March to April in Espana

March 30th

We are trying to get 6 months of toiletries into our suitcases here in New York City and it’s working!!  It’s just that there is no room for any clothes...funny how, as we age, the toiletries take preference over style.  We’re also carrying a variety of equipment, especially phones and, of course, our iPod with a small set of speakers making even less room for clothes.

We left the mesa in mid March as planned and, after a soak in the mineral springs at Ojo Caliente, drove to Salt Lake City where we switched out clothes in our storage unit, loved visiting with Sutton, John and Felix, and spent a very short, but great time with Kendra and Jim Golden who were on their way home to Pt. Townsend after being south in the motor home for 2 months.

We flew to New York City a few days ago, saying good bye to our 11 year old Honda Accord, and are really enjoying our stay with Chris & Payson.  We had a great lunch with Pat & Jim Hyatt and Glen Daum and a terrific visit with Susan’s brother John and his wife Kate at their wonderful location on the Connecticut river….we are now are off to Madrid to begin our six  month sojourn.

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April 7th

Well, here we are in Madrid, ready to leave tomorrow morning for La Alberca and our Pueblo Ingles volunteer time for a week.  We have been here for several days, riding the subways and buses and walking and walking and loving every minute. We are finally acclimated to the time change but are more active than we've been in a while so we are getting reacquainted with leg muscles.  Susan's knees are doing pretty well considering.....

Among the folks here in Madrid is at least one invisible man, spotted here in the Puerta del Sol.

Today we had our “anglo” orientation lunch for and saw some wonderful flamenco…..here’s our first attempt at uploading a video.  The lunch was at Casa Patas, a foundation for preserving Flamenco, where newbies come to study and veterans come to perform.

We've had a mess with our cell phone.  Four years ago we went to China, stopped into a phone store, bought a sim card, installed it into our phone and had great service the whole time were were there - in Tibet, too.  The other day we went into Vodaphone in Madrid, bought a sim card and we can't get it to work no how.....  so what does that tell us?  It told us to buy a cheap Spanish phone, which we did  - the number is 627-615-262 and to call from the US you would first dial 011 (to make an international call) 34 (the code for Spain) then this number....  Susan should answer....

Friday morning (the 9th) we left Madrid on a bus and traveled about 4 hours to the world heritage town, La Alberca, just south of Salamanca, where we are staying at a conference center doing a volunteer week helping Spanish Primary and Secondary School teachers improve their "conversational" English.  We are challenged to explain idioms like "shooting from the hip," "come in handy," and "come up with" and other strange workings of our language like and "work out," vs "work off" (which we now understand are phrasal verbs).  It's very difficult for these folks to really learn to speak the language but when we talk the way we usually talk it's near to impossible and very frustrating for them.  We will be here through next Friday and the experience is just wonderful!!

The land here is remarkable, the almond trees are in bloom, the chestnut trees are glorious and the singing of birds, crickets and frogs is a delicious continuous concert.

We are the most fortunate people in the world......and send hugs to you all!!!