Life Lately in Madrid

After returning from our non-stop travels in August, we've finally had a pretty good period of time in Madrid and have started to settle in nicely. Luke is back at the daily grind, usually leaving the house around 8:30 and returning around the same time in the evening, sometimes earlier, sometimes later on both ends. I started Spanish classes at Escuela Oficial de Idiomas on October 8th and am just finishing up my 3rd week of classes. I go every day from 5-7. So far, I really like my teacher, Concha, and hope that I start seeing more and more improvement soon!  Between the gym or running, class and homework everyday, keeping the apartment clean, laundry and running errands, which takes much longer here given the lack of our car and the necessity to go multiple places in order to get each type of item (There is no Target or Wal-Mart in the city center!), my days go by pretty quickly.

Everyone continues to be so friendly and welcoming, and we have been lucky to find a couple of groups of friends to share some of our time with.  Several weeks ago, we had a group of people over to our house for tapas and wine. I met Colleen through the Americanas in Madrid Facebook group and then met Erin through Colleen. They both came with their significant others. Jose is Colleen's Spanish fiance, and Dani is Erin's Mexican boyfriend. We've also met up for drinks, a cheese festival and shopping (girls only!) with this group. 

Jose is a very talented guitarist and knows a plethora of songs, so when we get together, the night usually ends with a sing-a-long! (Me, Erin, Colleen, Jose, Luke, Dani.)

Mexican food in Madrid after the Cheese festival. (Erin, Dani, Jose & Colleen. You should know the front row!)

Luke's co-worker, Jose Carlos, has been beyond friendly since the week we arrived. He was the first person to invite us out for dinner when we were brand new to Madrid, and since then we have hung out with him and his best friend, Nico, several times.  They both speak pretty good English and love the opportunity to speak so that they can keep improving. They also encourage me to speak Spanish with them and are so nice and helpful to help me with new words or to provide constructive criticism. 

Luke, Jose Carlos, Nicolas, Me, Elena, Almu & Francisco

Luke and Jose Carlos

Luke has to work this weekend. Although the last two weekends that we thought he would have to work, it got called off at the last minute, so I'm still holding out hope for that to happen again. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll get lucky a third time. While Luke works on Sunday, I'm running in my first European 10-K. The weather looks like it will be a nice, cool Fall weekend with highs in the upper 50's and low 60's. So other than work and running, it looks like we'll have a pretty chill weekend in Madrid. 

We miss our families like crazy and can't wait for the next opportunity to see everybody or anybody! Have a good weekend in Texas, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Tennessee (wherever you are!) and know that you're always on our minds! 


 

Monday Morning You Sure Look Fine

It's Monday morning, and the whole cycle is starting over. But what a good, low-key weekend we had! Our last couple of weekends have been really relaxing, and it's good. It leaves me feeling rested and refreshed instead of feeling like I need a few days to recoup from the craziness of the weekend. Friday night, the Call brothers spent the night with us. We devoured some delicious Tex-Mex at Mattitos, and then watched the Kentucky Wildcats upset Ohio State! Woo-hoo! Because of that upset, I'm now in first place in the bracket pool we've got going here at work. Now I just need Kentucky to beat UConn to call it a victory. Go Wildcats! On Saturday, I got up for early morning bootcamp and then came back to lay by the pool. We decided to have an impromptu family cookout at our house. Dad, Mom, Jeff, Meg, Shelby, Coleman, Anna and Stephanie headed over, and we cooked out hamburgers and had a nice little evening. The food was fine, but the company was better. Sunday morning we woke up to cloudy skies and much cooler temperatures. It felt more like Fall than Spring, but it was perfect for a lazy Sunday. Everyone but Mom and Dad spent the night with us on Saturday night to avoid a late night drive back to NRH, so Luke made chocolate-chip pancakes for the whole gang. Shortly after breakfast, the Pecks packed up and headed home, and we proceeded to have a very lazy day. Finally around 3 o'clock, I found the motivation to do some quick straightening/cleaning so that we wouldn't start the week with a nasty dirty house, and Luke helped out by folding 3 baskets of laundry that I'd been putting off for at least a week. Then we headed out for a Sunday evening church service. This is the 2nd time that we've attended Watermark and so far we're liking it. Last week, we went to the 9 am Sunday service, but it's nice that they offer the 5:30 pm service for those Sundays when you can't make it out early for whatever reason. Last night they just showed a video tape of the early morning service. It's not always like that, but last night the pastor needed to be at home with his family and was unable to make it. Anyway, it was still a good service, and we were glad we went. Finding a church where Luke and I both feel comfortable has been really heavy on my heart lately, so I'm hoping that Watermark is the answer to my prayers. Hopefully, we'll continue to go and enjoy it and find a worship "plan" that works well for our little family. After church, we went to eat dinner at a Spanish Tapas restaurant called Si http://sitapasdallas.com/. It was really good and cozy and perfect for a cool Sunday evening. We shared some vino tinto and munched on olives, Spanish tortilla, croquetas, empanadas and roasted red peppers. Luke called most everything that we had "soothing," kind of like Spanish comfort food. It was a great cap on the 'ken. After dinner, we were able to catch the last few minutes of the OKC Thunder game and then turned in early. And that brings us back here to Monday morning. I'm starting a new session of bootcamp tonight and praying that my back holds out for the whole four weeks. That's about the only thing going on for us this week other than the regular day-to-day stuff, but we're looking forward to a golf tournament/girl's day next weekend and more warm Spring weather.