Medina Sidonia

Walking to the church

Medina Sidonia is a small village located a little less than an hour from where we live. We went there a couple weeks ago on a Saturday. It was a beautiful day out, about 70 degrees. It is a really small village with only a handful of things to do. We started at Plaza de España and found the tourist center, which is a tiny hole in the wall with limited information about Medina Sidonia. From there we walked to Iglesia de Santa Maria la Mayor, a church located at the top of a hill in the village. We walked through the church, the girls were very well behaved and quiet. Before leaving the church we walked to the top of the bell tower. It was up a very tiny circular staircase but we all made it to the top to enjoy the views. After the church we walked up to the castle ruins. There wasn't that much to see, it was basically really old ruins that looked like rubble but the views were amazing. We got a great view of the church and the bell tower that we had just walked up.

View from the ruins

We didn't know this before going but Medina Sidonia is known for cake and pastry. We found a little pastry shop on our walk back to the plaza. Of course the girls chose chocolate candies that didn't look that impressive. Eric and I decided to get these pastries that looked like ice cream cones. The cone part was a delicious wafer like pastry dipped in chocolate, which was then filled with vanilla or chocolate cream…YUM. We saved our treats for later, which worked out because the girls fell asleep in the car on the way home. We enjoyed our treats without having to share :)

Top of the bell tower

I don't think Medina Sidonia requires a second visit but we had a great time and was happy to see and experience another village in Spain!

I love Spain but...

Today it rained for the first time in about 5 months. I was also doing a ton of laundry today because we are getting ready to go out of town. I was feeling frustrated because although my laundry room is attached to my house I have to walk outside to get to it and it was pouring. This got me thinking about some things I miss about home that made my life a little easier and that I probably took for granted. Don't get me wrong I love living in Spain. The opportunity we have to travel is amazing and we are taking advantage of it. The girls are in Spanish school...loving it and becoming bilingual! We live in a beautiful house with a pool that is a five minute walk from the beach. I can shop at the local stores for fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables but can also go to the commissary and get my "American" groceries. With that being said there are things I really miss about home...

I miss drive thru coffee...or even coffee to go. There is no such thing here. The Spanish like to sit down and slowly drink their coffee in the morning. They have to drink it slow, it's only the size of a shot! They also don't eat breakfast...so if you're looking to have bacon, eggs and pancakes you better be willing to make it yourself!

I miss restaurants being open for dinner during American dinner hours. The Spanish don't eat until 9 or 10pm. Most restaurants don't open for dinner until 8:00...my kids are already in bed by then. The same is true for lunch...I want lunch at 12:00 not 3:00.

I miss central air conditioning in the summer and central heat in the winter. Marble floors get cold when it's 45 degrees outside and you don't have heat!

I miss DVR. I know I must sound shallow but we get 11 channels on AFN and we have to take what we can get. How am I suppose to watch my favorite show at 7pm...that's bath/bedtime?!?!

I miss fast, reliable Internet!

I miss things being easy. When you need to get something done like run an errand here it is never easy. Either you can't find where you're going or if you do your car doesn't fit down the street. You get to the errand to find out they are closed just because they didn't feel like opening that day or they are closed for siesta. The person you would like help from has no idea what you're talking about because Spanish is not your first language. Aaahhh!

I miss talking to my family and friends whenever I want and not having to worry about the 6 hour time change!

Birthday Girls!

Rebecca loved her gift from Lily!

Yay! I'm 5!

September is a time for birthdays in our house! Rebecca turned 5 on the 14th and Lily turned 3 today (the 27th). The girls were so excited this year and the best part was that they were excited for each other. Lily was so happy when it was Rebecca's birthday and the same for Rebecca. They just love each other so much and are too cute about it! This year both girls wanted a scooter for their birthday. We gave Rebecca her scooter on her birthday and too be honest I was a little worried about how it would go without Lily getting one too, but it was fine! Rebecca shared and they took turns. When Lily opened her scooter today they both yelled, "We don't have to take turns anymore!"

We had a joint birthday party for the girls on the Saturday in between their birthdays. I'm always a little sad when birthdays come around for our family because we are never with our families back home to celebrate. We can't have the usual family party where grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins get to come over and celebrate with us. However, we are very fortunate to have made some wonderful friends in Spain that made the girl's birthday party special.

