In the last entry, I had said we started Spanish lessons. It has been 3 weeks – on and off – since we began, and our comprehension has improved tremendously - as you may have noticed from more grammatically correct title of this entry. Now, when I buy something, I don’t have to give a whole bunch of money because I did not understand the exact amount. However, speaking is still pretty sluggish because we need more vocabulary and practice – and courage!.
Slowly, we are getting used to our environment: the noises that bothered us previously are already dropping to the background. Our rooster’s (currently we have a dispute on what to name him) crow along with dog barks and bustling traffic noise is now hardly noticeable although he continues his minutiae tirelessly. Things that previously excited and grabbed our attention are increasingly becoming banal. Soon we can be legitimately called locals and earn the privilege to be ignorant.
Nevertheless, we still discover interesting things everyday. We just noticed that there is a turtle living on the deck of our main floor neighbor.

As I said before, we chose not to lease a car during our stay here for the known reasons but we needed to rent one last week for getting to places that we couldn’t otherwise. On our way to the car rental, we walked along the citrus groves and picked some oranges and mandarins. From our house to Carrefour, the road is lined with the trees; and citrus plants are hanging from every direction. Not knowing whether we were allowed to help ourselves, we picked a few and ate on the way. Living up to their Valencian reputation, they were delicious. We later learned that the owners would probably like us to pick for they have more than they can use. Next to citrus trees, there were some banana trees as well but bananas were not ripe, yet and were far fewer than oranges.

For the next 9 days, we had a Citroen Pluriel C3, a tiny blue convertible infested with ants but not inflicted with much horsepower!

On October 20-21st, Yunus and Dilara along with the swim team went to Port Aventura near Tarragona, the largest theme park in Spain operated by Universal Studios. They left Gandia by bus at 7 am and returned the next day at 10 pm. Apparently, they had lots of fun, were immersed in culture and had to speak lots of Spanish. I am told that the club arranges these kinds of field trips several times per year. It is one way to keep kids’ coming back.
The motivation to truly commit to sports like swimming here is very different than in US. In Spain, the opportunities to earn scholarships to colleges are not incentives for the athletes because the university education is publicly funded. Also the extracurricular activities do not make any effect on the students’ college application process so they need to do well on standardized tests and schoolwork for higher education. Most talented kids, who are not interested in academics, prefer playing soccer (or maybe basketball) with the hopes of making to the top as professional soccer players (as we do in football, baseball and basketball in US). In swimming without the financial incentives, the kids hope to go the nationals or make it to the Olympics, which are pretty narrow margins of success; thus, by the time they are in high school, most of the swimmers get burned out and drop out from the competitive swimming. College athletics opportunities might be one of the main reasons why we have such good athletes in high numbers in US (of course, in addition to the larger selection pool we have than the European countries). By the way, the basketball team, Gandia Basquet, has four US players. Two of them appear to have already acquired Spanish citizenships.
Anyway, when the kids were gone, I explored a small town (population 5,600), about 8 km north of Gandia, called Xeraco.










