PAULA!

Here is the second post about the family I am staying with... Paula is the first born child of Rebeca and Sandro and she is generally hilarious and a lot of fun. She is ten years old.

She is the one cheesin' in the middle.. Hahaha

Paula is my translator, my guide through Puigcerda, and my arguing buddy when we have difficulties communicating with Marco.

She LOVES her dog Rocky.

Paula can play the guitar and dance like no body's business. Sometimes she just dances by herself for absolutely no reason. (Which I think is fabulous)

When an annoying group of young Spanish boys were being ridiculous and bothering her about how old I was she promptly responded with cuarenta y dos (42) and when they didn't believe her she knocked it down to treinta (30) and stuck to her guns.

She is a little naughty sometimes but we generally figure out our disagreements quickly. Everything always has to be fair. Every day I hear "Y Marco???!!!" haha I know that is normal but I just think it is funny to hear it in Spanish.

She loves to hug and she give me kisses all the time. (Which is great, as long as she has brushed her teeth)

Paula is awesome at her English lessons. I am really proud of the amount of english she understands and speaks. Right now we are working on her vocabulary and some different verbs.

She is quick to help me with my spanish which has been really great!

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into the family I am staying with! Stay cool, Texas.

Love you guys!

Random

This post is going to be a random post about some thoughts I have had about Spain, the people here, and the general culture... accompanied by some pictures... I have also come to some conclusions about Americans... =) I hope you enjoy....

OMG it´s Christian Ronaldo!!!!

You know you are in Spain when you look up from your breakfast and see a kid decked out in a Real Madrid outfit. He was serious.

I have made a couple of friends here in Spain. Everyone is generally really nice but most of my relationships are pretty shallow because of the language barrier...But I have made a couple of friends who speak pretty fluent English. I exchange English and Spanish lessons with a girl who works at the front deskat the hotel(Gloria) and I have become friends with another girl who works at the reception desk(Nuria). They are both super nice and I am glad that they speak English! They are a huge blessing!
Yesterday I went to the pool with Nuria. We had an awesome time and got to have a great conversation. I will write a post about it soon!

Mmmmmm Chocolate.....

Some things I have noticed about Americans
You know you are an American when you have to train for a 5k...

Now I know a lot of people are going to protest this one and say they could certainly run 3.1 miles with ease but honestly most Americans could not. And what I have observed about the general population of Spain is that they could easily run three to five miles without any problems. This is interesting but useful when you need to go for a run because there are usually a couple of people who are glad to join you on a run.

You know you are an American when you think the hamburger patty should at least be three times larger...."IS this a burger for ANNTTS???"



This picture was taken by Rebeca.. She was laughing at me because I was having difficulty on a hill with the stick shift.. She just laughed and said "I will take a foto for your blog!" lol You know you are an American when you barely fit in your host family's car

You know you are an American when you can't help but laugh a little when you see a guy in capris or leggings.. hehehe I just had a mental picture..

Sorry I dont have a real picture =(

I played soccer the other day and I realized I really stink at it...

I realize that I am in the country that won the world cup in 2010 but yall, seriously, they are good.

Hopefully a couple of those random thoughts made you laugh or maybe you just think I am crazy..Ahh well.

Update!

Things are going really well here in Spain thus far. I have been here for about a month. Sometimes it feels like MUCH longer and sometimes I am surprised at how fast time is passing.

Emotionally I am doing well, I am glad to be here and I am not too homesick. I think I am most homesick for the friends and family I have back home. Yall are so wonderful and encouraging! Thanks for always being there for me and thanks for the emails and gchat conversations! =)

Physically I believe that I am fine, thankfully I have gotten over that cold and I feel a lot better. Unfortunately I have been having some pain in my shins similar to shin splints but I think I am going to be okay. I just haven't been running this week to try to give my body a rest...I went running the other day to test it out and had to stop because I was having weird muscle pain =(. So for now I am taking a break from running, I do not want to have to deal with some sort of weird injury here in Spain. NOTHANKYOU.

I have really enjoyed meeting people and making new friends here in Spain. I just wish I was fluent in Spanish!

I hope everyone is doing well. I am sorry I have not been posting as much, but it is hard to post from another computer..I do not get internet on my computer at the hotel which is suppperrr annoying.

I LOVE you guys and I miss you!

