September in Spain 5

Yesterday at around noon we went out of the base to downtown Rota and walked to a travel agency to book our trip to Morocco this Saturday. It cost us 56 Euro for a guided tour including lunch and a ferry ride to and from Tarifa. This will be our last trip here before we finally fly back to the US on Thursday next week for Ephraim and Rachel's wedding next month. We had lunch afterwards and then bought a couple of items from the Gypsy market.

Last night Mary hosted a potluck at their place for some of her co-workers. They welcomed an auditor that Mary worked with when she was in London. There was a lot of food. Donna grilled some steaks and we got shrimps from Super Sol. Mary's co-workers are a lot of fun to talk with especially Mike who was a former sailor and now resides here in Rota. He's their maintenance supervisor at the MWR.

I've been chatting with friend and classmate Dan Garcia from the Philippines. He asked for Robert's cell number and all of a sudden it started ringing. He explained on how he's able to call me but I didn't quite get the details because there was some noise during our conversation so he hanged up and we just continued chatting on YM. He's pretty impressed with my pictures and how much fun we've had with the reunion here in Europe.

By the way, FYI, you may click on any picture on my blog to view an enlarged version. Once you click on a picture, it’ll take you to a bigger copy to Flickr.com. Once you’re in Flickr, you can further zoom that up by clicking the ‘All sizes’ on the top left or top middle of the picture. And then click on the back arrow twice on the top left of the screen to go back to the blog.

I’ve been attaching pictures into older posts of the blog but to view these posts, click on the bottom post on ‘Previous Posts’ at the right side of the screen and it’ll show you older posts inside the 'Archives'. To go back to the most current, just keep on clicking on the back arrow on the top left of the screen.

You may have noticed I've figured out how to create links in my posts so if you click on certain words and phrases which are underlined, it'll take you to the site (mostly from Wikipedia.com) that explains about that particular word.

After rosary the other night, we said a short prayer for my mother-in-law's death anniversary.

September in Spain 4

For the last couple of days we’ve been ‘working’ with Mary – not literally working with her but going with her on base in the mornings mainly for me to be able to go on line and to mail our stuff to the US. Today Flor was with us so we can go to the Gypsy market at noon during Mary’s lunch break.

I revisited Robert’s ‘European Experience’ blog yesterday and I was reading the post on their Fatima trip. It’s only now that I can relate because we’ve been there a couple of times.

On various trips here in Spain, we’ve encountered some plants that I thought were indigenous to the Philippines, the makahiya (mala-marine in Kapampangan) – in Ronda where it’s in pots at the house/museum of St. John Bosco.


And the aya, whose leaves (commonly known as bulung aya) we used to gather from the fields while I was growing up in Masamat. My Mom cooks it in mongo bean soup (balatong) or tinola. It’s green and it tastes like spinach. I found an aya plant in Arcos de la Frontera. With the two mini thunderstorms we’ve had, the lawn here had a chance to regenerate and it regenerated with a vengeance. I noticed a proliferation of some green plants and looking closer, I saw a bunch of aya plants.


They also have plants or bushes here that I noticed are the same as the ones that we used for landscaping our lawn in Greenfields.


And check out the pretty cactus flowers below.

September in Spain 3

Saturday, September 22
I’m almost DVD’d out when a cab pulls up around 7 pm in front and here comes Mary. She was a welcome sight indeed! Donna cooked some shrimps and mongo bean soup and we called Flor and Mark ahead of time to have dinner here at the house with us as soon as Mary comes. So after she got rested up a bit I gave Flor a call telling her they can come over. We had dinner and talked till almost 11. Donna got a couple of small fruit pie looking thingies, put a small candle on each and we sang Mary Happy Birthday.


And of course we have to have ice cream!

Before Mark and Flor went home, we agreed to go to Morocco on Saturday since that will be our last weekend in Spain before we head on back to the US.

Sunday, September 23
We woke up at 8 so we can go to the 9 am mass on base. After church they went to the commissary while I went on line in the base library. When they finished, they got me and we all went to meet Flor and family at the galley to have brunch.

IN GRATITUDE

Friday, September 21
Ed and Odette left for LA early this morning and it officially marked the end of JASHS Class ’70 USA’s European Reunion 2007.

On behalf of Elaine, Gene, Dandy, Imelda, Dan and family, Nido, Emy and family, Stacy and Daniel, Ed and Odette, I would like to thank everyone whose help and kindness proved to be invaluable to make this reunion a great success!

