Rebajas

So here in Spain two times a year they have rebajas. This is the time they have their clearance sales out with the winter clothes and in with the spring/summer. Rebajas is in January and July. You can get some pretty good deals and you can get some not so good deals, you just have to watch. Mckenzie is one to not miss rebajas. She decided yesterday that she just needed to go one last time before the end of January. She did very well! She picked up a formal dress to wear to school dances for 9 euros. That is about $13 dollars. That's got to be the best purchase she has made yet.

The Bluest sky

I was walking outside the other evening and saw the bluest sky ever! The pictures just don't do it justice. It's something you have to see for yourself.

Here's a new one

Dayna and Cade came home for the lunch break and after being home for about 30 minutes we got a call from Cades teacher. School was cancelled for the afternoon because of the wind.?. Yes it was very windy but it was no hurricane. Kind of funny don't you think. The kids went outside to show you how windy it was.

School Update

We are four months into school. The kids are understanding more but are still struggling. Mckenzie, Cassie, and Riley would say that they are loners. They just hang out with each other during the lunch break. Brent has met with all the teachers most are helpful but there is one particular biology teacher that is an %*#. When Brent went to talk to him and ask him what kind of help they can get he basically said there isn't anything you or I can do. He has written them off completely for the year. He doesn't care one bit, he completely ignores my kids.

There is no discipline in the schools here. Cassie has a teacher that everyday she has the class the students lock her out of the room. The kids will smoke joints during breaks and the kids often smell cigarette in the bathrooms.

Dayna and Cade seem to be doing well. Cade's teacher tells us he is speaking in school. We wouldn't know it because he insists on speaking English at home. There are a few occasions that he will slip in spanish words here and there. Dayna and Cade are speaking with perfect accents. Last night Cade said some word in spanish and when I tried to repeat it he kept telling me no that wasn't the word.

Cade for two months has been complaining about school. He doesn't want to go. We ask him why and he says the food is so gross. His only reason for not wanting to go to school was because of school lunch. After the Christmas break we have finally given in and he and Dayna now come home for lunch between 12:30 and 3:00. They both seem much happier but I will miss the quiet.

Greece

Greece was so warm! We took the train into Athens to the acropolis and saw the world famous Parthenon. It was beautiful. We climbed a very large marble boulder. It is interesting to see after hundereds of years how the marble gets polished just from people's feet. After seeing the sights we of course went to a restaurant for gyros. For that is what you do in Greece, right? They were very yummy. That really is all we saw in Athens. I think everyone was kind of tired of seeing ruins.

The next day we were at the island Crete. We had a great day. We went to the area of town with all the shopping and then we took the kids back to the ship. We went and rented a couple of scooters with the Cottles and drove aways down the coast. We stopped at a local restaurant and had the yummiest greek salad ever. We had a lot of fun riding around the area and it was nice to do something different.

Izmir, Turkey

We sure have a knack of collecting people to take us around towns. We got off the ship in Izmir and started walking to the bazaar that we had heard about. It was about 45 minute walk. Somewhere along the way we collected another man who said he would show us his store where he sold Turkish rugs. No obligation of course. He was very nice and showed us to the bazaar, to some Roman ruins, and he showed us a mosque and told us about the muslim faith. He even gave us a copy of the Quran in English. He took us to his "friends" shop who sold knock-offs of Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Burberry, and Rock & Republics. We then went to "his" rug store and saw some beautiful carpets. True pieces of art. They weren't to willing to come down in price so we said we would go get some lunch and think about it. Our "guide" took us to a restaurant we ate and then he said he would show us another carpet store to compare prices. We went to the other store and they were more willing to barter. Our friends found a beautiful silk on silk carpet that will look beautiful on their wall.

