Our Spainiversary {Year 4}

We have officially been in Spain for four years and we still absolutely love it.  We have one more year left but we hope (and pray) we can stay for a little bit longer, if at least just to let Serafina finish the school year next year.  You can catch up on year three here, year two here, and year one here.

It seems crazy to me that we have lived here for four years.  Some days it seems like we left the states yesterday and some days it seems like we have always lived here.  It is the only life that Serafina really knows and remembers.  Trevor and I are both a little worried about how Serafina will adjust when we move back, but we also know she is strong and will adapt.  We do hope to continue her Spanish when we head back to the states....

But about our time in Spain -- this past year we have had to chance to immerse ourselves in the town and culture even more, especially with Serafina's first year of Spanish public school.  We have loved meeting new people, going to birthday parties, being a part of town events and more.  Serafina has flourished with her Spanish friends (and her Spanish has really taken off).  We love seeing classmates out and about in town -- we live in such a small town that we see someone we know (from swimming or school) almost everywhere we go and it is so much fun.  We all get to practice our Spanish and we love being a part of this amazing community. 

We have traveled a lot more this past year as well, crossing off some bucket list items for all of us.  Our goal was to see new countries and we sure succeeded -- I started off the year with traveling to Croatia with some friends.  And then we took an amazing road trip through Portugal in April, sealing our love for that particular country.  We finally got to Scotland (more here too) and we all loved it -- it was easily one of the most gorgeous countries we had ever seen.  We also took the most epic trip to the Baltic countries last summer.  We were gone for two weeks and it was hands down one of the best trips we have ever done -- we saw the Baltic countries and also took Serafina to the original Legoland in Denmark which our little lady still talks about.  We explored more of our adopted home country, going north to Bilboa + the Basque Country and finally seeing Barcelona.  And then another highlight of the year was getting back to Florence after SO many years (Trevor and I both studied there and were so excited to go back).  A huge highlight for me was going to Turkey with some friends in January -- seriously, this easily became one of my most favorite places in the whole world.  We are so lucky to be able to travel while living here, especially using the budget airlines and traveling for very cheap!

We still manage to have fun with our friends here -- sadly we did have to say goodbye to many good friends last year.  It is always so hard for all of us, especially since Serafina keeps asking to play with friends who have moved.  It can be hard to explain to a young kiddo.  We live in a small community and many of our American friends live within walking distance of our house so we see them often, especially in the summer when we all meet at the beach almost every single weekend.  It can be hard for our change hating kiddo to all of a sudden no longer see her best buddies on a weekly basis.  But despite the goodbyes, we still have the most amazing group of friends who have become our family.
None of us are ready for this to be our last year here, but we know it has to end at some point.  Trevor and I have always wanted to live abroad and we could have never even imagined how amazing it would actually be -- we are so lucky and thankful to have had this opportunity.  And we look forward to this next (and most likely last) year in Spain...

Feria 2019

Our 4th féria.  And still just as magical and amazing as our first -- maybe even better since we knew what to expect and we also ran into so many people we knew...  If you need a refresher on féria, read this post and this post -- it is similar to a super fancy county fair, but really there is nothing that comes close to comparing féria to anything in the states.  Feria is FULL of tradition as it started off as horse/cattle fair/market where the dealers set up casetas (tents) to entertain the clients with wine and food -- nowadays people just gather to celebrate the fair!

As usual, Trevor's coworkers had a very fun lunch the first day of féria -- this is a true family affair and is easily one of my more favorite days of the year.  Everyone dresses up and has an absolute blast eating, drink and dancing the day away.  This year I opted to not go with a typical féria dress -- the skin tight, mermaid style, so many ruffles!  Instead I found an amazing féria like ball gown at El Corte Inglés and it was perfect.  I fit in with the flowers and ruffles, but I could move!

