When we went to Eugenia’s bar I went to the toilet. Afterward I am looking all around on how to flush. There wasn’t a mess when I came in, so I KNOW it is possible to flush. I look all around, at the base, at the wall…I CANNOT FIND HOW TO FLUSH THIS THING! I am about to resign myself to leaving yet another mess when I see it. You guys, of course, spotted it right away.
I don’t walk at midnight; it would be far too dangerous. But I have started heading into the forest (bosque) on a regular basis. Two days ago I took a different path that dead-ended here. Can you guess what these are?
Behind the house is a recreational area. It has a walking path with exercise machines at various intervals. On one side of the path is empty grass. On the other side are these.
There is a bridge across the river, and on the other side is this.
When I got back we had some excitement. The front door used to not lock, so if we left we locked the second floor (where everyone except Carlos slept and where the kitchen is) and sometimes the third. Well, there has been a Ukrainian refugee around, although we all think he was homeless before his country was invaded. So somebody shut the door to the second floor with the key on the inside. We could not get the door open even with the spare key because the other one was in the lock. We tried all sorts of ways to get in.
Just as an aside, putting in so many pictures is extremely frustrating. I know you guys like them, and they make the blog better, but damn is it work. I have to go to my pictures to see what I want to talk about. Then I talk about it. Then I save the draft on my computer. I go to my phone and insert the picture I want. I save the draft again. I close the program on my phone. I go to the computer and type some more. Repeat the process for every picture. And if I EVER get the process wrong, I can lose what I’ve just done. Which I just did. And since it is 11:49 p.m. I am giving up for now and going to bed. I’ll try again tomorrow.
I never told about this trip. Cangas, as they call it, is the closest large city or town. Kind of like Navasota and College Station, if Navasota was 400 people and College Station only a few thousand. There are several supermercados there as well as “chinese stores.” These are kind of like Dollar Generals. We went to two because Montse wanted incense. Carlos got it for her.
It was Carlos, Eughenia, Stef, me, and a woman named Luz-Dary they also call “the Columbiana” because she is from Columbia. Montse does NOT like Luz-Dary because when Luz first came over, she looked at Montse, who was washing the dishes, and asked, “Who is the dishwasher?” Montse took umbrage at that, and to be frank it was kind of rude.
Eughenia was shopping for the month, so it took a while. Carlos, Stef, and I all got snacks while we waited. Actually, I got lunch, since mine was a pastry with ham and cheese. I bought some brushes, colored pencils, and a mechanical pencil at a chinese store. Haven’t used them yet, but I will. Here are some pictures of Cangas.
So it has been snowing off and on since April 1st. It did not snow today, but it did yesterday. Here are some pictures.
The first day it snowed I had some upsetting news the night before, so I went for a long walk. The snow didn’t last a super long time; it would sleet instead or sometimes stop altogether. But I took this video while it lasted.
Yesterday Carlos, Stef, and I went for a two hour walk. That’s something Europeans do. I had a hard time getting up the hills, and I was SO glad I wore my hiking boots instead of my tennis shoes.
Carlos made a snowman.
Okay, guys, there wasn’t a LOT of snow.
I’ve told you Carlos can juggle. Here is proof.
And now it is 2:36 a.m. and I am super cold. I’m making another hot water bottle and getting in bed. Goodnight.
It is supposed to snow here tomorrow. Snow! In April! I am a Texan! We don’t do snow well any time of year, but especially not in April! Catch me coming to Spain this early again.
I can’t remember if I’ve told this story here or not. Montse told me that when she told someone an American was coming to cook for them, they said, “Her signature dish will be ‘hamburguesa’ (hamburgers.)” Boy, were they wrong! So far I’ve cooked Italian (eggplant parmesan,) Egyptian (kushari,) Cuban (black beans and rice,) Mexican (Mexican Chicken Soup,) and…American, I guess (sauteed butternut squash with caramelized onions, sauteed spinach with garlic and hardboiled egg.) I also made a salad tonight and created an orange/ginger dressing that only Carlos and I ate. Carlos made no comment, but I liked it.
Tonight was another “we have to eat the leftovers so there will be room in the refrigerator for more food” night. Montse had chicken noodle soup and eggplant; Stef had eggplant, black beans and rice, and a tortilla; Carlos had lentils, salad, eggplant, and a tortilla; and I had kushari, eggplant, and salad. We all had chocolate pudding for dessert.
