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.