8. June 21-26, 2011

Tuesday June 21, 2011    Sevilla

I am totally fried. I can’t remember the Soleá we have been learning; yes I have parts, but I keep forgetting the order. This morning at 10:30 I had Angelita’s class. After that I had just enough time to come home, change my clothes, grab my shopping cart and run to the Mercado. It was still early and the market was crowded with women buying a ton of groceries, one thing at a time. 

Finally I was able to buy enough so I could eat dinner and lunch and breakfast, but I didn’t have any time left to eat the lunch. I had to be at Plaza Pelicano at ten minutes to one for a 4-person class with Javier Heredia. Rina had finally been able to organize it and I wanted to take it and I had committed to it. 

Lakshmi had changed our 5 PM class to 2:30 PM, and I had to do the shopping after my first class (with Angelita), before el Mercado closed and with enough time to get to Javi’s class by ten minutes to 1:00 PM. Right after Javi’s class, I would be sharing my private Lakshmi class with Danielle, who was also taking Javi’s class and took Angelita’s too. Stephanie had come up from Jerez with Danielle and was showing her how to find her way around Sevilla. Danielle didn’t have to grocery shop, so she had time to eat out. 

I had ridden my trusty bike to Javi’s class, the fastest form of transportation here in Sevilla. With little time to spare after the class, I quickly looked for my keys, so I could unlock the bike. I had very low blood sugar by then, having just eaten a quarter of a health food candy bar before the class. I thought that would hold me, but it didn’t. After at least five minutes of searching in all the pockets of both my pack and my purse, I finally found my keys in the first place that I thought I had looked, in one of the front pockets of my pack. But by then, I was in tears, feeling pressured and of course hungry. I called Lakshmi to tell her that I would be late because I just couldn’t do all three classes so close together without eating. 

I rode home; it took me less time than I thought it would. I grabbed the rest of the candy bar, a delicious fig that I had bought at the Mercado, and a spoonful of yogurt. Then I walked to Lakshmi’s for the class. The time had been changed so that Danielle and Stephanie could catch the bus back to Jerez and not have to wait until 8 PM. Tomorrow Stephanie will return to the beach to help Freddie. 

Normally after a class I like to review what we did so that I can remember it. When I left Angelita’s class, people were reviewing the new escbobilla (es coh bee ya), the footwork that we had learned that day in class. I couldn’t join them because I had to go shopping. I was supposed to go to the bank to deposit money for Freddie’s doctor’s visit, but I did not have time for that either. I so wanted to join in the review after the class, but I couldn’t.

After Javi’s class the same thing happened. Everyone but Danielle and I stayed and reviewed what we had learned. I had to rush off to another class. And I am just too old to do things like that now. And, I haven’t yet written about all of it, I had a stressful weekend at the beach because of Freddie’s burn and then over five hours on the return trip.

When I left Palmar on Sunday evening, Freddie was sleeping and grumpy. He did not want me to leave and he was feeling neglected. I did not want to miss an expensive class that I had already paid for. I was also afraid of getting behind, as we cover a lot of material very quickly. 

And I was still upset about Freddie’s drinking. I needed to take care of myself and what was important to me. But it was a difficult decision to carry out. Stephanie planned to return to Jerez on Monday, so I knew that Freddie would at least have company for Sunday night.

I also did not realize then how severe Freddie’s burns were or that there was such a risk of infection at that point.

I had already arranged to take Danielle with me to Sevilla so she could start taking classes with Angelita on Monday morning. We left Palmar by taxi with plenty of time in case the bus was early. Shortly after six PM we arrived at the bus stop (it is not really a “station”) and I went into the tiny storefront to buy our bus tickets to Sevilla. The man informed me that the bus was completely full and that there were no more seats available. There were also no seats available for the 6:30 Cadiz bus. 

