Christmas in Spain

This was my very first Christmas away from my family.  During the last few years Jonathan and I have usually spent Christmas Eve with my Dad's side of the family in Buffalo and then drive to Westchester Christmas morning to spend Christmas Day with Jonathan's family.  We have been arranging a Christmas dinner the following weekend with my Mom's side of the family.  We have made plans to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our family here.  We were very excited to see the different traditions here and were looking forward to a more relaxed Christmas, without all of the crazy traveling.  Also, my parents separated a few months ago and I was slightly relieved not to be in Buffalo during their first Christmas apart.  Despite my parent's continued close friendship there would no doubt be a strangeness over the holidays with different traditions being made to celebrate the holidays (though I do acknowledge some guilt in leaving my little brother all alone to brave and navigate it all).

The time leading up to Christmas back at home is somewhat exhausting and nauseating (the constant discussion of shopping and Christmas plans, the nausea that comes from 50 too many Christmas cookies being eaten, and the continuous bombardment of Christmas music that starts the day after Halloween).  In Spain Christmas is a religious holiday and Three Kings Day (Jan 6) is more associated with gift giving.  During this last month, the time leading up the holidays, I could hardly discern that it was any different from any other times of the year.  The municipalities put up lights on the lamp posts, reading "Boas Festas" and "Bon Nadal" (Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas respectively in Gallego, the local language spoken here) and you could see a little Christmas tree in the window of about one of every 50 homes you walked by.  Also, in the grocery stores gift baskets, Christmas Candy and desserts, and whole legs of cured ham were displayed.  Other than this, you couldn't really tell it was Christmas. I had to you tube Christmas songs, which when not over consumed, are actually quite lovely to listen to.  Jonathan and I also put up a little tree (about a foot and a half tall) and displayed the Christmas Cards we got in the mail.  Being away from all of the craziness leading up to the holidays (i.e. people literally being trampled for discount televisions) was really nice.  The ability to consume Christmas cheer at my own pace as opposed to having it jammed down my throat was pretty awesome

A few days prior I made Christmas cookie plates and delivered them to all of the family here.  We made traditional cut outs, chocolate shortbread cut outs (mind you I went on a quest to find a cookie cutter but was unsuccessful, so I rolled my dough with an empty wine bottle, made a heart stencil out of cardboard and hand cut every cookie with a knife), shortbread bars spread with strawberry marmalade, peanut butter balls, coconut macaroons, almond Russian snow balls, brownies, and pecan nut brittle.  It was quite a feat.  Everyone seemed to really like them; the dessert culture here is more of cakes than cookies, so I think they liked the foreignness of most of the treats.  All and all it took all evening to deliver them as everyone then invited us in for what grew to be a few bottles of wine and some tapas (including but not limited to: tuna and peppers, mussels, cheese, cured meat, and potato chips).  Needless to say I slept really well that night.  Here are a few pictures of my cookie plates and my darling Booey making his delicious coconut macaroons.

So we were invited to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with everyone here.  In the end, we decided to spend Christmas Eve at Chelo and Gonzalo's house and Christmas Day at Lalo and Aurita's house.  On Christmas Eve dinner is served around 9 or 10pm, so Jonathan and I lounged around the house all day.  I made bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches for lunch and we watched a few episodes of the Sopranos (They have the series at the library here, so I've begun renting them.  We've finished the first season.  It's generally fun and entertaining to watch, but not really anything to write home about.  That therapist should have her license taken away).  Before going over to Chelo's Jonathan and I had a few cocktails together and toasted to all of our future Christmases together.  When we arrived at Chelo's the table was already prepped with all different types of prawns and shrimps (unlike the US where there are just shrimp and prawns, some bigger and some smaller, there are a million different names for all of the different types of "shrimp" here) and the kitchen was full of people helping to prepare the second plate.  Marichelo, Martin and I finished setting the table.

