Espana

Sunny southern Spain proved untrue to to its reputation. Exiting the plane in Malaga, we were greeted with not only rain, but a torrential hurricane. So much for a winter break from bleak UK weather... but the weather broke after we high-tailed it out of there and headed Northwest towards Cadiz, hence the rainbow. This of course after we were drenched to the skin during a stop in a small town for a meal and the bank. Soaked through, but in good spirits, maintaining optimism, hysterically laughing, so life was good.
Cadiz turned out to be lovely, once we passed the industrial outskirts, and everything seemed to fall into place for Barbara and me while finding a room for the night, a fantastic tapas bar for dinner, and best yet, no rain. We walked through the city streets with the locals, on this night just following Christmas, the 26th, filled with beautiful lights and shops open to the public. All very festive.



















The next day, we decided to indulge my whim to head into Portugal, a country I'd never visited, but found that it was definitely the wrong time of year for this. Barbara said it reminded her of the National Lampoon Holiday trip to the Grand Canyon - snap a photo and leave! Made it to the coast, again were lucky to find a great little guest house (the only reservations we'd made ahead were for Sevilla during New Year's Eve) and a delicious fish dinner. Also met a friendly and helpful bar owner, originally from the Netherlands, a former golf pro, who steered us in the right directions. We also discovered port!



From our one night in Portugal, we took the long, rainy drive, stopping along the way at some truly picturesque towns, to Cordoba, our next destination. I made a two-night reservation over the phone and after getting hopelessly lost in the rain again, circling around several times, we found a taxi driver kind enough to lead us to our hotel, right in the midst of the city, a maze of one-way streets with columns blocking entrance to many of them, including our street. He seemed to have the magic password and we finally made it, parked and vowed not to enter the car again until it was time to leave Cordoba. Did I mention that we'd rented a car? Barbara did the driving (I was worried that I'd really get confused now that i was used to UK left-side driving) and I navigated, including running out into the rain for directions. Anyway, Cordoba was beautiful. We were right next to the Mezquita, an incredible former mosque, turned cathedral. It was amazing...
We also actually had some nice weather - it seemed to be quite polite, the rain and lack of it taking turns. So we walked the streets, ate, drank Rioja and port, spoke with locals who were very friendly, found a wonderful museum with art by a local artist, Julio Romero de Torres, and generally enjoyed ourselves, despite the fickle weather.





































Back on the road, with the spectacular views, and on to Sevilla, the largest city of our journey. I managed to get us to our hotel, I honestly cannot say how, definitely involved some luck, and we took off for a great lunch.














No rain! Two days of walking in the city, down meandering alleyways, big city streets, a multitude of plazas. Visited the magnificent cathedral, always a big attraction, saw flamenco, a must on both of our lists, and just explored. Barbara and I both have similar traveling styles - wing it, see what happens, go with the flow, so it worked.
Afternoons of olives and vino tinto, it was lovely.
















New Year's Eve. Winging it didn't work quite as well when it came to dinner, but we managed. We found a restaurant, but without a reservation we had to sit outside, without heat lamps. Did I mention that it was quite cold in sunny southern Spain while we were there? We ate our mediocre meal, aided by a bottle of Rioja, and headed to the Plaza Nueva close to midnight, with our twelve grapes each in hand.
Let me explain: starting at the first stroke of midnight you are supposed to down all twelve grapes before the last stroke and you will have good luck for the year. Of course, what we didn't know beforehand was that most people purchased little cans of "12 uvas de la suerte", pitted, peeled, and very little to help them go down easily. There we were crunching seeds, almost choking on our large green grapes, but we did it! So, luck, I'm ready...












After two days in Sevilla, wishing that we could stay longer, we were on the road again to Ronda, our last stop on our trip. Gorgeous, with the best weather we'd had the entire trip - we actually were able to take off our jackets! Again, we lucked out with our accommodations. The views, as you can see, were incredible. The town was set up in the mountains, with a small river running below, separating sections of Ronda, joined by an ancient high bridge. We, again, wandered, met some really nice people on our way, ate tapas and more tapas, stopped for a vino on the terrace overlooking this amazing view, basking in the sun. It was interesting, and I must admit, I was happy about this, but we met very few Americans during our travels. I know that I'm a tourist, but...


















