A Day in the Life

Yes, they take selfies in Spain, too.  These are Nick's next door neighbors in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain.  We met them while we were visiting last month when Imma and Luis invited us over for coffee. Our little coffee hour turned into about a three hour BFF event.  And we don't speak Spanish and they don't speak English so go figure that one out...Nick was the middle man.  

Nick had been practicing his Spanish for about three months and visits a tutor twice a week since he moved to Spain so he is getting pretty good.  "What did he say, Nick?"  "What did she say, Nick?"  Nick, tell her that.....".  Nick, Nick, Nick....Poor Nick but it was really good practice for him and we all actually seemed to understand each other.  We all had translators on our smart phones so we would try that but honestly, it was just easier to communicate via Nick and that's what we mainly did.   Imma served us some pudding cake that was quite yummy with our coffee in their home that they have lived in for 40 years.  

                              

I loved looking at all their stuff and they had a lot of stuff.  This was a real Spanish home, for sure. They have five grown children and several grandchildren who come visit often with lots of photos scattered throughout their home.  And they were more than happy to show us all their family photos and explain everything.  One of their sons ran a triathlon in San Francisco and placed!  There was a professional photo of him with his medal.  Since we have left, Nick has been over there and even spoke to that son on the phone when he called.  He said it was funny how Imma told the son that Nick was there and immediately handed the phone to Nick.  He said he didn't know what to say but the son spoke pretty good English so they had a nice conversation.  Luis and Imma also have a pool in their backyard just like Nick does, as do most people in his neighborhood.  Nick says he can hear the grandkids playing in the pool when they come over. A couple of the grandkids are Keaton and Hana's ages so we are hoping they make friends with them.  Luis and Imma seem like the perfect grandparents and we feel happy that they live next door to Nick.  Nick had often seen them working outside in their yard so he wrote a little letter to them in Spanish to introduce himself.  Luis said he was very impressed with Nick's letter and he told us that he could tell Nick was a very intelligent and genuine person from his letter.  That led to an instant bond so then they were eager to meet us, too. 

  

As I was helping take dishes into the kitchen, I was shocked to see their personal jamón sitting right on their kitchen table. 

Jamon is a type of dry-cured ham that is really popular in Spain.  It is like the equivalent to prosciutto in Italy.  It is from specially raised black Iberian pigs that are only fed acorns and is considered a Spainish delicacy.  People in Spain will eat it on a daily basis as part of their tapas. We had been eating it at Nick's house that he bought at the store in pre-sliced pieces or you can buy it like a log similar to summer sausage.  We had seen it in butcher shops and restaurants with the whole leg of the pig hanging up and then sliced as needed.  But I had never seen it in someone home - the whole leg! It was a little shocking to see.

I immediately yelled "Bruce, Nick come in here, quick! OMG!"  I don't know what they must of thought but they immediately came to the kitchen and we all just stood there staring at the jamon.  I'm sure Imma and Luis never thought entertaining us would be so easy. What a perfect photo op!  

                 

They told us that they will eat this in about two weeks with the help of the grandkids when they come over.  They just slice little bits off whenever they want some.  So, of course, Luis had to slice some off for us; more entertainment.  See what easy guests we were?

Imma immediately got some crackers out of the pantry to go with the jamon.

Apparently, this meat does not need refrigeration because it is aged for over a year and cured in salt.  They just store it on the kitchen table with a kitchen towel over it.  I feel a little uneasy about this, it just seems sort of unsanitary to me but this is their culture and people don’t get sick from eating it.  So, this was our visit with a typical Spanish household and we all vowed to improve our language skills so we will be able to communicate better next time we come to visit.  We are looking forward to seeing them again, as they are us. 

Since Nick lives in Spain now for his job (the rest of the family is still in Japan until next month visiting family there) our main agenda for this trip was to get to know what life was like for Nick living there.  The only big tourist places we went to were Seville and Paris.  We also saw the Rock of Gibraltar but we did not go into Gibraltar on this visit, which is British.  But that is definitely a tourist destination, too, where we plan to visit on another trip. 

