It's Halloween in Nambroca

Look at the great Jack o'Lantern we made! It was our first! I'm pretty sure that we're the only people in Nambroca with a Jack o'Lantern.

I'm really trying to whisper to my dog!

Just look at that picture! Isn't it the cutest thing in the world??!!
That's our dog, Tila. (Tila is a type of herbal tea which the online dictionary is translating as lime blossom tea.) She's a year old mutt we adopted on September 10th from the animal shelter in Toledo. And now we have a dog to raise.

About a year and a half ago we discovered "The Dog Whisperer" on TV and we became fascinated with Cesar Millan and his dog techniques. We even found his book, "The Dog Whisperer" in our library in Toledo and read it. I'm currently reading the second one, "The Leader of the Pack." A little bit about the books in a later post, but enough to say that I'm a big fan of his calm, assertive approach to your dog.

And so we adopted Tila and brought her home. We/I followed Cesar's advice as closely as possible. Before even coming near the house, we took her for a long walk. (As long as possible, because the dog had never been on a leash before and was traumatized in more ways than one.) We brought her in, fed her and restricted her only a few rooms of the house. We set clear boundries. (She still won't go near a room that we told her was off limits over a month ago.) I waited 2 or 3 days without giving affection. (Cesar recommends 2 weeks, but recognizes in his book that it may not be possible for some people...people like me.) And so we began our journey.

Our biggest problems were with Tila's timidity and anxiety. For at least three weeks, she wouldn't come anywhere near Jose and just seeing other dogs was enough to make her freak out. Now I'm happy to report that she's really comfortable with Jose and, although still nervous with big dogs, has made a few small dog friends. We're starting now with some basic training, which is proving a little more difficult. It looks so easy on Cesar's show!!

I'm really happy!

I have a new house, a new dog, a new job and it's fall. I'm loving life!

I can't remember being busier in a really long time, but I'm working hard on staying organized and on top of things. I'm spending a lot less time on the internet, but I don't miss it, and a lot more time outside - walking the dog, playing ball, helping Jose with the yard and watering the plants. I'm also spending a lot more time working because the new job means more hours, and although I didn't really want more hours, I'm happy to have the higher paycheck.



And just look at this picture of my dog and husband, enjoying a little run during a weekend walk around the fields near our house. I love it!

Nambroca, here we come!

Our living room in Toledo.


I'm sitting on the floor in the living room of our old flat in Toledo. Jose is sweeping the floor (I already helped clean the rest) while I add this post. We spent last Saturday moving out of this small charming flat where we have spent these last two years and into our new, spacious house in a village about 8 miles away. I can't wait to blog about decorating and buying new furniture, somehow turning our wild backyard into somewhere we can actually enjoy, and life in a village.


We don't have internet yet in the other house, so I'm going to post some pictures and then I'll be offline for a week or two (or three, it depends on how slow the company is).


And the rest of the house: from left to right: kitchen, bedroom (where Jose is walking in), bathroom and at the end of the hallway, outside door. It was a great one bedroom, but we were feeling a bit cramped and wanted a couple more rooms to expand.

So, we moved to Nambroca:I'm not the best empty house picture taker, but here are a few:
The kitchen:The living room:The backyard> full of dried weeds, rocks, chunks of construction cement where the ground is hard as rock!

Another visit to the doctor

Here's how my visit to the gynecologist went yesterday:

Nurse: Hi, how are you? Anything abnormal? Etc, etc.

Me: Nope, everything's fine.

Nurse: Ok, well, you have to wait a few months for the results which will be sent to your house. Oh and by the way, I have two kids who are 11 and 8, and I'm looking for an English teacher for them. They are really cute and nice kids, but I'm worried about sending them in the afternoon, now with this new flu. So, you'd have to pick them up at school and stay with them a few hours, maybe help them with their homework. But they're great, really smart. The oldest one has great grades in English and the little one loves games. What do you think? Would you be interested? Do you know someone else? Here, I'll give you my number and you can call me in September. But it would be fantastic.

