Ready for November...

I have had my Presidential Primary Ballot sitting in my office unopened since somewhere in March...or earlier.  Needless to say I missed the Primaries.  I received an email from the Embassy in Madrid notifying overseas voters of the necessary steps for abesntee voting...once again it has sat unopened in my inbox for at least a week. But never fear, I am dedicated to getting my act together for the General Election. ;) 

You may gather from my nonchalance that the election seems very far away and very unrelated to me or my current life.  Don't get me wrong, I realize that voting in the United States of America can have great impact worldwide as it is such an influential country in world politics; but all the same, the hype on facebook about the candidates (because this is virtually all the information I'm getting about the campaign) makes it seem more like some kind of twisted reality show as opposed to a legitimate Presidential campaign.  It's hard to take seriously and much more convenient to ignore all-together.

But I have finally been galvanized to action by the thought of what may come on November 9th.  Every vote counts.  I have just filled out the necessary paperwork to request my ballot and will mail it Monday.  The deadline for an absentee request is Oct. 18...so I'm even ahead of the game it turns out!

#ProudOverseasVoter
(that's the hashtag, the Embassy asked us to use on our social media sites!)

Autumn Upon Us

Fall has finally fallen...though, in all honesty, aside from shortening days and that beautiful slanting autumn light that comes just before sunset, you can't really tell much difference here in La Roda.  The first week in September was the hottest all summer with the highest temperatures for this month since 1922!  It was 115ºF for several days straight and I think the lowest it dropped to at night was somewhere around 85ºF.  Thankfully, that heat wave has passed and we're having more normal temperatures now.  Daytime highs are still in the low 90's but at least it's cooling off quite nicely at night.

Anyway, I am not blogging to give you a weather report...sorry.

Things around here have been rolling right along so quickly that it just seems impossible to sit and blog.  Sometimes because I really haven't got the time, and sometimes because I feel too scattered to focus and write my thoughts.  Even now, I am (as usual) writing on borrowed time since Emily is long over due to wake up from her nap.

And speaking of the smallest member of the household, she is daily more fun, more engaging and more of a little character. :)  What joy she brings to the home!  Her vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds, though I do notice that her Spanish has really begun to catch up with the English now that my parents have been away for some time.  Their presence really gave her a boost of English.

She now says "Shesh you" when you sneeze and "Tookey" (thank you) when you give her something.  She has finally started to say "sí" as before "yeah" was her only affirmative word; and surprisingly she separates to whom she should reply with which word!  She has never responded "sí" to one of my questions in English and with her Auntie and Abuela I hear her most often answering in Spanish.  It's pretty amazing to watch her bilingualism grow.  I am envious.

At work we have begun classes for the school children again, but with the difference that we are now planning our own classes.  So far this is wonderful because I have my classes prepped and set up exactly how I like--planned to the gills!  Last week was our first week and it went off without a hitch.

...Well, Emily woke up, as expected, and I'm just sitting down to finish this up and post it before anymore time gets away from me!

Anyway, work is going well, and for now the planning doesn't mean any extra work for me.  Usually I teach Thurs. Fri. mornings if you recall, but at the moment (with the beginning of the school year, etc.) we don't have many morning classes so I spend that time prepping.  My boss would like to get everything put together in a sort of homemade coursebook, so I'm just working away until I get the whole year planned for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. ;)  I'm just about to Halloween with all three at the moment.

Now it's time for my dinner.  Em is down for the night so a relaxing glass of vino is in order and then maybe my book or a movie...or maybe just straight to bed. ;)

Olé, olé y olé!

Emily, despite her blonde hair and blue eyes, seems to have some gypsy blood.  She LOVES flamenco music; and as you'll see in this video, she's actually got arte as they say in Spanish.  So enjoy watching my little Spanish dancer. :)

Dinner conversation

Last night Emily and I had a scintillating conversation over dinner.  Here's the tail end of it.  It was, as usual, much more entertaining before I thought to grab my phone and record some of it... Without further ado: Emily the conversationalist. :)

My Little Chatterbox

Now that you're somewhat up-to-date with our travels, I thought I should post a quick something about my dear Emily Alejandra.

