A few ladies speak a little English and between the poco (little) Espanol I know and their broken English, I can carry on a conversation with some of the ladies. But some of the ladies don't speak any English at all. So Gus translates for me. I do feel very motivated to learn Spanish and am working on that on my own this summer until language school starts in September. This is probably the hardest aspect of living here for me, but it is exactly what I expected it to be. And already, within a few weeks my vocabulary has doubled or even tripled. During the sermon on Sundays, I write down the words I do know. It helps me pay attention and remember/ learn more words; it's been encouraging to see my progress since that first Sunday. I'm excited to see how much I'll know in 6 months from now!
• Our schedule has completely changed. We usually eat breakfast around 8:30-9. Lunch at 2. And Dinner at 9. The kids go to bed around 10 and we'll go between 12-1. And we love it! Sometimes we have snacks, but the longer we are here, the more normal these mealtimes have become. Stores are closed for siesta, usually from 2-5. The small stores but not the larger stores like the mall And everything is open late. Right now it's midnight and the streets are filled with cars, music, and people. In fact, last Friday was a fiesta for the town. At 11 o'clock at night, we took the boys out and wandered around. It was soooooo busy. Tons of people. Families. Young children being pushed around in their stroller. It was crazy! We kept looking at each other and smiling that we were out at midnight with our kids! I am not a morning person. Never have been. So this new schedule is just great for me :) Love it!
• They are seriously into yogurt! I've honestly never seen so many yogurt choices. Every grocery store has an entire aisle, top to bottom, entirely dedicated to yogurt. Even the small stores. There's not too many brands. Just a lot of different types. And many more flavors I've never heard of. But ooo is their yogurt yummy. Creamier. YUM!
• Speaking of cereal, over half of their brands/options have chocolate in them. I thought this was funny! I'm not sure I've ever seen a ceral, besides Coco Puffs, that actually has chunks of chocolate in it. But here you can get just about every type of cereal-flakes, puffs, etc with chunks of chocolate. I just wish I liked chocolate more!
• I think Spain is green! If you don't bring your own grocery bags, you pay 20 cents for each plastic bag they use to load your groceries. Talk about motivation to remember those grocery bags! I've only forgotten once! And in the parking lot, the grocery carts are linked together. You have to insert a Euro to unlock it. Once you put the cart back and link it back, you get your Euro back. I've yet to see any carts littering the parking lot!

I hope you can tell that we love living here so far. Though many things are unfamiliar to us, we know that in time, that will no longer be the case. And we've found many things that are different than what we're used to, but we are really enjoying those differences.

Thanks for your continued prayers for us as we continue to transition into living here in Spain. Please pray that I will make great strides to learn Spanish. I am kind of slow at this type of stuff and need lots of repetition so pray for me.

Our house is almost done. We have a trip to Ikea planned this week (It's about 90 minutes drive) and I'm excited to finish buying the necessary items we need to start hosting people! Once our house is finished, I will post pics. Our container with family pics and the stuff we shipped should arrive in August. I am excited, especially since I can't really remember what is in it anymore :) Should feel like an early Christmas!