Preparations

Starting Sunday, we're going to be renting out our spare room to one of the American language assistants who will be working here in La Roda. We've been in contact via email and have agreed that she'll stay here at least while she looks for another place. If she ends up liking the house, etc. then she'll stay through May. :)

I'm hoping it works out for all of us and she'll stay for the school year because it will certainly be nice from a financial point of view to be getting a little help with rent. And if she ends up staying, it will be because she fits in nicely with us, so it will be fun to have an American around and someone to hang out with when Angelines is at work.

Anyway, this week has been spent preparing our spare room for our new guest. I've emptied out the closet, which required a lot of shuffling of clothes, and general junk; and consequently I've organized our junk room now to be the guest room so that we still have a place for visitors even though the "guest room" will be occupied. Those of you with Spain on your list of travel destinations needn't worry about being left without a place to stay! ;)

Also inspired by Sara's arrival, we restored two different pieces of furniture for the room that were in the garage: a little, marble topped night stand and a table. The night stand was pretty easy. We just cleaned the top, re-painted it and bought new knobs for the draws. The table was a bit more work... First we stripped it, then filled the cracks, sanded it, and finally stained it. It looks pretty damned good, in my humble opinion. :) What do you think?

It turns out all the cool furniture is going into the guest room!

I'm not the only one in first place...

That's right, Real Betis Balompié is currently number one in the Spanish league!

¡Viva!

First Time First Place!

This morning was the VIII annual road race here in La Roda. And guess who took first place for women on her home turf?? Yes, yours truly. :) There were only eight women racing, 136 runners total. I don't know my overall place, but I came in first with quite a considerable gap before the second place girl.

Our course here in La Roda is a bit flatter than last Sunday's in Campillos. I was expecting to run faster here. And I most certainly did: 7 min mile pace! I finished the 5.9 miles (9.5km) in 41.10. If you remember last weeks time was 42.57... Being at home definitely made the difference--aside from knowing the course, a lot of pride is on the line when you're defending your home course. :) And of course being here in La Roda I had the support of friends, neighbors and of course, Angelines.

My good friend Nuria was my "team". She had a cooler prepared with water, juice, bananas... it was great. The race was a 3+km loop through town and it went right past our front door. At the end of my second loop, Angelines was sitting on the curb outside the door with breakfast, cheering through a mouthful of cereal. ;)

On the third, and final lap, a man I don't know (pretty sure he's not from La Roda either) caught up to me and said, "Come on, I'm gonna make sure you win. Breathe with me." I really wasn't feeling bad, although I could tell that I was running quite a bit faster than last Sunday. Maybe I looked like I needed more help than I felt like I needed... For whatever reason, I was glad to have his company because anyone who runs knows that there's nothing worse than getting caught alone in the middle or toward the end of a race! We pushed it though the last 3km and in the final 5o meters or so, I kicked it to the end passing him and another runner. :)

It was a good race. I've got a nice big trophy to show for it, too...though no jamón, darn!

A Table for the Ages

The covered porch area of our patio has a great little nook that invites sitting, lounging, and lying about. The former owners had an old, rickety table set up to eat at. Up until yesterday, we were using the same table. The legs were wobbly, the paint was peeling off, the top was uneven (a danger for wine glasses), and it wasn't quite the right size for the space; if we had company, we had to turn the table long-ways and box them in! Needless to say, it wasn't the ideal situation. All of this, we probably could have lived with for a bit longer had it not been for the discovery that the old table hosts wood-eating creatures! We would wake up in the morning to small piles of sawdust on the patio floor beneath it.

The table had to go!

As long as we were going to get a new table, we wanted one that would fit nicely in the space we have in the patio. A friend of ours in a carpenter and we asked him to build us a custom table. He loves our patio and was really excited about the prospect. He asked if he could have full creative license with the table, of course we said yes... We brought it home yesterday--it is beautiful! Not only does it fit perfectly, but it's hefty, solid pine, beautifully stained and looks great in our nook. This table will most certainly outlast us!