Jonathan and I then sat on the couch with Martin and his brother Angel to watch an episode of "Los Simpson", which is still hilarious even after the translation.  Shortly after everyone was seated to start eating the shrimp.  As in many houses here, the TV was left on during dinner, which absolutely drives me nuts.  The way Chelo's house is arranged, the dining room table is in the living room and the table is right in front of the TV.  So when we were all sitting at the table, half of the table was facing the TV and the other half was sitting right in front of it with their backs to it.  This not only bothers me because I think it's kinda rude to be staring at a TV blankly wile eating instead of sharing company, but also because with the TV right behind my head, it's really hard for me to understand people.  I generally have more difficulty understanding people when there are several conversations going on at once, as there would be at a large family dinner like this, but with the added TV sound it was really hard for me.  Throughout most of the dinner Jonathan and I spoke together, though I did discuss potato picking briefly with Gonzalo, which I've invited myself to help with :). 



The second course was then served, which was Bacalao and cabbage as well as roasted chicken with potatoes.  We then spent a long time together over dessert, coffee, and liquors.  Jonathan made a flan to bring, which everyone seemed to like.  There were huge assortments of chocolates, cakes, and walnuts.  We then hurried home around 1am to video chat with our families.  It was nice to talk to all of them.  Generally here, as expected, there is this foreignness with everything I do, but on days like Christmas it seems much stronger and aches a little.  It felt good to talk to our families, like we were less far away.

On Christmas Day we headed over to Lalo's for lunch.  When we arrived the assortment of shrimp was ready on the table and Aurita was in the kitchen finishing up the second plate (Aurita is an amazing cook.  She and Lalo own a bar below their house.  Aurita used to cook, but now due to medical problems doesn't do it anymore.  Lalo now runs the bar, serving drinks and some simple tapas).  We brought Alba, Lalo and Aurita's granddaughter, their daughter Saleta's daughter a colored pencil set and a drawing tablet, which she seemed to really like (Alba is a great artist.  There are a bunch of her paintings hanging in Lalo's home).  We also brought over "snow in a can", which Jonathan's mother mailed us in our Christmas package.  They all got a kick out of it and Alba sat on the couch and played with it for a while.  We then sat down to enjoy the shrimp.

Shortly after we finished the shrimp, Lalo's daughter left with Alba to visit her ex-husband. Lalo's daughter is currently going through a separation with her husband, something that is not as commonplace here.  After this the kind of pain that this was causing the family was pretty evident in the air.  We then sat with Lalo and Aurita to finish lunch (roasted lamb and chicken with red peppers and potatoes) and spoke about life and marriage.  I think Lalo is a very honorable and wise man.  He has never been on a vacation and has worked as a fisherman for all of his life, starting at age 7.  He told us that life is work and that life is hard and that the most important thing in life is family.  When we began discussing marriage Lalo said that couples need to be good to one an other because in the end, they need to take care of one another.  I enjoyed talking with Aurita and Lalo, especially because I was able to understand what they were saying, unlike the night prior.  But there was this air of sadness at their house that was uncomfortable for me.  As we walked back to our apartment from there I missed my family a lot and wished that I could have been with all of them.  We had phone line and internet problems all day, so we weren't able to call them that evening.  We played cards together and watched some movies.  All of the family here was so very generous in inviting us to celebrate Christmas with them and I sincerely don't know how to even begin thanking them for all of the things that they have done for us since we came.  But in the end, I really missed my family this Christmas.  As we went to bed on Christmas night, cuddled up together under the blankets, I must say that I was pretty relieved for Christmas to be over because I knew I'd feel less far away today.

Red Cross Blunder

So more than 2 months ago I applied to be a Red Cross Volunteer.  There is more about this in previous blog posts, but for the purposes of this post all you need to know is that it is something I'm really excited to do and was told that I would be contacted within 2 weeks to discuss volunteer opportunities for me, and that despite my persistent follow-up I still have not been contacted. 

