July 9 - First Day of School

We made another small step of progress towards registering with the government.  Our list of things to do is pretty short before our appointment next Thursday  - and the first thing on the list was get photo's taken.  Unlike getting a driver's licence in the US, where they just take your picture when you come in, to apply for our Spanish ID cards, we need to come with two copies of European size passport photos.  Luckily, we found a nice shop on the other side of the canal that took and printed and cut them for us.  It was quick and inexpensive - clearly not a government operation.  No glasses, white background, no smiling.... yikes.

Then our daily trip to the market.  We have started to keep track of which store has the rolls we like, which store has the right cheese, which store has good tomatoes, .....  

This afternoon I had my first language lesson.  Since it starts at 4 and I was supposed to arrive a little early on the first day, I left home at 3pm.  I was smart enough to bring a fresh shirt in my backpack.  It was in the high 90's and the mile walk to school left me a little sweaty - and I was glad to have a change.  One nice thing is that many of the big streets have white sheets draped between the roofs of the buildings to provide some shade.

Class was great.  My class has 7 students - almost all speak English but it doesn't really matter because everything is in Spanish.  I assume the teacher speaks some English, but I am not sure - in class she only spoke Spanish.  By the end of class, I was exhausted.  The walk home was cooler.  It is always nice to walk over the bridge into our neighborhood of Triana.

Our mailbox is fixed.  When I got home this afternoon I put the label with our names on the box.  It is official - we have a home.