La Niña, La Pinta y La Santa María

Remember learing those names in school?  La Niña, La Pinta and La Santa María: Colombus's ships.  All of you know that Columbus set sail for the "Indies" from Spain, but you may not know that specifically he left from Palos de la Frontera, a small inland port at the confluence of the Tinto and Odiel rivers in Huelva, Andalucía. Last week we made the journey west from La Roda to visit the replicas of his three ships and explore the beaches of Huelva.

These replicas are moored in a little lagoon created just for that purpose on the shore of the Tinto river.  They were built in 1992 to commemorate the 500th year anniversary of the "discovery" of the Americas, and are as historically accurate as possible with the information available about Columbus's voyage.  Personally, I was surprised by how small they were!  The Santa María was the biggest, and carried about 52 men aboard, but it was still quite little.  I guess I had always imagined frigates like the ones you see in films like Pirates of the Caribean.

Aboard the Pinta

We boarded each ship and explored above and below deck.  I was surprised, too by the curve of their decks.  I suppose that's to keep water from pooling (maybe?), but I can't imagine trying to keep my footing during a storm on that slippery, convex surface.  They had displays onboard of the kitchens and capitan's quarters.  Let it be known that hardtack was for the Brits, these men were loaded with jamones and salt cod.  A pretty gourmet menu, if you ask me (scurvy aside). ;)  There were also some manequins set up on the ships "doing" different tasks: in the kitchen, on the masts, etc.  Emily didn't like them much.  Angelines told her one was named "Manolito" and she still keeps reminding me that she "no like Manolito". ;)

The man himself taking measurements.

There was an interesting video about the ships and their voyage in the small interpretive center.  It was slightly corny; but still, when they described how after days of seeing sticks, reeds and other floatsam indicating land was near, Rodrigo de Trinana finally bellowed "TIERRA!" from the crow's nest, my hair stood on end.  It is always fun to visit these kinds of historic places to get a feel for what it must have really been like.

Home sweet home

This adventure was another camping trip for us. :)  We found a great campground in Punta Umbría just about 200 meters from the beach.  It was beautiful and perfectly located, the only serious drawback was that our campsite was in the sand.  It was impossible to stay even remotely clean after a shower and our tent inevitably filled with sand, too.  Still, there was plenty of welcome shade from the costal pines and the beauty of the virgin beach so near made up for the inconvenience of permanent sand between our toes.

We spent the afternoons at the beach playing in the waves and sand.  The water of the Atlantic was surprisingly warm--like a bathtub, honestly!  Emily and Natalie are already best friends and had a wonderful time building sandcastles and running in the surf.  This time of year is the best time to visit Huelva, or perhaps even a bit later in the season would be ideal.  The yellow sand beaches of the Costa de Luz are famous throughout Spain, but in summer I think you'd be hard pressed to find a square inch of it that wasn't covered by a beach towel!  Come

We introduced Natalie to drip castles :)

September, however, the crowds have ceased and we were virtually alone; it was fantastic.

Our last evening, we opted to eat out in Punta Umbría and headed out after our evening shower for a seafood dinner.  We were not disappointed.  And Natalie was delighted by the coquinas, a kind of little clam.  We wined and dined and chatted until nearly midnight, when we had to hurry back to the campground because they didn't allow vehicles to circulate past 12am.

It was a quick trip.  We stayed only two nights and so only really were able to explore one day.  The weather was hotter than I'd expected, too and so our exploring was minimal and left for the late afternoon hours on the beach.  There are many beautiful pine forests with paths and trails to explore, but sadly we were never up early enough to do any of that, and going out mid-day was out of the question with the heat.  Still, it was a fun visit and certainly good to know that there is so much to do and see in and around Huelva.  I am sure that in the future we'll make more visits that way...just perhaps at cooler times of the year.

La Niña on board La Niña

This Says it All:

 I'll save my rant for after you watch this:





Now, with that in mind: preschool in Spain begins at three years old.  Children are in school from 9am-2pm just like the Primary school kids...They even have workbooks!  They spend a fair ammount of time playing in class and at recess; but they also spend a lot of time sitting at their desks coloring inside the lines and tracing shapes or letters with their pencils.  In a second grade class, I witnessed a teacher shouting at a boy and then ripping up his paper because he had the audacity to color a rabbit blue: "Rabbits aren't blue!"

