Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Castegating Children from the Comedor

So what is it about the local school that they have to tar everyone with the same brush. My son came home today for the 3rd time in 5 school days to tell us he had been Castegated as a result of his friends behavior in the Comedor. Now when we first were told this we had no idea what they were talking about...

The Comedor is where the children eat their lunch during school. This is a great concept as you pay to have your children stay in school from 13:00 - 14:30, during which time they have a 4 course lunch and time to play and socialise with their friends. This means they socialise with their friends (spanish...English..dutch etc) and start to learn even more Castellano. However when some or all of them talk too much then the children are made to sit out their lunch against a wall in the yard instead of playing. The rule seems to be that if some are naughty all get punished

This of course seems a little harsh to me...but you have to sit back and let this all go over your head...I am working on the basis that this will of course build further character. Of course if could just make those who are well behaved just think...to hell with it, I'm being punished anyway I might as well do something to deserve it :-)

Only time will tell...here's to tomorrow and another day of Castegation

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Monday, October 20, 2008

Cutting the Cord

Well...it finally happened...we sold our house (back in Ireland) and the new owners moved in this weekend. Its a strange feeling that when you move within the same country that you don't seem to get. Its a feeling of "No Going Back". Well of course we could but why would we? We sat on the beach yesterday as the kids played away and wondered what we would have been doing if we had been in Ireland...possible looking through the windows thinking what we could do as the rain came down? As they played and ran amok it was a fantastic sight watching them as they chased each other around the beach. We decided then that its not about standard of living but lifestyle, being able to do things that you would not do in Northern Europe, enjoying the outside life

Anyway, back to the cord..its very odd indeed as I sit here this AM working away from home, that the ties of the last 10 years have been cut, all the friends..our history...the house we adored and painstakingly rebuilt and restored from a 600sq ft hovel into the dream what we then wanted. Dreams do change, and here I find myself, with my dear wife now with her sights on creating a new dream home here in Spain (more on that in posts to come) its a strange feeling of Deja Vu...but this time I will not be living in a mobile home (caravan) whilst they build it :-)





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Friday, October 03, 2008

Suntans

One of the things that I was never able to fathom, was how the people who live in Spain (I think its unwise to just say Spanish now as there are so many nationalities living in Spain now) never seem to be that bothered about a Tan...at least that what I was thinking when I was sprawled out like a turkey basting for Xmas lunch on my two week vacation.

Well after seeing the sun rise daily (apart from the dip into rain a few days back) you become so accustomed to it being there that a little snooze for 30 minutes during the day is the most I need now.  The ubiquitous tan is no longer the holy grail searched for 2 weeks..though of course on a weekend I slip into bad habits as we slope off the to beach for a family day out, thinking that if I was back in Ireland I'd be wrapped up in warm weather gear rather than being in beach shorts.

All in all I have a feeling that this was a great move and watching the kids run up and down the beach, with us as a family enjoying every moment, why would you ever want to be anywhere else?

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

The Square

Its one of those strange things, especially after reading the books, Spanish Lessons by Derek Lambert etc that I cannot fathom certain things. Now in Ireland the children would like to go out to "Quasar", "Bowling" and all those sorts of things. However here they want to go the "Square". Of course all this is a the village square and they are content to knock a ball around, play tag and generally have fun of their own making. This is of course fantastic as they start to explore friendships not only with the expats but also with some spanish children. My wife and I are gently (and not so gently) saying you must go and play with the spanish so that they start to hear words

Mind you last night they were playing after a meal at a local place and they were using Spanglish which made us smile

Anyway back to the square...everyone and their dog gather there and chat...we now sit, listen and smile as we remind ourselves of those chats years back when we said "this could be us if we want to".

I do wonder how the marvels of the square will dissapate over the months, but judging by the enjoyment it brings to us all then it doesn't appear that will be anytime soon..

It of course helps that I have been unable to get any telly sorted with the demise of the rebroadcasters, so where re we going to go tonight after a spot of dinner...you guessed it the Square....

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Friday, September 19, 2008

Starting School

We have 3 children so starting school at the age ranges was never going to be a walk in the park...so what would by recommendations be

1. Take a translator at all times...if you can't speak Spanish then don't think you can bumble through, its not worth it. I use a local one and she has been a god send as she has children in the school

2. Learn Spanish as soon as you can, interestingly our local ayuntamiento runs lessons for next to nothing, which seems better than paying a heafty € on a language school

3. Make sure you have all your forms and be prepared for utter confusion and go with the flow.

4. Bottom line..if you don't know ask...

Our children have started in their local Primary/Infants and they are settling in, with our eldest in the local Secondary, they will all be put thro the PASE track for those children who don't speak Spanish/Valenciano and more than likely at the end of their year they will have to stay back a year which seems quite common, don't get worried about this as they will then fly thro that year.

So far we have been hit with homework with the . in place of , which caused much laughter, my daughter being called Taxi as they can't pronounce her name and my wife and I running from school to school not knowing what the devil is going on

We have the youngest two finishing at 4-30pm, which is great for my wife as she can get all the things she wants done and I get peace and quiet to work at home, off thing though, they have a break from 12:30 to 15:00, and then back to study, whilst the oldest finishes at 2pm

We find it all so much cheaper than Ireland, certainly the school fees for the secondary at €5 compares well with Ireland, at €500!!

All in all fun and games, and no doubt they will all be speaking Castellano and Valenciano long before I do...

Luego...buene suerte

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Friday, September 19, 2008

First Month.....

It has always been a dream of mine to move to Spain, so moving to Ireland 10 years ago from the UK wasn't quite what I had planned. Though now, we find ourselves in Spain...as the song goes "How did I get here" (Talking heads)

It seemed as if the weather would never change (should have learned that after 30 years in wales) so after 2 years of planning through the worst that UK and Irish Summers could throw at us we decided it was time to leave Ireland, of course we still hadn't sold our our house and the job wasn't sorted, (I had always said I would never do it unless they were) we moved, locked stock and barrel to Spain....Moraira

We lumbered into town with our belongings on the 12-08-08 and it has been a whirlwind since, from getting unpacked, to starting the kids in school, from having people to stay all in the first 4 weeks...

This Blog will take you through some of our highs and lows of trying to get everything arranged, with my better half telling me that I need to relax more and go with the flow, and my rantings of how things should be sorted by now

I hope you enjoy each part of it....and look forward to reading and commenting on other peoples blogs. I can now give actual advice rather than being an armchair person who has just read the books, though I have to admit they have helped me no end in my attempt to be the first person to get it all completed before I arrived (of course I failed on that as well!!)

Bye for now

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