Keeping It Real

Hi Friends and Family - I have a new blog, here’s the URL: barhampayne.blogspot.com . From the new blog you can subscribe to receive updates via email, just look for the “follow by email” box at the bottom of the page. 

From now on I’ll be updating the new blog with our adventures from Spain. I hope you’ll continue reading and enjoying photos! 

#1: On the actual Thanksgiving Day Will and I made veggie pot pie, mashed potatoes and salad. First Thanksgiving as married people was so fun! Missed our families but had a few good phone calls and video chats with them. 

And I may have gotten a little carried away making chocolate chip cookies for our non-traditional dessert…so many! 

#2: The day after Thanksgiving we went to a potluck in Ciudad Real with friends from my teaching program. There were about 15 of us there, mostly Americans with 1 Canadian and a few Spanish friends. Our friend Marie hosted and her spanish roommate ended up tracking down a turkey from a carniceria in a neighboring town.  Our friends here are almost all girls and I think they decided that a man should carve the turkey…here’s Will doing his manly duty:  

Everyone brought delicious dishes and desserts to share - highlights were the sweet potatoes with pineapple on top and homemade cinnamon rolls! 

 Thankful for new friends! We’re missing a few people in this photo, but you get the idea: 

Will with the traditional Spanish holiday dessert box: 

#3: Mama and Papa Payne were in town for the last week and on Monday we did another Thanksgiving dinner with them at our apartment! Mmm stuffing! 

We just got back yesterday from traveling to Granada with the Paynes; I’ll have more photos of our trip to post soon! 

We are so lucky to have this awesome library across the street from where we live. Lately we’ve been taking advantage of the music and movie selection they have - some recent favorites have been Death on the Nile and The Producers. We also found that they have a pretty good selection of travel books in Spanish that focus more on local travel in this region - very helpful especially given that most travel books in English give Castilla La Mancha only a couple pages of coverage! 

The library is situated on the edge of Parque de Gasset, so you can see there are lots of trees and walking/running paths nearby. Here’s the view of the front of the library. When the fountains are on it is much more impressive! 

Will and I both have private lessons that we host in the library. It is a great neutral area where we’re free to hang out in the lobby and chat (study areas are pretty quiet so we usually sit in the green chairs in this part of the building). Here’s a photo of the lobby showing the different floors and some study areas: 

They also have a fun area for kids with a bunch of books and brightly colored murals. Here’s the entrance: 

So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for this library! We’re missing home this week and it will be weird not to be with family for all the festivities on Thursday, but we’re looking forward to a big Thanksgiving meal on Friday with other auxiliares in Ciudad Real!