Visitors

I know I've been bad about blogging lately.  Sorry.  Things have been busy around here and yet I can't exactly even explain all we've been up to.  Some how the day-to-day ends up taking over and Monday suddenly becomes Friday and...another week without a blog post!

This evening I had a lovely surprise.  A "cousin" of mine (a cousin of my host family in Granada) dropped by to say hi!  It was wonderful. :)  She strolled into the bar, introduced herself to Angelines and proceeded to get directions to my house.  I was walking the dog at the time and so wasn't answering my phone.  She and her boyfriend (from a neighboring town and the "real" reason for being in my area) got a bit lost and had to call me for directions.  Luckily I had arrived home from my walk just minutes before they called.  I showed them the house and we chatted briefly.

It's been at least three years since I've seen her; but somehow I still had a picture of her in my mind as the ten-year-old she was way back when I studied abroad!  ...That's changed.  Unfortunately, she has classes tomorrow and had to be getting back to Malaga but now that she knows where I live and has seen my guest room(s) she promises another, longer visit soon. :)

And on a similar note, tomorrow my good friend, Sara from Portland is coming to visit!!  I can't wait.  Today I was cleaning the upstairs, making her bed and setting out fresh towels for her.  It will be a too-short visit (six days only), I can tell already, but I am thrilled all the same.  It's been 6.5 years since she's been here to La Roda.  She was the first friend to visit me here...  Last time she came, I was living alone in the piso (nearly alone) and the two of us shared my tiny twin bed!!!  Now she'll have the entire upstairs of my house to herself--my how things have changed. :)

A Piece of History

Francisco Franco Caudillo de España por la Gracia de Dios. 1959

We've been slowly but surely organizing the upstairs in preparation for my classes this Fall.  After three coats of white, the lime-green room is bareable. ;)  That blinding green just wasn't condusive to studying!  We've hung a shelf for my books and I've begun moving things like flashcards and copies of worksheets out of the office and into the closet upstairs.

Among the things to be moved was a small, round table that we'd placed temporarily in the office.  This summer I've been giving a few classes here downstairs.

The table is nothing special.  It's very old and not necesarily well-made.  It was left in our first piso (remember when we lived in the city's teacher housing?) and for lack of furniture, we've carried it with us ever since.  It's just a crumby plywood table top that screws into an iron frame.  My suspicions that it was a throw-back from the dictatorship were all but confirmed when we had to disassemble it to get it through the doorframe of the upstairs bedroom--two 1959, 50 peseta pieces (about 30 euro cents) had been used as washers to screw the table top down!

Of course, it is likely that such creativity was a product of the currency change in 2000 when the euro came into the picture and pesetas became obsolete.  In any case, I was thrilled to uncover a little piece of history in our efforts to get the table top unscrewed!

The pesetas that went out in 2000 with the euro all had King Juan Carlos I's profile on them, since Spain had been a democratic monarchy since 1978 (although Franco died in 1975, there was a transition period during which the government was an absolute monarchy).  So perhaps we can assume this was a quiet act of retribution: it seems that someone made the concious decision not to drill a hole through the King's head...

Another Year

Heading out of town "hydrating" ;)

The last days of summer are rolling by too quickly to keep track of!  My recuperation exam was this morning.  I definitely felt better prepared, but I know that I made a few mistakes so my dreams of redeeming my failure with a perfect 10 are out.  Still, I think I can pull a 7 or 8.  Doing a make up exam at the end of summer has been the worst part of this last month of vacation.  I did wake up every day through August to study, just like I promised on my blog... and I think it paid off today.  But believe me it was NOT easy; if I suffer from lack of motivation at the end of a semester, there's even less in the middle of summer with good weather, no classes and so many other (more fun) things to do!

Today is also the beginning of the local festivities for the Patroness of La Roda, La Virgen de los Llanos.  I'm dressing in my flamenco dress to carry San Pancracio's flower offering to the church--another one of those yearly activities that begins to mark the time I've spent here.

The tratidional "We made it" photo. :)

Coinciding with La Roda's Patronal celebrations, in the neighboring town of Corcoya they also celebrate their Patroness the Virgen de la Fuensanta.  Wednesday, I made the yearly night-time pilgrimage to visit her.  Every year some combination of my friends get together to walk the 12 kilometers along the winding country road from La Roda to Corcoya.  This year there were fewer of us than in past years (only five); but we made record time--a little over 2 hours.  We left La Roda just after 8:30 pm and were entering Corcoya a little before eleven.  The walk flew by... unlike some past years when the mile markers have seemed to get further and further apart the longer we walk. ;)

Fewer people meant fewer bathroom stops, and fewer stops to rest or smoke.  We loaded up with gummy treats, sunflower seeds, potato chips and a cold beer each (except for me, of course!) before leaving town so we spent the walk snacking and chatting.  What could be better?  In Corcoya a friend came with her son (and her car!) and after visiting the Fuensanta and having a cold one with our dinner sandwiches, we piled in the car and headed home.  

Another year has come and gone.

The church in Corcoya.

New Toys

Angelines had a birthday last week and much to my mother-in-law's shagrin, I gave her money to buy some completely "unnecessary" new toys. ;)  My plan was to buy the stuff ahead of time and to a propper birthday surprise, but that's hard to do when the stores you need to shop at are an hour's drive away and there's no way to take the car on your own without raising suspicions!  Anyway, I figure since we never even give each other Christmas presents, once a year we're allowed to spend money on something just for fun, right?  I mean, what are birthdays for, anyway?   Both of us are penny pinching lately and so even A., who's been dying for a work bench/table and also decided that our garage was the perfect place to hang a basketball hoop (I love this girl!), was reluctant to spend the money from my piggy bank on such whims.  I conviced her. ;)

We headed to Málaga, did the shopping and then spent the early afternoon at the beach--our first time in the sea all summer (!).  It was a splendid day.  Angelines immediately set up her new work bench when we got home from the beach...in fact, we left earlier than I would have liked just so she could start playing with her new toys!  And today we finally got around to hanging the basketball hoop.  I'm not sure who likes it more, Angelines, the neighbor boy (about ten years old), or Bela!

My puppy's love of all things round and bouncey knows no size limit.  The neighbor gave her a golf ball a few weeks ago that she adores and today she was going CRAZY (jumping several feet in the air) to catch the basketball between her paws!  It's pretty hillarious.  This evening I had a good time playing a variation of "Around The World" with Angelines and Sergio (neighbor boy), but it was almost more fun watching my perra loca jumping around like mad.  When we finally forced her to take a break and locked her in the patio, she cried the whole time.

Here are a few pics of Angelines's birthday spoils: