Wednesday, September 28, 2005

El Escorial

I love random changes.

For example, when I arrived home after lunch on Monday I received a call from my employer Alicia. She told me to get my things... that the chauffer was coming to get me. I was thinking -- dinner, or maybe overnight. But no. She meant for good. So I had 1 hour to pack all my stuff! Thankfully, I knew my stay in Marta´s house would be short-term, so I hadn´t really unpacked.

The best part is that the house still isn´t ready (apparently they painted the whole thing the wrong color and therefore have to repaint it!), so we are staying at Grandma´s house in El Escorial. It´s far away from, well, everything. And I´ll be living out of my suitcase for about another 3 weeks. However, let´s look at the brightside... the views from the house are amazing! At night, you can see the lights from the city, and they tell me that on the weekends they light up the big Palace/Monastery for which the town is named.

In other news, I like the family. Honestly, I think Antonio, the chauffer, is my favorite, but he doesn´t live with us. Then there´s Alina, she´s Romanian. She´s 26 or 27 and has been with the family for 2 years, cooking, cleaning, bathing children, etc. Speaks Spanish almost perfectly, and we enjoy sitting on the porch at night, talking. Grandma, Maria (I think?) is a piece of work. I´ll have to think how to describe her better for next time. Alicia, the mom, is nice, but she´s been feeling a little under the weather lately, and we really haven´t spent that much time together.

As for the girls. Alejandra (9) is very much like me. Loves to read, loves to practice her English and does quite well with it, and is very mature for her age. Alicia (6) is a wild woman. She understands my English, but almost always prefers to answer in Spanish. She likes to run around the house, tearing things apart. Almudena (almost 3) is quite the copy of Alicia. One minute, she´s as sweet as can be. The next... a holy nightmare. Also understands me, but won´t answer.

Today, I have the priviledge (sp?) of writing you from the house of my friend Miriam. Since I had brought a bunch of stuff for her and her family from the States (mostly from Jessica!), her mom invited me over to lunch today. The 3 of us girls ate, and then her brother Pablo and her dad came home and they ate. She has since gone back to work, but her parents said they didn´t mind if I stayed a rato (while) to fill you guys in on what´s going on.

Once I leave here, I´m going to a hotel until Friday to have my orientation for my job (the one that got me here in the first place!).

Alright, I´ll leave you in peace to go to whatever it is that you should be doing. Thanks for reading! Oh yeah, and I put up a few pictures, so check out the link on the bottom that says "read my profile" and look for the EspaƱa album.

Soli Deo Gloria...

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