We have arrived! By the time we left Lincoln on Wednesday morning, I was beyond tired & frustrated. We had about 1 hour of sleep the night before, the rest of the time spent packing, cleaning, organizing, putting stuff into storage, etc. It doesn't seem to matter how much prep is done before, we always end up just barely making it! To me, it was such a relief to get into the truck and drive to Omaha, knowing that there was nothing more that we could do to prepare.Several people have asked me how I feel about moving overseas for 2 years. Anxious? Nervous? Excited? Sad? Right now, I would have to say "relieved." We've been in this process for close to two years, and it's just nice to actually be here so we can start doing what we've been preparing for so long to do.
Our first day here we spent time unpacking and settling in to our temporary home. We're living in the basement of the IMM director's house. There is plenty of room for us, and they took time to set it up very comfortably with sleeping, sitting & kitchen areas. We don't have a sink down there, but we can use the kitchen upstairs. We also have a bathroom to use. When the new IMM building is complete, we will be moving into a small one bedroom apartment on the top floor. Although we're comfortable where we are, it will be nice to finally be able to unpack completely and settle in to a semi-permanent home. We've been living with my parents since the beginning of May, so we feel a little like Gypsies.
We went to work on our second day, although it wasn't an intense day for us. The IMM staff had a welcome lunch for us (everyone brought salad fixin's) and we ate outside. The weather since we've arrived has been perfect. Much cooler than Nebraska has been. Later on in the day, Bonnie Cooper (one of the missionaries) took Vino & I and Stephanie Koeshall (she and her husband are MAPS workers here) to a big supermarket, Al Campo, in Alcala (the city close by). Al Campo is like a Super Walmart with groceries, but also just about everything else you would need. We loaded up on food for the week, which took a rather long time since we didn't know where to find stuff (it's not necessarily organized the same way stores in the states are), and we couldn't read all the labels. I'm sure the shopping process will get eaisier with time.
We took Tylenol PM last night so that we would sleep through the night. Did we ever...and through the first half of the day! We probably should have set our alarm. We woke up at about 12:20 pm. Yikes!! So much for doing something interesting today (Saturday). We missed half of it already. I do feel very rested, though.
We bought some interesting fruit at a market down the street. Yellow plumbs and something that looks like a flat, squashed peach. Both were very good. Vino says the fruit is the best in Spain, and it's looking like he's right.
I'm ready to get settled in to Spain.
