The land of fries and cheese

I´m off to the family´s home in France this weekend! I´m so excited to see it and just relax. I don´t have to work, just come along for the ride. I´ll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them as soon as I can. Until then, here´s a lovely picture of me. I think I look a little more Spanish, don´t you?I got a little preview of France last night when I sat down to dinner with Catherine and her friend Jose (Joe-zay) after the kids went to bed. As soon as our bums hit the chairs, they were off, burbling on in French. I couldn´t understand it, but I loved listening to it. All the gurgling throat noises and cooing made me want to take a nap, or maybe that was the champagne...? I think I watched them talk for an hour! Very interesting. By the end we switched over to English and started discussing world leaders. Jose is a big fan of America. He lived there for a while in various places. I think he owns a beer and sells it all over the world, but I´m not sure. Anyhow, he´s a huge Hilary Clinton fan, which I thought was pretty cool.

Oh, and Jose was such a professional eater! He´d grab a few pieces of jamon with his fork, fold them into a small ball with his knife, pop it in and chew. Honestly, I´ve only ever used my knife to cut things. I need to work on my utensil ettiquete. Jose cut every rind of cheese off perfectly and piled them neatly on the side of his plate, he even cut his tiny desserts into even tinier desserts. It was amazing to see, a skilled eater weho I can learn from.

On a side note, I still haven´t been able to buy my Spanish books, which is making me nervous. If I can´t get them this afternoon, I won´t be able to until Monday, which will be crunch time to get my tarea done. I´ll write again sunday or monday!

I´m so European!

Well, it looks like the easiest way for me to be able to travel with the b-ball team is to find some European heritage in my blood. Obviously, I´m not Native American, so it sghouldn´t be too hard. But, I don´t know what percentage I need to be.

Another good practice tonight. I didn´t have as much time to talk with the girls, but I got some names at the end of practice. You know how every school has that funny Asian exchange student who says a few english phrases now and then and it´s hilarious? Well, that´s me on this team. Every time I say something, they laugh. I´m laughing too of course. I wonder if I´m making sense at all? Maybe they´re laughing because they don´t understand...

Anywho, rewind... last night I got to go out with one of Alicia´s American friends Paul. He took me to a bar in Old Town around 9:30 and we had bread with anchovis (sp?) on it and a beer and a shot of something sweet. The shots over here are not very alcoholic, more like dessert drinks, and they are often sipped. This one was about an inch of cream on top and a gingery liquor beneath, yummy!

After the refreshments, we walked all over Old Town and Paul told me all the history. He´s Basque, which I think I´ve discussed before(?) so he has lots of opinions. The Old Town is amazing. Tiny cobblestone streets that turn into huge plazas with one right turn, or city walls to climb on. The night time tour was neat because I´ve only been there during the day.

I dropped Paul off at 12:30 and didn´t get home until about 2! I got lost. First, I went too far on teh freeway and almost went to France, then I over corrected, so I got off the freeway and drove around for a while and finally found my way home. I believe my words were, "thank you Jesus" when I stumbled upon a sign that said Tajonar. Pamplona is very small, so it´s hard to get too lost.

Today we had Alexis birthday party and all his friends came over and it was great. Afterwards, some of the parents came over for an appertief, lots of tiny snack foods to eat and champagne, but I had to go to practice. When I got home, they were all just leaving so there were plates and plates of food out for me to feast on. I hade 4 kinds of the best jamon, probably 5 different cheeses (roquefort is my new fave), and lots of tiny desserts with mouse in them or cream filling. And of course a tall glass of champagne filled to the brim. I can´t say that I´ve ever had such a welcome home from practice. A girl could get used to this.

I best be hittin´the hay now, as I have spanish class tomorrow morning and must be able to understand my professor, or else he´ll continue to say, "Entiendes Darby?" which means, "do you understand Darby?", because of the look on my face. As you all know, my face is always expressing what I´m feeling. So, really, I better go work on a stern class face of interest and understanding before bed. Good night!

Basket: The universal language

I thought I probably wouldn´t be as good at basketball in Spanish as I am when I play in English. But, really, it was about the same. Granted, the level of play on the national team in Navarra is that of a lower class Division 3 team in the states, I´d say. I could understand plays pretty well, and once I asked, "Como se dice..." and acted out a screen for someone, I found out how to say "screen!" and I was on my way.

