Eat, sleep, drink....Spanish

Just an update about our language learning. We are doing exactly as the title implies! Our only job right now is to learn the language. We get up in the morning and Ian goes to class then when he gets home we change duties and I go for my lesson. When I get home it is time to get dinner ready and then it is girls in the shower, in the bed and we hit the books. I think we are doing pretty well. Ian has had a difficult time in his class- not with the learning, but how slowly the class moves. He is in with 2 Koreans and a girl from Finland. Ian has some Spanish already and so he is ready to move on after being reminded of some things and the rest of the class is not. My teacher moves at my pace, so as I understand things she moves forward. It is frustrating for Ian because I learn more in 2 hours a day than he does in a few days. He still knows more from previous exposure but is so ready to move on to new things. 

It has been super rainy this week, but the sun is supposed to be out this weekend. The temps are still in the high 50's to low 60's BUT we may be getting as high as 68 on Friday and Saturday. We are hoping to get to spend some time at the beach with the girls playing in the sand. Other than that not too much to report.

Thanks for your continued support- oh, and feel free to comment so we know you've been by!

With joy,

KB

PS-  I drove ALL BY MYSELF last night! Yeah for me:)

For Real!

I have been forgetting to tell everyone that the Mullett and Mohawk are the official haircuts in the Basque Country....and that isn't just for men!

What's cookin'

 I have been cooking like crazy now that I have a kitchen. The girls are eating like teenaged boys and are adapting well to Spanish food. Here are some examples of things we are enjoying..

This is heaven in a cup. It is SUPER thick and tastes like a cross between brownie batter and chocolate pudding. Let's just say it is so good and soooo dangerous!

They eat a little afternoon snack here called "tapas" or "pintxos" in basque. It is like a pre- dinner meal, or perhaps an appetizer. It is usually eaten around 6 0r 7 and then dinner sometime later. We enjoy them so much that I have been making Ian pintxos style sammies for a meal. Here is his favorite. 

The basics are a sweet, tiny, po-boy style bread with melted Havarti cheese, 2 slices of chorizo, and Jamon curdado (cured ham), and some sauted green pepper. The green pepper looks a little different than the bell pepper we are used to . It is long and doesn't have any seeds and has a stronger flavor. We really like it:)

Next, you put a fried egg on top of that, preferably over medium.

This is what you get!!

This is Ian's favorite part...when the egg yoke bursts and gets the bread all wet and yummy!

We have also made our first gumbo. With all of the pork products in this city there isn't any smoked sausage. We opted for some chorizo and had a wonderful result. 

Can't wait for you to come and visit and try some new things with us!!

Nanny Update!

So the Lord has definitely answered our prayers!! We found a girl, she is actually a young woman. Her name is Barbara and she is 26 and he dad is the pastor at one of the evangelical churches here. He mom was actually converted by American M's many years ago and she loves what we are doing here. Barbara has been living in Philly working on her English (yippie she speaks English!) and will be back here next month before starting her masters in Music Ed. next fall. We are just so excited so have home come be with the girls. I am hoping that she will be able to teach them some Spanish. I told her mom that I didn't necessarily want her to speak English to the girls, but that I was super happy that she would be able to understand them. Thanks be to God who gives immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine!

Since she can't start until mid May I am going to be working with a private tutor and then will join Ian in the classroom as soon as Barbara starts. 

Thanks for all of your prayers!!

Pictures!!

View from our apartment.

Girls sitting on the terrace in the master BR

Basque country side-absolutely breathtaking.

Typical looking street

Beach at Getxo

And the skies went dark

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. We have had a lot going on. We did not have much luck finding a furnished apartment near our school, so we have been staying in hotels. When we first arrived in Spain, we were staying at the High Tech Hotel in the city of Getxo. It looks fancy, but apparently it had the best price in Greater Bilbao for a family room, and the quarters were pretty tight. Once we got some transportation, we decided to move to a Basque house (kind of like a bed-and-breakfast) called Bisalde in Bakia for a few days so that we would have a little bit more room. Of course there was no internet there, so we were not able to post any updates.

But the days of being vagabonds is over. Yesterday we got into a great apartment in Portugalete. It has really been a relief to finally have a place of our own. Today we spent the whole day just hanging around the place, except for the hour we spent on Katie's first driving excursion on European roads (I don't know if it was more stressful for the driver or the passengers; I will let her tell about it). Bianca, Eliana, and Giada are excited to have a place to call home again. Giada even said she that she doesn't live in the "helltel" any more. I promise she came up with that on her own, and did not pick it up from her parents.

We have a few things about which you can pray. I am leaving Saturday morning for New Orleans to pick up or visas (we are approved!), but I will be there for several days, and Katie will be here with the girls by herself. We also start language school on April 20, and we have not yet secured childcare. Pray that we will get that settled soon. We will post more and maybe even some pictures later.

And so it begins!

We arrived in Bilbao, Spain, earlier today. The children did great with all the traveling. They did really well on the all night flight from Atlanta to Paris. We only had one mishap, and that was when Eliana got a little bit motion sick and decided to throw up shortly after landing in Paris. But after all, what is travel without a little bit of vomit! As a result, everyone had Dramamine for the final leg of our trip.

We spent that afternoon with some of our team members who are already here, and it was great to get to talk to them face-to-face after having only communicated with them via email, phone, or Skype for nearly a year. I anticipate great things in our work together.

We don't have an apartment yet, so we are staying in a hotel right on the coast (apparently it had the best rate for a family room in the city). This evening I was able to watch people walking along the boardwalk that runs along the coast while waves from the Bay of Biscay broke along the shore. It was the first time I had the opportunity to pray for these people while living amongst them rather than from afar. God is good. May he bless our work here.