A Treasure Hunt

The hardest part of teaching overseas for me has been... no yard sales! I never realized how much I relied on cheap junk to stock my classroom and project cabinets. It was so easy to follow a couple of signs on the way to wherever I was going on a Saturday morning, gathering books, craft supplies, and all sorts of goodies with my can of pocket change. C'est la vie.
Well, Brian's parents will be visiting us the first part of November and they've offered to fill their extra suitcases with anything we need, and as I was thinking about what size winter pajamas to get for the kids, it occurred to me that they'll be plenty of room for some good junk!
Therefore I am listing some things that I would love to have for my class and if you are willing to hunt for them during October at yard sales, discount stores, or with all those Autumn Michael's coupons you'll be getting... just get them to Rex and Diane to pack for their trip. Thanks!

book and cassette sets
rubber stamps (alphabet letters, words, pictures, etc.)
stickers
stationary
cancelled postage stamps
restaurant or take-out menus

Knitting

Corrie has been after me (Andrea) to teach her how to knit. The extent of my knitting knowledge prior to two weeks ago, however, amounted to a handful of fond childhood memories watching my great grandmother knitting, and of course the experience of how those hand-made afghans kept me warm in bed, roofed forts, curtained stages, etc. So, I had a friend visiting the States pick up a book for us about how to teach a child to knit figuring it must be able to teach a grown up, too, right? We visited a yarn store in Madrid, buying the items we need to make two scarves- one for Corrie, and one for her doll. The project and the colors being selected by Corrie. I opened the book, followed the pictures, and voila! two weeks later we have half a scarf. (I wasn't sure about the endeavor when I started, but it gets easier as you go.) Corrie is a good little knitter, though it's beyond her to do on her own as yet. She'll knit half a dozen stiches at a time and then hand it back to me. In fact, I was sitting on the couch relaxing the other day after school and she reprimanded me: "Why are you just sitting there, Mom? Why aren't you knitting on my scarf?" What a slave driver! It's been a fun project, though. She determines what color comes next in the pattern, and has been really interested in how I change the yarn colors, etc. And it gives me something to do in the evenings while Brian and I read Lord Peter Wimsey. So, who knows, perhaps you'll find a pair of hand-knit socks from the Jackson ladies under your Christmas tree this winter!

Falcons

Last week were the Camarma Fiestas, which includes activities for kids, the Camarma bull-run, fireworks, etc. We only attended a few events, but we did make sure to see the falcons. In the nearby fields, falconers showed off their falcons and tricks. Corrie drew a "falcon" on a piece of paper and taped it to a stick before we left home, parading it there, back, and around for all to see. What the locals thought of the weird American showing off her bird drawing, I don't know. Looked more like an ostrich, really. But the kids had fun and now Ransom thinks that falcons are "so cool."

Challah

Andrea had the day off today. We got to hang out at home and do chores. Andrea wins the prize for "most productive." Take a look at these babies:

It's Jewish braided bread, called Challah (you have to hack up some phlegm to pronounce it correctly). Here's the recipe for any of you with the chutzpah to try it.

(And yes, those kitchen walls are chocolate brown, orange, and creme. Don't get jealous.)

Girl Day/Boy Day

There was no school last Thursday, so the Jackson girls went to a Museum with Miss McGraw (4th-5th Grade Teacher) and Miss Pi (1st Grade Teacher). The Thyssen Museum in Madrid has a special exhibit featuring portraits from the last 2 months of Van Gogh's life. Corrie and Andrea are fans of impressionism ever since Corrie's art class. Therefore, the Jackson boys stayed home and had a "boy day," which means wrestling, pizza-making, and 3 hours of "Rescue Ranger" cartoons.

The girls on their outing:

...and the boys:

Reading

Corrie has really been into The Boxcar Children. I think she is now on book #12 in the series. She loves the mystery and suspnse of all those new adventures that Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny find themselves in. Fortunatley there are like, six-hundred-million left in the series, so she will stay busy for a while. Ransom, on the other hand, is in love with just one particular book at the moment: The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food. He doesn't seem to get the point that too much junk food is a bad thing. He just loves to hear you tell him about how Brother and Sister Bear get to eat delicious treats like Choco-Chums and Yum-Puffs, Sugar Balls, and Sweetsie-Cola.

The adults of the family however, find themselves staying up much too late to read "just one more chapter" of Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novels.

