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| Known for its ceramics, Talavera has many signs made from ceramic tiles. |
Nick was right, it is hard to keep up on a blog. And it is hard to imagine that so much time has already passed since I have arrived to the home of this beautiful family. I think there are 45 seconds to every minute here in Spain compared to home. I am sitting now in my room using the computer of Carlos,the father. Carlos, Carmen, and I have just finished a lesson in english and spanish about the human body. We specifically talked about the nervous system and also blood. We started to have a conversation about teeth, but I could not recall all of the technical names for the teeth at that time.
I will begin: I arrived to the house on August 26th. They have a beautiful home and yard where they spend a lot of time when the weather is nice. I will talk in detail more about each family member as I have come to know them in a later blog. The family consists of Carlos, Carmen, Marina (10), and Lucia (8). They live in a subdivision just on the brim of town that is very safe and almost luxurious. The community has two tennis courts, some racketball type courts, a pool, a restaurant, and two parks. The neighbors are very nice and you can almost always see someone walking their dog. My first few weeks in Talavera were like summer. Marina and Lucia are very fortunate girls who had just returned from vacation in the south of Spain at their vacation home. In the beginning, the girls did not have school and the weather was fantastic, so many days we stayed home, swam in the pool, and danced around in english to Selena Gomez. They adore Selena Gomez! The food so far has been delicious and I have learned from Carmen how to make her bomb Gazpacho. They have been very accommodating with my vegetarianism, but Marina really still can´t understand why I would not eat jamon. Being vegetarian here is worthy of its own post too, so if you´re lucky I will talk about it more later. When I arrived to the house I explained to them that my boyfriend had surprised me from California, and that I would really love to go down to Sevilla to spend more time with him while he is in the same country. My wish was granted and so for the very first weekend of my time with them, they allowed me to go to the south of Spain. Our agreement before my arrival was that I would only take one day off on the weekends. This is because during the week, Carmen and Carlos work everyday. They want me to work one weekend day so that they can spend time with me and practice their english. I am so happy that things worked out and that I was able to take three days off. My grandfather put it well when he said ´What kind of boss lets you have the first weekened off?´
My first impressions of Talavera were so-so. I had just come from Salamanca, where the old town is big and beautiful and lively. Here in Talavera the old town is very old, but not quite as lively and beautiful. Well I suppose it is beautiful in its own way. (Pictures to come later). They drove me around town through many different round-abouts and showed me important things that I should see later. To this day, I still don´t know where some of the places are that they drove me to, but I will find them before December! They also took me to my first time in a Corte Ingles. WOW. Corte Ingles is like a giant department store with a supermarket, clothing, books, travel agency, hair salon, stationary store, etc. All of these things together is interesting to me, to say the least. (By the way, I find out later the Corte Ingles is also the only place that sells peanut butter). When we went on errands later that week, I noticed how well the family dresses, and how well other familys dress when they leave their house. It never gets old to me how cute the girls look in their matching dresses. Another thing that impressed me during my first week, was the amount of chocolate and sugar that the girls eat. I know exactly where to find the fattening stuff in this house and it is very dangerous for me!
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| Lucia, Alejandra (Marina´s soul sister), and Marina in the yard. |
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| Some flowers from their yard. They refer to their yard as a jardin. |
Oh, and I miss my friends and family :)
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