Springtime in Avila?

These pictures were not taken a couple months ago. No, these pictures were taken this morning--April 29, 2013. 
"But Taylor," you say, "isn't April supposed to be Springtime?" 
Why, yes. Yes it is. Apparently Mother Nature is having a mid-life crisis. Because it has been snowing all day. While the snow is very, very pretty (as you can see), walking around Avila is not fun in the snow.


Today was unusual, but not entirely bad. The day started off with Leslie knocking on my door for breakfast. "Have you looked out the window?" she said in despair. I hadn't, so I opened my blinds. I was speechless. "Yep," was all she said as I locked my door and we headed for the dining hall. 

I taught science to the 4th grade first thing this morning. Of course all of the kids came in expressing their surprise at the snow this morning and it took them about 15 minutes to get fully calmed down, and even then, they were not ready to focus. Don't you love Mondays? Yeah, me either. The teacher, Gloria, had to leave at 11:30 so she could take her daughter to the doctor. This was perfect for me because I desperately needed to go to the Post Office to get my rent money that my parents had sent via Western Union. I've been trying to get the money for over a week now, and I am very much overdue paying rent. Thankfully, Antonio seems to be very understanding and has not been pushy about it. Anyway, Gloria was very nice and dropped me off at the Post Office since it was snowing. Though it took a good 20 minutes, I got the money! Hopefully Antonio will be here tonight so I can pay him. Then, I looked at my watch. It was only 12:30! So, like any girl with extra time on her hands, I went shopping. I got some new nail polish, but I also got some tissues, lotion, soap, etc. I also stopped in a little cafe and had some coffee and a pastry. I will never, ever get sick of European coffee! 

These last couple of weeks have been fairly uneventful, hence the lack of blog posts. But everything is still going well. This week, we have Wednesday and Thursday off for national holidays. I'm all about that! We are hoping to visit Salamanca on Wednesday--if the weather is decent. It looks like it's supposed to be a little nicer than it will be in Avila, so I'm all about leaving and visiting another city! The 4th graders are precious. I think so far they are my favorite group--though the first graders are a very, very close second. The thing I really like about the 4th grade group is they aren't as scared to try to speak English. In the other grades, they were very scared, and if they had the teeniest bit of doubt about what they wanted to say, they defaulted to Spanish. Which is okay, but it's so exciting to hear kids really trying their hardest to talk to you in English! I taught them a lesson entirely in Spanish one day, and I think it bonded us a little bit because we discussed how just like they are learning English and have trouble with it, I am still working on my Spanish and have problems sometimes too. Next week I'll move on to 5th grade, then 6th grade, and then I'm done! It's really hard to believe that I only really have about 3 weeks left. My last day at the school is May 22nd, and Leslie and I are going to do some more traveling after. We leave the 23rd for Dublin! We are incredibly excited. After spending about 4 nights in Dublin, we'll fly to London and spend about 4 nights there. I am very, very excited to travel some more. Then I fly back to the States on June 5th. This whole journey has been completely insane, and I can't believe that I have such a short time left!! 
Well, lunch will be soon and then I intend on taking a siesta today for sure. I'm exhausted!
<3