Mother’s day

Whilst looking on the internet for information about fiestas in Spain I stumbled on some great news. Or at least it was pleasant information for me. On the 1st May the Spanish celebrate Mother’s day! That’s the first weekend we are in Cádiz, I couldn’t believe my luck.

Mother’s day in its current form started in America in 1910. In that year they elected the second Sunday in May as the day to celebrate Mother’s day. A lot of countries copied the concept from America and also celebrate it on that day, but there are some exceptions. Spain is one of the exceptions, because they celebrate it on the first Sunday in May.

This year I can celebrate my first Spanish mother’s day, although there are no special festivities I do intend to enjoy it to the fullest! And one week later I can celebrate it once more, because in The Netherlands we celebrate Mother’s day on the second Sunday of May! So this year I can receive a double amount of love! I really don’t have to receive twice the amount of gifts, but having a lay in and getting breakfast in bed is something I wouldn’t say no to even if it is two weeks in a row! Although I do hope that in Spain we will be able to have breakfast sitting on a patio enjoying the early morning sun. I can’t think of a better way of enjoying Mother’s day!

Fiestas and Ferias

The holiday is getting closer by the day and we are really looking forward to it. As part of the fun we are preparing our trip by looking on the internet and checking what we can see and do in that week. We already noticed a nice trip in Tarifa where we can go on a boat to spot dolphins, but we also wanted to visit a fiesta or feria to see that side of the Spanish way of living. At first we thought we hit the jackpot when we realized that 2nd May they celebrate Labour Day in Spain, but unfortunately it only means that the shops are closed that day. Luckily for us, after some more snooping around on the internet, we found some other fiestas in surrounding villages.

One of them is in Vejer where they celebrate the Feria de Primavera from 27th April until 2nd May. There is a carnival and a livestock market. It doesn’t sound very exciting, but it is certainly something we will keep in mind. Just in case we might have nothing to do one day!

Another feria, which is probably worth visiting, is the one in Jerez. It is called Feria de Caballo and takes place from 2nd May until 9th may. It is known as a colourful festival with the well-known horses from Jerez and surroundings. This is definitely a feria we want to visit. We haven’t decided which day to go yet, but we do know we will not go on 3rd May because we will go to Conil that day. Conil will celebrate the cruces de Mayo that day. They decorate crosses and show them in procession or along the streets. People on the internet say that Conil is at its best on that day so, according to us, that is a definite must see. We don’t want to miss the opportunity to really get acquainted with the Spanish culture and everything that has to do with it.
One week is probably too short to get to know the Spanish people, culture and way of living in Cádiz, but we will definitely have a go at it. Let’s just hope we will have time to relax as well!!

Can we still choose?

Every once in a while there is someone who makes us face the reality about our decisions and the way we are preparing at the moment. At those moments we rethink our plans with regard to the bed and breakfast, language school or the fact that we want to move abroad.

This time it was my dad who asked me: “will you still be able to choose? You have already enrolled for a university, JW is going to Spain and your both doing a course.” It made me realise that, maybe, we can't choose any more. Of course we can still decide not to go at all, but if we want to move abroad Spain will definitely be the place to go. Even though we said we would use our holiday in May to experience if Spain offers a future for us, the decisions we made in the last few months have ensured that we either have to move to Spain or we won't move at all. I know there are also other countries in which they speak Spanish, but going to South America is not something we would choose to do. It is simply to far away!Luckily, we are both still very enthusiastic about moving to Spain, so the chance that we won't move is very small. How ever, we will keep in mind that we still have the opportunity to say “no” if we really want to. And if so, we will at least have had a great experience preparing for the move!

La Feria de Malaga

On the site of the language school, which JW is going to visit in August, there was a note that it will be closed on the first Friday of his course. We were very curious what could be the reason for that so we explored it a bit more. So we had a look on the internet and found out that they celebrate Feria de Malaga from 12^th August until 21^st August. JW couldn't belief his luck!!

The Feria de Malaga is a big feast, which can be compared to carnival, and includes a big fair. The fair basically includes flamenco, other Spanish dances and fino (sherry). It exists since 1487 and was started to remember, and of course celebrate, the victory by Isabella and Ferdinand. Nearly all the females where beautiful flamenco dresses and the men also wear traditional Spanish costumes. During the day people can enjoy dancing and singing in the city centre, and during the night people can go to a gigantic field with hundreds of market booths where one can walk around and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere with music, alcohol and tapas.

Let's just hope that JW will still find time to do his homework. One thing is certain: he will definitely have enough opportunities to experience the true Spanish culture!

Language course in Spain

JW has spent some time to find a language course in Spain. He did most of his research on the computer and after a few hours of research he found two he liked. Together we compared the two, most of the details were the same so JW had to decide which one felt best. He decided to go to the school which he found on linguaschools.com. A small school in the centre of Malaga. Especially the location of the school was one of the reasons why JW has chosen it. He could just see himself finish class, walk across the street, order a cerveza, and do his homework while enjoying this cold beer and the warm sun!

JW will leave 14^th August from the Bremen Airport and will return on 24^th August. This will give him two whole weeks to learn the language and get to know the Spanish culture. He has chosen to stay with a Spanish family to ensure the fact that he will be surrounded by true Spanish life!

Language course

Tuesday we had our final Spanish lesson. We were put to work with exercises dealing with pronouns, reflexive pronouns, objects, subjects and many other grammar subjects. Are we ready to have a conversation?