What we had to do was to buy tickets for the 7:30 bus to Cadiz and then catch the 9 PM bus from Cadiz to Sevilla. The ride itself was an extra hour to hour-and-a-half of travel time and the wait for the first bus was an additional hour and a half from when we arrived. The bus actually took an hour-and-a-half (instead of the hour I thought it would) to get to Cadiz and we worried about missing the connecting bus to Sevilla. 

However, at the last minute we discovered that the Sevilla bus was the same bus we were on, but we had to get off it in Cadiz and show our tickets again to re-board. But there were two buses, and my ticket said it was for the other bus. Danielle was already on the first bus. She had re-boarded as I had run directly to the bathroom during our five-minute stop that really was about fifteen minutes. 

Several of us who had been on that bus, had to wait by the side of the line while others boarded. Finally, because the buses weren’t full, they let us re-board the same bus, where Danielle was anxiously waiting for me with our things. Danielle was frightened that we would be separated; she did not know where to go in Sevilla and it would have been crazy. Also, we were enjoying each other’s company and getting to know each other better. 

Finally we reached Sevilla around eleven PM and walked to a city bus stop. The bus came almost immediately. We got off near the top of calle Feria and walked home, rolling our luggage behind us. It only takes around ten or fifteen minutes to walk. The Sevilla night was still very hot, giving us inklings of the heat to come the next day. 

Needless to say, Sunday night we got to bed later than planned. Rina and Akahne were at home and of course we all talked and visited before going to bed. Danielle planned to start Angelita’s class in the morning, so I knew that I would walk with her instead of taking my bike. We would have to leave a little earlier than I usually leave. 

And so early in the morning (for me), with perhaps six hours of sleep, we got up and went to class. I hadn’t practiced or reviewed all weekend and felt out of sync. After class Danielle took a taxi to the train station to return to Jerez, where she has already rented an apartment. Stephanie, who had stayed in Palmar to help Freddie, was to meet Danielle in Jerez that afternoon. I showered and went to the market. Then I went to the bank to put in the fifty euros to pay for Freddie’s Saturday doctor’s visit. The bank couldn’t fax the payment verification to the health center as required, so I had to find someone else to do that. The fax place I went to next, informed me that the fax they tried to send wasn’t being received, and told me to try again after siesta.

By the time I returned to the house, even after doing a shamanic journey, I felt depressed and frazzled. I scanned the bill into the computer and printed them both out on one piece of paper so I could take the copy and the note saying where to fax it, on the one piece of paper, to the fax place. That way I would only have to pay for one sheet of paper to fax, instead of two. This time it worked. 

I had wondered why when I had tried to copy the bill earlier with my printer that the paper had come out blank. (That is why I scanned before printing it in black and white.) After I returned home I tried all sorts of tests on the computer for the printer and discovered that only the colors weren’t printing and that I could print in black and white, which I had done to make the copy for the fax. I had discovered that the malfunction was not with the copier but was with the ink. So I went online to problem solve and I discovered that although the computer said that the colored ink was still more than half full, that something was wrong with the cartridge. So I put in my spare cartridge that I luckily had stored from last year, and the color worked. I was glad to have been able to fix the problem.

Later, I talked to Freddie who told me that he needed more money and that Stephanie had returned to Jerez that afternoon. I asked him what had happened to the money, the 200 euros, that I had given him before I left, but he couldn’t tell me. I asked if he had lost it and he said no. He was not able to explain it to me then because of his aphasia, his inability to put the clear words in his head into the correct sounds coming out of his mouth. 

I needed to cry but I couldn’t. I was exhausted and worried about Freddie and the money.  Now that we are on a rather strict budget, we can’t afford to pull out more money than planned. 

I tried to sleep but I couldn’t. So finally I turned on Flamenco Radio and started to cook some dinner. Rina and Akahne were both out and I felt very down. Lucy and I had planned to see each other that day and she called to see if I was ready. But I was just starting to cook. I told her that I was feeling down, so she came over early and arrived just when Rina did. 

