Week two!!

Well I have now been here for exactly two weeks, and thankfully this week flew by so much faster then last week! So I will give a quick breakdown on what all has gone on this week! This week was my kids last week of school so I definitely took advantage of the free time I had! Tuesday I went into Madrid and did some shopping and saw some sights- nothing too exciting happened but it was still a nice day! On Wednesday I went into Madrid again to meet up with a friend, Arrielle who is from Canada. We toured around Madrid some once again and saw some touristy things like the Palace, and the Plaza Mayor. We then met up for lunch with two of her friends she has met here from Denmark, we are all au pairs here so it was nice to be with the girls and we all shared a lot in common! The restaurant we went to had 1 euro drinks so you know we took advantage of that! Speaking of drinks I might have a new favorite that is very popular here in Spain. It is called tinto de verano which means "summer red wine" its a wine based drink that is kind of similar to sangria- but it is very yummy!!! On Wednesday evening Charles's niece, Hetty who is around my age flew into Madrid to stay with the family for a bit before she begins au pairing here for another family as well. So it has been nice having someone here my age to talk to instead of constantly talking futbol and justin bieber to 7 and 9 year olds :) On Thursday me and Hetty did some serious lounging by the pool which was nice, I got some serious sun so Im a bronze goddess right now (if only it would stay like this!). With all this free time I have been having and pool lounging I have been doing quite a bit of reading which is so nice!! Its crazy and so nice to actually be able to read something other than a textbook! I am on the third book from the "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy and also halfway through with another book called "Two Kisses for Maddy" which is about a widowed father raising his daughter (such a great book!!). Friday me and Hetty once again went into Madrid and saw some more sights, walked around, and ate a nice lunch! It is so much more fun exploring when you have somebody to enjoy it with! Saturday was spent lounging around with the family swimming, eating, playing ping pong and drinking wine. Saturday night me and Hetty headed into Madrid for a night out! We met up with Arrielle, Camilla and Laerke, Spain played in a major futbol game that night so we knew things were going to be crazy (especially if they won-which they did!). The night was great, I had so much fun and it was nice to see what the nightlife was like in comparison to back home! The biggest difference is that the bars do not close at 2, they close at about 5 AM- which makes for a longgggg night!! Even wearing my most comfortable wedges was no match for being on my feet for hours and walking on cobblestone streets- as a result I have two huge blisters on each of my feet! I was surprised by the number of people I met that spoke English- it was nice to meet people, some of them lived here others were visiting, etc. By the time the bars closed and we took the Metro followed by the bus home it was about 8 in the morning- needless to say I was completely exhausted!!! So after sleeping in today (Sunday) I had to get up because my family had two other families and their children over for lunch and swimming! We had a very traditional Spanish lunch first by having Gazpacho which is basically cold tomato soup, and unfortunately I did not care for this at all. We then had Paella which is considered Spain's national dish, it is basically seasoned rice with some vegetables and meat- I enjoyed this, although it is no chicken fried steak ;) 

So all in all this was a pretty good week!!

So I knew this was coming, earlier this week one of my kids asked me what "ya'll" meant!! haha I found that pretty amusing, this is obviously part of my daily vocabulary and I use it without even thinking! So I explained to them it meant you-all. I still feel completely lost when it comes to speaking/understanding Spanish- it is difficult because everyone speaks so fast, but I will often catch a few words and understand somewhat of what they are talking about. However as far as speaking goes, I am very nervous to speak it because I constantly get words wrong and then they either laugh at me, or look at me like "what the heck?" But I guess this is how you learn so I am trying :) It has been quite an adjustment being here and a family completely opening up their home and sharing their lives with me, I learn a little bit everyday- many things we do differently and then there are also things that are the same as at home! The thing I miss the most is probably the food back home, I miss chick fil a, dr pepper, and cheetos! 

