24 Amazing Things

I shall now count all the amazing things that I have done this month:

1 It was a beautiful day today. I am quite excited that summer is coming, that I will soon be able to go swimming. But some certain Spainards keep telling me that March is an insane month: One day it will be wicked hot and the next it will be wicked cold by SSS (Southern Spain Standards).

Cooking and baking here in Almuñecar 2-6. Valentine Snickerdoodles with Emily, chocolate chip cookies, yellow cake, strawberry pie, pork dumplings, soup of various kinds (todays is onion!) and kim chee (or soon to be... cross your fingers!)

From the Matisse show

7/8/9 I had some visitors:  Ted from Jaen, Emily from London, and Roxann from Malaga. Roxann, Emily and I met in Granada for a whirl wind visit. 10 Emily and I got to see the Alhambra and its Matisse exhibit (free!! You should all go. Yes you... even if you are in Minnesota, Toronto or elsewhere) and then we all went to watch the sunset in the Albizin, which we missed. However! 11 Some Bulgarians thought we an interesting and took a picture of it. The weird thing is that one of them lives in Almunecar.

12 One weekend I went up to Jaen to see Barb and others... and got to go on beautiful sunny hike/run in the mountains South of Jaen. It was like a run through an art gallery except with no security guards and it is uphill, outside.

Then back in Almuñecar I went to a wine tasting class 13 (Cata de Vino or something), which I understood about 20% of what the guy said. But I did get to drink some tasty wines from around Spain along with a food paring. I almost felt like I was at Top Chef, but it was in Spanish, and there was no Tom or Padma.

Early in the morning the next day, 14 I made my way up to Sevilla to see Prachi, a girl I knew back in Toronto. 15/16/17/18 We had fun with our British host, walking around the city, enjoying the sun (and 27 degree day!) next to the river, eating lots of tapas, saw a dj with silver
teeth play, drinking warm champagne in a doorway just because it was raining.

"Tomatoes are green
before they are red"

The Cathedral was beautiful, and people who live in Sevilla are lucky because they get in for free. I could spend hours in there.19+++ Some really good pizza there too: Goats cheese with Jalapeños. If you want to go, the pizzeria is near Cafe Central on the Alameda. It was fun to be able to communicate while traveling... it was the first time I actually felt somewhat comfortable with speaking Spanish. Took me long enough. I wouldnt mind living in Sevilla... I could start rowing again then!


Now for the future 20 I have many plans ahead for traveling: Valencia, Lagos, Paris, Amsterdam, more of Spain and London. 21 The Parents are invading Almuñecar along with the favorite daughter (Ana) and her husband in about two weeks now. I hope they enjoy my new home time and prepare themselves for a free tapas (still have to buy the drink though) marathon!!!!! 22 Annie-Bananie will be coming soon as well, dont know yet but it will be in March! Then 23, Semana Santa travels and visitors (Steph and Natalia right now), I hope Morocco is sane enough to allow for our visit.

Finally 24, which was what inspired this post was: Staring into fires It made me remember how I spent most of the day after New Years Eve. Staring into this fire: