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!