My friend Jenny is here so that has been really fun. She is great to talk to and she helps with the kiddos =)

Remote is not That Thing on Your Couch

The first weekend I was here in Spain I went with the family this very remote restaurant . They have gone to this restaurant for awhile now and are pretty good friends with the owner. To help you understand just how remote this place is I will explain how long it took us to get there... First we drove about forty minutes away from their village towards some mountains. We arrived at the base of some hills and thus began our drive up the mountain which took about twenty minutes. Side story: It was during these twenty minutes that the dog threw up in the back seat (thankfully I wasn´t back there! ha). The poor dog got carsick because of the extensive amounts of turns we were making around the mountain. At the end of our twenty minutes the turns began to get narrower and narrower and the family driving in front of us had to honk every time they went around a curve because they obviously did not want to get hit by a car coming down and the road was too narrow for two. Honestly I do not know what we would have done if a car had come..Drive into the bushes on the side I guess?? We FINALLY arrived and I took a picture of my first view of the place.. =)

Obviously the place is a "fixerupper"..It belonged to his great grandparents and over the years he has gradually been updating different rooms and areas. As you have guessed, I am sure, this place is cash only and as we walked up, Rebeca whispered to me "I thank et es eellagal". Walking around the "restaurant" I couldn´t help but agree with her! And apparently, Sandro once fell through the floor! haha

You cannot help but love this place. It´s setting is absolutely gorgeous and the food was pretty amazing. It is nestled with these other random buildings in something of a village on this little mountain top.

The village where the "restaurant" was located

After a short trek with the kids we came back to the hotel area and I tried to take a little siesta because unfortunately I had caught a cold and my body was very angry with me. Not a bad view though, eh?

The view from our walk! Amazing! I know I have had this on my blog for awhile..This post has been in the works for awhile!

A table set for dinner!
So cute.

Even though I was sick, that day trip was a lot of fun and I am really glad that I was able to go along with the family. I hope to be posting more in the next couple of days. It has been difficult because I cannot seem to get the internet to work on my computer! =(

Thanks for reading... C ya lata!

-Ames

Marco Marco Marco

I am going to make a post about each member of the family that I am staying with and I will start with the youngest, Marco.

Marco has a lot of energy but he is also very sweet. We get along really well and I think he has grown fond of me, partly due to the fact that he is addicted to playing on my iPhone.

Here are some quick facts about Marco:

He is eight years old

He is a beast at wii tennis

He is my perfect match in ping pong

He has two speeds...Incredibly slow and ridiculously fast (the other day he randomly decided that we were going to race home from the hotel, about a 1/4 of a mile distance)

He is a goalie for his hockey team

Marco isn't just about playing games, he is also pretty considerate!

One night last week I was trying to get over a cold and go to sleep but I was having some difficulty because the little girls were being loud and I was sleeping upstairs in the playroom area on a mattress. I was sleeping up there because we have company sleeping in my room. The family had offered a hotel room for me to sleep in but I really didn't mind sleeping upstairs and it's just easier to be closer to the kids. ANYWAYS so Marco is sleeping up there too and he knows that I am sick so he runs and gets me some sort of nasal spray and tells me that it will make me better and then he goes downstairs and told the girls to be quiet because I was trying to sleep! :)

At the end of the day I like to kick back and enjoy a "Fanta Naranja" with this kid. I think he will grow up to be a pretty great guy, as long as I teach him more English and not let him play on my phone as much ;).

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted something. Hope all is well!

Love you guys,

Amy

Seven tips to getting Spanish children to Sleep (These tips may work for other nationalities as well)

Here is a riddle for you.....How many American Nannies does it take to put seven Spanish children to bed?
Is it:
(a) 4
(b) Zero, you need a Spaniard for that stuff!
(c)All you have is one so deal with it.

See blog post for the answer....

Last night I took care of the kids while Sandro and Rebeca went to dinner with some of their friends. They have some friends in town from other parts of Spain and these families have children as well. So not only did I have Marco(8) and Paula(10) but I had: Suzi(8), Inez(9), Martina(5), Rafael "Rafa"(5), and Alejandra(4). Honestly they were all pretty good and did not really give me any trouble at all. The last three, however, are staying at the hotel and thus had to be given special attention if I were to entertain any hope of them going to sleep. At first they were going to be put in Sandro and Rebecca's room and when the parents returned from dinner, they would just be picked up and quickly returned to the hotel. Unfortunately not all things work out like they should and the youngest, Alejandra, got quite upset when I took them upstairs to their room. Obviously that is completely understandable, you have a random English-speaking nanny trying to tell you what to do, you are sleepy and in a house that you are not accustomed to spending a large amount of time in, and now you are being asked to sleep in a random bed???? I quickly took the children back to the living room and had them relax on the couch and thus commenced the seven steps to getting Spanish children to go to sleep...

