Leaving Camarma

Well, after two years of living in Camarma de Esteruelas, we said goodbye to Spain in early June. Excited about the future, we were also sad to leave our quiet little Spanish town. Peregrino is the Spanish word for pilgrim. Our journey through Spain has helped us to understand that we are simply peregrinos, and that this world is not our home. We look forward to meeting new people, exploring new places, and enjoying the people and places already dear to us, but our eyes are heavenward, because we know that there is our real home.

Since we are no longer Jacksons in Spain, we are launching a new blog called Just Jacksons to record our adventures from this point. Go there to read about our travelling frenzy on the way home from Spain and our continuing saga of adventure, comedy, romance, and drama.

Retiro Park Rose Garden in Full Bloom

Farewell to Madrid

Our last weekend in Spain, we wanted to spend one last day in Madrid. It was a very pleasant. We fed the ducks in front of the glass palace.

And went boating on the lake.

We visited Sol and picked up a few souveniers.
And we went to the Reina Sofia museum to see Picasso's most famous work Guernica.
Goodbye, Madrid!

Can't Keep Up

Lizard boy is still at it. Yesterday's fave was the Blue Tongued Skink:

Today is the Flying Dragon Lizard:

Click here to see the video that Ransom has watched no less than 20 times today.

The Latest Craze for RansomBoy

Well, the monitor lizard phase has given way to a new obsession: The Thorny Devil. It's an Australian lizard that looks like this:

It's pretty much all he has talked about for the past two days. He wants one for a pet and is planning a trip to Australia to catch it. Click here to watch a brief but fascinating documentary on this guy.

While you are at it, watch this one about the Jesus Christ Lizard. Yes, the lizard is nicknamed after Jesus, because the thing can actually walk (well, run) on top of water! Pretty amazing.

Here was Ransom's bedtime prayer last night: "Dear Lord, please let everyone in the world know about the thorny devil lizard and let them know that it lives in Australia. Also, thank you for the Jesus Christ Lizard, who can walk on the water, just like you, Lord. Amen."

Pelegrina and Siguenza

A friend took us on an outing last Sunday to a beautiful "tiny Spanish village" as Corrie has since referred to it. A ruined eleventh century castle looks down on Pelegrina. We walked up through the town and down into the canyon behind it, following a little path along a creek where the townspeople's gardens are kept. We walked and explored through intermittent rain and sun. What a wonderful afternoon! (Sorry the picture isn't very good.)

There is a walking trail from the "tiny Spanish village" to the nearby city of Siguenza. What a pity we will not be able to return to this lovely place for such an activity. We did drive to Siguenza, though. The twelfth century castle there is far from ruinous. In fact, it was modernized and now functions as a Parador (historic buildings turned into upscale hotels). By then, however, the rain was coming down quite steadily, so after visiting the Parador, we had to content ourselves with a tour of the city in the car. We did happen across a bakery open for business on a Sunday afternoon! So, we munched Spanish bread as we saw the sights.

Adventures in Ransom #10

This week Ransom has pretended to be:

a monitor lizard

a monkey

a pig

a crocodile

a dragon

a chimpanzee

a dinosaur

a bat

a rooster

a dog

a komodo dragon

and a cat.

(Photo by Corrie Jackson)

Dogsitting

Got the opportunity to dog-sit for a few days recently. Ivy only has eyes (and ears) for Corrie and followed her around the house relentlessly. Here's Corrie reading her a bedtime story.

On the Green

A couple of weekends ago we got to watch one of Andrea's students take part in a junior golf tournament. The kid is a golfing maniac and is really good. When Andrea's class prays in the morning, a regular prayer request is for a decreased handicap. We should get his autograph before we leave.

Corrie Story #8

Apparently Corrie decided that Brian could use a little help in the romance department. We found this forged love note on the chalkboard in the hall. Thanks for lending a hand, Cupid!

An American Holiday Comes to Spain

Today is a special day. April 29th is "Free Cone Day," and this year's celebration commemorates the 30th Anniversary of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Just got back from the shop in Alcalá, where pretty much the entire school stood in line (several times) to get their free ice cream scoops and enjoy their American-ness. All of the Ben & Jerry's flavor names remain in English, but they provide a pronunciation guide for Spaniards. See if you can figure out these flavors:

• Chocoleit Fach Brauni Lau Fat
• Cuqui Daug
• Fanila Tofi Cranch
• Cofi Bas Bas
• Niu York Super Fach Chank
• Chanki Manki
• Uán Chisqueik Brauni
• Lemoneid Estand

Sounds like the phenomenon is worldwide, so if you read this early enough, get on down to your local scoop shop and get yourself some free goods.