I worked on the mural today. Here is a picture of my progress.
I also practiced with my ball. I am getting better. I gave up on the regular juggling that Carlos wanted me to learn. He knows how because he did Workaway with some hippies and they taught him. He gave me some balls to practice with but I was awful. I mean really bad. So I gave them back.
Today, while I was practicing, the light was behind me and I was watching my shadow. Suddenly, I saw my hand move the ball from my palm to the back of my hand in a fluid motion that was EXACTLY what you want in contact juggling. I gasped so loud the others, who were in the kitchen, came to see what was wrong. I told them nothing and tried to show what I was reacting to. Of course I could no longer do it. But I am starting to have hope that I might master this thing by November. Carlos, of course, could do in two minutes what it has taken me two months to even approach. But that’s okay. Hard work can make up for a lack of natural ability.
Tomorrow we are going into Cangas de Narcea, which is the nearest large town. It was my other option for getting to Pola de Allande. There isn’t a bus from there to here, but it is only 25 kilometers or so. I could have taken a taxi or Stef could have come and gotten me. I’m happy with what I did though.
Oh, and on Saturday we will have a pilgrim! She is from Estonia, which might explain why she is walking in this weather. The other day it was 63 degrees, but lately the high has been in the 40’s. Tonight the low is 38 and on Sunday the low is going to be 25. 25! What am I going to do? Ya’ll, there is not a single moment I am awake that I am not cold. I warned the others, once it gets that low the only part of Juanita they are going to see is her “nariz.”
I knew this was going to happen. In Texas right now it is spring. I guess it is here too, but spring here is winter there. So by coming here I made winter last two extra months. And I don’t like winter much. It will be a real shock to me when I go back to the states and it is hot. I will have gone straight from winter to summer. I’m hoping to get some spring in April.
Mom was like, “You didn’t bring clothes for that kind of weather, did you?” Actually, I brought two pairs of long underwear, my silks and my regulars, and I figure I will wear both. I don’t have any gloves and my hat is just a ball cap, so she is in part correct. The one I’m worried about is Norbert, the canary. He is still on the terrace, and today he was all fluffed up. Norbert is cold too. I don’t think Montse brought him in tonight; I hope he will be okay.
Montse said that when she has taken him places before he took three days before he started singing. Here, he was singing the next day. If I ever settle in one place again, and I will, eventually, I’m getting a canary.
I was going to use the tortillas de trigo (Trigo is a type of flour; nasty stuff, if you ask me) to make something but Carlos and Stef have eaten most of them. Carlos was unfamiliar with tortillas, so Stef told him to dip it in water then microwave it. So he did.
He first wore it as a hat(it was that crisp and the black part stuck up like the crown of a sombrero) then ate around the burned part.
Today Montse gave me a shopping bag, and I realized I brought nothing from America as a thank you gift. I feel awful. Mom will have to help me think of something Texan and then send it here. I’ll get the address from Stef. I don’t think I could sneak it.
Well, that’s all that has happened today, guys. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Eugenia is a young woman who used to stay with Stef. She said, “I think I will find a job and stay in this village.” Stef thought that was extremely unlikely given the size of Pola de Allande. But she found one, got an apartment, and lives here now. For how long, no one knows. She is originally from Italy.
Last night we went to her place for a housewarming party. She has a three bedroom apartment, fully furnished, with a beautiful terrace, which is what they call a room on the end of building that is mostly windows, for 250 euros a month! That’s it, guys. I’m moving to Spain. Of course, you’re only going to pay prices like that in a little village like Pola. Madrid would be something else entirely.
Here are pictures from the party. Cloti sent them to me.
Cloti is very much an “early to bed, early to rise” person, so she left before the party got good. Montse brought her guitar, and after dinner we all sat around and sang. Everyone but Stef, Montse, and I passed around some marijuana as well. Montse only smokes cigarettes. Carlos only smokes marijuana. Stef and I don’t smoke at all. I taught Eugenia and her friend Siriena, who is from France, the chorus to “In These Shoes.” They loved it. “No me gusta caminar. No puedo montar a caballo. Como se puede bailar…” they sang.