Maybe it was exposure to a third language, or maybe she's just growing up, but her language skills really took off over the four days we were in Belgium.  I was amazed by the sudden change--even I noticed it and usually those kinds of changes in children aren't noticeable for those of us who are with the kid 24/7.  Anyway, she came back to Spain talking a blue streak.  Although she mixes the two languages, many of her words remain English.  I am sure this has everything to do with my parents' visit and the extra doses of English she was getting with them.

She is becoming more and more of a parrot--repeating everything, and often with fairly good pronunciation.  But even more fun is that she is beginning to speak intentionally and spontaneously to communicate beyond simply asking for things.  A favourite is rememorating time and time again, her many falls and "pupas" (owies) that she has on her knees.  The light pink scars do kind of stand out now that her legs are so tan from the beach!  She also likes to point out if anyone is wearing shashes (glasses) or a coco (ponytail).  Yesterday she popped out with: "Bye-bye, beach!" as we were heading to the car after our Wednesday outing to Málaga.

It is also amazing to me to see how much she remembers based on what she says. Of course her memory is best when it comes to her numerous falls, but I have been surprised and pleased by how much she remembers my parents' visit and our time in Belgium with Nanny (Maggie).  One of my dad's projects while he was here was covering our BBQ stovepipe (cement) in white cement so that it would blend in more with the patio wall and then my mom and I decorated it with beach shells she had collected.  They helped Emmy put her handprint in the wet cement and wrote her name and the date.  Several times since our return from Belguique, she has pointed to the BBQ and said, "Me hand Poppa, Ga".

She also remembers clearly a more traumatizing moment in Belgium when she ripped Aunt Maggie's glasses off her face and tore out her nose ring!  It sounds worse than it actually was, but Maggie's nose was bleeding and it certainly hurt.  Emily was shocked by her Auntie's reaction and when I pointed out she'd given Nanny a pupa she was pretty interested.  I asked her to appologize and now at random moments, when she remembers, she'll pop up with: "Sorry, Nanny.  Pupa nose shashes."

And then there are the times that she unintelligibly babbles.  I've been on skype twice now since coming back from our trip and both times she is right there babbling away, doing her best to talk over whoever is on the other end of the call!  We can hardly get a word in edge-wise.  If you want to skype with me it's best to do it after she's asleep...though she's so darn cute, it's a shame to miss her.

Speaking of her antics, we've actually just come home from an evening out in Estepa.  My boss told me about a concert that one of our students was directing and I thought that sounded like fun.  Emily loves music and especially dancing and clapping--she is very flamenca!  This was going to be different medlies and rock-fusion played by a concert band, but I knew Em would be up for it.  And she was.  She danced up a storm!  My boss and her husband were, of course, enchanted with her.  After various dance performances and leading them around to see interesting things (leaves, rocks, etc.) she blew them kisses when it was time to come home.  I think their hearts had completely melted by that point!

She is a gift. I really don't know what I did to deserve such a wonderful, social, sweet, patient, fun daughter.

Beautiful Belgium

As promised, here is the rest of the story. ;)

Me and Fan Fan :)

Emily and I caught our plane Thursday evening.  My sweet daughter fell asleep before take-off and woke up just an hour before landing.  She has proven once again to be the ideal travel partener. I would never have dreamed of doing a trip like this solo if she weren't so willing to go with the flow and entertain herself much of the time.  And now that she's beginning to talk, she has become quite the charmer, so it's fun to be able to say, "I'm with her!"

We arrived in Brussels, picked up a rented carseat (which we only ended up using twice!) and were greeted at our host's home by Ga (my mom) Poppa (my dad), Tita Nannie (that's Maggie in Emily-speak) and a delicious spaghetti dinner.  Emily turned on full charm and was the evening's entertainment.  Bernarnd, our host (first exchange student's father), has a grandson just Emily's age and so the house was fully equipped with plenty of toys and gismos for Emily to discover and play with.  He also has a beautiful and very large back yard that Emily called the "parque", which we were all able to explore and enjoy since the weather cleared up nicely as our visit progressed.

Bernard's daughter, Fanny was our first exchange student, as I mentioned.  She holds a special place in all our hearts and really is like a sister for me.  I visited her when I did my exchange in Granada and she attended my wedding seven years ago.  In 2014 we reconnected  when we discovered that both of us were pregnant and due around the same time.  Her little Eliot was born just two weeks after our Emily.  Friday morning we had brunch over at her beautifully rennovated house.  Visiting her and her adorable family was a wonderful treat.

