view from the roof where I am at! Manhattan is beautiful!

Almost beautiful April and it's about time I share some of my recent stories with you people! Since the last trip to Spain many things did change in and around me, most of it planned so no worries. Beatriz started her last stage in Zeeland, voluntary but hoping to learn a lot even though she graduated in December for her studies Science of the Sea. After the research project where she is involved round the Schelde, she hopes to find a good way to do her Masters. So Beatriz is gone for 4 months since commuting ain't very possible....travelling by train it takes 5 hours just to get there! Beginning of January I moved all my belongings from my house to an empty one next door, so that my landlord finally could take care of a big and nescessary renovation. This meant that I had to find a place to stay and was already thought about long before, my sister asked me in november if I wanted to move in for the time being since she was expecting her third child halfway Januari and could use a helping hand. That way they were happy and me too, it's a great family to be with and I would have my own little apartment next to their house. A bit of privacy can be nice right? Especially after staying with Beatriz' family for mre than 10 days... ;-) As so far the plan seemed great, me moving out and then 2 weeks later move in with them, round the deadline. Then we did hear during our stay in MAdridejos that the mister man was born already before the year 2008 could even start! The baby boy was in a bit of a rush maybe because his grandparents have had a grandchild a year since the year 2000. If Jitse would not have been born in 2007 there would have been a gap of 1 year between him and the last one of his uncle (smart readers now by now that my parents are not the ones with such family enriching, my parents have 4 grandchildren sofar) Well I have learned a lot since then about babies and kids, some things are making me think triple about having kids myself.... how great to be round them and how great it can be to leave them alone for the weekend! Like the weekend B and me went to visited Gent and our dear friends over there one a great party called: The same weekend we went to visit a church in Yerseke: I wrote down a dutch storie and am lazy now for translating it- if u care and cant read Dutch let me know. Here's the story. We hebben eens meegekeken in de gereformeerde gemeente te Yerseke, en mijn God, wat is dat eng! In het kort kwam het er op neer dat we 2 uren vastzaten op een balkon waar we om ons heen schat ik wel 500 gelovigen naast ons hadden en heb ik ervaren wat mijn moeder vroeger waarschijnlijk ook heeft meegemaakt...de naargeestigheid van dat streng gelovige gedoe: we kwamen binnen uit nieuwsgierigheid maar dat draaide ter plaatse om, iedereen keek op hun beurt naar ons want we hadden 1- geen hoeden op zoals Iedere vrouw of meisje daar wel had! 2- kleur in kleding (Black is beautiful as long as it ain't your skin!) 3- geen psalmenboekje bij ons 4- geen geld voor de collecte (maar liefst 3 collectes durfden ze langs te houden!) 5- geen pepermuntje voor tijdens de preek (kregen we gelukkig wel van onze buren) 6- geen man of vader om ons te begeleiden op ons kerkepad! (en dat we een relatie hebben maar niet laten merken! hihi) 7- opstonden waar enkel de mannen dat mochten, hoezo emancipatie? 8- we hadden geen kinderen waar dat in deze gemeente wel een pre lijkt! al met al was het een zeer ongeloofwaardige en onprettige preek, met veel angst & boete en schuld, de ongelovigen zijn van de duivel, en ga zo maar door, oeh wat is dat me wat. Er werd met vingers gewezen en gezwaaid, het koningshuis en de politiek waren ook al de pineut want oh wat zijn we allemaal toch slecht. Buitenlandse problemen werden niet besproken, want ons eigen land stond centraal. Ik begrijp nu waarom politieke partijen als de SGP het zo goed doen in vele delen van de dutch bible-belt. De mensen afkomstig uit deze soort van kerken als deze in Yerseke komen niet eens in de buurt van de kerk waar ik mee ben opgevoed...we zijn echt na een dikke twee uur naar huis gerend, koud en verveeld waren we van deze prekerij. Niets voor ons, Bea zei dat ze zich nog nooit zo verveeld had...een zeer leerzame middag voor mij, maar voor iemand die de taal niet eens spreekt, echt niet leuk. nb-we kwamen er binnen denkend dat het een vesper was, een zondagmiddag dienst met veel liedjes die bij ons een half uurtje of maximaal 45 minuten duurde, maar van half zes tot acht zaten we vast tussen de Zeeuwen. So that was the story of Yerseke, an intriguing place for me, being an old Island now connected to the land. Known for the mussels and oisters. Nearby Belgium over land and England by sea. Well, a bit more about my house, it's getting closer to the point where I can move back in, and restless I am since work is starting soon, and the family here is almost used of having me around that it makes me certain that soon I will have to go. The kids are great, the surroundings here are different than my city house, which makes me enjoy it even more. More next time, now it's time for my addiction: TWIN PEAKS! I am at the 4 dvd sofar, and together with my TPbuddy I need to sit and chill. Beso en Tút for now

look at this nice doggie

Aceitunas aka olives are picked in Madridejos´ surroundings for the nice oil. The bodega in this town,known as the Cooperativa Umbrion, where the oil is getting pressed into great aceite. The harvesting starts in December where most families harvest in their freetime and holidays because they only have like 200/300 trees(!) The family of Beatriz has them at different areas, one near by the fields where we picked the grapes. The trees over there are young, maybe only 10 years old since they were put there by Santos, el padre. In one of my blogpostings from januari 2007 you can find pictures of the older trees, which are more then a 100 years old. Picking grapes is harder work and longer days in the bruning sun, but do not under estimate this work! A day long of hitting with a stick to branches full of olives, walking through the rocky fields carrying nets full of olives to another tree. I will try and explain the rest of the process by some pictures. that´s worth it!