Last week was my first regular week at either of my schools - or as regular as it could be, considering it began with a long weekend. It was nice to be able to recognize some familiar faces among the staff and students, although names still elude me for the most part. Two stand out, however - David and Ana. Both are teachers in Albelda de Iregua, the more distant of my two schools. Our daily commute to and from the school was the highlight of my week. Being a language enthusiast, the language barrier here is a constant frustration. However, David and Ana both speak English at about the level that I speak Spanish, meaning we go back and forth between English and Spanish (with Spanish getting the upper hand) to make conversations work. The fact that I can use the word "conversation" to describe how we talk is remarkable in itself, because I have had precious few actual conversations with Spanish people thus far. It helps that both David and Ana have well-developed senses of humor.

This week has also helped clarify exactly what my duties are. Now working in Alberite, I have been giving presentations (with the aid of Powerpoint) about topics that I know a lot about and the students know little about (such as Canada and Halloween). It allows me to play on the differences I have with the students, and certainly does wonders for my patriotism. Even better, there is very little risk of running out of material, especially when it comes down to explaining the concept of poutine - Spanish has no word for gravy, so the explanation is always at least 5 minutes long.

Regarding my life outside of school, I recently bought a bicycle. It should give me greater freedom to roam the area, although I will need to get used to riding drop-down handlebars. I found it on a craigslist-esque website, and the man I bought it from was surprised when he met me to find that I wasn't black (his words). I don't want to delve into the racist undertones of that statement, especially as he said it in a language in which I am far from fluent, but I was a little taken aback. There were no more such comments afterwards, although he was absolutely staggered that I didn't haggle with him. Once he had shown me everything (and given me a pump and a water bottle), I pulled out my wallet and he literally took a step backwards. After he said he would make a point of remembering this extraordinary event, I rode the bike home in short stretches, as the street layout here is still a bit of a mystery to me.

Finally, as this week has been marked by small but significant developments in my life here, I offer these small but significant tidbits of difference between North America and Spain:

- Double first names are common here, with José Luis, Maria Jesús (how holy can you get?), José Ramon, and Miguel Ángel being just a few examples that I have encountered.

- A different language means different accepted abbreviations: instead of Maria Jesús, you can write Ma. Jesús, much as we occasionally see Wm. for William. Also, as we write Bros. for Brothers, Spanish people write Hnos. for Hermanos.

- Bread is purchased every day in baguette form, rather than kept for multiple days in sliced loaves. I haven't looked in anyone's shopping bags, but a yard-long baguette is hard to conceal (and even harder to fit in the bread box).