Preschool education is not obligatory. Just like in the US obligatory education begins at six years old with Primary school.  However, there are extremely few parents who choose to exercise their right NOT to enroll their babies (because they are just babies) in school when their third birthday roles around.  This year Emily will not be attending school, although she could.  She will be three in November, after all.  I feel grateful that I can avoid the system (legally) for three more years.  At three, her job is to explore and discover the world.  I am happy to show it to her, but she must do the discovering...and nothing can be discovered by sitting still at a desk tracing letters with a blunt pencil!

I think it is telling that the above short is Spanish; however I do believe the message is universal.  Education worldwide is in need of some serious, fundamental changes.  There are better and worse systems around the globe, but fundamentally most of them vary quite little, I'm afraid. Everywhere  there are standards to be met and contents to be covered.  Traditional schools breed an environment of competetivity in which students are constantly being compared to each other and to the abstract standards set by pedagogues and politicians.


Society values innovation, yet too little importance is put on exploration, and creativity in schools.  The most creative subjects are always the first to go with budget cuts.  We smother the beauty that can be found in our individuality by championing the results of standardized tests.  Teachers, too, are
robbed of their creative licenses when faced with the task of homogonizing their classes in order to achieve the necessary scores.  Students are empty vessels to be filled with skills and knowledge, then
churned out into the workforce to become contributing citizens.

This is not to say that there aren't extraordinary teachers who do cultivate creativity and collaboration in the classroom.  There are--Thank God! The system should make work easier for these individuals, rather than, as so often happens, hampering the teaching-learning process.  We value and admire what these dedicated teachers do, and yet most people shy away from denouning the system which not only hinders their work, but also produces young people incapable of independant thought, innovation or creativity.  Isn't it ironic that traits we so highly value are not only NOT cultivated in the current Education System, but are seemingly purposefully eliminated by it?


Just as there are great teachers, there are also great schools.  All is not lost.  There are alternative schools, private schools, homeschooling options, etc.  But why must these outstanding examples be exceptions to the rule?  Why shouldn't they BE the rule?  Why can't we change the public system to reward innovative teaching, creativity and personal iniciative from teachers and students alike?


I can only imagine that the reason behind any reluctance to modify the current education system is an economic one.  It is, I am sure, quite costly to completely overhaul education...  But what about the social costs of robbing a three-year-old of her childhood!  I am sure that in the long term, investing in lasting educational change would save much more than it costs.

Here Comes the Rain...

Little darling, it's been a long, dry, scorching summer.
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here!
Here comes the rain.  Here comes the rain,
And I say, it's all right!

...Had the Beatles been an Andalusian band, I think their lyrics would have changed dramatically. ;)

Sunday, for the first time since May (I think), it rained.  The stormy weather continued all day yesterday and the world seems to have let out a giant sigh of relief: this morning the rain-darkend earth contrasts with sharp, blue skies and crisp, green trees, their leaves finally cleansed of months worth of dust.  The smell, too, is heavenly.

Yesterday we drove to Málaga to pick up our exchange student (!) and dramatic thunderclouds cast impressive shadows across the hills and valleys as the storm lifted.  The hot, summer haze that's been hanging over southern Spain for the last two months has been washed away.  It seemed like someone had suddenly cleaned the lenses of glasses I hadn't known I was wearing.  Everything was so clearly in focus and visibility was so good, it seemed an exageration.

Today it looks as though we'll have clear skies.  Who knows how long until the next rain.  These moments must be savoured.

"Camping" or "Mishaps of Potty Training"

Our great campsite!

This week is my week of vacation from work at the academy and we decided to go camping this year.  We have an old two-person tent that we used for the last time five years ago when we camped our way up to Lyon, France for a friend's wedding; but even though the three of us could probably fit in there just fine, we decided to buy a big, new tent for the occasion.  It's a four-person tent that has a separate bedroom--very deluxe!  There's sort of a "porch" or living room/entry way that separates with a zipper door from the actual sleeping area.  It's tall enough for me to stand up in, and my lower back is VERY glad we decided to pay the extra 30 euros for the taller version of this model!  Bela slept in the entry area and kept watch over the camp at night and the three of us snuggled up in the bedroom on our double air mattress.  It was cozy.  Now I am determined to get out an use our tent more often!