Me: Um, ok...I'll let you know.


The strange thing is, this has happened before! I had a doctor be really short with me until the end when he wanted to practice his English for a few minutes. I just feel bad for all the other people waiting in the hallway while the doctors and nurses chat!

The strange people we find

I've always sworn that I have this special attraction for some interesting characters out there. And here's another example involving a used car. What started out as a simple search for a second hand car for me turned into phone-tag, Judge Judy style.

In the Mercadillo de Toledo, a local classifieds newspaper, Jose and I found a car that we were interested in. Our suspicions were raised with the first phone call. The woman who answered told us she would have to call her sister to find out how many kilometers the car had and hung up. We wondered about that until she called us back the next day. After asking if the car was hers to sell, she explained that her sister was using the car on her vacations, and that's why she couldn't answer our question the day before. But the car had 47,000 km. And that she'd call us back when the sister returned from vacation.

The next day she called us again with a different story. She said that she bought the car a few years ago but didn't really use it. She agreed to let her sister use the car as long as she paid the monthly payments. As it turns out, a few months ago the sister lost her job, so she can't pay for the car. BUT, she also can't pay for her flat. So she's trying to sell the flat, and if that sells by the 7th of September, then the car isn't for sale anymore. But if the flat doesn't sell (which, let's face it, what is selling these days), then she'll sell the car really cheaply to us.

It was all sounding a bit strange. We decided not to wait for this particular car with the interesting story and Jose agreed to call the woman to tell her. But when he called, the woman's husband answered the phone. Jose told him that we had been talking to his wife about the car for sale and the husband gave us another explanation. He explained to us that he couldn't really help us because his wife's sister has the car and they have such a bad relationship with the sister that he doesn't even have her phone number. We hung up and haven't looked back!

But the story has a happy ending: we found another car, a Kia Picanto, in Madrid and bought it 2 days ago. One thing more checked off the to-do list!

A hard summer

(This is a repeat post from Here/There)

It's been a hard summer.

At the end of the school year, I knew that I was mentally tense. My mother was visiting, which inevitably added stress, but it was a much looked forward to visit. Things at home were doing fine, my husband the same wonderful as always. Health was great. Money fine. Socially, everything was the same. My problem was at work.

Almost since starting work at this particular place, in September of 2007, I had experienced different levels of frustration. In many senses it was a great place to work: almost zero supervision, good hours, and seemingly laid back and friendly boss and coworkers. I soon discovered, however, that even though the boss didn't tell me what to do or when to do it, he certainly had an idea of what should be done and when. My frustration went from confusion to outright distress over the two years I was there, ultimately culminating in being told that my contract would not be renewed this fall.

Technically, I had not been fired. But I felt ashamed registering my name in the unemployment office. I was very unhappy in that job and often thought about leaving it. Yet, the decision had not been mine, and what's more, it came out of the blue! I felt completely out of control of my life. I didn't get along with my boss, felt that he expected outrageous things from me and rejected any type of communication. And then HE fired me, when obviously he was in the wrong! All the reasons he gave me for the firing were technically true (and none of them were about my work in the classroom as a teacher, in fact he gave me an excellent reference in my new job), but even though I recognized they were true, they were so absurd that I still can't believe I was fired for things so stupid.

Two weeks after the incident I found another job, to start in September. In fact, I turned in my CV on a Thursday and by Friday at noon I was offered the job. I knew that I had a strong CV and I know that I'm a good teacher. But I felt defeated. My husband and I talked about the financial repercussions of me not working during the summer and they were minimal. Our finances are great. But I felt like a useless member of the team. I was extremely depressed. My husband was wondering what in the world was going on.

It's hard in Toledo, where I still don't know many people. And without work, it's hard to keep moving forward, more than anything, emotionally. It kept me stuck for just about all of July. My great husband took me to France for holidays and we've just returned. August isn't very busy, but I'm going to try to move forward in lots of different ways so that emotionally I move forward too. So, I'll be back blogging also. September has lots of great changes that I can't wait to share.

I passed!!!

Yesterday morning at 11 o'clock I took my driving exam. After a nearly ugly incident with the first pedestrian I came across, everything went really well, and at 1 in the afternoon, my fantastic teacher, Miguel Angel called me to say that I passed. Whew. And I didn't even have to park the darn car!

While I am happy and proud of passing, I realized once again that the true achievement here was pyschological. Jose and I were riding in the car yesterday (no, I wasn't driving, I have to wait a couple of weeks to receive my license in the mail), and I commented on how anticlimactic it feels. But then he reminded me how I felt before signing up for the school back in January. I remember how overwhelmed I felt by the process, the time, the money and the language and I really wondered if I could do it. It wasn't done quickly, but the whole process makes me feel even more capable of living here and more like I belong. And that I feel really proud of.

Totals:

Time: from 27 January to 24 April
Theory:
studying in the school: 14 hours in February, 13 hours in March, and approximately 6 hours at home (although it was probably more).
Driving classes: 12 classes at 45 minutes each: 9 hours.
Total: 42 hours

Money:
€180 sign up fee
€85 taxes
€42 medical form
€286 driving classes (12 classes + exam)
Total: €593

Hopefully, I don't have to pay any more money for the processing of the actual card, but since this is Spain, who knows. I'll let you know!

What a week!

1. I have my driving test tomorrow morning at 11. I actually feel really confident about the clutch and changing gears. But, after 8 classes of parking like I've been doing it for 12 years (which I have), I've spent the last 3 classes doing it really badly and having my driving instructor scream at me in Spanish, which doesn't help at all. If I fail tomorrow it will be because I parked in 4 manoevers instead of 3! :o(


2. After finding a house we really liked, in a village we really liked for a price we really liked...and after thinking, planning, spending lots of time with the calculator and the simulator mortgage program online...and after talking to the director of the bank and being pre-approved for the mortgage...we aren't going to buy the house. Turns out there is some really weird stuff going on. For all the details, check out Easy Come, Easy Go...Our first taste of Corruption in Spain.

Step 2: April 24

After Step 1 (the theory test) of my driver's license went so well (100%), I'm hoping for the same luck with Step 2!!! My driving instructor has submitted me to the driving exam next Friday, April 24.

So far, I have done 9 classes of "Practicas", each lasting 45 minutes. It's about as exciting as it sounds, I just drive around for these 45 minutes, waiting for a difficult situation to arise (a hill start, a particularly full roundabout, pedestrians who dart onto crosswalks and the like).

Although I have been a licensed driver in the US for 11 years, I did need a few lessons to learn how to successfully go from point A to B with a manual transmission (and I was really bad...and now not much better). But well, knowing how to drive a manual is just one of those things everyone should know, and now I do.

Anyway, wish me luck!

The Tally:
Time:
27 hours studying for the theory exam in the school
9 driving classes (of 45 minutes each)
* I expect to do 3 or 4 more this week before going to the exam.

Money:
527 euros (sign up, doctor's note, exam fees, and 10 lessons)

Semana Santa - Malaga

This Easter Jose did the planning (as I've been really busy with my private classes and driving school). When I initially heard about the camping trip in Malaga, I can't say that I was very excited. I mean, camping is great and the south of Spain has great weather, but we were in the beginning of April and camping is just asking for rain and freezing nights. After a bit of grumbling on my part, we set off with everything but the kitchen sink in our Dacia. And...

It was great!

The weather was excellent; much better than I had expected. The blanket/ air matress/ flannel sheets/ down comforter combination worked wonders and we even bought a little camping gas set so we could have hot coffee in the mornings (there's nothing worse than smelling the other campers hot coffee as you wash down some cold croissants with juice). We spent our days (2 for travelling and 3 for sightseeing) wandering through the mountain villages of Malaga, really enjoying the historic white-washed clusters of houses on mountain sides. Loved it.

Our trip was really great because of two things:
1. We employed the foreigner campsite rule. This states that when camping, put your tent as far into foreign territory as possible (the south of Spain is overrun with British, Dutch and French people) and as far away from other Spanish people! This greatly increases the number of hours you sleep, as Spanish people stay awake much later, are a great deal louder and basically a pain in the ass.

