April - we have our first visitor from the U.S.

I started the following entry on April 23rd and am finishing it today, May 11th:
I can't believe the month of April is almost over! This month has also flown by, especially because we were so busy entertaining our first visitor from California, my niece Jasmine. She's a senior in high school and will be starting college at UCLA in the fall. She had a 2-week Spring Break, so this was a perfect opportunity for her to come see us. She arrived April 3rd and stayed through April 18th. The boys only had the week before Easter off so we took advantage of this time and drove up to Madrid and Toledo at the beginning of the week since we knew we had to be back here in Malaga for the festivities of "Semana Santa" which have a wonderful reputation.

Madrid and Toledo: Since our car only seats 5, we decided this time around that Juan and Pablo would remain in Malaga and I would make the 5 hour drive to Madrid with Jasmine, Esteban and David. We left on Sunday morning to give Jasmine at least a day and a half to recovery from her jet lag before getting on the road again. So nice to be young, she was fresh as a clam, no jet lag. We were so lucky to have perfect spring weather in Madrid- not too cold, not too hot. We parked by the Atocha train station in the late afternoon and walked to El Retiro Park, which is like the Central Park of NYC. It was so nice to have this time with Esteban and David without the usual interruptions and demands of their little brother. There was a sculpture exhibit in the park and tons and tons of people, just strolling, watching the street performers or getting on the pedal boats in the lake.

Ha llegado el Sol! The Sun is Here!

I really have to make it a point to write more often. I enjoy doing it and I want this to serve as a journal of our "happenings" here, be they everyday kind of stuff or special occasions. I'm just so behind that I don't know where to start anymore. Let's see, last week, grandma Carmelina fell in the bathroom and hit her back against the bathtub. Fortunately, she wasn't seriously hurt, but she is having some pain and also difficulty doing some everyday chores. David spent the night over the weekend to help her and we're lending a hand with cooking etc. Being here, we're witnessing more signs of aging that we'd otherwise only hear about. The weather seems to have taken a turn - last Saturday was a "summer" day, tons of people on the beach. Esteban, David and I woke up early and rode our bikes for almost an hour... adjacent to the "Paseo Maritimo" there is a dirt bike path which goes all the way to the city of Malaga. When we got back, we had banana and chocolate chip pancakes (Juan brought our favorite pancake mix from home) and country potatoes with Pepper plant sauce (just like Toasties in P.G!) Esteban is back to riding his bike to school every day and of course on weekends with David. Pablo takes turns between his bike and his scooter.
Also, today was somewhat of an eventful day because David and Pablo rode the school bus to/from school for the first time. Pablo was so excited to ride the bus that he even forgot to give me a goodbye kiss - sniff, sniff. He's proving to be quite the independent little guy, very persistent and strong-willed. Of course, this temperament can be challenging at times but we try to channel his determination in a positive direction. Fortunately he loves to draw and write and he's now writing his name, his brothers' names and "mamá" and "papá", accent included. David has mastered the Spanish grammar rules around "accents" and is a stickler about them so he makes sure Pablo and the rest of us don't miss one.
Also, today Juan rehearsed and recorded with his new band (Moroccan musicians from Granada) called Juan L. Sánchez y el Jardín de la Sultana. I videotaped some of the songs for marketing purposes. They already have 2 concerts scheduled in the end of May and in mid-June. I'll share a link to Juan's new band as soon as I can.

Dia de Andalucia - a day to celebrate the South and all the people in it!

Juan returned from a two-week tour in California and Montana last weekend and today, we took advantage of the sunny weather to go for walk along the beach with a stop afterward at our favorite "churreria/cafeteria" in town. It's a family-owned business: the dad makes the churros in the back and the mom, grown son and daughter deal with the customers. They're a hard-working family- always greet you with a smile and Juan practices his French with the mom and son. The family lived in Paris when the children were growing up so they all speak French fluently and they return to Paris regularly to visit. This particular morning the son shared that Paris has changed so much from when they lived there. I asked him to elaborate and he simply said, "es una selva" (it's a jungle). I guess I wasn't ready to hear what he was saying because I didn't get it until Juan told him "don't say that, I'm going to tell Obama". I don't know if it landed on deaf ears, but I told him he shouldn't say that about other immigrants just like them who are going in search of a better life.

That same morning while going for a walk, I noticed the neo-nazi swastikas graffitied on some walls along the beach, also near Esteban's school. There are many more immigrants here from Eastern Europe, South America, Argentina, in particular, and of course various African countries, than just a few years ago. Some Spanish towns are more adapted to "outsiders". The neighboring town of Nerja for example, has been home to many German and English retirees and vacationers for years. Also, the western coast of Málaga has had a similar history, apparent in the local businesses offering English products, etc. However, our little town of El Rincón de la Victoria is still adapting to the changing population, etc. One of Esteban's classmates told a young lady from Venezuela to go back to where she came from. In California, we've been hearing these remarks for a long time now. Also, the concept of "family" has changed. There are more single parents, divorced parents, grandparents raising children, more mothers working outside the home. The thing I keep in mind is that for every swastika on the wall, I see 2 others crossed out - I feel there are more people open to the changing faces of Andalucia. The schools that Juan has approached are all enthusiastic to the message he has to offer about valuing different languages, cultures and family structures.

On February 28th it was the Day of Andalucia and Pablo and David wore the traditional green and white colors to school. They were also representing the new immigrants from California.

Lots of Birthdays in December/January!

