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So, it's been too long...again. But no pasa nada. Let's talk about the school. The school is the only evangelical associated school in Spain. The school is a Christian school but they cannot technically be catagorized as one because of all the regulations that go with it. If they said they were, they would have to be more like an every-religion-is-awesome school. So, they just say that they are a school and they don't make the kids do "Christian" things in order to avoid this conflict of interest. There is a Baptist Church connected to it, so, the denomination associated with the school is Baptist. They don't have crosses or pray corporately b/c then they would have to have happy budda's, pray towards Mecca, have little star of David tattoo's, and read the book of Mormon as an option...so to avoid religious confusion they steer clear of having the "religious" school title. This school is very different than American schools...and we cannot go into great detail about how different b/c we're still here and that would be breaking privacy...yeah. The teachers and staff are very interested in the salvation of the students though, so, we take every oportunity to speak into the children's lives and to be a great example of Christ.

They don't have to wear uniforms, except for during "sport" or P.E. They are outside for a really good portion of the day...which kicks America's butt. We should all be outside more! And we are...here. We set the table for every meal here. Everything is glass and they usually have three courses at lunch! mmmm... This week the primary grades are going on a 3 day field trip...its mandated by the government that every school has to go. They are going to go on a tractor ride and make bread...AWESOME! I wanna go away for three days!~Chels. I wanna make bread!~Jenn.

In the past two weeks we discovered that cold food is bad. We had the most awesome Valentine's/single's awareness day...our adopted family brought us croissants in the morning and invited us to go bowling! YAY! We ate them and they were awesome!...we only shared one. We went bowling and then saw El Hombre Lobo (the wolf man...) and it was awesome. We watched this Spanish movie with English headphones! Talk about really cool stuff. "The headphones were great! We need them in America!"~Chels. "I love popcorn in every country!"~Jenn. We had dinner with them and they gave us more oranges!

This weekend we are going with them to Valencia to see the Aquarium! YAY!!!! Can't sleep too excited! We love them so much and they are so welcoming.

That's all for now from Spain! We'll blog some more lata!

Observing Espana....why is there so much corn...everywhere?

Okay, so today we do not have much to write and that is boring for the fans...so, we're going to tell you what we are observing.

1. Blinds....they are so cool here! Let me describe this to you...they are on the outside?! Why has America not discovered this? It makes so much sense. You dont have to clean them, they don't get tangled, they protect the window...so you don't have to clean them either (or protection from melon-sized, Texas, hail!!!!) and you can get them in 3 different styles: manual, electronic and automatic solar sensory movement...ASSM. Okay I really don't know if ASSM is a real acrynym (and my spell check is in spanish, so, im sorry if everything is all messed in here!), but we have deemed it so. They are awesome point made. We will come back and have them and then sell them...b/c you all will want some!

2. Bathrooms...ARE SO CLEAN in Europe. Not only are they clean but they are the Mecca of trendy...pretty tile, beautiful mirrors, cool sinks, you have total privacy above your head and below your knees, and automatic lighting. I cannot pee in America anymore...this will be the greatest challenge when I return- Jenn. They are beautiful...super contemporary and modern!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!- Chels. Needless to say, we are never nervous about walking into an unknown bathroom...thank you Europe...you are mind blowing!

3 Corn....is on everything! Pizza, salad, bread, pasta, breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner....all have corn. Why? I have no idea and the Germans don't either, but we all love it. If it wasn't a starch I think I would adapt to it for life.

Those are some of the awesomely random observations we have seen thus far! We're having fun and will write again soon! Promise! Adios!

Blog 3...No, you're not late, we are...but only by 4 days.

So, recently you may have noticed that we haven't updated yet. How inconsiderate are we?! You must have been thinking; "Wow, they must be the most boring Americans in Spain", "Did someone steal their computers?" or "Did they DIE?! AHHHHHHHHHH!". I know, I know, and we will do better next time. The real reason is that we have been very busy. We're just doing what you all told us to do...and that is have a whole lotta fun! We are having fun in the expert level...the professional level... of course! So, where to begin....oh right we left off about 10 days ago where we just finnished our first weeks and were about to go to the mall. We went to the mall and they actually call it the Centro Commercial. First off, it is NOTHING like malls in America on the outside. It is in the middle of nowhere and has NO stores or movie theaters around it. No restauraunts just parking and a bus stop...YAY!! We rode the bus to the mall from Denia, it cost about $2 for the 15 minute ride. It looks like a place where boats would be sold or something...very circular and not much advertising on the outside. Very interesting!!!! Then we went shopping for about 2 hours and bought, you guessed it, NOTHING!!!! We were just checking everything out. There were a few American stores and that was neat, but everything was more expensive. Then the best thing happened...........wait for it.......we had McDonald's!!!!!!! We both had a Happy Meal and it came with more food than in America! It was so good and made me want a Big Mac!! That is it for the Centro Commercial now onto the rest of the weekend!!

On Sunday, we went to church as always. THEN we went to Xavi's family's house. Natalie, his mom, teaches a dance class on the weekend for the volunteers so she invited Jenn, me, and Ruben to their house for lunch. They also had their neighbors over for lunch and they were very intriguing!! Angelica, the neighbor, is American, BUT met her husband in Italy and then they moved to Germany and now they live in Spain. She was pretty awesome!! Natalie made Payaya, which is a typical Valencian dish. It is made in one pan with lots of rice AND shrimp, mussels, squid, and chicken. It was sooooo delicious!!! Jenn and I had NEVER eaten mussels and we had the WHOLE shrimp, we had to decapitate the shrimp and peel off the outer layer of stuff and then we ate the shrimp. We both enjoyed these things more than expected! All in all we had a great time with them!!! They were very nice and they have invited us to eat at their home again and they want to take us on a "tour" of Denia and surrounding areas!! We LOVE the people here!!!

Week 3 of work...nothing too exciting...lots of cleaning and lots of sweeping and helping in the English Class with the first graders....they are adorable and CRAZY!!!! We are really enjoying that because we like spending time with the kids! Pray for patience!!

Last weekend!
All the volunteers decided to have a "Bad Taste Party". This is where you dress in your best mistakes and get praised for looking the worst. We had dinner buffet style in the hall of where we live and had a disco room, a chill room, and a creative room. Thank goodness for that creative space...it really saved the party. Just kidding the dance room (which was my/jenn's room) was the BEST room! We had a canapy made out of a sheet and Chels' gave dance lessons comprising of soldier boy and the cupid shuffle. Basically we danced and chilled for 4 hours.

The next day we went to spend time with Surgio's family. First his dad took us to the beach and let us see these very BIG octopus and then told us they were small...I would like to take a moment and say that anything larger than my head is not small...it's big. These were big. [see picture] Then they took us to lunch at this place called Rokelin and it has a pig as it's symbol. We had a typical Spanish dish that is comprised of pork, ham, veggies and broth. They boil everything together and it creates this amazing broth. You eat the dish in two steps. First you have the broth with rice and limon. Once you're finished with that you move on to this amazing spread of all of the meat and veggies and you eat as much as you possibly can. I was mad at myself when i was finnished....why was I cursed with such a small stomach?!?!?! Why?! After lunch we went to their orange grove and we picked over 150 oranges. It was so fun and now we know the correct way to pick oranges! They gave them all to us! Isn't that just the bee's knees? We thought they were just going to give us a bag but they gave us 6 bags! After that we went to their beautiful apartment and talked for a while. It was such a great time :) we love our new family.

The people here are so great and other than having amazing adventures we have been getting to know them pretty well. We both really like learning about how devoted to the Lord they are and learning how they show love. Keep an eye out for our next blog! Love you all!


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