Tag Archives: Spain

It’s the little things {metal mouth and roaming canines}

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{Little thing numero uno}

Free dental care overseas!

And that includes orthodontics! M got a retainer on Friday, she only has a slight crossbite but the orthodontist said he’ll probably be able to fix it with just the retainer. We’ll go in for a recheck in a few week and if it’s not improving she’ll have to get brackets on the front 4 upper teeth (still free!)

{Little thing numero dos}

My dog decided to go on a walkabout this week as well.  Back gate was left open and when my husband and kids came home they saw him in the street surrounded by kids.  Well they didn’t think he had even left our immediate area but then on Facebook I see that he actually traveled a few streets over and was saying ‘hi’ to everyone! Silly dog! Glad everything was okay, we love this silly dog!

Little things Link Up Party with Aisle to Aloha!!

 

Three Kings Day, Spain’s REAL holiday!

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So tomorrow January 6th is Three King’s Day.  It is the day that is celebrated in Spain over Christmas. The gifts, parties all the big stuff, that is all saved for Three King’s Day.  This day celebrates the gift giving of the magi who brought gifts to the baby Jesus. (So really it does make more sense than exchanging gifts of Christmas Day) So the three kings are all over, on decorations, in the parades, everyone knows their names (something I NEVER learned in Sunday school).

So tonight, the night before the parade wandered through Rota. It started at about 4:30 at the castle downtown with the kings making their appearance and then the parade worked its way up from the marina toward the base.  I was RUSHING to get out of work and get the kids to the parade since this is our last one. (oh so sad!)  Thankfully in Spain everything generally starts a little late so I was hoping I could find the parade somewhere and catch up to it.

It couldn’t have gone more perfectly! The is a large parking lot just off base at the bus station/gypsy market I decided to park in and then walk the rest of the way. Well we walk to the other side of the bus station and there everyone is lined up on the side of the road waiting for the floats. THREE minutes later they came! Perfect!

O waiting for the parade. Thankfully it was a super short wait and the weather was just perfect!

These kids came prepared!

Adorable little girls!

Pretty girls! I would love to be able to ride the floats in these fabulous dresses! So much fun!

It's raining candy!

Streamers EVERYWHERE!

Cuties!

And some sweet little boys rode the floats too!

One of the kings (I don't know which one, don't judge me!)

Tossing soccer balls

Getting ready to grab some candy!

I panicked for a second thinking that they were going to have to shove the candy into my purse, but yay, I always have my reusable collapsible shopping shoved in my purse so I was able to pull that out. That bag has come in handy SO many times!

We came home with SO many streamers!

Grabbing as much candy as possible!

Now, there are professionals who SERIOUSLY come prepared to the parade. One of the most common things is the ol’ upside down umbrella, the better to catch candy with!  Really clever idea, however, we don’t need that much candy!

HARDCORE parade-goers

Even easier, just bring a blanket!

The aftermath

We had a fun time at our last Three Kings Day parade… Thankfully my kids aren’t expecting the three kings to come visit tonight, OUR holidays are over!

EVERYTHING in Spain closes early on New Year’s (well except the bars…)

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On New Year’s Eve I had wanted to go out to dinner in Jerez de la Frontera, a bigger city about 15 minutes away.  There is a restaurant there (near Ikea!) called Wok that does a kind of Mongolian buffet. We have a smaller version in Rota but I had heard good things about this one, bigger, nicer decor, better buffet selection.

Well we get out there at around 7:30pm which is early but we figured if we could kill time if we needed to wait until 8. Wok is closed. Dark, no one inside. Okay maaaaaybe we are a little early. So we hit up the grocery store Alcampo next door to look for sparkling apple/grape juice.  No sparkling non-alcoholic beverages were found (although I did see Lambrusco for sale, I’ll have to go back and pick some up!) we did get some delicious donuts for dessert/breakfast/who knows they just looked yummy.

After killing time in the grocery store back to peek at Wok, nope still dark and not a soul in sight.  Let’s just hop over to the mall that is right next door and find something in the food court. Park in the strangely half empty parking lot to walk up into the mall and see only people walking out. What the heck? Its almost 8pm on a Saturday night, usually the mall is packed with people! Mall doors locked. Oh no. This isn’t a good sign. Back over to the Ikea/Wok shopping center, McDonald’s maybe? Closed in the five minutes it took to run to the mall and back.

Now at this point we could have just given up and gone home except for the fact that I have been slacking on grocery shopping and there was nothing to eat at home (okay maybe pb & j but that was our last resort). So back to the base we go, we’ll hit up Pizza Villa even though we had pizza the night before. I figure a chicken, bacon, ranch sandwich will save the night. Pizza Villa closed.  While I am ready to cry and give up because I am cranky, hungry and frustrated that we are all dressed up with literally no where to eat, my husband perseveres.

Out into Rota, where surprise, surprise: Wok Rota is open! And of course we were only the second table in there (after other Americans). I really think everyone in Spain was already making their way toward a plaza to party.

So food! We finally got to eat!

Ended up eating 4 shrimp, 2 hot wings, french fries and 1 bite of rice.

 

I'm not embarrassed to admit that all THREE of those plates are mine. I was starving when I filled them.

 

Not shown, his plate of squid and frog legs.

 

 

 

 

Getting 2012 started

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Well the first day of 2012 turned out to be a beautiful day, the temperature hit the 60s and the sun was shining.  We took Bowser for a walk along with the RC car to a nearby playground with a field attached.  Bowser LOVES chasing anything with wheels; bikes, power wheels, RC cars, the vacuum.  I am actually worried that he is going to try chasing a real car one day and end up getting run over!

Bowser chasing the car across a field

He can *almost* catch the car

Our base has playgrounds all over the place, there are probably 3 within a mile or two not counting the elementary school (which has three).  Ever since Bowser was a puppy we have been taking him to playgrounds and getting him used to walking on the different surfaces and playing on the slides. Now he LOVES going down the slide and will go down repeatedly by himself.

Racing down the slides

Finally when he’s exhausted I can take some pictures of him sitting still!

And of course just some general goofing around on the playground:

Our little corner of the Bay of Cadiz… The Spanish Navy has their ships docked here and any American ships that pull in will pull into a nearby pier.

New Year’s Eve in Spain!

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Every country has its own traditions and Spain has some pretty fun ones.

New Year’s Eve is no exception and this is one of the Spanish traditions that you can do in your own home!

If you are in Spain on New Year’s Eve you will find pretty much everyone in a square or plaza hanging out with friends and eating and drinking.  When the clock strikes 12 everyone eats 12 grapes (ideally one for every strike!) and you will have luck all year long.  The grapes here are crazy big and generally have seeds, but you’ll see cans of grapes (conveniently 12 grapes!) for sale that are smaller and easier to eat.

This started one year (many many years ago) with a bigger than normal grape harvest.  The farmers couldn’t get rid of their grapes so they  basically started the tradition! A great way to get rid of the grapes and the start of a fun tradition.

We are generally boring and stay home with the kids because its a bit insane to be out with the kids (although it’s pretty normal to see kids running around that late anyways) but we like to have our grapes at home anyway.  Thankfully I can get some smaller grapes from the commissary so we can actually eat them!

 

Cell Phones in Spain

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Here is a little informative post for anyone who stumbles onto this blog looking for information about living in Spain, specifically on Naval Station Rota (NavSta Rota).

Pretty much everyone here uses prepaid cell phones.  If you have a quad band phone (that is unlocked) you should be able to use it here. We accumulated cell phones quite a bit while stateside so we had a few to choose from, our blackberry works just fine.

The cell phone company of choice is Movistar, they have a small store in the Navy Exchange where you can go purchase a SIM card that includes some minutes. The SIM card is either $20 or 20 Euro, I forget.

If you don’t have a phone that will work here they sell phones in the store as well, you can get a pretty basic phone with SIM for $30-40.  They don’t have a huge selection, I don’t think there are too many phones with camera or any smartphones there to choose from.

After that you just have to keep going back to put money onto your phone, the minutes go pretty quick and you can’t let your balance sit at zero for more than a month or your number will expire.  We’ve never had a problem with the service, its worked great all over Europe.

Pretty much everyone goes through cell phone withdrawal when they get here. I didn’t have my own phone for the first two years, we had a cell phone for the house which we pretty much only took with us if we were going for a drive in case of an emergency.  To go from having unlimited talking and texting to having to pay for every single call or text sucked! I know there are plans available but I believe you need to have a Spanish bank account to get one. I don’t know anyone with a plan so I can’t give details.