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Month: March 2012

  • My my daily routine in Jerez has been as follows: get up mildly hungoverm  eat breakfast of meat on bread, soy yogurt and a fruit; flamenco class; lunch; nap; snack; rest time; snack; shopping; show, drinking; bed.  Last week when there were more girls here there was more shopping. I also try to get to the imternet place either before siesta or after.  Siesta lasts from about 2 in the afternoon until 5 or 6. Siesta is the best thinv ever. It takes a bit of getting used to because we all want to keep doing stuff in the afternoon like shop. But nothing is open during siesta so we can’t.  I’ve taken the opportunity to practice my napping skills. Though I think if you are a Spanish person you would use the time to have a masskve lunch. We haven’t really gotten used to thag parg and everyone in the apartment tends to be famished right after siesta,  which would bw our Canadian dinnertime. However, restaurants tend to close their kitchens until 7 or 8 so there’s a bit of a problem for us. I’ve tended to snack all afternoon so that sort of solves the problem. 

  • I had to have a nap today. I was up late last night and I was cranky after class. But it was a lovely night and then also a lovely nap. We were at our new favorite restaurant in Jerez.  It’s called La Farola or The Lampost and it’s at C/Francos 10. The “C” there must be the abbreviation for Calle, which is street or road or thereabouts.  They are open from 19 until 00:15 but we were there until 01:30. I took a pamphlet from them because their hours aren’t posted anywhere handy on their storefront, so we didn’t know if we were there past closing. The guy working said it was ok, though. There’s a map on the pamphlet too,  but I shan’t try to describe that as the geography here includes a fourth dimension that is hard to explain (nevermind navigate).  I am familiar with Francos St, however,  because I have travelled it every day for the past 2 weeks on my way to classes. It starts at the Jerez Flamenco Centre and ends at a plaza with a church that has shrubbery growing on it.

  • My class this week is alegrias. Another intro class but like last week’s, I find the level perfect.  The studio we’re in is lovely but small for the 25 students that make up the class.  It’s narrow, with mirrors perhaps on the wrong wall- a narrow end instead of a long one. I appreciate, however, the way the instructor navigates around the space so that everyone has a chance to see her demonstrate, and so that she can take a look at everyone’s work. Several times now she has manipulated me into the right position.  Good stuff.  The footwork is a little faster than I like- at least after just 3 days without weeks in between during which I can practice- but luckily there are some 12-year-olds in the class who all stand at the front so I just follow them.

    The spectacle last night was a ballet, which was refreshing after all the flamenco we’ve been watching. The ballerinas all used castanets through the whole thing. Fun at first, but after a while it’s just clicky.  Tidy dancing, though. 

    There are lots of orange trees here. I am able to identify them as such because they are full of oranges.  Someone at dinner last week said that they are good for marmelade.

    I forgot to say. Just outside the studio where my class is this week, there is a pen full of cocks: roosters and a peacock. On the first day class paused for a few moments becuase the peacock was showing off his finery.

  • My current setting is a park near the cathedral in Jerez.  I’m surrounded by orange trees and the scent of cloves is in the air. The smart woman accompanying me has suggested that the smell is incense left over from the gypsy fair that filled this space this morning before siesta.  It’s sunny but coolin the shade of the orange trees.

  • I’ve spent the past few days dancing and resting and drinking and watching (spectacles). The day before yesterday the bunch of us went for a tasting at the Gonzales Byass sherry bodega. For 19 euros we got a tour of the place, four samples and tapas. Thank goodness for the tapas because the “samples” came in the form of four wine glasses of sherry right in front of us. Result: happy group. Result 2: I don’t think I like sherry- at least not four samples of it at the same time.

    I could have met up with the Alma de Espania group who are here and doing a day trip to Cadiz today but I have not gone for the following reasons: my feet are sore, and I need to get groceries.  Stores aren’t open on Sundays and I’m out of food, particularly, breakfast food.  Also last night we were up late following some native Jerez-ians to a pena* and so no one has gotten up in time.

    We are losing 3 of the 6 smart women who have been sharing the apartment here. Two are off to Ronda and Granada for the sights and shopping; one is back to Germany, where she lives.  However we have acquired a new roomie for the remainder of the time here: the new dynamic shall be 3 smart women and a guy.

    *Pena- should have a swoosh over the N, so it’s pronounced “pen-ya”.  According to our Jerez-ian guides, it’s a small, intimate show, in this case, a singer. Also in this case, a few hundred people “intimately” packed into a small venue.