Holidays in Spain

Happy 2011!

Here’s a bit of a summary of how I spent my holidays…

Christmas Eve I was at home most of the day. Originally I was suppose to be with Almudena and her family that day, but they decided to spend Christmas Eve with her boyfriend’s family and it wasn’t really her place to invite me to that. So then I talked to Stefi and Edu about maybe spending Christmas Eve with them. They said that if Edu’s mom ending up coming over to their house for Christmas Eve that I could join them, but if she refused and they had to go to her house that I wouldn’t be able to come. It ended up that I wasn’t going to be able to go with them. Luckily for me Luis’ family doesn’t do anything for Christmas Eve, so he came and spent the day with me at my apartment. He made ham and mushroom risotto for lunch and brought a bottle of cava. Cava is like champagne, except since it’s from Catalonia it has a different name. We hung out most of the day and for dinner he cooked two other kinds of risotto…salmon risotto, and a chicken and cheese risotto. All of it was fantastic. After dinner I got dolled up in the dress I bought in Ubeda and a pair of heels (my first time attempting to wear heels for a night out in Siles). We met Luis’ brother at Pub JJ for a drink because Nicols wasn’t open yet (not open yet…at midnight!). After Pub JJ we went to Nicols and hung out for awhile. We had a drink, chatted and were given souvenir Nicols’ Santa hats. We left Nicols around 1:30 and walked to Luis’ house to get the car. (I can’t remember why we needed it). However, someone had parked behind the car and we couldn’t get it out so Luis’ brother and I walked up to my apartment while Luis got some things out of the house. At 2am I got to web chat with my family, and about 30 extended family members who were at my cousin’s house having Christmas Eve dinner. They took turns passing the computer around and then they put the computer at the end of the table so I could be apart of the dinner table prayer. Everyone started singing and I could tell Luis and Javi were amused and wondering what was going on. I ended the chat and then headed back out. We went to 1900 for awhile but it was really frustrating. The music was turned up RELALY loud making conversation virtually impossible for me. Plus, I got introduced to a guy whose accent I couldn’t understand very well, and who kept talking about things he didn’t really like about the US. I kept looking for a way out of the conversation, but it took awhile. Luis, Javi and I didn’t stay for too much longer. Javi went home and Luis and I went to the discoteca. Luis introduced me to a bunch of people at the discoteca, including a guy named Tom who is auditioning for a TV host role in Madrid. We drank and danced the night away, and I finally went to bed about 8am.

I like the fact that Spaniards have big crazy nights out for Christmas Eve, but I think there is one flaw in the tradition. Usually people here have a nice dinner for Christmas Eve, and a nice lunch for Christmas day. It was the first time in my life I’ve set an alarm for noon knowing I would only be getting four hours of sleep. It’s too bad people don’t have a nice dinner for Christmas instead of lunch so we have more time to recuperate after the previous night’s celebrations.

Christmas day starting off a little frantic and frustrating. I didn’t wake up right when I should have and so I rushed to get ready (I had been led to believe that people dressed up for Christmas). A couple weeks ago Almudena had told me that the lunch would be at her parents’ house. Last night when I saw her at the discoteca I confirmed with her and she said, no, the lunch was going to be at her house. This led to a whole slew of confusion on Christmas day, and me eventually showing up late to her parents where everyone was there waiting for me so they could eat. After eating our meat and seafood lunch (that’s the typical Christmas meal here) Almudena wanted me to take some pictures of the kids so we had a mini photo shoot with everyone that was there. Overall I was only at Almudena’s parents’ house about 2-3 hours, which is comparison to some lunches I’ve gone to is pretty short. I went home, relaxed and slept the rest of the day. A lot of people decided not to go out Christmas night because Christmas Eve had been so crazy.

