Okay, so these are some photos one of my friends took of me in my fancy feria outfit! Carolyn is an insanely talented photographer and I had SO much fun with her!
If you are in Rota, look her up! Andros Photography.
And then pulled my family in for a quick shot!
Moving from Spain to Hawaii is a pain in the ass. I know I shouldn’t be complaining, that yes we are moving from one dream vacation spot to another, but I still get to complain!
First off is the dog, my baby. We still aren’t 100% sure we are going to be able to fly with him in July. Many airlines have a summer heat embargo that prevents pets from flying in the cargo hold. On top of that, he is a snub-nosed dog which has a further set of restrictions. We have some papers we received from the travel place on base that say that the heat embargo is waived with PCS orders. But I am not believing anything anyone tells me right now with out confirmation from the airline. I don’t want to get to Madrid and have someone tell me I can’t put my dog on the airplane. What the hell would we do then???
Second, finding temporary lodging. We only get a set amount reimbursed from the military for a hotel each day and finding one under that is almost impossible. Add in parking and wifi and taxes and pet fees and we are coming out of pocket for quite a bit. I am looking for someone on the island who pet sits so we can have the dog stay there instead of in a hotel. (Okay while we *could* find a cheaper hotel, I don’t want to stay in a shady area. If I am going to be in a hotel for 4+ weeks I want it to be in an area where the kids and I can walk to things, so I am focusing on Waikiki.)
Thirdly: HOUSING! Holy crap is the base housing wait list long! 2-4 months! I am looking for something off base, preferably in Mililani, preferably 4 bedroom, and is pet friendly. Oh and is under $2500/month. Pretty much dreaming the impossible dream over here.
Adding onto that the kids will be starting school when we still be in temporary housing so how the heck do I decide where to enroll them? I am REALLY looking forward to living in Hawaii and I know I am going to LOVE it. I am not, however, looking forward to the transition period of the next few months. It’s going to suck.
Stressful week so I am venting. My dog acted like he was dying, impromptu girls sleepover tonight, went to see a slightly disappointing Mirror, Mirror at the drive in, and I’ve spent too many hours today researching hotels.
Let me go to sleep so I am not a zombie in the morning!
We had a fun weekend, took the dog to the beach, went to feria in Jerez, then out to dinner for Mother’s Day at Blanca Paloma, aka my happy place.
My kidlets were threatened that they better be on their best behavior so I could enjoy my favorite dinner, the beautiful day, and the sunshine. They did great, iPods and Nintendo DS’s helped.
Me and crazy pants. He demanded a silly photo.
The salad of my dreams. Fresh mozzarella, fresh pesto, sun-dried tomatoes. So, so good. I also had some bruchetta with tomato, provolone and feta. No pictures of that because it was inhaled.
Happy Mom’s Day to me! I swear I don’t always have bitch face!
On our way out, the beach was PACKED when we got there and empty by the time we left. It was a beautiful day!
On Saturday a friend of mine and I took our boxers to the beach. This whole area is under water at high tide but at low tide there is a TON of room for them to run. Swimming isn’t allowed so it stays empty and we can let the dogs run and they don’t bother anyone.
Bowser decided to cool off and get into the water. He’s never done this before, but once he realized how much it cooled him off he didn’t want to get out! I don’t even know if he can swim! We’ll have to see this summer!
All three puppies! Bowser loves his buddies!
In the amount of time that we were there (maybe an hour total walking) I got sunburned! This Spanish sun is NO JOKE!
This morning I started out positively sad about our pending move. I am ready to dig my heels in and just stay here a little while longer. It didn’t help that it got up to a gorgeous 85 degrees today, nice and sunny with summer right around the corner.
Then…
I have to listen to yet ANOTHER person complaining about how much they hate this base. I am so over it. While we chose to move here there are those people who didn’t have a choice. Or maybe this base just wasn’t what they had in mind. But to LOUDLY complain about practically every aspect of the base, not a good enough selection at the commissary/exchange, not enough for kids to do, not enough child care options, it just annoyed the crap out of me!
We don’t live in America, we live in Spain. There might possibly come a point where you have to pull up your big girl panties and step off base! Amazingly there are stores in Spain that sell food and clothing! Cute clothing in fact! And the complaints you have about having to pay for it in euro? What the hell do you think that COLA is for??? It was just super annoying and I took it personally as I feel like I am a representative of the child care on base and that she was picking on me personally. Even though she wasn’t, and at this point in time I really don’t care. I think it sad that instead of spending your time enjoying a place that some people save up and vacation to, all you can complain about is how horrible everything is.
