A week before last Friday, when I left to pick up Eric from school, I was surprised by a note that was wedged between the door and the frame of our front gate. It fell to the ground when I opened the gate to leave, and I have to admit that I was a little bit worried about what I would find. Most of our nearest neighbors don't speak neither English nor Spanish, so we sometimes get notes from their translator friends when they want to talk to us about something. Usually they only go out of their way to talk to us when something bad has happened, like when somebody broke into one of the neighbor's houses, or when our trampoline blew into the other neighbor's yard. I was relieved, though, to see the words "Music fiesta" on the outside of the note.
On our way to the music fiesta. We ended up bringing Sheena back home, just in case, despite seeing various dogs there, because the urbanization has a "No dogs allowed" sign.
For the last few years, we have heard, once every summer, music coming from the houses in the urbanization just up the mountain from our house. Every year I have made Mauri go walk past to try to see what was going on, but it wasn't until last year that some of the neighbors saw us and invited us into the area to see the musicians singing. I may have told the story last year, but it was interesting to see that despite the fact that all of the neighbors around us seem to only speak German, most of the people in the urbanization above our house are British, so it is much easier to communicate with them. Sadly, since the houses there are quite small, most of them are only here for short periods of time throughout the year.
Wearing a shirt befitting the occasion
It turns out that the couple who organizes the "music fiesta" owns the house that I've always been curious about with the British and American flags outside. The wife, who now lives in the UK, is originally from the US, and her husband is British. Somehow they find musicians to come travel to Spain with them, and who then play at the fiesta, I'm guessing in exchange for showing them around, promoting their music, and giving them a place to stay. (?)
Last year I found the two artists' websites after looking up the names of the singers who had played online. For the curious, they were Kara Grainger and Jason Boots.
Where Eric spent most of the time during the fiesta
The fiesta was to start at 4:30 PM on Sunday, the day that England was scheduled to play Portugal in the European Soccer Tournament. I was curious as to how the European Soccer Cup was going to affect the music festival, especially considering that most of the neighbors participating were, in fact, British. It seems that it was wedged into the schedule of the day between the Formula 1 race in Valencia and the soccer game.
Eric took this picture while we were there
We missed most of the first singer, whose name I didn't catch, because Eric was sleeping his nap. Unfortunately my timing wasn't great, and we arrived just as he was finishing, and then the music stopped for food time. I felt a bit out of place because they had a potluck type dinner buffet set out, but they were very welcoming and invited us to eat whatever we wanted. We had actually eaten not much earlier than that, so we just hung out in their main lawn area, and talked to some of the neighbors.
Eric had no interest in socializing, though, and preferred running to the steps that led to the street, jumping up and down them, and running down towards the street, constantly trying to escape. When he did head to the lawn again, he kept going towards the pool and hot tub. At one point, he ran over to some other little boys, but only to take a chair away from one of the boys. When I returned the chair that he stole, he got mad and once again wanted to leave. (Here's the movie of him stealing the chair just as the little boys come back to sit down and eat.)
Mauri and I had to constantly take turns running after him, and, during my last turn of following him, he was throwing such a fit, that I finally decided that it was impossible to stay any longer. Everybody was trying to convince us to stay, but since Eric was making it impossible to enjoy the music, we decided it wasn't worth it. It's really too bad because Kara Grainger, whose music I had really liked last year, had come back again this year, and she was playing.
I exchanged email addy's with the other American, who again promised to invite me to next year's fiesta. She introduced me to the first singer, and told me that he would be back next year. (So, maybe next year I will find out who he was and actually get to hear him properly.) I told her to let me know earlier so that I can help out somehow. Hopefully next year Eric will let us stay a little longer, too.
I doubt the music fiesta lasted too much longer anyway, though, because England's game was going to start soon after we left. Sadly for them, they lost.
Spain's team, however, has had a lot more luck.
I had bought Eric what was supposed to be a 2 pajama set with one set of pajamas that looked like a Spanish soccer team uniform, and another set with a soccer field shirt and soccer ball patterned shorts. Although they were meant to be pajamas, they are also very cute and comfy for wearing during the day.
Ironically, on the days that Spain was scheduled to play in which I remembered to put Eric's soccer "uniform" on him, Spain has won. On the days I didn't, Spain has only tied.
I had forgotten to put it on him on the day of the semifinals game against Portugal, not knowing that the game was that night. Sure enough, once again, Spain didn't play as well, and once again had tied by the end of the game. Of course, with it being the semifinals, a winner had to be decided. So, when we bathed Eric, we dressed him in his uniform pajamas, and then things started to look a little better. Spain played quite well in the overtime, but despite Spain's game improving, the game ended without goals and had to be decided by penalty kicks. If only I had dressed him in his uniform that day!! It would have made for a less nerve-wracking game! Regardless, Spain was lucky and won.
So, to save ourselves the whole having to tie and having to decide the game with penalty kicks once more, I had him wear his uniform on Sunday. It worked!!! So, all Spain fans can thank Eric and I for that 4-0 win over Italy that gave Spain the championship once more.
We watched the game with Maite and Hans. We had also watched last weekend's Spain game with them. I was almost hoping that history would repeat itself and that the final game would once again be Germany vs. Spain. It would have made for an interesting night with them here for that game, having people form both countries here to watch the game. Of course, it wouldn't have been too much fun if, in that hypothetical game, Germany were to have beaten Spain. Hans would have been able to rub it in all of our faces. In the end, though, it wasn't an issue because, unfortunately for Hans, Italy eliminated Germany's team, and was the team to play us in the finals.
Look at my tummy!!
So, when they came over for the game, everybody at least seemed be rooting for the same team.
Eric also seemed to enjoy it all, and thought it was funny every time anybody yelled "gooooooooooooool!"
With four Spanish goals during the game, it happened often enough for him to pick on it, and, by the end of the night, seemed to be yelling out "goooooooool!," in his own way, himself.
In any case, he must have picked up on the excitement of the night, and was happily running around non-stop all night and laughing.
By the end, he even learned to sing "oe oe oe." (Kind of, sort of)
"Campeones, campeones, oe oe oe...!"
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