What it would feel like to gain 25 pounds

Today the general schedule was hike in the morning then hit the city pool in the afternoon.  Everything went as scheduled, we all had a great time, and were exhausted by noon.  The hike, at Chautauqua in Boulder,  was a challenging one for all.  I'd done the hike before and it's normally slightly challenging for me.  Today, I did the hike with an 18 pound Lydia Claire strapped to my back in one of those fancy hiking packs.  It really wasn't as bad as the first 10 minutes led me to believe the following 2 hours would be.  I discovered that it was best to not stop moving forward.  I was good to go as long as I kept moving, even if it was slowly.  If I had to stop, it was best to find a rock to support the pack on.  Standing still while supporting the pack was not a good idea.  I also had one of those manufactured hiking poles to help provide stability which was a Godsend.  And talk about a great workout!  I treated myself to a big lunch afterwords. 

In the afternoon, the best part of the city pool was not the relief of swimming after the 2.5 hour hike in 97 degree heat (granted, it's dry heat here) nor was it the joy and delight in my nephews' and niece's faces.  No the highlight was watching my brother "diving" off the board while flailing his arms and cannon-balling off the diving board while again arms were flailing and an he added a yelp/scream.  Great times!

And We’re Off

Today the whole fam damily left on vacation to visit my sister in Colorado.  Going on this trip are:

Davey – Also known as Dad or Papa, age 60
Bec – Also known as Mom or Grammy, age 60
Mark- Also known as Big Daddy, my brother,  age 34
Molly – Also known as Mama, my sister-in-law, age 34
Caleb – Oldest son of Mark & Molly, age 7, self described big brain
Eli – Second son of Mark & Molly, age 6, quiet, tries to be well-behaved, challenged when tired and/or hungry,  just tooted and it smells terrible
Isaac – Third son of Mark &  Molly, age 4, most likely to have something strange in his pocket
Lydia – Only daughter of Mark & Molly, age 1 ½
Me – Age 36

We’re headed to visit my sister who lives just north of Denver in the city of Brighton.  The family living there includes:

Kari – My sister, age 33
Jay – My brother-in-law, age, hmm, how old is Jay?
Isaiah – My nephew, age 12, recently entering puberty, sleeping long hours, has a funny voice
Cameryn – My niece, age 3, karmic reincarnation of her mother’s naughty younger self

In the weeks leading up to the trip, we all became concerned about Isaac and security.  For weeks now, Ike has had some really strange things in his pocket each time we see him-pliers, wrenches, snowman topped butter knives, measuring tapes, and his dad’s pocket knife.  No matter where his dad hid the pocket knife, Ike was able to locate it like a bloodhound tracking, well whatever a bloodhound might track.  So, for a while now, we’ve been concerned about what Ike might have in his pockets while going through security and wondering what his mug shot would look like.  His mother, in her infinite wisdom, decided to have him wear shorts without pockets today.  Smart move!  We patted him down anyway and then it was off to security. 

Who would have guessed then that the one member of the family who got an extra “random” security screening would be Isaac?  I think they had his picture in the back and set off the alarms when the saw him coming.  So, our four year old Ike got an extra pat down and had his bags thoroughly searched.  Thank goodness he didn’t sneak Daddy’s knife in there this morning.

The boys were pretty excited about the flight and enjoyed looking out the window and such.  We had a little gas issue with Eli and he eventually spent a fair amount of time in the rear lavatory.  I checked on him twice while he was in there and both times he told me he needed a little while longer.  I eventually sent his dad back to check on him and Mark discovered Eli was locked in and couldn’t get out.  With some help from the flight attendant, Eli was extracted without incident.  When he sat down, he turned to me and whispered, “I was in a hurry and didn’t wipe too good.”  

 The attainment of the rental mini-van took forever as they did not have our mini-van and the car rental next door didn’t have a spare.  Is this not what reservations are for?  We spent the remainder of the day relaxing, making dinner, going to the park and getting supplies at Target.  On the agenda for tomorrow is hiking in the morning followed by swimming at the local pool in the afternoon.  We’ll see how the hiking goes.  I may be hiking with Baby Lydia on my back.  I did buy hiking poles to help with center of gravity.  It can be a mildly challenging hike so we’ll see how it is with an extra 25 pounds on my back.  

Quotes of the Day

Caleb (while paying Wii):  What the hell?  (followed by a time out)

Cameryn:  Now, let’s go wake up Baby Lydia!

Eli (upon entering the airplane):  This is NOT what I expected.   

The Clock is Ticking

Well, I don't have much time left here in Spain. I have just 10 days. How do I feel about this? Conflicted. I've really enjoyed my time in Spain and am not ready to complete my studies. At the same time, I am THRILLED to be going home, back to MY bed, food that I cook, MY bike, and the family. I'm hoping that I can continue my studies formally upon my return.

What have I been up to the past few weeks? The last three weekends, I've gone with friends to the beach. Twice to Alumunecar and once to La Herradura. My friend got so sunburned this weekend that she developed an infection in her skin and we had to go to the ER. It only took 45 minutes there, however, and less than 2 minutes in the pharmacy and we were all set. Socialized medicine did not live up to it's reputation of long lines and crappy service. Also, about a week and a half ago, I celebrated my 35th birthday with mojitos, Mexican food, margaritas, and more mojitos. We also met a guy that night who was an architect, boxer, and bullfighter. Who knows how much of that was true.

