casacollins

Mark and kids at a vista in the Sierra Nevadas
One view during our day of hiking
A narrow sidewalk of shops downtown Granada
The newest member of our family, Golfie
Our well earned lunch!


I haven't blogged in a while, but I have lots to write about tonight! First, the kids ate squid today for lunch and didn't even know it! They thought they were onion rings! Hey, nothing like breading and frying to make things a little tastier! I'm so proud of them (the kids not the squids). Wynne didn't eat it, but maybe next time. Speaking of food, we bought a "jamon"! It's not just going to the deli or picking a ham out of the refrigerator case at Dominick's. This experience was a big deal. You know, ham (and food) is really important to the Spaniards. In southern Spain (Andalucia), cured ham (serrano) is the specialty. Our friends, Sandra and Antonio introduced us to the culture that is ham and now we're hooked! Tonio met me and Sandra at the supermarket yesterday just to help me pick out a proper ham leg. Well, he walked us both around this humungous display (15 feet by 15 feet) with hundreds of cured ham legs hanging from cords. Some were as expensive as 85 euros per kilo! We found one that was well priced and came with a free bottle of wine. Can't beat that. Nevermind how well cured they are, how fancy the cave was where it was buried, how tasty the meat is. Give the Spanish wine and they'll love it! So, we've arrived!

Since our last blog we went up to the Sierra Nevadas to check out the ski area. It was awesome! About 10,000 feet up and nothing but mountains all around. Very cool, so to speak. We hope to go skiing this winter. We were glad that our new-to- us VW Golf made the trip --no problem!

Did I mention our new-to-us Golf? Yes, we bought a car! Fun to do that with very little communication skills! Actually, Fidel, a helpful, bi-lingual mechanic, did a ton of translating. Our salesman is a friend/associate of our landlord and has kids at Granada College and is very nice and...patient. He could speak a lot of English, but not enough to legitimize our transaction and answer all our questions so Fidel came to the rescue. Funny how we depend so much on the kindness and generosity of so many people and have only been "dissed" by the melon lady! By the way, the melon lady came back and rang our bell last week. Selling potatoes. We didn't buy any. We told her we were saving for a car.

We went to see Amy, one of 3 daughters of Sandra and Tonio, play soccer with her Dad on Sunday. We expected everyone to be playing "football' all the time here. Not the case. Girls rarely play soccer. Very disappointing. However, Amy is the exception so we went to support her. She was great playing with all these men and doing a great job at it! Afterwards the two families walked/hiked across all these open desert-like fields, forged a river, and climbed some hills to a restaurant for lunch! It took about an hour and a half to get there and when we showed up the restaurant was packed, the sun was beating down on us, and there was only one waiter on duty! So after being promised undivided attention for 45 minutes, we finally ordered and had a fabulous lunch of salad, blood sausage, chorizo, salmon, "chips", beer, and of course, ham! So relaxing and satisfying. Perfect fuel for the trek home. Tonio didn't quite know the way, but knew enough to get us in the right direction. The kids loved it. We all had a great time climbing through bushes, sliding down rocky hillsides, cracking open almonds, crossing streams, dodging animal skat, and finding our way in the wilderness. What a great way to go to lunch! We got home at 7:30 and thought that was the best lunch we'd had in a long time!

Lastly, our 31 boxes of belongings arrived today! Okay, I know, we won't need all this stuff--especially if we're trying to live like folks here live...without a ton of possessions and a special place dedicated to their ham, but it sure is nice to have your own "stuff" when you "need" it. The kids were so excited to get their toys. They haven't had them for almost a month now. I'm excited to have my cookbooks and recipes (for ham) and Mark is so happy to have his easel. Mark and I said that if it was just us we would have liked to have moved here with only a couple of bags and nothing else. We did it this way and it's great. Next time, we have a huge garage sale before we leave, save ourselves a bunch of money not shipping anything and use that cash to buy what we need once we're here and use the leftovers to get us some of that 85 euro/kilo ham leg!