New Years Eve I went to Hostal Cruz (a restaurant) with Luis and his parents. We had a big expensive meal (which Luis’ parents were generous enough to treat me to) and chatted with the people all around us. It felt like a big family gathering the way it was set up, except it was just a bunch of random people from the town all together. I met a lot of people, most of whom initially used Luis as my interpreter because they didn’t think I spoke Spanish. One of the older gentlemen there said that I could be Miss America or Miss North America. Haha. I got seated next to a girl from Germany (who is dating a guy living in Barcelona, originally from Siles). More than one person commented on the fact that they put the two guiris (foreigners) together. We had lots of tapas, wine, beer, our main courses, dessert and polvorones (cookies, chocolates, sweets). I had fish for my main course and Luis ordered the meat so we could try both. I really liked the meat dish and wish I had ordered it! We watched the countdown on TV and I was excited to eat my 12 grapes. Spaniards eat 12 grapes at midnight (one with each strike of the clock) and it’s supposed to bring you good luck in the coming year. The only thing that made this a little challenging was that the seeds aren’t pitted so you have to stuff a bunch of grapes in your mouth, eat around the seeds and then pick the seeds out after the clock has struck 12 times. Supposedly in some cities they were selling pitted grapes for New Years but sadly, Siles was not one of these towns. I guess that just makes my experience all the more authentic. The restaurant owner also gave everyone a bag of goodies (party hats, noisemakers, etc) to don while ringing in the New Year. After eating the grapes everyone went around the room wishing everyone a Happy New Year (¡Feliz año!) with the normal cheek kisses. Shortly after, the younger generations headed off to the bars. Luis and I headed off to Nicols. Luis’ parents stayed at Hostel Cruz but not for very long. We had a few drinks, chatted it up with people, hung out with the German girl and her Spanish boyfriend and eventually decided to go back to Hostal Cruz so I could see the older generation living it up. Haha. They were listening to music and dancing, and Ana, Luis “second mother” (who is super tiny) tried teaching me to dance. We stayed there for a little while, then headed off to Menphys. We ran into Maria and Almudena on the way. They were heading over to the discoteca so we decided to go straight there instead. Luis called up a friend in Barcelona to say ‘happy new year’ and then we went inside. It actually wasn’t too crowded when we showed up (around 3am). It didn’t take too long though before the place was PACKED. You really couldn’t dance. You just had to move around in the same place. I like going out in Spain but nights like this still stress me out. Maybe it’s because I treasure my American concept of personal space. Even if there is space it seems like people will just run into you without making much of an effort to go around. We stayed there for awhile, had a few drinks (I eventually changed out of my high heels and into the flats I stowed away in my purse) and later on we headed back to Nicols. It was a little less stressful there. I’m glad we went to the discoteca but *uffff* SO many people. I preferred Christmas Eve in the discoteca when there were still a lot of people, but not as many. I believe I finally went to bed around 7-8am.

And thaaaaaaaat was my holiday season in a nutshell. A *small* change from the typical low-key family gatherings I usually go to! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!

¡Feliz navidad! ¡Feliz año Nuevo!

Jenny and Me

A couple weeks in my blog entry I mentioned going to the discoteca for the first time. Jenny, from the TV series Hombres y Mujeres y Viceversa was here in Siles that night and I had a photo taken with her. I said when I got a copy from Maribel I would post the photo, so here it is!

Daylight savings time is just an excuse to party an hour more

Happy Halloween everyone!

Yesterday I slept in until 12:30. Considering I didn’t go to bed until 3:30 I think that’s just fine. Heck, it was a Saturday on a holiday weekend. The day before I had successfully done one load of laundry of laundry (the little pictures/symbols on the washing machine are not really bilingual) so yesterday I needed to do the rest of my laundry. I don’t have a dryer here. In Murcia I could understand that…I didn’t necessary like it, but I understood it. It doesn’t rain a lot there and the temperature is pretty decent year-round. Here, it was raining yesterday. It started raining Friday night and has been drizzly and very Washington-like ever since. You can’t really put clothes outside on the line to dry if it’s raining. And later this winter when it starts to snow? I REALLY don’t think my clothes are going to dry then. So, this is what life looks like without a dryer…







I do love my towel warmer. I put my jeans on that, and it still took a long time, but I got them dry in one day instead of three. I have clothes on my tables, clothes on the chairs, clothes on the banister and clothes on desk…it’s beginning to sound like a Dr. Seuss story.

I also spent some time doing dishes and sweeping. Dust tends to gather really quickly here so I feel like I need to sweep every couple days.

I showered and got ready, and then got to talk with Brittany a little bit. We didn’t get to chat long because I ran out of money on my phone, but it was still good to talk to her. My plan was to go to Murcia tomorrow (Pepe is going to Murcia to look at a new car and said he could take me) and have coffee with Brittany.

After all that I headed out to do my errands. I went to Pepe’s house to drop off the phone he lent me and confirm tomorrow’s plan. Pepe wasn’t at the house but Rocio was. She said her dad was at Mezquita…of course he was…I think he is there, or in the area 90% of the time. Rocio was prepping her Halloween costume with a friend. Then I headed to Dia. I wasn’t sure what their hours were going to be, or which days they would be open because of the holiday weekend. I stocked up on food and jotted down their normal hours so I would know when to go in the future. I stopped in at Mezquita for coffee but it was really busy and I had my bags of groceries anyways. Pepe was there, and the group from the night before. Pepe said that they decided to go to Murcia next week instead. I was disappointed. I’m not sure when Pepe is actually going to go. He said he was going to go last week, and then moved it to this week, and now its next week. These trips to Murcia are way more complicated than they should be. It’s only a little over 2 hours away but there is only one or two buses that go that route each day, so if I go to Murcia I have to stay overnight at least one night. Brittany doesn’t have an apartment yet and I’m hesitant to shell out the money for a hostel until I start getting paid. Blah. I’m sure I’ll figure something out eventually.

