Adjusting....

So this week is our second week of school, and it’s caught up a bit with us and the kids. This week we also began the round of "after-school" (i.e., 5:00-7:00) activities that seem like they are a standard part of Madrid life. Currently, the kids have a Spanish tutor Tuesday and Thursday; after-school sports on Wednesday; and swimming on Fridays. On top of that there’s about a half-hour of parentally-assisted homework for Nora each night, and a coterie of kids who demand her presence downstairs at about 7 PM. We are still working out the schedule, but we seem headed to the typical Madrileño situation (dinner at 8, bedtime about 9:30 for the older kids). Here’s the family update by person:

Nora: Seems mostly unfazed by the new school, city, and language. She is eager to learn Spanish (last night proposing we all speak only Spanish at dinner some nights) and is trying out new words and sentences. As her teacher explained, “children who like to talk a lot learn the language the fastest, because they have the biggest incentive to do so.”

Nathan: Not as sure that living in Madrid is the best idea. The thing about Nathan, as the gentle reader may not know from his sweet demeanor, is that if he’s having a hard time, you’re having a hard time. So far he’s been neutral with regard to school and after-school activities, but there’s signs we may be in for a rough road ahead.

Seth: Is probably having the hardest time. And, he’s highly verbal, so the second a negative thought pops into his head (typically starting about 30 minutes before school), he is quick to report “I’m upset. I don’t want to go to school.” – and he repeats frequently. He still sobs at drop-off, but his teachers do report that he has a good time at school once there. This was confirmed by Jon, who ran an errand in the school office one morning (nearby his classroom) and heard the screaming stop after about a minute. Seth has been requesting information about how to say things in Spanish (crane, car, leaf) so there’s some hope he’ll come away with the basics of language.

We thought for a brief moment that Spain might’ve turned Seth into an omnivore – he was eating chorizo and hot dog last week. But this week he seems back on the wagon.

Mommie: Spent the last week hibernating with a 25-page grant proposal. It was mostly written by the end of last week, so mainly I spent 4 days reading it, re-reading it, editing it, and whatnot. Luckily I have great collaborators who helped a ton, but it was still a total drag to read the same thing over and over and over (and to realize how many errors still remained even after the previous read….). Am looking forward next week to the “real” start of my sabbatical, and trying to figure out what to do first (clean up my hard-drive? Clear email? Start in on my reading list?).

Jon: Somewhat beleaguered by coping with family logistics during Mommie’s grant-related leave of absence from household life. I’ll let him add his own embellishment on this topic.

In other news, we are starting to plan for some trips around over the Jewish holidays. If anyone has suggestions, please let us know! We are limited by not being able to travel outside of Spain (no residency cards yet) or by plane or train (Heather and Nathan’s passports are being renewed) for the first trip, at the end of September.