December in Nerja

My little Delilah with her funny floppy ears.

Let's go to the beach

Delilah on the beach Christmas morning.

Hola Everyone,

Your eyes aren't deceiving you. Yes, I am wearing a turtleneck in southern Spain!
Mucho frio some days (plus 10 celcius ugh)

Mid December in Nerja.......

Left view from my terrace

Right view from my terrace

A change of hair colour was needed and kind of fun.

I was just thinking... I don't really know why this month has flown by me without me noticing ahah, but I kind of do when I stopped to really think about this month. I met a man who is very special to me, Michel. I normally don't mention my personal stuff in my blog but I can't help but write and tell you all how happy I am. Hence why this month is flying by with my feet not on the ground and my head in cloud nine. I will leave it at that. It is possible there will be more mention of Michel in later entries ahahah. Girls, don't sweat it, you will keep getting the "good stuff ".

Juliet found a Salsa dance teacher who would teach classes in her gym this month. This was always on my mental "Things to Experience" list. So right away 25 people signed up and we have been going twice a week in the evenings for Salsa. I did not realize it would be so fast paced, the music so awesome, the sweat would be flying off of us, nor how much fun it was going to be. It is such good exercise plus we have so many laughs during our 2 hours a week with things like Dell's shoe flinging across the room; some people get their toes stepped on; often (of course) the women always want to lead; and then their is our instructor Mauricio, who sounds crazy with his screeching whisles. So we dance to authentic Salsa music and for our cool down, what comes on Celine Dion, which makes me think of home every time. Most nights after class about 10 of us go to this scungy little tapas bar and have a drink and discuss how the class went, again with many laughs as none of us take it serious at all. It is such a friendly fun crowd that we have a real hoot together. I think most of us will be returning in January for another go at it. I personally want the holidays to be done and over with because that means back to SALSA !

Anny and Pepe (my landlords) are just so lovely. Last week Anny and I went to their other property and picked fresh Mandarins right off the tree. They do not call them oranges, I was corrected a few times haha, only Mandarins. A few days later they gave me about 20 lemons from their trees and just yesterday they asked if I wanted oranges (not Mandarins ahah) that are growing just on the other side of my patio. Well I never turn fresh fruit away, so as I was picking away Anny made sure I got my camera so I can send my family and friends a few photos. She and Pepe really wants me to see, feel, think and know everything about this area called Andalucia and I love her tidbits of info, now practically on a daily basis. The things that Pepe and Anny tell me usually are only known if you have lived here a long while so I always feel I am getting the inside scoop to their Spanish culture. By the way, for 3.5 months that I have been living here I have been pronouncing Pepe's name wrong and Anny just informed me of that yesterday. We both laughed about that. It is Pay-pay, not my way ahahah. So last night at Salsa I mentioned this to the group when someone mentioned a Pepe they knew. Turns out every single person has been pronouncing Pepe wrong as well. We laughed like heck.

Christmas in Spain is very different than back home in Canada and I don't mean the obvious, the weather ahah. Here it is so low key with only a few lights hung between the streets. I have seen a couple artificial trees with tacky decorations. One thing that I have noticed is everywhere I go people have hung a stuffed Santa Claus from their balconies. The first time I was shocked, it looked like he was literally being hung by his neck and then I "got it", he is suppose to be climbing up the balcony to deliver his presents. I had to chuckle to myself. In Nerja they have quite a few round-abouts to keep the traffic flowing (only 2 traffic lights) and in the centre of each one the city has planted tons of red poinsetias. They look gorgeous amongst the green shrubs, flowers and / or palm trees. I never see the city watering them, but they are as fresh looking as when they were planted a month ago.

I never dreamt that I would miss Sarah and the rest of my family (and friends) as much as I did, as this is my first Christmas away from home. It all started when my group of healing chicks got together at Patsy's appetizer night. Oh how I loved that last year. Patsy invited me so what I did was gave them a call when I knew they would all be there. I had to set my alarm clock and got up at 5:00 in the morning. It was fabulous to speak with almost everyone. It was so clear, sounded like they were next door. Then Earla sent me a photo of Earla, Bruce and Alan getting together with Carol, and André in Vancouver for dinner and a good long visit. I was secretly whining and felt so left out. But I know they had a great time together and I bet I was brought up a couple of times ahah. Then hearing everyone getting ready for Christmas and planning being with family over the holidays did me in for a bit.

