Madrid no es como el Sevilla

12 05 2011

To all my readers out there, I know I’m overdue for a blog post. If you read my last one, you know why it was difficult for me to post while we were in Spain; and if you didn’t… well go back and read it then silly!

So my last post while I was in Toledo, I updated you on the majority of what we did while we were in Spain. Our day-to-day activities really didn’t change much. There were always weeds that needed pulling, things to be fixed, and a horse to take care of, which of course, it being crazy and hating its stable, ran off while the three of us were in Toledo, so when we arrived back to where she lives we learned that the Spanish can be incredibly stupid sometimes. First of all, the horse went into Almorox, the little tiny village, and when we asked the police if they had seen her horse, they just replied saying they had… Wouldn’t it have been smart to try and contain the horse? All sorts of terrible things could happen with a horse on the loose. It or someone else could have gotten very hurt. Second, her neighbor who caught the horse and managed to keep it said that it followed a man on horseback who has many stables, and yet he didn’t even think to hold it there until surely someone would start asking about. Silly Spaniards.

So, given the lack of stimulating events around us, we spent a lot of our time in heavy conversation with our host. I also managed to read a lot, which was nice and relaxing. I found that the Spain that I had fallen in love with many years ago as a child varies greatly from one region to another. Madrid and Toledo are nothing like Sevilla; the people aren’t as nice, the food isn’t as good, and the atmosphere just isn’t the same. We didn’t see much of Madrid, we merely used it as a means of traveling since it was a bit far away to spend our days off there, but I got enough of a vibe to sense that it was completely different. Things our host had to say about the difference between central Spain and Andalucía confirmed my hunches too.

That being said, I can’t say we didn’t enjoy our time in Spain. Our host made for wonderful company, wonderful conversation, and great food. Oddly enough, a huge chunk of our conversations were frequently about the crazy variety of food we have in America, both the good exciting sort, and the kind you can’t pronounce all the ingredients in. We managed to teach her Jon’s mom’s “kitchen sink” cookie recipe, which is basically just a standard oatmeal cookie that you throw whatever the heck you want into: chocolate, nuts, dried fruits, coconut, caramel, butterscotch, all sorts of things. It took some converting and a bit of a struggle to find something that would work for the oats (they aren’t common in Spain of course), but they turned out pretty darn close. She really enjoyed them too.

Oh, one negative: our time in Spain fully reconfirmed every hateful feeling I have towards insects, and merely strengthened my severely irrational fear of spiders. I know this is something I’m going to have to deal with at every farm, but I just don’t like them. Ick.

Here are just a few more pictures that I managed to take after the ones I uploaded already. I’ll post something about getting to Italy in a day or two, and try and keep you better posted on the events happening here. The property here is huge, and there are 4 other HelpXers working, so there is a lot of stuff to do, and a lot of socializing to enjoy. A good change of pace I think.

Adios!