Emily and Eliot: the next generation of friendship!

Emily and Eliot got along as well as two 21-month-olds can be expected to--which is to say they mostly ignored one another.  At this age there isn't much playing "together" so much as playing "next to each other".  Still, we got some cute pictures.  I think they could pass for twins, though Eliot is much heftier than my delicate little girl.  And it was a pleasure for me to finally meet Ivan, Fanny's doting partner and super-dad.  He is great and I am happy that my Fan Fan has found such a wonderful person with whom to share her life and her parenthood.

Chatting in the garden...

After a nice long nap back at our home away from home (Bernard left us the keys since he was out of town for the weekend), we joined up with our second Belgian sister/daughter, Charlotte for a sushi dinner.  We had another wonderful few hours catching up over snacks and dinner.  Charlotte was married a year ago and still has that newly-wed glow about her.  She showed us pictures from the wedding, but unfortunately her husband was out of town and we weren't able to meet him.  The evening was too late for Emily, who started getting sleepy (read crabby) toward the end, but for the rest of us our visit was too short.

Friday was a great day.  Visiting both with Fanny and with Charlotte was wonderfully comfortable and relaxing.  It was such a reaffirmation of the strength of our friendship that after so many years--in Charlotte's case we hadn't seen her since 2005!--we were able to chat as if no time had passed.    I really felt at home with both of them, a great feeling when you're in a foreign country.

Emmy exploring the "parque" with Ga.

Charlotte was quite enamored of Emily, and she was pretty smitten with Sha Sha, too. ;)

Blitz Visit to Belgium!

In 2008 my family hosted its third Belgian girl through Rotary International's youth exchange program.  She is a lovely girl who, as was our experience with all our exchanges, fit right in with the family and really became a part of our Sierra Valley/Portola lives.  That autumn I was actually back in the States working at my alma mater teaching lower-level Spanish classes and so I too came to know and love Justine.  Last year she announced her marriage and even arranged the wedding date around my family's schedules.

It was difficult coordinating every one, but in the end all of us except Lucy and Angelines were present at the ceremony which took place last Saturday on a (freakishly) beautifully sunny day in the countryside outside Mouscron, Belgium.  The weather was so nice I was frantically hunting for shade and wishing I had my hat, sunglasses and sunscreen!  All the Belgians, on the other hand were bravely sitting out in the sunshine soaking up as much as possible.  We Spaniards certainly couldn't live without the sun (two cloudy days in a row ammount to seasonal depression!), but we also know that to enjoy it, one ought to be prepared.  My family was laughing at me for hugging the walls and hedges in search of shade.

The wedding was beautiful.  Spanish weddings have nearly ruined me.  Here the ceremonies are nearly all religious...and even when they aren't there's just a lot of blather about the legal responsabilities of the spouses, etc.  Very few people do much of anything personal even in civil ceremonies.  Plus, Spanish weddings are very expensive for the attendants, which grates on my more frugal tendancies.  In the States, you can get away with buying some thoughtful gift for maybe between 20-30 dollars (perhaps even less if you're a good shopper), but in Spain you're expected to fork over a minimum of 50 euros cash--many times closer to 100.  This is some unwritten cultural norm that I personally hate because it ammounts to people inviting as many friends, family and acquaintences as possible just for the money.  In Spain, on a whole it seems that people are invited and attend weddings out of a sense of obligation and not because either party is particularly interested in the event or the people involved.  It's really very sad I think.

So with my newly aquired Spanish sensitivities, I really enjoyed the origniality of Justine and Christoph's wedding.  It was as all weddings should be: a celebration of the love between two people and their dedication to each other to make a life together. I am not one to cry, but I couldn't help the tears welling in my eyes throughout the ceremony.  Justine was absolutely radiant and Christoph was so dashing.  They were so obviously in love and everyone there knew it--it was a truly beautiful thing and I am so happy that I was able to be there to celebrate with them.

I think I will save the rest of out Belgian visit for another post because I feel this getting long, but first a few pictures from the wedding:

Seeing Maggie was definitely a highlight to my Belgian visit.

Emily made a new friend at the wedding: Eva, 4 yrs.  They were inseparable!

 

The bride throwing the bouquet...Maggie caught it!!! ...another European wedding in my future?

Three generations of Barkley Wilbanks :)