During my time in Spain, I've met many people from a vast variety of countries. I've kept track of those countries and, in the last 16 weeks, have met people from:

Sweden
Korea
Denmark
Germany
France
Spain
Israel
Morocco
Taiwan
England
Cyprus
Austria
Columbia
Australia
Gibraltar
Italy
Brazil
Senegal
Kenya
Ireland
Poland
Georgia
Japan

I'm pretty impressed with that list!

It's only ten days until I can lay my head on my own pillow. Thank goodness!

What's in a Name and a Tricky Situation

What's in a name? Well here, in Spain, it's your grandfathers but never your husband.

Here's how it works. Everyone has two last names. When they are born, children get the first last name from each parent. So if Jose Martinez Garcia and Maria Lorca Jiminez had a child named Ana, her full name would be Ana Martinez Lorca. Martinez and Lorca are the last names of her two grandfathers while the last names of her two grandmothers do not get passed down.

Also interesting to me is that the women do not change their names when they get married. I prefer this. It's always been weird to me that women change their name when they get married. It was once a source of an argument I had. The opposing party said, "Well if she loved him, she would take his last name." To this, I logically responded, "If he loved her, he would take her last name. What kind of logic is that? Now they've both switched last names!" Of course, I think women should have a choice but I personally prefer the keeping of the original last name as that is who the woman is.

Interestingly, according to some of our teachers, in many Central and South American countries, women don't change their names but do add the names of their husband at the end proceeded by "de". For example, if Ana Martinez Lorca married Pablo Ruiz Picasso, she could choose to have the name Ana Martinez Lorca de Ruiz. I don't really care for this either as the word "de" implies possession or ownership. The coche de Ruiz is the car belonging to Ruiz and I don't like the idea of Ana belonging to Ruiz. But again, to each his own.

I'm having one of these moments right now:



I did something pretty bad today, just like Chunk in the clip. As many know, eating in Spain has been extremely difficult for me. There are many foods that I REALLY don't like and I have had to eat most of them here. As I live with a family, I don't get to choose my meals, they simply show up on a plate in front of me. So, today I snapped a little. Mostly this was a portion issue and not the actual food itself. I had a huge bowl of zucchini soup and this was followed by a ginormous salad. I just couldn't eat anymore of the salad. When I eat salads, it's not that I get full, I just get tired of chewing. And I just couldn't do it anymore. Then, when the phone rang and when Abuela went to answer it, I seized my opportunity and dumped the remainder of my salad on her plate.

Wow. That was pretty terrible. In my defense, however, Abuela is always talking about how she LOVES verduras (vegetables) and she is like maybe 100 pounds so an extra portion would do her some good. I, on the other hand, now feel awful. Oh well.

Observations Part 3

So, when I first came to Spain, I thought it was unusual that the supermercados (supermarkets) were really pretty small. I would say that none of the supermercados have been bigger than Stowers & Son Market (a great place to buy meat, by the way). I did some investigating and this is what I've discovered. The mercados (markets) tend to be what we would call a Farmer's Market.

• The supermercados are simply grocery stores.
• Bigger grocery stores than supermercados are called hipermercados. These are similar to our supermarkets.

I am hopeful that we never start referring to our stores as hypermarkets. That sounds to goofy.

Cordoba

This past weekend, I attended my final excursion with my school. Why final, you ask? Because I've been on all the excursions they offer. With five weekends left during my big adventure, I will have to continue my travels solo or with friends.

Cordoba was a very interesting and old city. How old? Well, for example, the mosque was built on top of an old cathedral beginning in the 700s. So it's so old that they were already building on top of other buildings 1400 years ago. That's pretty old.



The Cathedral/Mosque/Cathedral are very interesting. The Moors (Muslim and Arab) dominated southern Spain from the 8th Century until the 15th Century, mas o menos. Thus, when the Moors came to Cordoba in the 8th Century, the decided the best place to build a really really big Mosque was right on top of existing Cathedral. Around 700 years later, they would meet karma and parts of the Mosque would be converted back into a Cathedral.

For me, going into the Cathedral/Mosque/Cathedral was pretty weird. I'd learned about both Muslim and Catholic architecture and art during the art appreciation class I took last fall. Muslims do not decorate their buildings with depictions of humans, animals, events, etc which, of course, Catholics do. Thus, it was super weird to see the intricate geometric designs of the Muslims next to a painting of Christ's crucifixion.



















While in Cordoba, we also visited a very old synagogue which, despite being of the Jewish faith of course, also had Muslim decor. The buildings were really a "mixto" of cultures.

Most of the streets we were on in Cordoba were very small (like as wide as my umbrella) and windows were covered with flowers. This is done for both the cooling effects and to provide a pleasant scent.

Unlike previous trips, this trip went very smoothly and there were no problems. Thank goodness!

As a side note, my dinner when I got home was an entire large plate of cooked spinach with a fried egg mixed in. I thought there was no way any human could eat an entire plate of cooked spinach but I did it. Where's my blue ribbon?