On December 7th we celebrated David's 9th birthday. It fell on a Sunday this year but it was a 3 day weekend with the following Monday off (Dia de la Inmaculada Concepcion). His uncle Pepito and his 2 children, Claudia and Mateo were here from Madrid. The whole family got together for cake at our house and then we all went to the movies to see the new Disney/Pixar movie, Bolt. The very next day we celebrated Ana's birthday, with a few more candles on the cake (she's 2 years older than Juan), but she looks younger. She wanted to make sure we put all 45 candles on her cake. I like that - the older you get, the brighter the cake! She was very excited that we were here to celebrate these special days together. In December was also Natalia's "santo". Here, you also celebrate your saint's namesake, which constitutes more gift-giving. Esteban and David caught on to this real quick. Unfortunately theirs are also in December. San Esteban is December 26th and David went through his calendar until he found his fell on December 29th. We took them both out for Chocolate con Churros for breakfast as our gift. Pablo and David both had Christmas shows at their school. We invited the grandparents, Melina and Pepe to see Pablo sing with his class and David play the recorder. For Juan's birthday, Ana volunteered to stay home with the kids so that Juan and I could go to Granada to see a concert (Carlos Zarate and friends) on the evening of the 20th. He plays flamenco guitar with local Morrocan musicians. We stayed in a great new hotel AH Granada with views of the snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada. Juan connected with the Morrocan musicians and will be playing with them here.
We then celebrated with the family on the 21st with his favorite homemade cake that his mom makes. He got very nice gifts but one was especially nice because it also involved "me". Natalia and Oscar gave us a gift certificate to Nagomi Spa for a hydro-massage. It was my early birthday present too. The gift also included childcare!! But wait, there are MORE birthday celebrations. My mommy-in-law and I share the same b-day on Jan. 7th. It was a nice sunny day so we went for a late morning walk near the beach. We then decided to head out of town for lunch to the nearby rural village called Casabermeja for some traditional country cooking - their speciality, "migas" (fried bread crumbs). We had our own private room with a fireplace (it's chillier inland). Tita Cristina, Oscar, Natalia and Lena all joined us. It was a great birthday!!

Happy New Year!!

It's amazing to me that it's been over two months since last I wrote.  When we first came here, I naively thought I'd have a lot more time to write and read and run, do yoga, etc.   Not so.   I realized raising 3 kids, with homework and extracurricular activities is very time consuming, no matter where you live.  Also, I've been helping Juan get his business off the ground, accompanying him on school concerts, mostly to take pictures so I can help him update his website in Spanish.  So far, he's had extraordinary feedback.  Schools are very open to what he has to offer and I won't say more since I plan to dedicate another short blog entry on that topic.  I've also been busy with a lengthy translation project which I've just completed (it kept me busy for the past two weeks).  It also took me longer because we've had terrible cold, cough and flu bugs go through our house several times over it seems.  What a drag!!!  Poor Pablo hasn't had a dry nose for more than a week since last October.  Now that he's taking his afternoon nap, I'm seizing the opportunity to catch up on the writing.  We've done a lot in the last couple of months and with my memory the way it is, I need to document. 

I started the following post weeks ago but hadn't finished it until now:  We 

said "Adios" to 2008 with a bang,

 literally and figuratively.  Esteban and his cousins presented us with a fireworks show on the beach.  You can read his blog for more details about the firecrackers.  It was a major highlight of the holidays for him.  For us, it was the first time in our family's history, that the whole family got together for a New Year's Eve dinner at my brother-in-law's oceanfront home- there were 20 of us altogether.  My mother-in-law prepared a delicious turkey meal and the rest of us contributed by bringing a large assortment of appetizers.  There was so much food that we had enough left over to sit around the table once more for lunch on New Year's Day.   

But on New Year's Eve, as we all sat around the dinner table with the

 clamor of passing plates and overlapping conversations, I took a moment to take it all in.  The boys were excited to have their cousins visiting from Madrid, my father-in-law was at the head of the table seeing all 5 of his children and all 9 grandchildren sharing a meal and I thought to myself, "this is what it's all about".  Of course, I missed my own extended family and friends and perhaps some of our own family rituals/traditions, but I surrendered to the moment and enjoyed the wine and company.  After dinner, we all sat/stood around the T.V. to wait for the clock tower in Sol in Madrid to strike 12.  MariCarmen had organized 20 small plates with 12 grapes each for the national tradition- with each bell toll, you eat a grape.  Our family has been doing this in California at 3:oopm on Dec. 31st for the past 17 years, with Juan on the phone giving the signal to everyone.  It was nice to finally celebrate this tradition all together.  Pepito, Juan's brother then took his position as DJ for the evening and we all danced until close to 4am.  We slept in until lunchtime the next day, when we were all called 

to the "party house" for leftovers.  We took our traditional New Year's Day family picture on the beach in front of Pepito's house (usually Del Monte Beach in Monterey.)

Christmas Eve was much quieter.   It was just our family with 

Melina, Pepe and Ana.  My mother-in-law is a wonderful cook and she had a variety of appetizers (soup, shrimp, salmon, ham) plus the main dish "solomillo" (pork roast) with a mango chutney sauce - delicious!!!!   Of course there's always room for the traditional Christmas desserts - turrón de chocolate, mantecados and roscos.   We ended the evening with Christmas carols we'd prepared in English and Spanish.  David played the piano, Esteban the trumpet and Juan played the violin.  Pablo played the tambourine and the rest of us sang along.