Rain, colds, and lots of flamenco...

November 4, 2008 Tuesday
And we are watching election results like the rest of you and all of Spain. The US elections are HUGE here and every channel is giving it major coverage. The final results won't be in until daybreak tomorrow here - 10PM in California. It being morning, we may not open a bottle of champagne on getting the results even though it seems like some kind of celebration would be appropriate.
It has rained in Spain and not just on the plain. This has been the wettest October ever and it has extended all the way through Europe. Even Yemen has had serious flooding. In the mountains there has already been snow. So October was a month of transition where I learned to put on clothing upon arising in the morning. And the sweaters got found and we even used the heater a few times. It hasn't really been cold. We are on the same latitude as Santa Maria, CA or North Carolina, and it has been in the 70's most days. The nights fell into the 60's. The shorts have been replaced by Levis.
We've been sharing a cold with our local flamenco community. It laid me low for about a week and now Andi has it. These are some germs that are new to our systems, so we have to build up some resistance. In the meanwhile, buy stock in Kleenex.
Flamenco gets busier and busier. That's good because we don't know any Americans here. We are in total Spanish immersion. A day ago, we had a recording session here on the boat with Negro (pronounced nay-gro, not nee-gro) Agujetas. He is the son of Gordo Agujetas and the grandson of Agujetas el Viejo, for whom the local peña is named. This is a very famous gypsy family and we have been hanging out with several of them. The other one is Miguel, el Gitanillo de Bronce. You will hear more about him later. But Negro has been getting serious about singing for the last year. Before that, he was like a lot of kids who want to grow up and be different from their parents. He liked pop music, but then something changed and now he is crazy for flamenco - maybe worse than me. We had a long video session and recorded quite a few things. I'll give you a sample at the end of a video that I edited.
Not only that, but last Friday we went to a peña in Jerez to see Mercedes Ruiz dance. She is one of Andrea's favorites. This Thursday, I have to accompany Miguel for a program on local TV. Friday, we drive up to Alcalá for a singing contest. I don't expect to win anything, but it's nice that I get to be there. Next week, Rota TV is going to do an hour-long program on us - part of which will be dancing and singing - the other part will be an interview about our adventures. The second part is way more intimidating because talking well is harder than singing well. Whew! So we are staying out of trouble - but still love it when we get emails from you.
Here is the video: use the controls to make it play - it may take a minute...