Luau themed party -
Too cute not to include!

Happy 3rd Birthday Lily!

Although a very exciting month for us...I'm glad it's over. I made 25 cupcakes on both girls' birthdays for them to take to school. I also made a cake for each one on her actual birthday as well as a cake for the party. So if you're keeping track that's A LOT of baking for a short period of time. I do not care to bake/eat cake for awhile...okay maybe I will only need a few days to recover from the eating cake part :)

 

1st Day of School

Today may have been one of the most stressful days I have had during my time in Spain. Maybe I should say I was more anxious and nervous than stressed. Rebecca started kindergarten today and Lily started pre-k. Although they went to a spanish preschool (they call it a guadaria) together this past year, the teachers spoke both English and Spanish and there were American's as well as Spanish children at the school. Today the girls started public school out in town. School starts at age 3 in Spain so they will both be going to school full-time this year, which is only 9-2. To say I was nervous is an understatement. I think I always knew that dropping Rebecca off at kindergarten would be hard but I never thought it would be this hard. I've also always had a picture in my head about what the first day of school would be like for my kids (especially since I'm an elementary school teacher) and it didn't involve being in a foreign country where they didn't speak the language. What if she didn't know what the teacher was saying? What if the other kids didn't play with her because she was American? What if she was sick or had to go to the bathroom and didn't know what to say? These and a million other questions were running through my head. I was especially nervous that I wouldn't be able to communicate with the teacher because I'm not fluent in Spanish.

It turns out I had nothing to worry about. Eric said Lily didn't even turn around when it was time to leave. As it turns our there was a girl in her class that she knew from the guadaria and she was very happy. Rebecca had a little more of a tough time and cried a little but was fine once she went in the classroom and saw the other kids. Of course as soon as I left I started crying...all I could think was I hope I'm doing the right thing by not sending them to school on base. There are no other American's in Rebecca's class but her teacher speaks a little bit of English. When I picked her up she said she had a great day! I was so relieved. She understood everything the teacher was saying (I guess she learned more spanish this past year than I thought) and has already made new friends. Lily didn't really have much to say about the day, I don't know if she understood the teacher or not, but her teacher doesn't speak any English so she must have figured it out. She also only went for an hour...the 3 year olds go for an hour or two a day leading up to a full day to adapt. The hour must have wore her out though because she passed out in the car!

I still can't believe that my baby is going to be 5 on Saturday and is in kindergarten. I know that every parent says this but I really can't believe how fast the time goes by!

San Lucar de Barrameda

Getting ready for the race

And their off!

Betting booth - LOL!

Sanlucar is a town about 30 minutes from where we live. We have been there twice this summer. It is located on the beach and is known for beach horse racing, flamenco music and manzanilla (a type of sherry). The first time we went to Sanlucar was to watch the horse races in the middle of August. They usually happen two weekends in the month of August. We weren't really sure what to expect so we got a sitter and went without the kids. We got there a little late so it was already really crowded. The horses race right on the beach so the races begin at low tide. Although it was crowded, we were able to walk right up to the front to see the race. It looked as if most Spanish families had been at the beach all day. Definitely for next year we will take the kids and make a day of it! 

Lily not wanting to hear
about sherry!

Rebecca during the tour.

We went back to Sanlucar this past weekend. Our plan was to walk around, tour a sherry bodega, visit the castle and get some lunch. After parking and visiting the tourist office for a map we found our way to the Barbadillo bodega where we were just in time for the English tour followed by a tasting. I have tasted a few different kinds of sherry's since living in Spain and I think this was one of the best. We even bought a few bottles. If you are thinking of going here you can get more information at their website: http://www.barbadillo.net. The castle in San Lucar is right next to Barbadillo, however we could only look at it from the outside because it wasn't opened. After the sherry tour we were ready for some lunch. We hadn't done any research on places to eat and at this point were really hungry and hot so we settled on a place called Cerveceria Internacional. The food was okay, I definitely wouldn't go back here to eat. However, if you are into beer they have beers here from all over the world that you can try and they are reasonably priced. At this point we decided to call it a day. The kids were getting tired and we were all hot. We decided to head home and hit the pool for the rest of the afternoon.