Montse knows “The House of the Rising Sun” and learned a version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” just for me. It is one popularized by some Hawaiian singer with a ukulele. It’s not like the original. The words are all out of order and the “One day I’ll wish upon a star” part has the wrong melody. I said something about it and Carlos said, “But that’s the best-known version, right?” and I was like, “Well, yeah, maybe, if you don’t count Judy Garland’s…”
I sang “Never Enough,” or a modified version of it, and gave everyone chills. Eugenia came for lunch today and seemed to think (It’s hard for me to know because my Spanish isn’t that good) that it was the marijuana and not me. I didn’t set her straight.
After my first night here I got moved into a room upstairs. I’m pretty sure it was because I forgot to put my device in until after 1 a.m. and Cloti could not sleep because I snored so loud. Cloti went back to Barcelona today, so I moved back downstairs. The bed isn’t as big or as comfortable, but I am right next to the router, so I have the possibility of working. Upstairs the connectivity was too bad.
The good news is that I am in the room with the mural, so it will be easier for me to work on it. Here is the mural as it is now.
Instead of lumping all my entries together, I am going to separate them out. This one is done.
I haven’t posted in a while, so I will have missed some things. Carlos and I worked in the garden the second day and got it ready for planting. I made Mexican Chicken Soup, which turned out to be a big hit. The third day Cloti made lentils (lentajes) for lunch, and there was so much food that we told Stef the cooking was done until we had eaten down what we had. But last night Cloti showed me how to make tortilla de patata for us to take on our excursion today.
Antonio told me you had to dice the potatoes and soak them overnight, but Cloti just diced and fried them with onions right away. Then she mixed the potato/onion mixture with six beaten eggs and a little milk. She didn’t have a tortilla pan either. She flipped the tortilla onto a plate then slid it into the pan to cook on the other side. She did this twice.
On Friday I bought some chalk and started fixing the large black tree in the mural a volunteer started a few months ago. The tree was knobby and kind of…threatening. Yesterday I finished the drawing and painted over the black bits I don’t want with white. Tomorrow I will do another coat and possibly cover the white with the red and yellow of the sunset.
I should have taken a picture of what it looked like before I started.
Today we went on an excursion. Stef asked if I would contribute to the gas, and I said of course I would. We went all around the mountains, to a village where the newest house was over 200 years old. In a different village we saw a church that was established in 608 and reconstructed in 1997. I told Stef it was hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that that church was over 1,000 years older than my country.
So many of the villages here are dying. The 200 years or more place has a total of ten people living in it. Pola de Allande, one of the larger villages, is full of the elderly. Our house is one of the few where younger, more open-minded people live, according to Stef. I believe it. In the first village we toured, Montse said the house where it said, “Se Vende,” (For Sale) was 50,000 euros. The thing is, it would probably cost that much again to make it livable.
And I could only live here from April to October. I arrived in the middle of March, in Madrid which is south and not in the mountains, and I was cold practically the entire time. I still get cold here, especially at night.
That is actually one of the reasons I haven’t been posting. During the day I’m busy, and at night I’m too cold.
As long as I am updating, I will tell you guys about the Market of San Miguel. My guide to the Royal Palace referred to it as the “temple of gastronomy.” I was so sorry I wasn’t very hungry when I was there. I did get myself a fruit skewer.
They had almost every kind of food, from all over Spain, that you can imagine. I plan on going back early, just so I can go there and eat.
Here are pictures from our excursion today.
Stef says at this time of year the road I am standing on should be underwater. The water is supposed to be up to the trees in spring. Asturias, here in the mountains, will be okay, but he says he doesn’t know what the south will do.
We got a lot done today. There is a woman here they call “Cloti,” which I suspect is short for “Clothilde.” Not a very Spanish name, but that is all she speaks that I know of. Cloti is a force of nature. There was a room Stef said would take days to clean out. Cloti got it done in one.
I cooked dinner, and everyone enjoyed it, although I didn’t make enough. Stef bought mozzarella instead of parmesan, so I couldn’t put cheese in the butter sauce, but that turned out to be okay because he is doesn’t eat cheese. It is hard cooking in metric when you are used to imperial. Next time I come to Spain, I may bring more equipment.
Today was also Stef’s birthday. He turned 46 today. He said it was a quiet birthday but a good one. I’m glad. He is a nice man. He deserves good things.
Travels and Adventures with Jane 