We were just about to go back to the other store to buy a carpet that I like when I saw a large floor carpet that would look beautiful on my living room floor. He unrolled it and I loved it. Brent is very good at the bartering and I think we got a good price for it. I can't wait to see it at home. After we left our guide was very upset with us. We told him that if he could get us a better price at his store we would go back there but he wasn't too willing to barter. We tried to pay him for his time because we realize he had spent a lot of time with us and he was very nice. He wouldn't accept any money from us. We felt very bad.

Of all the places that we had visited thus far Turkey was our favorite. We would love to come back to Turkey.

Alexandria, Egypt

So day two of Egypt we decided to head out on our own in Alexandria. When we were driving back to the port the night before we notice a lot of shopping just blocks away from our ship. We had been talking to many people on the ship and they all said that they went out to Alexandria the day before and turned back after about 15 minutes. We didn't fully understand why but off we went. As soon as we left the safety of the port gates we were bombarded by people trying to get us to take their buggy rides, or their taxi, or others still offering to take us here or there and show us around town. They were very persistent. We kept saying no but they don't go away. We had one guy that just started walking with us and talking to us like we were friends. We couldn't shake him. At one point we decided to cross the street to look at stores on the other side. This guy took it upon himself to run out in the crazy traffic and stop it for us. At this point we all just kind of realized he was never going to leave us alone and we might as well accept his help.

Another man came upon us and told us where we could get some cartouche necklaces. (Cartouche is your name in hieroglyphs) We proceeded to follow him (Our first helper again stopped traffic for us and continued following us) to his store which was down several different alleyways near some mosque that we could hear the call to prayer. Pretty daring don't you think? We picked out the necklaces and bargained for a price of 6 cartouches and chains for 45 euros. We sat and waited for about 30 minutes while they went somewhere to make them. When the cartouches came back the man then told us it was 45 euros for the cartouches and another 45 euros for the chains. We were quite upset about this we had made sure that the price included the chains and the man had assured us, yes that was the price. Brent proceeded to argue about it with him for about 10 minutes. Finally, our friend Mark just paid him his portion of the price and told Brent, "Here we are in some back alley in a muslim country that has many people who hate us and here you are arguing over price?" So we paid the man and left. We decided we were done with Alexandria and headed back to the ship. It was very comforting to get back into the safety of the gates.

What a hassle. Nothing like getting ripped off in Egypt. A story for a lifetime.

Cairo, Egypt

After spending 2 days at sea we made it to Alexandria, Egypt. It is a three hour drive to Cairo and we booked a tour for our group of 15. We met our guide right outside the door. All bus tours were postponed while we waited for the fog in the desert to lift. We waited around in the port area for about 20 minutes and then our guide suggested we walk to the gate of the port authorities. He talked to them and they let us leave before the big buses. We were stopped once again just outside of Alexandria and we waited for another 40 minutes until they finally let us through. At this point we learned that the buses were still in the port waiting for approval to leave. We were driving and got into a traffic jam which turned out to be a really bad accident. Our 3 hour drive turned into about 4 hours but our guide was very good. He was telling us information about Egypt and it helped to pass the time. We found out that none of the buses back at the port made it out of town.

We made it through Cairo with 11 million people and headed toward the pyramids. I had always thought that the pyramids were quite a ways outside of Cairo but they are just on the outskirts of the city. We got to the pyramids and the kids immediately got out and ran. Riley tripped and fell and skinned his knees, elbows and wrists. That put a damper on his experience there. Our guide called the paramedics and an ambulance came with sirens and all to patch up his scrapes. Meanwhile, we were all climbing the pyramid and taking pictures.

The pyramids exceeded all expectations. They truly are amazing. To think and marvel at the work that was accomplished is amazing. I also didn't realize how close the sphinx is to the pyramids. I always thought that it was off by itself, it's also smaller than I thought.

There were so many peddlers selling trinket trash. My kids loved it. My kids were buying bags full of it for 20 euros. Afterwards we drove around to a restaurant to eat lunch and driving around we were disgusted with how dirty it was. There was a river full of garbage and we even witnessed a woman coming out of her home and she dumped it right in the river.