1. Give them ample warning that bedtime is coming. If possible, I like to give two or three warnings, the first being thirty minutes prior to bedtime the second, ten minutes, and possibly, for the little ones, a third at five minutes prior to bedtime.

2. Help them relax by turning off all stimuli such as televisions and gaming devices. Do not allow them to play with an iPhone or similar object, it will just cause them to stay awake longer. When adjusting the lights, gradually turn off random lights. Do not turn all lights off at once, this will result in immediate panic. I generally leave a couple of dim lights on so that I can see a little and it helps them feel safer.

3. Put on soothing music. I think it is good to choose one song and put it on replay. If the children are young they generally don't notice and I think the repetitiveness helps to relax them. The song I chose for tonight was "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven. Side note, did you know that when you put your iPhone in a cup, it immediately makes the speaker about five times louder? Nifty trick, I know.

4. Give them warm chocolate milk. Not to be confused with hot chocolate. This is "leche con cocao" or milk with nestle instant chocolate milk mix. This little bit of warmth will help the kiddies who aren't sleeping at their regular home, feel a little more relaxed and calmed.

5. Tell the children to lay down and gesture with your hands(because let's be honest they have no idea what "lay down" means), making your hands into a pillow under your head is especially affective.

6. Make sure that when the children ask questions like "cuando mis padres se estar aquí?" you say "no se". This should be fine since that is pretty much all you have said all night. Sometimes it is necessary to ignore questions. In my case it worked beautifully and Rafa went right to sleep. Note: if the child asks a question repeatedly such as: "puedo llamar a mis padres" go ahead and let them call their mother or father, this might help you get them to sleep faster.

7. At this point if the kids aren't asleep yet, lay down on the floor by them and don't make any movements, it should take five to ten minutes for the kids to fall soundly asleep and then you will be free to do as you please.

In the event that one child wakes up, quickly comfort them and return them to their area of the couch, being as quiet as possible..Because if they all wake up, you are basically screwed.

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into what I did last night. Have a wonderful day! =)

~Ames

What does it Mean When you Dream in Spanish?

Last night I dreamt in Spanish. I cannot quite remember what it was about but I do remember only being able to speak in Spanish. I couldn't really understand what everyone was saying.It was a pretty confusing dream considering that I didn't have a clue about what was going on, but that has pretty much been the theme of this whole trip.

All day every day I am surrounded by Spanish and I really think that I am learning a lot but that certainly doesn't make it any easier. Rebeca and I speak to each other in English/Spanish. I try to use as much Spanish with her as possible and she usually ends up correcting me and then we switch to English and then we go back to Spanish...Etc etc etc.. She has been a great resource and we like to laugh at each other's pronunciation of different English and Spanish words. Paula(1o years old) talks to me in as much English as possible and when she uses Spanish she tries to go really slowly because she knows I will end up just saying "Que?" or "uhhhhh". Marco(8 years old) doesn't know much English so when he talks to me, it is completely in Spanish. He doesn't slow down for one second (in word or deed). haha!

Along with Rebeca there are other people that have helped me with my Spanish, or encouraged me with it. Some of Rebeca's friends help me with it and one of her friends, Conchita, told me that she is just going to talk to me in Spanish while she is here for this week. So obviously you shouldn't be surprised that I was dreaming in Spanish! haha

Another person that has helped me with my Spanish is a friend of Rebeca and Sandro's, Marc. He owns a coffee shop in the village and I went in to say hi and grab a coffee the other day and ended up receiving a mini Spanish lesson! He first gave me a magazine and said "read, it will help you". He knows a fair amount of English, which helps with his teaching! I took some pictures of the notes he made for me while I was having my coffee.

In this note we are working on when to lisp with a "C". Can you guess which ones you are supposed to lisp? :)

I was explaining my siblings to him so he told me how to do it in Spanish....

And then we worked on the "to be" verbs...:)

He was so nice to help me and it has encouraged me to crack open my Spanish textbook and work on my verbs....

I hope everyone is having a lovely day! Please pray for me, I have a cold and I am thankfully getting some rest but I want to be back to 100% ASAP.

Love you guys!