Mary: Loving the Vega Abads and Learning the Numeros

Buenos Noches!

If you’re looking for a break from big-city Madrid…visit Caceres. More specifically, visit Enrique Vega Abad and his family, because I’m pretty sure they would open their house to a fly if it smiled at them and appreciated the food they served.

Background: I mentioned this in the previous blog, but for those of you who might have missed it, Enrique, (or “Keque,” his nickname), stayed with my family during the summer of 1998. When mom found out I was going to Spain, she did a fantastic job of tracking Keque down by phone so that I could visit with him and his family!

After a scary early-morning walk to the metro, I got to my 8:00 A.M. bus to Caceres and later arrived in the city at noon. Because I was 8 the last time I saw Enrique, I expected to see a tall, gawky teenager with bushy brown hair meeting me at the bus station. However, I found myself face-to-face, (literally), with a short-haired thirty-year-old man! Still as sweet and kind as I remembered him, and that obviously runs in the family because even his dad rode the 2 minutes to the bus station to meet me!

The Vega Abads live in a small yet super classy flat. (Families living in flats is far more common in Spain than it is in the states—at least 3 of the girls I have met here live in flats with their host families). Everybody was there to greet me when I arrived—mother, sister, and grandma—and right away I was ushered into the kitchen for a snack. Keque, his sister, and his dad all speak English, but his mother and his grandmother didn’t—made me really want to know Spanish so that I could communicate with these lovely, warm women. I gave Keque a bag of “Goldfish,” his favorite American snack, and a picture of my whole family. When I came back later in the day, Señor Vega had framed the picture and put it on the bookshelf!!! Ahahah.

When my snack of “pig” (his family calls all ham products “pig”) slices was finished, Keque had me on a tight schedule. Along with his sister, Elena, we went through the city of Caceres—both the old parts and the new. It was a mix of Segovia and Seville—not as many colors as Seville, but similar little cobbled streets and palm trees, and the old buildings themselves reminded me a lot of those I saw in Segovia. Anyways, because Keque literally took me to every part of his city, it all kind of runs together. I do know the city is protected by St. George, (ANDY), and St. Montana, (MOUNTAIN). Also, it was a Muslim military base for when the Catholics invaded. After we poked around for a little while and drank some clara de limons, we went back to his flat, ate a lunch of pig and pasta, and then I hardcore SIESTED! Passed out. It was great. Keque woke me up at exactly half-past four, (“we will go see museums, maybe have a coffee, then the mountain, maybe a cerveza, then some buildings…” haha), and we drove up to the top of the mountain that borders his city, where the statue of St. Montana stands, blessing the city and its people—quite a spectacular view, as you can see from my pictures.

We did some more museum touring, found a Spanish modern art gallery—loved it—and then headed back to clean up for dinner. We went to a little bar right outside their flat, had an appetizer of ham and olives, followed by queso and ham, and finished off with mochina—my favorite: pig blood. I am slowly turning into a pig. Proud Spanish fact: none of the pig is wasted—they even make a soup from the meat of the pig’s toenails.

Slept soundly and was woken up by the smell of churros! Sunday tradition. With coffee mmm…

Then Keque took me to Merida, a little town east of Caceres, famous for its Roman ruins. Awesome. If I don’t make it to Italia, at least I got to (kind of) see how the romans do! The trip to and from was beautiful—Spanish countryside is absolutely intoxicating. Keque pointed out the different trees—some olive, some cork, and, of course, the trees that house the acorns that all the delicious pigs feed from. We met up with his counsin “Nacho,” and his girlfriend for lunch, and then drove back to Caceres as I had a bus to catch at 19:00.

As I was saying goodbye I teared up because I literally felt love emanating off this family! They even gave me a DVD all about Caceres to share with my own family, and Señora Abad packed me a dinner for the bus ride home. Just goes to show that there are some truly beautiful people out in this wide world, and I’m very grateful I got to spend time with some of the most beautiful!

Other than that, my classes have started and I know my Spanish numbers, 1-100! My teacher is EXACTLY how I imagined her to be—a gorgeous, young Spanish woman who knows little English, which is good, because it forces my brain to work pretty hard. I nod and say “si” a lot. The only other person in my class is a German woman who took holiday here at the beginning of January, met the love of her life in Madrid, got married, and four weeks later is trying to learn his language…

What? This is stuff straight out of movies, people! I’m witnessing the influence for the next romantic comedy, just you wait and see. They’ll probably cast Kristen Bell to play my part.

This weekend is my trip to Barcelona, and today I booked three more trips: Cadiz for “Carnaval,” (the Spanish, two-week-long Mardi Gras); Casablanca, Morocco; and Lisbon, Portugal. Whoo-hoo!

Loving and missing you all. A lot. Email, facebook, skype, whatever you have time for—I’d love to hear from you!

Muy bueno y muchos amor,

Mary

My tiny, tiny classroom.

Keque and Elena in their Caceres town square!

View from city walls.

View from St. Montana mountain!

W/me...

Keque demonstrating how guards would use holes in the wall to shoot arrows at their enemies!

St. Montana, in all his glory.

I don't know why but I love this. His music was echoing all over the place because of the city walls.

Too good--Proud Keque and his Caceres

Okay, so looking at these pictures is reminding me of what I learned: so during Holy Week, the week before Easter, the people of Spain walk outside their doors to witness a march on Good Friday. People dressed in these terrifying robes walk around with a statue of Jesus as is after his crucifixion. It's a big deal. The whole town has to be silent except for one of these guys carries a giant rod around and stamps it rhythmically on the ground.

This was hanging in my room...joking! But seriously, HAM!!

Countryside. These were the "cork" trees. Trunks are used for wine corks.

Merida Roman ruins! So, this was the beast vs. man arena, where soldiers fought a beast, typically a lion, for the King's entertainment. If the King was unimpressed by the soldier's performance, he simply turned his thumb down and the solider was killed! My look of horror had Keque cracking up. And then I explained to him that I have Lichtinger blood, and thus I feel worse for the lions than the humans, and he looked so confused.