Yesterday we ate lunch and had our post-siesta coffee at our new table. And this morning I couldn't resist taking my laptop outside and trying my luck with the patchy wifi connection. ;) So far, so good. It's too inviting to leave alone in the patio.

...The big smooth, varnished top is just begging us to play cards. (Ewan, want to come visit) ;)

On the road again!

Today was the 9.5 km (5.9 mi) road race in Campillos. Remember I did it last year and finished in 44.43 min, taking second for women? The second place prize was 30 euros. First place got 50 and a jamón (cured ham leg...only in Spain!). Last night I promised Angelines to treat her to lunch today, and we were both secretly hoping to be able to dust off the pig leg stand we have in the garage, sharpen the jamón knife, and carve up a plate of nice thin iberian ham for dinner...

Alas, I didn't win first place. I didn't win second either. This year a lot more people and a lot more women showed up to the race. I remember last year I felt a little like a fake when they presented me with my second place trophy--there were more than two min. between me and the first place runner! In the States that gap would have been full of ladies speedier than I. Still, it felt good to get the recognition. Well, this year, all the best female runners from Malaga showed up to this race. I was looking for the stats online to be able to quote them to you, but I can't find them. I think the first place woman must have run somewhere around 38 min! That's a 6.44 min mile average.

There were 21 women in my age group (39 and under). I'm not sure how many total. The men are divided into small categories, but there are so few women that there are only two age groups: 39 and under, and 40 and over! The girl who won last year came in third this year. And I came in 8th--top 1/3, not bad. I improved my time by nearly two min: 42.57 and I passed two women in the last lap of the course.

The race is a little bit monotonous because it's four laps around a 2.3 km loop through town. I guess it's good because you can "stratergize" ;), but it does get a little tiring from a scenery point of view (pun intended!). Anyway, as I was coming up on my last lap I could see two pony tails bobbing about 200 meters ahead of me--the furthest one, a girl in purple, was my goal.

I passed the first girl in the first 1/2 km of the last lap. She fought a little bit, but I took her on the hill, and she never recovered. ;) I steadily closed the gap with the purple girl through the first km and into the second. With about one km left to go I passed her. I must say it was a pretty tricky pass. Psychologically, the poor thing couldn't recover because I totally surprised her. She had gone up onto the sidewalk because there was a sharp corner coming up and if you ran on the sidewalk you could cut a little bit and save some distance. Well, I was on the street and with cars and dumpsters between us, she didn't see me coming. ;) I quickly passed her and jumped up onto the sidewalk in front of her to cut the corner. I kicked it around the corner...and that was the end of her. I could only hear her breathing behind me for about 100 meters more. I must admit, I was a little disappointed that she didn't fight for it a little more--I like a gutsy race, but in any case, I kicked it to the finish line and just made it under 43 min. My goal was 42. As is, I ran about 7.21 mile pace. Not too shabby.

So I came home with nothing to show for my effort but the T-shirt they gave us. Angelines decided to treat me to lunch all the same, and we ended up ordering a plate of jamón. :)

Next week is the race here in La Roda. It's also a 9.5 km. If not too many speedy out-of-towners come, I might just have first place for women in the bag!

Here's my delicious pre-race salad (last night's dinner): lettuce, tomato, cucumber, turkey, fresh cheese, pepper, onion, carrot, and wild rice! So good I couldn't let it go without a picture.

And here I am sporting the T-shirt we got at the race--a nice change from the traditional cotton ones. I'm not a fan of T-shirts for running...but for chillier mornings or for riding my bike, I do like these breathable ones.

Happy Trails!

Picnic Day!

This is a bit of a back-blog. A few weeks ago we made a trip to "El Chorro" reservoir with the specific purpose of having a picnic. Mostly I wanted to share these pictures because I'm very pleased that we have finally used the picnic back-pack my mom (and dad) gave us for an anniversary present. It's pretty classy: complete with plates that match the table cloth and napkins, stainless steel silverware, little wine glasses, a cheese board, cheese knife, wine topper and a special insulated side pouch for the bottle of wine.

We were definitely picnicking in style, let me tell you! :)

...Here you can see the fabulous picnic back-pack and Angelines setting the table.