We wouldn’t have been able to see all the sites in London without the help and assistance of Ric Bondoc and Roland Canlas and a heart felt thank you goes to Sister Lita and Susan for the company. Along the same lines, there was no way to see and enjoy all those places in Germany without wasting a lot of time if Emy’s friend Lilibeth (who also became our friend in the process) wasn’t there to show us around and a lot of thanks also to her son Maurice and husband Alex. I’m sure Ed, Odette, Dandy, Elaine and Gene appreciate Lita’s generosity in Rome and Alice’s kindness in London. And it wouldn’t have been the same without Alice’s daughter (our lovely JASHSian) Jane’s (or Jack is it?) company. I need to mention here Lilibeth’s friend Lyan’s visit was a pleasant surprise to find out that she’s our neighbor in Greenfields. Mark and Flor deserve a round of applause for all of their unselfish help and for the latter’s good food! Most especially, it would have been unthinkable for this reunion to become a reality without Robert and Mary hosting it and wholeheartedly welcoming and accommodating us in their huge, beachfront home in Spain not to mention the cool welcome banner they prepared for us.


Special thanks to Rach’s folks Rose and Jun without whose help, Donna and I wouldn’t have been able to visit beautiful Tenerife of the Canary Islands. Furthermore, they were really great company in all of the places we visited.



Donna and I have received cards of appreciation from Elaine and Gene, Alice and Jane and Emy and Nido. WE THANK YOU for all the good times spent here in Europe and I thank Ed and Odette for the great talk we had last Wednesday night. I think this reunion brought us even closer together as classmates, friends, brothers and sisters. The Victoria’s Secret Models pics all prove that, right ladies? Let me know if you need to see them! On second thought I'll post the 'after' pictures, at least, to let you know how much fun they had that night.



What with all the misplaced luggage, missed flights here and there, it was by no means a perfect reunion/trip/vacation. We even experienced the loss of the passing of Imelda’s Mom and Robert’s brother Cesar’s illness turning for the worse which made it necessary for Mary and Robert to visit him in Carson City. All the directions Robert prepared for me to Fatima and Gibraltar and to the different sites here in Spain proved to be such important documents. Robert – I hope you saved those directions in your hard drive for posterity! But of course Mary and Flor’s navigational skills on our 7-8 hour trip to Fatima were a tremendous help as well.

But in spite of above few minor and a couple of major glitches, I hope you won’t disagree with me when I say that it was indeed a happy and memorable event.

Finally, thanks to everyone for all the ICE CREAM!!

See you next month in San Diego.

September in Spain 2

Saturday, September 15
After lunch we went on base for Mary’s MWR youth event – a bunch of face painting, youth run, cheerleading performances, etc. They raffled off a couple of X boxes. We dropped her off at her work at around 1 pm. I went to Expeditions afterwards to go on line. At around 4:45 we went to church for the vigil mass. Before finally going to the youth event, we went to the commissary for some groceries. We stayed at the youth event for a couple of hours then went home.

Mary packed her suitcase to take on her trip to London while I burned some picture CDs for Susan and Alice. After dinner we watched a DVD about Fatima and Jack Nicholson’s About Schmidt – the first on our DVD marathon for the next few days.

Sunday, September 16
We woke up to bid Mary goodbye. I waited with her outside the gate for her cab. She left around 5:30 for her 7 am flight at the Jerez airport to Heathrow. Donna and I went back to sleep, but we woke up at 8 to tell Flor that we’ll meet them at the base El Puerto gate after church so we can go inside to fill up the car. Unfortunately the Spanish guard took a closer look at our base passes and somehow looked for Mary, our sponsor. Since she wasn’t with us, they didn’t let us in. We decided to go around to the Rota gate and have Mark secure a one day pass for me and Donna. At the Rota gate, he was told they only give away vehicle passes and he had to go in the security office on base to get a pass for us. So we gave up and told them we’ll just have to wait outside the gate while they gas up the car.

Donna and I left at around 2:30 to pick up Ed and Odette from the Seville airport. Actually photo below is from the Jerez airport. Sorry no picture available from Seville airport!

Their flight was on schedule but they got delayed coming out because one of their luggages got left behind in Rome. Ed left them our El Puerto address so it can get delivered. The trip home went smoothly except for the BMW’s transmission hiccup. A few times, while I’m at around 120 k/ph, the RPM stays up but the speed goes down. There was one time when it went way down to about 70 k/ph and I had to turn on my emergency signal.

When we got home, we walked towards Puerto Sherry and had dinner at Paloma Blanca. We waited till sunset then Ed and I took some pictures.


Odette did their laundry while I gave Ed some information on how to go around Barcelona. We tried to pinpoint the location of their hotel on the map that we got from the tourist information booth at the airport. I told him they have a choice of either going to Montserrat Tuesday or getting tickets for the hop-on-hop-off bus and just run around downtown Barcelona.

Lita called from Rome asking if Ed and Odette got in OK. Mary and Alice called from London as well. I guess they celebrated Mary’s birthday early. They had dinner in a restaurant and Alice surprised Mary by telling the restaurant management about the occasion. Mary said it’s quite chilly in London now she had to layer her clothes. The problem – she only brought so much so she was thinking of having her laundry done but laundry service was so outrageously expensive. I’m not sure what she ended up doing.

