What's new!

We are much busier this school year than last year when we moved here.  I started working during the day and in addition to the weekly Spanish classes, the kids are each taking extracurricular classes.  We feel like this will help them with their Spanish, help them get to know other kids and give them something to do in their very long afternoons.

Kamree

Kamree's classes are really cheap so she is taking artistic gymnastics twice a week and acrobatics twice a week at the town's sports complex and she loves them both.  

I couldn't get pictures of her gymnastics class since they don't allow anyone to watch but here is a picture of her in her acrobatics class. (not the best picture since I took it with my phone from really far away)  Kamree is up on the rope on the right.  She is with the 4-5 yr olds and she gets really bored since they stand in line most of the class time.    There is a mom's acrobatics class in the center  and then a 6-7 year old class on the left.  The teachers wanted to move her to the older kids class but she refused to go without her "girl" teacher in the blue shirt. 

Mason

Both Mason and Morgan are in "futbol" and have practice twice a week and games every weekend.

Not sure who thought white shorts were a good idea.  At least all the fields are turf and not grass.  Mason's team won this game but lost the week before.  The kids here are amazing at ball control and kicking.  We've been told they get their first soccer ball as a baby and practically sleep with it from their infancy. 

 Morgan

Morgan's team can't get enough players so they always have to borrow a couple from Mason's team.  His team is good but the teams they have played have been amazing.  This picture was taken at our team's goal side but it was one of the few times we could even get close enough to attempt a goal.

Futbol/Soccer is obviously more serious here than in the US.  The teams play for 9 months straight instead of just one season, they supply uniforms, practice uniforms, warm-up uniforms, shared water bottles etc.  However, as serious as it is here very few families go to watch the games and when Mason's are in our town most parents stand behind the fence of the field and just talk to each other. We very rarely hear shouting from the side.  Morgan's games are always in a town 15 minutes away and so far we have been the only family watching with just a handful of other parents for both teams. 

  Kaiya

After many years of waiting, Kaiya is finally taking flute at the town's music school.  Her flute lessons are really expensive and she is required to take an additional group music class which is an additional hour.

Mum

I have started working at the school as an English Assistant for the first grade.  I wasn't looking for a job but the vice principal asked, nearly begging, if I would since they were short 2 English Assistants.

  There are 6 of us from the US helping out with the English teachers to help the kids learn correct English. I mostly just walk around the classroom helping the kids like I did as a volunteer but here I get paid for it.  I also like that I get to see my kids at school.    They learn British English and the British ways of spelling words (ie. I am my kids' "mum" not mom) so I am learning a lot too.  I also help the English PE teacher.  I am supposed to correct his(their) grammar when he says things incorrectly but since I am still new I haven't tackled that skill yet.  I also did not say anything when he paired the kids up and told them to massage each other's heads to help them relax.  This was the day after an announcement that lice was going around the school.  I thought shoulders would have been a little more appropriate and less messy. 

 

Downtown Madrid

Saturday after Morgan's futbol game we went into Madrid for another play date and thought it was odd that the normally clean city .....

...was covered with trash everywhere we looked.  We assumed there must have just been a strong wind that scattered it, but we soon noticed that next to all the garbage cans were piles of garbage that hadn't blown away.  (It was a lot worse than this picture shows but I was taking the pictures while we were driving)

 (This wasn't the best example either) We were later informed that the garbage men had been on strike for 2 weeks.  Apparently the garbage men are dumping the garbage cans out on the sidewalks instead of dumping them into their trucks.

We met at a park and since it was quite cold we played some "futbol" to warm up.  By the end of the game all coats and jackets had been shed. 

When it began to rain we walked over to this Naval museum full of parts of old ships, ship replicas, paintings, uniforms, cannons, swords, guns, loot and other artifacts.

Spain was one of the leading naval powers in the Golden Age of Sail. It owned much of the New World and scattered colonies around the globe.  It protected its interests with a large fleet of warships