So yesterday as Jonathan and I are enjoying our after lunch coffee and Christmas cookies the phone rings.  I answer it and it's someone who identifies themselves as a Red Cross representative calling to ask for my "help".  Yes!  It's the Red Cross!!  They have finally called me!!  I then begin waving frantically at Jonathan to get his attention.  So I, getting excited, say of course I would like to help.  She then get's excited and asks me how often I would like to help, once a year, or maybe monthly.  I then, in excellent Spanish mind you, explain that I am living in Spain for a year and that in the US I am a social worker and that I want to help the Red Cross as often as I can because not only is it helping other people, but also a great way for me to practice my Spanish.  Surprised, the woman then says that her daughter is a social worker too, she works with children.  I then explained the various populations I have worked with.  Mind you, as this entire conversation is occurring my jubilation and excitement is building (and I'm already generally an excited person).  I am working diligently in my conjugation of my Spanish verbs, trying to sound as proficient as possible (the wheels they were a turning!).  So I'm thinking I'm doing awesome, that this woman is super impressed with me and I'm going to nab an amazing volunteer opportunity.  So then she says "so if you tell me how much you would like to pledge I can send you a bill in the mail, which you can then take to any bank to pay".  Confused, I ask her to repeat herself.  After she does I say "wait, are you asking me for money?".  She then laughed (laughed!!!) at me and said yes, to help the Red Cross serve those in need.  WHAT?!  She's not the volunteer coordinator at all!  This was a solicitor!!!  She probably thought that I was one of those old ladies who is so lonely that they spend hours talking to solicitors about their grandchildren!  Embarrassed, ashamed, and disappointed I played the passive wife card and said that I would have to talk to my husband about it.  She's going to call back in a few days...but this time I'll be ready for her.

Things I Love About Spain (In No Particular Order)

1.  Pure Unadulterated Booey Time.  Jonathan and I are together literally all day, every day.  It's a pretty amazing opportunity for us to have this time together early in our marriage.  This must be like what it will be like when we're 80 (insert joke about Jonathan being an old curmudgeon trapped in a young person's body here).  

2.   Fresh bread.  Fresh bread is a guaranteed item at every table.  A gorgeous baguette generally costs about .80 Euro.  Amazing.

3.  Vanilla Beans.  Vanilla Beans are amazingly cheap here (.97 Euro for each bean) whereas they cost about $5 in the US.  I use fresh vanilla beans in my baking, as opposed to vanilla extract.  They have such a wonderful, rich flavor.  When you use vanilla beans, you slice them open and scrape out the tiny seeds inside.  We've been putting the empty bean shells (the part you would normally throw out) in our coffee sugar bowl, which gives our sugar a wonderful vanilla flavor.  Definitely a tasty treat in your coffee each morning. 

4. Walking.  Sometimes not having a car and relying on the bus can be a drag (having to organize your day around the bus schedule and not being able to stay in other towns past 10, the latest bus).  But all of the walking I get to do here is pretty amazing.  Almost every day I walk to the grocery store.  And then after that I walk to family's house, walk to the library (of which I am a proud member), take a bus to a neighboring town and walk around and look at stuff, or just plain old leave my apartment and go for a walk.  My legs have become so very nice and shapely :)

5.  Coffee.  You can get a good cup of coffee almost anywhere (bars, restaurants, bus stations).  There is always that experience when you order a cup of coffee at a diner in the US and it's always a toss up as to whether it's a solid drip coffee or whether it's been sitting on the burner for 5+ hours.  They don't serve drip coffee here either.  Everywhere has espresso machines.  I like to order a cage con leche, which is an espresso served with steamed milk added 1:1.  It's like a latte, but stronger - less milk. 

6. Gaseosa.  Drinking during the day is normative (yet another thing I love about Spain).  To ensure that people are able to return to work, they add Gaseosa to their beer or wine.  Gaseosa is basically carbonated sugar water, an amazing invention for light weights like me.  It makes an ordinary drink champagne-like. 

7. Cafe culture.  There are literally cafes on every street corner, and they are never empty.  In a time of severe economic difficulty people are out buying drinks and coffees in cafes.  To go out and have a drink with friends is considered to be less of a luxury as it is in the US, and more of a right granted by a modern standard of living.  When we stayed with family in Vigo we went to cafes with family probably about 2-3 times a day to get a drink.  This is normal life!  There are several different types of cafes, but all of them serve liquor and coffee.  There are the cafes that are more bar-like, more alcohol oriented, but which also serve a good cup of a coffee.  Then there are the bars that are more coffee and pastry oriented.  It's like if you took an amazing pastry shop from the US and then put a full bar and coffee shop in it.  Pretty amazing.  And when you order a coffee, it always comes with a little piece of cake or cookie standard.  When you order an alcoholic drink, it will usually come with a little tapa (olives, cured meat, tortilla).  A cafe con leche or a beer usually run around 1 Euro and a class of wine is usually around 2 Euro. 

8. Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice.  In all of the bars they have these incredible orange juice machines.  amazing.  Although, all of the orange juice in grocery stores is pitiful.  It's like orange juice from those tubes of frozen concentrate, but you accidentally put in too much water. 

9.  Fresh Food.  This is probably one of my favorite things about Spain.  All of the food is produced locally and organically.  When you buy chicken here, they still have small feathers around the feet.  When you buy potatoes, they still are covered with dirt. Food here is much healthier and the people are very connected to the food they eat, so much as to say that wine not made at home, wine from commercial vineyards, is not good for you because it has "chemicals" in it. 

An Update

Before I came to Spain I assumed that being immersed in a Spanish speaking culture would easily facilitate my Spanish skills.  I assumed that I would just naturally pick things up and improve through my daily experiences.  To begin and lay some groundwork I took language classes for the first 2 months, finishing in October when the school closed for the winter.  Since then I have hoped to slowly but surely improve my language skills.  What I have found though is that I am not as immersed as I would like to think.  Jonathan and I speak Spanish together in the mornings before lunch, but then after lunch we speak English together and generally we go places and do things together.  So really my only real immersion experiences are when I run an errand by myself or when we go to have lunch with family (about once or twice a week).  I found that the exposure to the language is much less than I would have anticipated.  To me this was concerning as I then started to think about where my language will be when we go back to the US in August.  Will my language be enough to make myself a better candidate for employment, or will employers just think I went on vacation for a year?  I am absolutely open to continuing with some sort of Spanish instruction once we return to the US to further my skill, but I want to at least be able to function as a bilingual caseworker or something similar.  I do not expect to be able to complete bilingual clinical work upon returning, which is much more dependent on the mastery of the language (i.e. explaining to sex offenders the difference between saying I had sex with a minor and saying I raped a 16 year old girl). 

So this discovery, my perceived lack of progress, was very discouraging. In early November I applied to be a volunteer at the Red Cross in Pontevedra, which by the way, needs a new volunteer coordinator.  From what I understand the organization keeps a folder at the front information desk where they file volunteer applications.  From there the volunteer coordinator reviews the applications and contacts the volunteers to set up an interview to discuss their skills, what they are interested in, etc.  When I completed my application I was told that people are usually contacted between 1-2 weeks.  So in two weeks, after hearing nothing, I returned to the Red Cross to inquire about the status of my application (you've got to love the initiative).  A worker at the front desk found my application in "the folder", which was now one of 3 (when I initially completed it I was the only one).  I was told that she should be calling me any day now.  So I left the Red Cross satisfied and excited to start.  About 2 weeks later I returned to the Red Cross to inquire again.  The worker at the front desk then located my application, which was now one of like 30!  I explained that I had completed it over a month ago and still had not heard anything.  The worker then explained that the applications are responded to as they are received, and that mine is in the middle of the stack so it should probably still be a while.  What?!?!  I explained that when I completed my application I was the only application in the folder (it seems as though there is a flaw in their hi-tech folder system) and asked if there was someone I could call.  I was told that there wasn't (horseshit!) and I needed to wait.  So either the Red Cross is the most unorganized organization ever (which I can't believe as they have some incredible leaders, like my daddy <3) or they don't want me :(.  In an attempt to keep my self esteem in tact I am going to assume that they are unorganized. 

The news about the Red Cross was discouraging.  I took a week off from being motivated and decided that I didn't want to learn Spanish anyways, so who cares.  I am now back on the wagon and feeling motivated.  I have written to the language school inquiring about continuing with Spanish classes twice a week (when the school is closed they offer individual lessons).  I will also stress the importance of not mastering more advanced grammar, but rather mastering more conversational and every day skills.  I have also enrolled in painting classes, which I'm pretty excited about.  The classes are taught in groups of 4-5 for 2 hours twice a week.  So during that time I will be able to use my Spanish while learning a new skill (now that I'm done with my Masters, I need some new hobbies).  Lastly, there is a local restaurant here, where Jonathan and I have become friendly with the manager.  I am considering asking if they need help; I could clean stuff or cut onions or something.  I'm not looking to be paid, but would just love to be able to hang out there, listen to Spanish and be able to learn some good Gallego cooking. 