It was so fun to play basketball again! I think anywhere there´s a court a ball and a team, I feel at home. The coach´s name is Gnaki (like gnocchi, with an "a" sound in the middle). The main guy, Yuso, wasn´t there last night. I think he sort of organizes the teams and the coaches take over from there.

Anyhow, practice started at 9:30 and it was mostly 3 on 3 type drills and then scrimmaging. Gnaki would write out a play to focus on or have us go against a zone. I didn´t really need to understand his words, just had to watch a drill or play one time through and rotate in.

I tried to talk with a couple of girls on the sidelines and we laughed pretty hard at how bad I was at Spanish and them at english, but we got our points across. I´ve chatted with Maria, Pui and Garaze so far. Maria seems to be the main PG. Pui is the oldest on the team at 25 and Garaze is just a baby at 19. We have practice again Wednesday and I plan on chatting them up a bit more.

I think the main difference between this team and those in the states is conditioning. All I´ve been doing is running and I was ready to play more after a couple games while the other girls were dragging. They are talented though. Good passers and shooters. Gnaki said he´s working on a way to make it so I can play with the national team in games too, he knows some english. If it works, I´ll get to travel around northern Spain with them to play! What a great way to see Spain! I really hope it works out.

I had my first Spanish class this morning too. My professor seems nice and I understood more than I thought I would, but will need to ask questions and make sure. There are supposed to be 12 people in my class, but only 9 came today. 2 others are American and most of them speak english. But, I´ll be speaking Spanish as much as I can.

Today we went over the extra credit and where to find books we might need. There are 5 of us in a special program that gives extra help through an online database. We stayed later than everyone else to get acquainted with the stuff on the computer and that was it. My only homework so far is to buy the books for Thusday. It´s a bit intimidating, but I´m just gonna throw myself to the wolves, as I´ve been doing in most situations lately.

Well, I´m off to jog with the butterflies again. I hope everyone is well and thanks for all the notes of encouragment!

Odds and ends

Here are a few more pics of where I live and stuff... 1) This is a view in a park near the kids´school in downtown Pamplona. 2) This is my sweet car, freshly back from the shop. It´s a Renault Clio and it´s so tiny and zippy. I had the van for a while and it´s just too big to park in Pamplona, so this guy should be great! 3) This is my favorite house in Tajonar because of the bright colors. It always has a lovely blue truck in front too. The sad thing is, it´s also a business. They butcher cows here and sell the meat. I guess that´s just a fact of life. 4) This is Tajonar from up in the hills looking down. It was a bit of a cloudy day, but not rainy, so I figured I better just get the picture. It´s absolutely gorgeous when the sun is shining. 5) This is a typical street in Tajonar. Skinny and steep, a great place to learn how to drive stick! 6) These are the hills I run in and the dog path I run along. You have to watch out for little presents that have been left behind because there´s no clean up law here. But it´s a nice loop. Well, I need to go pick up the kids pretty soon. I´m looking forward to b-ball practice tonight, that´ll be quite an adventure.

The rain in Spain falls mainly... on my head!

The first weekend with just the kids and I just got over. You know how I´m a bit idealistic. I thought, wow, this will be so fun, we´ll play games, watch a couple movies, Louise will be wowed with what a cool girl I am and Alexis will be thrilled with my athletic ability. Wrong, oh so wrong.

I didn´t factor in that the kids might feel weird being alone with me for the first time or how much they might miss their parents and how that pain might be projected on me. To say the least, I was tested. There were tears and yelling, the cat was attacked by dogs and my backbone suddenly seems to be made of rubber.

At least there´s only one way to go from here, up. I need to get the rules solidified with Catherine so I have something to fall back on in a tight spot. I need to find out if there is any vegetable the kids will actually eat, so they don´t live on cheese, candy and cold cuts. I guess being an au pair is actually a job, who knew?

But, I´m moving on. A good phone call with mom and dad and I´m back on the rickety track I started travelling. I´ve been asking myself a lot this weekend, "why am I here? Why would I want to leave everyone who loves me the most and knows me the best to start over with nothing?" I realized the answer is not to be an au pair. I want to travel, meet knew people and learn a new language. That is what I have to focus on.

