Here Comes the Rain...

Little darling, it's been a long, dry, scorching summer.
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here!
Here comes the rain.  Here comes the rain,
And I say, it's all right!

...Had the Beatles been an Andalusian band, I think their lyrics would have changed dramatically. ;)

Sunday, for the first time since May (I think), it rained.  The stormy weather continued all day yesterday and the world seems to have let out a giant sigh of relief: this morning the rain-darkend earth contrasts with sharp, blue skies and crisp, green trees, their leaves finally cleansed of months worth of dust.  The smell, too, is heavenly.

Yesterday we drove to Málaga to pick up our exchange student (!) and dramatic thunderclouds cast impressive shadows across the hills and valleys as the storm lifted.  The hot, summer haze that's been hanging over southern Spain for the last two months has been washed away.  It seemed like someone had suddenly cleaned the lenses of glasses I hadn't known I was wearing.  Everything was so clearly in focus and visibility was so good, it seemed an exageration.

Today it looks as though we'll have clear skies.  Who knows how long until the next rain.  These moments must be savoured.

"Camping" or "Mishaps of Potty Training"

Our great campsite!

This week is my week of vacation from work at the academy and we decided to go camping this year.  We have an old two-person tent that we used for the last time five years ago when we camped our way up to Lyon, France for a friend's wedding; but even though the three of us could probably fit in there just fine, we decided to buy a big, new tent for the occasion.  It's a four-person tent that has a separate bedroom--very deluxe!  There's sort of a "porch" or living room/entry way that separates with a zipper door from the actual sleeping area.  It's tall enough for me to stand up in, and my lower back is VERY glad we decided to pay the extra 30 euros for the taller version of this model!  Bela slept in the entry area and kept watch over the camp at night and the three of us snuggled up in the bedroom on our double air mattress.  It was cozy.  Now I am determined to get out an use our tent more often!

Pool! :)

The campground was a beautiful place in the Eastern Alpujarra, Sierra Nevada in Granada.  It was just outside the mountain town of Laroles.  There were beautiful views on our morning walks with Bela despite the summer haze.  In autumn, winter or spring you can see the Mediterranean.  Being at about 5000ft elevation meant that it wasn't quite so hot as here in La Roda, but even so, it was far too unpleasant to do much hiking or sight-seeing during the day.  We must go back some time when it's cooler because I would love to do some more exploring in the area.  As it was we spent most afternoons lounging by the pool, swimming, sipping gin tonics and watching Emily jump on the trampoline. :)

View of Laroles from the road.

The people were really laid-back and friendly and Emily made friends with a number of the other children at the campground.  Wednesday, the day before we had to leave, she spent all afternoon running around at the pool with her little group of friends.  It was great to watch how she's developing socially.  She certainly loves being the center of attention and had all the adults wrapped around her little finger, too!

Morning fog over the Med

But our stay wasn't without incident.  Emily is potty trained now, but we still put a diaper on her at night.  Most mornings she wakes up dry, and last week I even accidently put her to bed without a diaper and she was fine, but we just haven't taken the step to completely get rid of the diaper quite yet--better safe than sorry.  Well, guess who forgot to pack diapers?

The first night was fine, but Monday night she wet the bed...all over me! We pulled off her and my wet p.j.s, put a towel under us and tried to go back to sleep in a tent that reeked of urine.  Very unpleasant to say the least.  So Tuesday morning was spent washing sheets and pajamas rather than any more fun activity.  Thankfully, the campground had a wash room--no washing machine, but several big basins that were all we needed.  With the heat everything dried quite nicely.  We thought about buying diapers, but the only ones available at the store cost 15+ euros because they only had a big pack...it seemed a waste since she hardly uses them any more.  We decided to risk it, and there was thankfully no more bed-wetting for the rest of our stay.

Helping with dinner.

A wet bed, was not the only "accident" this trip, however.  Wednesday night after an afternoon of running around with all her buddies at the pool, Emily caught the attention of an eleven-year-old boy camped nearby.  He came over and the two of them played until it was dark and well passed bed time, first with the ball and then hide-and-seek.  Her new friend Jorge, was a very sweet boy, who very seriously told me that his sister was born one minute before he was when I asked him if his sister was older or younger.  It was obviously a sore subject.

Emily was hopless at hide-and-seek since she insisted on wearing a skirt my mother brought her from China, which has tiny bells on it.  Her new friend could hear her wherever she went...besides, she was having so much fun that she just couldn't help laughing out loud even when we took the skirt off! :)  After some time Jorge's sister came over to join in the fun, followed shortly by their parents saying that we should send them "home" if they were keeping us or Emily up too late, etc.  We assured them it was fine, although it was getting very late for little Em.  But not five minutes after they left, she suddenly exclaimed, "I'm going poo poo!"

She doesn't seem to understand the difference between "I'm going poo poo" and "I need to go poo poo".  She always says she's "going" pee pee, for example, when in fact she isn't actually wetting her pants, so I wasn't alarmed by this sudden announcement.  Angelines however, took one whiff of her, peeked in her pants and said, "It's coming out!"  There was no need to send the twins home.  They both looked a little horrified and quickly said goodnight as I scooped up Emily and ran down the hill to the bathrooms with her.

It was an adventure, for sure.  And a great experience for all of us.  Our tent is a little complicated to pitch, but with practice it will be easy.  We took a long time loading up and packing for the trip, too because it another one of those things that gets easier the more you do it.  I'm hoping we can go camping again soon so we don't lose our edge. ;)

Good Books

Lots has been happening around here and I feel as though I'm composing a blog post daily...but somehow they haven't been making their way from my head into cyberspace very well lately.  I am happy to report that I have a very good excuse for my negligence: good books.

I have been on "summer vacation" from my Montessori classes (still have some things to be doing but no classes and a more flexible timetable, for sure) since coming back from the States and so I've treated myself to some fun reading.  Remember last year when so many of you sent books with my mom for a literary birthday surprise?  A little over a year later and I still haven't read half of them.  Well since coming home from the U.S. I've read three books, two of which were part of my birthday collection. 

What a pleasure!

It is so fantastic to lose yourself in a book!  With class reading, I rarely take time to pick up a novel or something non-class related to read.  It's been nearly a year since I've let myself sink into and get lost in some good fiction.  My two latest reads were The Pilot's Wife, Annita Shreve and The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach.  Both were great, but especially the second was one of those books that catches you from the first sentence and then lingers with you beyond the last page.

Now, unfortunately, I do have to get back to class reading because we have quite a large paper due in September and getting it (mostly) taken care of in August would really be ideal. 

Other than reading, the biggest thing going on around here has been preparations for the exchange student we'll be hosting from the end of August through November.  A sophomore student from my home town will be coming to live with us and study at the local high school this first semester.  We're very excited for the opportunity and have been busily cleaning, painting and furnishing the upstairs bedroom where she'll be staying. 

Inevitably, this has meant organizing all of the upstairs--my old classroom, and our "junk" room--not just the spare bedroom.  It feels great to get things up there squared away.  We've been thowing away a lot, donating other things and I have several posts up on an equivalent to "Craig's List" in hopes of selling a few items we  no longer use/need.  Suddenly the second story is becoming a part of the rest of the house: a place I like to be!  We have one more trip to Ikea planned and there are still some windows to be scrubbed, but it's starting to look nice up there. :)  Nothing like guests to galvanize a cleaning frenzy!