I went back to the house, put my groceries away, send some e-mails, worked on my blog and dried off a little (stupid rain).

I was planning on going out again but wasn’t totally sure what time. This would be my first night here that I had plans to meet people and go out, instead of going by myself. QUITE exciting! The party at Mezquita was suppose to start at 1am and my group said they were going to go at 2am. They also said they were going to go out before the party, so I wasn’t sure what time they were going to call. I decided if they didn’t end up calling I would head to Menphys at 12:30 or 1 and see if they are there.

Later I received a text from Maribel saying they were planning on getting together at Menphys at 11:30. I took my time getting there, knowing it wasn’t likely they would actually be there right at 11:30. Menphys was so crowded. I definitely have to get used to that environment again because I was totally overwhelmed. It was really difficult to hear people, and basically impossible unless they were talking directly to me. I was underdressed too. I went in jeans and a fun shirt but all the girls were in heels and dresses. Part of me wanted to go home and change but I didn't. I should have saved my little black dress for this night instead of Friday. We had a couple drinks they headed to the discoteca at 2am. Cover was 6 euro, but it included a drink, so it wasn’t too bad. The bartender at the discoteca couldn’t understand me, and asked Almudena to clarify for him. It’s so frustrating…I know I’ve only been here a week and I’m not a native Spanish speaker, but I can hold such good conversations with some people and I’ve had many people tell me that I speak Spanish well. But then there are still people I can’t understand, who can’t understand me. Grrr.

It took me awhile to get adjusted to the discoteca. I was even more overwhelmed here. At times I just wanted to head out, or at least go outside for a minute, but I stuck it out. The concept of personal space is completely different here. Luckily the group I was with was really good to me. They kept checking in to make sure I was doing alright and having fun.

They had a special guest at the discoteca last night…Jenny from the show Mujeres y Hombres y Viceversa on Telecinco. I of course had no idea who she was prior to last night, but it was fun. We got a picture taken with her, which hopefully I’ll track down from Maribel at some point.

Gloria is freaking amazing. My night turned around and I had a lot of fun, mostly because of her. I really just can’t even express how grateful I am for her, for taking me under her wing, introducing me to people right and left, and breaking me out of my shell. She also took me up into the DJ area because her boyfriend is the DJ and he did a shout out to us over the PA system. We danced the night away, and I got to chat with quite a few people. I think a lot of the people were pleased to see that I wasn’t super uptight, because up until last night they had only seen me at Menphys trying to maintain conversation with them. I’m very sad that Gloria is only here for the weekend. I told her that I may try to take Laura and Chelsea to Granada, and if we do go, I’ll meet up with her. She is also going to be in town for Christmas break.

When I was in Murcia a lot of American music was played in the bars. I was pleasantly surprised that majority of the music played at the discoteca last night was Spanish. Gloria said yes, things are different in Andalucía.
Last night/this morning was daylight savings time here. I asked around 4am when the discoteca closes and Gloria said 6am because it’s a holiday weekend…and with daylight savings time…it feels like 7am. I think if I can survive last night, I’ll be set for the rest of my time here.













I went to bed at 7am (6am with the daylight savings time adjustment). Holy guacamole. I can’t believe that’s possible in a town this small. My ears were ringing so bad at the end of the night.

I woke up once at 11:30 and was shocked. I didn’t expect to be up until the day was mostly over. I closed my eyes again and didn’t wake up until 3. I tried to make potato wedges but burned them really badly. I think I have a high power oven. It said to cook them 15-20 minutes and by 15 minutes they were totally burnt. It’s a good thing apartments don’t have smoke detectors here because I definitely would have set them all off. And now I’m sitting in bed, enjoying patatas alioli and updating this blog. My only two goals today were to update the blog and finish my conversation cards for my adult English language class. Quite the life I have! And I don’t even have to work tomorrow!

Tonight is Halloween. I’m curious to see how many kids will actually end up going trick or treating since it is raining. I don’t have any candy to give out. Sad. I think there’s a store in town where you can buy it, but I don’t know where it is and it’s probably closed today. It’s definitely not like the bags of candy you buy in the states for Halloween. Who knows, if I end up going trick or treating with my students I won’t need candy anyways.

Random side note...I took this picture of the Siles directory sign. Notice that *the* gas station (gasolinera), *the* pharmacy (farmacia), *the* bus stop (parada bus) and public parking (parking público) are all destination points. Welcome to Siles!