Madrid

Yesterday I returned from a trip to Madrid for a language coach training.  We learned PILAT, which is a very effective way of learning a language.  In fact, we learned quite a bit of French in just two days!  It's so great to be able to say, "Hier je suis allé à la banque en bateau" (Yesterday I went to the bank by boat.)  :)  Actually, we learned pronouns, four rooms of a house, four locations, four action verbs (present and past tense), three modes of transportation, and times (last night, yesterday, the day before yesterday).  All in two days.  I look forward to teaching this method to others in the future!  It works!

While we were in Mardrid, our wonderful hosts, Dwight and Mara, took us to see the sights around Madrid.  We spent one evening in their town, Alcala, where Cervantes was born.  As an English major who spent a lot of time reading and analyzing Don Quixote, I was excited to be there!  Here I am with the chivalrous windmill slayer!  

  

Here's a pic of us in the plaza in Alcala near the statue of Cervantes.  

Another evening we went to visit other places around their town, including seeing the world's smallest bullfighting ring.  Then we went to a place called Europa Park that is a lovely park full of replicas of famous landmarks found in cities across Europe.  We saw the Eiffel Tower, the London Bridge, the Brandenburg Gate, and Michelangelo's David.  Click here to read more about this great park.  

Thursday evening we went into Madrid.  We walked around the Plaza Mayor, had dinner in a quaint restaurant, walked around the Puerta del Sol, then went to the Chocolateria San Gines and enjoyed dipping the delicious churros in hot chocolate.  Yummy!  

Training and tourism!  Great match!  Most of all, I enjoyed the fellowship of friends and colleagues.  Came home full of joy!

Catching Up

The busyness continues....

Karl had a group of volunteers out at camp last week, and they were able to complete the roof on the bunkhouse (two-room building for bunkbeds).  It was a lot of work, but looks fantastic!

I was busy during the week with reports, budgets, seeing friends, meetings, house stuff, and I don't remember what else!  All I know is that I fell asleep quite quickly each night.

On Friday I went to Sofia, Bulgaria to meet with some colleagues.  I had a great time visiting with them, talking about language learning, and just laughing together!  We all went to the Sofia zoo on Saturday and had a blast!  It's huge - 89 acres - and has everything you would expect at a zoo.  We enjoyed the sunshine, the animals, and the fellowship.  Then we went to Ikea for lunch and shopping.  That evening I had dinner at the mall food court with my dear friend, Glenda.  What an encouragement it was to spend time with her!  I'm so thankful for my friends!!

I headed back home on Sunday after a late night of talking.  Karl picked me up and took me to a late lunch.  We realized sometime during the lunch that it was Mother's Day.  We had both forgotten.  That's what happens without all of the marketing around!  :)  We went home, and all of the conditions were right for a good Sunday nap - rainy weather, Sunday, Mother's Day, just returning from a 7 hour bus trip, etc.  I fell sound asleep.  Kurt and Kelli called about 10 minutes after I had fallen asleep to wish me a Happy Mother's Day.  Thankfully, they agreed to call back later that evening!  :)  I ended up taking a 3 hour nap!  At 7pm, we figured it would be best to get up for a few hours before going back to sleep for the night.  We talked with Kelli again, got an email from Scott and ended the day.

The adventures continue!  I'm so grateful for family, friends, and my Lord who give me JOY!

A Getaway

The past month was very busy, especially for Karl.  He was working so hard at camp - renovating the mlekara (milk shed), leveling the field, and tearing down one of the buildings and helping to rebuild it.  Lots of physical work, along with meeting with suppliers, vendors, laborers and neighbors.  Add to this Bible studies, time with Scott when he was home on Spring Break, and other times with friends.  And somewhere in there, he had administrative stuff and car maintenance stuff (changing winter tires to summer tires, getting a flat fixed, buying a new tire because I hit a stump and it blew, getting the car washed, changing the shocks on the car, etc.).  We also had two trips to Belgrade - one to take Scott to the airport to go back to Germany and one for a team meeting.  Are you tired yet?

So, on Monday, Karl saw that Tuesday was a holiday (May Day), so he wanted to take a break!  He called me about 10:30 and said that we were going away for two nights!  We went to Sarajevo, about 4 hours away from us.  We found a hotel when we got there - Hotel Hollywood (complete with James Dean poster in our room).  We slept late on Tuesday.  I'm not sure the last time that Karl slept later than 7am; he's always up by around 6.  Then we went to the waterpark that was right by the hotel.  So relaxing and enjoyable!  The temp outside was in the 80s, so it was perfect!  Unfortunately, we both got sunburned (forgot the sunscreen in the car and were just too lazy to go back to get it!).  But, we had a great time!  Around 2 we decided we just wanted to take a nap, so we went back to the hotel and slept for a couple of hours.  We really needed to just sleep!  I'm so glad that Karl was able to really rest.

That evening we went into Sarajevo to meet some friends for ice cream.  It was so great to walk around the old town with them, seeing historical sites such as the Latin Bridge where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, which started WWI.  Although we've been to Sarajevo several times, we've never gone by that site.  But certainly the best part was the time with our friends!

Wednesday morning, we got up and started the trip home.  We stopped in Visegrad to see the Bridge on the Drina.  This bridge was built in the 1570s and is beautiful!  Then we went on to Mokra Gora where we rode the train up the mountain on the Sargan 8 (you'll have to look it up! It's really cool!).  We had a really great time, enjoying the beauty of the day.  To see pictures of our trip, click here.

We got home about 5:30pm, and, well, the world hit again!  Work was put off for a day or two, but it has to be done!  Karl has supplies to get to get the building roofed, we have reports due, we have people to see, things to do!  But we are so grateful that we had the time to get away for May Day!  It certainly brought us joy!