Wordless blogging

A picture buffet - little of this, little of that

Having my family in town was awesome for several reasons:

1. Seeing now-familiar sights through their newbie eyes - it takes me back to the beginning and reminds me how much craziness and wonder is available to me (well, to everyone, to be honest) every time I step outside my front door. For an example of this principle in action, please refer to the above picture, in which my little sister almost barfs on the plate of sardines. This picture is just begging for a frame and a spot on the family mantlepiece.
2. My dad brought me Via coffee singles and - get this - BUFFALO WING SAUCE. You'd better believe that I am preparing my tastebuds for the onslaught of delicious spiciness that Spaniards loathe so much.
3. My sisters make me laugh and let me borrow lots of clothes and jewelry.
4. My mom brought me chapstick and chili powder - please see item #2.
5. Discovering that my little sister Emily is an absolute sniper at guessing in Charades, and that my mom is not above stuffing cards out of sight during a sneaky round of B.S.
6. Because I love them.

A good time had by all

Family visit: success!  

Everyone finally got here on Saturday, 24 hours after originally planned, and we had a great time catching up and seeing Spain together.  We didn't have any internet at the house where we stayed, hence the general lack of blog posts.  Everyone left this morning (5:30 a.m. wake-up call after staying up until past 1 a.m....whoops) and now I plan on sleeping for the next 24-36  hours.  

Tomorrow some pictures!

Wishes

My wishes:

1. That my family, who was supposed to be here by now and is currently stranded in various parts of the world, actually gets here tomorrow.

2. That Blogger, who has given me error messages and not let me post since Wednesday night, will start functioning properly again.  Come on Google, we're all counting on you!

3. That Harry Potter were real so I could have a magic wand. And so I could apparate, since that is clearly the most desirable magical skill (debates welcome in the comments).

As an aside, if you want to read my (somewhat grumpy sounding, whoops) interview response on social media and how today's bloggers should use it, check it out over at TravelBlogs.  For a really interesting read, check out the guy whose take is right below mine - I love his thoughts on whether or not it's always really appropriate to over-broadcast cool travel moments, and it's something I think about a lot. Good stuff.

They are even weirder than they look, in a good way

This is my family.

They are coming to visit next week.

Can't. Wait.

  

Extra sharp is the only way to go

I love extra sharp cheddar cheese.  I eat it straight.  Who needs a cracker to get in the way? That only dilutes the flavor.

Guess what you can't really get in Spain?

Extra sharp cheddar cheese.

(of course)

So, when my parents came out, they put a frozen block of cheddar in their suitcases, thinking that they could get here to Spain before it completely thawed out and spoiled.

And they were right!

You can't imagine my level of joy.

I sliced it into four hunks: one to eat now and three for the freezer, to be pulled out each month.

I don't want to feel so weird here - if you were out of your country and didn't have access to all your normal favorites, what's the thing you would most want someone to smuggle to you?

Zany parents, interviews, vacuum bag confessions, and weather

First off, the good folks over at Vagabonding interviewed me recently for a series on long-term travelers. They just posted the interview here, and I can't believe that I've now publicly admitted that I love vacuum-pack travel bags. I still feel like people should only use them in infomercials.

Second off (is that a phrase?), do you know how weird/awesome my parents are? Some highlights of their trip were:

• Watching my teensy-tiny mom almost get blown across the Mediterranean by the gale-force winds Málaga served up.  
• Watching my dad, hard-core coffee-lover, try to make do with instant coffee and then Earl Grey each morning because we don't have a coffee maker (things are rather quaint when you literally don't have room for a coffee maker)
• Drinking wine out of an assortment of Coke glasses, because our landlord apparently has something for Coke and has provided only drinking glasses with the Coca-Cola logo.
• Having dinner at our Spanish friends the Castillos - they made paella, grilled pork, Spanish salads, and had platters of Manchego cheese and jamón Serrano...it was Spanish cuisine at its absolute best. They teased us about how often Americans say "awesome", and "really?" which are completely accurate observations.
• Speaking Spanish in front of my parents - weird but fun when they didn't understand anything and The Mister and I could speak in secret code (just kidding, Mom and Dad! we didn't do that!)

Tomorrow, let's talk about the weather (but not in a boring way), because one question that always comes up from people is "WHAT IS THE WEATHER LIKE IN SPAIN?" and I will try mightily to answer correctly (just kidding, I will probably answer in a lazy and semi-accurate way, but it will be close enough).

Anyway, check out the interview.

A Meal to Remember

Meal:  chorizo sandwiches, almond-stuffed olives, gazpacho, dates, figs, nuts, two parents and The Mister.

Can it get any better?

Mis padres are here!

This is them.

