Under the wire

 I just re-read my last post (from the beginning of April!) and noticed that I promised another update before six-months had gone by.  I guess I am still two months away from that deadline, but at the rate I'm going and with the way the days are flying by, I am sure that if I don't post now it will easily be Christmas before you hear from me... so here goes!

My mom's visit way back in April was perfect and so much fun.  She had already seen Semana Santa here in Andalucía many years ago, but it really is quite a spectacle and she loved it just as much this time around as her first experience about 9 years ago.  This year, there was the added bonus of Emily and I both taking part in processions on different days.  She dressed as a pennitent on Friday and I played in the band for Thursday's celebrations.  We both enjoyed ourselves immensely and it was so fortunate that my mom was here to be with Emily for the 6 + hours I was playing.

We didn't do a lot of sightseeing with Ga, it was mostly a play-at-home visit, but it was wonderful and far too short (as always).  I was working for part of her time here, which meant that Emily had her grandma's uninterrupted attention for hours at a time--just the way she likes it.  Ga and I were hard pressed to find time for mother-daughter bonding and found ourselves staying up into the wee hours after Emily's bed time just to have a moment to ourselves. ;)

As far as the band goes, our Semana Santa performance blew the whole town away and roused a great deal of interest in the band.  Since then, we have had several new members join and enrollment in the municipal music school quadripled with students (young and old) learning an instrument in hopes of joining the band soon.  Among those new students is my Emily.  She has taken up clarinet and although she practices very little, she does enjoy it and is steadily improving.

We recently had a summer concert of pasodobles which was another huge success and now we're taking a month break before rolling full steam ahead into autumn and winter.  Emily has no choice but to attend all out practices, but in fact, she loves going.  She could hum our complete concert repertory and was bursting at the seams with pride at our concert.  She's taken to wrting music for her stuffed animals and directs a mini band with gusto!  I love it.  It makes my heart happy to see how music is becoming so important for her.

This was a little concert she and her classmates had at the end of the year.

Other news is that our summer intensive classes are in full swing at the academy.  We've got a pretty cush schedule at the moment: 9:00-13:00 form Monday through Thursday.  Maintaining three-day weekends has been wonderful.  And only working four hours a day is also a dream come true.  There is a lot of work that goes on at home and before and after hours.  We've got 31 students which meand 31 exams a week to be corrected along with other daily exercises.  However, I usually take my corrections with me to the city pool after lunch and it is quite pleasant to grade in the shade and take a dip whenever I get overheated.  No complaints here.

The biggest news of late is that Maggie surprised us a few weeks ago by announcing that she could come visit in August if the dates worked for us!  I have a week holiday in August and so she's coming on the 8th and staying through the 15th.  I hadn't made any plans for my week of vacation because we're going away for a weekend at the end of the month to celebrate Angelines's 50th birthday so we're saving money for that.  Nevertheless, a sister visit calls for some amount of extra spending so we have arranged for Maggie to fly in and out of Madrid (my new favorite itenerary) and I will join her there when she arrives for two nights before coming back to La Roda together!  I am exceptionally excited about this particular plan because I am going ALONE to Madrid!  I love my daughter, but...  I do feel a little guilty for taking this solo time to galavant around the Spanish capital with my twinnie while mamá stays home alone in the heat with Em, but...  C'est la vie, non?  

And speaking of/in French, I am looking forward to practicing with Maggie, too.  We are planning to speak frañolish (francais/español/english) everywhere we go. :)  Duolingo is still ravenously eating up my free time, but just this past week I was first in the Diamond Division (the highest division in the app)...so it's paying off.  I am also pleased that I understand my Belgian friends' posts on Instagram and can even reply in French.  

Well, that's a pretty abreviated version of the last four months, but you get the idea.  Thanks for continuing to check here and not completely giving up on me. ;)

Salut!

New Look...

Maybe it's the changes I made to the blog that have been keeeping me away...  I open the page and after so many years with the same design, it just doesn't look right now!  I'll have to mess around with it some more. Of course that's not really why I've been absent, but the new format surprises me every time I log on!

