Yesterday, to celebrate the culmination of two weeks of intensive Spanish, the group took an afternoon trip to the Bodega de Santa Margarita, a winery about an hour’s drive out of the city. As it turned out, there wasn’t the slightest pressure to spit out our wine after tasting…and the good people at Santa Margarita happily brought out more bottles. Looking back, it was really a shrewd business move on their part; I’m judging that they sold 50+ bottles as we were leaving.
Additionally, with the wine, they served salchichon(sausage) that was from pigs raised right there at the winery. There was also cheese with our wine! And heaps of other delicious snacks! And excess quantities! I had a slight headache by the time we got on the bus.
Upon my return, the family wasn’t in sight so I immediately took a siesta for two hours. Waking up to some banging sounds and some loud talking. Walking into the living room, my second person plural greeting of ‘como estais’ was responded to by a ‘third person plural pointing to’ of the cast on my madre’s right leg and her informing me that she broke it ‘en la calle’ (on the street). She had broken a couple ‘fingers’ as my sister called them. (Dedo means both finger and toe over here apparently). Ileana (65 years old) was practicing walking around on arm-extension crutches and was giving reasons to believe she might break more bones before she went to sleep that night. Thankfully a far more stable walker was procured from her storage locker at a warehouse.
Elena (sister) was pretty stressed out, periodically hitting the back porch to have a cigarette…contrastingly, Ileana was the opposite of stressed and was practically making a point of trying to help me improve my Spanish. We had an enthusiastic conversation before I went out about the subtle differences between ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’. Fairly outrageous scenario.
On a different note: I returned from the beach today at about 6 and went straight to a café/bar with my friend Derek...we watched the Hercules CF vs. Barcelona game with lots of locals. We won! 2-0, a real miracle, with one terrible and one great goal by Valdez. Home game next weekend vs. Valencia. I hope to be there.
May all be well with all of you! Love, Nick
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