We landed in Seville, got our rental car, and with the assistance of my hand-written set of extremely detailed directions courtesy of my adult student Paco (detailed drawing included) we headed in the direction of Valverde. Scratch that, first we pulled over to the side of the highway because my father couldn’t figure out how to make the car go over 30 mph. Once we got that figured out it was on forth to Valverde. Oops, yeah we missed our first exit and had to turn around. After having completed a loop of the airport NOW we were ready to make our way to Valverde.
After a rocky start it was smooth sailing all the way to Valverde. We had enough time to check into the hotel, freshen up, and tour my house and surrounding neighborhood all before our first of two dinner dates. The first night our hosts were Ana and her family. They were delightful as always and had a giant feast of tapas (all my favorite’s and a few new one’s) all ready for us. I never doubted for a moment that we wouldn’t have an amazing night. Antonio kept my dad busy with stories and anecdotes about Spanish history and culture while Ana and my mom talked about cooking and art. My mother received a tour of the house and an up close look at all of the artwork that surrounded their lovely house. Sergio spoke about five words more than usual and remained at the table for a record of 15 minutes. I was lucky enough to get a picture of everyone together before Sergio went to bed and Paco left. I was so overwhelmed with joy that my parents finally got to meet the people I’ve talked about for so long in person and got to experience their warmth and charm personally. Like I had expected the meal didn’t end until around 2am and only at my mother’s insistence. They would have gladly continued talking and drinking wine with us until daylight but my parents had to get up early because they were going to school with me the next morning so we eventually departed. Another successful dinner at the house of Ana’s (as the Spanish would say).
The next day I picked up my parents at their hotel and walked them over to the school. I gave them a short tour of the school and they got to meet Pocho before accompanying me to my first primero class with Toni. I did my best to prepare my parents for an hour of noise and ensued chaos. Unfortunately the students were finishing up an art project from the previous session so class wasn’t conducted as usual. I did my best to keep order, with no help from the actual teacher, but you can’t control 25 kids at the same time your helping one individual. It could have been a lot worse but it wasn’t the kid’s best behavior by any means. When everyone had finished the kite I had about ten minutes to introduce the next unit, fish. The first time I made the kids repeat the word fish I ended up saying “feesh” and it just stuck after that so I couldn’t go back to “fish”. It was my British English coming out. I’m so use to hearing Rocio say a word first in a British Spanish accent and then having to repeat it that way even though we say it a little differently in America. For example all of the kids say “bean” instead of “bin”, aka trashcan. It might sound like a small difference but it greatly affects my speech and now I end up saying, “bean” and consequently “feesh”. Just wait until you hear me in person once I return. It will take me a while before I’ll lose my robot voice and British voice.
It was now time for the second primero class with Rocio. What a contrast. The kids were angels and silent for the majority of the class. It was clear to my parents that Rocio maintains total control over her class at all time. She doesn’t tolerate “toneria” and isn’t afraid to discipline. I much prefer Rocio’s strict order to chaos but at the same time I wish I had a little more interaction or free time to help the kids more. I only really assist a child if I notice an error on his or her paper or if one of the slower kids falls behind and Rocio loses patience with him so she asks me to help him out (it’s always a boy). After class I found out that Manuel #1 (there are 5 in that class) took a liking to my dad and they had fun with each other. My mother was also very impressed with a girl that was right in front on her (Luna) because she was extremely organized and took control of situations that needed to be fixed. Once class was over my mother used the water closet while my dad got to interact with Pocho’s third grade class. They introduced themselves to him (one at a time) and asked him all kinds of questions (what’s your favorite animal, what’s your favorite food). They were very cute and enjoyed asking him questions. When their class was over they all made sure to say goodbye to my dad. Before my parents left to explore Valverde on their own they got to meet a few of my colleagues downstairs in the staff room. After they left every teacher came up to me and said that they could visibly tell how happy I was that they were here because I couldn’t stop smiling. It was true, I had waited a long time to show my parents my life over here and they were finally getting to experience a day in my life. I tried but I just couldn’t stop smiling.
My parents met up with me once school was over so we could go to the grocery store together before lunch. Elisa and Pablo had decided to make paella for lunch and invited us to join them at three. After picking up some wine for the lunch and a few snacks for my parents for the road we headed back to my place. When we arrived a little after 3 the place was packed with people. A handful of Elisa and Pablo’s work friends were gathered in the terrace as well as Corrie, Kate, and Ruben. I introduced my parents to everyone and shortly after we got to sit down and eat. Since we didn’t have enough chairs for everyone one of Elisa’s friends got out lawn chairs from the back of his car. This was my first homemade paella experience as well as my parents. The paella consisted of mussels, clams, octopus, cuddle fish, chicken, prawns, rice, and peppers. Instead of the usual yellowish orange color that is typical of paella due to the use of saffron, this paella was dark green instead. My dad really enjoyed it but my mom wasn’t as big a fan mainly because of the kinds of seafood that was in it. I’ve had paella in Spain four times and every time I end up only eating the rice so I’ve come to the realization that I’m just not a big fan of it. There are other typical Spanish foods that I would be more inclined to eat.
After a filling lunch my parents thanked Pablo and Elisa for hosting and headed back to the hotel while I took a much-needed siesta. I really needed to catch up on my sleep so I passed out from 4pm- 7:30pm. Tonight we had another dinner date but this time with Pocho and her family. Christen was also planning on attending so that was good because we ended up needing her translating skills. We had another wonderful meal with Pocho’s entire family. She cooked different tapas that my parents had yet to try so they really enjoyed that. She made salmorejo and ensaladilla just for them. I just under strict orders from my mother to get the recipe for the ensaladilla before I return home. While the conversation wasn’t quite as free flowing as the night before we all had enjoyed ourselves and my parents got a chance to get to know both Pocho and her husband Antonio. I myself hadn’t spent much time with Antonio so this was also a great chance for me to get to know him a little better. My parents were really quite tired so at around 12:30am we called it a night and said our goodbyes. Another successful night. This was way better than eating out at one of two mediocre restaurants in Valverde.
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