Spanish Clothesline

Spain, April 2011

It has been too cold and rainy for me to hang clothes out on the clothesline lately. Here is a reminder of clothes hanging out from my trip to Spain in April 2011 when I visited youngest daughter MJ there.

Safely Home!

Last night our youngest daughter MJ arrived home from Spain! She was living in Granada for the past five months. It is wonderful to have her home, and Maisie greeted her with greater excitement than anyone else!

Cisco, Maisie, and MJ

Cisco, MJ, and Maisie

MJ and boy friend CM,
who drove from San Antonio to meet her with us
at the Corpus Christi Airport.

Monday Minutia

Sometimes the minutia/details of life overwhelm us and so we do not pay attention to other more pertinent factors! So here goes with my Monday minutia that may then be relegated to lesser positions of priority:

• A dead possum lay in the middle of the street in front of our house when we awoke on Saturday morning. It lay there all day until that night my practical husband put it in three plastic sacks and deposited it in our trash can. Unfortunately, now that same trash can reeks with odor, which is why it is sitting on the street. Garbage pickup is on Wednesday, and so the "summer" temperatures (in the spring) in south TX will ripen the contents even more.

• Our interim priest started on Palm Sunday and is a welcome addition to All Saints Episcopal Church. He is a retired priest who is also my age (60!), and is humble and authentic. I really like the way he expresses his own wonderings. When I told him that yesterday, he said he was wary of people with certainties. I like that!

• I have been chosen to be a member of our parish's search committe for our new priest. I am honored.
  

• I am boggled by the downloaded file of 641 pictures taken in Spain! I really want to post about my trip, but need to label all those images. . . .before I forget, which is already occurring.
  

• Since returning from Spain three weeks ago, I suffered through a week of jet lag, followed by gradually decreasing the dosage of prednisone that had been upped in Spain for joint pain. I felt really good until I stopped the prednisone completely--then joint pain started to slowly return and seems to be increasing each day, even though I went back to taking the small dose of 5 mg. daily. Here I go again. . . .

• I am really pleased that my daughter-in-law and son asked us to spend Mother's Day with them in Austin--with their 5 month old daughter, Avery. This will be AA's first Mother's Day, and I am so happy that she will share it with me.

• Despite the terrorist bombing in Marakesh last Thursday, MJ's IES group went on to Morocco on Saturday. I am impressed with IES' prudent organization for all their trips. This has been an excellent semester for MJ abroad. She will return home on May 31.

• Thanks to going to Spain, I read various good books. (The first two are fiction.) I've meant to post about them, but for right now will just list them below as highly recommended:

1. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (I am suspecting that this will be the first in a series.
2. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (I was told that the first 200 pages were rather boring and to forge ahead as it kept getting better. I agree that it kept getting better, but I enjoyed the entire book.)
3. Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the LIfe and Death of Treya Killam Wilber by Ken Wilber (This is Ken Wilber's most accessible book and it is profound and personal.)
4. Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr (Richard Rohr's typically simple writing brings forth validation and new knowledge.)
5. The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism by Andrew Harvey (This is such a good book that I have considered giving a copy to each of my children, as it is not strictly a Christian book.)

• I got an Ipod touch for my trip to Spain. I really like it, especially playing a game called Words with Friends, which oldest son DC told me about. He is faithful about playing with me, but always wins! I used to think I was good at Scrabble, but not so much with Words with Friends. It is fun, and if you ever want to play with me, my name is "janintx."
  

Spain Trip: Madrid (day 1)

I left for my visit to Spain and to see my youngest daughter MJ on Wednesday, March 30. I arrived in Madrid in the late morning of Thursday, March 31. Although I had stressed out about how to manage being alone in Madrid, the 10 hours on my own (until MJ arrived from Granada) went quite well. I took a taxi to my hotel; rested a little and then walked around on my own.

I walked through a shopping area, past the Opera House,
to (what I learned later was) the Presidential Palace.

This is a garden in front of the Presidential Palace.

Street signs in Madrid are on corners of buildings, made out of tiles.

MJ arrived at our hotel around 9 pm and then we went out to dinner at a tapas bar. I was introduced to Tinto de Verano, which became a nightly ritual for MJ and me.

• Tinto de Verano Red wine mixed with...
• ...Lemon Fanta (or equivalent) The most common and the nicest. To make sure you get this, ask for 'tinto con limon'.

We ate Tortilla Espanola together, which is a potato and egg omelette. I ate it a few other times, but this first one was the best of all!

No doubt about it, the Tortilla Espanola or Spanish Omelet is the most commonly served dish in Spain. It is also called Tortilla de Patata or Potato Omelet. Bars and cafés serve it as a tapa or appetizer, but it is often served as a light dinner in Spanish homes.

Tree in Spain

I got this picture off my Ipod Touch, so I believe I took it as MJ and I walked to the bus station from our hotel in Sevilla. MJ was pulling my big suitcase, which was brought so that I could take back her winter clothes, leaving her more room in her suitcase for coming home on the last day of May.

