8 is my lucky number.
Spain is the eighth country I've visited in 2013 so there is no surprise that it continued to impress me.
I felt very lucky because I stayed in a small town called Almoradi with Raquel and her mother. Raquel worked in my class earlier this year but decided to return to Spain a few months back to be with her mother and escape the grey skies of England. I can't blame her for going back there, it's beautiful. Her mother is the sweetest woman in the world and the most energetic 74 year old woman I've ever met. Her name is quite long and she insisted I call her Santa. She spoke no English but still talked to me in Spanish and we understood each other, it´s all in the facial expressions and hand gestures and of course Raquel's translating. To give you an example of their hospitality; as soon as I walked through the door Santa proclaimed I was part of the family and that her house was my house.
I arrived late afternoon on Tuesday so we spent the time checking out
Raquel's home town of Almoradi. It's a small town close to the coast
about 40 mins South of Alicante. She drove me to her favourite beach at
Guardamar and I could see why this was her chosen spot to relax, it's a
lovely spot.
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| Raquel´s house |
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| Guardamar Beach |
We also spent time going to meet her
nieces and nephews. I love kids (no surprises there) but man these were
some cute kids. First we met Eloy (7) and Lydia (4), two very energetic
kids. They knew a little English so could say 'my name is...' and 'how
are you?' but one of the cutest things was when Lydia sung me the
'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' song. I caught it on camera,
adorable!!! I then played with their vet clinic which had loads of
little animals they wanted me to translate for them. Eloy then showed me
his football skills. Raquel had told me a lot about them in England and
showed me many pictures so it was so nice to finally meet them. We left
some very hyped up children and went to call on her other brother and
there I met Paula, a shy 7 year old who showed me her skipping skills.
Seeing all of them made me think of my cousins and I'll admit, I missed
home a bit in that moment.
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| Lydia, Raquel and Eloy |
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A few days prior to my
trip Raquel had sent me through a few links about everyday life in
Spain, in particular their eating patterns. I had a quick browse through
these and when I arrived she told me more about it and that I shouldn't
expect to eat dinner any earlier than 9pm. As you can imagine when 9pm
rolled around I was starving but it was worth the wait because I was
treated to Santa's Spanish omelet and various other foods special to
their area. It was fascinating to watch Santa make the omelet and I got
some tips to help me make it when I get back home. After dinner she
started on a pork and turkey paella for lunch the next day and made me
sit down and take notes (with Raquel translating). I was ready for bed
and they were waiting for their favourite tv show, Master Chef, to start. It
wasn't starting until 10.30, timing is VERY different in Spain!
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| Spanish Omelet! |
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| Santa giving me careful instructions |
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| Paella in the making |
Back
in England I'm having a bit of trouble sleeping and I think it's
because it's getting light so early. Well, the good thing about my room
is Spain is that it has no windows so I can sleep I disturbed by the
light. I think it's designed like that to keep in cooler because it gets
very hot here. So I slept well on my first night and had a lot of
energy for exploring Alicante on Wednesday. We walked to the bus stop to
catch the 11am bus. Raquel had told me how hardly anyone uses public
transport over here because its pretty unreliable and irregular and it
really showed at the bus station because it was dead! There were only 3
people (Raquel and I included) on the 1 hour bus to Alicante. I don't
think our fares would have covered the petrol it would have cost. It was nice
catching the bus because Raquel could point out things and tell me
about the area.
We were met in Alicante by
Edu, Raquel's friend whom she met in England but is originally from
Alicante. He could tell us a lot of things about the city and showed us
some good sites. We went out to one of his favourite spots for lunch and
enjoyed some traditional Spanish rice and soda/wine mix. We ate so much
I really could have done with a siesta! Edu was really funny to listen
to because he had learn English in Dublin. His English was perfect but
it was just funny the things he'd picked up in Dublin. He was also quite
a character because he works as a IT engineer for a London based
company but can work from home and has somehow managed to trick them
into thinking he's still working in London but is actually living in
Spain. He had to leave us for a conference call at 4pm so we wandered
around and got ice cream until our bus home at 7pm.
Thursday was
another hot day so we decided to spend the morning down at the beach, go
home for lunch at 2 and them head to a mall to do spot of shopping and
meet up with my other teaching assistant, Sarah, at about 5. Sarah is
English and her sister bought a house out here earlier in the year so it
was great to be able to catch up with her. We then spent the rest of
the time looking around the shops and I got a few bargains. It was a
lovely afternoon. We got back and had another late dinner and I had the
best sleep I've had in a long time.
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| Guardamar Beach |
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| Paddling in the waves |
Friday was
another scorching day so we spent the morning down the beach again. I
even got in the water this time! We had to get back for lunch at 2 to
have Santa's speciality, seafood paella. Oh wow, I could have eaten that
all day long! Apparently when Paula was eating it she spilt some rice in
the table and ate the rice off the table and said, 'It's just so good I
need to eat it all'. After lunch Santa disappeared and returned with a small rectangular
box and 'madre, madre' and gave me a small gift for my mother.
She'll have to wait until I get home to get that though ;)
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| Santa, Paula and the paella |
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| Nice pic |
I needed a sleep after
all that paella, sunshine and beach. We decided to head into Almoradi
for the afternoon and called in on one of Raquel's friends and had an
iced coffee. We found out that there was a parade/fiesta on that
Raquel's niece, Paula, was going to be involved in so after coffee we
headed to her eldest brother's house and walked with him and Paula to
the sports ground. It was a parade of all of Almoradi's sports teams,
and Paula gave us big waves and smiles as she walked past. I also
happened to see Spain's ex-Volley ball team's captain; Venancio Costa. After his
fame he decided to come back to Almoradi to support local sports team
which I thought was pretty nice of him.
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| The three girls |
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| This is the FIRST photo Raquel's mum has ever taken! |
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| Paula :) |
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| The kid with 17 on his shorts is a future star... With the ladies ;) |
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| Venancio Costa |
As we
got back to Raquel's house her other brother, Mario, arrived with the
lovely Lydia and Eloy and his wife, Christina. We decided to go out for a
few tapas and it was a real family affair because we went to their
uncle's restaurant. Her eldest brother was there with his wife and Paula
and all the kids were running around while the adults were enjoying a
few drinks at the bar. They all practiced some English with me and me a
bit of Spanish with them. I invited them all to New Zealand so maybe one
day we might see some of them or their children.
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| Lydia trying on my jewellery, below is Lydia and I practicing her counting :) |
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| My Spanish family :) |
When
we got back we watched Spain's equivalent of 'The Voice' and I enjoyed
seeing some contestants sing in English or Spanish translations of
English songs. I didn't want to go to bed because I knew when I got up
of have to say goodbye to Santa and Raquel.
It
was a hard goodbye with Santa hugging and kissing me saying 'su casa',
which translates to 'your house' and also saying I'm family. I have
decided that I will definitely be going to back to see her and her
family in years to come. This trip was one of those once in a life time
thing. I will never forget my few days with Raquel and her beautiful family.
Me encanta España X
