FROGLEGS

So I got the call to come to the training days for the job that I interviewed for in Madrid. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I have a job or that the income that I’ll earn will be enough. But it’s news!

I’ll be in Madrid between 16-18 January. More information in the coming days.

I’ve got a job interview on Monday in Madrid.

As those of you that receive our newsletter know, we have been underbudget on our support for almost 4 years. Sometimes it has been a deficit of $800 a month, but more recently (and as the dollar has gotten weaker and weaker against the Euro) it has been closer to $1700. Obviously, if we aren’t fully supported, we have to make a lot of cutbacks in spending. We’ve been able to get by up until now, but the coming year is looking like it will be extremely difficult (if not impossible) financially.

I’d like to add at this point that we are supported by a lovely group of family and friends that give sacrificially on a monthly basis to make sure that we can be in Sevilla and devote a majority of our time to our community, the poor and those that don’t know Jesus yet. There are not words that can express our thankfulness to God and to these individuals. They are all among our favourite folks in the whole world.

That said, we’ve got to have more income. Thus the job interview on Monday. We won’t be moving or anything, but the interview is in Madrid.

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Don’t ever buy stuff on an airplane. It’s a racket.

While we were in the US, we stayed with my Mom for most of our time in California. She spent a few months in China earlier this year. In fact, she had just got back a few days before we arrived in Bakersfield. While in China she discovered, as most do, that you can get a crappy version of pretty much anything at various shops selling counterfeit products for a very cheap price. She brought back 2 crates of what she calls “junk” to use in different mixed media pieces she is planning.

One of the things she brought back was a cheap set of battery powered iPod speakers. She paid about $5 for them. I used them and I can attest that they are “junk”. Turn them up more than a quarter of the way to a decent volume and you get a load of distorted mess. They aren’t really a counterfeit of any name brand product. They are just really badly manufactured speakers.

On the way home on our Iberia flight, I saw this in the inflight shopping magazine:

That’s $80 for something that cost $5 in China. And not just that, it’s eighty bucks for really really really bad speakers. If you are ever tempted to buy something on any airline flight. Remember this: They are ripping you off!

Does anyone know of a website chronicling just how much of a rip-off inflight shopping is? Iberia has got to be up there in the rankings of “most malificent highway robbers”. In addition to terrible (and terribly expensive) electronics, they also charge 10 euros ($14.66) for a sandwich. And the food (which we got for no additional charge)we got on the trans-Atlantic flight was seriously inedible. It was picture worthy.

I finished off an email newsletter to our supporters yesterday. In it, I did a quick roundup of a few of my favourite moments from our trip to the US. I thought, since there are probably a fair few of you that probably haven’t signed up to our email newsletter (which you really should do!!!), that it might be nice to pop that little list up here.In retrospect, here are a few highlights from the trip:  (more…)

Maine is currently giving us a windy and rainy send off.  We got hit by Hurricane Noel’s left overs on Saturday night, but the weather today is way worse than what hit us then.The trip west tomorrow will be long.  I’m not looking forward to it.  The good news is that we’ll be making one of Virgin America’s first flights from JFK to LAX so I think that means we get free stuff, right?  Call me a nerd, but I’m excited to check out VA’s entertainment system.  We’ll be in California from tomorrow night until the end of the month.

We’re back in the US for my sister’s wedding and to visit family.  It’s been nearly 2 years since we were last back and everytime there are things that just strike me as strange or absurd.  Not bad, mind you.  I’m not passing judgement.  I just find them really weird.  Here’s a quick list:

•  Since when is the cost of living in Brooklyn almost exactly the same as living in Sevilla?
• Taking money out of the Spanish bank in the US is fun.  Euros = muchos dolares.  Nice.  Usually it’s the other way around.  Dolares = not very many Euros.
• Variety of choice in US supermarkets.  Who really needs 100’s of breakfast cereals?  We seem to get by in Spain with about 15.  How do we do it?
• 800 television channels?  Seriously?
• People you don’t know talk to you.  Its kind of cool, but it freaked me out at first.  Folks in Spain will always say something about Sophia.  But a guy in line at the supermarket the other day just started talking to me about the weather.  That doesn’t really happen in Spain.
• Analog mobile phones still work over here.  Hilarious.
• MLS Soccer looks about as elegant as my high school soccer team.  Note to Fox Soccer Channel: Don’t put Spanish Primera League highlights in the same program with MLS highlights.  It doesn’t make American sports look very good.

We’re on the East Coast until the 7th of November.  Then we head to California for fun in the sun.