November 30, 2005
Albaycin, Flamenco, Geneva, Soccer and Mark is really working on his sabbatical project!
Hola everyone! Finally, I'm writing again. This dial-up modem business has slowed my production time down significantly and terminated it a few times while I was "uploading" photos to the blog so this entry will not have photos, but I'll post them immediately in a separate blog, so stay tuned...
Anyway, since we last blogged we had a visitor, Ben Saper, from Evanston. He's in Madrid this semester as a study-abroad student from Brown Univ. and wanted to get out to see some of the other wonderful cities of Espana. Lydia and I knew him a little from camp, which was a nice bonus. Seriously, this guy was great. We could not have asked for a better visitor (no pressure for those of you who are planning your vacations here. You are all unique and we are looking forward to each and every one of your visits). Anyway, the kids were so psyched to have a houseguest, let alone a cool, 21 year old camp counselor! Mark and I were pleased with ourselves that we knew where the bus station was to pick him up from. Nothing like a visitor to give you some gauge on how far you've come or not because once we picked him up we proceeded to get completely lost in the labrynth of the city streets. Oh well. The next day we managed to make it to the old arab neighborhood, Albaycin, with Ben and our pals, the Lozano-Whites.(see photo) We had fried fish in a nice plaza smack dab in the middle of some other labrynth that only our Granadino buddy, Tony, can lead us in and out of . The fish is really good here. Very fresh and there's a huge variety. We had about fifty-six different kinds: calamare, smelts, octopus, and what seemed like two or three dozen others whose names are something like whitefish or rape. I think there are as many different kinds of fish as there are responses to "Hola". So yummy with a beer outside in the warm sun with friends! Then we went walking around the Albaycin which is up on a hill where you can see all of the Alhambra Palace and the city of Granada. All 11 of us walked and walked and talked and laughed along the way. It was one of our favorite days here yet. As Napoleon Dynamite said, "Gosh! Lucky."
Mark and I went to a Flamenco show with Tony and Sandra a couple of weeks ago. That was spectacular. In fact, "show" in Spanish is "spectaculo". They're so smart here. There were dancers, singers, guitarists, drummers and from what I could tell, clappers. Those gals who do all that clapping could make a good euro or two for the Clapper lamp company. Whew! With all the clapping they did they could keep a disco flashing for hours! The dancers were some serious chicas! They could step and strut and kick and shuffle like nobody's business. Very impressive. The guitarists really stole the show for me and Mark, though. These fellas made such beautiful music. They strummed so fast and made so many different sounds come out of their guitars. Hard to describe. You've just got to give it a listen. We hope to take visitors to some flamenco places. The kids really want to go and Wynne is dieing (sp?) to wear her very own flamenco get-up!
On Nov. 17 we left the warm sun of southern Spain for our first intercontinental voyage! We were on a mission to visit Geneva before our tourist status expired and have a great time with friends. So we went to Switzerland to hang with our friends Jonh and Amy Jacobs and their kiddies, Owen (5) and Emma (3). WOW! A two and a half hour flight transported us to an incredible place. Geneva was soooo clean and everyone was on time. There were fancy jewelry stores, watch stores and chocolate shops literally everywhere we turned. John and Amy live in a 200 year old barn.(See photo) Sounds sketchy doesn't it? Wait till you see it...what a place! Huge, renovated, warm, welcoming and styly! We loved having triple the space of our casa in Spain. We could see Mont Blanc (highest peak in Europe) from their town which was cool. Mostly, we hung out*, did a little (expensive) shopping, and ate. The wine, bread and chocolate were wonderful...second only to the Jacobses' company! We celebrated Thanksgiving together and had a blast! None of us can wait to go back--fair warning, John and Amy!
Needless to say, I started the South Beach diet the day we got home.
Besides the really fun walking around bit in the Albaycin another highlight was a soccer tournament at Granada College last weekend (see photo). Reed and Lydia both played and had a great time. It was only for kids in 1st through 6th grades so we got to visit with some familiar faces, chat with teachers and meet a few parents and kids who are part of the school scene. It was the first time we've really seen girls participating in a competitive manner in sports here. The lack of female athletes been one of very few disappointments, let me tell you. Finding girls to play soccer with is like finding peanut butter in a spanish grocery store! So Lydia had a chance to shine and managed to put one in the net! She was one of only two girls to score during the tournament! We are so proud. Reed had a great day as he played relentless defense for his 4th grade team which won the championship of their division! The Spanish are very serious about their "futbol" and we were excited that our little gringos could hold their own and make their teams, their parents and their whole country proud! Long live AYSO!
On Saturday we are going to Dusseldorf, Germany and probably over to Amsterdam, Holland during the week. The country has a bunch of holidays and there's no school, so we're "off like a bride's nightie!" Wish me luck on the South Beach thing. Maybe some wooden shoes will distract me from all those darn good European pastries and chocolates!
All for now, we'll try to post some photos right now. If not, check tomorrow, por favor.
* Mark wants me to edit the "hanging out" portion of this entry because he actually did visit some museums to do some good work for his sabbatical project, which is going well, by the way. He's collected and documented over 200 photos of art stuff (good, descriptive word, eh?) thus far!