And the other day someone told me they hated it here because there was no WalMart. I. Just. Don’t. Get. It. You would rather shop at a trashy big box store (that has a twin here in Spain called Carrefour!!!!) than live here? Is buying stuff, random stuff that you don’t need and are only buying because you are bored, really THAT important to you?
Ending rant now, just had to get that out there. If you are moving to Spain, please be aware that it is a totally different country because apparently there are some people who think it should be ‘little America’. I swear if I hear the phrase “…at our LAST base…” one more time…
Feria is the Spanish equivalent of a county fair. They originated from trading posts and have evolved into a big celebration with horse show, fair rides and tons of food. Different organizations set up casetas or tents and sell food and drinks as well.
At work we have our own feria for the kids. Each class has been working on some dance steps to the traditional Sevillana dance. Everyone dresses up in feria attire, similar to what most people would consider flamenco dresses.
The day started out rainy and of course we were panicking over where we were going to hold it if it was raining, but the rain cleared and the sun came out and it ended up being a beautiful afternoon.
Some of the decorations we hung up, most of them made by the kids in the center. We put window boxes on every window and make about a million tissue paper flowers. Also draw some gypsy bars on the windows. Makes for a very cheerful center!
Setting up… Thankfully this is after the rain stopped. Each classroom also decorated one of those hanging triangles for their ‘caseta’.
Hanging out in O’s class with Miss Ana before feria starts. I had so much fun getting all dressed up!
Me and M. She loved getting all dressed up in her feria dress. I ended up taking in the sides the night before as the dress was a size too large for her. Also pinned the front of the skirt up a bit so she wouldn’t trip because it was really long.
The babies. So stinkin’ cute! They pretty much just sat there and looked adorable in their tiny dresses!
Here is one of our one year old classes. They had maracas and were dancing all over the place with them.
A TON of parents showed up, it was so much fun!
Hello blue sky and sunshine!
O was a very serious dancer.
Once he was all done he was smiling!
M did great, lots of skirt swirling!
Me and my two kiddos, looking all Spanish!
Me and our assistant director, Patricia. I loved her dress, it was all embroidered, beautiful!
Me with my Spanish amigas! Cristina, Cristina, Maria del Mar, Maria Jose, Luisa, Aurora and Inma.
The start of Rota and El Puerto de Santa Maria’s feria’s is this week and I can’t wait to go and take a million pictures of our last feria. This is the first year I’ve had my own dress so I am very excited over that. Plus every year we feel more and more comfortable hanging out at feria.
So while I was trying to do something, ANYTHING, from working on my final research paper last night I decided to change the look over here… I have an idea in my head of how I would REALLY like it to look but I don’t know anything about web design and I really don’t want to put any money into what is really just an online scrapbook of my life. So for now my blog is trying on some new clothes and we’ll see how they fit.
My husband is begging me to buy sandwich bags. It’s pretty funny that this is even a conversation topic. I have become so anti-plastic that I don’t even know when the last time I bought ziploc bags was. Don’t get me wrong, we are no where near where we could be. Shit just has SO. MUCH. PACKAGING!
In other news my co-worker at the front desk is quitting. I don’t know what I am going to do. I am going to have to train her replacement and then my replacement. Ugh. Plus there is just SO much you have to be able to know how to do. We aren’t just answering phones up there! Hopefully they hire someone who is a fast learner! Plus I don’t know if I’ll be able to quit as early as I was going to. I am that crazy person who just can’t leave a mess behind at work. We’ll see about that because….
We STILL haven’t gotten our orders yet! I am getting more than a little bit stressed out because Lord knows PCSing isn’t stressful enough. Now we are down to3 months with no orders. Honestly this wouldn’t be that big of a deal but we have to get the dog on the rotater (the military flight that flies back and forth every two weeks). Because he is a boxer he can’t fly commercial airlines in the summer time. The flights are full of dogs until June already and I reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaally don’t want to leave my baby behind!
Still haven’t started cleaning out our belongings or closets, I need to do that as well as pull the rest of the kids summer clothes out. I am hoping that when I start cleaning I will find my damn camcorder that I somehow placed somewhere stupid. I have a very bad habit of walking around with something in my hand and then setting it down. I once lost my coffee cup and couldn’t find it anywhere. Next day, I found it in the linen cabinet. Really?
Well now that I got that off my chest, have a wonderful Thursday!
Sink Or Swim 