As a side note, Gandia is normally a tourist destination for Spaniards. Therefore, there aren’t many people who speak English and variety of ethnic restaurants. It is also much cheaper than other tourist destinations. Things are set up more for Iberian preferences, which is good for foreigners like us who are here to immerse in culture. However, the fervor of globalization seems to have begun engulfing this city as well with its Chinese goods, American fast food stores (hence, the sights of chubby youngsters), cheaply available wireless communications, ethnic diversity and increasing interest in learning English. Speaking of culture, one interesting observation: for the second time, I saw a man taking a pee on the sidewalk! They just unzip, pee on the side or on the trees and zip back up (one of them was wiping his wet legs on his pants as he walked along)… in the broad daylight and in front of the public! Since the doggy-do and pee sights, we stopped walking into the house with our shoes. In addition to tolerance to its profanity, loitering seems to be culturally accepted. People drop their garbage (and their lit cigarettes on your feet) on the streets and no one says a word. If my Spanish is a bit more improved than it is now, I might get in to a lot of trouble around here! :=)
In that evening, I went to a dinner at Rachel’s parents Merry and David's home. Rachel prepared an exquisite meal and I had a great time at the company of Vicente (our Spanish teacher and Rachel’s boyfriend), Alicia (a psychologist and one of Rachel’s students from her English class), Alicia’s husband Miguel and their son Miguel Jr. The house was located in Palma de Gandia, a small town on the footsteps of one of the small mountains about 7-8 km northwest of Gandia. Merry and David have been restoring this historical building (one of the first houses built in the town) for the last 4 years. When they acquired it, the house was just four walls and a second floor that was barely accessible by existing staircase. David, being an engineer, had designed and drawn the blueprints for the construction and since then it has been a family project. They have done an incredible job with constructing a 3-storey building with rooms and bathrooms added. The view from the house was spectacular with mountains, Mediterranean Sea and the city lights of Gandia. From the balcony, we watched the fireworks in Gandia – Vicente said it was most likely a wedding (we hear fireworks here every weekend; now I know why. Before, we couldn’t figure out what fiesta would they be celebrating every weekend!) Rachel and Vicente evidently biked there from downtown Gandia. They said that the bridge they normally take was washed away during the floods. Many bridges were damaged by the recent flooding incident. People here act as though these damages are not a big deal and go on with their normal business – no dramatization… good for them!
That evening, I have heard lots of Spanish (and Valencian) and learned so much about Spain and the region. I did not know Spain was one of the leading countries in telecommunications and, more recently, finance in the world – apparently, Spanish banks have been busy acquiring some leading banks of other European countries. The Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica (is also our internet, landline and mobile provider) has the second largest number of customers behind a Chinese mobile provider in the world and third in total market value behind AT&T and Verizon.
After joining EU in 1986, Spain economically and socially made great strides. Today, it is considered a developed country with the ninth largest economy in the world and fifth in the EU (following Germany, UK, France and Italy in GDP). In 2006, its rate of economic growth was the sixth among EU nations and has been steadily increasing for many years. Interestingly in spite of the country’s economic strength, the Spaniards individually are in economic trouble. The credit debts and number of people having difficulties paying their debt back have shown a big increase in recent years. I am not surprised to hear this because the consumption frenzy is evident from busy shopping malls and stores – by the way, fake D&G clothing and accessories are a very common sight everywhere I have been in Spain. Especially, the young generation is busy to consume more than they need and, as in many developed countries, follow every fad that comes along.
There is a visible influx of other European country citizens (however, most of these expatriates are retirees), North Africans and, more recently, South Americans and iron curtain countries – particularly Russians and Romanians; there is an ethnic food section for these nations at Carrefour. Its growing economy requires the skilled and non-skilled labor import from other countries (especially for putting up the mushrooming buildings everywhere along the coastal Spain). Historically a catholic country, today the country does not look like anything religious. I am told that church going is much limited to the elder generation and the younger generation does not seem to indicate any religious affiliations. Curiously though, Jehovah Witnesses is one of the religions among others growing rapidly. Down with the religious convictions is the birth rate. Because of this decline in birth rate, their economy needs the foreign workers. However as expected, the locals complain about the undesirable changes that this foreign incursion brings – no pain, no gain, verdad? The increase in crime rate (pick pocketing, thefts, drug trafficking, etc) committed by immigrants is one of the side effects of this influx. In addition to legal immigration, there is also problem of African refugees attempting to enter country illegally via Mediterranean Sea - similar to the problems at our southern borders.
Anyway, the social development is also pretty impressive, at least in this area. The government invests into integration of immigrants and disabled citizens. In addition to the government subsidized language courses as I mentioned before, the skill development and cultural projects are also available. There is a social integration center where an immigrant can find help and local citizens can find volunteer opportunities. Mentally and physically handicapped are provided opportunities to be involved in social aspects of life as well. All government buildings are handicap accessible and public transportations are equipped to service wheelchair-bound citizens. There is a swimmer with Downs Syndrome at the swim team and he practices with the rest of the kids. He is very responsible and good at swimming – also has very nice parents. Genetic disorders don't seem to be stigmatized by the society.
