I Am So Bad at Naming These Post, So This is the Title.

Whoo, oooh, whew...am I ever going to be able to time these things right. Keeping up with a busy, transient, and shifting schedule can be an adventure sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really that busy, or if I've just gotten so good at procrastination that it feels like I'm actually working. Or maybe it's both. Or neither, something different entirely. Who knows (except God of course), but here goes me trying to make my somewhat mundane life sound at least a little interesting for all you willing to trudge through these posts. Ok, it's not really a "trudge," but it's such a good dramatic word, and maybe it will make you feel even more obliged to read, just to prove that you're willing to real this and not that it is a obligation. Oh how I love all you who I have no idea who you are. Thanks for enjoying my adventures with me :)

Mostly nothing that interesting has been happening. I've had a lot of meals with my host family, and I continue to try to understand and talk and be social and not freak out from Spanish overload. It's going pretty good. I eat most lunches with my host mother's parents, who live in the same apartment complex, about a 30 second walk away from where I'm living. I'm apart of the worship team here in the Hoyo church, which has been really fun. I mostly play ukelele, which they all thing is such a fascinating little instrument. And being little, it doesn't make that much noise, which is nice, because I can play without worrying how bad I sound. It's given me some good practice, since I'm still not very good.

One of the people I've been connecting with here is Carl (I'm just giving him that name because I don't want to use his actual name, but I don't want to be referring to an initial for the next four months). His mother-tongue is English, but he speaks very good Spanish, so it's been nice being able to chat a learn with him. He too, like me, is interested in and enjoys music, so it's been fun chatting it up about music theory as well as jamming out on piano/guitar/uke/drums. Plus, his kids are just the most precious things, and I'm friends with them. In fact, his eldest son, the same one who last week was strutting around saying, "I'm Asher," with my coat and scarf, told his mother, "I have a new best friend, Asher." Yeah, that pretty much made my life.

Another general statement: everything is in Spanish. I know, isn't that surprising, being here in Spain and all? But I was particularly thing of TV related things. I've watched a few american movies in Spanish. And plus all the TV my host family watches, I feel like I've been doused in images and ideas that don't really have much clarity and are accompanied by gibberish. Ok, it's not really that bad, but there definitely comes a point when my attention span has waned and I just sit there, a vegetable enjoying all the pretty pictures. Sometimes I wonder if it's more disorienting than actually helping with anything. But who knows, maybe my brain is picking up things without my knowledge of its doing so, and it's just storing it all up until one day it shall all pour forth and I shall be the master of all things Spanish. I think that might be wishful thinking. Or maybe it's storing up all the knowledge so it can use it against me. Is my brain contemplating mutiny? Hmm, I'll have to think about that one....

I still visit Madrid sometimes. I mostly go down there to visit our friends there or play music or for our team meetings. It's actually kind of nice because it gives me a change in scenery once in a while. Plus, the bus ride is long and comfortable (it's a coach-ish bus), so I have some nice relaxed time to think and read and listen to music or chat with Reneé when we're traveling together. One problem, though, that I encountered, is that the bus routes are different during weekends and weekdays, which can make it a bit confusing. The worst part is that no one had thought to tell me this, and since we had mainly been traversing on the weekends, I ended up waiting at the wrong bus stop my first weekday trip. What probably would have been a 7-10 minute wait turned into nearly an hour wait, missing three or four buses. Finally someone walking by stopped, and, having enough common sense to see that this boy had no idea what he was doing, had the compassion to tell him he had to go to the other bus stop. Thank you random ladies, you were my saviors that day.

Hopefully that gives you a general idea of what I'm doing; going here or there, doing this or that on a regular basis. But, thankfully, it's not all the same all the time, there are some other things happening.

Last, last Friday (the 8th) I went to dinner with my host mom, Emily, my host brother, John, and John's friend Mike (again, these are all fake names, I'm not really sure if it's ok to use their real names, I'll see if I can find out). Anyways, we went for dinner at a Arab place and we had what they call a "Kebob." It was sort of like a gyro, but with a slightly different sauce and meat. Well, I was able to keep up with and participate in most of the conversation at that dinner, so that was encouraging. That's not to say I feel confidant in my Spanish now, but it's nice to know there are some things I can do with it.

