When we were originally headed to Spain, one misconception that we regularly had to counter was that we would be eating lots of Mexican style food here in Spain. This is not the case. We did enjoy lunch at an outdoor table in the main plaza here in town today. We ordered our drinks and asked for a menu. The waitress brought us our drinks with a free appetizer to go with them - potato chips topped with what seemed to be cold pickled strips of fish. It was actually not too bad, and we all ate several pieces of the fish except for Rachel who wouldn't touch it. In any case, Spanish food is a far cry from Mexican.

First Day of School

Thursday was the first day of school at ECA and Rachel's first official day of school ever. Here she is with the ECA Headmaster, Mr. Musser.

And with her teacher, Miss Santie.

We began the day with an all-school assembly. Pictured above are high school worship leaders and Mr. Musser, giving the introduction.

Rachel sitting next to fellow classmate, Katja, whose parents have served in the Netherlands for the last several years.

During lunchtime, David snuck down and got this picture of her class. There are 5 students in her class. 4 girls and 1 boy.

A family picture just for fun.

And here is a picture of David's 6th grade classroom, with desks for all six of his students.

Everyday Sights

(click on any of these pictures to enlarge them)

Last Saturday we ventured into Madrid on a mission to find an electronics store David had looked up online. I took the camera along to document the "everyday things," we typically see on a trip like this. Typically, we drive about 30 minutes to the nearest Metro/Subway station and ride the rest of the way on it.

There is a point in the center of Madrid (which is also the center of Spain) called Kilometro Cero (Kilometer Zero) and from that point, there are 5 main highways that reach out across the rest of the country. From our house, we take the A2 past the airport into the city.

Sign urging caution because of a high concentration of accidents in the area.

Typical grouping of red brick apartments. This style is all around Madrid.

When we first visited Spain, we were amazed at how much graffiti there was everywhere.

Now we hardly notice it.


Once we were in the city, we passed a bookstore with these cookbooks on display.

I was amused by the American cookbook. :)

R & M standing in front of one of the many garden/water features downtown.


Near Kilometro Cero - the heart of downtown Madrid.


One of the many cheese and ham store windows.


The large things hanging from the top are legs of cured pork, and are one of the most popular Spanish cuts of meat. People buy them whole and serve them thinly sliced.

More pork. Spain has so many kinds of sausage and ham.

David and Rachel ducked into a souvenier store while Bop and I stayed outside.

The souvenier shop was next to this wedding dress shop.

This particular dress was 2,000 Euros, (about $3,000) and was so gorgeous!

Little Monkey...

and the drive home again. This is about 5 miles from our house.

Dry. Barren. Brown farmland.

But we are thankful for our lives here and enjoy the sunshine every day.

(We wouldn't mind a little rain, though...)

Little girl

The church plant here in Camarma has one Sunday school class for all the elementary. All these kids are 4th, 5th and 6th grade, and Rachel. This past Sunday they sang a special song for the congregation. Doesn't she look so tiny?

Cooking Fun

Rachel is growing up and always eager to help Keri cook.

Here are some photos of her most recent assisting...

Cleaning up

The mess

The happy cooks.

Spanish Birthday Party

Well, we got ourselves invited to a birthday party for a 5 year old Spaniard today. Back in April, when David's parents were here visiting, we had taken the kids hiking on the "mountains" behind our house, and met a Spaniard and her children. We talked for a while and the lady, Maria, invited us to come by her house sometime. We've had a hard time connecting with her since then, though we've tried on a few occasions.

The day we arrived back in Spain after being in the States for a month, Maria rang our bell and invited us to come over. She had been watching for our car to be in front of our house the whole time we were out of the country. Having already been awake for over 24 hours, we politely declined. She understood, and invited us to come over anytime.

Today, we decided to go by their house to visit. They very graciously invited us in, and we found out that today is their son's birthday. They were planning to have a big party in an hour, and they invited us to attend. We went home and got the kids' swimming suits (they have a pool, and we just live around the corner). It was great fun - they are such a hospitable family - and it was incentive for us to continue to work on our Spanish.

Here is Rachel and some of the children at the party:

Keri and Mathis enjoying the food. They kept bringing out more and more food all evening long.

After dinner, they had a theater set up for the children to watch the movie Bolt.

Finally, a simple pinata. It was a box with streamers coming out the bottom. Each child grabbed a streamer and pulled. This opened the bottom of the box, and the candy fell out. Much quicker and safer than a standard pinata. The man holding the pinata is Javier, the dad.

Trip to Georgia

We had several friends in the Atlanta area we wanted to see, as well as speak at one of our supporting churches. Here are some pictures from the day we spent with the Huggins family.

Rachel's first ever time swinging a ball bat. She wasn't bad!

Little Ava boo.

Abigail and Rachel being silly.

The foursome.

BFF's.

And the Huggins cute new puppy.

We spent the night with some other friends who had this awesome little car bed that was just Bop Bop's size. :)