I am excited about my new plan.  I have found it very difficult to spend a lot of time here in the apartment.  Sometimes when we get several rainy days in a row and I choose not to go out, not even for a walk, I get stir crazy.  I think that having something more of a schedule, events in my week that make me leave the house, will be good for me.  I also find that without some sort of organization to my day, needing to be somewhere at a certain time, I find it difficult yo be productive.  When I have all day to study verb conjugations, I much less likely to do it than when I have 3 hours in between class and bed, which is actually quite interesting.  I don't know.  For me, something about being on a schedule makes me be more in a working groove.  So hopefully these new developments will get me on track.  Wish me luck and patience!!

Vigo

Vigo is the largest city in Galicia, the region of Spain we are living in.  Jonathan and I were invited to stay at Tina's home in Vigo and spend some time in the city, which we obviously took advantage of.  We took a bus into Vigo (45 minutes) last Thursday and spent a week there.

Here are a few street shots of Vigo:

We had a really great time in Vigo with everyone.  Sometimes here in Raxo it gets a little lonely just Jonathan and I.  We do spend time with the family here in Raxo, but that's usually only 1 or 2 lunches each week, so the majority of the time it is just two of us.  It was nice to spend so much time with other people, particularly other people under the age of 50.  One of my best friends here is Chelo, a 65 year old woman.  Rosa invited us over to her home a few evenings to have some drinks and play some games (poker, Parcheesi, and Taboo) and have a few drinks.  Taboo, by the way, is awesome for developing my Spanish skills.  They had some other friends over and Jorge had his brothers over.  We had a lot of fun these nights (I came out of "early retirement" to have some fun with the youth, had forgotten how fun they could be).  The first few days we were there the weather was horrible - cold and rainy.  So we spend most of that time having long lunches with family and hanging out indoors.

Here's a picture of Begnoia and I at her house after lunch:

 Our first major outing was into the commercial district to watch the city turn on the holiday lights.  They decorate the entire city with lights for the holidays and have a little show and ceremony when they turn them all on at once.  This year's show was a dance rendition of Snow White where the prince brake danced and all of the dwarves were on stilts.  We then took a nice long walk through the city to enjoy the lights.  Here are some pictures of the lights:

 
The following day we went with Rosa and Jorge to a mirador that overlooked the city to take some shots of the view.

Later that night we went to an ice cream parlor on the beach with Vicente and Tina to have some coffee.  Here's the view:

The next night we went to this cool Tapas bar that is located in an old mill.  Here's a Grandma Lundberg table shot.  We went with Tina, Vicente and Begonia and their two kids Noel and Mario.

We had a bunch of your classic Galicia Tapas: tortilla, empanada, croquettes (I can now by the way, make all 3 of these :) and chorizo.  This wasn't just any chorizo, it was a flaming chorizo!!  Perfect for us tourist folk!  It is a cured chorizo that is placed above  bed of aguardiente (liquor), which is then set on fire.  You then rotate the chorizo to crisp the outside.

Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night with the flu :(  I spent the next day in bed.

On Wednesday, a national holiday we went Begonia, Vicente, the boys, and Tina to Portugal for the day.  We took an amazing road that winded along the beach.  It was like a mix of Maine and PCH in Cali.  It was definitely awesome.  We stopped along the way at an old monastery.  I climbed all over some rocks at the beach with Tina, Vicente and the boys and collected shells.  Mario gathered a whole series of smooth rocks, which he referred to as his eggs.  I got to go home with two of them :)

We then took a ferry into Portugal and got a bite to eat.  Afterwords we went to this strange place.  It was an old fortress but inside was a street market.  Super weird.  The market was a little too crowded for me, but Jonathan and I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the view and the fortress together.

All and all we had a great time in Vigo, though it felt good to go back to Raxo.  There's nothing like being away for a while and then coming back to your home.  It's strange how this happens.  It took a long time for it not to be my parent's house anymore, for my parent's house to feel not like my home.  It was some several months after Jonathan and I had been living together in Buffalo.  And yet I have only lived here for 3 months and already feel that comfort when I return to our little apartment here.  I felt comforted to return to Raxo from Lisbon last month and was surprised at how quickly Raxo had come to feel like my home. 

Happy Holidays from the Lundberg Maurers!

 

Thought it might be my first Christmas without a tree...that is until I found this baby!  A whole foot of tree for only 6 euro!  They had it in a nice shiny white too, but I opted for the green one.