...Okay, so I tried to sit down and post over a month ago.  The above was my beginning... 

It's harder to actually sit down and write something after so much time.  Not for lack of things to share, but some how I've lost my momentum and the inertia of not writing just pulls me away time and time again.

Recently, though I do have two very good excuses for being so absent from my blog: 1. Emily and I downloaded Duolingo to learn French and I must say I now fully understand my dad's obsession with the app!  2. I've just recently rejoined the city band, which is trying to make a come back after several years with very low membership.  

Where French is concerned, I'm having lots of fun.  I have always wanted to learn German actually, but since Emily will be taking French in school starting next year, I thought we might as well get a jump start.  And I think that beginning all over again with a new language will help me to be a more understanding and perhaps better language teacher myself.  Emily and I take turns doing the exercises, but of course I go ahead without her when she's at school.  I have to watch my obsession because several nights I've been up late trying to score my way to the top of the division.  It's a pretty fun app and I think it's pretty good for learning too since it listens to your pronunciation in speaking exercises.  I have even written a few WhatsApp texts to my fracophone friends in Belgium. ;)

The band is something that's been a long time coming.  I have been saying for at least a year (maybe more) that I'd like to join again, but always making the excuse of no time or Emily...  So it wasn't completely on a whim that I decided to join when I was cornered at a birthday party by several members whose good-naturedly teased me about holding out on them.  After three whole practice sessions we had a concert! (Can you believe it?!)  It was a very special event because it had been organized to honor the ex-director of the band who had just retired.  He had been here in La Roda as head of the city band for more than thirty years and was the director who welcomed me into the "fold" when I was a newbee in La Roda.  It was an emotional concert, and one that I think I pulled off pretty well considering that it's been over 10 years since I've picked up my trombone!

Now the band has been hired last minute to play on Thursday in the Semana Santa procession here in town.  There hasn't been a "Holy Week" in Spain since 2019 so this is a big deal; but the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the bands.  Many bands have low membership, or they just aren't in shape to performe in the processions.  The band that this particular brotherhood had hired cancelled on them about two weeks ago... just about a month away from the date.  Finding a replacement band at the last minute was going to be nearly impossible.  However, we offered to step in after having joined forces with a neighboring town to be able to cover all the voices in the marches.  Now we are practicing our lips off for the next week and a half!  The good news is, I can tell I'm getting better.  Even my standmate has comented more than once that I'm starting to sound really good.  My chops were pretty shot after that first 1.5 practice a few weeks ago, but I'm getting there. ;)

Other news is that my parents came here at New Years and my mom is coming on Wednesday!  She'll be here all of Easter week and also for my birthday. :)  I am so happy that our visting schedule is beginning to look a little more like pre-pandemic normality. 

Okay, I'm going to say bonne nuit et à bientôt.  I am sure it won't be another six months before you hear from me again. 

Where Does the Time Go?

 Really I don't feel so busy that I haven't got five minutes to sit down and blog... but my last post was when, September?  I guess I'm filling those precious free moments with other activities.  This weekend for example I completed the second of two tables that Angelines is making for the bar.  I was put in charge of deccorating them.  Between table one and two, I also laid pavers in a section of our patio.  Oh and we took a family weekend away with abuela and my sister Lucy came for an eight-day visit, too!  Of course there have been the usual, more mundane daily activities that also keep me away from my blog: cleaning the bar and the house, cooking, overseeing homework, reading with Em, walking Norte, correcting work from the academy...  Still, I honestly don't know how it is that Thanksgiving is this week!  Where does the time go?  

