Lazy July Becomes Busier !

I finally ate at a good Mexican - but not TexMex - restaurant in Vigo!  Four of us went there for lunch just before my friend Teresa left to study English in Canada for 4 weeks.  They even had 4 sauces and a couple had a little picante to them....heaven!!  After Teresa left, Teresiña decided that it was her job to show me more sites in the area.  One day, we walked the couple of kilometers to La Guia, a small hill near my school, with a friend of hers, Martin.

View from La Guia of the Ria

 After enjoying the spectacular view, we stopped for a caña (draft beer) on our way back into town. 

Martin and I having a beer and a rest

The next day, she drove us to the nearby town of Redondela, where we had reserved passage on a small ferry for the trip to San Simon island.  This island has been a religious retreat for many earlier centuries, a quarantine stop a la Ellis Island for immigrants in the early 20th century and a prison for Franco during the Spanish Civil War and his dictatorship, about 1936-1975.  It is located in the Ria near the Rande Bridge.  We had a wonderful day and enjoyed the old buildings and gorgeous plantings.

San Simon is actually 2 small islands connected by a bridge

El Claustro - former prayer area

Former hospital on the small island

I happened to mention that I had not yet been to La Coruña, the town where I had been offered a job for next year.  Teresiña immediately said she'd love to go there with me and since she had lived there her first 19 years, she could show me around!  On Tuesday, July 10th, we set out via train for La Coruña..so early that we both slept the entire way there! (2 hours) 

Teresiña eating in La Coruña

Pic of cafe/bar

It was absolutely lovely having my own tour guide of all the sites, including an outstanding bar/cafe where we ate for a few euros because each serving was only 1 euro!

Beach in LA C behind me

Shrimp to left and barnacles on right

Octopus for sale - the true Galician delicacy

all sorts of fresh fish

Back 3 are flounder family, front one is a ray

 We even went by and saw Franco's former house where his daughter and grandchildren still live and also saw the house of the man who started Zara and several other Spanish stores.  I returned with my curiosity satisfied about this city.

Galleries of pisos overlooking the port in La C

Franco's home in La C - now his daughter's

The next evening, Teresiña insisted I come over to her piso and observe and take notes on the making of a tortilla espanola.

Perfect tortilla flip!

Finished tortilla and pimientos padrones

 I was happy to comply because I really needed to write down the directions instead of relying on my memory...The next day I left for Valencia and the National Masters Swimming Championships.

What an experience that was!!  Although I was accused of being a thief of Spanish medals (all in good fun), I earned each one!  I entered 5 events and won 4 gold medals and one fourth place:  4th in 50 breast, 1st in 50 free, 50 back, 50 fly and 100 free.

1st of 4 !!

 It was like a wonderful dream...but with a sore body that took days to recover after all the swimming.  Of course, living in an apartment hotel with 2 teammates in their 30's for a week might have slowed that recovery down!  We had so much fun cooking together, traveling everywhere together, hitting the beach together...and checking out the guys together!  I taught them what the term "six pack" meant in terms of a man's abdominal muscles and they loved the term and used it constantly....of course, there was good opportunity to use it surrounded each day at the pool by many fit swimmers in their Speedos!  Valencia is a very southern Spanish city - 3rd largest in Spain - and has temperatures like Austin but without as much air conditioning...made me realize how the heat is going to kill me in Austin! 

Daily ice cream after competition

Did I mention silly roomies??

The city beach is huge and easy to access by the metro...as is everything else there.  They have the City of Arts and Sciences which is all of their museums, performing arts venues, convention center, aquarium, indoor sports centers, restaurants, etc all gathered in one place with super modern architecture, water and unique plantings.  You definitely get the idea by looking at the pictures. 

City of Arts and Sciences

unusual plantings

Moray eel at aquarium

Me in aquarium tunnel

Going there with my two roomies was like taking Dan and Laura there as kids - they were crazy about it and didn't fear expressing their pleasure!  I'll never forget all the fun we had in Valencia...but as Ana, a roomie and our coach, reminded me "Lo que pasa en Valencia, queda en Valencia"!

Me, Marta and Ana eating in Valencia

Today is July 22nd and my daughter is scheduled to arrive tomorrow...I haven't seen her (hugged her) in a year!  I can't wait!!  However, my wonderful friends here have kept me busy this weekend so I wouldn't go crazy.  Yesterday, Cris and Nando invited me to their house for comida (lunch) because, as they told me, it was the last chance for the family to be together before their daughter, her husband and their 2 kids return to China today.

Brother-in-law, Nando, Cris, sister, daughter and son-in-law

Victoria and Gonzalo

She likes me!

 Fernando's sister and her husband were also there as they are enjoying a few weeks respite from Madrid here at their apartment in Bouzas, a suburb of Vigo.  What a feast we had!!  I had prepared guacamole at Cris' daughter's request and we had freshly sliced off the bone jamon serrrano and queso manchego(sheep cheese) for aperitifs.

Nando slicing jamon serrano off of leg (hoof already cut off)

Buey(crab) in his hand before breaking it down

 For the main courses, we had freshly steamed mussels, fresh crab (buey) to pick out and thick merluza (hake?) steaks over lightly fried potatoes, topped with a sauce of browned garlic and parsley...I was in seafood heaven! 

La mesa - yummy!

Dessert was arroz con leche made by Nando and very, very good.  Of course, all was accompanied by a delicious white Galician wine and the meal was followed by chupitos (liqueur size) of licor de cafe.
Another delicious 3 1/2 hour meal at their home!

Only one problem, I had another dinner scheduled at 10 PM!!  Our swim team was having its last get-together post-Valencia until the fall season begins.  Fortunately, it was nearby so I rolled on over...only to be totally surprised by a wonderful goodbye card signed by all, an acrostic of LISA made by a team member and a beautiful pair of azabache earrings selected by my friend, Sole. 