With that, I have basketball tomorrow night, my first spanish class Tuesday morning and this American guy Paul, who´s been a friend of Rigualt au pairs for years, is taking me around to see the Pamplona night life Tuesday night. My first trip will be from October 12th-15th. The fam goes to London on holiday then. Catherine felt so bad because she didn´t know London was one of my must sees. She even tried to get me a ticket after I got here, isn´t that nice? Anyhow, I´m thinking Madrid or Brcelona that weekend. Any suggestions?

I´m pretty tired, so I better be off to bed. Write me if you have time, I need it right now! Love to all.

Pamplona: The Newberg of Spain

I got to go meet with a basketball coach last night! I was connected with him through Alicia´s friend, and mine soon hopefully, Lourdes. She has a friend who used to play in Spain and asked her who to contact about playing. She called me to let me know to call Yuso Janice (Yu-tho Ha-nee-theh). He coaches the teams at a local community center, a pueblog over.

I drove all by myself, down the byway and everything! I got a little lost on the way home, but not too bad. Anyhow, when I arrived he told me he was contacted by Lourdes´friend but also, his uncle, who lives in my pueblo and who I´ve never met. His uncle told him, "there´s an American girl in Tajonar who is 2 meters tall (6 feet)!" So, I guess the town is scouting me.

Here´s the deal... I can´t play for the team that is more my skill level because it´s a national team. Since Spain is not my nation, it doesn´t work. They have a regional team, which is more for fun, so I can play in their games. But, Yuso wants me to practice with the national team to see the difference between his 4´s and 5´s and me, in other words, he wants to see how his team stacks up against American University level basketball. So, I´ll go to practices on Monday and Wednesday and play games with the regional team on Sundays. Yuso speaks some english and I´m going to work on my spanish, of course, with the team and he.

Also, the customary greeting and goodbye in Spain is a kiss on each cheek, which I think I´ve said. Well, Yuso is an older man, 50 or so, and I gave him a ride home from the gym because he lives so close. It was so weird, we kissed on the cheeks in the car before he got out, like the end of a date. Yikes! He´s really nice though, no funny business, I´m sure. I´ll just have to get used to all the kissing. I wonder if I´ll have to kiss all my teammates when I meet them?

Old Town Pamplona

Before Alicia left, she took me, her friend Erin, her mom and dad and the kids down into Old Town Pamplona. We saw where the bullfights take place, the path along which the bulls run and the old city walls. Mostly, I just want to share pictures of this, so I´ll post them below and explain them with numbers here. 1) This is Alicia, the kids and her dad in front of the bull fighting arena where the run ends and the goring begins. 2) Alicia´s mom and dad in front of the count down to the next San Fermin (the week long festival that has the running of the bulls). I´ve heard the whole city comes alive and goes crazy, I can´t wait. I´ll have to miss part of it for Katie and Kev´s wedding, but that´s ok I think : ). 3) Sorry, this one´s a little dark. This is one of the streets the bulls run down. So skinny! 4) Me in the Plaza de Castillo. It´s amazing! As you walk down the tiny streets, suddenly they part onto this huge open space. I heard it used to be covered in trees as well. They broadcast all the festivities of San Fermin here on a large screen they bring in. 5) This is where San Fermin begins. The mayor comes out and puts on his red scarf and belt and there´s a huge crowd down below doing the same. They sing a little ditty and the festivities start. 6) I´m not sure if these guys were a soccer team or just fans, but they were walking through old town singing and holding flags and just being merry. In the pic with them, is a nun we met in a tiny plaza as the soccer guys walked by. She told Aliciaá mom that she´d pray for her for the rest of her life. Wow. And that´s all I can fit in one blog. We also sat at a coffee shop on top of the city walls, very fun.

Success... ish and weird food no. 1

I think I had a successful afternoon. Catherine was definitely pleased. She cracked open yet another bottle of champagne to celebrate my new stick shift driving ability. Any excuse for champagne with her, I love it! I drove the whole time this afternoon, and pretty smooth. No big stalls or jerky stops. The kids were shocked at how much better I am. I think staying calm and using the e-break on hills are the best tips I´ve gotten, they work.

The kids and I went to the park after we got home and played until dinner. It´s like I´m 12 again! Awesome stuff.

Now, speaking of dinner, I´ve been trying to eat as many different foods as I can while I´m here. Every time Catherine offers something to me, I try it. The other night I ate cod liver for the first time. Not so weird in the states, but I´d never had it and it wasn´t as bad as I thought, but too much like cat food for me. Very soft on the tongue. Tonight for dinner we had squid, like long chunks of calamari, cooked in it´s own ink... yes ink! I´d never had or even heard of that before. It looks just like it sounds, pitch black sauce in bowl with little grey, fleshy bits poking out. Sounds disgusing, but it´s not that bad. I tasted it first at lunch and then had more at dinner. It´s pretty fishy and salty, but yummy, if you can stand to look at it on your plate.

