Carol and Alberto's Wedding

We had the great pleasure to attend the wedding of our friends Alberto and Carol. Since we met them last fall we have heard all about the planning and wedding this and wedding that so we knew that it was going to be an event. The ceremony was at a beautiful cathedral in the center of Madrid called San Jeronimo, right next to the Prado Museum. It had just been completely restored and was very beautiful. I felt totally Spanish walking to the church in our fancy clothes surround by tourists.

The ceremony was very catholic and very long. I think the priest did way too much talking and even asked for money which I didn't think was appropriate but this is only my second cathedral wedding in Spain so not sure if this is normal! But the bride was beautiful and the groom very handsome. Carol is my height and she looked great in her dress. Being my second catholic wedding in Spain I have noticed that neither time did the priests say they can kiss or that they are man and wife. I think that is strange. Why go through an hour long ceremony if you can't kiss your new husband after! hehe

The bride and her dad (he's real short!)

during the ceremony

The newlyweds

There is the kiss (outside!)

When the ceremony was over we walked out and threw rice and took pictures. There were tons of tourists watching and taking pictures and one girl who was so excited she was stalking Carol as she was greeting all her guests and having her mom take pictures. I guess that is what happens if you get married in the tourist area!
Next, we boarded buses and headed to the reception. It was probably 30 minutes outside of the city. It was a very pretty location and we started in on the h'ourderves and drinks. They had caipirinhas and mojitos along with the wine and beer. The h'ourderves were great- high quality ham, foie, brie, asparagus, croquets, chicken terriyaki all very fancy but very good.

Me and Alicia- she is mad I wore high heels! Her's are 5 inches at least!

The boys

the girls

Caipirinhas

Then we headed into the dinning room for a great dinner. We looked at the menu and Pablo freaked out because there wasn't very much food because in Asturias if you don't have quantity the people get very upset. But here the food was quality over quantity and we were pleasantly surprised at how good everything was. 

First Course: Salmon salad- yes that is raw and thick!

Second course: Mango custard with ham and foie

Third course: Duck confit, potato with mandrin sauce. This was AMAZING!

Yogurt with rasberry sauce for the ladies

Cheesecake for the gentelman

Liquors- Pacharan with the boys

After dinner we hit up the dancefloor and showed the Spanish how we like to party!

Us and the happy couple

Me in the subway at 6:30 am

We arrived home at 7am!

Romans Invade Asturias

Asturias has a very long history that is amazing to listen to because it is so long ago that us Americans have no reference. So when you go to visit towns and places that are so old it is pretty amazing. While up in Asturias we went to the town of Carabanzo to celebrate their annual festival of the Roman invasion. The town is tiny but very cute and the people dress up as Romans and Asturians, with Roman games, activities and decorations from this time period. Then one day they have a re-enactment of the battle between the powerful Romans and the scrappy Asturians. It is like a civil war re-enactment but way older! It was super muggy and I was almost dying waiting for it to start but once it did it was really cute. It only lasted about 2 minutes because the Asturians were no match for the Romans. It was pretty funny.

Typical Asturian hut

The Romans are coming!

The Asturians waiting at the battle field

Asturians ready for battle

Romans arrive

Asturians

Romans

Rodiezmo

I'm a little behind in some of our family adventures so here is a recap of the day we spent in Rodiezmo. We went there two days after we returned home from Seattle. It is a tiny town in Leon, close to Asturias. Pepo's cousin and his wife have a summer home there and they invited us to spend the day. Pablo used to vacation here in the summers with his family so it is a special place for them and I'm glad I got to see it. It is just across the mountains from Asturias so the weather is like Eastern Washington making it a good place to spend the summers because you know it will always be warm and sunny!
We had a great lunch- with way too much food! We went on a hike to visit a little cross and explore the valley. Then on the way back to the house we stopped at the house Pablo's family used to rent and the owners were there and they had fun catching up and reminiscing.