The next day after the dinner, I went to a nice walk at the beach with Merry, David, Molly and Zoë (their two cocker Spaniels). There were many branches washed ashore from the floods and so many dead jellyfishes and good-sized edible fishes laying on the beach. Apparently, there are fish farms in the sea – hence so much fish. There is a good variety of yummy fishes and I am finally having some taste of them. They also use tuna in anything you can imagine. I have been trying different kinds of goodies at pastry shops and so far each salty snack I tried had tuna in it. Sometimes, it is hard to tell whether there is fish in something so you need to ask if you know how! I have not heard any mention about mercury content in tuna; I wonder if they are aware of it. Anyway, I had a very lovely day and got to know Merry and David better. They have 3 children; one son who lives in England, another lives in New Orleans USA and Rachel, the youngest one. British natives, Merry and David lived in Scotland, Saudi Arabia and Norway due to David's job in oil drilling business as an engineer. Merry is a teacher, had taught in all these countries and continues to teach here. They discovered Gandia because of Rachel and decided to retire here. When they first arrived (David 2 years before Merry), they spent some time in their boat while working on the house. It was also fascinating to know that few years ago David, with 3 others, sailed Atlantic Ocean by his boat.
Even though number of our friends is growing, we have not developed any relationship with our neighbors, yet. Two flats on our floor are occupied with older couples. The lack of our Spanish unbeknown to them, they keep explaining things to us; we just quietly listen! We have not had the courage to talk to them more than “Hola! Buenos Dias” and “Adios.” In our four-apartment building neighborhood, there is always a private celebration going. They set big tables and prepare large paella meals (yum, smells so good). In the large field next to our complex, some days a horse trainer comes with her horse and trains him.
There are also many kids in the neighborhood; it is fun to watch them come home after school for siesta. I found out a bit more about the school hours. The young kids in elementary school go to school 9 am-1 pm and take siesta and go back again 3-5 pm. But starting middle school, they go to school 9-3 then they are done – I like the late start policy, especially for the high school kids. The kids are all the same everywhere: are into video and computer games, MP3 players and love American TV shows – the most popular one, nowadays, is the High School Musical (you can buy a whole set of both DVDs and stuff in a gift package). They also celebrate Halloween, however, in a less intense fashion than we do in US – they have stores selling Halloween costumes; one was set in Carrefour just for the occasion like the ones we have. A week before Halloween, we saw kids and adults dressed in costumes with a competition number on their collar walking at a shopping mall in Valencia. On October 31st, the kids rang our bell for trick or treat until late night.
On October 24th, I drove to Alicante, one of the larger cities about 120 km (75 mi) south of us, to visit Santa Barbara Castle and the archeological museum MARQ. It took me about 1 h 15 min to reach the Castle. Driving from Gandia beginning with Javea, the landscape changes drastically as one approaches Benidorm, a city next to Alicante and one with an incredible height! When you loom the city, the first thing you notice is the skyscrapers. The Gran Hotel Bali in Benidorm is apparently the second tallest hotel in Europe with its 52 floors. I was told that they have yearly stair climbing competitions at the hotel. The city is also famous with its nightlife and discotheques, hence, attracts a certain kind of tourist crowd. Despite the high-rises, the stunning landscape was breathtaking. This country has some incredible scenery and I have, so far, only seen a smudge of it.
Santa Barbara Castle in Alicante is located on top of Mt. Benacantil (alt. 166 m.; 545 ft) overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Present fortress was built at the end of 9th century by Muslims and underwent reformations between 1562 and 1580. The castle is composed of three distinct areas. The highest part contains remains from 11th to 13th century, which include Baluarte de los Ingleses (Rampart of the English), the Sala Noble (Hall of Nobles) and the Governor’s House. The middle section contains buildings that were built in the 16th century – Room of Phillip II, the Cuerpo de Guardia (Guard’s Wing), the Baluarte de la Reina (Queen’s Rampart) and the Patio de Armas (the garrison courtyard) along with the ruins of the ancient hermitage of St. Barbara. The lowest part was added in the 18th century and includes the Revellin de Bon Repos (an angular embankment) and the monument to the famous soldier from Alicante, Felix Berenguer de Marquina.
Wondering cats at the castle























Throughout the castle there were many sculptures called Fundacion Capa Sculpture Collection, the most important collection of contemporary Spanish sculpture (19th-20th centuries) in the world, and included works of sculptures such as Benlliure, Blay, Macho, Hugue, Oteiza, Perez Comendador and Dali), which unfortunately were not labeled for identification; hence, I did not know any of this until after my visit.

The view from the Castle was spectacular with the Mediterranean on the east and the mountains on the western backdrop.
Note the people in the sea!



After the Castle, I visited the archeological museum of Alicante, MARQ. There I learned about the region’s history from the prehistoric times until now. Modern day Spain is a part of Iberia, which also includes Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar. The Iberian Peninsula is the second largest one in Europe (area of 582,860 km2, 225,043 m2 with of 51 million inhabitants; compare this to USA with 9,830,000 km2, 3,790,000 m2 with 300 million inhabitants! So this peninsula is 3 times more densely populated than US). According to Wikipedia, the Greek settlers of 8th BC are responsible for the name Iberia after river Iber (Ebro) – the name “Iberia” was also used as Caucasian Iberia for Georgia since the times of Ancient Greece and Rome.
The peninsula has been inhabited more than 350,000 years and original Iberians may have included the Basques and pre-Celtics. The civilizations that inhabited Iberian Peninsula include Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians (these three formed Hispania during Roman invasion – hence the term Hispanics), Romans, Germans, Visigoths and Moors. During the medieval times, the peninsula was made up of many small states such as Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Leon and Portugal – Aragon was involved in famous Borgia family intricacies; history is a fascinating gossip column. I did not know that Roman philosopher Seneca was born in Cordoba, Spain!
From these early times, the country still produces what it produced and traded before: olives, citrus, cereals, wine, fish, ceramics and metal. Spain is apparently known for its good quality wines. Best wines are mostly produced in the north; however, I drank some wines from Valencia region and to my non-expert palate, they were delicious. It is said that this region is good for producing sherry. For those of you interested in finding more about Spanish wines, there is a pretty good website to check out: http://www.thewinedoctor.com/regionalguides/spain.shtml.
At the entrance to the museum, a recent discovery made at the archeological site Lucentum in Alicante was displayed: a bronze hand holding a double eagle-headed sword.


October 25th was another rainy day so we stayed home instead of going for another excursion. The next day was the swim team picture day and a social dinner afterwards. After the swim on Friday, the families and the swimmers gathered at the swimming pool and the each kid’s name was called – so Yunus and Dilara were officially announced as a part of Natacio i Esports Gandia and their pictures will be posted on its website among other swimmers. Afterwards, we gathered at this very fancy restaurant called Moli-Canyar de Potries about 8 km south of Gandia. Originally a mill from 15th century belonging to a well-known family Aynat, the restaurant opened in 1997 after the restoration to its current form. Each meal for adults and older swimmers was 24 euros and 11 for younger kids. For the quality and the amount of food at such a fancy restaurant, the price was stupendous.
The adult menu included:
Combinado de ibericos – various iberic appetizers, jamon, salami, croquettes
Bacalao Moli – very thin slice of cod fish with fresh tomato, garlic, olive oil and lemon sauce (served cold)
Pates y quesos – cheese and pate
Ensaladas de marisco – seafood salad
Colas de gamba al ajillo (ajos tiernos) – shrimp with garlic
Sorbete de lemon – lemon sherbet
Solomillo con salsa de boletus – tenderloin with salsa
Tulipa de chocolate con helado de turron – nougat ice cream in a chocolate dipped cone
Vino y refrescos – wine and refreshments (wine was pretty exquisite)
Café
Kids menu included:
Papas – aceitunas – frutos secos – mashed patatoes, olives, dried fruits
Canapés variados – jamon y queso – various canapés, ham and cheese
Calamares y croquetas – calamari and croquettes
Hamburguesa can patatas – hamburger with fried potatoes
Helado – ice cream
Refrescos – refreshments.
This was one of the best restaurant meals I have, so far, had since we arrived in Spain. At the table, I sat with my German friend Susan and her husband Pedro, who speaks impeccable English, and unfortunately did not practice any Spanish. Without any intellectual vocabulary, it is a bit awkward to communicate after we run out of simple exchanges – there are long moments of silence. I know there are many nice people to get to know but we all are a bit intimated and discouraged by the language barrier. Hopefully, I will get to know more people before I leave.
The dinner started around 11 pm and all the kids seemed still pretty awake at that point! After the dinner, they had a swimmers’ initiated-awards ceremony. The two team captains presented some funky gifts and awards such as giant scissors to a kid who is called werewolf, an oversize swim suit to the female swimmer who wears her suit like a thong and a supply of Band-Aid to the swimmer who is constantly complaining about some hurting body parts, etc. Then they recognized the swimmers with a unique feature such as constantly checking themselves, inseparable bodies, etc. some of these recognitions probably would not be allowed in our gatherings due their politically incorrectness.
The swimmers also anonymously voted for Gigolo and Gigolona (a version of homecoming king and queen). Dilara was voted for mini Gigolona! So her first swim award is “Mini Gigolona,” officially signed by the club president… all the kids seem to really like Dilara. In Yunus’s age group, almost all the kids seem to have already reached the puberty and much of their mental energy is invested in pubertal minutiae. So Yunus ends up spending most of his time with older kids who already passed the adolescent twaddle – consequently at the dinner, he sat with older swimmers. The event ended at 2:15 am and we were home at 2:30 am – none of us could get up before 11 am the next day.
On Saturday, we went back to Valencia; this time for shopping. Because of our adventure the night before, we started the day late but still made it by the time siesta ended. We took the metro to a shopping mall, Centro Nuevo, similar to the Valley Mall but flooded with many more little shops. At the mall, there was a Lladro ceramics exhibition with an artist showing how to make little ceramic flowers. The pieces on display were exquisite. We accomplished our main goal of shopping shoes for Yunus and discovered Subway at the food quarters. Of course, we had a Spanish version of subway sandwich – a bocadillo. In Spain the sandwich is called bocadillo and they turn anything imaginable into a bocadillo here. I really like the idea and have been experimenting with various salads turned into sandwiches; it works. Later, we explored the gourmet food section of El Cortes Ingles, the largest department store chain of Spain (I heard that the largest one is located in Valencia near by the science museum - another project for us). I checked for the US wines at their wine store but could find none – though, they carry other countries’, such as Australian, wines; maybe the other larger store has the US imports.
Because we were invited to Susan’s home in Denia the next day, we bought a wine for Pedro for his birthday and flowers for Susan. Flower bouquets are an art form here. You can get just flowers wrapped in paper as the ones at grocery stores in US but if you want them arranged into a bouquet, the florist will take a long time to form it. It is not something you want to grab and go in a hurry.
On Sunday, we visited our friends, Susan, Pedro, Laura and Sarah, in Denia. For lunch, we had a delicious chicken paella (take-out from a local restaurant) in its traditional pan. Paella (also frying pan in Valencian – from Latin patella) is a rice dish cooked with saffron and olive oil and garnished with vegetables, meat and seafood (it is nearly impossible to find paella without some sort of sea animal as an ingredient). I learned that the rice in paella tastes so good because it is cooked in a large pan, hence, spread flat for each grain to absorb the flavor. I heard that Vicente's mom makes the best Paella around here!