After lunch we drove back into Cairo and went to the museum to see the King Tut collection. Pretty amazing to see. By then the it was dark and time to start the drive back to Alexandria. The time went fast as we talked with our guide the whole way. He told us about Egyptian mythology and we talked a little about religion and politics. It was a great day and we learned much.

Italy

The first two stops on our cruise were to Rome and Naples. In Rome we had booked an excursion to see the city. It was a rainy day this day. I thought we would see a lot of the city that way. As it turned out we only really had time to see three things. We first saw the colosseum. After the colosseum we got in our van and drove around the city and saw some other things from the window. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to walk around and experience some of the sights. We drove to the Pantheon and saw that and walked around the plaza around it to find a place to eat. Afterward we headed straight for Vatican City and the Sistine chapel. It was impressive to see but I thought the statue of the pieta by Michelangelo inside St. Peters was more. Afterward we immediately headed back to the port. We missed out on a lot. I would have liked to see the Trevi fountain and some more of the city. I guess that means I need to take another trip there sometime.

Naples was one of my favorites. We got off the cruise and took the train to Pompeii. It was funny, when we got off Brent went up to a person and asked where do I see the dead people. We all laughed at that. Pompeii was amazing. The whole city is still in such good condition. You can see painting on the walls, mosaic floors, statues, and the streets are still intact. It was a very large city and we only saw a small part of it.

Afterwards we went back to Naples. Brent took the younger ones back to the ship and the rest of us went shopping. We had amazing pizza (Naples is the birthplace of pizza). We walked around the historic part of the city and walked around all the many shops selling nativity sets. I was looking at one and took it off the shelf to look at it and the baby Jesus fell out and broke. I had to pay 12 euros for that baby Jesus. I really liked the set and was going to buy it but after that happened I changed my mind. Instead I bought a different one elsewhere.

Christmas cruise

So for Christmas we went on a 14 day cruise to the Eastern Mediterreanean. We went to Rome, Naples, Egypt, Turkey, Athens, and the island Crete. Our friends the Cottles came to Spain to visit a few days before we left and then went on the cruise with us. Brent's mom and her husband met us in Barcelona and came with us as well.

The kids made many new friends from all over the states and from other countries too. We had a great time and we will remember all the things we did for a long time.



We found 14 days to be a little long to be eating cruise food but it really gave the kids a lot of time to make friends. No one got sick which was even better. (Unless you count sea sick) We did have a few nights that were pretty rough seas.



Santa even filled stockings on the cruise. We spent New Years at sea and had quite the parties on the ship. Many, many drunk people. They were passing out champagne and they didn't care how old they were. Mckenzie was offered some. Brent and I went to bed shortly after 1:00 but the kids were out till 3 or so.

Christmas Parties Spanish style

I have so much catching up to do on my blog. A lot has happened. We just got back from our wonderful cruise to the eastern Meditereanean. I will tell you all about it but first I have to talk about the great ward Christmas parties we went to.

There are two wards here in Valencia. We were invited to both parties. A great older gentleman invited us to his wards party. He is famous in the ward for his paella. (This is the meal that is most famous for Spain) He invited us to his house a while back for paella and he accidentely burned it. He wanted to redeem himself so that is why the invite.

Activities here in the wards never start on time. We are talking about an hour later. But the Christmas parties for both wards started about 2 hours late. We got to the church and loitered around while the food is cooked and the tables set. It's just life here, no pasa nada. We watched what was a really bad talent show. (The spanish are not great singers) but they have a lot of fun. Our young women performed a dance that Mckenzie and Cassie taught them last minute. Mckenzie, Cassie, and the other 2 American girls dance Cotton Eyed Joe for them.

Our ward Christmas party started at 7 but we didn't get our food until 10:30. We were all tired and honestly the food was really bad but we had a good time.

A week later we had a Stake Christmas choir concert. It was a really fun experience. Not great singing but a lot of fun, laughs, and a great time had by all.