This week will begin my first week with the kids all day! I assume we will do a lot of swimming, bike riding and playing games. Then on Friday my family is headed to their house in the South which is by the beach, we will be there for 3 weeks total! Before I head with my family to their home Arrielle, Camilla, Lareke and I will be spending the weekend down south in Cadiz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadiz ) we will do some sight seeing, spend lots of time on the beach, and go out at night! We will be staying Saturday night in one of the hostels there- so that should be fun!! Then Sunday evening I will join my family at their beach house which isn't far from Cadiz. 

Hopefully I will get through this week without the kids driving me crazy!!

Until next time :)

Ling

So as of today I have been here exactly one week!! I wish I could say that this past week has flew by, but actually it has been quite the opposite... the week felt as if it crept on forever! Probably because my kids are still in school (this week is their last week, they finish friday). So I literally have all day and then the children don't get home till about 6pm, and of course time goes by a lot faster when I am constantly playing with them until bedtime. I can tell they are testing me a lot of the time to see what they can get away with, and I will say I am pretty lenient. However I think I have found the key to making them mind me (and lets hope this works for awhile). The kids absolutely LOVE to play games on my iPad, so now I have learned to bribe them with iPad time for good behavior... they don't listen to me or misbehave, I threaten their iPad time for the day or the following day- and so far it has worked great ( haha whatever works!). But other then that the kids have been great, Ana (the youngest) has really grown on me, she loves to hug on me and always wants to be by me! And in reference to my title of this post, my kids do not call me Lynlee, instead they call me "Ling" which is pretty funny, if its not ling its "Leeen", but I pretty much answer to anything!

My family lives in Las Matas which is about 20 min north of Madrid. So during my free time I have traveled into the city (Madrid) because obviously that is where all the action is! This past monday and tuesday I caught up on my sleep and adjusted to everything so by Wednesday I was going crazy to get out of the house! So on Wednesday my host mom dropped me off in Madrid before work and I met up with another au pair, Liz, who was from Utah. Liz had already been here a few weeks so it was SO nice and such a relief to have someone who kind of knew the city (If I had gone by myself the first time I literally would of felt like a lost puppy!). The first thing we did was walk to this beautiful park called Parque de Retiro, which is basically like the central park of Madrid, it was beautiful and nice to walk around and see the landscaping and statues, there was also a biggg pond in the middle where people were canoeing and such. After walking around the park we went to the Museo Thyssen- Bornemisza, which is one of three very popular museums in Madrid. This museum had over 800 paintings from the 13th century to present, I can honestly say I don't think I have ever been to a museum before this (crazy I know)! It was pretty cool to see how trends and art and paintings have changed over time, many if not most of the earlier paintings were very religious or were taken after bible stories. However, once you look at over 800 paintings (it seemed like way more) for about 2 1/2 hours, they all start to look the same! haha I recognized a few artist like Van Gogh and Monet, but of course you couldn't take any pictures in there! After that we stopped at a small cafe for some tapas (which means like small snack-very popular her in spain) and relaxed. Thank god for Liz she really helped me figure out the city, like how to use the underground metro to get around, that way I don't die walking place to place within the city (which is pretty large). After Liz left I then went to do a little shopping in Sol which is a very central spot in Madrid with lots of shopping and eating- but also very touristy! That was cool, the highlight of that shopping trip was the FIVE story H&M, which i loved! But unfortunately I was so tired that even I, of all people could not really concentrate on shopping so I called it a day and took the bus back home!

