Taking the Next Step

Well, an age (or what seems like an age to us) has come to an end! We are official graduates of our language class!! Our 10 week course has finished, and we have passed our level. We absolutely loved our classes, and would recommend the program completely! We have learned so much since we've been here! But of course we're excited to have a little break from language study! We have been advised to take a week or two break from studying Spanish before we move forward to anything else. It has been said that a 3 month period of language study is about all a mind can handle without a short break. So, after a short break, we plan to continue studying through other means. We won't be able to go back to the same language program, but there are other ways of practicing Spanish here! We feel like we have a strong enough grammar base that we understand most of the rules. Now the hard part is learning to use it without having to think about it for a while! We are really shooting for fluidity in the Spanish language, so that comes with speaking. There are things here called "intercambios" that are usually free. The word means, more or less, "interchange", or "language exchange". For us, it will consist of us (whether it's both of us or just one) with another person who speaks Spanish but also wants to learn English. We will spend about an hour speaking English, correcting all of their mistakes, then another hour speaking Spanish, in which they will correct our mistakes. The great thing about this is that it truly develops your speaking skills while at the same time building relationships! We are hoping to meet with people who maybe don't know God's love for them yet so that we can build relationships with them!

Us on graduation day with our grammar teacher, MariaJesus, "Mariaje"

Us on graduation day with our conversation teacher, Begoña

Also, in the last post I mentioned a parade we were about to attend! It is called the Burial of the Sardine, and marks the end of Carnaval (a period of partying before Lent). The Burial of the Sardine symbolizes a purification time for all the partying that happened during Carnaval, so as to enter into Lent pure. Of course, most people don't buy into the religiousness of it all, but instead come to see a fun parade ending in the burning of huge cardboard sardines! Also, the kids really enjoy it because they all dress up in costumes! I thought it was a little scary for children as the main players in the parade were the sardines, of course, and then these demon characters which were even creepy to me! It was still a fun experience, though. There is a little bit more background on Carnaval in the last blog post.

One of the demon characters in the parade. Creepy, right?

One of the dead "sardines"

Another shot of the demon character

The burial (more like the burning) of the sardine

This week we are getting caught up on a bunch of work that needs to be done, as well as figuring out the pace of life now that we're finished with a daily language course. Things are filling up fast, though! We have plenty to do and plan for this week! We have our next appointment for applying for residency this Friday. Once that appointment is over, we just need to wait for them to process our cards (the normal wait time is about 45 days), then all we'll need to do is go and pick up our residency cards! Then, on the 2nd of April, we are going down to the Seville area to meet with other missionaries and find times to meet with them, learn about their work, and look for future partnerships. We will stay there for a little over a week. Then later in April, we will go to Galicia on a retreat with our church here. I am very excited about this!! It will be a refreshing time, both physically and spiritually. The coastal town looks like it's going to be beautiful.

For more pictures about the Burial of the Sardine, click here.

For general pictures we've taken this month, you can see them here.

Thank you so much for coming along with us on this journey! Looking forward to sharing more!