happy bbbbb-days again.

feliz cumpleanos, papa!
a happy birthday to my dizzad. mom, got the thanksgiving birthday this year. i'm glad mom got him a dishwasher and a new woodstove for his birthday, because my gift is still in the mail??? and it won't make him work as hard? i hope that it is a very satisfying day for my dad, who is more than satisfactory, who is stupendous!

happy-ssss

happy thanksgiving. i could definitely go for some thanksgiving dinner. anything besides ham. the spanish are obsessed with ham. and i am over it. if they had mashed potatoes, they'd put ham in them, i can promise you that. and if they did roast turkies, they'd stuff them with ham, and probably some bacon too.

also,

best wishes and love, to my mother on her birthday. after being in arizona, and now in spain, i wish that i could help her celebrate for once. one of these days. here or there, happy birthday, to the person who gives me the best gift that can be given, her support--without fail, no matter the mood, conversation, or day of the week-- a gift i'd like to return. haha, or should i say reciprocate? happy birthday, mom. love always, tamara.

back at the beach.

keeping this one small, seeing as it's not the most stunning photo of me. spent sunday hiking on what is now my favorite beach. it was probably a 10k hike roundtrip hike, to the lighthouses and back. this was the day before the rain came to spain. in the fotos you can see the weather changing. through out the afternoon the clouds were rolling in and out. when we started out, there were three cargo ships sitting out in the ria. as the wind picked up, and we noticed the cargo ships were anchored out in the ria, it occurred to us that the weather was changing for the season, and there was a storm out on the open sea. sure enough the rain started monday, the kind of rain that you have to dress for. so it's been a week where you don't dare leave the house without an umbrella. i enjoyed the hike anyway with the clouds, which drastically changed the color of the ocean and the character of the landscape. loved it.

so i spent this saturday making cider with my landlady's (Nathalie) family. Nathalie is french but has lived in Vigo for 30 years. It's a great situation for me because I get to live on my own, but have her support and company. Living and talking with her, is a babble of us conversing in spanish, english, and french. Her family is incredibly nice. They remind me of my own, with their gardens and fresh home-grown food.

making cider today, was a nice way to spend a saturday, since i am "ahem" still lacking in the friends department. the apples we actually got off someone else's property. gardens are really common here. the landscape is a pathwork of rockwalls filled with fruit trees, and grape vines, tons and tons of grape vines.

it was fun. seriously, who owns a cider press? even better, they make the fresh apple juice, and then some of it they ferment using a champagne process to make sparkling cider. amazing. in total we made 60 liters.

and on a side note, i'd like to say, i am addicted to mussels. i love them. every style, with garlic parsely and butter, wine sauce, cold with vinagrette peppers and onions. delicious. well that's all for now, tomorrow hiking on the same beach as pictured, hopefully to the 4 lighthouses.

cedra, cider

santiago de compostela

This is Santiago de Compostela, far prettier than Vigo. Vigo, much of its growth occurred about 50 yrs ago with the fishing and ship building industries. Santiago de Compostela, on the otherhand, began at the end of the 4th century. The buildings are very old, and a great many still stand today. I didn't get pictures, but the streets are very narrow, and all pedestrian. The first photo is the cathedral. The second photo is the pilgrim's hostel from 1492. The last photo on the fringe of the oldest portion of the city. I was here for the afternoon, because the office had to hand deliver a competition entry. There is a competition for viviendas- housing on the university campus. Santiago seems to be a happening place both in terms of old architecture, and contemporary. This weekend some of the biggest names of architecture were there for an international conference of lectures. I definitely plan on going back to this beautiful city.

el mercado, the market

Lots of farmers markets in the surrounding towns. This one is in Redondela, about 6km from where I live. As mentioned a above Galicia is worth the trip, for all those things, as well as the food. At first I had a hard time adapting to Spanish food, and some of it I still find rather bland, but there are some traditional things you can't get enough of. Such as the artisan bread pictured above. Or the cheese, teta queso, in the middle of the right edge. Yum. And chorizo sausage, which I bought some of, when I was there. I have discovered Spanish people, a lot (not all), do not have a taste for spicy food. I made enchiladas for two groups of people, mild enchiladas, and my guests were practically sweating, hahaha. Chorizo is a bit spicy though.

la playa, the beach

um, as you can see the beaches here are A-mazing!!!! Over 34 in the area of Vigo, and I suspect all almost as nice. I recommend a vacation to Galicia to one and all, the beaches, the old cascos (ancient city centers), celtic ruins (yes they were once here), the landscape! Glorious. Note the amazing clouds coming over the land out onto the ocean.

mi casa, my home

My cheerful room. I brought my bedspread from home, because I like it so much. As you can see I am one of the few that gets a heater in this of Spain. I've started to enjoy it, as it has finally started to cool off. Although no rain to be seen, knock on wood, in the allegedly very rain Galicia. You wouldn't have believed it was October with the weather we have had.


This is the view from the terrace upstairs at the flat I am renting. The town is called Chapela. Technically it is still part of Vigo, which you can see in the upper left of the photo. Vigo, and Chapel sit on a ria. There doesn't seem to be a word for ria, in English, but I would describe it as the inverse of a peninsula, a deep gouge of the sea into the land. A truly beautiful place.

bienvenido! welcome!

After a period of missing in action from the Spindler family, I'm back! I decided that I would launch a blog, because downloading images to your PC can be a pain, depending on the caliber of your connection. Se llama, estudio espanol, you can think of that in two ways...spanish studio, spanish study. I'm doing a little of both, working in a spanish architecture studio, and well studying spanish -language to culture. I have to admit I don't take a lot of pictures, as I am slow-going accruing friends to visit sites with, but when I do, I snap a few. So tune in every once in a while, to see what is new. {I should be doing some sightseeing and relaxing when my best friend Maria, comes to visit me in December} Or shoot me a email if I need to spice up my site with some new fotos. Take a peek!