Friday I took the bus into the city again, this time I was by myself so I decided to do a little shopping (shopping I can do alone, I am in the zone- however sightseeing is not much fun by yourself so I decided to wait on that for a friend to tag along). There are SO many great stores I was in heaven, but I was most blown away by the Zara. This was not your typical Zara like the one at the domain, this one first of all was FOUR stories (and also had home goods-how cool!) it had SO many cute things and is also about 30%-40% cheaper than it is in the US... so of course I had to take advantage of that! After a few more stops I made my way back home to relax by the pool the rest of the afternoon!
This week Charles's niece is flying in from England to spend a week or so with us, and fortunately she is close to my age (20 I believe) so that will be nice to have someone around to go explore with!
The remainder of the weekend I did not do much, my family left to go down to their country house on saturday morning but I stayed behind because I had plans to go out with a friend. Unfortunately my friend caught an eye infection from one of her kids so we had to postpone things for another time, so I just stayed at the house by myself Saturday night.... and this is where things get interesting, I have a little bit of a story (kind of embarrassing). So before going to bed Saturday night i close all the blinds and set the alarm system, but you still leave the majority of the windows open because of the cool breeze, and if anyone touches the blinds the alarm goes off. I crawl into bed about 1AM and am laying there trying to go to sleep but the wind is howling, the house is also pretty old so literally EVERYTHING makes a sound. I kept on hearing creaking noises on the floor and on the stairs as if somebody was in the house, and then the wind would blow and doors would blow open or slam shut! Oh my gosh my heart was racing, my first thoughts are "either somebody is coming to rob the house and kill me, or abduct me into sex trafficking" (I had also watched the movie "Taken" about a week and a half before coming here, smart huh? And I doubt my dad could pull what Liam Neeson did in that movie and save me, so pretty much in my mind- I'm gonna die!). So I then push my night stand in front of my door thinking if somebody tries to come through the door they will run into this night stand first.... and then after about five minutes my door rams open into my nightstand and then as a gust of wind comes through it closes again! By this point I am literally on the verge of tears and convinced that there is somebody in this house! So after a few minutes I grab my pillows and blankets and sprint next door to the bathroom and lock the door. I make a bed in the bathtub (thank gosh it was a pretty big bathtub) and I stay in there/ sleep on and off until about 7 this morning. Since it was daylight I had the courage to leave the bathroom and get back in my bed, (I mean what killers/abductors come during the daytime?) and finally I catch up on the sleep I missed. I am so embarrassed, but I am so paranoid about stuff like that I could not help my self....shame on my mind for playing tricks on me like that!
Other than my potential night time killers/abductors, I had a pretty relaxing Saturday night!
This time I do not have many pictures of my trips to Madrid, mainly because I have been too busy/concerned with finding my way around and not getting lost! So now that I have the city decently mapped out I will dedicate a day or two to really seeing the sights and posting some really cool pictures because the city really is beautiful!!!
Enough for this post, the rest of my Sunday will consist of relaxing with the family, they are having some friends over for dinner so that should be nice! I miss everyone!! Until next time :)

-Lynlee

 Charles, playing on the iPad.

 This is the big pond at the park!

 Some of the landscaping, gardens at the park.

Ana, Victoria, and Charles playing one of the games I brought them!

Kiddos jumping into the pool... accidentally cut Charles's head off! ;)

 Charles and Ana

Ana and Victoria! so cute :)

Finally made it!!!

I finally made it!!!! The longest plane ride ever along with getting lost in the Los Angeles AND Madrid airport paid off, because oh my this place is BEAUTIFUL! So my flight to Madrid was just as I was expecting, miserable!! I was literally glaring at all the people sitting in first class with all that room as I was walking to my seat. They fed us dinner and breakfast on the flight... ( I only ate the bread if that tells you anything) and then I attempted to go to sleep. I cannot tell you how many times I tried to change positions to get comfortable, it was awful. Finally I ended up falling asleep for about 3, maybe 4 hours. Finally we landed in Madrid, and surprisingly I was very calm. I figured I would be nervous, but I was actually very excited ( I think I was excited that I was off that plane more than anything). I was just kind of going with the flow of everyone else in the Madrid airport, which is HUGE!! I cannot tell you how many moving sidewalks (which after you go on about 4 of these consecutively you start to feel like you are floating when you walk!) and escalators I had to get on. After a little confusion I get on a little train inside the airport and finally collect my bags. When I walk out there is people everywhere waiting on arrivals, but thankfully my host mom, Milagros, spotted me out! She was so friendly and excited to see me, which made me even more excited!