Tomorrow I take the kids to school and drop Catherine at work so I can have the car in the morning, yay! The Cleo is still in the shop having the power steering looked at. Oh, speaking of cars, I found out today that Patrick has a frickin´Astin Martin! I can´t wait to see it, it must be in France at Patxoula.

Tonight, I was putting Louise to bed and she asks me all these cute questions like, "how do you put your head when you kiss a boy? So, how do you know when you´re going to kiss? Do you actually love your boyfriend?" She´s so funny, her walls are covered in pictures of famous cute boys. anyhow, Catherine came in to say goodnight and gave Louise a kiss on the cheek and then gave me one, how sweet. I felt like a part of the family!

So, some good moments today. I´ll try to blog about my trip to old town Pamplona and walking along the running of the bulls path tomorrow, with pics! Missing you all still, but settling in little by little.

The hills are alive in Pamplona

I got to go for my first run in the hills of Pamplona today. Really, they are the hills of Tajonar, but whatever. Catherine thought she might leave me the car today, but took it. So, no practice and I was just stewing in my nervousness this morning, so I went on a jog.

I trotted down the street in our pueblo (Tajonar) to the park and found a dog trail that runs up through the hills. I could see all of Pamplona and our pueblo from there, it was beautiful and the weather is beautiful today. Lots of red roofs and large homes on the horizon. I´ll probably go up there soon to take some pictures so you can see where I´m living.

As I reached the top of the trail, it became quite muddy and had huge grooves from truck tires in it. The excursion became more like freestyle walking than running at that point. But, the neat thing was, as I hopped through and around the mud, butterflies and moths would spring from the ground beneath my feet and flutter a bit in front of me before flying off into the brush. It was like butterflies were coming out of my feet. Very cool.

That definitely helped my stomach, but now I´m back and catherine just got home and we´ve gotta go get the kids and I´ll probably drive. I can do this. Send me good vibes and focus!

Crazy weekend

This weekend was go go go! Alicia was leaving so all her friends wanted to give her goodbye parties. Her friend from home, Erin, was supposed to be in Friday and had tons of flight delays and cancellations and lost her luggage and didn´t make it until Saturday. We just hung out with the kids most of the day Saturday, who went totally stir crazy. When Erin got here, she needed clothes, since she had no luggage. Alicia dropped Louise and i off at the mall, where the family´s store is, and took erin to get clothes, while Alexis stayed home with Alicia´s parents. The kids really needed some time apart, so this was great.

Louise and i had a blast shopping! She took me to all the stores she likes and bought some candy we don´t have in America for me to try. I was wondering who the au pair was for a while, me or her! The best part about the mall was discovering that they have an H&M! It´s my favorite store, that we only have on the East coast in the states. If I ever have a bad day, H&M will cure all my ills.

When we got home, Erin, Alicia and I hustled to get ready to go to Alicia´s goodbye party. This is when amazing things start occurring. Alicia´s friends Esti and Itheskun (ee-theh-skoon) went to the store and bought tons of food, then came to pick us up. We headed to Itheskun´s house ansd unloaded all the food into her family´s cocho, which is a spanish word for a kitchen many homes have in teh basement for big parties late at night. It was about 9 pm when we arrived. We walked through the garage and into a big wooden door in the back and there´s a huge wooden table inside with a stove and sink and commode.

Once we were all in, Esti went to work on the Sangria. She busts out a small, never used before, garbage can and starts pooring in wine, fresh cut lemons, peaches and oranges, various syrupy sweet alcohols and sugar. She just mixed and mixed until it was almost full to the top. It reminded me of Streganona and her magic pasta bowl. After the sangria was done, she started in on the food. Everyone had a job of either cutting, simmering, spreading, whatever. We were all busy making this wonderful meal. Itheskun´s parents came down to tell us good nigth and meet us. Her mother pops open a bottle of wine and starts pooring us glasses. I don´t even like wine, but this was wonderful. We just attempted to communicate with our hands and "si, si, si" or "gracias."