Pool! :)

The campground was a beautiful place in the Eastern Alpujarra, Sierra Nevada in Granada.  It was just outside the mountain town of Laroles.  There were beautiful views on our morning walks with Bela despite the summer haze.  In autumn, winter or spring you can see the Mediterranean.  Being at about 5000ft elevation meant that it wasn't quite so hot as here in La Roda, but even so, it was far too unpleasant to do much hiking or sight-seeing during the day.  We must go back some time when it's cooler because I would love to do some more exploring in the area.  As it was we spent most afternoons lounging by the pool, swimming, sipping gin tonics and watching Emily jump on the trampoline. :)

View of Laroles from the road.

The people were really laid-back and friendly and Emily made friends with a number of the other children at the campground.  Wednesday, the day before we had to leave, she spent all afternoon running around at the pool with her little group of friends.  It was great to watch how she's developing socially.  She certainly loves being the center of attention and had all the adults wrapped around her little finger, too!

Morning fog over the Med

But our stay wasn't without incident.  Emily is potty trained now, but we still put a diaper on her at night.  Most mornings she wakes up dry, and last week I even accidently put her to bed without a diaper and she was fine, but we just haven't taken the step to completely get rid of the diaper quite yet--better safe than sorry.  Well, guess who forgot to pack diapers?

The first night was fine, but Monday night she wet the bed...all over me! We pulled off her and my wet p.j.s, put a towel under us and tried to go back to sleep in a tent that reeked of urine.  Very unpleasant to say the least.  So Tuesday morning was spent washing sheets and pajamas rather than any more fun activity.  Thankfully, the campground had a wash room--no washing machine, but several big basins that were all we needed.  With the heat everything dried quite nicely.  We thought about buying diapers, but the only ones available at the store cost 15+ euros because they only had a big pack...it seemed a waste since she hardly uses them any more.  We decided to risk it, and there was thankfully no more bed-wetting for the rest of our stay.

Helping with dinner.

A wet bed, was not the only "accident" this trip, however.  Wednesday night after an afternoon of running around with all her buddies at the pool, Emily caught the attention of an eleven-year-old boy camped nearby.  He came over and the two of them played until it was dark and well passed bed time, first with the ball and then hide-and-seek.  Her new friend Jorge, was a very sweet boy, who very seriously told me that his sister was born one minute before he was when I asked him if his sister was older or younger.  It was obviously a sore subject.

Emily was hopless at hide-and-seek since she insisted on wearing a skirt my mother brought her from China, which has tiny bells on it.  Her new friend could hear her wherever she went...besides, she was having so much fun that she just couldn't help laughing out loud even when we took the skirt off! :)  After some time Jorge's sister came over to join in the fun, followed shortly by their parents saying that we should send them "home" if they were keeping us or Emily up too late, etc.  We assured them it was fine, although it was getting very late for little Em.  But not five minutes after they left, she suddenly exclaimed, "I'm going poo poo!"

She doesn't seem to understand the difference between "I'm going poo poo" and "I need to go poo poo".  She always says she's "going" pee pee, for example, when in fact she isn't actually wetting her pants, so I wasn't alarmed by this sudden announcement.  Angelines however, took one whiff of her, peeked in her pants and said, "It's coming out!"  There was no need to send the twins home.  They both looked a little horrified and quickly said goodnight as I scooped up Emily and ran down the hill to the bathrooms with her.

It was an adventure, for sure.  And a great experience for all of us.  Our tent is a little complicated to pitch, but with practice it will be easy.  We took a long time loading up and packing for the trip, too because it another one of those things that gets easier the more you do it.  I'm hoping we can go camping again soon so we don't lose our edge. ;)

Good Books

Lots has been happening around here and I feel as though I'm composing a blog post daily...but somehow they haven't been making their way from my head into cyberspace very well lately.  I am happy to report that I have a very good excuse for my negligence: good books.