Sole, in orange, and Diego next to her - he made acrostic

swim team dinner

Ana at left and more members

and more!

Me !

If you know me, you know I teared up because it's so hard to say goodbye and express all my feelings for this group - especially in Spanish!  I was so overcome that I had to leave shortly thereafter before I totally lost it...

This morning, I went to the Vigo Air Festival which was over the Ria near the city beach of Samil.  I went with Sole because I took the bus to her house and then we walked to the beach from there. 

Sole and her dog, Perla, watching air show

Italian team

Do you think anyone goes to this??

After a couple of hours of daredevil stunts in small prop planes and in supersonic jets against the backdrop of blue sky and islands in the Ria, we returned to her house where she had a delicious chicken roasting in a clay casserole in the oven.  Add some pimientos padrones de Galicia and we had a delicious meal followed by some of her great bizcocho.  Her daughter, Laura, was there and we plotted how to get us all together next week...hope it works out!

Next blog post will probably be from the airport on my way home...  :( and :).

Lazy June goes into Lazy July...

I have totally converted to the Spanish lifestyle...up to at least 1 AM each night and sleeping until 9-10 AM each morning...adjustment to real life is going to be tough!  Of course, you don't want to arrive at the beach until 11-12 when it will be warm enough (think California, not Texas!) to sunbathe and maybe even go into the water if it's a really hot day?  Actually, we had a couple of days with temps in the low 90's and I thought I would die - no a/c anywhere and only survived due to my little oscillating fan which I could sit and sleep directly in front of - then back to the norm of high in the 70's and low in the upper 50's, aaahhh.  All events recorded below have beach trip interspersed at regular intervals!!

Last faculty meeting at my school was on June 28th, Thursday.  It was entertaining as usual and held in the Sala de Profesores (Teachers' Lounge)...I've included some pictures to give you the "ambiance"!

Faculty Meeting

 At the end they surprised me with a picture of the school inscribed in Galician, a huge box of chocolates - which I am resisting opening - and a beautiful piece of jewelry that I had mentioned ONCE to my friend Cris on a walk when we passed the store.  My supervisor is a friend of hers and Cris told her what I liked:  it's a fish skeleton in silver on a black cord...picture to be inserted when I remember to take one!  What is cool is that I didn't even know that this "raspa" is not only a symbol of Galicia but THE symbol for Vigo!!  Guess it was meant to be! The tradition is that the person leaving bring goodies so I did, a trayful of small bakery items.  Interesting because the tradition is also that when it is your birthday, you bring candy to whatever group of people you see that day. What a nice group of people I have had the pleasure of working with...one, Jose Luis, is retiring so after the meeting he supplied the staff with pinchos (appetizers) and drinks (certainly different than those allowed in repressed American schools!) so we all had a gathering that facilitated all my good-byes in a fun, informal manner...I even wore the school T-shirt they also gave me earlier!

Post meeting gathering at school

The honoree - Jose Luis, a character in his own right

The next night, Friday the 29th of June, my friend Teresa had reserved a table for what ended up being 9 of us at a Taberna furancho.

Who's the giant at the furancho?

 My analogy for this in Texanese is a semi-rural BBQ joint that has great, family style food and country western music later on in the evening.  I found out that technically furanchos are illegal b/c they make their own wine and don't pay state taxes but, oh well...they certainly do a good business!!  We ate churrasco (spareribs cooked on fire outside), calamares fritos, pimientos padrones (small, not spicy peppers), croquetas (small fried balls filled with Bechamel sauce), a large salad and , of course, great bread!  The wine is in an unlabeled bottle and served in small bowls (think Japanese miso soup) while the beer is Galician also.

Beer, wine or water?

Name of place and specialties

Pre-bagpipe band

Bar and kitchen area

My student, Carlota, and her folks were there, too!

 After every group meal I've had in Spain, chupitos are served at the very end...basically a choice of 3 Galician liqueurs:  licor de cafe, licor de hierbas or licor de orujos, all of which are different flavors mixed with aguardiente.  After eating and answering lots of US questions from people who I had not met before, the dancing began!  It reminded me of the outdoor German places my family went when I was young - many of them in the central Texas or New Braunfels area.  Accordions, guitars, keyboard and drums combined for polka rhythms.  A bit later...maybe midnightish, the bagpipes arrived and we switched from polkas to Galician dances which reminded me of the Scottish Highland fling... see the videos for yourself! (Will try to post later - keeps giving me an error message, aaagh!)

 Interesting how the Celtic influence still remains to this day...A lot of fun was had by all - who knew I could do Galician dancing!!

During the earlier evenings of that week, Teresa and I and whoever else appeared had been watching the Eurocup games at our neighborhood bar.  Now it was time for the big night, the Finals on Sunday, the 1st of July v. Italy.  If Spain won, it would be the only time a team had won 3 in a row:  2008, 2010 World Cup and 2012??  And, as you hopefully know, they won!!  4-0, a thrashing and humiliation of Italy that was intensely enjoyed by all in Spain.

Banners I got for Teresa and I to wave!

And the crowd went wild!

With all the negative economic news, this country needed and enjoyed immensely the lift from the Eurocopa championship. Our bar went wild, the streets of each town in Spain went wild and the next evening the TV coverage was all about the interviewing of the Spanish players as they sat on their large outdoor "throne" in Madrid.

Just finished tutoring my wonderful student, Candela.  I need to get a picture of her to post here b/c she's such a sweetie!  I hope I've helped her so next year in 7th grade when she starts English in school, she'll have a good experience.  Twice a week for a year and you really get to know her and her family...they're very nice people.  Chao for now!