The day before our visit with the neighbors, we took a walking tour of the town of Jerez and totally enjoyed our guide for the day. 

                     

She spoke English very well and explained a lot about Jerez and the area and historical events - which we already knew a lot about since we'd been here a week by this time. Jerez is a neighboring town of El Puerto and is the town where our grandkids will attend an international school.  Since we actually did know a lot about what she was talking about and we were the only ones on the tour, we did a lot of chit-chating with her about her life.  She had never been to America and of course, didn't have the slightest clue where Seattle was.  We figured out that most people in Spain really only know of California, Texas or Florida, for whatever reason.  We think California because of Hollywood, Texas because it's so big, and Florida because it's also big and on the East Coast so easy to get to.   If you're not from those three places, they really have no clue.  But getting to know locals was one of our most enjoyable things about this trip.  

Since this was such a personal tour, we took our time and talked about lots of different things.  Here we are as we walked past the Jerez de la Frontera Cathedral.  

It was built in the 17th century and was visited by Pope John Paul II who elevated the church to a cathedral in 1980 (and made Jerez a diocese).  

                   

We also saw the fort (every town has a cathedral/church and castle/fort).  The tower on this one is not very tall because Jerez is a hill town and we were already up high. 

                     

The explanation I liked the most from our tour of Jerez was about all the bars on the windows.  They are on all the houses here, including Nick's house, his friend Jerry's house...just everywhere.  We see the bars on windows as "high crime area" in America but in Spain they are part of the architecture.  

It takes some getting use to being Americans because I think they look ugly but Nick says he's already use to it. Here is the front of his house.  

The weird thing is that every house has a big cement wall around it.  And then bars on the window, too.  Really?  Nick says the Spanish like their privacy and it's definitely private with those walls around every  property.  There is a locked gate to walk into the front yard and another gate to get into the driveway. Every house is like this.  Street appeal is apparently not a thing in Spain.  

Our tour guide told us that the iron bars on the windows were historically for safety reasons when the wealthy Spanish families would store their possessions on the main floor and they would actually live on the middle and top floors.  If they had bars on the windows, it was a sign of wealth.  Pretty soon, people just started putting bars on their windows so they would look wealthy until eventually it just became a part of the architecture.  You will see bars on windows that are located several floors high where nobody could get in anyway, but they still put those bars up.  

Aside from the cathedral, fortress, and being a hill town,  Jerez is mainly known for its sherry that I wrote about when we visited Manuel's winery here and the Andalusian horses.  Andalusia is the region of Spain where we were visiting.  These horses have been a breed here since the 15th century and they have changed very little over the centuries.  They are sometimes called the Dancing Horses and are known for their distinctive way they trot and jump.  

 

After our walking tour, we walked over to the facility where the horses are kept and perform at the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art.  This was a beautiful facility with the most beautiful indoor horse arena I've ever seen.  And we've seen a lot of riding arenas with Lauren's equestrian experience growing up and competing in college. She would have loved this.

Nick signed us up for a show during our second week in Spain so I was excited to see this.  The show lasted  1-1/2 hours and is described as equestrian ballet with traditional Spanish music.  The show had exquisite choreography that included the horses doing their signature walks, gallops, turns and carriage pulling. It was quite a delightful show and we both loved it. 

These are large horses, over 15 hands and most are grey although there were some dark colors, too.  The big jumpers and dancers were the grey ones so they seem to be the most popular.  They were very fun to watch.  Afterwards, we decided to take a horse and carriage back to the parking garage since we were in such a horsey mood.   Our driver was a very funny and entertaining guy.

This was a really fun day in the life of Spain.  And it's always nice that we could return to Nick's comfortable house and lounge around in the pool before we headed out for another evening of fun.  Yes, this is definitely the life.