Rumble in the Chapel

Wow! I just got home from the most uncomfortable church meeting ever. I had a Primary Presidency meeting tonight to discuss the upcoming program. There is a certain older lady that is always wherever her daughter and grandson are. This lady, we'll call her Dora, kept coming into our meeting and interrupting to report on what the kids were doing outside. (Once, it was appropriate because Ian was doing heelys on top of a wall, but every other time was uncalled for.) So after about 10 interruptions (6 from Dora, 4 from my kids), we were about to wrap up our meeting with a prayer when she came in and said, 

"Oh, I just have to tell you that my grandson doesn't like it when you call him Mikey. His name is Mike." (Name has been changed to protect the innocent.) 

The second counselor said, "OK, but 'Mikey' is just an endearing nickname. We all love Mike. He is special to us, that is why we called him 'Mikey. We didn't do it to offend you or Mike."

Well, Dora got mad all of the sudden and started yelling at the second counselor, shaking her finger in her face and even said a swear word (at church, in the stake president's office no less)! 

2nd Counselor, "Wow! What a mouth you have, swearing like that! Well, OK you've said what you wanted to say. Let's forget about it, we're in the middle of a meeting. Anyway, what are you doing in here? You are not in the Primary Presidency, you don't belong in this meeting."

Dora, "In Spain, everyone says that word. How dare you try to shut me up! After this I won't have anything to do with you ever again! You were brought up badly! I am here because my daughter is here. I am allowed to be here because she is." (and on and on and on).

All the while, the Primary President and I were shooting worried looks at each other and avoiding the gaze of Dora's daughter who is the secretary. I thinking we were both wondering what we should do if they started slapping or punching each other. Finally, Dora left the room and we closed with a prayer. There was a very ominous feeling in the room, in spite of the President's prayer. Dora's daughter talked to the second counselor and told her that she should show some respect to Dora because she is an older woman and that the 2nd counselor's response and behavior might be OK in Colombia, but were inappropriate in Spain. The 2nd counselor said that she loved and respected both the secretary and Mike, but she stood by what she said. The secretary left and the rest of us talked about what had happened. 

It turns out that aside todays ruckus, Dora has been stirring up other trouble. After listening in on our meetings Dora has gone and made mischief in the ward. One older girl in Primary always goes into the nursery to help instead of coming to Primary. In one of our meetings, we said that she should come to Primary instead. Dora heard this and told the mother of the girl (who also happens to be married to the Bishop) what we said. The girl's mother came to the President and said that she didn't appreciate the fact that we were talking about her daughter and what her daughter does on Sunday is none of our business. 

As a presidency, we don't really know how to proceed. We love our secretary, but her mother's presence in all our meetings is kind of cramping our style. What to do? What to do? On the other hand, it makes all small scenes in the wards I have attended in the U.S. seem tame. I have never seen a 70 year old woman fighting with a 48 year old woman. At least it was only shouting and hand gestures. I'm so glad Collin wasn't there, if he has to leave during uncomfortable moments on the Office or in the movie theater, imagine what he would have done during a granny fight.

On a more uplifting note, Collin and I went to Catholic mass this morning. The Cathedral was huge and decorated in a very ornate manner. There were enough pews to seat 1,000 people, but there were only 7 people who attended that particular mass, including us. There was a lot of incense, ritualistic gestures, latin chanting and Spanish mass and prayers. I enjoyed it and it was also very relaxing to listen to the priests chanting in Latin. I do think the cathedrals are designed to glorify God, but also make sure that people feel humbled when they enter. They had wafers and wine for the sacrament, but of course we didn't partake. I was actually baptized as a Catholic when I was little and attended Catholic church on Sundays and went to a Catholic private school when I lived in Hawaii with my mother and two of my sisters. 

Both of my conversation partners cancelled on me today which left me with a lot of time to read Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother, in Spanish. My grammar lessons are getting much harder. I am working on  the pluperfect tense right now. My book has gotten so difficult that I am supplementing it with The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice: Mastering Spanish Grammar for Confident Communication. Doesn't that sound like a thrilling read? But I am desperate to be able to speak Spanish confidently, so I think this new book (that I found in the Primary closet at church) is a good way to go.