Monday, September 17
As usual, Ed woke up early to cook his traditional breakfast of sinangle nasi and other goodies. After the meal I took them to walk on the beach (the tide was quite low) to Puerto Sherry towards the marina. We didn’t take Donna with us because there’s a chance the cable guy might come. Ed took a few pictures and then we walked back home. We then went to Super Sol to pick up some grocery items and had lunch when we came back. Ed took a quick nap before I took them to the Jerez airport for their 5 pm flight to Barcelona.

Vueling Airlines called and said their lost luggage is now in the Sevilla airport and will deliver it Wednesday but Donna told them they’re flying home soon to the US and could they deliver it Tuesday instead and surprisingly, they agreed.

The next few days was spent with a marathon of DVD’s. We watched among others; The Stepford Wives, Love Actually, Hanging Up and Iris. We tried to watch Horseman on the Roof but it was in French and it won’t let us see it with subtitles. We also watched The Lost Empire, Radio, Solaris, My Boss’s Daughter, Black Mask, The Hours, Bedazzled and Nine Months. We watched our 30th Anniversary Wedding video a couple of times, each time longer than the first. Perhaps next time we’ll be able to watch it in its entirety without the DVD player messing up and not being able to read it further.

Tuesday, September 18
Robert called and asked for Mary’s hotel telephone number in London. He tried to call her for her birthday but he can’t go through. I gave it to him but it was the same number he was dialing. I told him it might be an issue with the country code. He also told us that Cesar is all checked in to the cancer clinic in Tijuana and he’s doing ok.

Donna called Mary after attempting several times, dialing the zero, not dialing the zero, etc. We got her after she’s had dinner with her colleagues.

Wednesday, September 19
We picked up Ed and Odette from the Jerez airport from Barcelona. It was a very enjoyable trip for them. They even had the chance to go to Montserrat. Although on their third day, Odette had some difficulty climbing down the tower of the Sagrada Familia.

We had dinner of chicken tinola – something Odette’s been craving for, that Donna cooked. A bit later Mark and Flor came so he can fill up the BMW on base.

Thursday, September 20
At around 9 am we went and took Ed and Odette to Arcos de la Frontera, one of the sites they missed because of the delay of their JFK flight to Madrid. Donna and I have been getting the hang of this tourist guiding thing. We were even able to see another viewpoint at Arcos just by accident because we missed a turn walking up. Ed took several pictures of Arcos then we walked down and had lunch. We were going to have lunch at the same restaurant when Robert took us up the first time but when we went in, Odette noticed we are not being seated. Then Donna found out they don’t serve lunch until 1:30. So we had to go and find another one.

After lunch I asked Ed if he wanted to go visit the bodegas (wineries) of Jerez or take the ferry and go to Cadiz instead. He chose the bodegas so off we went to visit Tio Pepe and Pedro Domecq, the latter being the manufacturer of the Philippine’s favorite brandy Fundador. Unfortunately they were both closed for the afternoon siesta and they don’t open back up for tours until 4:30. They still had some packing to do so Ed took some pictures, then we headed on home.

After resting a bit, Flor called saying she’s ready to be picked up with the food she prepared for Ed and Odette’s last dinner in Spain. She cooked sinigang shrimp, fried fish, pork torta w/ tausi and huge pot of rice. She does this although their house is literally full of boxes. Their household stuff from Texas has all been delivered and you can hardly walk around their house. Ed passed by Super Sol and bought bottles of wine for his friends back in LA.

Flor also got some ice cream for dessert. We spent a few hours talking with her telling us of her ‘love story’ with Mark, which was quite amusing. She’s a very good story teller. It was a bit of a cliff hanger because Mark arrived!

Speaking of ice cream, my brother Kong Paing sent me an eMail wondering why we eat ice cream all the time over here. I’m not sure exactly why but during our walks (and there’s definitely a lot of walking here in Europe) it seems ice cream is the reward and ice cream here is really good, especially in Rome!



And of course my favorite!


We said a little prayer for my Mom after our nightly rosary tonight. Today is her 15th death anniversary.


Friday, September 21
Last night there was a huge thunderstorm and was practically raining with thunder and lightning all night. I set my alarm at 4:45 so we can take Ed and Odette to the airport. It was only drizzling a little bit when we got up. We left a little before 5:30. There was a fairly long line for the Iberia counter when we got there. We waited for them to check in so we can take any stuff back in case their luggage is overweight. Ed took and weighed each of their luggages before getting to the counter so everything checked out. Last night there was talk of Chicago being their port of entry. But when their luggage got tagged, the final destination was LAX.

Donna and I went back to sleep when we got home. Before Mary left for London, we woke up one morning and found evidence of a street cat coming in scavenging for food in the kitchen. When Donna and I woke up we found the same cat cozily taking a nap on the couch outside and it ran away when Donna opened the sliding door.