Wine barrels.

Since Sanlucar is only a 30 minute drive away we can go back anytime! 

Adios!

Sesame Street Live

Waiting for the show to start!

One of the perks of being stationed overseas is that we get some pretty cool shows over here for free. A few months ago we took the girls to see The Imagination Movers, which was sponsored by MWR on base. Yesterday the USO brought Sesame Street Live to town! The girls were so excited and couldn't wait. It's all they have been talking about. The show was great, Lily danced the whole time and was so excited to touch Cookie Monster's hand. Rebecca loved it too, although she is still a little shy around characters so she wouldn't put her hand out. They even got a cool Elmo light up toy to bring home...all for free!

Waving to Cookie Monster,
her favorite!

After the show we went out for an early dinner. For those of you living here, I'm sure you've heard of Blanca Paloma, the delicious Italian restaurant in Puerto Sherry. It's actually only a 5 minute walk from our house so we go here a lot. However, yesterday we decided to try the other Blanco Paloma...located just off of 491. Luckily they were open, they open at 1:00 in the summer and stay open until spanish dinner time. This was perfect for us because we went at 4:00, right when everything is closed for siesta. The food was delicious...I would say better then Puerto Sherry, although you don't get the view of the beach. We didn't mind though because it was close to 100 degrees and we ate inside in the air conditioning.

It was a great afternoon, we missed Daddy though, who's still in Germany.

Adios.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Making me pictures

Sometimes being a military spouse is hard...like on your birthday when your husband is away...again. I think Eric has missed at least three or four of my birthdays in the almost ten years that we've been married. It seems that work always sends him away for something for a week in August and it always falls on my birthday. Lucky for me, I have made some really great friends in Spain who invited me and the girls to brunch in the morning and then over to their house for dinner. 

Rebecca said we needed to have a
 treat after swimming for my birthday!

Even luckier for me is that I got to spend the day with my two girls. Seeing how excited Rebecca was for my birthday made it all worth it. Every second she got she wished me a happy birthday and gave me hugs and kisses. Lily didn't want to be out done so she had to jump in on the hugs and kisses too. They loved going to brunch with our friends and then hanging out at the pool the rest of the day with me. We had such a wonderful, relaxing day. 

Lily enjoying her treat.

I'm very grateful that Eric is only away for a week this time. I realize that some families are missing their loved ones for much longer. It's hard being away from family and then having your spouse not be home either. 

Leading up to yesterday I was dreading my birthday but it turned out to be a great day. I feel very blessed that we have made such good friends while here in Spain. It's nice to have people to spend your birthday with when you can't be with your family.

National Night Out

Tonight the Rota Naval Base was holding the National Night Out event. It's an event held the first Tuesday in August across America to raise community and police awareness. I took the kids to see what it was all about on base. The event started with a parade, which the kids loved because they got candy thrown to them! Afterwards, they got to play in bouncy houses, meet McGruff the crime dog and Sparky, check out a fire truck and few other things. Other than us all being really hot it was a lot of fun. The kids loved playing with their friends and I didn't have to cook dinner because hotdogs and hamburgers were served!

Beach Day

We are so lucky to live right near the beach...it's only a 5 minute walk! Everything in Spain is closed on Sunday's, except for restaurants so we are usually looking for something to do to get out of the house. Lucky for us, we can head to the beach in the summer. There are a lot of beaches in Rota and El Puerto de Santa Maria. Parking is limited once they start to fill up so we have just been going to the beach near our house. It's called Playa de la Muralla in Puerto. We try and get up and get going so we can get to the beach by 10:00...when it's still pretty empty. The Spanish sleep in so the beach doesn't start to fill up until around 1:00...when we are ready to leave. It's perfect because we can pick out the spot we want and the kids can play without too many people being around. By the time we leave the beach is packed. Their are umbrellas everywhere and it's like a maze trying to leave the beach.

Here are some pictures from our beach day!

       

Feria!

Before coming to Spain I had never heard of feria season. It didn't take too long to learn about it...they told us about it in the culture class that Naval Station Rota required us to take our first week here.  Each city in Andalusia designates a week usually sometime in April or May for feria.  We live in El Puerto de Santa Maria, which held feria at the end of April. Seville, the capital of Andalusia, is suppose to have the best feria in all of southern Spain.  