I have been on "summer vacation" from my Montessori classes (still have some things to be doing but no classes and a more flexible timetable, for sure) since coming back from the States and so I've treated myself to some fun reading.  Remember last year when so many of you sent books with my mom for a literary birthday surprise?  A little over a year later and I still haven't read half of them.  Well since coming home from the U.S. I've read three books, two of which were part of my birthday collection. 

What a pleasure!

It is so fantastic to lose yourself in a book!  With class reading, I rarely take time to pick up a novel or something non-class related to read.  It's been nearly a year since I've let myself sink into and get lost in some good fiction.  My two latest reads were The Pilot's Wife, Annita Shreve and The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach.  Both were great, but especially the second was one of those books that catches you from the first sentence and then lingers with you beyond the last page.

Now, unfortunately, I do have to get back to class reading because we have quite a large paper due in September and getting it (mostly) taken care of in August would really be ideal. 

Other than reading, the biggest thing going on around here has been preparations for the exchange student we'll be hosting from the end of August through November.  A sophomore student from my home town will be coming to live with us and study at the local high school this first semester.  We're very excited for the opportunity and have been busily cleaning, painting and furnishing the upstairs bedroom where she'll be staying. 

Inevitably, this has meant organizing all of the upstairs--my old classroom, and our "junk" room--not just the spare bedroom.  It feels great to get things up there squared away.  We've been thowing away a lot, donating other things and I have several posts up on an equivalent to "Craig's List" in hopes of selling a few items we  no longer use/need.  Suddenly the second story is becoming a part of the rest of the house: a place I like to be!  We have one more trip to Ikea planned and there are still some windows to be scrubbed, but it's starting to look nice up there. :)  Nothing like guests to galvanize a cleaning frenzy!

A Note on Heat

This is just to say we've come out of a crazy heat wave which to my mind gave new meaning to clichés such as "suffocating" or "opressive" heat. 

On Tuesday of last week the car thermometer read 35ºC (95ºF) on my 8:30am morning commute (!).  We had daily highs of 113º+ throughout the week, and even by 10:30 pm the temperatures only dropped to around 100ºF. Saying simply that it was hot is a terrible understatment; being outside was like sitting in an oven with a heavy blanket wrapped around you. 

Heat and sun are violent phenomena in Spanish, and with good reason.  They say the heat aprieta (squeezes) and the sun's rays pegan fuertes--hit hard.  After a week like this last one, I'd say the lexicon is quite appropriate.  The brutally sunny, sweltering heat of Spain is anything but hospitable and usually far from plesant.

Thankfully, the worst has passed. 

...Now the highs of between 100º-105º feel refreshingly, cool by comparison. ;)

Back to the Grind

Although I never blogged about it (we are wary of announcing online long absences from home), we spent the last two weeks of June in California with my family.  It was great. :)

I will spare you the details of our preparation and travel; but suffice it to say that neither was uneventful (unfortunately).  The Friday before our Sunday (eeeearly) morning departure, I nearly burnt down the house and had to spend all afternoon "mopping up" with the help of several bottles of cleaning fluid.  Then our layover at Gatwick airport turned into a nightmare when some poorly informed Norwegian Airlines employee insisted that we needed to show our return tickets in order to pass through to international connections...

...But despite a soot-covered home and British customs, we made it all in one piece and forgot every bit of the trouble we had getting there the minute we stepped through the doors at Oakland International Airport and were received by Maggie's smiling face (due to traffic, my parents got there shortly after our arrival).

We spent our first week camping at a plush KOA in Petaluma, where my Aunt Jeanne and Uncle John joined us with their grandkids, whom I had never met (they are nine and six!).  Emily was especially thrilled by the whole experience because we slept in my mom's fire tent pitched outside my parents' big fifth-wheel trailer. :)  We roasted sausages over the campfire and marshmallows, too.  We swam in the pool, visited the children's museum in Petaluma (twice), had a luau (!) and generally enjoyed each other's company.

