Friday, November 8, 2013


 During one the of the worship songs the pastor paused everyone to ask them to try to remember when they had sung a song to someone in their lives. He went on to talk about how worship is our singing to the Lord in adoration of him, that just as when we sung to someone at one point in our lives and our heart and mind was focused on them in that moment so we must be focused upon the object of our adoration during worship. I thought it was a good point especially how I can sometimes slip into autopilot during worship or become more focused on the act of singing itself.
After talking about this the pastor called his wife up and they sung to each other! Haha, I thought that was about the sweetest real-life example that could have been made on the spot J.
 Hahaha, this last Sunday we had a HUGE Spanish meal after the service and I helping set up tables and stuff when I walked into the kitchen and saw this heating up. Bleh! Haha, to one of the congregation members working in the kitchen I was like, “what in the world is that”!? She told me it was a blood sausage… Alright then, bring on the Spanish food!
 Yuuuuummy! Sausages are super popular in Spain so check out this dish that was served for lunch.
 Ahhh, this stuff was heavenly. It was kind of a garbanzo bean soup that was soooo delicious. I went back for thirds on this feller.
 Pastor expressing my sentiments on the food.
 So this is as we were just getting sat down. It was an amazing spread and great fellowship.
 Wow, debated on whether to post this pic. Well, the garbanzo soup was good and I was a pretty happy camper (as you can tell by the goofy grin while the pastor was taking a picture).
 Okay, let me tell ya what we got here. This is a mix of “manitas” (pig feet), blocks of cooked pork fat (front row on the plate), and finally some cuts of pork (on the right there). Yeah, pretty wonky right! Haha, oh man. So they graciously instructed me in the ways of eating this stuff though and it was to take a big hunk of fat, a chunk of meat, a good portion of sausage (all varieties made it better), and mix it up as much as possible on your plate.
Oof, that was the heaviest food (calorically speaking) that I think I’ve ever eaten! It left your lips all buttery from the fat and felt like a rock in your gut! Haha, but it was so delicious, they definitely have a nice tradition going on with this one.

 Okay, so this is my little blood sausage friend. Yes, blood. Basically this is a Jew’s nightmare. You take the blood of a pig and make a sausage out of it… Needless to saw it was a little weird but not bad. Had kind of a grainy texture. I think they let is coagulate too much before curing it. Haha JK, just trying to gross you guys out ;-)

 So here is the mixed product I was talking about early (fat, meat, and sausage). Nuuuummy! 
 Ah, and at the end they brought out this rice pudding that was pretty much to die for. Awesome stuff.
 Yes, another goofy face to prove that the stuff rocked.
 Okay, so now we’re back at school and let me explain. When I teach 1st grade science on Monday (yeah that one really stretches me… not), there’s a lot of drawing on the board that goes on. This day there were pretty big gaps between when I would tell them what to do and when they would finish it, and so I would draw a silly smiley face on the board or something while I was waiting.

I love 1st graders because everything in life that is slightly humorous to us is gut-wrenchingly hilarious to them. These faces I would draw were kind of funny but when the class saw them they would roar with laughter. The teacher kept on looking at me like “Nathan you big kid.” Finally she gave me a sad face and a red spot which for the little kids means they were naughty little fellers. Hahahaha, seeing their teacher “punished” with the same punishment they get so their mom’s know they misbehaved made them laugh all the more and it spread through the school like wildfire and I had 4th graders asking me about it. Life is so much fun J.
 Haha, so this is one of the teachers and the doorman who made out the keys put this message in his key ring. It means “for the handsome one of the school.” Haha, we had fun with this one.
 Little tree removal going on when I was leaving on Tuesday. Not sure why they took down this gorgeous palm but I’m sure it’s legitimate.

Okay, so this pic just calls for praise to the Lord. Ah man, I set off from my flat to run an errand in the town square and I started off in the wrong direction on a one-way street. You have to understand that these little Spanish streets are like alleys and because the houses are all connected you can hear for blocks if any car is coming and so it’s really not dangerous at all and I’ve done it many times before. However, I thought this time, ”I probably shouldn’t ride against traffic like this,” but quickly thought about all the reasons I gave above… I didn’t think about other bikers coming from the cross streets!


Of course I didn’t hear her and I couldn’t stop in time when this late middle-aged women (late fifties, early sixties) popped out in front of me! I flattened her and myself. Oh man, no one was hurt and only her show got scuffed. We were both so startled by it and she had thrown her chain in the impact and so I put it back on (hence the dirty paws). Afterwards though I was riding and realized, “oh my goodness, she could have broken her hip, or back, or, or, or.” Oh man, I said a prayer of thanks right there, that could have gone so badly!