 

Dancing at Feria

Feria means Fair in Spanish.  Their are special feria grounds that are empty all year until feria season and then out of nowhere hundreds of tents pop up. It's not quite like a fair back home.  There are amusements, food and drinking.  But other than horse and carriages there are not live animals.  The only fair that I am familiar with is the Topsfield Fair held in October.  It is really nothing like that.  All of the women dress in flamenco dresses.  Each tent is individually decorated, usually by a restaurant or business but sometimes a family will own a tent.  In addition to drinking sherry and other Spanish wines and eating tapas people go to feria to dance.  The type of dancing is called Sevillana.

The boys at Feria

  

My Sevillana dance class

A few months ago I started taking Sevillana lessons with a few other military wives in my neighborhood. I really wanted to quit after the first class but I decided to go back and am so glad I did. I learned how to Sevillana dance, bought a flamenco dress and even danced at feria! It was so fun and definitely worth the lessons.  The girls also have flamenco dresses and love dressing up in them. They were so excited to wear their dresses to school.  Rebecca even came with me to feria in Puerto and we danced together...she took lessons at school. This year we made it to feria in El Puerto de Santa Maria and Rota. Hopefully next year we can make it to Jerez and Sevilla.  

Back to the States...again!

I'm not the greatest at keeping up with this blog but I keep telling myself I'm going to stick with it and not give up on it entirely. I have been meaning to write about our quick trip to D.C. last month...mainly because I feel like I have to keep defending myself about why we've been back to the states so many times since coming here in July (3 times...which is a lot to some people considering many military families don't go back at all during their 3 year tour).

Eric was invited to a wedding in Baltimore in April. He spoke with his friend and we RSVP'd yes to the wedding with the understanding that if we couldn't get on a Space A flight to the area then we wouldn't be able to make it. We just couldn't see spending $4000 for the four of us to fly to the states for only a few days. As it turned out the Wednesday before the wedding (the wedding was on Friday) there was a flight from Rota to Andrews Airforce Base. We did some research on return flights and saw that there were a few different flights out of Dover that weekend that would get us back to Rota on Sunday...like I said a very quick trip. 

The trip could not have gone more smoothly. We left Rota at 10:00 on Wednesday and arrived in D.C. at 2:00 in the afternoon. We were able to spend Wednesday and Thursday night in Northern Virginia catching up with old friends. The girls even got to visit Laila, their daycare provider! The look on Rebecca's face when she saw Laila was worth the entire trip! On Friday morning we drove to Baltimore.  We spent the day in Inner Harbor and then went to the wedding Friday night. Thanks to Melissa for coming to Baltimore and watching the kids. On Saturday we drove to Dover, DE, it was about a two hour drive and that night caught a flight back to Rota. It was a quick trip but one that I would do again.

Many people here in Rota always ask why we go back to the states so often when we have all of Europe at our fingertips to visit. The thing for us is...family and friends are important to us. If I can get on a free flight back to the states why wouldn't I do it? I miss my family and friends back home and in Virginia everyday. I don't want to go three years without seeing them. We are also taking advantage of being in Spain and have traveled a lot since being here.  The way I look at it is that we have the best of both worlds.  We have this amazing opportunity to live in Spain for three years and experience the culture and travel but we can also hop on a military flight and visit home too!

Adios!

Living in a Spanish house

When we arrived in Rota last July base housing was not an option for us.  Because we only have two kids we only rate a three bedroom house on base, which there is a waiting list for. I'm so glad that we were forced to look out in town because not only does our house have a pool but it is a five minute walk to the beach. Also, instead of living in a three bedroom standard military home we live in a five bedroom, beautiful Spanish house! However, there have been some things we have had to adjust too...

Last night I was frustrated because I was doing laundry and cooking dinner at the same time and the circuit tripped...AGAIN! This happens all of the time and then I realized that I had the washer, dryer and oven on, which you are probably thinking is no big deal.  Well, here in Spain it is a big deal. So, I had to shut off the washer and dryer until after dinner.  This got me thinking about how many adjustments that we've had to make since moving into our house in Spain. Our house is beautiful and we love it but there are some things that are a little frustrating. For example...Spanish people do not use dryers...they hang dry everything. Our house didn't even have a dryer when we moved in so I guess the circuit breaker isn't used to running a washer and dryer at the same time. I have gotten used to washing a load then drying it before I start another load...but sometimes I forget!

