First of all, check out that Spanish “snack” spread! 

For context the man on the left is Manuel and goes to our church. When his wife heard I was looking for a bike she told me her friend’s parents had a summer home where they kept a bike all the off season (the whole time I’m here) and they were wondering if I wanted to borrow it. Wow, that was quite an offer! They were pretty insistent and so I took them up on it. The summer home was in a neighboring town (and they were staying there for the weekend) so when we got there they made us some coffee and put out this spread. Such a grand time! The guy on the left actually knew a bunch about the US and in particular the Oregon Trail, which really surprised me.

The is a picture of the other houses from the rooftop. It’s basically a big complex of condos.

 Haha, a shot of Manuel cleaning up the lawn chairs

 After our coffee we all (seven in total) went out and walked on the beach and around the town a bit. Cute little summer town really.

 There was an artificial lake near all the town houses with palms between it and the beach. A lovely evening it was.

 Ah, this pictures didn’t turn out like I hoped because what I thought was interesting about this house in Sanlucar de Barrameda was the rubber tree they has growing like ivy under the roof edge. Pretty picturesque little house.

 Oh yeah, my new ride!

 It’s seen better days but it sooooooo beats walking! Man, after having a bike on campus and being able to zip from point A to point B my patience for walking as a form of transportation has been utterly destroyed.

 Back at school watching little Antony scribble fast!

 Hahahaha, let me explain. This was first grade and the teacher wanted me to work with the kids on the names of the body parts on the face and also the colors and to do so invent a monster that “lives” in the United States. Kind of felt like I was lying to the little kids telling them this thing lived in the states but I went along with it. So they had to draw this thing with the three eyes, two noses, etc. It was fun, they got a kick out of the drawing and who doesn’t love to doodle at six years old (haha, or twenty two)?

 Yee hah! Haha, look who’s influencing the bunch at school! I showed up and about half a dozen of them had smiley faces on their thumbs. I guess I get a smiley thumbs up for my teaching today

 Another girl had their letters on her hand and could alternate hiding and revealing fingers to spell the words of a Spanish sentence. I thought that was pretty clever.

 Hahaha, I don’t know what the face quest was about here but I was digging the smiley faces on Pepe’s fingers.

 Okay, so you think scruff is "in" in America, nothing like what it is in Spain! Even the police officers are all scruffy and thus of course many of the male teachers are. Feel a bit unprofessional at times but I guess when in Spain scruff as the Spaniards right? Haha, it’s a one season thing ;-)

 A castaña! It’s a nut here that has a really soft shell and a very unique flavor. A teacher was peeling and crunching them down in the lounge and I was like, “what in the world are you eating”?

 Here she is going at it

 Haha, it is really interesting relating to little ones sometimes. For this exercise they were supposed to copy only the parts that were noted by the hyphen on the left. I went around to every table with my hand covering all the stuff above that and explaining the assignment and trying to make eye contact with each student to make sure that they understood. The picture below is where I walked back to one of the tables and saw that the student (usually the best in the class) had copied everything in the box… Ah man! Haha, I didn’t say anything I was just bewildered at how he and others still missed the goal with how explicit I was. Whew, different mental processes at this age I guess.

 Was getting a bit shaggy up top so I went looking for a hair cut. Found this place that offered a good price called “Pon T Wap@.” Actually a really clever name but it’s kind of difficult to explain. Nice place but when she was done she grabbed this wax and spiked up my hair. Yeah, that didn’t last too long lol.

 A pic of the front desk.

 A picture of one of the streets in Sanlucar de Barrameda. One of the church members has his real estate office on this street and we meet in it on Fridays for a Bible study. It’s actually really good and my favorite meeting of the week. We sing for a bit and then the pastor shares a message, but the whole format is kind of informal and intimate.

 Haha, Isaac the pastor’s son came from Soccer right before and was a little drowsy. He kept nodding off during the study.

 Here’s the group we had this last Friday. Normally there’s a couple more but they were busy that night. Haha, Miguel on the far left is such a character. They pronounce google here with the “e” at the end sounding like the name for the letter “a.” When they said it the first time I couldn’t help laughing and they were like “well how do you say it.” When I told them they thought it was equally funny and Miquel is saying it here for the picture. Goooooogle.

 Ah, after the meeting I went up on my rooftop for a couple minutes (the night was so nice) and there was the Cathedral in the distance all lit up. I wish my cameral took better pics at night because it’s truly gorgeous.

 Okay, so I took these shots while running by the beaches to the north of the town. Guess who made these crude wall? None other than… The Romans! Seriously, I was pretty surprised when people told me that. They built them so they could fish more easily. Below are some more pictures.

Oh, and also I think they did it to create areas where shellfish could be gathered with greater ease.

 So here’s a shot so you can get a feel for where they’re located. North of the lighthouse but not by much.