The following Saturday (the 9th) the church held a surprise anniversary party for our pastor and his wife. It was fun, meaning I just mainly sat there watching people play "Couples" games and I played with kids and generally didn't understand fully what was going on. Near the end they had some dancing (more what I would consider a rhythmic sway, not really doing much else than stepping back and forth), and people were jumping in and grabbing partners and stealing partners and so on. Well I jumped in, of course, and being a bit bored of just rocking back and forth, I incorporated a basic spin. Suffice to say, it was an easy-to-please crowd. They were quite impressed with the simple spin. I had a good time dancing. (It actually got me a job of teaching a girl some basic dancing for her fifteenth birthday coming up, the big birthday e for Hispanic girls. I'm a little nervous about it though, I've never really taught that much dancing before).

Just the cutest thing.

I know right!? Just too cute!

Last Wednesday (the 13th) after music practice I went with some friends to their house so I would know were it was since we had plans to hang out on Friday. I ended up staying for a little over an hour playing ping-pong on their dinning-room table. They had this little clip on net that went on the table, which was a bit short and quite a bit thin. It was interesting, but also fun. I do love a good game of ping-pong.

Then last Friday Carl took Reneé and me out for a hike. Hoyo del Manzanares is situated in the mountains, so there are some really beautiful country sides and trails and views, and all those other wonderful things associated with mountains. We hiked for about forty-five minutes to a little waterfall and then climbed up the summit near there to get a better few. It was all just so gorgeous and grandiose. One of the best pluses was that we ended up going on pretty much the only nice day we've had so far since we got here—sunny, warm, clear skies. Just perfect.

I'm happy to be in this beautiful day in this beautiful place.

Do you remember the Roman aqueduct from last week, how it was made with no mortar. Well in its past, Hoyo was known for it's incredible masonry, and there are a lot of walls through out and around the town that are made entirely of cut stone, no mortar. Simply incredible!

This is one that was up in the mountain that looked like it used to be for a water pipe to transfer water into town. We weren't really sure.

After the hike, for the rest of the afternoon, Reneé and I hung out with the people with whom I played ping-pong on Wednesday night. They have three kids, so things are always interesting, and usually includes quite a bit of not understanding. We went to the park and I ended up playing fútbol with them. I am so out of practice, pretty sure I only helped the stereotype that American's can't play soccer, sorry to all you American's who can.

Saturday, Reneé and I went into Madrid to help a family from the church with their move. Helping mostly consisted of carrying a lot of boxes up three and a half flights of stairs to their fourth floor apartment. I got quite a stair work out, good for the leg muscles. The worst part though was the washing machine. I carried it up with one other person, backwards up those three and a half flights of stairs (somewhere around 35 steps). They asked me if I'd be available to help with another move sometime soon, I said I'd be busy ;) Just kidding, I'd love to help.
That evening my host mom, with one of her friends, took me to a baroque concert because I'd said I like classical music. It was really cool to see and hear all the old style instruments (harpsichord, fifteen-string lyre, six-string and fretted cello, a soprano singer, and wooden recorder), but we all agreed that an hour and a half of it was enough. The plangy harpsichord is not something I would enjoy listening to for a long time. Afterwards we went to a very yummy pizza place for dinner. Had some good conversations and listened in on some I-don't-really-understand conversations. It's still always a mix of "I think I know what you are talking about" and "................, yeah, didn't catch that."

Sunday I got the news that my Grandfather had passed away Saturday. We'd been expecting it for a while, and especially in his last few days as things seemed to be declining, and he himself was definitely ready to finally see his Lord and Savior face to face, but it is sad to think of him not being here anymore. I'm doing actually pretty well with it, the hardest part is being so far from family and not being able to love on them during this time. It's family, though, that makes it this bearable, knowing that Granddad left behind a whole bundle of people who have been influenced by him and whose lives are changed because of the example he gave and the prayer he continually interceded on our behalves and the pure joy in following Christ he radiated in everything he did. He was a man after God's own heart and his memory is a sweet one, he will be missed.