Finally, aside from the squid, the kids are doing well adjusting to school. The hard part is the long day for all of them, but especially Wynne. Spanish class is a little tough, too. But when the kids get to the English part of their day, they're sailing! Lydia and Reed are looking forward to getting their books. The school provides the books (actually we buy them, but the school orders them) and is doing a good job getting appropriate levels for them in both Spanish and English. Though food is important here, they don't have a textbook for that. Whew. If they did it would be called "Ham for Beginners".

Enough.

Hi!

Things are rolling right along here. We went over to see a new friend in our neighborhood on Sunday and had a great time. The wife/mom is British and the dad is Spanish, but teaches English at the university of Granada! Their daughters go to Granada College and one is in Reed's grade! They're very nice and have lifted the veils of ignorance off of our non-Spanish speaking fog! In the meantime, a friend of theirs shared these photos of our neighborhood with them and they decided to spread the wealth--lucky us!

The first photo is our neighborhood/urbanization/subdivision/development, Parque del Cubillas. Our house is a third of the way down the middle (main) road. Take a right and we're 4 houses down.

The second is our school and fields on the left side of the photo. Cubillas is on the right. Not a far walk at all!

The third shows our house the best. See the greenest pool in the middle of the photo? Our house is the white one with the orange ceramic tile roof. Where's Waldo? Actually you'll find him in our garden in the lower right hand corner of that greenish pool.

The fourth is a great shot of the whole area. There's been a bad drought here--worst in 15 years so the water in the resevoir has receded a lot. You can see a shooting range in the woods (orangeish fields) and a boat dock where people go sailing, wakeboarding, skiing, the works! Granada College is on the left side about halfway up the photo.

The last pic is another great view of the whole area. The trees in the fields are mostly olives and some almonds.

These pics were taken for some new development that is coming in a few years. Development is rampant and poorly planned according to Tony, the Spanish friend who gave us these photos. I don't think there's much activism here and who knows how this beautiful countryside is going to survive development.

In other news, school has started! The kids are in school from 9:20 to 5:00 every day. All three kids. Today I told Mark that I feel like a retiree! Actually, the class part of school seems to be good on this the second day. It's the lunch that's killing them. Apparently the older kids have to eat their entire 3 course, home made, Spanish meal. Yesterday they had gazpacho as their first course! Tomorrow it's lentils and seafood stew. Lydia got out the dictionary to translate the menu and exclaimed that the featured dish tomorrow is eel. I'm hoping there was a type-o. Yowza. Anyway they'll have roast chicken, fries and ice cream on Friday. They are required to eat the whole meal and do not get recess until they're done. Somehow we missed those details in the orientation for new, clueless parents. Meanwhile at home, I'm trying to stay calm and tell them how this is all new and takes some adjusting and it will all be fine and hang in there and at first everything is different, blah, blah, blah. They'll be fine, right? Right!

Tomorrow we head back to the car dealer (our 4th trip) to finally, hopefully buy a car. It's a used VW Golf. Who knows what year or how many miles...we haven't gotten to the number section in our book yet! No really, it seems great and will meet our needs just fine. After spending a half hour trying to figure out stuff at the bank today we think we'll have everything together tomorrow to finally buy the darn thing! It's deisel so we hope to be savvy consumers.

I can't really go on writing without a comment about Katrina. That disaster has been all over the news here. It's very strange to be so far away yet still feel a connection to that news. We watch the news (in Spanish!) when we can and Mark keeps up with stuff on the internet, but it is weird to be so far removed. It's been interesting to read people's e-mails to us about that.

Okay, all for now.

Hasta Luego!

Here are some other pictures too. Lydia and Reed on the bus tour, a beautiful arch somewhere on the tour and a picture of the Bullfighting ring in Granada.