And then, sadly, just like in 2017 our sweet Peanut got super sick... this time with scarlett fever (strep throat that presents as a nasty rash).  It is highly contagious so even though she got started on antibiotics, we needed to keep her away from others for the medicine to kick in.  So that meant no more féria for the weekend (and féria in our town only goes for a long weekend).  And then Trevor got sick.... but I was at least able to sneak away for a little bit to enjoy féria at night.

A bit about the daily schedule to féria -- first, féria doesn't get started until about noon.  This is when things open, but most people don't show up until 2/3pm for lunch.  Many families will come earlier to do the rides (all féria have a caseta/tent area and a ride area and both are very separate).  During the day/afternoon féria is all about socializing, eating, drinking and watching all the horses.  There is a parade (for lack of a better word) of gorgeous Andalucian horses that make big loops around half of the féria grounds (where the casetas are).  There will be single riders, double riders (usually a man and a women) or carriages and you can often hop on (for a price) any of the carriages to take a loop or two around the area.  Most women riding the horses are in traditional mens' féria clothes (think super fancy horsing riding outfits) but occasionally you will see a woman riding side saddle in a féria dress which is pure talent if you ask me!  Then the horses leave probably about 5/6pm and the streets are cleaned... Local dance studios (all flamenco) will perform in the peñas around this time as well.  And then the best part of the whole day is when the lights come on usually around 9pm!  The gates (arches) light up, the casetas and the decorations/lights going over the streets -- it is really magical!  People are usually eating and drinking, sitting in the casetas (tents) or peñas (stand alone buildings) and milling about in the streets and outside talking and hanging out.  Live bands/music start about this time as well -- and everyone starts dancing sevillanas, the type of flamenco dance that is performed during féria.  Then as the night goes on and the rebujitos (typical féria drink) are flowing, many of the younger crowd migrates towards the club side of the grounds (especially as the rides close down, usually around midnight) -- the clubs are still in casetas but usually are playing club/modern music and serving drinks, no food.  And then the party just continues... until the wee hours of the morning (usually until 6/7am) -- in all the casetas and peñas, not just the clubs.  A lot to take in, I know :)

And since I have never actually written in detail about the food that is eaten/served, I should probably do that too.  I did talk about the rebujitos in this post but it is sherry (manzanilla or fino (very very dry) sherry) mixed with 7-Up or Sprite or something lemon/limey and they are delicious and refreshing and go down like water.  I did briefly mention in this post that the food is typical southern Spain tapas -- but most of the food is the same in any caseta or peña so just go where you want to eat!  You will find legs of jamon in every place -- amazingly cut to perfection, this is the jamon that is famous in Spain and should be tried at least once.  You can also get tortilla de patatas (Spanish omelette), pinchitos (chicken made with saffron and served on a skewer), filetes (pork filet sandwiches -- or to make one of these better, get a filete serranito which has the pork filet, jamon and a fried green pepper, these are my personal favorite), buñuelos (small doughnuts topped with whatever you want), pimientos fritos (fried green peppers -- like roasted small, skinny bell peppers covered in coarse salt -- another favorite of mine), chocos fritos (fried cuttlefish)... The list goes on, usually things that are fried and/or pork.  Most of the food is simple but good and there is always patatas fritas (french fries) or churros con chocolate!  And also there are often food trucks selling various hamburgers, pizzas, kebabs, etc -- so there is something for everyone!

So another féria come and gone -- and while it was not the go everyday and experience everything weekend that we have done in the past, we still enjoyed what we could and once again cannot wait for next year!

Our Spainiversary {Year 3}

Wow.  We have been in Spain for three full years -- it seems like we have been here forever, but also that we just left yesterday.  You can catch up on year two here and year one here.

First, we are so happy to say that we are extending our time here in Spain for two more years.  We knew going into this adventure that we would probably stay five years but we also wanted to keep our options open.  Well, we love Spain and don't want to leave (ever) so we extended to stay as long as we can which is five years.