I had used the almost-too-old vegetables from the week before in my dinner. In Spain, nothing keeps like it does in the US; even in the refrigerator things go bad quickly. I don’t know why, unless the US uses a lot more preservatives. Or perhaps Spanish refrigerators don’t work as well as US refrigerators. Who knows… 

When I finished cooking my eggplant, tomatoes, cilantro and rice, with garlic and ginger and semi-curado cheese, everyone said that it smelled good, so they tried it, even though they had already eaten. They loved it and that made me happy.

I also cooked a thin pork filet. When I had gone to the Mercado that day, my wonderful new meat man, Rafael, had told me that the beef wasn’t that good that day, but that the pork was. I had planned to buy both, but of course only bought the pork. And it was delicious. I hardly eat pork at home, but here in Spain it is very tasty. 

Lucy, Rina and I all talked about everything. Lucy and Rina cheered me up. Then Akahne came home from a date with a girlfriend whom she had met when she watched Angelita’s class last year, when Rina was taking it. Ligea (Leesha) is eighteen and is half English and speaks English and Spanish fluently. Last week Ligea finished her high school exams and has just now taken the exam for the University at Sevilla, which she will start in September. She is taking Angelita’s dance class this year too. She and Akahne have gotten to be good friends, which is great. They had gone shopping in el centro (the city center) and then had taken a bus home. They had a lot of teenage fun.

Sometimes I hear Akahne talking on Skype for hours to her friends in Atlanta, where she lives, and she sounds like such a normal teenager. But she is actually very mature for her age. And she is very smart and fun to be around. And she even does the dishes willingly and enjoys it.

Rina was going to go out near the Alameda to see a student from one of her dance classes perform at a small club, and she invited us to go with her. Lucy and I hemmed and hawed and when we found out that it would cost five euros, we decided to just go out for ice cream instead. The ice cream shop near the Mercado was closed, so we went to the one on the Alameda. It was fun, sitting in the warm night air and hanging out. Then we went home, she to her house and me to mine. I am very thankful to have good women friends here in Sevilla. 

When I got home, I was too tired to write, so I called Freddie again, who felt better and had found his money and didn’t need more at all. I was relieved. 

Then Rina came home a little later, around midnight, all excited about some wonderful news. The small group dance class she has been trying to organize with Javi Heredia would happen after all, the next day at 1 PM. My class with Lakshmi was still scheduled at 5 PM, so I had plenty of time between my classes and everything sounded great. 

I called Stephanie to ask her to let Danielle know, because I didn’t have Danielle’s number and Danielle also wanted to take the class. I woke Stephanie up! (Normally everyone we know is still awake at midnight). But Stephanie and Danielle had to get up very early the next day to take the bus from Jerez to Sevilla. Danielle will be taking the bus from Jerez to Sevilla five days a week to take Angelita’s class. She signed up already for two weeks. Stephanie was going to help her find her way around Sevilla the first day and Stephanie also wanted to say hello to Angelita. 

I finally got to bed much later than I had planned. I got almost seven hours of sleep. All this may be why I feel so fried right now. I hope that I feel better before the end of the week when I have to go to Palmar again. I love the beach, but the travel is very tiring, especially when things like the five-hour plus bus ride happen. 

If I don’t get a ride on Friday, I will buy a round trip ticket, as school is out and the kids go to the beach for the weekend, which is why there were no places left on the last Sunday bus. If I get a ride home I will lose the money of the return ticket, but at least I will have a ticket if I need it.

Sunday June 26, 2011  On the bus back to Sevilla from Palmar

Stephanie went down to Palmar again last Wednesday as planned. She thought that Freddie didn’t look good, so she brought him to Jerez to take care of him. She felt that he couldn’t cook or clean with his right arm wounded with the burn, even though he is left handed. Freddie had taken off his bandages himself on Wednesday because the doctor didn’t do it on Tuesday. Stephanie had left him on Monday and she thought that no one was checking in on him. 

However, later Karim said that he had taken Freddie to the doctor on Tuesday and Hector had cooked for him. I had also been talking to him by phone every day and Freddie had always said that he was fine. I was letting him be independent and lead his own life, as he had emphatically requested.

