Thursday;; Day 38. Today we will be heading back to the country house (I can't wait!) but first, Eva has to go to work so the kids and I head over to Grandma's house. There, two of their three cousins join us to play for a while as they have an apartment in the same building. I swear nearly every family I have met so far has a house here, a house there, oh and a house at the beach lol how is this possible?! I thought their was an economic crisis!!! Either way, the three cousins will be coming with us to the country for a night and Grandma will be coming for a few days too which will be fun and 10 of us will be divided between two cars with all our bags and belongings somewhere in between lol. Kiki will be driving one of the cars down but then leaving again to go on a work trip until next Tuesday so it's just gonna be like one big girly party with poor old Alvaro the only male! The three cousins are all girls and are 14, 12 and 11. I think. The youngest two look completely different but are the same in every other way. They dress hippie which I absolutely love and don't know if that's their choice or just what their Mum buys for them..but regardless, I am digging it and their little leather-rope necklaces, airy pants and twisted braid hairstyles! Their names if I can remember, are Loretto, Blanca and Carla! Loretto is the oldest but only by 18 months or so and yet she is mountains higher than the other two. Very tall. She seems the most reserved but they all speak fluent English and seem very smart.
During the afternoon when I am just with Alejandra, we notice my camera is not working. The lens is out and won't go back in and when you try and switch it on it beeps and says 'lens error. Restart the camera.'..... Not happy. I try and do several things but realise it's no use as nothing is working at all. I Google how to fix it but it seems like it's not gonna be easy, or cheap. And doubtful that someone here in Seville is going to be able to fix it after my brilliant diagnostic on my knee....oops am I being rude?! Lol :p I think maybe a bit of sand has gotten behind the lens from when we were in Sotogrande. :( I am a bit upset, as it's such a good camera and the only way I'm really capturing my trip, and especially coz my knee has effed up and it just feels like this is another thing gone wrong now but hey, it's just a camera right?!! ..just a camera. Just. a. camera. Lol...
Once we are all packed in, Kiki goes off with Alejandra to fetch the cousins and the rest of us go to pick up Grandma. I don't have the slightest clue how we fit everything in but it feels as though the car would burst if we were to put one more thing inside it lol.
Once we arrive at the country house, we un load and unpack. Some go to the pool before it closes and the rest of us unload the food into the fridge and freezer before it all melts away.
Eva and Grandma (Abuela) which is Spanish for Grandma and pronounced 'awayla' make us all something light for dinner and we all join around the outside table to eat. I have only recently noticed that the Spanish eat lunch like we eat dinner; a hot meal and the biggest meal of the day; and then eat dinner like it's our lunch; like sandwiches or just something smaller and lighter. It makes sense I guess but I only started to notice when other people cooked. Anyway!
After dinner, Patricia comes down with a bad headache and ends up throwing up, poor thing and so we look after her before we all decide to play a game of Rummikub together outside. There are 8 of us playing so join in pairs and I am with Carla. I whisper to her that we will win and we make up a handshake together lol! (Yes I'm 22!...) I play this game at home with my parents sometimes so I have some experience but my Mum always wins so it's no fun! As we start the game, Alejandra and Blanca end up laying out all their numbers except two. No one can believe it, they've nearly won in the first round! (Damn it!) and as we go around, Carla and I just seem to be collecting numbers...my game plan doesn't seem to be working! Until! I put my hand in a bag to take a new number, hesitate on which I grab before revealing...A yellow 12! Oh man did we squeal. Game changer. Watch out! Next round we end up putting down half our numbers and the round after that we put down the rest until we only have 3 left. We may have been standing up at this stage in our excitement lol and I was about to say 'ok, we're done for this round', when I notice I could do a few little maneuvers. I grab our remaining 3, and one at a time, worked them into the numbers laid out on the table until BAM, the last one was down and we jumped in the air like absolute idiots! :) you have no idea how excited we were to win and we did our hand shake in celebration lol! For anyone who has never heard of the game is probably wondering what the fack I'm on about right now, and for everyone else, you're probably wondering why I'm such a loser lol! But that's okay, you should know me by now :) I was actually tempted to Skype-message my Mum that I had won..but I resisted!
After the game is packed up I suggest teaching them a card game called 'cheat.' A game that my friend Chantelle taught me some years ago and Love but never seem to play. I explain the game and some of them agree that they have played it before and love it! Yes! I deal the cards, and for the next 2 hours or so, we play about 3 intense games. If there was anyone asleep next door, I feel sorry for them as we were all squealing and shouting and slamming our hands down whenever we thought a player had cheated lol!
After the games came magic tricks. 'Magia' in Spanish and pronounced almost like 'mackia' but with a weird sound like your coughing up flem lol! Charming right but I can't explain it any other way! Alejandra and Alvaro wanted to show their cousins the magic tricks I have taught them and I watch at how excited they all are. They also ask for me to do the trick too and Loretto stares in amazement before we all reveal how it's done.
After magic we are all sprawled out on the couch while Eva, Patricia and Abuela go to bed! Alvaro is laying spread out across the couch and for some reason the girls start pinching and tickling and pretending to massage him. I sit next to him and say 'watch this' and I begin to do some magic, much like the magic of my card tricks, but with my hands and begin massaging his shoulders. He immediately jumps up saying how good it is and takes his top off and requests that I give him a full massage hahaha. Somehow, I spend the next 2 hours or so giving all the kids a massage as each one raves about how good it is and demands more lol! We even got oil out to make it more professional and relaxing! I knew I was okay at giving massages but I was only messing around when I said it would be magic! But, that's what they seem to think it is as each one sprawls out on the couch for me haha. It's quite relaxing for me to be honest though and a good bonding experience. They ask if I can do the same tomorrow to which I say yes and we head to bed around 1am!
Tomorrow the cousins will head home in the evening (don't want them to go!) and I'm sure I'll be doing some English with the kids as we haven't done any form of homework for about 3 days. I really enjoyed playing games and having fun with the kids; it's the simple things in life that are making me happy at the moment and it's no London sightseeing or climbing Mount Everest but I'm going to blog about it anyway! Days like these re-boost me and take away my feelings of inadequacy that I sometimes get with the kids and the family. I would play games and do massages every day if it meant it was anything like tonight! :)
Oh, and if you're wondering what my blog picture is off, it's a photo I found randomly in my phone that Alvaro obviously took of himself and edited lol! I thought it was hilarious and had no other photo to use for today so is figured this one would be good! Good night :)