Hola!
Thursday – 21 August 2008
I don’t have know how to do the upside down exclamation mark on my computer – yet.
Now I am in Espana. Now I can utilize the blog, the whole reason why I got one.
The last entry was in January/December. Since then I have been busy teaching a long term sub position in 3rd grade, going to school (took my last final before certification on Monday before we left), getting all of our paper work established (the girls and I still don’t have our VISAs, so I get to find the US Embassy and ask them for help. That means that this segment is not complete), packing (Holy cow!, we have a lot of crap), and getting the house in order etc for Daniel (Brent’s grad student who is going to take his job our house, and dogs while we are gone), and delving out responsibilities to my sisters of finances and reading material (very important). This may seem like a long run on sentence, but I say that it was a long run on 8 months.
Jennifer helped us pack on Tuesday night. We bought 4 samsonite duffle (shuffle according to Bryce) bags with wheels. We loaded each bag up and then had Brent stand on the scale to get us a baseline of 50 pounds. We chose him to step on the scale, because none of the Hovde sisters had enough self esteem to volunteer for that position. We did great, the girls and I each had a shuffle bag and then we put our new parkas and toiletries in another – so 4 huge bags for us and one carry one a piece. Brent of course had his bike, his shuffle bag, and another bag – because that girl can’t pack enough!! We only had to adjust one or two bags at the airport, and that was just moving books around.
Books, that is why our luggage was so heavy. I brought 5 books per kid as well as their textbooks from our schools (so I can keep them up when they get back home). This is good because there are two tiny TV’s here and no cable (we aren’t going to get it) so lots of quiet reflection time – which our English brains might need to do in a Spanish minute.
The girls traveled soooo well. I had to give Jocelyn Dramamine for each flight. It was a new plane from AZ to NY – so no TV. The girls listened to their new Ipod Shuffle and watched a movie on their DVD player. Bryce had the window and was amazed at everything. We got to see the Statue of Liberty out of the window. I gave the girls benedryl, Brent and I took Tylenol PM. It worked for everyone but me – somonex is much better.
We went through Spanish Immigration without any hitch. The girls and I went through first on a tourist form stating we were leaving Nov 15ht. Brent took no time as well.
We were picked up at the aeropuerto by Edu (our foreign exchange student) and Alfonso (the professor who came with his family last year). We loaded up all our bags into his car (he calls “chicken little” after the movie because of the “Unique” color of green) and the girls and I went with Edu (his payment was a box of pop tarts).
We got to the house. Alfonso had been working with a Realtor. I had sent the money and he picked up the keys, so we came home straight from the airport. Alfonso’s boys (Santi and Tomas) were already in the pool. So it didn’t take long for us to find the girls’ swimsuits.
The house is gi-normous. We are now tasked with getting enough beds for all of us. We four Alvars are going to be living with 4 ASU students. It is way bigger than our house in AZ – and that’s too big. There is potential for 6 bedrooms (turning the sound proof studio into a bedroom) and 5 full baths and 2 1/2 baths – if you count the pool bath.
Our community has a club house. It has a huge pool, a restaurant, playground, tennis courts, and basketball courts. We went there for lunch with Ana and Alfonso. The bus stop is at the end of the street. We will have to take it to take the girls to school. We could technically walk, but there is construction on the roads and not safe. I think you can get monthly bus passes that will work for the buses, trains, and subway/metro. My plan is to try and see if I can get to the airport and home without any issues. Alfonso and Ana said we can share their car on the weekends if needed. The grocery store is a little way past the school.
After lunch we came home to lay down. The girls weren’t interested in napping, but playing and swimming. They love sound proof room. We finally concluded the evening by watching the Olympics on our black and white tiny TV, eating meat, cheese, and bread that Ana bought us.
Friday, 22 August 2008
We had a lazy morning this morning. Brent and I sat on the veranda (Dad says I can’t call it an Arizona Room in Espana) most of the morning discussing how were were going to fit everyone in the house.
We unpacked and started moving furniture. We moved a bed from a room that doesn’t have a closet or bath into our closet room. We will use this for the girls to sleep when we have company or for one of the girls to sleep in on a school night. We then moved some extra tables into Steve and Laurie’s bedrooms for desks (our graduate students). We moved two dressers from the dinning room into the sound proof room to turn that into Kelly’s and Chelsea’s bedroom (they will share). We are going to borrow 2 twins for them from Ana. We then took a quick inventory and made our IKEA list.
We showered and headed for IKEA. We had Ana’s car. Brent found the directions from his Blackberry. Alfonso has arranged our internet, but it doesn’t come until next week (you will either get this if I borrow UEM’s internet, Alfonso’s internet, or ours is installed). We did really well – all 4 of us were worried. Bryce saw IKEA out of her window!!!! Thank goodness we had been to an IKEA before, because we could manage just fine. We really didn’t have to communicate too much. We also headed to the grocery store and came home with only minor hitches.
We unpacked and then the girls went swimming. Brent and I sat out on the veranda and watched them. The breezes were wonderful and the sunset priceless. It was a perfect evening. We had another light dinner of chocolate milk & cheap Spanish wine, cheese, bread, ham, and the Olympics in Espanol. I did break open the nutella on bread for dessert – OUTSTANDING!!! The girls are in bed and my husband is snoring on the couch – some things don’t change.
We are currently at the UEM using their internet. If you scroll down, this is the place that we were supposed to be staying at. We are in front of the pictured fountain playing cards.
I will blog more with pictures once we have our own internet, which will be in about a week. Loves - Lara
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