One of the biggest adjustments has been the outlets. Spain is on the 220V system.  Therefore none of our small kitchen appliances, lamps, alarm clocks, night lights, chargers, televisions, etc. fit into the outlets. The base gave us transformers but you can only have so many things plugged into one at the same time. So, when I vacuum I have to make sure nothing else is plugged into the transformer because the vacuum uses a lot of volts. We also only have 3 transformers so there isn't one in every room. Rebecca and Lily don't have transformers so they don't get to use their cute little night lights that match their bedroom sets...we just keep the hall light on now!

The biggest adjustment for us has been the lack of central heat and air conditioning.  Since we live in a beach town the houses were built to only be used in the summer so there is no central heat. Although we live in Southern Spain it does get cold in the winter. Not two feet snow, below freezing cold but it has reached 40 degrees at night, which is cold. Especially because our house is all marble floors. We have radiators in each room that are fueled by gas. You have to make sure to turn them on at least an hour before you would like the room to be warm. We usually only heat the girls' rooms at night and the living room because utilities are so high. Coming from Virginia we were used to central air.  Our house only has two air conditioning units...one in the living room and one in our bedroom. So, on really hot nights in the summer we have slumber parties with the kids!

Pictures of our house coming soon!

Adios!

Barbate, Spain

You can see the village of Barbate in the distance.

Barbate is a small village about an hour drive from where we live.  There is a National Park there called Breña y Marismas de Barbate Natural Park.  There are 22 natural parks in Andalucia and this one is the smallest.  We decided it was a good place to take the kids since the trails weren't super long and the ride wouldn't be too long either.  We found the town of Barbate very easily and once we knew which direction to go in the Park was easy to find too.  We picked a trail that was 7.2 km long and would take us to the village of Caños de Meca but our car was on the Barbate side and we weren't sure if the girls would've survived walking 7.2 km there and back.  Instead we walked about 5km and then turned around. The views of the village, ocean and cliffs were spectacular.  I think we made a good decision to turn around because the wind was really starting to pick up and the sand was blowing.

One of the cliffs.

The girls sleeping/protecting themselves
 from the sand on the way back.

The girls were great on the hike! They rode in the stroller and walked the way there.  The walk must have wore them out because they both slept on the walk back to the car.


After the hike we drove into the village and ate lunch at Casa Oscar, a restaurant located right on the beach.  They served traditional spanish tapas and local dishes.  We ordered a few different tapas to start with, I would definitely recommend the green peppers and we got the chicken kabob for the girls.  They were two euro for a kabob and french fries.  Rebecca ate them up! Barbate is known for their tuna so we ordered tuna stew with rice.  It was very similar to paella except with tuna.  It was delicious and a must try if you ever make it here. Lily loved it and ate two servings!

Because Barbate is only an hour away and the park has a few different trails we can go back here anytime.  Maybe on a Sunday since the park is always open and everything in Spain is closed on Sundays so we don't usually have much to do!

Three Kings Parade

Three Kings Day is just as important as Christmas day in Spain!  Everything, including school is closed.  The night before Three Kings Day there is a parade where the Three Kings lead a procession through the streets throwing candy and treats to the  kids.  The kids in Spain get their presents on Three Kings Day the next morning!

We went to the parade in downtown El Puerto de Santa Maria, about a 5 minute drive from where we live.  We were told before hand to be careful because the candy actually gets pelted at you.  Which turns out is true!  I never thought that I would tell my kids during a parade to cover their head and close their eyes so it wouldn't hurt as much if they got pelted with a piece of hard candy.  The parade consists of a bunch of floats (some Disney related), a live Nativity scene (with lives animals and all) and then the Three Kings.  There are kids on all of the floats pelting hard candy at the viewers...and lots of it.  Once the candy is thrown everyone runs to grab as much as they can.  We didn't come prepared with bags like the locals but it didn't matter, the empty stroller caught enough candy to last awhile...I had to hold Lily to shield her from the candy! Here are a few pictures from the parade.