Day 1

It´s 10:00 pm and we are just back in the house after our first day. I´m trying to type on a Spanish computer, and the keyboard is arranged differently, so if you see lots of typos, that might be why! This morning we began the English camp for children. My job is to entertain the mothers who want to wait for the children, so I brought lots of quilting materials (Thanks to my mom, who helped come up with the projects).  Today there were four people who stayed to work with me. They loved the quilting idea, and we chatted while we worked. It was a pleasant morning, as I love to do handwork anyway. One of the parents is an American man who has lived in Spain since he was 16 years old! He and his wife both stayed. He said the quilting reminded him of his childhood in Kentucky.  Two others stayed. They were all fascinated with the rotary cutter and quilting mat--apparently those aren´t common around here. They explained to me that in this city, the weather is so pleasant that people spend most of their free time outside walking, visiting, being neighborly, and that´s why not many people know how to do hand work like quilting or other stitchery.
It truly is a beautiful city built on the mountainside. We walked home from the English class this evening and it was a lovely walk.

The evening class began tonight for teens and adults. There are three classes: beginners, intermediate, and advanced. Carla Hanson teaches the beginners, I teach the intermediates, and another American named Sara teaches the advanced. We run two back-to-back sessions every night from 5:15 to 9:00. First we teach a session for about an hour, then the students go to conversation with the other Americans for about a half hour. When the second group comes in, they begin with conversation before we teach the second session for another hour. This way the teachers get a break between sessions and the Americans who come in for conversation don´t have to wait around for a class to end. Tonight Sara and I went out for ice cream during the break at a place Luke mentioned last year, Albino´s.  The owner of this particular store is a member of the church that sponsors English Camp, and when he figured out who we were, he gave us free ice cream!
My family is as sweet as can be. They are very concerned with my comfort, almost to the point that I worry about messing up their schedule. I have my own room with a big window floor to ceiling, which I left open all night last night and not a single bug bothered me! Imagine! If I hadn´t been so tired last night, I would have liked to stay up for the big soccer game for the European cup between Spain and Italy. The whole city was partying, but I was so tired that I couldn´t hold my eyes open. I feel asleep immediately only to be awakened by fireworks and screaming. Apparently every time Spain scored, they set off fireworks. So I ended up putting earplugs in my ears and slept soundly. Someday I´m going to be sorry to say that I was in Spain for the big game and didn´t take part in any of the festivities, but, well, jet lag kind of took over and didn´t really give me an option. It´s been a good day. My hostess and her daughter are wonderful, the city is beautiful, the English camp team is a great group of servants, and I am glad the Lord saw fit to send me here now.