What I´ve Been Up To:

So, it´s been awhile. It´s hard to write on a blog when you don´t have a computer but here I am. So I moved to a new apartment August 1. I am now living with Belen who is 24 and from Argentina but has been living in Valdepeñas for a year or so now. The apartment is very nice and the roommate too, although we don´t see eachother much cause we have very different work schedules. It´s good though. Once again I must cook for myself which has it´s postitives and negatives, the major negative being that the apartment did not come equiped with any cooking utensils and my roommate does not have much. I have some things but am lacking a lot. . . for example I was going to make some eggs the other day and realized I had nothing to flip them with. . . slight problem. I ended up eating something else. :) gotta to go shopping.

Work is going well. My co-workers are cool. We all got a casa rural (house in the country) in Cazorla last weekend together. There were nine of us and we just ate a lot of food and swam in the pool, oh and ate more food. It was nice and relaxing and good to get to know the people I work with better.

I´ve been climbing as much as i can on the weekends and hope to subir grado (that´s for Phil) soon (7a?). Went on an adventure last night with Gabriel and Antonio. Antonio (owner of a mountain bike shop) is hosting a nocturnal night bike ride this weekend in a village an hour away. Last night we went driving around to find a good route. We were off-roading in his ´93 golf, almost got stuck once, maybe got lost a few times, and got stopped by the Civil Guards and a private security company. we arrived back in Valdepeñas at 4:30 in the morning with work the next day at 9am! I managed pretty well.

Tomorrow is a national holiday so I don´t have work! woo hoo! i do have to work Saturday though, but only for 2 hours. Tonight a bunch of friends are all getting together to eat at Fofo´s house. Should be fun. Saturday night I am going to kill myself by going on the night bike ride (I haven´t biked or ran in some time now).

In other news I have bought plane tickets to the U.S! For those of you who are awaiting my coming these are the dates: I will be in San Diego Sunday, Sept 14 until Wed. Sept. 25 and then I will be in Chicago/the lovely state of Iowa from the 25th to the 29th. it´s a short amount of time so I plan to make the most of it! Take care and I´ll write again. . . but I´m not going to say soon ;) Love to all and besitos
-Amy

Because i told Sue i would. . .

Well, here is a better pic of the family that I am currently staying with. I snapped this last weekend before they went to a wedding. This is right across the street from my house, we live on the edge of town and there is a park on the hill, very nice. I have been staying with them for a little over a month now and have really enjoyed my time with them, playing with the girls, talking with Ana, eating the good food Ana makes, laughing at Ruben and his jokes and spanish play on words. . . it´s been great for using my spanishh more. Well, unfortunately I will be moving soon again. Ruben´s father is being operated on this Tuesday for stomach cancer and he will be needing to stay with his family. There are actually three siblings who live here in Valdepeñas who will be taking turns housing Gregorio. I was told Friday night that I should start looking for another place and I already have talked with three people about possible options. Keep Gregorio in your prayers this coming week and his family too.

Some random pics from a few months ago

This was a while ago when we went to Jaen for the climbing concentration. Here we all are lined up: Antonio, Gallardo, Gonzalo, Bea, Phil, Oso the dog, Blas, and Gabriel.
We went bouldering one afternoon somewhere on the border between Jaen and Cuidad Real. That´s Maria doing a problem and Gabriel, Phil, and Antonio watching, with Gonzalo on the rock.

Stream with cool rock formations by where we were bouldering.

One day Betty (my German friend) and I made 2 apple pies and 1 strawberry pie. Phil, Bernardo and Betty enjoying the apple pie! mmmm!

I went and visited my American friends, Jody and Michelle, in Madrid before they went back home for the summer.

Some Pictures for You

This is a group of us from the church and some neighboring churches when we went to watch the New York Central Baptist Church Gospel Choir in Cuidad Real this past Monday. I live with Ana, who is in yellow, and Ruben who I am standing next to at the end on the right.

Ruben, Irene (2), and Esther (6) at the park recently.

Ok, I was planning on putting more pics up but for some reason the button on the blogger is not workin for me right now- i´ll try again later.

