Mediadora

This is Our Lady of Mediation.  She's my favorite virgin. ;)  When I used to play in the town band, we played to her...maybe that's why she has a special place in my heart.

My favorite part of the processions is when the band begins to play the Ave María and the whole town joins in singing.  I missed the beginning of the song in this recording, but you get the idea.

Saint Anne's Church: La Roda de Andalucía

This is in Spanish, but it's a very interesting and informative video about the history of our local church, la Parroquia de Santa Ana.  The church itself is in very poor condition, and serious restoration is expected to begin in April, once the hubbub of Semana Santa is over; but this gives a good over-view of why it's an important landmark to maintain.

Speaking of Semana Santa, tonight is the first procession here in town, the silent procession where Jesus makes his way through the darkened streets of town.  The only light along the way is that from the candles held by the penitents and townspeople who gather behind the paso for the duration of the procession.  So far this week a number of processions have been cancelled in Seville because of inclement weather... I've just checked weather.com and it's supposed to rain all night in Seville.  Maybe those showers won't make out this far east.  Cross your fingers.

I'll leave you with the video:

Racisim

Disney films have their faults, but is there any better lesson about the dangers of racisim than this song?  I'd forgotten how powerful the imagery is, too.  And the final words of Pocahontas, "If you kill him, you'll have to kill me, too,"  go deeper than an adolecent girl's infatuation for an exotic stranger.  When we allow our prejudices to rule our actions, we not only harm others, we are killing a part of ourselves.

Una Escapada

This morning we had a little-mini-micro vacation--we packed up our puppy and headed to El Chorro for a few hours.  The weather has been abnormally rainy lately, but today was a bright, cloudless, perfect day for an outing.  We had a coffee and then spent the morning throwing sticks for my silly water dog, who eagerly responded each time with a magnificent, and very dramatic spalsh. The resevoir was full to brimming and Belita was in heaven!  She even came upon some unsuspecting ducks--what fun!  It's been a long time since we went anywhere on a Monday.  Even just a few hours were enough to feel like a break from reality.

Here are some pictures:

We ate at this table last May with Maggie and the water was at least 30ft further down the bank then.

1.  Throw the stick...

2.  JUMP!

3.  Keep head above water at all costs...

4.  Retrieve the stick--Repeat steps 1-4

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of th...

This video was part of the second unit in my music class--check it out. :)  Pretty cool.

Fingernails...and a mini update

Yes, they're a bother to constantly trim...and they can get caught on things if there's a rough edge or if they break; but today I love my fingernails.  My fingernails do a superb job of protecting my fingers!  I was in a hurry to make a salad for lunch and if it hadn't been for my fingernail, I would have added the tip of my left thumb into the mix!  Yuck/Ouch!!

It seems lately I have bad luck with my fingers... remember I slammed my index finger in the car door not to long ago?  Anyway, I'm sure this isn't the blog you were hoping to read after such infrequent blogging, but with my thumb wrapped in gauze, it's what's on my mind!

...Other news...

We had a surprise visit from a friend of ours from Barcelona this past weekend.  That accounts for some of my cyber-absence. ;)  It was great to see her, though I realized that I tire much more quickly of being "out" than I used to... not sure why.  By the time Sunday rolled around, I just wanted to be at home!!

We've been having abnormally wet weather recently, too, which may be part of why staying home sounded particularly appealing.  After the snow we had two weeks ago, it's been raining nearly every other day.  When the sun does come out, it's accompanied by a big temperature drop and brisk winds...  Not fun.  My poor Bela is getting tired of the same route around town for her walks; although today, we did venture out into the muddy fields.  She was a happy, hunting, puppy.

My new semester started the last week of Feb. and so far I have done next to no work.  Oops.  It's always so hard to rediscover my motivation when a new semester begins, and moreso when I'm studying long distance.  It's so easy to think, "I'll do it over the weekend"...and then not!  I'm not wasting time, mind you, I'm plenty busy with my classes and my dog and my house.  It's just hard to remember to make time to study a.) when I'm already behind, and b.) when the semester's just begun.

I do have an easier semester this time around though.  I'm only taking three classes: Didactics of Physical Education, Didactics of Music, and Education for Art and Beauty. :)  I am excited for all three, really, but as you can tell, even that doesn't seem to be helping my motivation!

Other than work and school, A and I have been going crazy over the last few months with plans to buy a house.  Some of you know we were planning to build...and some of you know that those plans have fallen through.  I will save you the torturous details of it all because it's tiring just remembering them all!  The most important thing is that at the moment we are waiting to hear back from the bank if they will accept our offer to take-over the current loan on a house that we've absolutely fallen in love with.  I suspect we'll know something before Easter or maybe the first week in April at the latest.  I will keep you posted.  This has been quite an ordeal, but it seems that in the end in might acutally work out.  If we end up being able to buy this house any and all of you who can visit me will have room--it is big!  Now there's no excuse not  to come to Spain, with the kids with the in-laws or with the dogs!  I promise there is room for all. :)

That's all for this dis-jointed update.  More soon, I promise (I also promise to be a little more coherent, as well).  At the very least I will keep you posted on the house happenings. ;)

Día de Andalucía

Last Thursday--28th of February--was Andalusia Day.  Last Thursday I did a double take when I opened the door to take my puppy out for her morning walk.  I literally rubbed my eyes and looked again, just like a cartoon character--last Thursday it snowed!

I immediately ran upstairs to wake up Angelines...I thought for sure it would melt soon.  The snow stuck around for the better part of the day.  And even on Friday there were deformed snowmen littering empty lots and parks. :)

Thursday we had planned to make migas a traditional Andalusian dish of moistened day-old bread that you tear into bits and slow-fry (it's not an oximoron, I promise) with chorizo, bacon and garlic.  Then you serve it accompanied by whatever you like.  Most people accompany migas with oranges, pommegranet or fried peppers.  Whatever it is, if it's moist or juicy, it's better seeing as how the migas themselves are usually quite dry and form a sort of paste in the mouth--they're delicious, don't get me wrong...but swallowing can be difficult, sometimes. 

The plan was to make migas over an open fire--they're best that way.  Of course, with the snow and bad, weather, we weren't sure what to do.  But A and I were both up for it, so we told the family to bundle up: migas were on!  The food itself was delicious, as we knew it would be; almost moreso because of the extra smokey flavor due to green firewood.  Still, lighting the fire and getting enough coals to adequately cook the migas was a chore; and the smoke was painful.  Angelines busted out her swimming goggles to protect her eyes.  All of us were crying by the time lunch was served, and we even had to pull the food off the fire a bit early because it began to rain on us and the umbrella we brought out only trapped and concentrated the smoke--it was impossible to continue stirring the pot (a key to good migas is constant stirring).  Nonetheless, the flavor was amazing, and we stuffed ourselves silly .

My mother-in-law preparing the garlic for the migas under the careful supervision of her canine granddaughter.

Two little gnomes.

Looking good!  The fan was for the fire...trying to get things burning better...  Note the swimming goggles. :)

We finally busted out an extension cord and used the hair dryer to fan the fire.  Angelines is ingenious! ;)

Stirring despite the rain...

This one speaks for itself.  Delicious!

We had a great time, despite red eyes and freezing weather. :)  It was definitely a day to remember.  I'll post a few more pics of the snow:

The street view from our garage.

Snowy fields

Drooping palm trees...