Los Cahorros, Freshman initiation y más...

Ya, Ya, Ya!  I know it's been way too long for a post! For a couple weeks I felt as though life in Spain had become, you know, usual, with nothing exciting. Once again I was wrong. After many emails coming in from folks asking for the blog I checked into my iPhoto and realized there were quite a few adventures that had happened. They were simply different from the folkloric experiences in past blogs that I thought I needed to be a focus of the blog. So this post will take on a more earthy feeling with just a couple inside views into Spanish life that you can't read in the guidebooks.
We have been sucked into life in Granada, and in particular the Albaycin, our local barrio. This is quite easy to do as there is so much daily excitement going on in the city. We are doing "double-time" with our adventure this year. Not only are we living in Spain, learning another language and culture, but we are living in a city as well. This is an experience I feel is invaluable for the boys. We love our little pueblo, Truckee back in the states.  However, we've also always thought it would be a good idea to try city life at some point for the boys.
This being said, there is LIFE outside of Granada, and it is spectacular! One Sunday we packed into "Negrita", Sarah and Dani's little VW Lupo and we headed out of the city to Monachil.

After having a little nibble at a local bar we ventured up a canyon called Los Cahorros. It was clear that I had waited too long to get the boys out!  They ran and scrambled their little hearts out all throughout the canyon!

 It was also clear to me that we have two increible beings in our lives.  They have adapted to so many changes thus far and I haven't had to calm one fit...except for the day Myles said he hated me. I'll never let him forget that. We now laugh about it.

Los Cahorros is a great hiking area which eventually leads to the Sierra Nevada mountains set above Granada. Additionally there are numerous climbing routes. This will probably be our first outing with Uncle Colin when he comes to visit. Get ready!
Granada really has the best of many worlds.  The city bubbles with culture, action and beautiful Andalucian life (very different from northern Spain) and just minutes outside of the city you have a multitude of geographic regions to choose from for outdoor experiences. Well, there is a catch. You have to have a car, and we do not. So, I'm trying to figure out exactly how to get past that hurdle at the moment. We may be borrowing a friend's car from time to time, because as many have strongly said, "all second hand cars are lemons here". Guess we shouldn't pick up an old Fiat. Oh, and one other thing about cars. Our Prius...is a BIG car here. Four people can actually lift many of the little tin cans they drive and strategically shoehorn it in the desired parking space.
The final touch on our day in Los Cahorros canyon was our escort service out.  For those of you who love goat cheese on your pizzas, salads and crackers, Spain is the place for you.  There are cabras everywhere wherever hills are found.  This of course gives the country a great amount of products from goat milk at a very "reasonable" price.  Here's something for you language learners taken from a local who stressed to me, "Aquí no se dicen barato, somos más refinados, se dicen económico".  "Here we don't use the term "cheap", we are more refined, we use "economical".  It does phychologically have an affect on your purchasing power, no? Here's a clip who walked out of the canyon with us.

The following weekend we ventured out of Granada again. This time we spent the day with a wonderful group of families from the boys' Colegio. I have to say again how happy we are here with not only the school but the parent body as well. Every two weeks the AMPA organization (like a PTA in the states, but better!) organizes an outdoor experience. We will bike, hike, cross country and downhill ski this year with this group. Everyone helps out with carpooling, finding gear to borrow and transporting it. This particular Sunday we traveled South of Granada to an area called Láchar. Our mission was to ride through the tobacco fields of the Vega as well as see one of the last remaining torres "towers" of the Nazarí or "Nasrid", Muslim dynasty that ruled Spain (in particular Southern Spain) for some 700+ years. Spain is such a diverse culture with its multitude of influences coming not only from the Visigoths from the North but primarily from the Muslims and Romans, with the Muslims having ruled for a longer period of time. Because of this Andalucia is deeply rooted with a Muslim character that you see everywhere on a daily basis. We buy our meat at a local Muslim butcher due to the fact that it is raised and killed in what is called "Halal".  We don't eat a lot of meat but when we arrived I set out on finding a butcher that perhaps had access to carne ecológica. You can find organic meat here but the Halal method of producing and butchering is even better. After having a discussion with the butcher I realized that this shop was quite similar to the way I remember my Grandpa Soulek doing so on the farm outside of Kimball, South Dakota. Instead of going into much descrption I'll add a link here for you to puruse on your own time if you're interested.  The only difference is that Grandpa Soulek didn't pray any Muslim prayer to Allah when he was butchering but I know in my heart he did give some sort of thanks for the animal who was about to lose his life.
 http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/02/dining/the-new-neighborhood-butcher-in-an-old-fashioned-way.html

