Catching Up...

So it's been a while since I've blogged. I'd say I've been busy, but that's only half true. =) Since I've known Joe he worked a McGuire schedule which was barely 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Most of the time at work, he was in an office and I could spend most of my day chatting with him on instant messenger. Not now. Now he works a shift schedule that is awesome this particular week, since he only works 2 10-hour days. But last week, when he worked 5 10-hour+ days, I wanted to spend any minute he was home with him, and not on the computer. All excuses aside, I'll recap our adventures the past week or so.

Let's start with ICR class. Two weeks ago, Joe and I attended an orientation class for 5 days. It was mandatory for him, optional for me, but I figured why not? And I'm glad I did. While some of it was boring as they shuffled speaker after speaker through to give us the quick version of what each department or on-base organization had to offer, some of it was fun. Especially the parts run by our instructor, Rosa. She was this sweet, energetic, friendly Spanish national who runs all the ICR classes as well as the trips on base. She gave us great information about cultural differences and prepared us well with expectations for out in the local areas. I was especially entertained as she spoke English with her own pronunciations of words like: Yermany, freckwency, abenture, approbal, sahfty, and added syllables like when saying gas-a-station, and good-eh-stuff. I joke, because I love other people's "isms" in language and plan to get my kicks when I can since most of my stay here will be the other way around for the Spanish. Kind of like my boss Ed used to say things like "play Mickey the dunce" or "piss up a wet rope". I am thoroughly entertained by vocabulary.

Three of the five days were spent in a classroom, the other two were day trips. One trip was to the local town of Rota. We visited the fish market where people go to get their fish fresh from the catch to cook for dinner that night. We had lunch in a Spanish restaurant (which of course served barely anything I would eat). We got a tour of an old castle which is now the administrative building. My favorite part was visiting the main church in town. The walls behind the altar were hand carved wooden figures of apostles (aposTels as Rosa called them) and saints. The ceiling was Sandstone (sand-a-stone) and the floors were marble. There were side chapels that were decorated so ornately they were breathtakingly overwhelming. Walking into one made you feel like you were not alone. It's as if all the people those statues represented were actually there. They make the statues lifelike on purpose to do just that. Well it worked. We only got a half hour in there though we could have spent days.

On the second day, we took a 45 minute bus ride to Cadiz (KA-dith) which is the oldest city in Europe. We walked the shopping district, had churros dipped in chocolate for breakfast and wandered the rest of the afternoon. There was a cathedral there dating back to the first century that Joe and I really wanted to tour but didn't have the time. So when we had lunch, we sat in that square and enjoyed the sights. We hung out that day with new friends from ICR, since we were set out "solo" for the afternoon. Mark and his wife Erin just moved here from Vegas. They have a 2 year old son and are expecting their second in April. We sat with them the day before for lunch so we had a great time getting to know them. Mark does the same thing as Joe and Erin used to be a chef before they moved. Our other ICR friend, Chris, is a marine stationed here for the reasons that Marines are usually stationed places... for protection. Interestingly enough, he had studied abroad in high school and lived in Cadiz! So he knew his way around pretty well. We had a great time with the three of them and plan to have them over to the house as soon as we are set up.

On the final day of ICR, our goods were being delivered to the house. So I missed the last day of class to greet the movers and supervise the unpacking. They sent one truck to pick up our temp furniture at the same time the other truck with our goods arrived. Both trucks arrived with translators, though I was determined not to utilize their services. I knew enough Spanish at that point to ask questions and make them understand me to a certain extent. I supplied them with iced tea, that they drank as if they had never had it before, and homemade brownies, which prompted the one Spanish interpreter to inform me he'd be back regularly for desserts! By the end of the day, I knew the names of all the rooms in the house and knew some easy phrases. That came after I had to try to communicate with the Spanish speaking (only) female who giggled at my attempts but was nice enough to help. Rosa was right. They really DO appreciate the attempt. Even I giggled at myself a little.

By the Joe got home, our house was full of boxes, but at least they were already in the appropriate room. We took our time going through and unpacking. Day one we did the kitchen first because that was most of the fun stuff for me! All of my new toys to bake with were in there! But then it became late at night and our beautifully organized kitchen was done and we realized we had no where to sleep! So we quickly did up the bed and moved on from there on day two. It wasn't until the next night when we had a visitor that it occurred to me that slow is not better when it comes to unpacking and removing cardboard. While walking down the dark hallway, I turned on the hall light just in time to see a rather big (3 inches to be exact) cockroach scurrying towards me. I ran as fast as could and Joe came to the rescue. He admitted later, he was happy it was a roach and not a big spider that they get here, because even he will have a hard time with that. Wolf spiders, banana spiders, I've heard them called different things... I like to call them the things that better stay outside if God wants me to sleep at night. =) Since then, we've been unpacking as fast as possible to get rid of the boxes.

We took a break the other night to go visit friends we met while staying at the Navy Lodge (temporary housing). Dawn and Doug and their two kids, Anthony and Alexis, were nice enough to have us over to their house to relax and take a break from unpacking. Doug works in a different job than Joe but is on the same flight line. The kids started school today and Dawn had our first "the kids are at school so we can chat" day. We were talking about taking some hops to bases where they've lived for some shopping. They've been living overseas for 13 years! Wow.

Dawn and I attended a Spouses' Breakfast on Saturday. I decided to make my cinnabons, with a twist because I shaped the monkey bread pieces like muffins. It was going well until I left one batch in one minute too long. For anyone that doesn't bake, one minute is the difference between soft and you can dent a wall with it. Then started the chain of events. The muffins burnt, the smoke started, the smoke detector went off. Then I had to run and open windows since our detector is on a vaulted ceiling which I couldn't reach to turn off. Realizing I had another batch in the oven and wanted to salvage them, I pulled them out quickly. But I moved too quickly because the top half of one of the muffins came off and stuck to the electric coil and set on fire. Being home alone with no extinguisher, of course I reacted the only way I knew how. I hit the muffin off with a pot holder (dumb now I realize) and then batted the fire out. I left in time for the breakfast with the windows and doors wide open, fans running and prayers out that the house would be there when I got home, which it was of course.

The breakfast went well. The Commander introduced himself, his First Sergeant and their wives, who I later met with during an interview for the Key Spouse position. All the ladies seemed nice and Dawn and I found some we clicked with more than others, as any woman in a room full of other women could expect to do. The goal of the group, to provide support to the families here, was reassuring for a new military wife at my first PCS location. It was nice to hear similar stories and know that a lot of other people are in the same boat. Of course, I was the only wife in the room (minus one other) who didn't have kids. Maybe someday, but right now I'm loving all of our extra space and free time! They say it's contagious here though, maybe it's the water... but I'm drinking from Brita (shhhh don't tell Raja).

As you can see, the settling in has begun. We've made some great friends, hung out with friends we've known from before and are on our way to being unpacked. Our 'lost' unaccompanied shipment will be delivered this Friday and hopefully, in a week, we'll be up and running! I want to have the people that we've met over for dinner (and my favorite... dessert)! This week, I'm jumping right in with appts! Tomorrow, I have a meeting for all the MWR teachers about the upcoming semester, and since I'm teaching gymnastics, I count! Thursday, I'm going to a Stampin' Up party for scrapbooking/card making. Friday, Dawn is taking me to a Party Lite party (while Joe is home unpacking) =( Saturday, Joe and I plan to drive almost two hours north to Seville to visit the closest Ikea for some bookshelves and a much needed coffee table. So much for Joe's relaxing week with 5 days off!! =)