My new conversation partner, Flor, is from Ecuador. She is a good partner because she corrects my mistakes and has taught Spanish before. But her English is terrible. It took her a full 10 minutes to construct and say this (with tons of pauses and mistakes and questions in Spanish about how to say what she was trying to say in English), "I found a book called 'Speak English in 7 Days.' I read it and liked it. It is easy for me to read and write in English, but I can't speak it very well." I felt really bad for her and told her not to worry because a few months ago, I was the same as her (but with Spanish). Flor is living in Granada and works by caring for an elderly person. She does not like her job. Her husband and two daughters are still in Ecuador. Her dream is to work as a tour guide for her friend's agency in Ecuador, but first she has to learn to speak English, French and German. I wish I had gotten an ESL certification. Then I would have been able to teach English and earn some Euros. Next time for sure, even if I just teach it in our house during the day while the kids are at school. I think there is a certification program in State College in January and February. My mom is doing her certification in California and loves it. 

We gave the kids new nicknames. Aidan's is DJ Cash Flow. Emma's is Little Miss Sassafrass. Ian's is Monkey Business. I think these would all make great recording artist names.

Festivales y Ferias

What an awesome weekend! There was a ton of fun stuff going on in our neck of the woods. The festival of the virgin of the anguish, the city's patron saint was in full swing all weekend. There were tons of fresh fruit, pastry, candy, nut, and dried fruit stalls. We had some delicious toffee almonds and pastries. It was lucky that we didn't have much money on us or we would have gone crazy and bought all the pastries and candies in sight. There was also a roasted chestnut stall, but those have never been my favorite fair food, too healthy:). My favorite thing we bought was salt bread. It tasted like focaccia bread, I could have eaten more than one for sure. Aidan bought a watermelon flavored rope candy. Ian bought a giant candy pacifier. Emma didn't buy anything because she didn't have any money:( We also looked around at the chocolate festival, but there were way too many people to really get to try anything. There was also a carnival going on at the park behind Palacio de Congresos. The kids rode a roller coaster called Gusano. The carny running the ride was smoking a cigarette.You could actually get a lot for your money there. When you bought a ticket for the ride, you got a noisemaker and at the end of the ride you got a punch balloon. They also went on a Simpsons bouncy castle and a giant inflated slide. The carny lady running the slide let them have a turn that was ten times as long as a regular turn. There was also a stage with flamenco dancers. The music was SO loud and Collin and I both heard a swear word in one of the (English) songs . . . . at a children's fair! It was a really fun night for everyone (and not just because of the swear word:). There were a couple of ecofriendly carousels. They looked normal except that they were powered by a man riding a stationary bike, he also passed out lollipops to the kids on the ride. I would love to see one of those in Lewisburg at the Wooly Worm Festival. They are really into preserving the environment here, one of the major grocery store is getting ride of plastic bags altogether. I would love to see more of that in the U.S. too (outside of San Francisco anyway).

On Sunday we went to the procession of the virgin to watch them carry the statue of the Virgin Mary holding a crucified Christ through the center of Granada. We tried to walk up Carerra de Genil and it was so crowded that soon we were trapped and couldn't walk any further. We all started to feel claustrophobic and couldn't see the procession from where we were anyway so we tried to go back the way we came, against the current. At one point, an older lady told us that we couldn't pass so I stopped where I was, then she said I couldn't stand there because she couldn't see. Finally, Collin told her that we just wanted to get out of the crowd and she let us through. We had to walk up a side street and then again, we couldn't get through the crowd. Collin went across to the stalls to buy more salt bread. We stayed put and waited for him and watched the procession go by. There were guilds and priests and the statue itself carried by a lot of men dressed in black suits. The statue had flowers all around it and silver cherubs with pomegranates. As the virgin went past I could hear everyone around clapping and shouting, "Mira, la Guapa!" Unfortunately, my camera battery ran out of juice so I didn't get pictures of the men dressed up with huge feathers in their caps and military garb. We kept waiting and waiting for Collin to show up with the bread. The sidewalk got more and more crowded. Finally, he walked within a few feet of me and I reached out and touched his arm. We got out of the crowd and started eating the bread, which was not salt bread, but pan de la virgen: an oily, sugar covered loaf of bread filled with raisins and caraway seeds. It was very very good.

It turns out that when Collin went to the other side of the street with the stalls and bought the bread, he couldn't get back through the crowd. He took a side street and came to our side, but couldn't find us. He looked frantically around and even stopped a policeman to ask him if he had seen, "an American lady with three loud kids." Collin kept standing on benches trying to see us through the crowd. He even went home to see if we had gone there. All sorts of crazy thoughts went through his head as to what could have happened to us. He came back and tried the same area again and that was when I touched his arm and he found us. It is the WORST feeling in the world, thinking something horrible has happened to your family. I have felt that same feeling many, many times and it always takes a long time for me to recover from it. The kids and I were standing in the same spot as before, but since the crowd had grown and Collin got disoriented from having to go around us (and we are so short), he had a hard time finding us. Afterwards we went to a cafe to have a soda, the free tapas were potato croquetas, pisto and bread . . . . so yummy! I am going to have to look up a recipe for pisto because I love it! It reminds me of something Mercedes made for us in the Dominican Republic. Right now, tons of fireworks are going off to celebrate the city's patron saint.