We went on our first social outing tonight at another Granada College family's house. She's British and he's Spanish and teaches English at the university of Granada. They have 3 girls--one in Reed's grade. They were so nice and funny and taught us a lot about Spanish culture.

All for now. More later!

Hey Everyone!

What do you get when you mix language barriers, bureaucracy, hunger, fatigue and boredom and let it bake for 90 minutes in a 120 degree celcius police station? P.O.ed american paella!

Actually, it wasn't that bad.

This week has been a real adventure. We tried to get our Spanish i.d. cards at the police station, but were faced with the above ingredients so instead we got nothing and were close to a mutiny from the kids. We had to go back prepared with photos, cash, copies of the completed applications, snacks, dictionary, and more time to wait in line. Still "nada". You know, the kids have to go everywhere with us because we have no sitter or family here and they need i.d. cards too. What a pain. At least the lady at the tiny, little photo store was really nice so that was refreshing compared to the forlorn faces standing in line and sitting behind the windows at the "Policia". Oh yea, after waiting in line two separate days with hot, hungry children we learned that since we have no visas we can't get the i.d. cards. So we continue to wait...


In the meantime we are not about to sit around! Mark went with our landlord and his English speaking niece to check out a used car at this dealer. Jose Maria (landlord) is 85 years old, active, lively and wonderful. He has introduced us to neighbors, took our whole family out for dinner with his wife and niece, helped us with the utility companies, and now is finding us a car. He's a former priest, retired marble and granite businessman, has no children and a huge heart! We love him and Maravilla, his wife! We are so lucky.

While Mark was out with Jose Maria, the kids and I set up house. The house is great. It is in an urbanization 15 minutes outside of Granada center. In American terms it's a subdivision. The house is white stucco with ceramic tile roof. It's got 3 bedrooms with 4 twins and a double bed. The garden/yard is amazing! These huge arbor vitae evergreens give us shade and privacy. Everything here is close together, but out in "the country" there's a lot more space, yet people still live relatively close to one another. We have many fruit trees on the property, but of course this was explained to us in Spanish so for all I know they are poisonous, but will bear fruit either in October or at 8:00--something with "octo" in it! We have granite counters and marble tables, a marble fireplace and ceramic tile everywhere. It took a little getting used to with the celcius oven, different dials on the dishwasher and washing machine. Fortunately our fabulous neighbors, Genoveva and her adult son, Jesus, have given us various orientations to the equipment in the house, the area around the urbanization and even the grocery store! We love them, too! Jesus is about 28 and works as a pharmaceutical sales rep (no clue how to say that in Spanish) so he works a lot, but we see Genoveva almost every evening out by the pool.

The pool! It gets darn hot here during the day, probably in the 90s last week most days. So after a busy day in town we head over to the pool. We share it with about 8 other houses, some of whom are only here in the summer. It's great because we all can cool off, play together, get a little exercise and meet our neighbors. There's one guy who's about to be a freshman at the University of Granada. He's here with his folks. He speaks English really well and his name in Angel. So we've got Angel and Jesus right here on our block. How "blessed" are we?!

We finally met some folks at the kids' school, Granada College. It's bi-lingual, but the administration doesn't speak English, nor do the secretaries so we've had a fun time trying to figure out tuition and meetings with teachers, etc. They did hold meetings for parents in every grade level. So we show up, sit in the very front row and try to be good first-time American with no Spanish parents. They start the meeting in Spanish and do all the introductions in Spanish and then continue in Spanish the whole time! We are the only non-Spanish speaking parents out of 100 people in the room! Hopefully they didn't tell us anything too critical. We did figure out that there was rather important discussion about snacks and another about pencil boxes. I think we didn't miss much, but are glad we went. We did set up meetings with their homeroom teachers who are all fluent in English! It's going to be a great year I think. Half their classes are in English (English, p.e., science, and history of religion). They will have math in Spanish which will probably be tough at first, but they will have classmates assigned to them who can help them out. I met two English-speaking mothers whose kids are fluent in English. They have kids in Lydia and Reed's grades and one lives in our 'hood and has a teenage daughter who likes to babysit! Jackpot! Between the kids, parents, and teachers we've met it seems that the kids will be well cared for at school. Did I mention lunch? OHMYGOSH! It's served around 2:00 (they have a 30 min. break/snack time in the a.m.). The food is all prepared for them in advance and is basically fresh! During lunch every once in a while small groups from each class are taken out of the cafeteria into a small dining room where they are taught manners! I wonder if they would like to hear the Camp Echo "Get Your Elbows Off the Table" song? They get a 2 hour break for lunch and extracurricular activities then it's back to classes until 5 p.m.