Phil safely arrives on U.S. soil

Yes, after spending two weeks climbing in El Chorro (the highpoint of which was the ascent of a 200+ meter route) I passed through Valdepenas for a final farewell: rock climbing in two previously unvisited spots and saying goodbye to everyone at church. Friday night I slept at the climbing gym and the other nights with Gonzalo and Marcos. Monday morning I missed the 7AM bus to Madrid but still managed to arrive at the airport with a little time to spare catching a later train.

I am now in Chicago for a week and will arrive in San Diego next Tuesday. As for summer plans I will be working for Dad and climbing in Yosemite in September (hopefully).

I have just found out that I will be working in a high school next year in Alcañiz, Teruel, Aragon. It is Teruel's second biggest town with 15,000 inhabitants (about half the size of Valdepenas). Hard to find a whole lot on the internet about it but it should be all right. (I think there is a climbing gym there and also some real quality climbing spots within a 100 kms) Check out the location on google maps, it's a little of the beaten path which could mean some rather long bus rides.

UPDATES!!

It´s been way to long since I´ve written an update and it´s about time since a lot has changed over the past month and many of you probably have no clue what´s going on in my life right now here in far-away Spain!

Well, let me inform you! Phil´s job ended May 29th and we had to move out of our aparment the next day. For the previous two weeks I had frantically been looking for a place to live, perferably a shared apartment but the choosing was slim. Thankfully the Lord was looking out for me (as He is always doing for His children) and a woman from my church who heard I was looking for a room told me one day at church that she had talked to her husband and I could stay with them in their extra room if I didn´t find anything by moveout time. Well, after a crazy day of packing up all our stuff (we waited til the last moment cause we thought, ´we don´t have much, it won´t take long´) I moved in with Ana and Ruben and their two daughters, Esther and Irene and Phil left for El Chorro in Malaga to live the climbing life for two weeks before heading back to the U.S. What I didn´t know was that what my family was thinking about me staying with them--how long, how much should i pay them, etc, etc. Well it turns out that they are fine with me staying here for as much time as I like. Of course this may change once they discover how hard I am to live with (right Annette?) :) Furthermore they told me I don´t need to pay anything for the room because they aren´t using it and the only thing is when Ana´s parents come to visit I will have to sleep in the girl´s room. I only have to pay for the food that I eat.

Well, it´s been almost 2 weeks now that I have been living with them and it is working out really well. It has truly been a blessing living with this family. Not only am I learning and practicing more Spanish with them, eating delicious food everyday, but I am gettting to know more of the people at church because of them which had been a challenge for Phil and I to do before. It´s always good to have an enchufe (look that one up in the spanish dict. :)

Besides the move, I am making the switch from having different tutoring classes due to the beginning of summer and the change in people´s schedules. I have a lost a few students but am also gaining others so things are looking good. I turned in my resume to a high school here for a possible job next school year helping with the bilingual teaching. The director says I have a good chance but it´s the Education Council of Cuidad Real that really has the ultimate say so you can keep that in your prayers for me.

Pictures are coming very very soon.

What should I do today?

I´m have about half a month left in Valdepeñas, plane tickets look expensive.  I´m planning on heading up North for a few weeks in June before flying back to the states.  But in the mean time...

Café bombón, condensed milk, coffee, and whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles on top if you have them.  A desert coffee.  I´m not a huge coffee drinker but occasionally...  I also like going to different cafés around town to get out of the flat and read the newspaper or write in Spanish.  The Valdepeñas library sees quite a bit of me as well.

Bouldering just over the Jaén border.  A group of us went one evening to explore this beautiful area of granite boulders.

The Angel Monument, partially destroyed by an ETA bomb.

We missed the bus or maybe it wasn´t running due to a festival day in Ciudad Real so we decided to head over to this monument rather than going to Moral to rock climb.  We´d heard of people from our club climbing there.  You climb up a ladder in the middle of one of the columns to set up the top rope.  The face gets really hard around the height of the wing so working the edges proves to be the best way up.

Amy hanging out on the wing.

Red chalk bag, that´s me.