Second, I know I talk about my love for Spain all the time but man, we sure do love it here.  It has been so dang good for our family that we are very thankful we took the huge leap and moved abroad.  This year brought a lot more changes, mostly with Serafina starting her first year of public school and also the challenges of registering for school, but overall it has been an amazing experience and has greatly increased everyone's Spanish!  She is the only American in her class so I find myself often explaining our cultural differences, but I am also so inspired and many times taken aback by the openness of her classmates and their families.  They have been so welcoming and understanding of my beginner Spanish, our different way of doing things -- and so so helpful.

Speaking of our language abilities -- I feel like mine really took off this year.  I have gotten even more comfortable speaking with others, although I have also been forced to speak Spanish daily so I had to improve!  Serafina's Spanish also continues to get better and progress each day -- between school, swimming and dance, she hears Spanish a lot and gets to practice it a lot too!

Third, we have had a wonderful year here -- more traveling and more fun with our friends.  This past year we traveled to London with our good family friends, took a weekend away to Valencia, had an amazing week long trip to explore the Saxony region of Germany and Berlin, I took a girls trip to Germany for Oktoberfest, we saw all the castles in Lisbon and Sintra, Portgual and then finished our year with the most epic Christmas Market trip to Germany.  It was an amazing year for travel.

And an even better year of fun with our friends -- we experienced Carnaval, Spanish style and enjoyed our third feria in Spain.  We spent so many days hanging out with friends, impromptu family dinners, long/sunny days at the beach letting our kids play all day long.  We have the most amazing friends here and it has made living in Spain that much more awesome.  Sadly, the life we live working with the military means a lot of comings and goings.  We have had to say goodbye to some very good friends this year and it has been rough, but we know we will see each other again soon.

But overall, we love living in Spain and are so thankful we have this amazing opportunity!  We can't wait to see what this next year holds.

Our Spainiversary {Year 2}

Well, it doesn't seem real but we have been in Spain TWO years today.  And I am not even sure where to begin this post either... So just bear with my ramblings!

First, I think it is crazy that our little lady has lived more of her life outside the states than she did in the states so far -- girlfriend is going to have killer culture shock when we move back!  And her Spanish language abilities are just something else.  There are some things that she doesn't even know the English word for (oops!) or she just simply calls many things by the Spanish word.  But my personal favorite is hearing her little voice speak Spanish, I find it to be the cutest thing in the whole wide world :)

Second, I feel like we really settled in this year -- while we didn't travel as much (not nearly as many day trips), we settled in and found our grove.  We spent more time with our friends -- doing various group outings or get togethers, rather than day tripping on the weekends.  We spent time exploring our town -- finding new places to eat and drink or hang out.  And our Peanut has found her groove at school -- she loves her teacher and friends (I love seeing her so happy and learning). 

Most importantly, we got more comfortable with living in a foreign country -- especially since many of our tasks invovle speaking Spanish and doing things the Spanish way.  We've found a Spanish dentist and nativagated getting our cars fixed (our dentist does speak English, the mechanic speaks no English).  We've learned a lot of about our Spanish house this year with all of our issues (it sure has made us laugh).  And while my Spanish is not perfect nor am I even close to being fluent, I feel more confident in speaking and stumbling my way through.

And while I feel like we didn't travel as much this past year, we still did some traveling and it was wonderful to discover new and amazing parts of this world.  We took an unforgetable trip with friends to the Canary Islands -- seriously, this trip was so much fun!  We went to southern France (Lyon, Marseille, and Provence) where we explored so much and saw so much and made us love France that much more!  Then finally, Trevor and I took such a wonderful trip without our little lady to Copenhagen + Stockholm -- it was awesome!

Our first year was all about exploring, learning... this year was about getting comfortable.  I have more confidence in doing things around town (shopping, talking to people, taking care of business type stuff).  I have found that we are accepting and appreciating the Spanish way better.  We have come to accept that some things move faster but that others move much slower.  Overall, it is a much slower pace of life here and it does me good -- even if it drives me nuts at times.

But it all comes down to one thing -- we absolutely love living in Spain and are still so thankful we have this opportunity to live here.  We can't wait to see what this next year brings!!