Not lost but found.

I was told that the last weekend an american woman was asking about me and Rocío in the mercadillo of Villahermosa and for what I know, even came across with some family members of Rocío. Nobody thought of exchanging phone numbers or other contact information at that time, but if the person who was asking for me reads this, please write a comment to this post and we´ll figure out a way to be in contact. It would be nice to meet you and hear your story, it being somewhat similar to mine for what I´ve understood.

As they say here, el mundo es un pañuelo ;)

A blog for our dog

There is a rottweiler puppy on the way into our lives, which soon will arrive to it´s new home, so I opened a blog to keep track of the dog´s life and for it to work as a link between us and the breeder of the dog, she being finnish and therefore unable to follow up on the dog "hands-on". The blog will be written in finnish to make it easier to explain more complicated matters if such arise, but I am considering of writing an english translation on the side. In any case for those unable to read finnish but still interested, there will be photos and possibly videos to see. The link to the blog can always be found in the "Links" sidebar on the right. So far there´s not much content in the blog - except some links of interest - as the puppy isn´t with us yet, but soon enough that will change :)

Barcelona and Andorra

In the beginning of October I spent a week in Barcelona, also including a daytrip to Andorra. Rocío was with me for the first two days, while we visited the family of his uncle Antonio (you can see him in the earlier posts). Due to a job interview, she had to return to Ciudad Real earlier than planned, but it sure was worth it as she got the job :)

However, I remained in Barcelona for the week, as my friend Jose (a spaniard living in Finland) had come to visit his family and friends for the week as well. The time spent there was packed with new sights and experiences, too numerous to start explaining here, so instead I´ll let the photos do the talking. Behind the following link you´ll find about a hundred to see:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ville.pulkkanen/BarcelonaAndAndorra

On another topic, during my stay here in Spain I´ve met many people from the internet forum of Audisport Iberica in various meets and get-togethers. Besides being fantastically nice and helpful people, after my visit to Barcelona and one more of these meets (usually held in a bar, getting to know the various brews available in Spain;) it seems that now this folk might be planning a visit to Finland some day to try the local brews and rent some reindeers as a means of transportation!!! You never know about these things, maybe it´ll come true after all...

I´ve put some photos online from the first meet in Madrid, held at the same time I went there to buy the car, and from another one combining people from Castilla La Mancha, Madrid and Valencia, held here in La Mancha. There´s also some photos from the Barcelona-meet, but those aren´t online yet. See the links:

http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n172/Mezzapics/Misc%20Audi/

http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n172/Mezzapics/Blogger/

That´s all for now, see you soon!

Our new home

Hello again! It´s been a while since I last got to update the blog, as I haven´t had an internet connection at my disposal, but now I can use the computer room at the university of Castilla La Mancha to do at least some online stuff. A couple of weeks back we found our new home and moved in - the easiest move I´ve ever had, as I didn´t bring too much stuff to Spain. Because of some limitations of the network here I can´t put the photos of the flat directly to the blog for now, but here´s a link that will take you to the folder in Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ville.pulkkanen/TheApartment

A few comments on the photos and the flat... The first ones are from the yard of the building, showing the building itself and the recreational areas: the pools and the sporting grounds. The swimming pools ain´t really for swimming as they´re a little bit small for that, but it sure must be refreshing to dip in on a hot summer day (about 40 degrees celsius in the hottest period of the summer). This year we didn´t get to enjoy that, as we moved in at the end of September.

The photo with Rocío peeking from the terrace shows our windows. The white things outside them are called "persiana" and are there to block the sunlight and it´s heat in the summer. More or less every house in Spain is equipped with those. Moreover, they also provide an excellent function of darkening the room completely if needed and man, I´ll tell you I´ve never slept as good as here with the persiana down :) The picture shows on the left the terrace, next to it the kitchen window, next to the right the living room and finally the bedroom. The flat has a lot of light as every room has a window.