As the beauty of the flower fades,
As the glow of the moon wanes
So this life we all live
Must eventually do the same

But the flower re-seads and the moon waxes again,
The ripples of a sinking stone across the pond remain.
And if this life we correctly live
Our effect will also be the same

We live our lives the way do
because of the influences of the those involved.
So remember that with each thing you do
It will be the thing by which people remember you.

~We love and miss you Granddad, but we thank you for the example you gave us~


Well, Monday came next after Sunday, as is usually the case. I started the day with a three hour hike up into the mountains, this time with my host mom and her brother-in-law. We climbed up to La Tortuga (one of the peaks/summits of the mountains that looks like a turtle), but unfortunately it was a very fogging day so we didn't get to see the main attraction of the trip, the gorgeous views. Oh well, I guess it's just an excuse to go up again. We did see some fun caves that were used during the Spanish Civil War by refugees. And the mountainside itself was very beautiful, even without its further-away views.

That afternoon I went with most of my extended host family to have lunch for Abuelo's birthday. It was fun to enjoy being a part of the whole-family experience. It's always good to see people smiling and laughing and bickering and talking and loving in the way only a family can. I do miss mine quite a lot, love you guys.

I'll end there because nothing really exciting happened on Tuesday, and we'll pick up next time at Wednesday. Thanks again for being a part of my journey here. My host mom said that I should share her website so that you guys can look at it and learn a little more if you want. So, if you'd like you can visit Espaten.com. It's mostly about her restaurant, but there's a little bit about her, too.
As usual questions and comments can go here on the blog, etc. You know the drill, and if you don't, go read my other blogs and catch up.

Love and miss you all so very much. Have a fabulous week (or longer if I don't get around to blogging again in the next week).
Adios amigos,

Many Loves and Misses,
~Asher Fickett~

Moving Too Fast To Keep Up...

...Moving too fast to keep up with the blog, that is. And by moving, I mean moving from Madrid to Hoyo de Manzanares, plus all the little moving from-here-to-there bits that I did in between. Pretty much, I have a lot to catch you up on, so buckle down, because we have a lot of ground to cover.

I need to fill you guys in on two whole weeks. I left off on Thursday, the 24th of January. It's weird to think I've already been here for over a month, things feel like they are moving so incredibly fast. But also at the same time it feels like I've spent ten months here, everything has been so packed. And yet, looking back, it sometimes looks like I haven't really been doing much, so why did it feel so busy. Although, it did at some points seem like I had too much down time, even if I had a full schedule. Wow, ain't Time a funny thing.

One more thing, for whatever reason, when I upload photos they don't stay in the order I had them in, and with this program it's very tedious to move stuff around, so I apologize in advance if pictures end up out of place. I'll try my best, but just enjoy the view, in whatever way in comes :)

This is one of the "Persianas" I told you about,
the shutters that block out all light.

This is when it's not quite completely closed.

That following weekend (after the last update), I had a few adventures, some for the better, and some not so much. First, on Friday, our super-wonderful Spanish teacher informed us that it was her last day with us because she had to teach a different class the following week. That was sad, but I'm thankful for the time we had with her, she was very nice and patient with us. Next, remember how I said my toe had started hurting again? Well on Friday it became evident that it wasn't the pinched nerve again, but some odd fungus/wart thing that had cropped up on my toe. Seriously, why do my feet hate me? But wait, it gets better. Because of the pain caused by the weird fungus/wart and the limping I did to compensate for that, I woke up on Saturday with quite a bit of pain in the big toe of my other foot. Really?! Lets work together here, feet, not in opposition. We need each other, so stop rebelling, ugh.

Here's the progression of my wart/fungus over the next couple of days. Ooh, gross!

