Pepe Romero

Things are slowing down here a little bit... and when I say that I mean that my entries are beginning to slow because I have been quite busy but none of it really seems worth "writing home" about. The MAJOR exception being that we went to a concert at the National Theatre and saw Pepe Romero who is a flemenco guitarist from Spain. He is very, very "conocido" in Spain. Tickets to see him in New York go for $100 a pop. I was able to see him for $8 and unlike if I were in New York, I actually got to see him and didn't have to watch a speck producing music. He was really amazing. I posted a picture of the theater. It's a little blurry cuz I couldn't use my flash and I am not really suppose to take pictures, but the theater is very impressive as well.

You may have also noticed that, by popular demand, I posted a picture of myself and Esteban. So far, so good, still hanging out. We'll see what happens when I move again. He's very sweet though and we have fun trying to figure out what the heck the other is trying to say. I think he gets a kick out of teaching me "pachuco" (slang) and bad words... I get a kick out of his English vocabulary which consists mostly of song lyrics... "Ice, Ice Baby" being one of his favorites. (Sometimes U.S. exports are shamefully shameful.)

We have just over a week of training left. We have come to the conclusion that they are helping us to get excited for our sites by making the last weeks of training as excruciatingly painful as possible. It is working. Let me give you an example... today we started the morning watching a movie (Maria Llena de Gracia - Maria Full of Grace). Wonderful movie. I was very excited that I was able to understand it in Spanish. (We also had Spanish subtitles, which helped immensely.) We watched about 85% of it when they said "sorry not enough time... gotta move on to the next session." We then spent the next hour hearing presentations about our program. This would have been pretty okay the first week, but after two and a half months of training, I feel like I have a pretty good idea about the program I am in. I'm more than ready to go. It will be hard to not be able to hang out with "el Cinco" but I think it is time... It will just make it that much more fun to travel and visit each other's sites.

I would like to take a quick momment to say a big WELCOME to Annalyse Kathleen Brenzikofer. Annalyse was born at 1:37 am on Sept. 16, 2005 to Chad and Allison. I'm very happy for you both and am very excited to meet her. She should be just old enough to begin the corrupting process when I return. :) Congratulations and much love!