The next photos show the parking garage and the door to our storage in front of the car, the hallway of our stairway with the mailboxes and our front door.

Inside the apartment, when moving it looks like moving no matter how little things you bring with you ;) In short time we were settled though and this is how the flat looks now. First you see the entrance "hall" and then the kitchen, which I like a lot as it has lots of space and is well equipped. A few pics from the toilet also, and as you can see on the second one, there´s something extra in the spanish version compared to the finnish one. The next photos are from the living room, which also has the dining table. The sofa opens up to be a two-person bed, so visitors are welcome :) The second last photo is the bedroom, or well, the bed mostly, as it was difficult to fit the whole room to the picture (Heta and Äiti, here´s where I sleep ;).

The last photo shows our first visitors, Esther and her boyfriend David, who study English Philology in the university like Rocío.

Out of reach for a few days

There still are a few places in the world without a mobile phone network, and I'm going to one of them for a couple of days, so do not be alarmed if I'm out of reach until Tuesday or so. More specifically, the event in question is "La fiesta de la virgen de la Carrasca", one hell of a big party of the town Villahermosa, where about all the population and many many people from outside the town go camping to a nearby site. There you can find bars, attractions, concerts, bullfights, games... you name it, it's there. A little like the Finnish Midsummer Night and Labor Day combined. I expect to have fun, and will report on this after I return... :)

A video and some tragic news

This video I made to show you some sceneries around Villahermosa. I was driving around to see the nearby towns and mountains and made this video by mounting a camera inside my car while descending down a mountain road. To make it shorter the video plays back at double speed.

This week has been the festival -or "feria"- of Villahermosa and the town is full of people, attractions and life. One thing shaded the beginning of the feria on Monday though, as a young man with 26 years of age from the neighboring block was killed by a lightning during a thunderstorm while he was on a fishing trip in the nearby village of Montiel. A 13-year old brother, a girlfriend and the families were left missing him. Things like this leave you without words... Respect the nature and take care of yourself and those around you!

A shot of a lightning during a recent thunderstorm in Villahermosa, taken from the house.

Video of the mercadillo

Today, as we were returning home from the Ayuntamiento, the mercadillo happened to be on our way and I decided to make a video of it for you to see. Of course its not the greatest movie spectacle ever witnessed, but maybe it'll serve some purpose. In the latter part of the video you will also see a little bit of the house we're living at and some people as well. I'll make a more comprehensive video of the house later.

Siblings, cousins, uncles...

This family has been at least as active in spreading around as has mine in Finland ;) There are relatives in Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia...



These are the three siblings on the side of Rocío's mother (from left to right, youngest to oldest): Antonio, Encarnacion and Maria Luisa. Antonio lives in Barcelona with his wife Mari and daughter Ana, whereas Maria Luisa with her family have remained closer - as the next-door neighbors to Rocío's family. In addition to Maria Luisa there are her husband Lorenzo and their son Luis Lorenzo. Their daughter Maria Monserrat lives in Villahermosa but works in the nearby village of Montiel, which is why her daughter Maria Lucia - the grandchild of Maria Luisa and Lorenzo - spends most of her days here. She appears to be a real favorite of all the village!

Here are the aforementioned siblings again, joined now by their mother Felipa, representing the oldest end of the family, and Maria Lucia as the youngest.

In this photo on the left Felipa, leaning on the car Maria Luisa and her son Luis Lorenzo who happens to be almost the same age as me. The man in the green shirt is Javi, the husband of the sister of Antonio's wife Mari. With his wife Mari Angeles they have two daughters, who are the two girls in white and gray clothes in the photo, Eva (the younger) and Marta. They also live in Barcelona, but like Antonio and his family, also come here to Villahermosa for the vacations during the summer. The last two remaining are again Maria Lucia with her back facing the camera and Ana, the daughter of Antonio and Mari, in the red shirt.