As always, we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving this year on the Saturday after.  I've got my turkey ordered and I'm thinking of doing some fancy cooking I saw on a French cooking show we sometimes watch.  I need to see if I can find the recipe, but it looked like an amazing way to cook turkey.   I cannot, however, part with my tried and true stuffing recipe or traditional pumpkin pie. ;)  

This week I'll be prepping making the pie crust and also the veggies for the stuffing ahead of time and freezing.  My roasted pumpkin is already weighed and frozen. ;)  I am only slightly worried about the size of our newly acquired refridgerator and freezer.  In the past we've had two refridgerators (both came with the house) and although they were dinosaurs that were probably extremely inefficient, it was very useful at this time of year to have a lot of space for food storage.  I don't know what I'll do with my turkey carcass, for example!  I've always made broth with half and frozen half to make fresh broth around April...  I am pretty sure there won't be room for that in our new freezer. 

Guests this year are my true blue Thanksgiving fans plus a few new additions.  I'm most excited to have a fellow American: a language assistant from NYC living in Estepa. :)  I'm happy and excited to welcome a displaced compatriot into my home for the holidays and equally happy and excited for her to meet my exceptional friends. :)

Angelines has just come home and I was waiting for her to have dinner... all this talk of food has got me even hungrier!

Table 2: completed today :)

At the beach in Huelva on our weekend get-away.

The whole crew...minus yours truly, the photographer.

Table  1: our logo.

Beginning pavers

Finished...but not yet cleaned.

Back to school

 Fall is upon us...wow.  I started this post when school started... One line into it, I quit.  Oops.  

Anyway, indeed, the seasons have changed.  Emily commented that she could tell it was school time because it was chilly in the mornings. ;)  In all fairness, it had been chilly in the mornings for some time, but of course, she wasn't awake to know that.  Anyway, September has ended with a new pair of gloves for Emily.  She was complaining of cold hands in the morning.  All of her American family will laugh to know that the coldest it's been in the morning is probably around 65º-68º F.  She's a little Andalusian, what can I say.

School has started wonderfully this year.  She has a new teacher, which may or may not be part of it, but I think mostly, she's just matured.  There are no more tears at night before bed or in the morning at the gates when she has to go line up for class.  She has done a full 360º and I couldn't be more relieved!  Last year she always came home bubbling about what she'd done, but she would cry nearly every night well into the second semester of the year!  This year, it's nothing but joy. :)

Other exciting news is that Em is taking horse-riding lessons.  She has ridden on every visit to the States since she was 8 months old. ;)  But now, she's the one holding the reins.  This last visit to Ga and Papa's really did it for her.  She has been totally horse-crazy since we got back.  When we said we'd sign her up for riding lessons, she was so excited she forgot to ask, "Will you stay, too?".  

Separation anxiety has been a big problem for Emily since the beginning of formal schooling.  She loves to dance and loves ballet, yet even with her dance lessons, we were virutally forcing her to go in Granada!  The fact that she just jumped in with both feet to her riding classes, is a testament not only to her maturity, but also to just how much she really LOVES it.  We went to the stable to see the horses and meet the people before she was signed, up and she was chattering away to the woman who runs the place and even introducing herself to other kids!

For those of you who have been with Emily, you may know that she never stops talking (and I mean never).  However, with new people, or when she's not feeling 100% comfortable, she is very shy and quite.  I was so surprised by the way she was so herself the very first time she interacted with the people at the stable, I wanted to cry.  Since then, she's gone to three official classes, and loves it more every time.

...They say third time's a charm.  Yet again, I was interrupted mid-post and didn't hit send.  Another week has come and gone since then. :(

I think I'd better wrap this up and sign off before something else happens and you're left yet another week + without news from Seville. ;)  I'm sure you've got the bottom line, by now: school's started with a bang and things are just getting better.  I do promise another post soon.

A Dry Spell

 Sorry all.  Summer has found me with little inspiration to sit down and blog.  I'm not sure why because it certainly isn't for lack of things to tell.  Life has been busy and busier, but it seems like the more days go by without posting, the harder it is to get myself to just sit down and type.