In Jerez Stephanie had planned to take him back to a doctor on Thursday evening when the heat cooled, but that did not happen until Friday night. After that Stephanie, who has extensive training and experience as a vet technician, was able to change his bandages herself. Freddie felt that Stephanie took extremely good care of him and he was very grateful.

While in Jerez, Freddie decided that he didn’t want to return to the beach because the doctors had told him to stay away from sun, heat, the beach and sand because of the burn. Thursday night he told me that he wanted to stay in Jerez and that he could continue to stay in Danielle’s house. She has two bedrooms. 

Friday morning just before Angelita’s dance class began, I double-checked with Danielle about Freddie staying at her house and she told me absolutely not. She said that when Stephanie’s boyfriend returned Wednesday night that Freddie would have no one to care for him and Danielle felt that he needed care and supervision and she was very definitely not comfortable or OK with him staying there without a caretaker. I was shocked, because Freddie had assured me that it was OK and that he could care for himself. Now I was hearing the opposite story. I spent the first part of the dance class fighting tears and trying not to think about it and solve it that minute, which I couldn’t do anyway. 

Freddie says that he can take care of himself and he has been living alone at the beach. Suddenly he is an invalid again and people don’t want the responsibility they feel that his condition entails. So they will send him to hot Sevilla, which he hates. Before he left Sevilla for the beach, he was drinking a lot out of boredom. He usually does that in Sevilla. He is uncomfortable in the extreme heat and feels that he has little to do in Sevilla. 

I realized that if he did not want to be at the beach, that we had to clean out the beach apartment and pack our things the next weekend (so I wouldn’t miss any of my Angelita classes during the week days) and that we had to let the landlady know that we would not rent it for July as planned. Later that day I talked to Freddie by phone and told him to make a decision because we needed to make a plan. He said that he was sure that he was done with the beach.

I called David and Clara in Madrid to see when they would arrive in Jerez. They will not be there until July 4, and then Freddie is welcome to stay with them. Freddie and David’s old friend Pablo will be there too, visiting from California for two months. But there was no one we knew in Jerez who could take care of Freddie that week.

The plan became that Freddie would take the 9:30 AM train from Jerez to Lebrija and I would take the 9 AM train from Sevilla and we would meet Jill in Lebrija, where her son lives. Jill wanted to go to the beach and she would drive us down. Freddie had the key to the apartment so he needed to be with me and Jill gets lost in Jerez so she didn’t want to go there to pick him up. 

I got up at 7:30 AM on Saturday morning and got to the train station with enough time to renew my Tarjeta Dorada (senior discount pass) and buy my ticket. I was almost at Lebrija when I got a phone call from Stephanie saying that Freddie had missed the train and did not want to go to the beach. 

We needed the key to the apartment, and the landlady did not have an extra one. So contrary to our carefully crafted plans, Jill and I had to drive into Jerez to pick up Freddie’s key. Once in Jerez, we stopped at a short ways in and called Stephanie and Freddie. 

They took a taxi to where we were and I got the key from Freddie. I had meant to give him some identification papers that I had printed up for him with taxi directions for when he got to Sevilla. I had gotten them out of my bag and had showed them to Jill. She put them down on the dashboard and I forgot that I did not have them with the money and the senior train pass that I had for Freddie. He looked depressed and sad in the taxi.

Jill and I continued on to Palmar. After we dropped off my things, we went to look for Hector and found him drinking orange juice and Kava (champagne) in his house. I had one drink but refused the second one, as I needed to focus on organizing and packing everything up. We got the key to the room that we had previously rented from Hector and Jill used that room and I stayed in Freddie’s apartment madly starting to organize and pack up the things. 

There was old garbage to empty and a sink full of dishes to wash. I had to buy more dish soap so I could wash them. Jill went to rest and I started to organize. 

