Let's Begin

Hello Friends and Family,

OK, procrastination is not getting me anywhere so let’s begin with the first of many blog entries reporting our endeavors in Spain… these entries will provide a journal of day to day events for us so please bear with me on the details that might get mundane for you.

Leaving Seattle on September 22, we arrived in Barcelona on the 23rd – even though this is our second arrival into the famous city, we still haven’t seen all the highlights of it – hopefully sometime before we leave! After spending the night in the outskirts of Barcelona, we hit the road towards Gandia, our temporary home for 6 months. It takes about 4-5 hours to get to Gandia from Barcelona.

In Gandia we met with Hugo (kids’ swim coach at the club; he is the one who can speak English at the club and has been a tremendous help for us with arranging an apartment and supplying plenty of information prior to our arrival) and his mom to get the keys into our new home. Together, we went to the rental agency and met with the owner, Salvador, who took us to the apartment. It is located on the 6th floor (a good stair master) of a four-block apartment complex with swimming pool and soccer and basketball field. The first impression of the flat was the astonishing huge view of Mediterranean Sea right before our eyes. The flat has 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, 2 full bathrooms and 3 balconies (2 with the view) – all of this in an area total of ¼ of our home in CDA. It comes with all the amenities except an HD TV! Yes, we do have a 12-inch TV, which is plenty for getting local and international news and sports to fill our ears with some Spanish and lots Valencian – we even watched a travel program, which featured Istanbul and Copenhagen :=)!! Each of the kids’ rooms has 2 single comfy beds and our bedroom has a double bed that fits Haluk and I very snuggly! Salvador noticed my expression about the springiness of the bed when I sat to test the comfort of it. The next day, we had a brand new and much better quality bed at our door…

The next day, we immediately immersed in daily living in Gandia (maybe even in Spain in general). To acquire an Internet connection, we needed a bank account! Most business here is still conducted via bank transactions. If you want to get a subscription for a club or utilities, you provide a bank account number or go pay at the bank first then get your business taken care of. Although you can shop with credit card no problem, subscription-requiring businesses don’t take credit cards. Anyway, we ended up opening a bank account and sat with an official at the internet company to place our order – all this was done easily thanks to Salvador and his connections. The computer life here seems to be more up to par with their www counterparts elsewhere because the technician arrived the next day to set up our connection even though Salvador thought it would be done in 3-4 days. We had our internet connection the same day – hurray, back to civilization!

Now that we have all the essentials, we began exploring the ins and outs of Gandia. After Haluk leaves, I plan not to rent a car so we had to shop for large items that could not be transported by bus or bike. We also bought 3 bikes before Haluk left since he is the expert to know what to buy.

About Gandia: instead of my laboriously composing the info about the town, I decided to borrow an excerpt from the website http:// www.aboutvalencia.com.

The visitor to the region of La Safor finds himself in an attractive area with a history of its own, nestling in a natural environment whose characteristics are twofold: the high mountains which form the ranges of Mustalla, Safor, Grossa and Aguilles blend into a natural circle of pinnacles and woodland, while the plain is crossed by an accommodating coastal corridor of market gardens and beaches. Gandía (pop. about 70,000), the ducal town and regional capital, grew up between the River Serpís and the Gully of San Nicolás in the space created by an early Iberian settlement.

In the fifteenth century, the town found a new role for itself in the form of intense court activities, fanned and supervised by Juan de Borja, Second Duke of Gandía. Alexander VI, the Borja Pope, marked out this destiny for the capital of La Safor when he bought the land from Ferdinand the Catholic to assign it to his son, Pedro Luis. From that time onwards, the fate of this prosperous town, then engaged in the manufacture of silk and sugar, was interwoven with the lust for power and intervention in European affairs which fuelled the saga of the Borjas. Amongst all of the Borjas, it was to St. Francis of Borja, the Jesuit general, born in Gandía, the great-grandson of Alexander VI and Fourth Duke of Gandía, that the ducal town linked its destiny. St. Francis moved away from the moral turmoil of other members of the family to devote his time to the fostering of culture and virtuous coexistence. So as to consolidate the cultural life which had been nurtured years before by the poet Ausias March, the novelist Joanot Martorell and the humanist Joan Rois de Corella, he founded the Gandía University of the sixteenth century.