Burgos

On the way up north to go camping, we stopped in Burgos. Burgos is where El Cid is buried. Click here for information about El Cid (or rent the Charlton Heston movie). We found it to be one of our favorite Spanish cities so far. There is a tree-lined boulevard next to a quaint river. The bridges and arches and trees make it feel more European than all of the "brown" Spanish cities we are used to. We got a few pictures before the camera batteries died.

(Can anybody tell us what kind of trees these are? Leave a comment, if so. )

Camping

We are staying in the house of the Calderwoods, who have a bunch of camping equipment that they said we could use. They told us about a spot up north in the Picos de Europa, so we decided to go for it. Unfortunately, Brian didn't charge the batteries in the camera, so we have no pictures to show you, which is really a shame because Northern Spain is green and mountainous and beautiful. Here's a picture from the internet (isn't technology great?) of the place where we stayed. We were in a campground in that middle clump of trees. There is a gondola that takes you up to where this picture was taken. Great views. We tried to get Corrie to perform the opening scene of Sound of Music up there, but she wouldn't go for it. You know...this bit:

A note to our readers

Now, I realize it appears from our blog that all we do here in Spain is travel, but you have to remember that most of these locations are just a few hours away and most of the time we sit at home reading, cleaning, studying, parenting, etc. Since none of you really care to see any of that stuff, you are just getting the highlights, and therefore our lifestyle appears to be more glamorous than it really is.

...Well OK, some of us are pretty glamorous:

Salamanca

Fast forward to August. We met a woman who will be teaching French and German at the school beginning next year, but first has to learn Spanish since she plans to live here long-term. Her language school is in Salamanca, and since we had not yet seen Salamanca, we tagged along on the trip to drop her off there. Salamanca is famous for its buildings made out of sandstone, and it is said that the purest Spanish in the world is spoken in Salamanca (hence the language schools). In Salamanca, you can go up on the roof of the cathedral, which was really cool.

Steps leading up to the roof:

Views from the roof:

From the inside:

Bobbie brought her best friend Ivy, who looks like a miniature Lassie. (Yes, Ivy is a dog.) Since her breed is not found in Spain (too much hair for the heat, I think) and since Spaniards are dog-lovers, everywhere we went people would whisper "Lassie," and want to pet her. It's a great way to meet people, if you speak Spanish, that is. "Hola...si...perro...si...Lassie...si...perro..."

Bobbi is devoted to her dog and even feeds her Ben & Jerry's. Now that's love.

Salamanca boasts one of Spain's largest Main Squares. Looks very similar to Madrid's, but more uniform in color and appearance. Found this link about it, if you care to know. Salamanca's Plaza Mayor. Obviously the most important aspect about it is that there is a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream shop.

Nerja

We didn't spend long in Granada because it was hot and crowded, but because we were so far south, we decided to go down to the coast and dip our feet in the Mediterranean. We ended up in a little resort town called Nerja. (Pronounced nair-ha) It felt so good, we ended up diving in and spending the whole day in the water. Most of us had not brought swimsuits, as this was not on the agenda. Andrea wore here pajama pants (not pictured, of course.) We had so much fun and stayed so long, we all got terrible sunburns (also not pictured - who wants to see that?)

On the way home from the beach we tried stopping in Cordoba, but stayed only 20 minutes because it was 41 degrees Centrigrade (106 Farenheit) at 8pm!

Granada!

Granada has been high on our wish list for visiting since our arrival as it is the home of the famous Alhambra. During Tiffany's visit we rented a car and drove to Granada. it was very hot, but the Alhambra was beautiful. Built by the Moors, it is known for its inticate carvings, extensive gardens, and amazing fountains.

Visit from Tiffany

Let's go back to June, shall we? We had a visit from our dear friend Tiffany who is an avid traveller and who therefore wanted to see all of Spain in two weeks. Unfortunately we did not see it all, but we did see some new sights as well as some "old" ones. Of course all the sights in Spain are old, but you know what we mean. Here is Tiffany and the city of Toledo:

Apology

We have received several hate mails informing us that our blog is outdated. We hereby make our sincere and public apology. Today we shall neglect all else in order to provide you with several random posts. We shall start with this random yet beautiful picture of the lovely Jackson ladies of Spain. As you can see, Corrie no longer has any aversion to cameras whatsoever.