They arrived in Málaga today. I was so excited to see them, but it was so weird at the same time -  seeing somebody out of context is always weird, like when you see your middle school teacher at the grocery store.  We walked around, and ate food, and drank lots of wine, and marveled that we were here, in this place, together.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

We'll be painting the town red.

And sampling lots of olives.

And chorizo.

And more wine.

Holiday plans

Our Christmas, like our Thanksgiving, will be a tad different this year.

On Thanksgiving, we were able to Skype my family in during their big turkey fest:

P.S. It's awesome when your sister shows up wearing the same sweater as your other sister's boyfriend. 

For Christmas, my mama-in-law is here in Málaga, so no extended Skyping sessions, as we will be painting the town red.

My family sent us a huge box full of Christmas goodies, including my mom's world famous maple fudge.  She makes regular (chocolate) fudge every year for everyone's stocking, but I am not so big on chocolate, so every year my mom makes a whole batch of maple fudge, just for me. I love maple so much I may have Canadian roots somewhere.

After Christmas, we don't have to be back at work until January 10th, so our plans are as follows:

Paris

Rome for New Year's

Naples

Pompeii

Capri

Siena

Milan

Pictures and stories will follow, I'm sure.

We leave on Sunday, so things will be a little quiet around the blog, except for a few posts I've scheduled.  Can't wait!

My day: Chicken soup and giggly children

Me and my mama, courtesy of The Mister

Today is my mom's birthday.  I wish I could be there with her to celebrate, but alas Spain is too far away to make the drive.  So in honor of her, The Mister and I cooked up some chicken soup, split a baguette, and had a home-style meal á la mama.  Hopefully she felt the love.

Today was the second day of school and my first real day of work.  Friday I took a tour and said hi to everybody, but today I started my class rotations.  I have  a few teachers that I shadow throughout the day so that I'm never in a classroom alone, and the kids continue to contemplate me as if I were a bright fish in a tank.

I don't know how I'm ever going to keep them all straight, these little darlings, because their names all seem to be María or Juan Carlos, except for one boy whose name is Nacho, which, let's be honest, is so über-awesome that it's almost inspiring.  It makes me want to write a sonnet.

But anyway, on Mondays I have two classes of five year olds, whose English is mercifully better than that of the older kids, and two classes of second grade.  The little ones are enthusiastic and bouncy, shouting "RED!" "YELLOW!" and thrilled to have an appreciative audience for their English. "LOOK AT ME!" they shout, standing and sitting in rapid succession on their brightly colored plastic chairs, "I SIT DOWN!"  

They are adorable, and very noisy, and they gape at me when I pretend I don't understand their Spanish.  Only English, I tell them.  I don't understand. Then they squint their whole faces up really hard, as if the key to concentration is in facial compression, and spit out a few words in heavily accented English. 

The older ones are harder, because they've learned to be shy.  Being shy, I've learned, is pretty much at complete odds with learning a new language.  You pretty much have to reach down inside, locate your inner extrovert, and drag her out kicking and screaming so that SHE can talk to people and learn while YOU sit your bashful unilingual self in the corner.  You just have to talk to people a lot, and make mountains of mistakes, and tell them that it's totally okay to correct you because you're trying to learn.  Spaniards, at least, are really nice about it.

A Thanksgiving Birthday

Last night was my early birthday dinner with my family.  My birthday isn't until next weekend, but I'll be gone from the desert at that time.  Since I will be missing Thanksgiving and Christmas this year in addition to my birthday, I requested that my birthday dinner be a holiday feast!  I love holiday food and always think it's a shame that it's all lumped up on one side of the year. I think we should have at least one holiday a month that necessitates a whole turkey.

We had turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and Mom's famous pumpkin cheesecake (only she couldn't find pumpkin in September after visiting three separate stores, so it became sweet potato cheesecake, which was surprisingly completely awesome).

Sweet potato casserole, I will miss you

Can you make green bean casserole in Spain?

Jellied cranberry sauce with the can lines still in it - an ironic Thanksgiving classic at our house.  We always have the fancy kind of cranberries on standby, but everyone just eats this instead

The dog thinks it's HER birthday feast

My Mom reads my blog

  
My mom isn't really a blog reader. She paints masterpieces and coaches figure skating and mentors younger women and mothers her three grown girls and generally has other pressing matters to attend to than the pithy ramblings of her middle child.

So she doesn't stop in too much. Which is okay in my book. Like I said, she's savin' the world, man.

But the other day, I stopped by her house, and she took my hand and gently led me to the refrigerator.

"I have something for you" she beamed, opening the door to reveal a lovely ice-cold bottle of raspberry lemonade, waiting for me.

"I know it's your favorite" she confessed, "because I read it on your blog!"

And it was the best raspberry lemonade in the world.

It tasted like a mother's love.

So, in short, I welcome my new reader and I add the age-old greeting:
"Hi Mom!"