Here is MJ on our walk to the bus station
on Sunday, April 10 in Sevilla.

I'm home from Spain!

MJ and Jan at the Alcazar in Sevilla, Spain

MJ posted this picture of us on FB, so it is easy for me to put it here before I even download all my pictures from Spain. I got home at midnight after a very long day of flights delayed, etc. Lots of eating to pass the time both in Spain and on the flight home, so it is definitely a new day in nutrition back in the USA!

I am glad to be home and am washing clothes to hang out on the clothesline before I go to this morning's Wisdom Class. However, I have no idea what I asked the class members to read in The Case for God by Karen Armstrong!

Granada!

Spain is wonderful, especially with my daughter MJ! We took a 5-hour bus ride from Madrid to Granada on Sunday. Since the Granada hotel has no internet, I am using MJ's laptop at her IES school. Thus, with limited time and access, I am going to post random bullets about the trip so far:

• Much walking--thankfully, for the steroid that eliminates the pain. Toledo and Granada have hills, hills, hills. Maybe all the walking will counteract all my eating.

• This afternoon MJ took me for a 2-hour walk around the Moorish quarter, which was up and down cobblestone and rock ways. It was amazing to see remnants of the Moorish walls from the 11th century.

• On our walk, my camera died! MJ suggested that it's better NOT to have a camera, because then, we pay more attention to the scenery. Interesting thought, which I will take into consideration with this "sign" of camera battery depletion.

• The meals seem to be very carnivore-laden, especially with ham (jamon). The only fruit I have eaten has been bought at a supermarket in a department store in Madrid, but today no fruit or vegetables yet, even though it is 6:30 pm.

• I've read one book and have started another. "Cutting for Stone" is over 600 pages long and is definitely worth getting to read! It only gets better as one reads along. I downloaded that new book about witches and vampires when I was at the DFW airport, which I am reading now. (I'm not proficient enough to connect to Amazon or even italicize with this little laptop, for which I am still very grateful for.)

• Tonight we're going to see flamenco dancers.

• MJ has full days of classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'll be on my own for much of the time. Tomorrow is dedicated to the Alhambra, with a visit at night to the summer palace with MJ.

• On Thursday, after MJ's classes, we will take a bus to Sevilla.
  

• I'll be excited to post pictures, but winnowing them down will be difficult. That will be after I return home on April 11/12.

Madrid!

I am here in sunny and warm Madrid. My plane left DFW last night two hours later than scheduled, because they had to replace the aircraft. 9 1/2 hours later we landed in Madrid! I learned that an aisle seat by the window is not a good place to sit, because each seat has a box under it so that the one sitting there has only half the leg room. Oh, well, I made it! The Madrid airport is spacious and very big. I felt like I was walking up and down innumerable stairways before going on a tram and then more stairs before getting to the baggage claim and customs. All went well and I easily found a quiet taxi driver to get me to my hotel in central ("centro") Madrid, which has all-pedestrian traffic. This afternoon I ventured out on my own and did not get lost. I found the Royal Palace by accident and also my way back to the hotel, where I am right now. I am at one of the two computers in the lobby, where 5-6 kids are also congregated. I believe that MJ is on the bus (5-hour bus ride) here from Granada. She will join me sometime this evening. Yay! (I haven´t figured out how to log onto FB with this computer, so I´m glad I could get to my blog.)

HOPE

Free e-card from Gratefulness.org
Photo: Jon Sullivan, PDPhoto.org
Design: Patricia Carlson

I am going to pre-post quotes, poems and thoughts about HOPE while I am in Spain visiting my youngest daughter MJ: March 30-April 11.

I will try to periodically post about my trip, but am not sure about access to computers. It is a tiny screen on my Ipod Touch to try to write on my blog from there; that must be why daughter MJ rarely writes on her blog about Spain!

On My Way!

Wednesday afternoon I board a plane that will take me to DFW and then to Madrid, Spain! Thursday morning, March 31, I will arrive in Madrid--on my adventure by myself until MJ arrives that evening. Our schedule will be something like the following, which I hope to give details to while I am there.

Madrid: Thursday, March 31, with a trip to

Toledo: Saturday April 2, then back to Madrid, leaving for

Granada: Sunday April 3. This is where MJ goes to school and we will stay in Granada for the next four days. While she goes to classes, I will explore and then do things with her when she is free. Then we'll go to

Sevilla: Thursday, April 7. We'll see and learn about Sevilla until we both go our separate ways on Sunday, April 10--MJ back to Granada and me back to

Madrid: (again alone). Sunday, April 10, leaving the next morning for a return to Texas.

Going to Granada!

This is a picture of the Hotel Plaza Nueva, where I will be staying while visiting MJ in Granada! I just made the reservation for four nights, so this really seems like it is going to happen! MJ suggested this hotel as it is on this plaza and is close to her school IES. We are also going to stay in Seville and Madrid; I am excited that concrete plans are finally being made!