The present-day town centre has preserved the heritage of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the symbolic buildings of the Ducal Palace, the Collegiate Church, the Convent of Santa Clara, the Hermitage of Santa Ana, the Archaeological Museum and the Town Hall. The Collegiate of Santa Maria was built little by little between 1250 and 1520, with the Gothic style as its constant reference point. Originally, the Door of the Apostles featured sculptures by the master, Damià Forment. The Ducal Palace was built on the foundations of an old rambling Arabian house, close to the left bank of the River Serpis. The Italianising influence is obvious and is accounted for by the close connections, which the Borjas maintained with Italy. The archaeological Museum, located in the Hospital of San Marcos, has an elegant Gothic room with pointed arches, known as the Men’s Hall.

The best thing of all in Gandia is the people: Stylish, warm and friendly.

If you are interested, there is excellent information about this town in the website http://www.orangeblossomhomes.com/inmoeasy/en/akelos/gandia_guide.

On Friday the September 28th, Fira I Festes started. This is a 5-day-fiesta with traditional celebrations in honor of patron Saint Francesco de Borja. There were historical recreations of Borja family, the handing over of power from local authorities to the people so they can enjoy the fiestas (Tio de la Porra cavalcade dating 1871, where they are dressed in French Revolution uniforms and wear big noses and glasses representing councilors, bailiffs, officials and two mayors), Renaissance market, fun-fair, international food and cultural displays (yes, belly dancing, too;=) ), arts on the streets, program of concerts and theater (we saw a performance by PaGAGnini, a Spanish quartet composed of talented 3 violinists and a cellist improvising classical pieces into a comical act, including an American folk music), Stroll of Criminal slang and magical night with correfocs. This last act is madness as far as I can tell. A priest begins ceremonies of, from what I understand (communicating in English is still sketchy), people’s indulgences and Satan’s involvement – they drink a lot that night, including very young teenagers. A number of Ku Klux Klan looking people, representing Satan, carry contraptions loaded with the regular fireworks (6-10 on each). They light those fireworks and attack the crowds all around by waving the contraption purging fire particles. Sometimes Satan sits and people sit under the fireworks as if under an umbrella. At certain points, there are huge contraptions with several circular firework splatters; when these are fired, people run and dive into them! Those fire particles land on people, which results in burns. Afterwards, people were checking out and comparing their acquired treasures! From the burn holes, Yunus and Dilara’s coats look like colander – in addition to a first-degree burn behind Yunus’s ear! So this was a taste of our first Spanish fiesta and it was plenty enough for my lifetime.

About Borja family, I did not realize the historical importance of this family until coming here. Pope Alexander VI was the duke of Gandia and they lived in the palace of Borja in Gandia. This family is known as the history’s first criminal family (in short, first mafia!).
The lives of Alexander and his children are pretty intricate and I am curious to know more in depth. Unfortunately, there are no books in English at the palace bookstore so I ordered couple from amazon.com.