Now, I want to see more. I'm never sated when I travel. There's always more, always another place that I want to experience.
I'm going to concentrate more on the UK while I can, but I'm already thinking about Barcelona in April. Then, there's May and July...

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving. The holiday that I love most, that most epitomizes American traditions, embracing family and friends, and being grateful. I wanted to share this with both my new friends here and my students, my school.

Three projects. First, dinner itself, which had to be held on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving Day. Lots of preparations, starting with recipes and then shopping for the most authentic ingredients I could find to truly create "The Meal". Turkey, stuffing, gravy, of course, Mom's recipes, adapted. My cranberry sauce, made for years for my family. Mashed sweet potatoes, a new recipe, (just couldn't go the marshmallow route, no matter how traditional - not mine!) and green beans, an upscale version from my sister. Pumpkin pie AND Wayrm apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. Surprisingly, most ingredients were fairly easy to find, being part of the typical British Christmas dinner - even fresh cranberries, although quite expensive, more than 3 pounds per bag! The most challenging aspects were making my own bread cubes for the stuffing, fried onion rings for the green beans, and the hardest, pumpkin! I had three people or so searching everywhere for canned pureed pumpkin, finally found by Maja. Also, cooking the meal by myself was different. I'm used to company.
All went well, though, aside from the fact that several of the invitees had to cancel at the last minute due to illness, so, lots of leftovers, which was not too great a hardship! Sent some home with the guests, too, part of the Thanksgiving tradition. Maja's husband, Steven, got to hold court as the only man, but seemed to survive the task. We all had a really lovely evening. It was the first Thanksgiving for everyone else and they all seemed to like the premise of a day of thanks, of spending special time with friends and family, eating wonderful food. No football afterwards...
I hope to think that it might even start a new tradition here, a day of giving thanks.








Thanksgiving for my students, somehow squeezed into the spaces between our regular curriculum. I managed to connect it to their Tudor studies and the novel we were reading, taking place at around the same time that the Mayflower landed at Plymouth! We read books, watched online videos, drew pictures, compared Native Americans and Pilgrims, did word searches and crosswords, and culminated it all with an assembly for the school. The kids performed a skit, which I ended up writing, about the first Thanksgiving and how the holiday has evolved. It was great. Every kid had a part, even if it was just one line. It was so gratifying, watching my students teach the rest of the school about a tradition that is so integral to American culture and history.
With such a diverse class, it really represented to me the encompassing inclusion of the holiday. All of the other students in school wrote about something for which they were grateful, and a selection of these were read during the assembly. It was very moving...
Hammad, as Abraham Lincoln, and Osama, Elin and Calum, as Governor, Squanto and Massasoit, were stars. Everyone's performance made me beam with pride.
















Then, the pumpkin pies. Found frozen, rolled-out pie crust. The pie pans do not exist as we know them, but are tart pans, so that's what we had. Flexibility, adaptability is the name of the game. Also had some trouble finding ground cloves and molasses, but treacle worked.
I had decided that the staff would experience pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day, even if it was a work day. After the assembly, we'd all have a taste.
Wednesday night was spent baking, something I used to do a lot of, but not recently. Fortunately, all went smoothly and I went to bed with five pungent, delicious-looking, large pie/tarts awaiting transport in the morning. It was the first time they had tasted sweet, rather than savory, pumpkin, so many were quite surprised by the taste, but pleasantly. I saved one for my students to taste, too. Culture clash, several were fasting for Eid, which was the next day, so their portion was wrapped up for tasting at home after the fast. Most of the kids seemed to really like it, although I did see a few slipped into the bin surreptitiously. Hammad's mother later came to me asking for the recipe, so I was quite pleased.

All in all, a success!