The table was covered in food by the time the girls were finished. We had jo jos with ketchup and mayo, baguet with soft cheese and roasted red peppers, the ones that are special to Navarra, salad with tons of stuff in it, breaded shrimp and fried fish raviolis, pickled white esparagas, and of course, large glasses of Sangria all around! We ate until 1 o´clock in the morning. They eat late over here, around 8, but this was extra late. All the girls just chatted and told stories. I couldn´t understand most of it, but, the expressions on their faces and the joy they felt telling the stories was amazing to see. They sang a bunch of songs to Alicia, begging her not to go and we just chirpped the night away. It´s awesome how a garbage can full of Sangria can break the language barrier.

At one, we went out to one of the festivals in Itheskun´s pueblo. The pueblos are like little towns or neighborhoods that surround the city of Pamplona. I actually live in Trajonar. Anyhow, each pueblo has a different time in the summer, usually after San Fermin (the running of the bulls), when they throw a huge street party with dancing and rides and lots of great fun. So, we went to one, but the crowd was a bit too young, so we headed to a small disco and danced until around 4. During this time, i was networking to find a basketball team and Itheskun said she´d help. No game today though, i guess it´s Thursday.

ASIDE: Whoa, just got a call from Lourdes and her friend came through and a coach wants to talk to me! And, I spoke Spanish with her pretty well! Liz, maybe coming here is the way to go... END ASIDE.

PICTURE: Me, Itheskun´s mom, Erin, Alicia, Itheskun, Arransa in the cocho, pre-party.

Long story short, Alicia´s friends are so wonderful. In Spain, friendship is truly forever. Just because I am an acquaintence of Alicia, her friends have completely accepted me into their group and say they will come watch me play basketball and will call me if I don´t call them. Good stuff. I´ll add more pics later, but I need to make some phone calls home! Love to all.

Where I live and who with

¡Hola mis amigas! That is about the extent of my Spanish. But, it will get better because I took a test at the university and have been placed in a class that fits with my schedule, yay! That outta keep me busy. I´m also going to play with a basketball team tonight that one of Alicia´s friends found for me, so hopefully I´ll be able to play a lot. Anyhow, I need to show you some pictures of where I live, then I´ll blog again about what I´ve been up to the past two days.

Picture 1: This is what you see when you walk into my room on the top floor of the house. It´s my sitting area. The whole room is shaped like a U with closets in the middle. Picture 2: This is my desk area. Picture 3: This is my bed. It may look small, but is actually quite comfy. Like I said, I have the whole top floor, which includes a bathroom and shower and little workout area. The house is very open with a large staircase running up the middle and rooms on all sides, 3 floors. Lets just say there are enough rooms in the house for some of them to never really be used. Picture 4: The outside of the Rigualt´s home in Pamplona. There´s a tiny basketball hoop and large yard with a pool on the side yard. The hoop is about 6 feet tall and Louise and Alexis and Alicia and I played some ball before Alicia left. Good times. Picture 5: This is me with the kids at Lourdes´house. She´s Alicia´s friend who wants to do a language share with me. Did i mention her before? Anyhow, I hope it´s all clear and you can see all the pictures once I post.

Those are the basics so far. Like I said, I´ll post about the exciting weekend later, but today is my first day as Au Pair Extrordinaire and I´m a little bit terrified. I know I can do all that I need to for the job, I just want to feel comfortable with it. It just sucks to have a constant nervous stomach ache and feeling so lost all the time. But, I just have to power through. Once I feel good about driving and speaking a bit more, I´ll be ok. Patrick gave me an hour and a half driving lesson this morning, which was nice. I needed someone to push me to get it right, so thanks to him! I´m still working on it though. Then I drove the the university (by myself!) and took my placement test, which took a while and came home. Now I´m here, trying to calm my nerves enough to be more hungry. Catherine is coming home to go get the kids with me at 3 today. I guess Alexis has some school thing at 5, so I´ll go to that, I think it has to do with sports and then we´re meeting Louise´s music teacher, I think. I´ll fill you in later. Then, off to my frist basketball game in Spain, yipee!

Lots to learn

It´s now one past midnight on Sept. 16th where I am, which looks like this: 0:01 am. Yep, even the time is different.