Yes, at this point it broke/opened/popped and oozed some. Just adding some more complication since there wasn't already enough.

Anyways, on Saturday my host family took me to El Escorial, a town about an hour out of Madrid. It was really cool to walk around the old town. My favorite part was the old monastery there and the amazing view out over the country side. The one problem, both my feet were hurting. I ended up doing this really awkward double limp thing that probably made me look like a bobbling, hobbling duck. I tried my best to not let it show because I didn't want my host family to start worrying about me on top of everything else. I mean, try explaining some odd wart/fungus thing that you don't even know what it is in a language you barely speak. Ya, I tried a couple of times in my head, it didn't go so well.

The hand is purposeful, I couldn't figure out any other way to keep the sun from creating a major glare. Phone camera.

For lunch they took me to this fun little restaurant that gives you a little mini-grill for your table and then raw meat, so you cook it yourself, it was cool and very tasty.

Nothing really happened then till Wednesday. We went to church on Sunday, continued on with school on Monday, though with a new teacher, who was good, but not as good as our old one. The pain in both my feet continued to persist, increase, and flow and ebb in throbs of pain.

This is our classroom :)

Madrid has wild parrots, it's very fun to see them around. This is in a park near the B.'s house.

 Then on Wednesday (the 30th of January) I had an appointment with the foot doctor again. Thank goodness there are people who know about these things. It turns out the the thing I had been calling the "wart/fungus thing" was actually fungus, but it goes deeper than that (pun intended). There was also I bacteria infection. The doctor believes that the fungus came first, which opened up my toe to the bacterial infection. He took this little knife thing and scraped it out, it was amazing how quickly the pain decreased after that. Apparently, when traveling in new countries, our bodies are much more susceptible to diseases and infection since our immune systems don't have antibodies for local things there. And since the space between toes are so nice and warm and moist, it provides a perfect little spa resort for any little bacteria or fungus that wants to tag along. So, moral of the story, when traveling, make sure you clean between your toes very well, and change your socks everyday (which most of you probably do anyways). The problem with the other foot turned out to be tendinitus, probably caused from over stressing the toe, such as limping on it because of pain on the other foot. I left his office with answers (finally), cleaned fungus, a prescription for antibiotics just to be on the safe side to make sure the bacteria infection didn't get into my blood stream, instructions to wear anti-inflamtory pads on my tendinitus toe, and a check-up appointment for Monday.

Thursday consisted of going to school and then coming home and napping and doing homework. And biggest  plus, I got to FaceTime mom and dad, so good! Love those two so much! Too bad Baruch was at school, would have loved to see him too.

Friday was our last day of school at the InternationalHouse. I think we've learned a lot, but there is a whole lot more to go. Friday evening we went with some friends for tapas, little snack foody things that come with a drink at cafés. To finish off the evening we had "Chocolate con churros," which is super fabulous. It's these fried, bready things that you dip in super-thick, super-delicious hot chocolate. So good!

 Saturday I went with some friends from school to Segovia, another city close to Madrid. We took the speed train, so it was only thirty minutes. The speed train was super cool :)
I'll just let the pictures and their captions tell the story of the day, it was so awesome.

This is a two-million year old Roman Aqueduct
 from sometime during the first century.

It's made with no mortar,  it's just solid stone-upon-stone.

It was in use, like actually being used to transport water for the city, until about thirty years ago when they decided to stop using it to make sure it remained preserved. So yes, it is still functional, even though it's not in use at the moment.

Some views of places visible from and near the aqueduct.

It was quite a cute, quant little town.

This is the beautiful cathedral.

Very big and grandiose. 

Some views of the inside.

 

A fun little enclosed courtyard.

Looking up at the Cathedral from the courtyard.

One of the odd little spire things up close.

This is a book of old music. Being interested in music and music theory and music history (thank you Mrs. Krechel) I found it very interesting to study the note taking format they used.

And back outside...

A smaller church down the road with a very lovely little bell tower.