Voilá! Our delicious (and colorful!) picnic.

Merece una foto!

...Por encima del Barcelona? No sé cuándo se verá de nuevo.

¡Viva el Betis!

Too Funny!

I was laughing out loud through the whole thing... Enjoy!: God's Blog

Singing to the Virgen

Fiestas Patronales

This year the fair went by almost without my noticing. I was making last-minute reservations for places to stay in France and cramming for my exams. Needless to say I wasn't in much of a mood for fiesta so the Feria de San Pedro came and went without much more than a few tintos de verano and one or two sevillanas. However, after a summer of travel and relaxation, I was ready to jump in with both feet for the local holiday celebrating La Roda's patroness: La Virgen de los Llanos.

Festivities began on the 7th when townspeople and the different brotherhoods offer flowers to the Virgen in the church. The small procession to the church was filled with colorful flamenco dresses, combed-up hair topped with flowers, men dressed in corto on horseback, and delicious smelling flowers. I donned my own ruffled flamenco dress, put on my biggest earrings, stuck a bright pink rose on my head and dashed out the door to join the representatives of San Pancracio in the procession.

The city cut traffic on the main street for the remainder of the evening and all the bars overflowed out onto the road. A stretch of about 50 meters was full from sidewalk to sidewalk with people, tables and chairs. They set up a trampoline and bouncy house for the kids and a stage for live music performances as well. As always is the case with local fiestas, you see everyone! Every few steps there was another person to kiss and say hello to. At one point a couple of my youngest students (dressed in the most authentic flamenco fashion) came shyly over to the table where I was sitting with a group of friends to say "hello".

Service was terribly slow...I don't think anyone expected there to be so many people. Many times when there's a local holiday, people pack up and head to the beach for the weekend; but for whatever reason it seemed that most everyone had opted to stay in town, and all of them were having dinner on the main street! I finally gave up on the food we had ordered and headed towards home to eat the lunch leftovers in my fridge. I didn't make in more than about 30 feet, however, when I was stopped by other friends and ordered to sit down and eat with them (they already had their food). At the end of the night I wound up with my brother and sister-in-law and some of their friends over ice cream at around 3:30-ish am.

It felt good to get out of the house. It's been quite a long time since the last time I was out and about with everyone...and feeling up to having a good time. Spending the evening out with different random friends, having conversations that ranged from the typical town gossip to upcoming road-races and American traditions, was just the medicine I needed. It was a nice reminder that I really am a part of this community.

Of course, being that I'm no longer accustomed to going out much, I was pretty tired the next day. Nevertheless, I had to get up early because I had a class at 10am so I got up and went for a run to shake off the stupor from the night before, showered, ate a huge breakfast and got ready for class. My ten o'clock ended up not showing so I took advantage and stepped out of the house for a minute to grab some churros y chocolate that the neighbors along the main street were offering free to everyone! After a small glass of good, thick chocolate, I was feeling much more myself and headed back home for my eleven o'clock class.

...And in typical Spanish fashion my day didn't end until two in the morning! It seems that chocolate is a great way to get going in the morning (who knew?!) and after my first tinto, I was ready to take on the day (afternoon, evening and night!).

We spent mid-day at the Leiva bar where they had hired a professional "espetero" to come and grill up fresh sardines just like they do on the coast. It was a hot day and if you closed your eyes, the smell of grilled fish could almost fool you into thinking you were in Malaga. Too bad we didn't have so much as a lousy swimming pool nearby to cool off in.

Once again we met up with my brother and sister-in-law and their friends--what a fun group of people. Really, every time I spend time with my sister-in-law I realize all over again how much I love her! We ate plenty of grilled sardines (my hands stank for the rest of the day!) and drank our weight in beer and tinto. Around six-ish I excused myself from the group we'd formed singing sevillanas, and headed home for a nap until the Virgin's procession around town at nine o'clock.

