Something Old and Something New

What's new in your world?  Here’s what’s new and not so new in ours..

NOT NEW – RAIN RAIN GO AWAY!

     Winter in rainy Galicia is about the same as winter in Wisconsin: long and dreary. Perhaps we shouldn’t make such a comparison since it is 7pm here now and it’s still light out, but still cloudy and rainy of course!  My teacher told me today that Galicia is experiencing record-breaking rainfall this year.  This doesn’t come as a surprise since there hasn’t been a day without rain for 31 days.  I think that the sun is the biggest trickster of all here.  It loves to shine so beautifully and brightly for only a few minutes and then disappear quickly into the clouds that literally come out of nowhere.  Then it suddenly begins to pour. 

 

We have to walk a bit to get to our grocery store and as you can see, it’s nearly impossible to avoid a rainy grocery trip.  While Robin was teaching, I ventured out into the mist to get groceries.  Soon after I left the grocery store, it started raining cats and dogs.  Wouldn’t you know it?  A kind Galician man, I’m guessing in his early 70s, helped me carry my groceries all the way home.  

     Since we live right on the ocean facing west, we don’t have any buildings blocking our precious sunlight.  So when the sun suddenly comes beaming in through our window, we instantly jump off the sofa, put on our running shoes, and sprint outside.  Last time, we were lucky enough to run for about three precious minutes without rain pouring down our faces.  We didn’t think we would become one of the tough Galician runners we often see running through monsoon-like conditions, but we’re getting close. Crazy Robin has even been spotted doing pull-ups in the rain.  Let’s see if we crazy Americans make it into the newspaper again…

NEW – GO SEAHAWKS!

Our American friends are from Seattle so we had to watch the Super Bowl live last night! The Super Bowl started at 12:30 a.m. here.  Watching the Super Bowl and the awesome Green Bay commercial.  We were like, “Hey! I recognize that neighborhood.”  Good ole’ Green Bay!

NOT NEW – School is, well, Different

     Robin and I are still figuring out our role in the kind of chaotic Spanish education system.  I happen to love arts and crafts, but I’m not a fan of a stress-filled arts and crafts class.  Maybe it’s the American individuality in me, but I think that all children, and all people for that matter, are creative in their own way and my goodness arts and crafts should be the one place where they shouldn’t be scolded.  It’s difficult to watch uncoordinated fourth grade boys get yelled at for not cutting tissue paper out perfectly (if that’s even a thing).  Our role in arts and crafts is basically to monitor the students’ creativity and make sure that they are completing their individual drawings according to the very specific one-size-fits-all way that each child should draw.  I just can’t help but imagine a fourth grade Robin Wabalickis sitting in a Spanish arts and crafts classroom.  He would be a prime candidate to be made an example of.  “Look at Robin’s drawing of a dog.  It’s quite a disaster.”  “Robin, you must learn to focus!” Let’s just say the international day of peace (which is a big deal at both of our schools) was perhaps the most stressful arts and crafts class yet.  A grand total of two children shed tears.  :(

It's not all sad...we baked cookies to learn different cooking vocabulary words :)

On a funny note, I had to correct the sixth grader’s pen-pal letters to 4^th graders in St. Louis.  This is how some of the students chose to describe themselves:

• “I’m not lazy, crazy, or stupid.” – Student 1
• “I’m short, young, and wise.” – Student 2
• “ I’m short and strong.  I’m shy and polite.” – Student 3

NEW – Unprocessed Week

My birthday cake....not part of unprocessed week

One of our New Year’s Resolutions is to eat healthier so we tried to eat unprocessed food for one week.  Even in Spain, it’s pretty difficult to do.  As you can see, we cheated a little with the oat bread. 

 

homemade minestrone soup and delicious cheat bread.  Basically, we had a lot of soup for unprocessed week.

 

Strawberries and kiwi in greek yogurt makes for a delicious dessert.  We were gifted over 20 lemons, so we made homemade lemon olive oil salad dressing.  I wish we had lemon trees in Wisconsin!

NEW – Going to Italy (birthplace of pesto and focaccia bread to be exact)

We’re planning to escape the rain for one last vacation.  Destination: ITALY!  It’s so hard to decide where to go in Italy, but Cinque Terre tops the list.  It’s made up of five little villages and of course like practically all of Europe, it’s declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We’ve read that the best pesto and foccaccia bread in the world can be found here.  Now if only they allow us to bring some pesto back on the plane...

This view + focaccia bread + pesto = one happy Alyssa (and hopefully Robin too!)