Yesterday there were oral exams at my school, and since I teach most of those classes I had the task to organise that afternoon and prepare the pupils for it. They had to have conversations in five different situations; at the doctor's, at a police station, at a train station, at a job centre and they had to phone enquiries to make a collect call. The pupils have been preparing and practicing for weeks.

Whilst I was preparing with the pupils I started to wonder if I would be able to do all this in Spanish. I should have a bit of a basis after twenty lessons, but I doubt it if I would be able to have the conversations the pupils would have. I understand even better what the pupils must be feeling, because they feel similar about English as I do about Spanish. I realise how much work the study Spanish is going to be, because in four years time I need to go from “¡Hola, me llamo Ellen! to beautiful sentences and long conversations! I will have to work very hard the coming months. And in October we will start the second language course to improve our Spanish even more!

Andalusian culture

When you think of Andalusia you think of Flamenco, bull fighting, food and drinks.

Flamenco is a dance which was founded in the triangle Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera and Sevilla. There were many poor people in the 17^th and 18^th century and their life was filled with poverty, criminality, prostitution and alcohol. The people in this environment full of fire and sadness found their relief in passionate music. At first they would only sing and the singer would accompany him or herself by clapping a rhythm. Later the guitar and dance were added.

Bullfighting also found its origin in Andalucia and that's something you really notice as soon as you go to one fo the fight in cities like Sevilla. Lots of people join the festivities and are very enthusiastic about everything that happens in the arena. Of course bullfighting is very debatable. The people who support the fights see it as part of their culture and a true tradition. The ones who are against it think it is not fair to the bull and think that animals should not be killed for amusement.

 

Besides bullfighting and flamenco, there is also a rich tradition with regards to food and drinks. Most people have heard of tapas, but most of them might not realise that these little snacks find their origin in Andalusia. Literally “tapar” means “to cover” and a tapa was used to cover a drink to protect it for the flies. There are also explanations which say that a tapa was introduced by king Alfonso X, who was against binge drinking and set a rule that one could only drink alcohol when it was covered by some food. Pub owners found a way to comply to the rule by covering the glass with a piece of sausage. Now a days you can buy all kinds of tapas. When you are in Andalusia the best drink to accompany the tapas is a sherry. The original sherry comes from Jerez de la Frontera. Within the old city walls in the centre of this city you can find numerous bars Vinos de Jerez.

Together with everything mentioned in this blog the sherry forms the backbone of the Andalusian life. We can't wait to enjoy that life!!

Spanish theatre

Every year we receive brochures of the local theatres and usually we find two or more events/shows we want to visit. Even though the tickets are often not cheap we do like to go because it's a fun way to spend a night together and leave the normal things of life behind for a while.

Last week we went to theatre twice and it made us realise that we don't even know if this is something we could still do when we move to Spain. Do they actually have theatres in Spain and will they have the same kind of shows? We do expect there to be theatres but can't imagine what kind of plays, cabaret or comedy shows they will have. So we have another activity to add to our to-do-list for when we go to Spain. We will definitely visit a Spanish theatre!!

Accreditations for the language school

As part of our research we have written to a couple of organisations to see if our plans have any chance of succeeding. We also wanted to know what we should do to get our language school join one of them. Until now we have received all kinds of responses. Some of the organisations have their own schools and do not let people join them, others were enthusiastic but were not able to help us any further until we were actually in Spain. Although they could not help us right now, the responses were very valuable because it gave us the impression there was still a market for our plans. One of them actually said we had something unique and definitely had a chance in succeeding!

To get people to book our courses we want to have accreditations, which show that the school has been inspected and meets all the standards. This was the second part of our research. We asked the organisations if they knew how we could get those accreditations, which ones were best to have, and what rules we should comply with? To get answers to these questions we looked at several websites and asked a school in Malaga for help. Ellen followed a course there in 2004 and she hoped they would be kind enough to help us. Unfortunately their response was not what we had hoped. They did help us, but the information they gave us was a bit disappointing. The main organisation to give out accreditations is called Cervantes and they have quite a few demands. Their basic demands are: two certified teachers, a minimum space of 150m² and a space for the teachers to work on a computer and do their administrative duties. The last two things are not a real issue, that's just something we need to keep in the back of our heads when we search for a property, but the first demand is definitely a problem. We did not plan on hiring any staff right in the beginning. The idea was that Ellen would do all the teaching so we could keep the groups small and we could cut on the costs. So in the beginning we will not be able to get accredited by this organisation.

Luckily, there are quite a number of organisations and we decided to focus on those first and try to get the accreditation of Cervantes at a later date. We have received some links on which we can find information about these organisations and will see what demands these have with regard to accreditations. If they also have demands we can not comply with at the start we will just have to try and start the company without accreditations. We are definitely not giving up (yet)!!

Are there still Spanish people in Spain?

Just like many other people we love watching programmes in which people move to Spain or another warm country. Lately we often watch the English program Living in the Sun, a Dutch channel shows the reruns of this BBC program.

In this programme English people are looking to find a home in the South of Spain and they also have e look at the lives of English ex-pats who have set up a business of their own. It is a lot of fun to watch and also quite amazing. Are there even any Spanish people living and working in Spain? In the program you can only see English people buying their groceries in English shops, and when they need a plumber or any other kind of help in and around their home they always find an English person to help them.

One of the things that we think is positive is the fact that this programme is mainly taped in the Murcia and Malaga areas. It's definitely not our dream to settle in an English or Dutch settlement and not be able to connect with the true Spanish people and the true Spanish life. Of course it is also a bit daunting knowing that we will have to turn to strangers when we have a problem, but we are certain we will manage as long as we are prepared to accept the fact that Spanish people do things different than we do.