Madrid Open

The Madrid Open just ended today here in, well, Madrid. Luke and I caught a first round match and it just so happened to feature a fellow American and Nebraskan. Guess who....yes, Andy Roddick. Now, if we were in the US I'd never cheer for him but I felt an obligation to do so here. That feeling ended when he threw down his racket and dropped a few "f" bombas. Luke was out getting something to eat and missed that exciting part of the match. It was a great experience being there and one day I'd love to go to Wimbledon or the US Open. Until then...vamos Nadal!!

Our Mugs

And, if you haven't seen us lately this is what we look like :)

March Highlight

We are making up for lost time with lots of posts today. In March (I think), my friend Kate asked me to go with her and another girlfriend up to the mountains for a little Sunday cross-country skiing. I definitely jumped at the opportunity as one, I had never done it and two, I probably wouldn't have another chance to do it this winter and...in Spain! Here are some pics from that adventure.

Kate and Kate
Thanks to Brian, Kate's hubby, for letting me borrow some ski pants!
Tep, Katie, and Kate

San Sebastián

Looking out towards the beach.
I (Katie) really am into the roofs here in Spain.
Our partner-in-crime, Blake.
Beach action. Loaded up on the 30spf sunscreen.

Just a little peak at our trip up to San Sebastián.

Semana Santa

Hello all! This week is Semana Santa here in Spain, which means I don't have to work and I have all sorts of time to get things done... like play Call of Duty. But I am taking a break from my busy schedule to write a blog post. I was planning on writing a political diatribe, but Katie made me promise that I would put that off until later and write about what we have been doing lately. So here we are.

We just go back from a town called San Sebastian this weekend. We had heard all sorts of great things about this place and it certainly lived up to the hype. It's a beautiful town in the north of Spain a couple miles from the French border. It's right on the sea and there's a lot of good surfing there. Katie, Blake and I rented a car in Madrid which I expertly piloted for our three day excursion. There were a few hiccups though, because I hadn't driven a stick for about 3 years. I killed it three times in the parking lot right when we got going, but I got my feet back under me and we were on our way.

The northern part of Spain is really beautiful. We all agreed on this point, but Blake took it a bit overboard with his comparisons. During a period of about two hours he managed to compare the landscape to: France, Colorado, California, New Zealand, and the surface of Mars. There were a lot more but they've slipped my mind.

Anyway. We actually went to a town called Santander first where we all shared a king size bed in a 4 star hotel. Naturally I ended up in the warm center of that sandwich, which wasn't very pleasant. But those memories should be easily suppressible... We went to the beach at both towns and had a nice relaxing time. We also saw a lot of boobs. The beaches were clearly labeled "non-nude", but what self respecting overweight spanish octogenarian follows the rules! There's just some things that you can't unsee.

Blake and I tried surfing. It turned out to be more of a "let's see how much saltwater we can swallow in one afternoon" type of deal, but I am improving. I stood up for about 1.5 seconds once. It was long enough to scream "Yeeeeaaahhhh" and then go crashing back under water.

But I digress. The last several months have been good. The weather has been fantastic and school has been going pretty well. We have spent a lot of time hanging out with the team of people that Berean sent over here. There's Ryan, Jenee and their son Sam. Blake and Nick, who live together. Then Ashley, Nikki, Stacy, and Erin. Katie and I get to babysit Sam every Friday. He's a flipping riot. He likes to dance to music and play with iPhones. I think that's pretty standard for 11 month olds.

Katie just ran the half marathon a couple weeks ago! She finished with a better time than last year and didn't complain as much afterward, which I consider a bigger feat for her! I have also been working out. I'm going on about a month and a half right now of working out regularly. So far the results are mainly mental, but I've got a good feeling the work will show eventually...

Alright, that's all for now. My 45 minutes of internet at Starbucks are almost up so I need to get going. I'll try to get that political diatribe on here ASAP.

Luke

Sun, Sand, and Speedos

This weekend Luke and I traveled to Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. I was very much looking forward to the sun and sand and the tagline of "The Land of Eternal Spring." Tenerife is located off of the western coast of Africa. I was told you could drive around the island in an hour-hour and half. It boasts of two climates. The north is mainly mountainous and rains a lot during the year. In the winter it's not unusual to have snow. The southern part is where most of the beaches and resorts are. It plays around the 65-70 degree range in the winter.

So, off we go at 4:30 am to catch our flight. We arrive and the weather is brilliant (key vocab for some of our British friends). You can't really beat 65 degree weather when you've been living in 30 degrees. It's like a late spring/early summer morning where you can feel a tinge of humidity but it's still refreshing. A slight breeze. We arrive to the hotel (boasts as a resort) that we only paid 30 euros a night for and go straight to see the new pad. Oak closets, newly refurbished bathroom, flatscreen tv, and....where's the bed? Apparently,all our "studio" suite has was a pull out couch/bed. No worries. We are on an island and it's beautiful. That morning we enjoyed a 3 euro full English breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, and tomatoes).

