Thanks for the Birthday Wishes!!!

I just wanted to take some time to say thank you to all for making my 24th birthday super great! Yesterday Ben and I woke up at 7:00 AM to go hand in our paperwork to receive our International Identification Numbers. It was very very early for us. We had to sit outside for about 2 hours until the place opened but it was worth it. It was very cold outside and now, because I wore flip flops and sat outside for a long time, have a head cold. Everybody here seems to be sick also. We were more prepared than we thought with our paperwork and we were out of the place in 10 minutes. After we were finished we went out for churros and chocolate for breakfast. It was so great! The day was spent relaxing around the city. I also had to do some laundry. I haven't had very much time here at all to do laundry so I was in great need! After laundry, Ben and I went to the grocery store and bought an amazing chocolate truffle cake.

Last night at around 8:30 we invited all of our new friends we have met here to go out to eat at Pizzeria Da Marcos. There were 9 of us. 4 of us were from the United States, 1 boy from England, 1 girl from Italy and the other girl from Germany. I was really hungry for pizza so this place in Calle San Juan (San Juan Street) looked great. The pizza I had was amazing! It had spicy hamburger meat, red pepper, oregano, cheese and tomato sauce on it. I received two gifts from my friends. A book in Spanish called "The Shadow in the Wind" and also a bath set. I am very excited to read the Spanish novel soon. After we got done eating, Ben and I headed back to enjoy the cake that we had boughten earlier. It was sooooooooo good. I haven't had cake that good for a long time! I am glad we will have the cake for awhile to eat.
Today I headed back to school to CP Breton de los Herreros. I always have Mondays free which is really nice. This school is for 3 - 12 year olds. Last week I met the older kids in the school. Today, I was in classrooms with 3, 4, 5 and 6 year olds! Wow, they have a lot of energy and do not know much English. I am on my long lunch break and I only have one more class left at 3:00 - 4:00. I am starting to think I will like having this long break at the school. It lets me relax a little bit and also have time to use the internet. I had learned last week that my school had WiFi to use so I brought my own computer today. After about 15 minutes trying to ask the Secretary for a password for WiFi I got frustrated. He only wanted to use his English with me yet he did not understand what I kept trying to ask him. So I finally asked him in Spanish and he handed me a paper with the password. Now, I will be able to load a few photos on my blog today. I plan to write bigger blogs on Tuesdays when I have my really long break.

If anybody has any ideas of what I could teach here for any of the English classes I will take ideas at abbylynnelarson@gmail.com. I have been trying to think of very easy songs for the little kids to repeat and learn. I am also hoping to play a lot of games and read many stories. I received one idea about a traveling bear from my mom yesterday about what cousin Tim told her so I think I will also use that so everybody in the US that I know may receive a bear in the mail. Also if you want to know my new address, I finally know how to write it! You can also email me for that if you would like.

Finally, this past Sunday, Ben and I went on a tour of two local winery's and also an old cathedral in La Rioja. They were very impressive. I will be posting photos from that excursion and also from our walk around the city soon. I will post a link on the blog. Here is one of the photos of me that was taken near the very famous bridge in Logrono.