After the xmas party, I had a fairly quiet weekend. My girls left town one by one and then on Tuesday I went to Cordoba to meet my friend (and co-worker) Marta. Marta and I were set for a road trip adventure. She is a fairly new driver and this was her first trip taking a brand new route that she wasn’t certain of. Neither one of us cared; we had each other and were excited to get to her grandma’s house. The plan was to go to Zalamea (pronounced Tha-la-MAY-ah) in the province of Extremadura. I had never been there before and always love seeing new parts of Spain. I was very nervous to meet her family, though. They were being so great for taking me in for the holidays, especially when they had never met me before.
I had nothing to worry about! I first met her grandma. Her name is Tini, but everyone calls her Abuelita which is like saying Gram, Granny, or one of the other variations we have. Marta’s Aunt Cristina was also there to welcome us. The four of us had lunch and then we took a little siesta. A couple hours later, the rest of the family arrived; Luis Sr., Maria Jose, and Luis Jr. Meeting all of these people would have been enough to keep me busy, but I had just gotten started. Down the block lives her grandpa from the other side of the family. At his house, there was Abu (another nickname for a grandparent), Marta’s 5 aunts and uncles with their spouses, and a handful of cousins. After about 5 minutes my brain was on overload and stayed that way for 2 weeks! Haha.
We stayed in Zalamea for about 5 days. It is a very small pueblo (village/town) where everyone knows everyone. Every time we went out I met more family friends. We were constantly going out for coffee, a beer, or visiting with the family at Abu’s house. I ate so well! There was always something to pick at. We had many different pork dishes, quiche, shrimp, fish soup, tortilla, paella, seafood salad, and much, much more.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Part 1 of much more to come: Christmas in Spain
I have so much to share. I’m going to try to break it down into chewable parts! So, take your time and enjoy.
So Thursday, the 18th of Dec, I went back to school for my last day of work for 3 weeks! I spent a couple of hours working on a project with one of the teachers, but then just sat around chatting. No teachers had more than a couple of students, if any, so they just put on movies and came back to the teachers’ lounge. At this point, they pulled out little plastic cups and a couple bottles of Anis, liquor that is popular around the holidays. Whoa. The principal didn’t even say boo! It is technically against the rules to drink in schools in Spain, but it is a stronger tradition to break out the Anis at this time of year. By the time I sat down at the table they were all telling stories and laughing.
A couple of hours later began the Christmas dinner and party. The last of the teachers got out of school at 2:30 and everyone met up at Hotel Carmen. It is the new, fancy hotel in town. We were seated in a cave-like banquet room. There were 23 of us there. I am happy to say there was only two names I was unsure of.
The food was fantastic. For appetizers we had a few types of ham* with cheese, olives, a couple types of sausage, fried eggplant with honey, and stuffed portabella mushrooms. (*Disclaimer- I have written ham, but this truly doesn’t do it justice. In Spain there are a ton of different types of meat from a pig that are eaten regularly and they are all very distinct and unique in flavor. But in the States we don’t usually distinguish all of these types in such detail and I want you understand what I am talking about. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that we ate an array of specialty ham and nothing resembling what you would find in a Lunchable!) By this time, I really would have been content without eating anymore food, but the main course was yet to come. We had the option of fish, shrimp and lobster stuffed eggplant, and two pork dishes. I, of course, went for the seafood. And this wasn’t all! For dessert we were served a light, fluffy something with a base of what looked like ladyfingers. One word: Yummmmmm. And then of course we had coffee because no meal would be complete without that.
This all took place over the course of about three hours. It was so much fun. Everyone was just chatting away and laughing the whole time. They were good in including me in on the conversation. It is difficult for me to understand Spaniards when they are in a group because they speak faster and use more slang and common terminology. I’m so happy I was able to go because it didn’t stop there. The hotel set up a tent outside and when we were done eating we joined another school for about 4 hours of dancing! I couldn’t dance to most of it. At first they played a lot of traditional music with Flamenco or Sevillana moves that I don’t know. But, as time went on, they started playing a little of everything. Everyone danced together and they even did a couple of conga lines.
Around 10 or 11pm, a group of the teachers moved to the dance club at Etiqueta Negra, which opened its doors that night just for all of the teachers in town that were having their xmas parties. I’m just glad I didn’t have to work like everyone else did on Friday because we sure didn’t get much sleep. I stayed at Frieda’s that night and slept in until she got home for lunch. Lucky duck.
So Thursday, the 18th of Dec, I went back to school for my last day of work for 3 weeks! I spent a couple of hours working on a project with one of the teachers, but then just sat around chatting. No teachers had more than a couple of students, if any, so they just put on movies and came back to the teachers’ lounge. At this point, they pulled out little plastic cups and a couple bottles of Anis, liquor that is popular around the holidays. Whoa. The principal didn’t even say boo! It is technically against the rules to drink in schools in Spain, but it is a stronger tradition to break out the Anis at this time of year. By the time I sat down at the table they were all telling stories and laughing.
A couple of hours later began the Christmas dinner and party. The last of the teachers got out of school at 2:30 and everyone met up at Hotel Carmen. It is the new, fancy hotel in town. We were seated in a cave-like banquet room. There were 23 of us there. I am happy to say there was only two names I was unsure of.
The food was fantastic. For appetizers we had a few types of ham* with cheese, olives, a couple types of sausage, fried eggplant with honey, and stuffed portabella mushrooms. (*Disclaimer- I have written ham, but this truly doesn’t do it justice. In Spain there are a ton of different types of meat from a pig that are eaten regularly and they are all very distinct and unique in flavor. But in the States we don’t usually distinguish all of these types in such detail and I want you understand what I am talking about. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that we ate an array of specialty ham and nothing resembling what you would find in a Lunchable!) By this time, I really would have been content without eating anymore food, but the main course was yet to come. We had the option of fish, shrimp and lobster stuffed eggplant, and two pork dishes. I, of course, went for the seafood. And this wasn’t all! For dessert we were served a light, fluffy something with a base of what looked like ladyfingers. One word: Yummmmmm. And then of course we had coffee because no meal would be complete without that.
This all took place over the course of about three hours. It was so much fun. Everyone was just chatting away and laughing the whole time. They were good in including me in on the conversation. It is difficult for me to understand Spaniards when they are in a group because they speak faster and use more slang and common terminology. I’m so happy I was able to go because it didn’t stop there. The hotel set up a tent outside and when we were done eating we joined another school for about 4 hours of dancing! I couldn’t dance to most of it. At first they played a lot of traditional music with Flamenco or Sevillana moves that I don’t know. But, as time went on, they started playing a little of everything. Everyone danced together and they even did a couple of conga lines.
Around 10 or 11pm, a group of the teachers moved to the dance club at Etiqueta Negra, which opened its doors that night just for all of the teachers in town that were having their xmas parties. I’m just glad I didn’t have to work like everyone else did on Friday because we sure didn’t get much sleep. I stayed at Frieda’s that night and slept in until she got home for lunch. Lucky duck.
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