To make things just a little more complicated, I present to you another Antonio and his family :) Antonio is the husband of Eugenio's (Rocío's father, that is) sister Alberta. They are the two persons on the right. On the left are two of their five children: Paqui (white shirt) and Inmaculada - or Inma for short. In the middle is the boyfriend of Inma, Juan. In addition, Alberta and Antonio have three sons that are not in the picture: Antonio (one more!), Alberto and Jordi. The whole family lives in Barcelona also, and we have been invited to visit them when we go there in September. Invitation is gladly accepted :) Juan is a man of football (FC Barcelona) and wants to take me to the home stadium of the team...

Oh, and one more thing... There is the saying that every rule has an exception, right? Well, here we have one example of that. In Spanish, the equivalent of my name Ville is Guillermo and that is what Antonio (on the right) has been calling me ever since he learned that! Normally, I prefer my real name to be used, but with him we have an agreement to use the other, as there needs to be an exception. By the way, as simple as my real name is, to the Spanish people it is difficult to pronounce correctly, as they tend to say "V" as we say "B" and two "L"s become how we say "J" in Finland... "BIJJE" is what it sounds like without instructions on how to say it :)

Family photos and an anniversary

For once, the whole family was available at the same time for a group photo :)

If it still is unclear who is who, from left to right: Encarnacion, Felipa, Eugenio, Beatriz, Rocío and Maria Isabel. The photo was taken at the front door of the house in Villahermosa, after an afternoon trip to the fair of a nearby village Villanueva de la Fuente.

On August 22nd, Encarnacion and Eugenio celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary - and 33 years of life together in total. 33 years! Man, I haven't even lived that long yet ;) Such a time is definitely worth a little fiesta, so we went to dine to a restaurant in the village with the whole family... If someone is wondering, the color of Eugenio's face is not - even though we enjoyed some - from too much wine, but from working outside in the sun for years and years :)

One more time, the "core" family. Next I will present some of the relatives I've met so far...

Two were missing...

Here are the two missing persons from my earlier presentation of the family:

Beatriz - the equivalent of my soon-17-year-old sister Silja. Despite being more calm by her character overall, she does from time to time remind me of [QUESTIONABLE HUMOR]what I would not be missing were I to live with my mum and Silja... [/QUESTIONABLE HUMOR]. You know, the obligatory conversations about money, household work etc. :)

So far I haven't gotten to know her too well, as we tend to go around at different times and to different places, and maybe there is also a hint of shyness from her part, but I hope -and know- that this will be fixed in no time :)

This is Maria Isabel, the middle one of the three sisters with 20 years of age, with her dog Rex. At the moment they are both staying at the house in Villahermosa as she doesn't have work for August, but normally she lives in Ciudad Real. Her I already know a little bit better as Rocío and I have been spending time at her place in Ciudad Real. : she reminds me of my dear sister Heta, if not by looks or some other way, but by her temper. And no, I haven't experienced that personally, but witnessed some "sisterly negotiations" or something ;)

I made a rubber carpet for the boot of my car to protect it from dirt that dogs might bring with them. Rex was the first one to try it, here he's checking out the material. I guess the verdict was "approved" as he next made himself comfortable in there by lying down :)

Panoramas

I was speaking with my mother on the phone this morning. She asked me to put more pictures of the people I've come to know and write about the everyday life here. That I will do next, but bare with me for this one post more, as I will introduce you a couple more landscapes. These are in panoramic form, and by no means perfect as such, because I haven't had the patience (or the skills, yet) to start tuning the color differences etc. between the photos. Anyway, I hope these give a broader look to the wonderful sceneries I've found very close to where I live. Click on the photos to go to their folder and see them separately.

P.S. If some of you know a good, free panoramic photo compiler with options to adjust the colors etc. let me know! Currently I'm using Photostitch which came with my camera, but that is a very simple and limited program as can be seen...

