Mas Picturas

Manolo Flamenco dances on stage after being dragged up there by the other dancers.

This fish cracks me up. At Sea World in San Diego.

Shamu says hello.

Wine tasting in the nearby town of Temecula

Us near the water at Torrey Pines

Hiking at Torrey Pines

Scaling the cliffs while hiking.

Suerte

Pictures from recently:
Manolo and I enjoy a coffee while playing dominoes in La Jolla. That boy sure does love his coffee.

At a San Diego beach: La Jolla

Climbing in the caves at La Jolla


At Balboa Park in San Diego

Amongst the trees at Balboa Park

And one of my favorite songs as of lately:

Salmorejo

The first time I had salmorejo, I was at Manolo's parents beach house. It was the first meal that I had ever eaten with his family, and Manolo's Dad (who speaks no English and has a thick accent that I just can't understand when he speaks Spanish) pushed a HUGE bowl of a reddish soup in front of me and insisted that I eat it. I HATE gazpacho and this very much resembled gazpacho (cold, red, tomato based) so needless to say I really didn't want to eat it but I took a chunk of bread and dipped it in the cold soup as instructed. YUMMY! Seriously very yummy. For the rest of the weekend at every meal I had a bowl of salmorejo with bread and when I came home it was one of the foods that I craved desperately. I have been meaning to make salmorejo for the past 4 months but I've been intimidated. A week ago for the first time I attempted my first batch and I really wish that I had tried to make it earlier because it really is a simple recipe and so very yummy. The taste is very unique and the flavor of the tomatoes are very light (which is a great thing if you are a tomato hater like me). Usually salmorejo is served alongside boiled eggs and jamon but for me I just eat it by dipping bread.



1 kilo (about 2 pounds) tomatoes (very ripe, on the vine)
2 cloves of garlic
2 large loaves of white bread (french is fine)
1 tbsp vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
sea salt (regular salt is fine)

1. Cut the crust off one of the loaves of bread. This doesn't need to be very precise. Just take a big knife and cut off the crust all around the loaf.

2. Cut the tomatoes in quarters and dice in a blender along with the garlic, vinegar, and olive oil.

3. Add chunks of the de-crusted bread to the blender until the soup has a very thick consistency.

4. Add a bit of salt and more olive oil to taste.

5. Chill the salmorejo in the fridge but you can be like me and eat immediately. Use the crusted loaf of bread to dip into the salmorejo and eat. Garnish with boiled eggs, onions, and jamon if desired.

Preguntas

My good friend Tammy asked me a few questions that I thought were interesting.

Q: How’s your Spanish coming along? And his English?
A: I am almost fluent in Spanish now. His English is decent. He can speak pretty well but understanding people when they converse is difficult. When people talk they use a lot of slang, idioms, and they talk very rapidly. That has been pretty hard for him. I have the same problem when I am in Spain but I do a better job of catching words here and there and understanding what is being said and discussed. Manolo tends to just tune the entire convo out as soon as he gets lost.

When we talk together, he talks in English and I talk in Spanish. Whenever we have trouble finding the correct word we just say the word in our native language and the other tends to know what the word is when translated. We also use my iphone which has a translator app for when we both don't know what the word is translated. Manolo is a talker! and we never have times when there are silence. Very rarely is there a time when one of us can't say what we want to and we talk about everything (marriage, politics, religion, cultural differences, etc).


Q: Are you thinking of moving to spain at all?
A: Sometimes I do think of moving to Spain. I love America but I do love Sevilla as well and the great family/social network that Manolo has over there. If we ever had kids I would most def want to raise them over there where his HUGE family lives within 10 minutes of each other (in the Triana neighborhood of Sevilla) and every night is spent eating dinner with friends and/or family. His family has a country home and a beach home. These are all things that we just don't have in the States. The one thing holding me back is my career. I'm successful in what I do and I make a lot of money BUT I also work very long hours. I would like to have kids one day (sooner then later) and it worries me if I will be able to balance my current career with family but then again the thought of leaving behind this career scares me ...


Q: How does he like life in SD? And his job?
A: He likes SD and his job. I'm lucky that he came to America not expecting it to be anything like Spain. He has traveled quite a bit (Egypt, Cuba, etc) so he knew that each country is different and that includes the good and the bad. He thinks our grocery stores have a lot of selections and he is surprised that there aren't guards at the doors of every store, market, etc but he appreciates that America is so safe. He doesn't like that so many things in America are so highly regulated (music downloading, where to walk on a hiking trail, etc) but that is because Spain was once ruled by a dictator (Franco) until 1975 and his family happens to be very anti-Franco. He misses being able to walk to the grocery store to pick up a gallon of milk and wishes we didn't drive so much. He doesn't understand why we don't hang out with friends for dinner during the week nights and why we sleep in 8 hour chunks of time (in Spain they take a nap in the afternoon, eat a late dinner with friends, and then sleep for 4 hours before going to work at 8am the next day). He does like America a lot though and is currently worrying (a lot) about whether his work visa will be renewed in January.