2. Our 5 day vacation to Malaga only cost us 200 euros! This includes gas, campsite fare and all food. Our car consumes nothing! And while we don't starve, we normally eat pretty boring things while traveling. This was a great way to have a really fun vacation without the guilt of not saving for the house!

The Book Addiction!

I now buy and sell second hand books in English!!

For the list of books I currently have available, click on "My Library" in the box under my profile picture. That will take you to a website where all the books for sale are listed. Be sure to check back periodically, as the list will change every time a book comes in or goes out.

**Great prices** All the books for sale are 5 euros. I buy books in good condition for 2 euros.

**The best way to leave behind books you don't want to stuff in your suitcase and get new reading material for trips**

In the Toledo area only

You can contact me using the email address located in my profile.

Step 1: March 23

I know I've been completely absent for over a month now, but things have been really hectic. More than half of my life has been put on hold as I am preparing for my driving exam. I left last time with the news that I accepted a private student in the morning to help pay for the exam. Although the classes aren't hard to prepare for and the student is fairly fun, I spend Monday through Thursday noticeably stressed and impatient, due to my very busy schedule.

Today is a holiday, so I'm taking advantage of the respite during the week to get some stuff done. Including this post!

Monday, March 23rd I will have my theory test!! I've been doing really well in the autoescuela with the practice tests, and I feel prepared.

To present myself for the exam I had to turn in:
2 photos
a copy of my Spanish ID
a medical form (more on that below)
85 euros (taxes)

The medical form: Last Friday I went to a "medical office" in front of the bullring that specializes in forms for driver's licenses and gun permits. I went, they made some pictures (because I wasn't told I had to take them, conveniently for them) and I had to wait. Some time later, they tested my sight (with a different eye chart than what we use), hearing, and reflexes? I had to turn handles (one for each hand) on a machine to keep two moving balls inside different tracks that beeped every time one of the balls left the track. ????? After 30 minutes of waiting, and maybe 5 having all these things checked I got my certificate of "good health" for 42 euros! Highway robbery! Then, they proceeded to load up the counter with free stuff. I mean, charge me less and don't give me all this crap! (Picture)

Tally:

Time:
14 hours in the driving school practicing tests (February)
13 hours in the driving school practicing tests (March)
6 hours at home studying
Total: 33 hours

Money:
180 euros: sign up fee at the school
42 euros: medical form
85 euros: test taxes
Total: 307 euros

WISH ME LUCK!

Still hanging in there...

I've been absent for a few weeks, caught up with being busier than normal with the driving classes. They're going well...I've now spent three full weeks studying like crazy. So far I'm doing dreadfully on the questions about the mechanics of the car (which I answer using common sense, since I tried reading the chapter on mechanics and couldn't make anything stick in my brain!) and most of the questions about first aid (also, answering with common sense).

My favorite question so far is: (translated losely from the Spanish, answers in Spanish since I have no idea the English translation, so, if I look them up, it looses the affect.)
If someone is bleeding profusely from the neck area, on which artery do you apply pressure with two fingers?

A. La Carotida
B. La Humeral
C. La Subclavia

Do you know??
But apart from not knowing the answer, I have a problem with the question. Why in the world do they ask that? Ok, so now that I studied the answer (to remember in case it comes up again), does it actually help me in the case I come across someone bleeding from the neck? I can just see it, I run to the bleeder, hold up two fingers, ready to apply pressure, and I know exactly which artery to apply pressure...but where is it? Wouldn't it be better to include a picture?

Anyway, I'm hanging in there and it's going surprisingly better than I thought it would. I recently agreed to teach an extra class in the morning, to pay for all this, so on one hand I'm relieved, but on the other I'm exhausted just thinking about my weekly schedule!
Have a great week!