Christmas Day in Nerja......

Once Christmas Day arrived I was all right. My emotions were in tact once again because I love living in Spain and this is where I am meant to be for now (even without my family) I did exactly what I always wanted to do in the morning. Delilah and I went to the beach for almost 2 hours armed with her ball and my book. It was a lovely warm day. After Delilah's playtime, I thought again (for the millionth time) how lucky I was to be sitting on a beach. Here I was, looking out over the Mediterrean Sea, watching the waves do their thing and it just hit me. I am in Spain on Christmas Day with no family or friends from home and I am all right knowing they are thinking of me and me of all of them. It was a special moment and I will never forget it. Afterwards I was invited to the Blue Med with the regular crowd for appetizers and drinks in the early afternoon. Then in the evening, Dave, Alastair, Chantelle and I went to a hotel on the way to Frigliana in an old snazzy looking hotel that reminded me of a skiing lodge back in Canada. There we had a 4 course meal, with turkey and all the trimmings, which by the way was my very first turkey dinner in almost a year. And anyone that knows me, knows that turkey dinner with my Mom or Sista's gravy is my absolute favourite meal. There was a singer and dancing afterwards, so we danced til the wee hours of the morning. Okay, 1:00 a.m. The gang dropped me off at Michel's restaurant as he put on a private party for 20 of his friends and special customers. There we sang and danced for a few hours. It was a very different Christmas. So I survived Christmas Day as it was my first time being away from home and I ended up having a great day.

New Year's Eve was even more fun than Christmas. Michel's restaurant was fully booked for a beautiful meal. Half of the people walked to the Balcon de Europa for the countdown to 2009. I stayed with the other half and we watched the t.v. screen for our countdown. The tradition here in Spain, and no one can tell me how it started, is this....there is a 12 bell that ring and on each ring you pop a grape or a raisin into your mouth. So there we all were popping green grapes into our mouths, laughing and almost choking. It was hilarious. But still no one can tell me how this tradition came about. Then we had a night of dancing and singing with a friend of ours, Reno playing any music we wanted off of his snazzy iphone or something. I met so many nice people from Nerja and also from all over the world that night which isn't as overwhelming as it used to be. The languages flying around the dance floor was amazing. I wanted to stay up to see the first sunrise of 2009 but it didn't happen ahah. All in all, it was a great way to ring in the New Year.

January 1st most places were closed but Michel and I, armed with our books, ended up findina a cafeteria overlooking the sea that was open. We ended up talking for hours and then walked all around Nerja the rest of the afternoon, going down streets I couldn't believe I hadn't seen before. It was a sunny warm day and what a way to spend the first day of 2009!

The Spanish celebrate their Christmas on January 6 and it is called Three Kings Day. I happened to go out and do a few errands on the 5th and all the little stores were packed. People were lined up in each store and I was thinking, there must be some good sales happening. Then it dawned on me, it was the Spanish Christmas Eve. So they obviously do what a lot of Canadians do, leave their Christmas shopping until the last minute ahaha. See we are not so different, no matter what country we happen to live in. ahah So January 6th is when they have their big family meal together and exchange a few gifts. The children receive a few small gifts, so in that regard, their Christmas is nothing like it is in Canada.

There is almost no trace of the holidays here except those scary Santa Clauses still hanging off of balconies. There are no huge Boxing Day sales. Life is back to normal quite quickly here after the holidays. I have to say I enjoyed this whole experience during these holidays because they were so low key, and to me it feels that this time is mostly about getting together with family and friends.

I really felt like I fit in quite nicely with my friends who have become my Spain family.

Until next time.

And a Happy New Year to you All !
Love,
Leigh-Ann xox