On Saturday September 29th, we got on the road at 6:00 am to take Haluk to Valencia airport. This was our final day of possessing a car for a while – we will see how long it will last. After sending Haluk off back home, we took the Metro from airport to Xativa train station in Valencia. Train between Valencia and Gandia operates every hour and takes about 45 min. There is also a train from Valencia right to our street (Platja del Grau) but that one only operates 3 times per day. From the Gandia train station, which is centrally located in the city, we took the city bus. Total cost of this one-way trip was 6.85 euros. Since September 29th, we have gone green and so far no withdrawals! (The wealth and consumerism seem to have found this corner of the world for many people are driving expensive cars around even though the gas prices much higher than US.) Bus stop is conveniently located right in front of our apartment complex so carrying shopping bags is not a big problem (I am also trained carrying large amounts of loads in backpacks by bike in Vancouver ). We purchased a card for 10 tickets per person at the cost of 9 euros – 35 cents savings per ride. Biking around is also very easy. A bike road passes again in front of our house and drivers are in general bike friendly (if paying attention). They did a great job placing bike paths around the city – although I can see why we would have a hard time agreeing on the logistics of implementing in USA: parts of the path goes in front of apartment buildings’ garages where the cars dart out of no where… In any event, biking is a widely used transportation by mostly younger generation and the crowd that look like Tour de France trainees while the bus mostly utilized by the elder. There seems to be a big retirement community here; it is fun to watch them all groomed nicely taking a stroll in groups or couples on the beach promenade. The shopping is quite convenient because grocery store Mercadona is only 2 min walking distance from our home, Carrefour (European version of Walmart) and shopping malls La Vital and Plaza Mayor are only 10 min away by bike and 5 min by bus. We even have a Mc Donald’s right across Carrefour in case we have the urge!

After days of fiestaing (they have too much of it and bridging) and jetlag, I finally cleaned the whole house with bleach!!! My friends, who know me well, can tell how obsessive I am so now that all the filth in the house will be ours from now on, we can sit and sleep comfortably – although flat doesn’t seem to be used much since it was built. This initial process took me 3 days, but now to clean the whole house takes about 1 hour – benefits of living in a shoebox house. Because the land is quite dry and there are so many constructions around, it gets pretty dusty in the house. According to BBC, the housing market in Spain is supposed to be in decline (some shock waves from across the Atlantic!) but they don’t seem to be aware of it in this town. Anyway, the city in general is very clean except doggy-do everywhere you go and occasional spots of puke. I also noticed some sort of spraying going in the field next to our apartment complex and the orange grove – I wonder if they are concerned with pesticides and like here? There is also a couple (or more) of roosters keep crowing incessantly day and night keeping company to barking dogs. It might be possible side effects of a city transitioning from rural to urban – cars are bustling all night and I miss the calming quietness of our neighborhood…

The next day we arrived, the kids began swimming with the team Natacio I Esports Gandia everyday. The club, as most organized sports and culture, is run by the city government, but it has a board of directors made of parents. There is only one swim team in the city and they compete within the Valencia region. Last season, several of its swimmers made national times and few apparently moved to a boarding sports school in Valencia to train more competitively – I am getting the impression that sports parenting is the same as in every country. Because Yunus and Dilara don’t go to school here, all of their friends are from swimming. Dilara even met an 11-year old girl, Sol, from Argentina that lived in Virginia for 6 years; her dad was a soccer coach there. The kids are very interested in Yunus and Dilara because they like anything American! Regardless what America’s political image is, most people we met have a fascination with American life style – thanks to TV shows and Hollywood. Kids also began their courses with JHU and taking math, science, English grammar and writing. Every morning until 12:30 pm, they study then they have free time until 6 pm when they go to dryland training and swim till 9-9:30 pm.

Food is not one of our highlights so far. The only tasteful tapas we ate were in Barcelona. Everything else since then is a bit too greasy or not exciting. I am being brave and trying everything even if I don’t know what I am eating. We sometimes see what other people eat while passing by the restaurants, but when we go inside, somehow, cannot find or explain what we saw. Breads are great and I eat a lot of them. Kids are still eating processed white bread with peanut butter and jam! After several unsuccessful attempts, they decided the homemade food is the best.

Spanish learning is a bit slow for me. We still don’t have a tutor and language schools are mostly into teaching English. I found a sign that said “Spanish for native English speaking people.” It was offered by the government and after waiting in line for half an hour, I learned that it started now and ended in June. Even though it did not work for us, I think it is such a great idea for government to offer these opportunities for its citizens to learn other languages. For a fee of 62 euros, you can take English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. It continues up to higher levels and may take several years. Hugo apparently learned English there and speaks very proficiently. Yunus and Dilara seem to understand the conversations even though they are not fluent to speak, yet. I, on the other hand, am hopeless at this point – though I get along pretty well with monkeying! I have made several attempts to find a tutor and Hugo is also actively looking. If nothing worked, we have the option to travel 35 km south to Denia where there is a private language school. In the meantime, I made a friend with one of the moms from the swim club. Susan, a dental hygienist, is originally from East Germany, married to a Spaniard and has two daughters. Laura is swimming with Yunus and Sara is one year younger than Dilara. She can speak English very well and is my main source of information about the life in Spain and around here. They are a very nice family.