My Journey to Driving Legally in Spain

If you read my other blog, Being Here and There, then you know I signed up for driving school last week. (Take a look over there for the reasons why I signed up and how this makes my life suck.) I've decided to chart my progress here and save the other blog for the big steps and interesting cultural moments that are sure to interest those who read the blog for the insight of my life in Spain. :o)


So, let's get to the charting.


Time
My goal is to be a legal driver in Spain before the start of Semana Santa (Easter holidays), which start for me on Saturday, April 11. That gives me 70 days.

I hope to pass the theory test in February, then take about two weeks to pass the driving test. Following the plan, that puts me in the middle of March, three weeks before Semana Santa.

Money
The average cost of getting a driver's license is €1,000. I hope to not pass the average (although doing it in less would be great, too).


So Far...
I signed up on Tuesday and paid €180 (sign up fee and books). It took me about 20 minutes.
Since then I've spent about 5.5 hours studying this week.

You never know what you've got til it's gone! :o(

About a month and a half ago our French neighbor slipped out of our lives in the dead of night. Now we miss him dreadfully.

Actually, we don't know when he moved out...he didn't say goodbye...but we do miss him dreadfully. We never really knew how paper thin our walls were (he must have never watched TV or listened to music), although Jose swore he heard him fart a couple of times when we were all going to bed.

Now we've got the loudest neighbors born in Spain! (Foreign neighbors tend to be hard of hearing, playing loud music ALL the time.) These are true Spaniards, they talk loudly, they scream through the house, they laugh loudly, they all talk at the same time and they are very social. In the week and a half they have lived next to us, they have had 3 different visiting couples over to stay. Yesterday evening was particularly nice as they were all singing karaoke (we assumed), left to go out after we went to bed and came back at 7 am, still singing.

The silver lining in this earplug inducing cloud is that Jose is more and more happy to look for a house (and not an apartment). Let's see how long we hold out before we're banging on the walls and writing obscene messages on their door.

Keeping Up with Los Garcia

I'm not sure what the Spanish equivalent is to the expression "Keeping up with the Joneses", but there has to be one. Even without knowing the people on the street, common sense tells you that there is no way so many people are as rich as they live.

You see it everywhere. BMWs, Audis, Mercedes cars everywhere you look (from what I gather, they are a little cheaper here than in the US, but still!). The latest styles on every woman. Lots and lots of skiing vacations for the school children. Wildly expensive houses. Weekly proof! One of Jose and my favorite TV programs (we only watch 3) is Ajuste de Cuentas. Every week the presenter goes to a different family's house and helps them sort out their financial mess. The only bad thing about the show is that it's more or less the same every week. Families that lived like kings and queens for years and now find themselves with loads of debts, maybe multiple houses (because of buying one before the other sold), and crazy spending habits.

It's a familiar tale, I know. Millions of Americans spend beyond their means and have a scary amount of credit card debt. But in Spain I see it a little different. In the US it's a problem easy to ignore, since you never know someone's salary or earning potential. Because everyone has debt it's become acceptable. Everyone is believed to have the ability to work a little harder to earn more money to buy anything what they want. I know it doesn't work this way in real life, but that's what we're led to believe.
In Spain, however, I know that the average monthly salary is less than 1,000 euros. And I know that it's almost impossible to buy a house for less than 150,000 euros (and that's not a bad price!). So where are these people getting the money to eat out all the time, buy lots of clothes, afford a mortgage on that house, buy new cars and go out to drink with their friends once or twice a week? That's what I don't understand.

You get the feeling like people know something you don't (like the exact location of a money tree). And at times it's hard: to stay at home,to buy the car we can afford, to spend what we've budgeted to spend, to save like crazy people. But sometimes it's great, especially when we can afford fun trips. We're about to make one of the most important financial decisions of our life, buying a house. It's a decision we've already spent lots of time thinking about, and Jose has already made multiple spreadsheets to show all our options. Knowing that this one decision will affect the rest of our lives (in this case, financially speaking), it's not something that we're taking lightly, yet it's strange and a little hard to look at it so differently than so many people, Spanish and otherwise.

Get ready for lots of posts!

We started the Cheese!

January 10: We cut the cheese.