It was a tough/great day though. Alicia and I got up and went to the gym. It was so nice to run and zone out for a while and really felt like home. I´ll definitely be joining. We came home, showered and went for tapas with the lady who cleans the house, so she and I could meet with Alicia as a translator. I have realized my Spanish is not so great and her english es nada. Alicia´s parents came too and we were in the bar from 12 to 3 pm! I had my first of the famous jamon, which is like procuitto (is that how to spell it Stupfels?), but the fat is on the edge, so much easier to eat around. We had big chunks of bread with olive oil and tomato rubbed on it, yes rubbed. It was so yummy, but the finale were these special pemento peppers that they have a special license to grow only in Navarra, the province Pamplona is in. They were roasted, torn by hand, organic and had oil and garlic with them, ¡que rico!

As a lot of you know, i´m not a big drinker because i´m such a light weight, but did not want to be rude... long story short, the 5 of us drank 2 bottles of wine in 3 hours. It was a sleepy afternoon, but we had tons to do, so no rest. Alicia took me around town after we picked up the kids and showed me the adult learning center and the university. It doesn´t look like classes at the university will work with my schedule, but hopefully at the learning center.

We also met Alicia´s friend Lourdes, an amazing woman! She and Alicia do a language share, which means they speak Spanish for half an hour and then switch to english, so both learn. Hopefully, I´ll be able to take Alicia´s place now. Of course, not in anyone´s heart, just to learn some frickin´espanol. Lourdes is mostly blind and also a massage therapist. Alicia gets massages for english lessons! I´ll definitely have to work that. And, she has an old friend who used to be the best basketball player in Spain, women´s. So, I hope to meet her and find out if I can help out at a school or find pick up games.

We came home for some basketball with teh kids, which was so fun. Alexis is so competitive and scrappy. He was the tiniest one out there by a foot, but kept stealing the ball! Louise wants to get better, but is more in it for fun, so the combo makes for a few spats between sibs. Dinner was lovely once again. Wine, of course, these yummy cheesey potatoes, homemade pureed vegetable soup, bread and fruit, with leftover dessert from last night. I don´t know what I´ll do when catherine and Patrick are gone for a week and I have to cook. I ain´t no Paula Deane. I guess I´ll have to fly Dave in special for those times so the kids don´t go hungry. Really, I should work on getting that in my contract.

I called home for the first time, which was really tough. Just the sound of familiar voices made me cry because nothing is familiar here. The kids were so nice, and Catherine too, making sure i was ok. The kids said, "it´s only natural, it´s ok." And we watched West Side Story. Sweetie poos.

I´m not sure if I can write again soon, I may be out all weekend with Alicia. But, hopefully Monday. I´m going to try to take a spanish test to see which class i might be in monday morning, so I´ll let you know. My first day on my own, Monday, and I´m nervous, but what am I not nervous for these days!?

Love to all!

Hola!

I made it! It took a delayed flight in London and half of my baggage being lost, but I´m here! The family is so nice and the kids have such bright personalities. Alicia, the current au pair, has been so helpful and nice. Today was my first day and I slept until 2, half because i didn´t know what the hell to do when I got up. But, we didn´t get here until 3 am, so that may be why all the sleeping too. Anyhow, we went to get the kids at school at 3 pm and the ride is much smoother than my cousin´s truck. I only killed it once. We practiced parallel parking and stuff, which will be tough, but ok.

We also went to the family´s store which is huuuuuuuge and so nice. It´s like Costco, Fred Meyer and Target all rolled into one. Catherine is there during the day and comes home before the kids get home from school. Patrick is there all day until mid-dinner, sometimes through dinner. He came home and said to me, "So, you saw my toy today?" I was like, what does that mean? Then realized he meant the store. So, in short, he´s very proud of his work it seems. They have everything from clothes to wine to bulk seafood.

We had a nice dinner of fish, cooked veggies, salad and bread with an open faced apple tart for dessert, yum! Then, Alicia and I went to meet two of her friends for a drink. They are so nice, but speak Spanish, so I can´t understand much yet, but will hopefully. They´re actually looking into finding a place where I can play basketball. Alexis, the little boy, he´s 8, just got a basketball for his b-day and it´s suddenly his new favorite sport. I can´t wait to shoot around with him and go to his "basket matches" as he calls them.

Really though, there is sort of a sadness at my core. I miss my home and all the normalcy and simplicity of it. This will be a challanging year for me, I can already tell, but an unforgettable one as well. I´ll try to update with pics tomorrow, today was too busy! The house is pretty amazing. Write to me, and I´ll write back! Loves!