Los Últimos Días.. helado a medianoche, haciendo las fundas y probando la morcilla. Días 41 y 42 (y hoy, día 43) de mi #45diasdeverano

Don't worry, the whole post isn't in Spanish - just the title!

I haven't had as much time to write recently as the days have been full (yet restful, hurrah!) On Wednesday we went to León for the afternoon, where Betsy and I enjoyed yet more Tapas. I have been told my a few people that I need to try Morcilla, as it's typical Spanish food and a typical Tapas choice. Morcilla, for those of you who don't know, is blood (and vairus other parts of a pig). The time we went for tapas I didn't even consider trying it and flat out said 'no'. But Betsy convinced me to at least try it while I am here. And so, I have to admit here, I did. Needless to say, it was gross. And just the thought of knowing what it was made from was enough to make me dislike it. It's appearance didn't do much to help either:

La Morcilla. Bleugh.

On the way back, we all went via the new church in León, which is in the process of being built. We had a tour of what is currently there and were updated on how the process is going. They have a number of supporting churches in the US who are helping to fund the building and have even had sponsors from the Catholic church in the city (who apparently wanted to be seen to be a part of it, because it's been such a huge talking point in the city!)

The baptism tank.

The work is still very much underway. They think it will take another year to complete.

This is upstairs - the rooms for the kids and youth.

The group wandering round having a look.

Manuel (the guy in the middle, in the hat, he is one of the elders of the church) explaining the process, the plans, and after this we prayed together for it all.

That night, Betsy and I went late night exploring (originally to find somewhere that sold ice cream but we ended up giving up and simply walking and exploring!) We managed to find a perfect spot where the village lights were hidden by trees and we could see multitudes of stars and  constellations. I said, when we were there, that we should have taken some blankets and hot chocolate! But we weren't there for too long and said perhaps tomorrow night! We walked far enough to find the edge of the village though which I found quite exciting (admittedly, this was not far as the village is quite tiny!)

Looking a bit wild but wanted a picture with the sign at the end of the village!

But while we were taking pictures, creatures started moving in the darkness of the bushes. Perhaps snakes, perhaps frogs, but creatures making usual noises and even the smallest of innocent little beings can sound scary in the dark of night out of reach of help. So we made our way back fairly rapidly!

Yesterday, we spent an hour at a market in Valencia don Juan (the same town that our big concert was in a few weeks back). It was heaving with people, very hot and smelled strongly of fish. It wasn't one of my favourite experiences..

Antique-looking objects

Fruit and veg looking fresh and tasty (loads better than the fish stall!)

But later, while some families went to the water park (weather was much better yesterday!), some of the ladies were doing crafts and being creative down in the basement, so despite being in swimming costumes ready to go, we changed our plans and Betsy and I got creative instead! Here were some of our finished products:

Not quite finished - Betsy midway through making her 'leather-style' case.

Mine :) Rosa y amarillo con los corazones.

Another example from one of the women there! I love the big buttons but there weren't many left of the same colour.

Again, another - with a mariposa (butterfly)

I decided to make another for my notebook, with buttons!

Betsy's first one, it inspired me to make some too!

I have spent a lot more time with Betsy again this week, and it has been really good getting to know her a lot better (and talking about loads more than food, weather and whether I'm happy haha). We are two of only very few here without their families, so have ended up spending lots of time together, exploring, being each others family and fumbling our way through deeper conversations in Spanglish. She wrote me a beautiful letter this morning, which she left on my bed. In her broken English, she wrote down some of the experiences we've had, some of her hilarious English words and phrases, her thanks for various things and generally lovely words. I wrote her back this morning too, in Spanish of course and left the little letter wrapped in some Union Jack ribbon that I brought with me for gifts! It didn't take me long to write a page or so, which just shows me how much I have advanced in the past four weeks, in vocabulary of course but mostly in confidence in the language! I don't think I would have really known where to start this time in July!

Oh and last night, we managed to find ice cream after La Noche de Talentos! Finally!!

Helado a medianoche (ice cream at midnight!)

This afternoon, I didn't have enough time after lunch to say goodbye to everyone so I ended up addressing the whole camp while they finished there food and said a few words of thanks and apologies that I couldn't say goodbye to everyone individually. Before I left as well, I spoke with Laura on the phone (the girl who's house I am now at!) to confirm travel details and make plans for tonight. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but actually, it was my very first phone call in Spanish :) and I was reeeally nervous about using the phone but it was actually really fine! She spoke very slowly for me but it was way easier than I thought it would be! Hurrah!
Juanma drove me to the station in León. We left with like 38 minutes to get there, and it is about a 25minute drive. Ok, not exactly necessary to panic but more rushed that i would have liked. Of course, the only time in my four weeks here that I experience traffic is the journey to the station with not much time to spare.. A lot of praying occurred. But it was all OK in the end and I got on the coach! Actually, the journey with Juanma was really cool because he was the first person who I met in Spain, he picked me up from the Airport on my first day here. Our first conversation on the drive to the camp was almost totally in English. On our drive to the station, for him to drop me off on my penultimate day here, our conversation was almost entirely in Spanish! Woo!! And it was really comfortable. We both commented on how it is a sign of how much I have learnt these past few weeks!