By "the cheese", I'm referring to my 3 kilo, bigger than my niece when she was born, cheese I received for Christmas in my basket. It's a lovely Machego sheep's milk cheese. Last year I received a similar one and we were munching until the beginning of April (3 kilos is a lot for only 2 people! and we're not particularly cheese fanatics.

Let's see how long this one lasts!

It happened on the first day!

Today Jose and I had an appointment to look at a house!! It was our first and we had mixed emotions as we drove out to Almonacid (a village near Toledo). We had found the advertisement on a website and were pretty sure that it wasn't exactly what we were looking for, although it fit in our budget. We went out and saw it (and we were right, we didn't like it) in order to start somewhere.

As we were driving home, we decided to go through another village. Right when we pulled in we saw a new subdivision with a show house (they build 50 exact copies of the same house and call it a subdivision in Spain) that was open. We decided to stop, just for the heck of it.

(A few months ago I read _The Courage to be Rich_ by Suze Orman. One of my favorite chapters was about everything house related: buying, mortgages, etc. I read it especially well because I knew Jose and I would be in that situation soon. One of the first points in the chapter was a warning. It started in a story format, something like this.

You go to the real estate agent's office and tell them about what you have in mind, bedrooms and cost and all that. Right away the real estate agent takes you to a fantastic house that costs (a little or a lot, doesn't matter) more than you wanted to pay. You say no way, but that fantastic house has now infiltrated your brain...and suddenly you're imagining yourself living in that fantastic house...and now you're thinking about how you can possibly afford that fantastic house, stretch to meet the mortgage payments, how it will be worth it in the long run...........)

And it's happened!! On the first day! The second house we saw was really nice (and they had cleverly decorated it with fantastic, modern furniture to make it oh so inhabitable)! Lots lots better than the first...and only 20,000 euros more than our budget. And now I'm thinking about the house, imagining myself lounging on the upstairs balcony off the master bedroom, watching the sunset from the back porch, etc. Darn uplanned stops!!!

Am trying to remain strong and discourage any of this behavior in Jose!

Online writing update

It's the beginning of January, and I thought about writing a small update on how the online writing is going.

I fell short of my December goal of 25 articles, and only got to the 15 mark. I'm still happy to report that I made almost $4 with those articles. Since January began, however, I have made over $1 - that puts me with a total of over $5!!!

With less to do and less travel this month, my January goal is to reach 30 articles and hopefully the $10, and first payout, mark.

I'm also seriously thinking about starting a today.com blog, if I can work out how to avoid the system thinking I live in Spain. Is there time for that? We'll see.

Funny Portugal Story

My husband loves coffee. And he's Spanish. Which means that he can only drink coffee with lots of milk, in the manner of a proper cafe con leche. If we happen to be in a different country, or on an airplane, he always orders coffee, not even with a moment's hesitation with the fact that the coffee might not taste the same, or have the same amount of coffee grounds, water, milk combination. And it's surprising...every time.

So we're in Lisbon, where we noticed very quickly that the coffee was quite strong, and very badly proportioned with the amount of milk. That doesn't stop us from ordering the coffee that was included with our lunch "menu". The nice lady brings us tiny cups of only coffee to the table. Jose pours in his two packets of sugar (hardly dissolving in so little liquid) and dutifully tries to drink it. He doesn't get down more than the tiniest of sips before sputtering. I don't even try.

He calls over the waitress. Can you bring us some milk please? Milk? she asks. Yes. A bit of milk. So over she comes with a tiny cup full of milk (confused, I'm sure). So, here we are at the table with two full cups (albeit, tiny ones) of coffee and one more, full of milk. No help.

He calls over the waitress, again. Can you bring us another cup? An empty cup? she asks. Yes. She brings another tiny cup over (now very confused, I'm certain). He manages to mix a bit of milk with a bit of coffee in one tiny cup and in another a little more for me. We manage to drink half a tiny cup of coffee, among the 4 cups and stained table cloth before discreetly asking for the check and high tailing it out of there in embarrassment.