Anyway, since we last blogged we had a visitor, Ben Saper, from Evanston. He's in Madrid this semester as a study-abroad student from Brown Univ. and wanted to get out to see some of the other wonderful cities of Espana. Lydia and I knew him a little from camp, which was a nice bonus. Seriously, this guy was great. We could not have asked for a better visitor (no pressure for those of you who are planning your vacations here. You are all unique and we are looking forward to each and every one of your visits). Anyway, the kids were so psyched to have a houseguest, let alone a cool, 21 year old camp counselor! Mark and I were pleased with ourselves that we knew where the bus station was to pick him up from. Nothing like a visitor to give you some gauge on how far you've come or not because once we picked him up we proceeded to get completely lost in the labrynth of the city streets. Oh well. The next day we managed to make it to the old arab neighborhood, Albaycin, with Ben and our pals, the Lozano-Whites.(see photo) We had fried fish in a nice plaza smack dab in the middle of some other labrynth that only our Granadino buddy, Tony, can lead us in and out of . The fish is really good here. Very fresh and there's a huge variety. We had about fifty-six different kinds: calamare, smelts, octopus, and what seemed like two or three dozen others whose names are something like whitefish or rape. I think there are as many different kinds of fish as there are responses to "Hola". So yummy with a beer outside in the warm sun with friends! Then we went walking around the Albaycin which is up on a hill where you can see all of the Alhambra Palace and the city of Granada. All 11 of us walked and walked and talked and laughed along the way. It was one of our favorite days here yet. As Napoleon Dynamite said, "Gosh! Lucky."
Mark and I went to a Flamenco show with Tony and Sandra a couple of weeks ago. That was spectacular. In fact, "show" in Spanish is "spectaculo". They're so smart here. There were dancers, singers, guitarists, drummers and from what I could tell, clappers. Those gals who do all that clapping could make a good euro or two for the Clapper lamp company. Whew! With all the clapping they did they could keep a disco flashing for hours! The dancers were some serious chicas! They could step and strut and kick and shuffle like nobody's business. Very impressive. The guitarists really stole the show for me and Mark, though. These fellas made such beautiful music. They strummed so fast and made so many different sounds come out of their guitars. Hard to describe. You've just got to give it a listen. We hope to take visitors to some flamenco places. The kids really want to go and Wynne is dieing (sp?) to wear her very own flamenco get-up!
On Nov. 17 we left the warm sun of southern Spain for our first intercontinental voyage! We were on a mission to visit Geneva before our tourist status expired and have a great time with friends. So we went to Switzerland to hang with our friends Jonh and Amy Jacobs and their kiddies, Owen (5) and Emma (3). WOW! A two and a half hour flight transported us to an incredible place. Geneva was soooo clean and everyone was on time. There were fancy jewelry stores, watch stores and chocolate shops literally everywhere we turned. John and Amy live in a 200 year old barn.(See photo) Sounds sketchy doesn't it? Wait till you see it...what a place! Huge, renovated, warm, welcoming and styly! We loved having triple the space of our casa in Spain. We could see Mont Blanc (highest peak in Europe) from their town which was cool. Mostly, we hung out*, did a little (expensive) shopping, and ate. The wine, bread and chocolate were wonderful...second only to the Jacobses' company! We celebrated Thanksgiving together and had a blast! None of us can wait to go back--fair warning, John and Amy!
Needless to say, I started the South Beach diet the day we got home.
Besides the really fun walking around bit in the Albaycin another highlight was a soccer tournament at Granada College last weekend (see photo). Reed and Lydia both played and had a great time. It was only for kids in 1st through 6th grades so we got to visit with some familiar faces, chat with teachers and meet a few parents and kids who are part of the school scene. It was the first time we've really seen girls participating in a competitive manner in sports here. The lack of female athletes been one of very few disappointments, let me tell you. Finding girls to play soccer with is like finding peanut butter in a spanish grocery store! So Lydia had a chance to shine and managed to put one in the net! She was one of only two girls to score during the tournament! We are so proud. Reed had a great day as he played relentless defense for his 4th grade team which won the championship of their division! The Spanish are very serious about their "futbol" and we were excited that our little gringos could hold their own and make their teams, their parents and their whole country proud! Long live AYSO!
On Saturday we are going to Dusseldorf, Germany and probably over to Amsterdam, Holland during the week. The country has a bunch of holidays and there's no school, so we're "off like a bride's nightie!" Wish me luck on the South Beach thing. Maybe some wooden shoes will distract me from all those darn good European pastries and chocolates!
All for now, we'll try to post some photos right now. If not, check tomorrow, por favor.
* Mark wants me to edit the "hanging out" portion of this entry because he actually did visit some museums to do some good work for his sabbatical project, which is going well, by the way. He's collected and documented over 200 photos of art stuff (good, descriptive word, eh?) thus far!
November 10, 2005
La Vida en Espana!
It's been a busy coupla weeks since Mark returned from Japan...Funny thing, in Spanish, "Japan", "ham", and "soap" are almost the same word: "Japon", "jamon" and "sabon". Whew, if that doesn't confuse the gal at the deli counter I don't know what would!
