Diciembre ya

Hola,
I can't believe it's December already. I'd say I miss the Oregon weather but it's about just as cold here..it actually snowed a couple days last week, well just enough for everyone to stop and look up for a moment.
The teaching hours have been good and steady. I was able to teach a little about Thanksgiving last week and even brought the beef jerky to share with all the students-they loved it. The pictures I've posted are of some of my academy classes with young and mid teens. I've enjoyed them the most, and the picture with my Oregon t-shirt was after a little Oregon geography lesson in which they drew maps and discovered why the team's called the Trailblazers ( which two spanish players are playing for.)
A couple of weeks ago I got to see a good Flamenco show here in a small venue where we were sitting about 10 feet from a small wooden stage. 4 dancers, guitarists and singers. It was a pretty powerful show which you could feel the floor shake under the dancers stomping and very spontaneous music which represents the mixed cultures of the Spanish heritage. Took a few pics that you can see.
Tomorrow's the Spanish holiday of the constitution. Only two more weeks until the Christmas vacation. I'm looking forward to my friend Walter coming to visit this week! At the beginning of the holidays, we have a little European excursion planned..
Well, he'll be staying here in Madrid with me for a week until my classes are done and then on the 20th we're planning to go to Barcelona for a couple of days to see the next great Spanish city. Then we'll be flying to Rome where Walter's dad will be staying during Christmas and try to see as many sites as we can. After Christmas, my friend Simon who's a teacher here from London offered to show us around London for a couple of days, so we'll jet on over there. Since we'll be up in the area of our ancestors, we figured we have to go visit Ireland and so we'll fly over to Dublin around New Year's time. Hopefully we can take a train to some other parts of Ireland and see the countryside before we head back to Madrid. So, really excited about this opportunity and taking some great photos.
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. I'll really miss you all around Christmas time. I'm continuing to pray as I'm deciding as long as I'm enjoying this teaching experience to see if there are other opportunities or what God wants for me next.
¡Dios siempre tiene el control!
Love,
Kyle