My first night in Huercal-Overa was pretty uneventful: after meeting mi familia Lola y Candela, I went with them into town to do some quick shopping. The town is cute; hopefully I'll see more of it later on.
The farm I'm staying on is called Casa Rural Aloe Vera. Apparently casas rurales are very popular in Spain and the rest of Europe, and probably should be in the states too because they're a great idea. Essentially a casa rural is like the most wonderfully relaxing and intimate hotel ever: you stay with a family in their rural home. You pay to stay there, but are friends with the owner and eat some meals together. I love it.
Anyway, the first night I arrived, Candela showed me around the house. I got my sheets and towels and immediately went to shower and clean myself extensively. I ate dinner (fish, little potatoes with some pate of which I have yet to determine the contents, and salad) and then went to my room. I unpacked and went online, and when I realized 5 hours had passed and it was midnight, I decided to go to sleep.
The next morning I woke up on my own. I was surprised that I had woken up so early: the family wakes up around 6am to being working, and if I was awake on my own, that means I woke up before they came to get me. Odd, considering I hadn't slept in 3 days...I couldn't fall back asleep, so I got up and went in to the kitchen. The clock told me it was noon. OOPS
Lola did not seem to care / notice that I have slept 6 hours passed when I should have woken up, and instead makes me breakfast (cafe y pan tostado con mermelada de naranja y mantequilla). IT IS SO DELICIOUS. I love Spanish food. And Lola and Candela made all of the food themselves! So wonderful.
Lola sells some of the foods she makes for los huespedes who stay in her casa rural. She sells mermeladas and honey mostly, along with small amounts of some other foods and arts and crafts. I spent the rest of the morning preparing some of the jars for selling.
After lunch (which Lola tells me is the most important meal of the day, "tenemos que comer juntas siempre a las dos"), Candela and I have our Spanish and English lessons:
Lola sits down with a book on la ortografica, and Candela and I sit and write a dictation that Lola reads aloud. The goal of this dictacion is to practice the difference between el be (b) y el uve (v) when writing in Spanish. This is odd for me because my first language is English, so I pronounce the two letters differently, but in Spanish it is hard to tell the difference.
After the lesson, I help Candela with her English. Her English book is very European, and the grammar is surprisingly odd for me. The book teaches word contractions like "I've" and "what's" without teaching the full phrases first / at all. It also has phrasing that is weird for me such as "I have got" as opposed to "I have". We come across a game in the book, and of course Candela wants to play it 38091713544086 times, so we sit there for 45 minutes going around and around the gameboard repeating the same questions. She plays for both of us, since I already speak English. Que divertido.
When Candela finally tires of the game, Lola takes me out to water the olive trees. The olive trees are pretty far from the house, and the view is really nice despite the fact that most of the grass is dried out. I sit and water the trees, reading a short Spanish novel Lola lent me to practice with while I wait.
I finish watering just as the sun is setting, and realize I have no idea where to put the hose, let alone how to get back. I retrace the hose to a point where it sits in a pile, and leave it there. I start walking back towards the house. I realize after about 30 seconds that I can't see the house anymore, and I'm walking through grass and bushes up to my waist. The walk over was easy and through low grass and even just dirt. This is not correct.
I see a house and start walking towards it, hoping I can at least find a road and then walk along it and hopefully end up back at the farm. I realize I am most definitely on someone else's property, as I am now running through and ruining perfectly tilled soil. Eventually I get to a road. I am sweaty and gross and sad and lost. But at least I found the road!
Of course then two dogs come out, barking as loudly as they possibly can to signify my intruding on their farm. I still have no idea where to go, but I take off in the opposite direction hoping the dogs will stop before someone sees me.
Somehow I end up back at the house. I come in just in time for dinner, which we are having with the two huespedes, Antonia y Estela. I leave to go wash my hands before dinner, and walk around the house twice before coming back and asking where mi habitacion is. I have been here for two days and still cannot find my room. I come back, and everyone is all dressed up, and I'm in my dirty farming pants with hathead. Excellent.
We sit and enjoy an incredible dinner (delicious rice and vegetables shaped into a bundt cake pan, salad, wine, and tortilla de zanahorias: a sweet pie thing made entirely of carrots--SO GOOD). I understand most of the conversation which is exciting, but only contribute really when we start talking about immigration in the U.S.
As we finish up with dinner, A BIRD COMES OUT OF ESTELA'S SHIRT. Apparently it has been sitting there sleeping in the top of her bra the whole time, but it was small and not moving so I didn't see it. He settles down and goes back to sleep. ?!
We have infusion (tea) after dinner, with some of Lola's honey. It is SO AMAZING (obviously. I lover everything here). The bird comes out again, and this time he poops on Estela's shirt before going back to sleep. After dinner, we all part ways for bed.
I woke up this morning at noon AGAIN. Lola didn't say anything!! Apparently I should wake myself up, but I'm going to try to set an alarm from now on because I don't want to miss all of the work! Candela and I had our lessons again, and I worked more with preparing the jars. For lunch I helped make patatas fritas. Spanish olive oil is the best.
Lola and Candela take a 3 hour nap / resting time after lunch usually, but I'm not tired (obvi. I woke up 2 hours ago) so I keep working on the jars or check my email. I'm about to go back out to water los olivos. I'm kind of worried because I'm going by myself this time and have NO IDEA WHERE THEY ARE or how to get back. We'll see how this goes...
Also, I'm taking a ton of pictures and will post them once I figure out how to? / upload them to the computer.
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