Anyway, Mark returned from Japan just in time for Halloween. We begged him to go as a sumo wrestler, but he misplaced his big Japanese "thong" somewhere and decided to go as a bloody ghoul thingy. Halloween in Granada is definitely different than at home. first, they don't really celebrate it. Nov. 1st is All Saints Day, but it's more of a day off work than a religious holiday. (More about post-Franco Spain and religion another time.) Our school, "Granada College" had a full afternoon of costumes, games and parties for the kids and parents. Every child dressed in scarey costumes. They don't do fairies, princesses, robots, firemen, superheroes, or plays on words, etc. for costumes. They really go for the fear factor. I think our school is unique in that most schools don't recognize Halloween at all here. Then we had a party on Halloween night in our "Club Social" building in our development. Sandra and I planned it with the kids (all 6) and invited about 25 people from school and the neighborhood. It was great! Spiderwebs, fortune telling, apple bobbing, creepy/mushy things in bowls, candy!, and beer. A good time was had by all. The Halloween photo includes Sandra with witch's hat, Lucy (purple vest and witch hat), Mark, me (green witch), Ben (neighbor boy/devil), Alina (black cat), Reed (skeleton/alien guy), Lydia (fortune teller with knife in head), Anna (neighbor/vampire), and Wynne (black cat).
We've gone on two excursions since our last blog. First, we tried going to Cordoba, but thought it better to turn around after an hour in the car, lunch at a great restaurant, and a little sight-seeing. We were all set to make the 2 hour trip to Cordoba to see this mosque turned cathedral. There's a "forest" of 850 columns inside and it's supposed to be spectacular. BUT, the kids weren't crazy about driving anymore, so we settled for the less major ruins of Alcala (see photo of kids with castle on hill behind them and olive orchards flanking them) and the city of Baena (see photo of plaza with fountains and cool building with archways). To summarize the guidebooks, southern Spain has all these cool towns with ruins of castles and mosques that have been built upon and destroyed by various aggressive types (Nazrids of north Africa and Catholics from Europe). The towns are not at all the same, nor are the ruins, but the themes are generally similar.
Second, we went to the Sierra Nevadas again! We love it up there. The views are terrific and it's very peaceful. The photo of the five of us at what looks like the top of the mountain is our family near the peak (probably something like a 15 hour hike from where we were for all I know) called "Mulhacen". There is also a statue of the Patron Saint of Snow. I don't know what her real name is, but leave it to the Catholics to change it from something like "Mariposa" to "Patron Saint of Snow". Somehow I suppose that was a promotion so she probably didn't mind. We saw and heard a herd of sheep in the actual ski area. Pretty cool sight. We were all so curious as it was our first time seeing that. All the sheep had bells on (no they were not dressed up) and were grazing all over the hillside. The shepherd was a salty, old guy (maybe 44, but looked 84) whom I mistakenly thought was an entrepeneur of another sort and asked him if he did trail rides with his horse because my daughter was interested in riding. He mumbled something about his horse being sick, but in summer he does walks. It was not until later that I saw him in his real occupation and thought he must've thought I was some North Shore ninny who was insensitive to the indigenous population of the Sierras. Oops.
And of course we have our regular nod to the ham industry. You'll notice the photo of the Jamon section at Alcampo superstore. Check out all that JAMON!!!! Yes, I stood there in the store taking the picture whilst all the locals went about their shopping wondering why someone would take a photo of the jamon. Once I figure out how to explain that in Spanish you know I'm going to say something to someone in the ham department. Maybe even get a photo of the jamon guy with his wares! Stay tuned for that one...
Tomorrow we have a visitor, Ben Saper (Camp Echo/Evanstonian who is in Madrid studying this semester) is coming to Granada. We're all excited to have a guest and to take him around and show off this great city. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out who each other is at the bus station. Maybe we should all wear red, white and blue. Perhaps Wynne in a flamenco dress will be enough. Next week we're going to Geneva to visit John and Amy Jacobs (friends through Mark) and their kids for five days. We're so looking forward to the trip and seeing their kids who we have never met! One nice side benefit (so we are told) is that by going to Switzerland, our tourist status in Spain will be extended another 90 days. We figure in 90 more days we will go to Morocco and 90 days after that maybe Greece. A great solution to our visa problem.
The kids are doing well with the adjustment and all. Reed started soccer after school on Tues. and Lydia is planning to join the group today. They miss the sports teams at home so this is a welcome addition to their days. Wynne is taking dance after lunch two days a week and loves it. Yay! The work at school is challenging because it is in a different language for half the day, but they seem to be doing fine with the curriculum. We figure they're learning a lot of other stuff and cumulatively speaking they'll be just fine. Mark and I are brushing up on our University of Chicago "Everyday Math" facts we learned from Lydia and Reed over the last few years so we can tutor them to keep them up to speed with what's going on in Evanston's schools. Wonderful comment from Lydia, "I'm really going to appreciate King Lab when we go back. I don't think I'll ever complain again about math or lunch."
Es la vida in Espana!
