Paulino and Charo (Rosario) are our neighbors in Valencia and Paulino is a guidance counselor at Yana's school. Both of them are from Corral de Almaguer. (Believe it or not, they do have children - already grown-up.)
Friends of theirs have a daughter Yana's age so Paulino arranged for Yana to stay with them in Corral de Almaguer. The rest of us went for a few days to get to know the village and Yana's host family.
Pauline and Charo showed us around and introduced us to lots of their family and friends. Like last year when Margarita showed us around Córdoba, there is something really cool about someone showing you around their hometown. They are part of it and they know so much about it ... the history, the people, the changes, the stories.
I love it when your tour guide says stuff like ... "That is where I went to preschool." ... "I learned to swim in this river." ... "This is the cafe where we went on dates." ... "Over there is our family's vineyard. My older sister's family farms it."
I could not do the same in the US. I'd be saying stuff like ... "That is where I was kicked out of kindergarten." ... "My brothers and I learned to swim in this ditch with our snowmobile suits on ." ... "That is where a neighbor boy punched me into the next day and dislocated my jaw." ... "This is the convenience store where I stole a pack of gum."
Even though Pauline and Charo now live in Valencia, they spend a great deal of time in Corral de Almaguer. They are proud of their hometown and remain actively involved in the community. The community itself is really active. Whenever I missed Yana, I read the community website. (It is in Spanish - sorry - but I think it is a great example of a community website: http://www.amigosdecorral.net/.)
Pauline and Charo gave us a tour of their "new" house, which is older than the United States. With relatives, they bought a traditional-style house with an exposed central patio. Traditionally, several houses were built together in a square with a shared central patio. But unlike the shared patios of today, most of the rooms of the house are accessed from the central patio. It would not work in Chicago; we would freeze our tootsies off in the winter.
The house feels like a palace. There are 16 foot ceilings on the first and 2nd floor, a chapel, and rooms big enough to play basketball. Pauline and Charo are going to renovate it. We can't wait to see it when they are finished.
We spent time with Yana's host family - Alfonsa, Jose Luis Sr., Jose Luis Jr., and Maria. Of course, we trusted Paulino and Charo's choice of friends. Nonetheless, it was comforting to get to know them a little before saying good-bye to Yana.
Yana had a great time and has some good stories of the typical teenage summer vacation in a small town. (Maybe Yana will write a blog. If she does, I'll erase this part and let her tell it.) Maria reminded Yana of her good friend, Kiera ... a lot of fun packed into what you might think is a shy person. Maria lives in Madrid but spends many weekends and all her vacations in Corral de Almaguer. So, she has a ton of friends in Corral. They spend all day together at the pool and then all night together at a party for teenagers and young adults. Yana tried to acclimate though had to retire early (before 2 am) a couple of times.
More photos from Corral de Almaguer:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abrownell/sets/72157606781663994/
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