It´s funny how life has a way of making you excersize...

First of all, I´m in my new home! I came to Carmen and Edu´s house last night and got all settled in. I will be staying with them for at least the next month in Paracuellos de Jamara, which is a small town between Alcala de Henares and Madrid. I´m actually pretty close to the airport. They are very sweet and did a great job of making me feel at home by showing me where everything is to telling me several times that if I couldn´t find something, that I should go looking for it. I feel comfortable here and I´m looking forward to the next month to see what life brings me. During the month of August, Carmen has asked that I take care of Miguelito during the mornings since his usual daycare is closed (like most of the country) for the whole month. I gladly accepted and am excited (and a little nervous) about being with a toddler every day. It will give me a small taste of what you do every day all day, Mandy! Well, a couple of days ago I felt some pain above my heel when I was running and asked my Uncle Paul about it as well as Edu, who are both marathon runners. They both said the same thing that it sounds like I have something along the lines of Achilles Tendonitis and that I have to lay off of running for a while. Edu even said for two whole months! I´ve gotten used to running as a part of my day and a way that I excuse myself for eating all the delicious foods I can find. I´m bummed and I don´t even like running! But what was so cute was that Edu worked with me to find other alternatives to running for the next two months. They have graciously allowed me to use Carmen´s bike, even gave me a helmet (which my sister Elisa should LOVE) and a cyclist backpack to use to get some excersize here in Paracuellos. Edu has also offered to help me find a gym here in town or in a nearby town that might have a pool that I can use often as well as weights. So here I go in my bike getup (sorry NO photos of me with the helmet and backpack!) this morning to try it out. Carmen had taken me for a short walk last night to show me more or less how the town is laid out and also gave me a map in case I got lost. I felt confident and eventually found the bike trail that is basically a blue sidewalk especially for bikes. Paracuellos is VERY hilly and it was quite a good work out. When I was on my way back, I headed home and realized that I was lost. Here they call the houses ¨mushroom rows¨because they all look the same and it´s hard to tell them apart. I quickly realized that their street signs are not laid out like the ones in the states, where the sign is the same alignment as the street. Here, the signs go the opposite direction as the street to tell you what street you are entering. Then I realized that I had the number of the house wrong! I thought it was 70 but it turns out that their house is number 60. (Don´t take the address off of anything that I have sent to the states!) I finally found my house and got quite a good workout in the process! :)