ECA Staff Appreciation Week & Spirit Week

Last week was Staff Appreciation Week at ECA. The students were encouraged to write notes of appreciation to the staff (which they did) and there were a couple of special events (Staff Breakfast provided by the Board on Monday morning & Ice Cream on Thursday afternoon). Some of the parents brought in cakes (as shown above) or other goodies.

It was also Spirit Week at ECA. Every day had a different theme (as far as the dress code was concerned - Monday was Pirates vs Ninja Day, Tuesday was Movie Day, then Wacky Wednesday and Nerd Thursday). The students and some of the staff did a great job dressing up. It was a fun week. The week ended with our annual Track & Field Day at a sport center in the neighboring town of Alcala. The competition was intense at times but everyone showed great sportsmanship.


To see the rest of my photos from the week, you can click here.

My Kindle

A couple of years ago, a friend in Denver suggested I might want to consider buying a Kindle. He knows that I love to read and the cost of shipping books over to Spain was getting cost prohibitive. Now that baggage allowances have been reduced, it's hard to even bring them with me when I return from one of my trips to the States. So when I was home in January for a wedding, I saw that the price had come down $30 and they were offering free 2-day shipping (which was a good thing since I was leaving in 3 days!) so I bought one.

I wondered how I would like it, but it's been great. It's almost like reading a real book (Amazon says "Reads like real paper without glare" and it's true!). It's small and lightweight (about the size and weight of a normal book) and it will hold up to 1,500 books! For someone who travels a lot, has limited space for bookshelves or someone like me who lives overseas where it's difficult to find books in English, it's a great option.

I have over 100 books loaded onto it and all but eight of them were free! (And one of those I bought was an ESV Bible.) Most of the free books are older or classics, but occasionally I find a new one that's free (usually the first in a series, so I'm sure they're hoping you'll buy the rest). But even the ones I've paid for are very reasonable. I've never paid over 9.99 for a book (the Bible was only 7.99) and I've even paid as little as .99!

Sorry if this sounds like a commercial. I just wanted to share how much I'm enjoying my Kindle in case any of you have been considering it and wanted to have a personal recommendation. I would be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Easter Sunday & El Capricho Park

I never did give you a "report" on Easter Sunday. I decided to go the English-speaking church that I attend occasionally (in Madrid). It was nice to worship on Easter in my heart language and hear many of the familiar Easter songs (hymns and choruses). One of the special things they did was have 22 different people come up on the platform (representing 22 different languages) and each one took a turn saying "Jesus is Risen" in their language and we responded with "He is Risen Indeed" in English. It was very moving. After the service, my friend Tammy and I went to the home of our teammates, the Gudemans, for Easter dinner. We were joined by another WorldVenture couple so there were 9 of us. It was a good day!

Last Sunday afternoon, Tammy and I visited another park in Madrid. It dates back to the 17th century and was once the grounds of a palace for some king (Alfonso, I think, but don't quote me). It was another beautiful day and the park is lovely. It was a very relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Here are some photos. As usual, you can go to my Picasa album to see more.

Another beautiful day!

A friend and I visited the Real Jardin Botanico (Royal Botanic Gardens) in Madrid today. You can see more pictures by clicking here. (The photos are part of my Madrid album so you'll have to look for them about halfway through the album.)

We also walked over to Retiro Park and enjoyed strolling through. Because it's a holiday in Spain today, the park was filled with people. It used to be the location of Felipe IV's royal palace so it's huge, but there are only two buildings left from those days (1600s). This is a picture of the boating lake in front of a monument to Alfonso XII.

It was a great way to spend Good Friday.

Monasterio de Piedra

A friend and I went to visit this beautiful, natural park yesterday. There are lots of waterfalls and grottoes and trees and even a duck pond, although we didn't see any ducks. :) (You can see the rest of the photos by clicking here.)

It was a perfect, spring day. The skies were beautiful and temperature was perfect. And even though I was exhausted at the end of the day, from all the climbing and walking and the drive there and back, it was a wonderful day - a blessing from the Lord. AND a great way to enter Easter weekend.