Best Friends...

The Haircut

After nearly 5 months of growing his hair out, Brian just couldn't take it anymore. Maybe it was because it tickled his ears and itched his neck. Or perhaps it is beacuse the long hair seemed to emphasize the male pattern baldness that has initiated his thirties. Or it might be because his wife likened him unto Larry Fine of The Three Stooges. Or it could be because the librarian at school asked if he got a perm. At any rate, the curls have been shorn.

Messy Math

This is how homeschoolers study fractions.

Valencia

About four hours from Madrid is Valencia, Spain's third largest city. We spent two days seeing the sights and enjoying the coast. Here is a slideshow of the pictures we took.

Segobriga

Not to be confused with Segovia, Segobriga is a (relatively) recently excavated Roman city. It's pretty extensive and very fascinating. Out in the middle of rolling hills and farmland, it was important in the days of the Romans for mining a particular type of transparent stone which they shipped around the empire for use as windows among other things. After several days of rain, the weather was perfect on the day we visited. The ruins include:

an outdoor ampitheater

(from below)

(from above)

(to the side)

an arena:

(from above)

(gladiators competing)

a public building/city hall and courtyard

baths, drains, and other miscellaneous rooms.

Not to mention the ruins of a Roman piano and an extremeley good-looking statue or two.

Visitors

We've been busy pretending to be tour guides these past few weeks. Andrea's mom and some of her sisters came to visit. We all had a great time and, of course, the kids loved the extra attention. We packed several cities and monuments into our short time with them. I won't bore you with the places we've already blogged about, but will post pictures of the new stuff in the next few entries. Meanwhile here is a good picture of Andrea and her mama.

Corrie Story #7

Corrie's latest motto is:





"You know I can't resist an open armpit."



Catchy, huh? It's been used at least 5 times this past week as an excuse to tickle at random.

Field Trip

Mrs. Jackson's 2nd/3rd Grade Class went to Parque O'Donnell in nearby Alcalá de Henares to study plant life, under the direction of Andrea's student teacher, Ms. Kline. We homeschoolers tagged along. It was a nice day and the kids had fun. Looks like they may have done some learning in the process.

Pauline Jacobi

This lady is so cool.

Watch this short clip about her to see why.

Handy Website

Ever stare at the meager contents of your fridge and think, "How am I supposed to make dinner out of that?" Well, I learned about a cool website today. It's SuperCook.com. (Maybe you all know about it already, but when you live nine time zones away, news reaches you slower, OK?) Anyway, you just type in what ingredients you have handy and it searches the web to find all of the recipes that have your stuff in it. Good for when you've run out of ideas for dinner and don't want to run to the store. (Or when you live in Spain, where they close the stores for 3 hours at a time every afternoon, and where they observe holidays we don't know about.)



I'm going to use it to get rid of these garbanzo beans I've had in the cupboard for months. (We just haven't been able to perfect that hummus.)

Sunday Picnic

The Jacksons in Spain climbed up "Camarma Hill" again this past Sunday to have a picnic in the sunshine. The kids picked olives for olive soup (they are currently in the trash can, don't tell) and the adults attempted some kite flying, but it was too windy. Walked home via the park; a nice leisurely Sunday.

Happy Birthday Ransom!

Ransom turned 5 years old! He took cookies to his friends at the school (which is basically all 21 elementary students) and they were happy to sing to him and play his games at recess. They are all quite amused by Mr. Charisma. The four of us then headed home for cake and a movie. Here he is as king for the day.

With Corrie and Stretchy (the Lizard):

Happy Birthday Ransom!

Easter Snow

We were a bit shocked when we looked out our front window yesterday and saw...snow. We California types have never seen a snowy Easter. It didn't last long and barely hit the ground before melting, but it was a fun surprise.

The snow was the big news of the day. Easter was very quiet this year.

We had church at home as a family. That's been the usual for the past month or two because of transportation and language difficulties. The kids like to reenact the lesson whenever we have home church. Yesterday Corrie (playing the part of "they and certain other women") stopped the reenactment to run to the kitchen and get some spice. While we are pretty sure basil didn't make the list of embalming spices, we didn't speak up. At least we know she was listening:

Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.
Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.
Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, but is risen!

Hope you had a great Easter.

Good Friday

Miss McGraw invited our family to the Good Friday service at her church. Before the service we had dinner at our house, and she hid some Easter Eggs in our "backyard" so the kids had a mini Easter-egg hunt.