We're coming out of a Saharan heat wave at the moment and so I am sticking to my chair as I write this.  I'm sure it actually pales to the temeratures that most of my Portland friends were dealing with in late July, but still it's been pretty aweful.  I say we're coming out of it, and it is true, today we're at a refreshing 93ºF.  Keeping in mind that since Friday of last week it's been over 110ºF every day and only cooling down to about 78ºF, I'm not even joking that 93º feels nice.  At least temperatures at night are dropping more recently so the house can actually cool off.  We do not have AC, but thankfully just had an amazing, life-saving ceiling fan installed in our bedroom so with circulating air even the heat is bearable.

This week the academy is closed and so I'm on "holiday".  We were supposed to go camping from Monday to Thursday, but with the heat it just seemed like a very bad plan even though the campground had a pool and river access.  It's tough to go anywhere in August, too because EVERYONE has holidays and of course anywhere near water is usually jam-packed.  So we ended up staying home and because Emily was so sad about not camping, I pitched our tent upstairs on the terrace!  We have been "glamping" upstairs all week. ;)

These are actually my second holidays this summer.  At the end of July I took off two weeks and we made the trans-Atlantic journey to California despite CoVID and its nefarious variants.  It was an ordeal to be sure: European non-US citizens/residents (ie. Angelines) are not allowed into the States still under the Presidential Proclamation.  Of course, there are exceptions, one of them being the spouse of a U.S. citizen, so we had to travel with a copy (and sworn translation just for good measure) of our marriage licence.  Emily also travelled on a Spanish passport for the first time this trip (only on the return of course).  In the past she has only had her US passport.  And of course there were the extra long Q-tips up the nose 48 hours before our flights... Yuck!  Thankfully no negative CoVID test was required on our return trip because it is so unpleasant.

Once we were there, of course, every bit of red tape was worth it.  It was fantastic just to BE at my parents' home and BE with them and my sisters.  We didn't plan anything at all for our visit other than my cousin's wedding at the end of our stay, and that was the best thing we could have done.  We just hung around home.  Emily drove the tractor, the lawn mower, rode the horses, bathed the horses, fed the horses...  We hiked Sierra Buttes and went to Fraizer Falls.  We barbecued with family friends and just generally enjoyed each other.  

It was only two years since our last visit, but with CoVID, it felt more like five.  You don't feel the distance so much until suddenly it's acutally NOT possible to book a flight and go whenever you want.  Of course, I never just go at the drop of a hat, but the fact is I could, in theory...if I had a few extra thousand sitting around.  But suddenly without that option, even with near daily video calls, the distance seemed greater than ever.  So even though this last visit was just two short weeks, it was intense, and it was enough to get me through until my sister and mom come this fall. ;)

Angelines has just brought me some cold watermelon--yum.  I'm going to sign off and stuff my face!

May 9th...

 Obviously, after more than a month without word from me, there is a lot to write about.  Sadly, most of that will remain unwritten.  The days since COVID arrived have sped by...I don't know where the year has gone, honestly.  My last post was acutally just three days after the one year anniversary of the Corona virus lock-down here in Spain and the beginning of the "state of alarm".  This estado de alarma has been extended continually to date and only will end (we hope for good!) this Sunday, May 9th--mark your calendars.

Under the state of alarm the federal government can implement things like curfew, close city/province/state boarders and limit the number of people allowed to get together in public or private spaces.   We are coming out of a fourth wave of the virus here and I must say that if COVID doesn't get you, "pandemic fatigue" most certainly will.  We are sick of this (I think that goes for most everyone reading, as well).  

Vaccinations are slowly on the rise here; but our statistics pale to those in the U.S.  The E.U. was sold short on several vaccines, and then ran into some nasty side-effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine.  Of course all of this is bound up tightly in red tape.  I think we're somewhere around 10% of the population fully vaccinated at this point...  Obviously things could be worse, but hearing from so many fully vaccinated friends and family I am feeling sorry for us Spaniards.

You may be wondering what will happen when the state of alarm expires on Sunday.  All of us are!  Many individual states are appealing to the Supreme Court to pass laws quickly that would allow for state governments to implement restrictions on mobility and number of people allowed to gather.  This has apparently been approved in the Balear Islands.  As far as I know, Andalusia hasn't asked for this extention of state power (and I sincerely hope they do not).  