Back to the mountain bike ride, well plains ride we could say...we road throughout fields of grapes, corn and tobacco. This year the harvest moon fell on the night of Sept. 22, the last day of summer welcoming the first light of autumn the next day. This hasn't happened in 20 years!  Our bike ride was in October and harvest season was still is progress. The primary harvest of this Vega is tobacco. Spaniards love their tobacco, although I will say since I was here in the late 80's, there is an ever-so-slight decline of smoking...and I stress "slight".  As Myles put it, "Mom, the tobacco companies here must be really rich".  "Everyone smokes!"

Once again you might all think I'm crazy, but I walked up to this particular tabaquería "Tobacco House" stuck my nose deep in the drying tobacco leaves and inhaled deep.  It was one of the most beautiful smells I've smelled in awhile!  No, it didn't smell like smoke.  It was a fresh, green, earthly, wooden, clean smell.  My first thought was to make a tea out of it!  But my fellow Spaniards told me ¡no, Tamara, no!
So what are we in now, the 21st century right?  Do you see the construction of the tabaquería above?  It's not a factory built of cement producing massive amounts of nicoteen-laced death sticks.  It's a natural, beautiful building built of wood and a simple corrugated metal roof.  I would smoke a hand-rolled cigarette from these leaves...but I didn't, honestly!
Besides changing some 30 flat tires on this ride, adjusting a few brake pads and derrailers (Kevin Dwyer, thanks for teaching me how to be a bike mechanic!) we had a great day of laughter and conversations that will be remembered forever.
In traditional Spanish fashion, at the end of our excursion we ride into the pueblito of Lachár, pull up to the local bar, which is strategically situated between the school and church and begin to drink cañas. Don't get me wrong, I like beer but I have to say, I have to try my hardest to put down a couple cervezas after exercising. My inclination is to drink water and lots of it but that's not the way it goes here. I'm still working on trying to have a higher tolerance.  It was a good thing Antonio was driving that day.

Moving on...part of my weekly routine is going to the market every three days or so. On one particular market day, I'm pulling my carro "pull-cart" down the cobbelstone street like a little old lady, jiggling and bumping all the way along. I come around the corner of the next plaza and am engulfed in a sea of turquoise uniforms. Entering the wild rumpous I ask a young señorita ¿Qué está pasando por aquí? Others close in on me and begin to explain with great, fermented animation of an annual occurence in Granada in this particular plaza - La Plaza universitaria. I have to laugh a deep laugh that I'm hoping some of my buds from South Dakota will do so as well after hearing this story. This particular day had to do with the freshman initiation of medical students at the University of Granada. Julie, do you remember us running from house to house trying to get home safely from school after basketball practice so that we wouldn't be thrown into a car, stripped down almost naked, covered with shaving cream and corn flakes and taken blindfolded to a corn field outside of town....Oh, the many ways to amuse small-town, farm kids. With this particular initiation all the freshman stand in the middle of the plaza and withstand the older med. students throwing and covering them with mustard, ketchup, mermeladas that stain, flour and of course, beer.

I'm setting myself up to continue with the next post almost immediately!  I'll leave you with a final video clip of us heading up Los Cahorros.  Oh, and of course, the quotes.

"Oh, this pan is so beautiful!"

"¡Cago en tu leche!" (I poop in your milk....otherwise, go to h*&l!

"When in Spain do as the Romans do."

"I want to live in Spain for the rest of my life."

"I wish Osama could stay with us longer."

"Wow, mom, did you see that?"  "She did a 180 in high heels!"  (Myles' observations of a female Flamenco dancer)

"Mom, I'm just not that kind of guy."

"Venga, mamá, venga, rápido, más rápido!"

"Vale, vale."

Hope you all are doing great.  Next post soon to come!