The procession was beautiful as always. Unlike Semana Santa, when trained costaleros carry the heavy pasos through the streets, in last night's procession volunteer townspeople carry the Virgen. At the end of the route, when the Virgen had made her way back to the church, there was a visiting choir group waiting at the church door. They sang a beautiful song a capella and later performed on the main street. Unfortunately, the street was so crowded once again that we ended up going elsewhere to eat and missed the show! But my bacon, cheese hamburger that took an hour and a half to make its way out of the kitchen was worth it. ;)

Once again, it was a late night... all this, and it's only Friday!

Un año más

Once again this year I made the pilgrimage to visit the Virgen de la Fuensanta in the nearby town of Corcoya. Last year we were four, this year eight of us went. It's a twelve kilometer walk from La Roda and we made pretty good time: two hours and a half. To avoid the heat and also because most of the others work during the day, we headed out at 9pm. The stars were beautiful and the half moon was so bright we really didn't even need our flashlights.

In the middle of our walk we saw the most amazing shooting star I've ever seen in my life! It was so big, and bright I thought it was a rocket that someone lit-off in the fields, and it lasted about ten seconds, leaving a big, long tail behind. You'd think that ten seconds would be plenty of time to make a wish...but, alas, I was in such awe at how close it seemed that I completely forgot about wishes! It was incredible. All of us were shocked. I'll take it as a good omen for the rest of this year.

We made it into the church around 12:30 to see the virgen and afterwards made a quick stop for a cervecita before getting in the cars for a ride back to town.

It was a great camino. :)

All Growed Up

Two weeks ago, my family left Lucy at Sonoma State and headed up to University of Portland to drop off Maggie. Can they really be 18 and nearly 20? It's hard for me to imagine when up until just a few years ago we referred to them collectively as "The Babies"! Having Maggie in Belgium this year was like putting life on fast forward: in my mind she was somewhere around nine years old...and suddenly there was a nineteen-year-old Maggie staying at my house! Next time I see Lucy I'm sure something similar will happen.

I skyped her in her dorm room (well it's actually a full-blown apartment!) the day my parents and Maggie were helping her move in. She confessed being nervous, but she also looked excited. I got the virtual tour of the place: two bedrooms, a living room, full kitchen, toilet and bathroom (in separate rooms--good thinking!). Aside from being completely envious of her set-up--my tiny little room in Clark couldn't hold a candle to this luxury--I was so excited for her.

Lucy is the baby... No matter how tall she gets, she will always be our baby. When I was ten, Lu Lu was born. She was a scheduled cesarean birth and therefore we could all be plenty prepared ahead of time for her June 4th arrival. I wanted to be in birthing room with my mom and dad. After an interview with my mom's doctor and the director of the hospital, they agreed to let me join my dad so long as I watched some prescribed videos about birth and cesareans. They wanted to be sure I was knew what to expect.

When the day came, my dad and a nurse showed me how to scrub down with iodine. I wasn't pleased with the dark yellow-brown foam I had to scrub up to my elbows. We dressed in blue and green doctor's scrubs and covered our heads with little white shower caps. This was serious. I was the first child present at a sibling's birth at General Hospital in Eureka.

We were directed into the room where my mom was lying on a bed. A curtain was hung so that we couldn't see below her waist. She smiled at us and squeezed each of our hands. I was nervous. I knew this didn't hurt her because they'd given her a shot to make her numb from the waist down...but still. After just a minute or so the doctors brought Lucille Marcelle into the world.

"Go ahead," a nurse said to me, "Have a look." I peeked around the curtain and saw my baby sister for the first time.

"She's all white!" I exclaimed. The videos hadn't prepared me for the creamy, white vernix that would be covering my sister. I had seen Maggie shortly after birth, Emily and I foot-printed her, but the nurses had cleaned her up some and she only had a little bit of white goo in the creases around her neck and ears--Lucy was completely covered! Of course my outburst provoked laughter from the doctors and nurses present. I was so embarrassed.

...And now eighteen years later that tiny little baby who was covered in white goop has moved out of the house and is making her own way. I feel a little like a parent. I'm excited for her when I remember all the great times I had in college; but I'm nervous and scared at the same time because I remember how lonely I felt my first semester.

I know she'll be fine... and I know she knows she's got two big sisters watching out for her.

I love Lucy.