I had to do the sharing time today at church. It was hard to make myself understood and the younger kids couldn't write stuff on their own, so it didn't go as well as it could have. All I did was have them sing Follow the Prophet and then tell me things that the prophets have told us to do as families together. Then the kids just have to fill out a BINGO sheet and use it while they listen to conference next week. Then we went into the chapel to practice the primary program. We have got our work cut out for us. The kids can't seem to listen or know when to stand up or sit down and only my kids can carry a tune. On a good note, Collin's lesson went really well. The Primary Presidency and the kids all love having him as a teacher. Ana Maria, Sara and Nuria all kept going on and on about how their kids love coming to Primary when he is teaching and how the general behavior of the kids has improved since he started teaching. I know he doesn't love having two callings, but they sure love having him in Primary.

I have a new conversation partner. His name is Juan Carlos and he is the husband of my Spanish teacher. We talked a lot about religion, Spanish customs and racism. The tone and topics were very different from what I usually discuss with my female conversation partners. Juan Carlos is a policeman in Granada. He told me that the Sacromonte area is actually safer and has less crime than our area of town (great). Juan Carlos said that the Sacromonte area has a bad reputation because it is mostly populated by Gypsies. He said he was too tired to speak in English and I was thinking, "Then what are you doing here? This is supposed to be an INTERCHANGE!" Whatever, my Spanish will get better anyway. The kids were TERRIBLE during this particular language exchange. They kept running in and out of the room, fighting, teasing, crying and screaming. Juan Carlos and Rebecca don't have any kids and if they continue to come over when our kids are misbehaving, I think they just might put it off even longer.

Yesterday Collin and I were supposed to go to a Primary leadership meeting. We showed up dressed very casually, wearing jeans and flipflops because thought that it was just a meeting for our ward. When we arrived at church we saw that everyone was wearing suits and dresses and that it was a STAKE PRIMARY leadership. Neither of us wanted to go to the meeting dressed like hoboes so we turned around and went home (SHAME on us!). Later, Sara called and asked if we were okay because we weren't there and I told her what had happened. I know we should have gone anyway, but I couldn't make myself when I knew I should have been wearing church clothes. At church I got a letter from the Stake Primary Presidency thanking me for my doing my calling. It was addressed to "Mc Kinney Tara Domínguez." (I guess Dominique is not a common name here in Spain.)

Doraemon: the Cosmic Cat

Our family has a new weird obsession:a Japanese cartoon that is dubbed in Spanish. The series is about Doraemon, a robotic cat who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy named Nobita. Doraemon is sent back in time by Nobita's great-great grandson Sewashi to help Nobita to not be such a clumsy, lazy doofus. Nobita is a terrible student which subsequently affects his future career. His actions as a child lead to his descendants debts and shame. In order to change history and reverse Nobita's family's fortunes, Sewashi sent him a robot called Doraemon. The robot cat does not have ears because a robot mouse bit them off leading to Doraemon's fear of mice. Doraemon has a four dimensional pocket from which he produces many gadgets, medicines, and tools from the future. Nobita, kind of wimpy and whiny, always comes home crying about a problem in school or with his friends: Suneo, Gigante and Shizuka. After listening to Nobita's whining, Doraemon always offers helpful advice . . . but Nobita is always looking for an easy solution. With enough pleading and/or tantrum throwing by Nobita, Doraemon always busts out a futuristic gadget from his four dimensional pocket to help Nobita fix his problem, exact revenge, or show off in front of his buddies. Nobita usually goes overboard using the object in spite of Doraemon's advice and gets into worse trouble. Sometimes his friends Gigante and Suneo steal the gadgets and misuse them. Anyone who misuses a gadget always gets their just desserts in the end.

We can all sing the theme song (in Spanish) and we all run to the TV when it is on. The kids get so excited when there is a new episode and are almost as happy when it is one that they have seen before. Collin read online that it will be shown in English on Cartoon Network next year in the U.S. I'm not sure exactly what makes the show so appealing, probably the wish fulfillment theme. Our family spends a lot of time fantasizing about what gadget we would want the most. I would love to get my hands on some Doraemon comic books either in English or Spanish. We all go around saying, "¡Huy, Doraemon!" in Nobita's voice. Ian has Doraemon's scratchy, grumpy voice down pat.