The house

Walking

The famous cross

The landscape

The house Pablo stayed at in the summers

Family

Bachelorette Party Spanish Style

This last weekend I experienced my first bachelorette party in Spain. It was for my friend Carol, who plays on my basketball team. She is getting married at the end of September and it was so nice of her to invite me to the bachelorette party. I still feel like the girls here don't really know me yet because I'm still really shy but they are so kind to the foreigner and keep inviting me to everything!

We spent the weekend in a pueblo called Valdepeñas. It is famous for wine and happened to be their big festival so there were a lot of events going on.  Friday and Saturday they had bands playing in the plaza- mostly cover bands so that made it fun because then I knew some of the songs.

We rented a house and went out on the town Friday and Saturday and had funny activities for the bride to do. For bachelor and bachelorette parties in Spain it is typical to dress the bride and groom in crazy costumes and then the friends go with the theme and have some sort of costume as well. Usually you can do some pretty embarassing costomes but I think the ones we did were pretty funny and everything is a surprise to the bride.

Friday night the costume was Michael Jackson. Carol has naturally curly black hair and once we put the Michael Jackson costume on it was perfect because she looked just like him. We followed the theme by wearing all black and we got hats and sparkly gloves.

Michael Jackson and the bodyguards

De tapas y vinos (wine and tapas)

On Saturday the big activity was called Valdepeñas Express. There is a show in Spain called Pekin Express which is like The Amazing Race but they only stay in China. So we dressed her up in the typical hippy/backpacker and drove out one of the country roads about 3 km from the town and told her she had to hitchhike back to the town. Sounds a little dangerous right? Well we had safety measures in place. There was always one girl with her video taping. There was a car waiting by her and a car waiting for her at the next stop. I was afraid no one would pick her up but apparently in small towns it is common and she made it all the way back to town.

Valdepeñas Express (hitchhiking)

For Saturday night her friends surprised her with a Snow White costume because Carol is my height- really tall for Spain so she has always been the tallest everywhere she goes. So we dressed up as the 7 dwarfs because her friends are always shorter than her..... except I kind of ruined it but you get the idea! I was Mudito, which means mute (fitting!) aka Dopey in the english version.

Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs

It was a fun weekend and I met some really nice girls.  Can't wait for the wedding because I'm sure it will be over the top!

Welcome to the family, Laguno!

We adopted a DOG! I still can't believe it myself. Pablo has been wanted a dog forever and since he started volunteering at the animal shelter the want became greater. Months ago Pablo picked out one of his favorites and had me come to the shelter to meet him. I like dogs but I have never had one and didn't really want another animal in the house because it was already dirty enough. I liked how things were with just the three of us but when you see these dogs and hear their stories it is heartbreaking. So when you have the opportunity to help you do what you can and we opened our house to Laguno. We decided to wait until after our vacation and if he was still available for adoption we would go for it. Well Pablo brought him home last Friday and we are now a family of four.
We agreed from the beginning that Alkie would remain the boss of the house and the dog would have to learn he is and will always be at the bottom of the totem pole. He learned very quickly as Alkie made it quite obvious who was boss when he growled, hissed and blew up twice his size into a huge fur ball upon Lagu's arrival. But as each day passes they are learning to live and tolerate each other and try to find a normal routine.
Laguno is very timid and scared so this change is a little difficult but he is doing well. His story began when he was 2 months old and found and brought to the shelter. Soon after his arrival he was adopted and lived with a family until he was 4. Then because they were having a baby the family decided to give Laguno back. How anyone can give an animal away after living with them for 4 years has no heart. Can you imagine?? Anyway, Laguno was now back in the shelter and lived there for 5 months until we brought him home. He just turned 5 and is a collie-greyhound mix from our own observations. Since he has previous experience living in a house he is adjusting quite well. He sleeps a lot and follows us around everywhere. He is a whiner though and when we leave or in the mornings when we are still sleeping he cries this really high pitched cry. We are working on that and hopefully he'll get over his anxiety.
We now have to deal with more hair on the floor and that horrible dog smell that I'm determined to get rid of but we love Laguno (Lagu or Goonie) and are so happy with our decision. Alkie is even warming up to him and it's so fun to see the two of them together. 

First hike with Lagu

Family shot

On top of the world!

Happy Campers

Alkie likes sticks.....no idea

But he is so cute