We loaded up my bags and headed to their house which is about 20 min from the airport, although I was very tired from traveling almost 24 hours I wanted to stay upbeat and have a good time with family that night! As I pull up the kids are outside waiting on me! The youngest, Ana, is 7 years old, and the twins, Charles and Victoria both just turned 9. The fathers name is Charles as well. They all kiss you on the cheek when they introduced themselves, which I loved- so cute! The house is just beautiful! It has 3 stories and there is artwork everywhere, murals painted on the walls, and mosaic windows. There is a giant balcony in both the front and back of the house. In my room which is at the front of the house the view from the balcony is beautiful! I play with the kids most of the evening and get to know them, they are all so cute! I feel a little lost sometimes because the only time anyone ever speaks english is when they are talking to me. Otherwise, they just jibber away in spanish and I am sitting there, clueless! I will catch a few words every now and then but they talk so fast it is difficult! So I have been making the children speak only english around me, but they also help me with spanish words too!
Boy do they have quite a zoo at this house!! They have three dogs, two turtles, three birds, and a box full of caterpillars! haha... and of course they all have names, hopefully by the end of the summer I will have them down :)

The weather here is also great, in the low 80s, and there is always a breeze! So they leave all the windows open constantly...if only we could do that in Texas! The kids are still in school for two more weeks so today I just relaxed, caught up on my sleep and read! But one day of relaxing was enough for me, I am ready to get out and explore the city! Tomorrow I am going to take the bus to the city (About a 30 min bus ride to the city center. I will be by myself so I am a little nervous about that. On wednesday my family have friends who also have an American au pair, so I am going to go into the city again with her! Should be fun, hopefully minimal mishaps and I will not get lost! I will keep everyone updated! Also if you want to Skype or email, anything let me know!!! We are 7 hours ahead here but I would LOVE to make time to talk!
-Lynlee

 This is what I wake up to every morning, the view from the balcony of my room! These pictures do not do it justice, it really is beautiful!

 The entire house has the most beautiful landscaping, it really is amazing!! Rose bushes everywhere!

 This is from the backyard, the back of the house with the GIANT pool!

The front/side of the house, I just LOVE LOVE the vines going up the side.

The countdown

So it is official, in less than 24 hours I will be on my LONG (11 1/2 hours to be exact) flight to Madrid! I have never been in a car for that amount of time, much less on a plane! However, I was really excited to find out that I at least have a window seat so that should make the trip a little more bearable. I am excited to keep this blog to let everyone know what all I am doing, as well as to give everyone a little insight on my thoughts about my experiences. I will try to keep this updated as best I can, as well as provide lots of pictures. I know you all do not want to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of me writing, besides pictures are more fun to look at anyways!
I am all packed up and ready to go, miraculously I was able to fit over 3 months worth of clothes into two, thats right- just two suitcases!! If any of you know my dad you can just picture him standing over me, and I am not exaggerating he literally has told me this about 15 times "all you need is a pair of shoes and two sets of clothes and underwear" blah blah..... I repeatedly tell him just to go away, I am doing pretty dang well to get everything into two suitcases (of course I would rather bring like 10).
I am anxious to leave although I am starting to get nervous, it is out of my comfort zone to go off and do something like this on my own- but I am so excited, I can only hope this is only the beginning of my traveling adventures. I am really going to miss my family and friends, but especially my dogs!
Hopefully everything goes smoothly tomorrow, can't wait to meet my new family!! Will update more when I arrive !(which I'm sure will be a lot more interesting then this post, I promise!)

If only I could fit my puppies in with me :)
Of course I would physically pick them up and put them in the suitcase to take these pictures- clearly they loved it ;)