An earthquake in Spain

Well, now it is official: I can sleep through an earthquake!

A rare event happened yesterday on Sunday, August 12th in Spain. At 9:47am the country was struck by an earthquake, the epicenter being right here in Ciudad Real. The magnitude of the 'quake was 5,1 on the Richter scale. At this hour I was happily asleep, and I must admit that when I woke up an hour later or so, I had no idea whatsoever of an earthquake. The rest of the family was talking about it, how they felt their beds shake and heard a rumbling noise, and soon the tv was also with it. Luckily the quake didn't cause any casualties or damage to property. Should I consider buying a more effective alarm clock than my mobile phone?!

Here's a few links to information about the event:
CNN
Wikipedia (this one in Spanish)

Views of La Mancha - The setting sun

The sun offers magnificent scenes above the horizon before going down for the night.



This abandoned piece of old farming equipment has seen quite many sunsets from where its resting. In the old days it was used to lift water up from the well, powered by donkeys.



No comment :)

A display of colors that I don't have words to describe.

Views of La Mancha - In larger scale

The scenery, smooth in it's form...



... but go closer and the smooth may turn to sharp.



The scenery often lush and green, despite the general dryness.



A stereotypical image of a Mediterranean country?

Views of La Mancha - The other side of the nature

On the other hand, despite the dryness and seemingly hostile plants, the nature is persistent and turns what might be a desolate and empty place into a beautiful scenery with many rich details.



A sunflower in the wild.



"Trespassers will be pinched."



Sometimes the nature is very fragile. A slightest touch and this dried flower would crumble to pieces.



Many different kinds of bugs visit the plants. Most of them I've never seen before. Great coloring on this fellow :)

Views of La Mancha - The nature

Now a glimpse to what the nature of the region looks like in general:



Strange for the Finnish eye, the color of the soil is red...



... and during the summer it can be very dry. It has rained once or twice during the last three months here.



Therefore, the vegetation is dry as well and often quite hostile by it's appearance.



Its better to change the sandals for proper shoes when you're heading out to the countryside... if your feet are dear to you.

Views of La Mancha - El huerto

Some products of the land:



Paprika.



Tomato.



Pear-shaped tomato.



Pumpkin.

In addition to these there also grows cucumber, water melon, sunflower, squash, beans, almonds etc.

Views of La Mancha - Las olivas y el huerto

Olives are an important product of the La Mancha region. Rocío's family grow them like many other families here as well. They belong to a collective that delivers the crops to the factories which purchase the olives and also provide the products to the participants - olive oil and wine for example.



These are the olive trees.



The olives. These are still young, the season to collect them is around December.



The Olive Inspector at work ;)

This is "el huerto", the patch of land where the family grows vegetables and fruits for their own use. In the next post I'll show what grows there.

Views of La Mancha - Ciudad Real

These photos are from my first visit to Ciudad Real, the city where we will be settling in once the school continues again for Rocío and/or I find work.

This is the main square of the city, Plaza Mayor. Across the square you can see the Ayuntamiento of Ciudad Real.

One of my favorite spots in the city, a small park with palm trees next to a beautiful old church.

A random street view of the city. There's a lot of greenery in the city, trees lining the streets, parks and recreational areas here and there. One park I like especially, Parque Gasset, but that I don't have photos of yet.

This is Calle Calatrava, the street where Rocío's sister Maria Isabel lives and where we have been staying during our visits to Ciudad Real. The view is from the terrace of the apartment.

Views of La Mancha

The following posts will be more about the photos than writing, as the proven formula of "1 photo tells more than a thousand words" tends to hold true. Here are some sceneries and details that have caught my eye and that of my camera during the first couple of weeks here:



Antennas over the rooftops of Villahermosa.

The patio of the house.

Viñas - these you can see everywhere, as the region produces a lot of wine.

The Lost Highway - why does this photo remind me of that movie? The full moon lighting our way in the dusk of La Mancha.