Spain

From Sea to Shining Si
Hi-ola!
Today was a wind-down, wind-up day for me. I was so wired last night, or whatever body-clock time it was, that I was still running around like a
chicken with my head cut off at 3AM. I got it all together by midday today and actually ventured out a bit. I went to the electronics shop and exchanged cold, hard cash (86 cents) for a plug adapter. This I did all by myself!
By midday, I was starving. So I went to the restaurant all by myself! This restaurant is cool. It has a buffet table where there is a leg of pig on a skewer, hoof and all, smoked and cured, and they slice it off very thinly for you.
I chose (read: pointed at) seafood soup and seafood pasta from the menu, not really sure what the ins and outs of etiquette are at that time of
day. I understand that the big meal of the day, dinner, is eaten at lunchtime and my interpretation of "lunch" is eaten at dinnertime.
Well, dinner or not, I am not accustomed to eating a huge lunch, so I ordered what I thought I could eat. It turned out to be a TON too much
but I did what I could. I ate the best capers I have ever tasted in my life, today. They are huge, probably the size of a marble, and still on the stems. And the seafood soup was awesome. I am still trying to figure out the spices. The
broth was orange but it wasn't like carrot or tomato, and it tasted only slightly of saffron, unless the saffron here is milder. Don't know, ain't arguing! For dinner, that is to say lunch, well, about 8:30 PM this evening, I went to the
cafe here and had a cervesa and tapas. Tapas are small plates with samplings of various dishes on them, as best I can describe it. I chose (ready
for this, Karen?) boquerones en vinagre and venison stew. The first is fresh anchovies in olive-oil/vinagrette. Both tapas were absolutely wonderful. Seems I'm going to be in seafood heaven here! (I wonder if they have whitefish!
Oh, I found out that whitefish are a small, toothless, bottom-feeder, eating mostly small crustaceans and are a member of the salmon family. Would never have guessed! Doesn't look like salmon and tastes very much like bluegill. So now you know! Thank my niece, Susie, for that one!)
The next thing is figuring out money, but I think I've got it. $1=145 pesetas. OK, so I have to carry a calculator around like a geek. I'll get used to it (or they will). Isidro says that you don't necessarily tip much over here, if you do,
maybe only 7% or so. He says it annoys the locals when the big-spender types come here and tip all over the place like they're showing off or something. Well, I have a lot to learn about getting my finger on the pulse of all of this. I went to the plant for the rest of the day, till 8PM or so. Stress levels dropped back down into the oxygen layer at that point, when I met the
rest of a seemingly very friendly group. Having a lot in common helps and with the old-timers, that usually includes knowing, or having worked for, many of the same people. So, I was immediately in familiar territory. Tomorrow we
will go to the local factories and one down in Cadiz to investigate a few problems we have at these places.

Yes, I am driving a car over here. The drivers are absolutely fucking insane. No parking on the street? No problem. Park on the sidewalk!
Street too narrow to pass? No problem. Drive up over the curb! Several times, I saw cars stopped for the light in the two rightmost lanes, so a car from behind skirted around them to the leftmost lane, went thru the red light and turned right! I guess you do that cuz there's less traffic there. Ummmm. .OK. I can learn that. . . yeah, yeah, maybe. What day is it? Is this Korea? No, it can't be. These people don't beep to warn you.

Well, that is all for tonight. Tomorrow, I'll be
ready to rock and roll.
With love to you all from me.