My bus journey to Bilbao was about a 4.5 hours. It wasn't much like the buses I have previously caught here - more like a near-luxury coach to be honest, with black and gold seat, far-reclining chairs and loads of room. Very nice!
And I am now here in Bilbao, lush and green (it was raining when I arrived - preparing me for my return to England I think!) And here I will spend the night and the first part of tomorrow exploring Bilbao with Laura (who I met at the Music camp and who speaks only a little English!) before my flight back to England tomorrow evening...
Oh wow. #45daysofsummer nearly done! Mañana, England here I come!

(I have also updated my post of Day 39 with a picture of Josué and the snake at the lake (that wasn't meant to rhyme!) for those who are interested to see it..)

Day 31. La Iglesia Española. #45daysofsummer

This morning we drove about 10 minutes to church. This is pretty normal, I think. The service seemed pretty full to me, at least for a small evangelical church in León, but Bianca said that because most people go away for Summer, it was pretty empty today.
The evangelical church doesn't seem to be that big here in Spain yet, growing definitely, but still small... A lot of the youth I've met over the past couple of weeks come from more traditional backgrounds and the camps are a really good place for them to come together with other young people in a more contemporary environment that relates to them more and they are then trying to make a difference in their home culture. It's exciting to see!
The service was good though. Basic, but good and it was really interesting to see church done in a different culture! We sang, we prayed, we took communion, we listened to a message and were challenged to respond to God's call when we hear it. I understood a fair bit, not all, but enough. And I'm encouraged that even in another language, amongst family in Christ, I am still at home.

I've been surprised by how many Americans are here. I met two in church this morning, Nancy and Steven at the camp last week, and more again tonight. Either retired, or teaching, or in ministry and leading churches. You can hear their accent from a mile off, even when they're talking Spanish! It's been lovely to meet a few of them and hear their stories, following God's call to come here and build His church.

Tonight, we drove almost an hour to church. This is less normal I think! But an American couple who have been in Spain for 15 years planting churches, have been recently going to the church in León and planted a church in Astorga in May. Some of the young people travel out there on a Sunday evening to support it as its still such a baby church with only about 25 people. It was quite a lot more modern in style than this morning's service, and then we played games after with the youth, and ate home made cake and freshly popped popcorn. I met a couple more Americans, and a lady from Scotland who married a Spanish guy in 1998 and they now have 3 kids and are living in the mountains near León as she teaches in a Bilingual primary school in a deprived area. I got to chat with her about Teach First for a while as well!

Before the evening service, we spent an hour or so looking around the city and visited Gaudi's palace. These are my photos from the day - Bianca's mom (Michaela) got better ones and is going to send them to me so I will update this post with better pictures at a later time! :)

Lol at Betsy's fake smile.

Some arches.

Gaudi's palace.

Us and Gaudi's palace.

Mistake photo but think it's quite artistic!

Betsy being a statue.

Yesterday, I went for a nice evening walk with Michaela, around the neighbourhood and by the river. I only took a couple of pictures - of the lovely sunset, of me standing by part of the San Salvador walk and of the big shopping centre that is really close to their house.

It's been a chilled couple of days and I've slept quite a lot, but I'm really, really tired at the moment. 2 weeks in and I'm still not used to the late nights and I think my body is recovering from three full-on weeks of travel, high-energy activities, new people, other languages... We had dinner at 10:30 tonight, and now we're about to watch God's Not Dead in Latin American Spanish.. Mi cerebro esta frito!

"It's been a long, hard year." Day 1 #45daysofsummer

In staff meeting after the kids went home early today, Tom uttered his traditional line (that I'm sure has been rightfully recited in every end-of-year meeting since he has been Principal there): Well folks, it's been a long, hard year.

And yes it has, in many ways. But in many others, it seems to have flown by and been so much fun that I hardly recognised the hard bits, or got over them pretty quickly.
I am overwhelmingly thankful to work in such a united team of colleagues, who are passionate about educating young people and helping them become confident, well-rounded citizens. If I haven't said that enough in my recent posts, there I said it again. Love my job!!

And so, here begin my summer holidays. 6 weeks of adventure. And whilst I (naturally!) have an array of plans and hopes for these next few weeks, I know that there will be surprises and unexpected challenges along the way, and God has so much more in store for me than I could ask or imagine or plan for myself! Bring it on!!!

Anyway, why not ease in the holidays gently, at the Lighthouse with the people I've spent the most time with this year, and kick the break off in style in the beer garden with a pint of coke?!

Then on to more time in the sunshine, on the hottest day of the year so far (I think?!) playing catch and cricket, eating ice cream and getting sun burn with the Allen family! Always a joy :)

And to end Day 1, a few of us from Earls feasted at Frankie and Benny's together before my epic loss at Hollywood Bowl. I did, however, manage to score and strike and a spare in between all my other goes when I pretty much threw the ball straight to the gutter... I never have said bowling was a strength of mine. This evening confirmed that it certainly is not. I hope I served to make everyone else feel rather good about their bowling skills, and well done Miss Banno for winning by miles!

So, after a long year of hard work, here's to a long summer of rest and play. #45daysofsummer

A Change is as good as a holiday

My friend's mother always used say 'a change is as good as a holiday'. She had 10 kids mind you, which is probably why she couldn't go on holiday much and would therefore re-decorate the house or move furniture around!

Thus my blog has changed looks again. Because I get bored easily and like to see something fresh.

Then again, I am going on holiday on Wednesday.

I actually can not wait to spend 7 days in Madrid, enjoying the language, the food the culture, opportunity to celebrate Easter in a new place and simply to be in another country for a while.

So yes, a change is indeed as good as a holiday. But it's nice to get a holiday as well!

Photos to come.

Toodles.