So for those who don’t know the time difference over here in Spain is nine hours ahead. They say that you adjust about two hours per night from your original time. Well, that was true for the first five hours and then those last four were just stuck in the pipeline. Aaaaarg! I could not get to sleep before 1:00 and even then I would wake up constantly through the night. It made for some man moments when I would have to get up at 6 something to travel.

So finally I wised up and went searching for this blessed compound, melatonin. It’s a natural hormone that we secrete when exposed to a dark environment and which triggers sleep. Instructions: take one 1.9mg tablet an hour before be. Actions: took 3 1.9mg tablets an hour before bed. Results: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, ah blessed zzzzzzzz.

 Hmm, found this church online today in my town. It’s a little Christian evangelical church, I think I’ll go check it out J

Here we go, iglesia evangelica: casa de dios = Evangelical church: house of God.

 Well, here’s the place when I arrive. I wasn’t sure what time they started so I just tried like to act like an American going to church and that way I would for sure be at least an hour early. LOL that was exactly what happened!

 Doing a bit of chilling before the service. Haha, the guy across the street had a house FULL of birds. It was so loud it became annoying sitting on the curb across from his house. Definitely not my choice of home sweet home.

 

 La iglesia! It was a tiny little congregation but I really like them that way. These were the friendliest people I’ve almost ever met! I don’t know if it was me being a foreigner, or new to their church (probably a combination of both) but I seriously was given almost a dozen phone numbers and told to call anybody if I ever needed anything. They were offering to give me tours of the neighboring cities, take me on bike rides, have me over for dinner, ah man they were incredible.

Ha, I’ve never spoken so much Spanish in two hours of my life! Oh, it was such a sweet experience getting to the end of the two hours and realizing that it wasn’t really taking much work to speak anymore, it was coming naturally! Yeeeeah! That’s what I be here for J

 The police cars in Chipiona. Haha, I bet I could outrun that one in the rear on my bike. Not the most supped up vehicles I’ve ever seen.

 Ah the cathedral, Nuestra señora de la regla. Beautiful construction right on the beach.

 First day at school baby! Here’s one of the hallrooms.

 And some ginormous murals in the atrium of the school.

The playground. Definitely not lacking for room to romp

 Ah, this is so terrible but this is the teacher that I worked with for a lot of the day and I DON’T REMEMBER HIS NAME! Give me some grace though because I learned so many names yesterday. Not only over a dozen teachers but a bunch of the students names as well. Whew, it’ll take a little bit. An interesting phenomenon with speaking another language is that foreign names just don’t make the impression on your mind like native names do. For instance, if someone tells me their name is Jim it’s pretty easy to remember, it just sticks. Now if they tell me their name is María José it is somehow sooo easy to forget.

I helped him out with a lot of different things including organizing the lessons, saying the names of the months and days of the week in English with the kids (his pronunciation was pretty wonky at time, but hey, that’s why they have me J), and helping the kids trace their letters. A grand old time!

 Haha, right after I took this picture one of the kids was like, “wait, are you taking a picture”? I was like, “if you say hi to all my friends in the states I’ll take another.” The next shot was the product of that J

 Pensar con las manos = think with your hands! Now this is my type of curriculum! Haha, no more of that horrible Saxon math (sorry for all you Saxon lovers but I like to pensar con las manos).

 Hahahaha, Rincón de la tristeza means corner of sadness. I saw this sign as I was walking out of the classroom and I’m guessing it was the “time-out” spot. Man, sounds kind of intense though doesn’t it? “Alright Juan, it’s time for you spend a little time in the… CORNER OF SADNESS, bwahahahaha (deep, rumbling, evil laugh)”!

 The teacher’s lounge

Okay, so I’m thinking the oranges from the local market are organic by default. Umm, yeah, I pulled all those worms out of it. Yummy! Get your protein and carbs in one convenient little package, que bueno!