Examples of gadgets:

fireworks you can wish on: whatever you wish for as the firework bursts comes true

material changer: changes glass to steel to make windows unbreakable, etc.,

superhero costume: makes you fly

magic microphone: makes people do whatever you say

Apparently, Doraemon is so popular in Japan that in 2008, Japan's Foreign Ministry appointed Doraemon as the nation's first "anime ambassador." Time Asia named Doraemon an Asian Hero in 2002.

I know it is a little strange to dedicate a whole blog post to a cartoon, but I have always and will always love cartoons. I still watch SpongeBob and Fairly Odd Parents and many other cartoons with or without my children present. I actually schedule my day around back to back episodes of the Simpsons in Spanish here.

Doraemon, a Japanese phenomenon dubbed in Spanish that has our American family memorized by it's quirkiness.

Run, Tara, Run!

Collin was sitting on a bench today in a plaza reading a book. An Asian man was playing flamenco music on his guitar and an Asian woman was dancing flamenco. A few minutes later a window in an apartment building facing the plaza opened and a man started clapping flamenco rhythm. Only in Spain.

I still have no idea how this #$%^ oven works. I just burned two more pizzas, even though I was checking on them every 5 minutes or so. I couldn't be more frustrated with my stove and oven right now. AND Collin just told me that we are supposed to start having the students over for dinner soon! How in the world am I going to make food for guests without burning it? I feel like a newly wed again, burning everything and apologizing profusely while my husband insists that he LIKES his food on the dark side. What the WHAT am I going to do?

I went with Collin and the students on a tour of the Alhambra. The architecture is amazing, especially the areas that were built by the Moors. They had a lot of symbols within the decorations. The acorn, pine cone and seashell were repeated over and over in the decorations within the Alhambra. The wooden parts that look carved are actually very intricately carved individual pieces that fit together like a puzzle.

The tour guide, Marie Carmen, was very informed and lively. I really enjoyed listening to her. She was also good at keeping the group together. I asked Elena to babysit from 4:30-7:30 pm, thinking that the tour would only last a couple hours. At 7 pm, Marie Carmen was still going strong and we were in the middle of the Palacio de Leones. I knew that I had to leave to get home to Elena and the kids. I tried to go back out the way we came in. The docents wouldn't let me out. So I went back through the Palacio de Leones and looked around for exits signs. There were tons of people in the Alhambra and it was hard to pass large tour groups. I was trapped in a group of smoking Italians for a very long time and started to feel claustrophobic. When I finally reached the end of the Alhambra grounds, I had walked all the way to the Generalife gardens, where Collin and I saw the flamenco show. I saw a sign with an arrow pointing right that said Centro, so I decided to follow the road down. I was more of a highway than a road. There was only a sidewalk at some places. I could see where I had to be in the city, but there was no way to go straight home without rolling down a steep hill with tons of cactus and rocks. I race walked down that road, which went around the city. I had no watch and no phone, so I couldn't call Elena and tell her I would be late and as I scurried home, I didn't know if it was taking me an hour or longer to walk. As soon as I got to flat ground I ran as fast as I could towards home. I was wearing jeans and dress shoes and I had my camera, wallet and keys in the pockets of my purple raincoat. I unzipped the armpits of the raincoat and held my stuff within the pockets and ran towards home. I was running by a fence and a dog jumped up six inches from my face, barking madly as it raced along the fence with me. When I got home I was panting and covered in sweat. I apologized to Elena for being half an hour late and she was really nice about it and luckily she didn't have anywhere she had to be right away.

I didn't run this morning because I was feeling lazy, but I ended up getting plenty of exercise anyway (see picture of red exhausted face).

The kids had a great time with Elena. They had their lesson, got whistle pops from Elena, played hide and seek, hide the monkey and Legos.

Aidan is learning how to sing I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus in Spanish. He has a solo in the Primary Program. He sounds great! I know I'm biased, but I really do think my kids have the best voices in the Primary.

April sent us a great package with new clothes for Collin (pictured) and a beautiful new stretchy belt for me. The kids were delighted with the marshmallows, Pop Tarts and other fun stuff.

Collin and I are reading Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series, actually I should say we are fighting over it since we both finished the first book and are now in the second. Collin started the second book first, but I am further into the book. I also read The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie and Literary Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I had listened to it on CD a few months ago, but I think I prefer reading the actual words when I can. I would love a Kindle or Sony Reader or whatever, but do you still have to pay full price for the books?