In general, majority of people don’t speak English here but we find people speak English in expected places such as bicycle shops, information bureaus, museums, etc. We also met this guy, Salvador’s friend Toni, who came to fix our dishwasher that somehow was not connected to water supply. He is into surfing, kite surfing particularly; he asked us if we knew Gorge! What are the chances of this – we go to Hood River every year for kite surfing. He apparently heard that is the best place in US for kite surfing. Synonym for “Small World” here is “World is a handkerchief.” His English was pretty good. He says kite surfing in this area is good (not as good as Tarifa) and in summers, the schools offer classes. The sailing is also a big thing here; I can see the boats are sailing by in the Mediterranean as I am writing this journal. The Real Club Nautico Gandia is walking distance from our apartment. We pass by it when we go to the beach. Last June, the America’s Cup was held in Valencia. It is possibility to check out the sailing classes while here but understanding the instructions might be a problem at this point.

This weekend we plan to explore ancient city of Valencia – I did not know the porcelain Lladro was originated in Valencia. The next weekend, Yunus and Dilara will be going to Port Adventura near Tarragona (about 200 miles north of us) with their swim team. This is Spain’s largest theme park (a universal studios venture); it sounds like loads of fun.

So far we enjoy being here but not having our family all together is not easy. We miss Haluk, our home, Hermione and friends so much… hopefully, it will be all worthwhile in the end.

So long until next time.

Ayse



For those of you who are interested, here is some info about The Spanish Educational System:
Spanish schools can be state or privately owned. The new education system in Spain derives from the LOGSE 1/1970, a national law introduced in 1970. Under the law, schooling is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16 years. Below the age of 6 years schooling is optional and provision will depend on what is available in the area where one chooses to live. It is common to send children to school from about the age of 3 years but starting infants school at this age is not compulsory. The children start compulsory schooling in the September of the calendar year in which they are 6 years old. In order to progress from one cycle of education to the next, students in Spanish state schools have to meet teaching and learning objectives, so compulsory schooling could last longer than what is the case in USA where all students progress from one year to the next automatically. In addition in 2004/05, basic skills (numeracy and literacy) assessment was introduced into the curriculum for the first time outside of Catalunya (Catalunya's education system is a little different from other areas of Spain).

The language of instruction would be in Spanish or in a combination of Spanish and if applicable, the co-official language. In the autonomous community of Valencia (the one we live in), there are different programs from immersion in Valencian to no teaching in this language at all. Teachers employed in the state sector would not necessarily speak English. If English is taught as a foreign language (which is mostly the case), then there would be an English teacher at the school whose main job is to teach English as a modern foreign language – one of the swim coaches who initially helped us was trained to be teacher and is teaching English at a public school in Barcelona right now. The school year runs from about mid September until about the end of June, but dates vary according to age group and region of Spain. There are no half terms but there are other holiday days, besides Easter and Christmas, which vary according to where one lives in Spain – which we have already witnessed two so far in this short time of our stay. There are specialist schools of music, dance and art in the state sector from the age of 12 and entrance is usually selective. Also some rural areas have state residential (boarding) schools to facilitate compulsory education in such areas. Parents must pay for books, materials and any extra-curricular activities. Low-income families may or may not be able to get a grant for these, but this depends on the laws in place at the time of making an application. School uniform is not always a pre-requisite. In general, uniform is worn in private schools.

A Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is awarded at the end of compulsory secondary education and a student who achieves appropriate grades graduates from compulsory secondary education ESO and can apply for one of the different types (academic or technical) of (Spanish) Bachillerato. Vocational training is also a possibility after ESO. Students, with appropriate qualifications and wishing to progress to University in Spain, must usually take an entrance exam.