Tuesday, May 09, 2006

family time!

My goodness, my goodness. It has been a looong time. Sorry about that. Life has been absolutely CRAZY for about the last month -- in a very good way, don't get me wrong -- but unfortunately it hasn't left much time for things like emailing and blog or picture updating.

Quite certainly there is NO way I can do justice to these last few weeks, primarily because I was not blessed with enough patience to sit down and thoroughly describe 4 weeks of (almost) vacation in one sitting. The good news is, I suppose that very few of you were blessed with the patience to read it all anyway, so I kinda get off the hook. Anyway... on with the story.

It all began on Palm Sunday (which happened to be April 9, to admit just how long it has been) when my family (i.e. dad, mom and sister since brother had exam prep) arrived in Madrid. We (+ boyfriend)left the following day for Barcelona and spent the week there. We stayed in quite a nice hotel, which was fun. We walked a lot, saw quite a bit of the city and sampled lots of restaurants, but the best part was just being together. A few highlights: the bike tour through the city, Gaudí day (we saw the Sagrada Familia cathedral, Parque Güell and Casa Milá, all designed by Antonio Gaudí... look him up, he's interesting), and our hike/tour through the mountain village of Rupit (which sits about 1.5 hours outside of the city... it was gorgeous and the meal we ate there was by far the best!).

Upon returning to Madrid on Saturday, we were swept away to Barcience to show my parents where the house will be, and at the same time for us to see the progress on the neighborhood. It's slow going, but some changes can be noticed. Keep an eye out for new photos in the "Barcience" album. This trip was followed by a delightful dinner and conversation at Pastor Hanna's house. Easter Sunday my family and I spent at church, Monday we putzed about the city, and Tuesday my sister came to work with me while my parents toured the city on their own. Wednesday am early, Janelle and Dad headed back to the States.

Mom and I spent the next 2 nights at Isaac's house (she came to work with me on Thursday... remind me to tell you how we got locked in) and had a great time just hanging out with his family and doing a bit of shopping.

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait at least another day for the continuation of this saga, because between slow internet and a phone call, I've spent over 1.5 hours writing this, and I'm really tired.

Soli Deo Gloria...