Some more of the city.

The dish that Segovia is most known for is its roasted suckling pig. How couldn't miss such an opportunity to try the local dish. We had it for lunch and it was very good!

Hmmmm, yummmmm!

This is the castle "Alcázar," which supposedly Disney based their castle off of. But that's only speculation.

It had such a nice view. Wished I could live there, *sigh.*

I mean, just look how gorgeous that is.

Some more of the awesome view from the castle.

And more awesome view, though in the other direction, facing the city rather than away from it.

My friend doing a split in front of the castle....

...and me attempting to do a split in front of the castle.

More splits. I didn't try this one ;)

A pretty little fountain in one of the castle courtyards.

 Some basic Castle-y things. 

Come at me bro!

Aahgg, such a gorgeous view. Why I no live there!

Some nice stained glass.

Most every room had really awesome ceilings.

Great Hall, at least that's what I called it (for any of you Redwall fans).

Little alcove with a lovely view. I would so
spend my summers there reading in the sunshine.

Aaahh...

Probably my favorite ceiling.

More cool ceiling.

 The Armory

View from the Armory. Seriously, all the views were so pretty!

Secret door we couldn't open, but....

....the camera could still take a picture through the crack above the door. Pretty little balcony.

Some sort of something, not really sure?

Stairs up to the tower. A total of 157.

View from one of the staircase windows.

...still climbing.

To the top at last. Though it was snowing and super windy and super cold. But all the gorgeous views were well worth it.

Hmm...what's down there?

Oooh, hahaha, never mind. A bit of a long drop.

Back out front. So wonderful!

The castle from a distance.

Cool sculpture, because....

....because it is actually two parts.

A view of the Cathedral from a different part of the city.

Some more pretty pictures of the city in general.

And to finish off, we stopped by the aqueduct on our way out :D

On Sunday at church one of the kids put on my coat and scarf and started strutting around the room saying, "Soy Asher, soy Asher" ("I'm Asher, I'm Asher"). When I took a picture of him, he decided he wanted  to taked pictures too, hence all the some-what-random photos.

Sunday was also mine and Reneé's last day with our Madrid host families. It was a sad goodbye, and I'm thankful for the time I was able to have with them and thankful to them for opening their house up to a total stranger.

But, do to some complications, we weren't able to move in with our Hoyo host families until Tuesday, so we stayed Sunday night, Monday, and Monday night with the B. family. Guess what, they have Nutella cereal here, Nutella everything. Okay, it's not "Nutella," there are different brands of the stuff, but they make everything with it: cookies, spreads, cereals, more spreads, crackers, snacks, it's just all too wonderful!

Also on Monday I had my check up appointment for my toe. He says it's looking good, and he gave a anti-fungul spray to help clear it up. I have another check-up next Monday.

Tuesday night I moved in with my new host family in Hoyo. My host mom is the owner and cook of a restaurant here in town, so I get to eat very good food all the time. My host brother is twelve years old and quite a hyper little kid. I get along with them quite well and things are going smoothly, except for the parts were we don't understand each other (mostly each others' Spanish), and that's about 68% of the time. But things are working out, little by little.

I did make my first big Spanish mistake. Instead of saying, "Tengo mucha pena," meaning, "I have a lot of pain," I said, "Tengo mucho pene," which is essentially saying, "I have a big penis." Yeah, I had no idea why they were all laughing so hard until someone explained it to me later. I definitely thought I said "pena," oops :/

I'm going to wrap things up here for now. Please feel free to comment or ask questions here on the blog or via email through my Communications Girl Extraordinaire, Hope, at constanceh.95@gmail.com. Also, my prayer requests come through Mike, so contact him at biblebeach@hotmail.com if you'd like to receive those when I send them.

I think that wraps things up. Know that I miss you all a whole lot, and I love you a "bushel and a peck, a hug around the neck, and barrel in a heap, and I'm talking in my sleep about you!"

Hasta luego

Many Loves and Misses,

~Asher Fickett~