The sizes for paella pans vary from 10” to 52” (they use larger ones for the festivities but only via special acquisition); and to cook in these large pans, they use special burners and tripods to hold the burners – if you don’t use burners, the food on the outer rim of the pan does not get properly cooked. Paella is the main dish for picnics, family and community gatherings (like the ones at our apartment building) in this region as we have pizza or subs. The most famous paella cooking is performed during Fallas in Valencia (a Valencian tradition to celebrate St. Joseph Day on March 19th). There are many myths about how the paella was originated. The most plausible one seems to be the one with mixing the leftover rice dishes into one! In Middle East, there are rice dishes prepared similarly, but not festively.
The most exotic part of paella is saffron and it is unbelievably expensive. The spice is derived from the stigma of saffron crocus flower. Each flower has only 3 stigmas so about 40 flowers yield 1 ounce of saffron (1 acre of plantation yields about 10 lbs!) and the price varies from $20.00 to $45.00 per ounce depending on its grade (there are 4 different quality grades). For a paella dish to serve 6-8 persons, you might need to use only about 1/10th of an ounce.
After lunch, we took the kids to the funfair (the same one from our fiesta traveled to Denia and would be there for two weeks) and left them to their own to enjoy the rides. Susan and Pedro took me for a city tour so I learned about Denia. This town is smaller than Gandia but looks more cosmopolitan with fancy shops and more variety of ethnic food (than just Chinese and few other little ones) including Indonesian and Indian. The city has a large population of German and English citizens. On that day, I met with their neighbor who had just arrived from London.
The beach front of Denia apparently extends all the way to Gandia – 30 km of uninterrupted beach walk if you fancy! It has a beautiful modern yacht marina complete with a large multi-storey guesthouse and several restaurants. There were gigantic beautiful yachts docked at the port. There is also a ferry terminal offering rides to the Balearic Islands of Ibiza, Menorca, Mallorca and Formentera. The city’s main attraction is an impressive 11th and 12th century castle called “the Castillo.” With its location on a 58 m (190 ft) hilltop, it was possible to spot it from every direction in the city.
East of Denia is also surrounded by mountains as Gandia is. Several miles towards east of Denia at the footsteps of a mountain in Jesus Pobre, Marriott has a resort called “La Sella Golf Resort and Spa.” Well, guess what? At the top of that mountain, Richard Gere apparently had a Buddhist temple built several years ago. Why not, ey? Was he among the celebrities who extended a hand for the victims of California fires? The Spanish TV had an extensive coverage of the disaster. It looked horrible, but it seemed to be handled so much more effectively than the Katrina – maybe for being rich, Californian’s had more to lose than the Louisianans! Or maybe Arnie pulled a “hasta la vista, baby!” Perhaps, the new Louisiana governor can pull that line and get the mess fixed, now.
Well, November 1st was another Fiesta “All Saints’ Day” and everywhere was closed including my Spanish class so I was able to start writing this entry before it became ancient history! For this Fiesta, people (mostly older) visit cemeteries; hence, there were special bus rides to the main cemetery from October 29th through November 3rd. The kids swam in the morning; later, we wanted to see a movie but the movie theaters were also closed, aghast! By the way, all the foreign movies are dubbed in Spain so we can watch American movies only in Spanish – I suggested watching the ones we had already seen, but my idea was voted out. The movies that are gone from our movie theaters in US long time ago are still showing here; however, they begin to show the new movies fairly quick.
In five days, Haluk will be here and we cannot wait to finally see him. Six weeks is way too long of a parting from your loved ones, but again thanks to Skype, it is a lot more bearable than having no visual aid.
Adios amigos until we meet again with updates on our new adventures - maybe from Moor dynasty…
Amor a todos!
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