Te Echo de Menos

Manolo is working late tonight and I am missing him so much! Like seriously, throw myself on the couch and pout type of miss. In the past 2 weeks I've gotten so used to going to the store with him, cuddling with him on the couch while we watch tv, getting my feet rubbed by him, etc. It makes me realize (and not look forward to) the day when Manolo needs to go back to Spain to renew his visa.

Manolo has three options in January when his current visa expires. He already is planning on going back to Spain for the holidays (and I will hopefully be going with him) so options #1 and #2 will probably be what he does.

Option #1 - He goes to Spain and re-applys for another work visa. The cost is $400 and this option should only takes 2 months. The problem is that the work visa will only be good for 3-6 months and he'll need to go back to Spain and re-apply.

Option #2 - He applies for a fiancee visa. The cost is $400 and would take about 4 months to process. The problem is that we would need to marry in the States within 60 days of him receiving this visa. During that 4 months he wouldn't be able to visit me in the States although I could go to Spain and visit him.

Option #3 - We get married in Spain and then apply for a family visa. The cost is $1010 and would take 6 months to process BUT would be permanent. Woo!

Option #4 - We somehow get married in the States and then apply for a visa. I'm not even sure if this one would work out since I have seen no info on the web about this option. I'm thinking that it isn't a viable option although to me it makes the most sense (you live in America, get married in America).

Manolo and I are far from the "get married" stage although the future is very much on my mind and I am not looking forward to being apart from him for even a day.

El Medio

We arrived in San Diego at 10am on Saturday morning and that night was Halloween and we still didn't have costumes. After lunch in Old Town, a nap, and a Sevilla Futbal game live on tv (thank you ESPN en espanol), we went to the costume store and bought the quickest things we could assemble. I was a witch and he was death.

I wanted to go to Gaslamp for Halloween but unfortunately we weren't able to connect with our other friends who were there. It was too busy and we were running late. It was fun but my feet hurt by the end of the night and drinks were expensive. Going out to the bars is definitely more fun when I was single!

The next few days after Halloween were spent with me sick in bed. This time again I realized how nice it was to have a boyfriend around. While I slept in bed, Manolo was always around to make sure that I had enough to drink, eat, and that I always had medicine when needed. It was so nice to be taken care of after years of either taking care of myself and/or taking care of others.

On Friday we went to the Spanish Restaurant and Manolo got a job!!! When Manolo first arrived I was undecided if I wanted him to stay long term or not. It was so difficult for me to get used to having a boyfriend around (and I wasn't being the nicest to him) and a large part of me wondered if it would be best for him not to get a job and just to go home. The days before Friday though, showed me just how badly I did want him to get that job and stay in San Diego.

A Primero

I was eagerly looking forward to detailing Manolo's first days in America but unfortunately I forgot that when you're busy actually doing stuff in America it leaves little time to actually write about the events. Now things are slowing down and I can actually go back and write about the past 10 days.

I remember when I ended my last relationship (over a year ago) and I began dating right away, many of my college friends (many of whom are married) told me to be single and free for as long as possible. Single. Free. Don't even date. Just do what I want to do when I want to do it. This was a great idea but I was lonely and wanted to get back in a relationship as soon as possible. Well life had other ideas and while I dated (a lot) I never was in a real relationship again until Manolo.

When Manolo made the decision to move to the US I prepared for almost everything I could think of: ordering the Spanish soccer package on cable, downloading skype so he could call home often, finding out where we could buy certain Spanish foods, etc. The one thing I didn't prepare for was that for so long I have been alone and have enjoyed having the ability to do things the way I want when I want. (For those who do not know my previous relationship, he was very much a loner so even though we were together for 4 years we still did a lot of stuff apart). So for almost 5 years I have become accustomed to grocery shopping by myself, watching what I want to watch on tv, sleeping alone (for the past year only), opening my own doors, not having someone put their arm around me while we walk down the street, etc.

All of a sudden I had a insta-boyfriend and even walking down the street with his arm around me was suffocating. I began worrying that I would never be able to be in a relationship again. Here I had a caring, funny, relaxed, loving, smart, sexy, European boyfriend who moved 5,883 miles for ME and instead of enjoying my luck all I could think was "I want to watch TLC Baby Story and lie in bed in my pajamas by MYSELF! Go away". It wasn't Manolo, it was me. Luckily, this feeling only lasted a few days and the past week has been much easier.

Our first few days were spent in Washington DC. Manolo came open and willing to enjoy new experiences so fortunately there wasn't a lot of comparing Spain to America and "oh Spain is so superior for the following reasons". He ate macaroni and cheese for the first time (which I think he may be an addict now) and buffalo wings (which I am an addict). We saw National Memorials at night (which I highly recommend), Smithsonian Museum of American History (which was not as educational as I thought it would be because the displays change often and don't really give a good overview of important events in American History), and walked around Washington DC.

On our way home to San Diego we were delayed overnight in Atlanta due to bad weather. Helping to end my "independent streak" was this layover. Here was a really not fun situation and suddenly I had a travel companion who made it fun and not lonely. I had someone to hold my hand, help me find the bus to the hotel, eat room service with me in bed, and watch tv while we waited for the next available flight. Not such a bad situation to be in.