All settled in Alcala de Henares

After a month or so apart Bren and I were reunited on Sunday! I was in Alcala for a few days earlier this month for training and then went to London, England and later Rome, Italy for a few days so I wasn't able to greet him when he first arrived. Ryan, one of the guys that was working at the archive, picked him up from the airport. Ryan is from the US and speaks English Spanish and Portuguese fluently, however when he picked Brenden up he pretended he could only speak Portuguese. He had Brenden going for several hours. He got a call from a coworker and started speaking to him in fluent English which totally threw Brenden off, he was a good sport about it and didn't hold a grudge.

We are living with a women named Teresa Meco who is a widow in her 70's that goes to one of the wards here in town. She is INCREDIBLY attentive. Whenever we're home she has us eat something. Lunch is the biggest meal here and by the time dinner roles around I am rarely hungry because she feeds us so much for lunch. She has been a wonderful help, giving us advice where to buy things we've needed, giving us directions where we've needed to go, etc. She cleans our laundry once a week and leaves it nicely folded on our beds. I've never felt so spoiled in my life! Brenden and her have had fun teaching each other Spanish and English during meals, which  we usually eat together with the news on in the background.

Alcala is a beautiful city that wakes up and goes to bed late. Stores usually dont open until 8 or later. Most close for siesta (around 2) for a couple of hours and are open until around 9 or 10 at night. The city is busiest at night. Its fun to see how many people are out walking around and enjoying each others company.  The evening seems to be family time for many. Teresa and her sisters visit their mom every night at 730. We also see several families & couples at the parks or getting groceries in the evening. Its a fun town to live in.