Well, I have more down time. My mom went home on Saturday. The weather has changed, sorry Grandma and pa, it has stopped raining. It rained every day for six weeks. If it skipped a day, it would rain for 24 hours straight!!! It is just extremely cold and there is no moisture – so no snow for our troubles. We are really getting used to the scarves, gloves, and long jackets.

The bus situation is getting more interesting. Brent and I were one of the first on the scene, when the bus was being detoured off of the main drag (construction – even here). The bus was trying to avoid an open trench when it literally “wrapped” itself around a telephone pole. It broke all of the windows out of one side. The driver was out on the phone and all of the people were still inside.

Another situation happened with Steve and Laurie in the same week. They were headed to campus on the bus, when a car pulled out of its parking space in front of the bus. The bus driver swerved to miss the car and drove up on the median and into a tree. No one was hurt, not even the tree. The bus did break a headlight. The bus driver got out of the bus and chased the car. Later, while they continued on the drive, the bus driver pulled over a police officer to tell what had happened. Laurie and Steve were quite entertained.

I forgot to mention what is like when a new family member goes to pick up Jocelyn and Bryce from school. I take the visitor into the courtyard where all of the parents wait for the children to come out of doors throughout the courtyard. Bryce’s class has windows that look out onto the courtyard. Usually when a visitor is coming, I let her know that they left today and will be flying all day. She usually thinks they are going to be here on that day and she is very sad. I now have to stop telling her that part. I do tell them that I’m going to bring them a surprise when I pick them up from school. They know who it is and are very excited. On every occasion, I have pointed out Bryce’s classroom. As I am pointing, she is out of her desk waiving out the window, or actually yelling through the window and waving. I know she gets into trouble – but it’s just too damn cute. The teachers then escort the students out to the playground to be picked up by the parents. Bryce is usually pointing out the visitor to her friends and saying “That’s Aunt Cold, Aunt Jen, Grandpa and Grandma, Gammy etc.” It is quite touching!!!

Every night after putting the girls to bed, we adults and Grandpa and Grandma would drink and play cards. What a hoot to see all of us around the glass table in the veranda giggling. I loved how our students/roommates called Grandpa and Grandma and Gammy by their Grandparent names.

Friday, October 17th,

Yikes, I’m month behind – how does that happen????

Today I decided not to take the girls to school. We had tickets to go see Flamenco Dancing in Madrid and it started at 6:30. It usually takes two hours to get there. Brent said I should just get them after lunch at 2. I told him I was going to do the other half of Madrid with his parents during the day, so he could get the girls out after his meeting. He was scared of the language challenge – so no school today!!!

This was pretty much the only time that Grandpa and ma got to enjoy the Boadilla bus. We started at the Puerta Del Sol and walked to Banco Espana so they could see the beautiful architecture of Madrid. We then walked to Colon Centro, which is the homage to Christopher Columbus. This is cool because almost every city in Spain has something celebrating Columbus and to be here during Columbus Day is cool. On the way, the streets were lined with booths selling antique books. We found a first edition Harry Potter in Spanish for 15e – almost $23 – so we said no. We then walked to Retiro Park and had drinks. After that, I almost killed my in-laws by trying to find a nonexistent metro stop.

We did make it to Flemenco on time. Did I mention that I had originally purchased the tickets for the wrong day. I was paying attention to when tickets were available versus when we wanted to come. It all worked out well. The Flemenco was in a theater, so great seats and no smoking. It was early enough so that the girls got to enjoy it. We had Kelly and Chelsea meet us there. The Flemenco was performed by ballet dancers, so they were very smooth. When we came out, it was raining and we headed to Plaza Mayor for dinner.

Saturday, October 18th

Today we headed out to Granada. We took Grandpa and Grandma to hot chocolate and pasterias in Boadilla first. The hot chocolate here is more than amazing. It is like a melted chocolate bar or hot chocolate made with the consistency of cheese soup. Even I can’t finish it!!! We sat outside because the shop was full of smoking people. It was raining outside, but we found a nice spot under a canopy.

We then headed to Granada with huge black skies. If it were Kansas, we would have been looking for underground bunkers. This drive was kind of stressful for Brent. I kept the car entertained with reading Pollyanna. Jocelyn wouldn’t let me look at the beautiful countryside because she wanted me to get through the book.

We had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant along the road. We even took the left over wine and water for our own party later – since we thought we paid for it. We realized that we didn’t and we took their house bottles. I kind of feel bad about that. So now I’m another step closer to “Locked Up Abroad”.