Community

The nice thing about Spain is the people love to spend the summer months outdoors by the pool.  In our area almost every apartment complex that we have seen has a pool.  Ours included.  We live in a suburb north of Madrid, close to the airport called Alcobendas.  It's actually where the actress, Penelope Cruz is from...who was recently in town.  No sightings here!

The first few weeks after we moved in we didn't get to take advantage of the pool much as we were busy unpacking, getting registered in the city of Alcobendas, taking our little trip down south as well as working on our visas for Spain.  Once those things died down we were able to enjoy the pool.  I knew I wanted to before summer ended.  We went down a couple of times, then Jerry went on a trip to London for 6 days.  We had gotten most of our unpacking and cleaning done and I thought it would be nice for us to spend our days by the pool.  So we did!  

Before this time I could count on one hand how many times our kids had been swimming.  We just never had much access to a pool, but I learned very quickly what little fishies I have!  Karis especially.  She is jumping in, swimming around in the shallow end without a float, and doing somersaults in the water.  For some reason these two are the only pool pictures I have and they are not all that good.  

Pitiful, I know!  I completely slacked this summer on carrying a camera.  

Karis with her cute little goggles & swim cap.  I had to do something to help tame that hair!

Anyway, we had already gotten to know the lifeguard a bit who was from Romania and spoke some English.  I was really excited when a couple approached to introduce themselves.  The husband spoke English and the wife a little.  Their daughter is attending a private bilingual school and also spoke some English.  It was nice to be able to converse with them because right now my Spanish is very limited.

But the wife immediately suggested we get together to help each other with Spanish & English.  I was ecstatic!  They in turn introduced us to some other neighbors.  Each day we seemed to meet someone new.  A 17 year old girl who has studied English all through school, another family with kids our kid's age.  It was so nice to walk through the complex and be able to wave hello.  I was so excited for Jerry to get home and meet all these neighbors.

Then we saw an announcement that they were having a pool closing party.  A colleague had mentioned having one at her complex, so we weren't surprised.  It was going to be on Sunday afternoon.  We had time to get to church, come home for some lunch and head to the pool for one last time of the season (which I was a little sad about, I wasn't quite ready for the summer to end).

There were a few people we had seen before, but got to know several other families.  One family that's traveled to the US, another that the wife is an English school teacher, and yet others that spoke a bit of English.  All of them offering their help any time we needed it.  I am so thankful!!  I needed to find Spanish helpers, I just had no idea it would be offered to me so easily!

I am so looking forward to getting to know these families even more!!