At some point, I do believe that people need to take this as a matter of personal responsibility...of course, a public health worker may think otherwise.  To my mind this is a situation that can be likened to that of an overbearing parent.  If a parent constantly and consistantly makes a child's decisions for her, she doesn't learn self-control or how to recognize the limits of what is acceptable and what isn't.  Without mom or dad to tell her what to do, she runs wild...this is exactly what has been happening here with every attempt at loosening restrictions.  People go crazy.

Speaking from first-hand experience helping Angelines and cleaning the bar on weekends, I can tell you that the way people are going out, and drinking is frightening.  They all act like college freshmen at a frat party!  Curfew is currently 11pm (it has been earlier) and now bars are allowed to close at 11; however up until just a week ago, the bar had to close at 8pm.  People were going out with the apparent objective of drinking as much as posible before closing!  

I won't argue that aglomerations of maskless people are a danger nowadays.  But the frenetic way in which people are getting together in recent months is in large part due to the restrictions imposed to "keep us safe".  People are repressed and feeling more than ever like they need to let off steam.  When they aren't allowed to that pent up anxiety (or whatever you want to call it) builds and the minute there's a little extra leeway in the law, they throw caution to the wind and go all out.  One cannot help but wonder how all of this will permanently change habbits, and customs.

But as it turns out, every storm cloud does in fact have a silver lining: alcoholic Spaniards deprived of socialization who aren't allowed to leave the province, means great business!  Obviously the bars and restaurants in big cities and tourist destinations have been really hard hit with the pandemic. Thankfully in our case, even with the very limited hours they allow us to open, we're bursting at the seams!  People in La Roda have always tended to go elsewhere to go out--Málaga mostly.  Our town is right on the border, but we belong to Seville province and from Christmas until last week the provinces have been closed.  In our case that means no one from here can go anywhere outside land-locked Seville province.  We are an hour and a half from the capital city, and the draw of Málaga is the beach anyway; so more than 100% of our usual clientel have been "stuck" here for the past few months and it shows in the way sales have skyrocketed.  Angelines was joking the other night that we should set up a clandestine laboratory to create another pandemic virus just to keep business going!

Anyway, I know you're all as sick of the pandemic and COVID news as I am, but as May 9th draws near, there really isn't a whole lot more on my mind.  I promise a more newsy post soon.

Spring!

 Sunday Emily was invited to a birthday party.  As restrictions stand there are only 4 people allowed to gather in closed spaces.  This party was going to be at a local indoor park with a ball pit, etc.  Only children from her class were invited and they are together all day every day in school, but of course they are wearing masks.  When Emily realized it was at an indoor park she said she didn't want to go...and really, it's just as well.  Angelines and I had pretty much already decided that it was better not to risk going as Emily wouldn't have stayed without me and that is just one more person added to the mix.  The police could easily come by and fine all of us.  We've had enough of run-ins with the local law thanks to the bar and the riddiculous restrictions.

In the end, Emily asked if we could picnic in the sierra.  Although a picnic wasn't possible because Mamá had to open at 3:30pm, we did go up to the sierra in the afternoon to "walk" the dog and enjoy the countryside with abuelita.  We were there for about three hours just enjoying the sun and the flowers and all the green that this winter's endless rains have brought us.  It was the perfect way to inaugurate the new season!

I have never seen so many flowers in bloom up there.  It was like a whole different place!

I just had to share a few pictures:

My favorite photo :)

We've decided that a family gathering at San Pancracio is definitely in order during the week of Semana Santa (next week--Easter) since we are on holiday, cannot leave our provinces, and all processions are cancelled!  That's what I call making lemonade from lemons. ;)  We are even concocting a plan to smuggle my sister-in-law over the boarder from Málaga province to be able to join in...  I'll keep you posted, 

Sunday was a spectacular day.  I am so glad we opted for a day out in nature rather than a party indoors, COVID-19 aside, this was hands down the best choice.