As I started to pack up Freddie’s clothes I noticed that they smelled. His pillowcase was also awful, so I did a load of laundry and hung it on the line to dry. As I was taking garbage out Estefania, the landlady, saw me and called to me. She wanted to know what had happened. I had sent her a text earlier but she wanted the details. I apologized for not being able to rent the room for July and giving such short notice, but she said the important thing was Freddie’s health. She is a very nice person.

When Jill came back, we walked to the bigger store to buy food for dinner before the store closed at 2 PM for the rest of the weekend. We overbought because we were hungry. Then we took a break and treated ourselves to lunch at the Cortijiyo. 

Josh called while we were eating and said that they were on their way from Vejer to Palmar to see us, as we had previously planned. Josh, his partner Regina, Regina’s son Rafa, Rafa’s cousin and Regina’s mother were all vacationing in Vejer and everyone wanted to see Freddie. They were all disappointed when I told them that Freddie had not come. 

They finally arrived at the Corijiyo after Jill and I had finished our meal. We ended up choosing another restaurant with them that was not as crowded. Although we had already eaten, of course Jill and I went with them to the next restaurant and we had a nice visit. 

Then I went back to continue dealing with the apartment and Jill went to rest. 

Later Jill and I finally made it to the beach. The Levante, the big wind, was still blowing but by the time we arrived at the beach at 7:30 PM we were able to swim. We went in twice and it was nice. My stomach started to hurt and I wondered if a clam I had tried at the new restaurant was bad. It was either that or the tension of having to pack up everything and worrying about Freddie. 

Neither Jill nor I were hungry for dinner so we only ate a bit of yogurt and a little cheese. We now had a refrigerator full of new food and old food. I had bought more garlic at the store and discovered when I got home that Freddie already had a large unopened package of heads of garlic plus more loose heads (not cloves, but full heads) of garlic stored on a shelf. Oh well. Jill and I decided that we could eat the food we had already bought, for lunch the next day.

Then the phone calls started. Lakshmi and Miguel phoned to say that they might need a place to stay as they were going to a great birthday party in the nearby pueblo of Zahara, another small beach town. They wanted Jill and me to go too but I was too tired and Jill decided not to go alone. Stephanie called to say that Freddie was going to take the noon train to Sevilla. He had wanted to go that evening but she had talked him out of it. I talked to both Freddie and to Stephanie because I thought that maybe Stephanie was tired of Freddie, but it was Freddie who wanted to leave. I think he felt that he was imposing on his generous hosts.

Sevilla is having a heat wave right now and I had a bus ticket to return leaving Palmar at 6:45 and arriving in Sevilla around 10 PM. I didn’t know how Freddie would get into the apartment without a key or who would be with him. Stephanie wanted me to arrange it because Freddie was my responsibility and I wasn’t with him. 

I ended up emailing Angel and Rina to see if either of them would be there. (I did not want to spend more money on pay-as-you-go mobile phone calls). Meanwhile David called from Madrid to see how things were. He suggested having Juan meet Freddie at the train station. I called Juan who said that he and Lucy had planned to go to Moron on Sunday to visit family.

Being impatient, I decided to call Rina instead of waiting for her to check her email, and she then reminded me that she was having a belated birthday dinner at 2 PM at the house. She would be there to let Freddie in, and Francesca, Toshi and Delia would be there too.

Then I called Angel to tell him to disregard the email that I had sent him shortly before I talked to Rina. It was already 11:30 but Rina said that she had just talked to him and that he was still awake. Angel is one of the few Sevillanos I know who goes to bed early. Angel told me that he was going to Granada in the morning (to see family) and would return that night. He couldn’t get out the extra bed for Freddie until the next day, but he said that Freddie was welcome to stay in the room upstairs in his house. Normally Freddie and I can sleep on a twin size bed like the one I have been sleeping on here in Sevilla. But with Freddie’s burns, we will need two beds or a big bed. 