During our stay in the Bay Area we also made a visit to the San Francisco Zoo and met up with friends who live in San José with a daughter just 10 months older than Emily.  It was such fun watching them play together.  They seemed to genuinely enjoy each other.  My best friend, Miriam, who lives in Philadelphia (!), was also able to visit us that first week and even spent the night with us after our day at the zoo.

We also squeezed in a visit to my Aunt Kitt and her husband Peter, who live in Sonoma.  Coincidentally, my cousin and his family were visiting at the same time so we got even more family time out of the deal.  We had a delicious barbeque feast and enjoyed their crystal clear pool to beat the 100+ temperatures.

The second week of our stay was all at my parents' home in Sierra Valley.  We had intended this to be a week of relaxation...and in the end it was, I suppose; but there are just so many people to see and things to do that inevitably we did end up feeling rushed on more than one occasion.  Still, on a whole we kept a great balance and didn't over-book ourselves.

Sunday the 25th we had a family reunion with the Barkley's (my mom's family) at a Reno Ace's baseball game.  My dad's Aunt and Uncle from South Shore came along, too.  It was a really fun event despite the high temperatures.  My mom had reserved seating adjacent to the airconditioned bar (good thinking) and the seats themselves, were also shaded during the game, so it was all good.  We got some good visiting in, but didn't see a whole lot of the game, honestly. ;)

My aunt from Portland made a trip down to Reno just to see us (!).  I was so excited that she was able to make it work with her schedule.  Of course, attending the family reunion was an added attraction.  She stayed through Tuesday with us up at Rainbow Ranch and subsequently got her fill of my little Emily (oh, us too!).

My second parents (Miriam's family), threw a potluck party for us--or as Miriam put it, a "Viola Viewing Party"--on Monday night and we spent another great evening eating delicious food to our hearts' content and laughing and chatting with friends.  Later in the week we got together with the Stantons again because there is never enough time with good friends.  We took a lovely walk out to Fraizer Falls in Lakes Baisin followed by lunch at the restaurant where Lucy is waiting tables for the summer.

The rest of the week we did actually relax around home.  We made a few trips to Reno for some shopping, had a quick coffee with my Aunt Su, and spent an afternoon with Auntie Maggie, who showed us her apartment, introduced us to her handsome kitty, Finn and took us to her favorite haunts around downtown Reno.  Sundance bookstore and ice cream on the shore of the Truckee river were highlights.

Lucy was working a lot of the time we were there, sadly; but we did get time with her and her silly, ball-obsessed dog, Diesel, too.  Tita Lucy spent a night out at the ranch and we made cookies together--a big hit with Emily!  But perhaps the most special thing we did with tita Lucy, was going for a ride on my mom's old grey mare, Hobo.  Emily seems to be shaping up to be quite the cowgirl, something her Ga and tita Lucy were happy to indulge.  Towards the end of the week we were even able go play with Lu's new baby filly, Scarlet.  Emily was pleased to see that Scarlet nurses just like she does (ha!).

Unfortunately the saying is true: Time flys when you're having fun.  Our time in Poonahphoonah (as Emily says, California...) was too short.  Two weeks flew by and before we knew it we were back on the plane and headed East.  Now it's been nearly two weeks since we've been home and the transition hasn't been easy, espeicially not for little Emily, who got very used to being with both of us 24/7.  I am working four mornings a week during the summer and since we've been back, she has spent the majority of my time away from home crying and making life pretty miserable for her poor mamá. 

Getting back to work hasn't been easy for me or Angelines either.  It's always rough getting back into the groove after a good vacation.  I think this third week will see things smooth out a bit more since our jet-lag is fully gone at this point.  We've got our refrigerator restocked now and menus made up for the coming week, too...so that is very helpful where I'm concerned! 

I'll leave you with some pics from our visit. :)

Barkley family reunion at the Ace's game in Reno :)

Luau at the Petaluma KOA.

Lucy let me play with Scarlet, too!

Three of my favorite cowgirls.

Fraizer Falls with friends--a beautiful day for a hike!

You may be seeing this one on a Christmas card... :)

Dinner after a day at the zoo.

Don't these faces say it all??  At OAK International Airport.

Airplane selfie.  Emily was the best little traveller EVER.

Brushing Mr. Finn with tita Maggie.