We did two touristic things this week. One was a bus tour around Granada and up to the white washed houses, ultra-narrow streetsof the old Arab Albayzin neighborhood. That was really cool. It was hot out, but the views of the city were great. We got off the bus and had lunch in a little plaza. Then we walked 3 blocks up this road to a set of stairs that looked so unassuming and ordinary to this incredible view of the Alhambra Palace! It was one of my favorite moments so far. I had been up there with Priscilla in April and knew that the kids would be rewarded for what seemed like a long, boring, unrewarding uphill trek. As each of us finished our climb up the stairs the view of this ancient castle and fortress on a hilltop across from us left us with wide eyes and a mouths agape. The city was laid out before us with it's crown jewel perched atop the hill overlooking everything. Pretty awesome.

We also went on a drive out to a little village that Mark found in a guidebook. The drive was filled with lots of sites of olive orchards--literally as far as the eye could see! We kept going up and up and up and pretty soon we got to a look out that was sort of like a castle tower. We could see across this valley to a white washed village on a mountain. There was a big church and the ruins of an even bigger castle. "Eeeeeeeeeeeee!" is one response from Reed when we said yes to his request to go to the castle. As we were coming down from the lookout we noticed all these almond trees and collected a pile of almonds and 2 rocks to crack open the shells when we got back home. We drove on to the little village. Parked by the church and mounted the steps for our adventure into the ruins of the castle in Moclin. The kids ran around looking over every wall and out of every window they could find. They talked about how cool it must have been when it was a real castle and how the fighting and wars must have been huge! Funny how Iraq seems so different from the glorified wars of "the olden days".

So that's it for now. We start school in a couple days. We're expecting our boxes of toys, painting supplies and books next week which will be helpful for occupying all of us with things we love. In the meantime, we hope all is well with you wherever you are whenever you are reading this. Thanks for doing so as it is very satisfying knowing we can share this experience with someone else.

Ciao for now!

The top one is Lydia and Wynne in their school and gym uniforms. wynne is sporting the school gymsuit under which she wears red shorts and a gray t-shirt. They are just outside our front door.

Next is Reed in his gym clothes by our front gate.

The bottom 2 are Wynne in her school uniform and with her nice new sweater!

More photos next blog...they'll be more scenic.

Hola Everyone! Who likes manchego cheese and olive oil? That's what the highways smell like here. Funniest thing. I guess they really only smell like olives from the olive groves. Beats the heck out of industrial pollution that smacks of McDonald's fries. Anyone?

We have arrived and have even settled in a little. Our flights were great. Good food, good sleeping (more or less), good wine, good company. Wow. All on the plane, too. The foreigners' fiasco in the airport getting our bags (most of them) was amusing to the spaniards, I'm sure. It took forever to get food, euros, the car, the bags, the bathrooms. All this done with little to no Spanish or sleep!