Friday was entertaining at the very least. We discovered that we were the youngest (not counting grandchildren) people on the beach (dare I say island). I think Tenerife becomes a retirement community during the winter where lots of British and other Northern Europeans come to escape the cold. This vacation was pretty much a study in geriatrics with lots of these questions finding answers: What do you wear for sandals when you are older? How old is too old when wearing a bikini? (no limit) Does "if you've got it, flaunt it" refer to wearing speedos? How many people can you see wearing socks with sandals in one day? and Is that lady wearing a swimsuit top? (no). People watching couldn't have been better.

We bummed around Friday and just took in the sites. Saturday morning it rained. Then it rained at lunchtime, and then again during the afternoon. No tanning for us, which I 'spose was good for me as I would've certainly come back with a burn instead of a tan. We watched a lot of Spanish t.v. and read books. Not your typical island adventure but fun to relax in a different environment. We topped off the day with a dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Our appetizer: Chicken Nachos. What appeared: 4 (yes, f-o-u-r) normal-sized tortilla chips with a little piece of chx and some cheese on them. 5 euros. Where else can one tortilla chip cost you over a euro. Although that was mind-blowing, we had some good fajitas and called it a night.

Here we are, back in Madrid and ready to start the week. Hope everyone is well and had a restfull weekend.

Blessings,
Katie

Lloyd

Well, it's time for another insightful, funny, and witty blog post... let's see if I can deliver. Note: this may veer toward the sentimental because Katie is watching "It's a Wonderful Life", but I promise to try my best to keep this from happening.

It's Christmas day 2010. Katie and I opened our presents this morning. I got some shoes, a watch, a sweatshirt, and another shirt. Katie got a nose piercing (in gift certificate form), a hat, gloves, socks, and a PATA! A pata is an animal leg, not to be continued with a human leg, which is a pierna. Over here in spain they love to eat ham. More specifically they love to eat Jamon Iberico. They slice really thin pieces off directly off the leg, and they're delicious! I need a sharper knife though because I butchered it this morning...and not in the proper way.

Christmas has been good so far. Katie has transcended beyond her normal holiday anxiety. She hates buying Christmas presents because she is worried that people won't like them! But I like everything present she's ever given me (wink wink). It's doesn't really feel like Christmas though. There is no snow and It's really beautiful outside, which i spose isn't all bad.

I think it's time that I should tell you about all of the wonderful people that we've met here. But they're so few, so I'll just tell you about all our friends! Let's see, what order to go in... chronologically, topically... I think I'll go by stature, but bottom up. Shortest to tallest. Allow me to introduce you to Emily Lloyd Hamilton.

When we arrived at our school for the first day we met the other full time assistant. A bright eyed little ray of sunshine from a tiny speck of land called Whales. For those of you in Nebraska scratching your heads, Whales is basically England. They carved out a little chunk of that Island for themselves and I think they may even have a representative in British Parliament. Emily hails from a town called Swansea (Pronounced Swanzi - lol). She speaks with a very funny accent is very fond of using the word "loads". Loads of this, loads of that. She is 21 years old and has a boyfriend named Jim (James in Whales, but we call him Jim). Jim plays american football for his University team so we have been trying to explain the game to Emily with limited success. She asks questions like "when do they do the thing where they throw the ball between their legs?" It's going to be a long and laborious process...

I am going to have to lump the rest of our church friends into one. Warren, Karen, Andrew, Andrea, Brian, Kate, and Simon. Simon is the lone single man of the group. Now, I'm not going to blame this on his Northern Irish heritage... but... FYI it is not polite to refer to the drink an "Irish Car Bomb" in the company of the Irish OR the Northern Irish. Surprisingly they have another name for it. Anyway, Simon teaches PE at the American School here and is the leader of our house group. He's a good guy and has exactly one good joke. It goes like this. "Have you heard about that stalker that stabs and kills those celebrity women from romantic comedies? Like that one lady, Reece......" and then you say "Witherspoon", and he says "no, it was with a knife." ha ha. Katie loved it.

Warren and Karen. Warren is from Manchester, England and Karen is from those parts too, but I'm not sure where. They've lived in Madrid for ten years, but Warren's Spanish is still embarrassing (same goes for Simon) :). Karen is fluent. They were quick to welcome us invited us to eat dinner with them right away (and Andrew and Andrea). Warren is a huge fan of giving people a hard time. We get along well.

Andrew and Andrea are from Texas and Canada, respectively, though neither of them carry the expected accent though. They both work at the American School here, Andrea as a teacher and Andrew as an IT guy. They were the first people that we met at the church and have been good friends. Andrew helped me jailbreak my iphone which was a godsend.

Well that's all for now. This blog post took about 3 weeks to finally complete and you can expect another one very soon.

Ciao,

Luke