My Sevilla life has not been set up for Freddie to be there. Stephanie had also told me that I would have to change Freddie’s burn dressing once a day. I am terrible at things like that and it scares me. She told me that although Freddie wants to, he is not capable to doing it himself. It is a complicated process that requires using one set of gloves to wash the wound and a new set of gloves to bandage it. Stephanie felt that I was not helping Freddie enough and that I should have stayed with him in Palmar instead of returning to Sevilla. 

Just after I hung up from talking with Stephanie, Juan called back to say that Lucy had reminded him that they were going to our house before going to Moron, they had been invited to Rina’s party. So Juan said that he would be able to pick up Freddie at the train station, but that he wouldn’t be able to wait more than fifteen minutes for him. At this point I had been on the phone for over an hour and my mind was tired and fried. I couldn’t tell if I had understood Juan correctly or not, so I passed the phone to Jill. I was so glad that I had a witness there to this total insanity. And I was glad that I had a friend there. 

I still had to call Lakshmi back, because I was ready for bed and needed to leave a key for them and take the half-packed suitcase off the couch if they were coming. Luckily Lakshmi and Miguel decided to stay in Zahara with another friend. Jill left and I got to bed by 12:30. I was totally exhausted.

Sunday morning I woke up at 7:30 and got up and got to work. I reorganized the big suitcase, which I had packed thinking that Freddie would be in Jerez. I took down the mosquito netting tent that Freddie had put up. I went room by room and I made good progress. I felt much better than I had the night before. Everything was arranged. I just had to finish packing and cleaning.

Jill arrived and we went to the beach, because the wind was not too bad. It was only 9:30 AM. We both swam. I swam twice. I had already eaten earlier but Jill was hungry so we went to the café next to the surf shop, near the apartment. Jill had a Spanish breakfast of toast. We both had fresh orange juice. Then we went back to the apartment. I sent a text to Lakshmi to see if she and Miguel could take the big suitcase to Sevilla, but they couldn’t. Jill will take the beach chair and the electric fan and we can store them in her house until next year. 

In Sevilla there is a new rule that, due to the tremendous traffic problem in the city, cars from outside of Sevilla proper can only stay inside of Sevilla for 45 minutes. That would have made it difficult for Jill to deliver the suitcase, as she lives in the suburbs, outside of the city limits. She has a very busy work schedule and she would have had to plan a special trip. The suitcase weighed a “ton” and I didn’t want her to hurt her back lifting it out of her car, if she even could. In Sevilla it wouldn’t be safe for her to just leave it in her car. 

In the end, Karim decided to take the suitcase when he brings Freddie’s tricycle back to Sevilla on Tuesday. He will drop it off with Paco and Pilar’s neighbor, because Paco is in Japan and Pilar and Soleá are coming to the beach to use the rest of our rental before the 1^st, when it is over. Karim will then bring the suitcase to us in Sevilla. He is big and strong and he has no trouble lifting it. He helped us with it in Palmar.

I made lunch with our food and then Jill went to rest. I rested for a while but the phone woke me twice. I had to drop off some blank videotapes I no longer need, that in my effort to reduce our footprint in Sevilla, I am selling to a friend of Karim’s. 

After that I went to the hot windy beach around 3 PM because I wanted a last swim before I washed my hair. The sand was blowing but the water was nice. Today I went in the water four times, two in the morning, and two in the afternoon. 

Then I got ready to take the bus to return to Sevilla, because Jill was leaving on Monday to avoid the beach traffic and I didn’t want to miss Angelita’s 10:30 AM Monday dance class.

Luckily I had to take Freddie’s computer, which he had left in the Palmar apartment, so I was able to write a lot of this on the two hour bus ride home to Sevilla. 

 

SPAIN CHRONICLES 2011

May 10-25 Writings
May 18 Writings
May 19-22 Writings
May 23-29 Writings
June 5-10 Writings
June 11-16 Writings
June 18-19 Writings
June 21-26 Writings
June 27 – July 9 Writings
July 17 – August 3 Writings
August 5-6 Writings