Once we were in our little Renault wagon we hit the highway and headed to Granada. After 5 hours or so we saw the Sierra Nevada mountains and new we were close! Pulled into town, (which is 200,000 plus people, but is crazy in some parts with traffic and has roads as mixed up as my morning hairdoo. Yikes.) to find that we were in the middle of the Vuelta de Espana (huge national bike race like the Tour de France) and our hotel was right by the starting line! Go figure. It took us over an hour to find our hotel which we was no farther than 5 blocks away! The Hotel Los Angeles (angels everywhere--serious Catholics) was great...nice big pool, balconies, nice restaurants, great rooms, the works. The only bummer is that my and Mark's bags didn't show up at the airport or hotel for 3 more days--peeee--yewwww! We didn't know if we'd ever see our stuff again. Why did we put jewelry, cameras, year's supply of medicine and other important things in our bags anyway? Oh yea, because we carried so much other stuff we had no more room for it! I did fantasize for a few minutes about buying all new Spanish clothes! Silver lining.

Anyway, we were at the hotel from Thursday till Monday. The kids adjusted each in their own way. They all said their good-byes in Evanston and were sad at different times. That was a little tough as parents, but we knew that it would be worth it, hopefully. Lydia was disappointed that Granada was so urban. She didn't expect traffic or graffiti. Weird, but graffiti is everywhere here. Not usually criminal or vulgar, just public and disruptive to the really old crumbly walls that deserve more respect. The food is a bit tricky for them--they're not so keen on the different salads, sauces, meats, and sandwiches, but we all appreciate the yummy ice cream!

We met our new landlord, Jose Maria, and 84 year old man, and his wife, Maravilla on Monday. They took our whole family out for lunch at this very nice restaurant. The Spanish start with appetizers of cured Serrano ham, cheese, gazpacho, salads, bread, wine, etc. Then you get your main dish and can't even begin to eat it. Then we ordered fruit for dessert and the waiter shows up with half a watermelon for each person! Jose Maria has a niece who translated almost everything for us because our Spanish is almost as non-existent Jose Maria's English. It was great, though. He and Maravilla were sooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice. They loved our kids and showed them around the house and held their hands and told them how cute they were. Reed smiled a lot and looked a little uncomfortable, but loved every minute of that warm attention. Lydia, they think looks really Spanish, and they give Wynne as much ice cream as she wants. Anyway, the house is white stucco, 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, big patio and pool attached to the backyards of about 8 houses. It's great! There are lots of trees around and it's about 4 blocks from the kids' school, Granada College.

So we moved in on Tuesday and took a little time to adjust. Their living room is different--no sofa. The tv is in Spanish and the kitchen and living room have fluorescent lights. The kitchen is small, but efficient. The washing machine and dish washer require a tutorial from our friendly neighbor because who knows what is going on when I press whatever button that makes a noise. So much is "fly by the seat of our pants" these days. We're picking up a lot of Spanish, but don't exactly know what anyone really means. We have ventured out to do grocery shopping and some household shopping. Today we even bought some electrical stuff and school uniforms! Those are cute. The kids love them and it keeps the Spanish fashion guesswork to a minimum.

We've had a lot of fun so far. It's definitely exciting and new everyday. Today a lady from one of the villages nearby sold me 2 melons and ripped me off. Not too bad, but I guess I knew it was coming. She said she was poor and had 5 kids and was divorced. I got no sympathy when I told here I had 3 kids and a husband who likes to cook. Darn. I gave here the money and then asked the neighbor if that was a lot. She said yes, but not to worry, that's what happens when you're learning. Oh well.

The kids start school on the 12th. Before then we gotta practice up on our numeros because math is one of the subjects in spanish. I also need to figure out the washer because I guess I have to wash their uniforms every other day. I'm trying to figure out how to cook without recipes or ingredients because our cookbooks haven't arrived yet and I have no clue what the things are called on the shelves in the grocery store. It's a little bit like living in a fog.

We are lucky to be here. The neighbors are fabulous. The Marin-Mirases (landlords) are wonderful. Mark's colleague's brother is great and works at a restaurant with an English menu! The melon lady won't be back until she's got potatoes and I will challenge her in Spanish! The weather is amazing. The pool is refreshing. And we have the Internet. So, keep in touch if you want.

Hope you are all well.