Rosa

Mi madre española! Rosa was fantastic from the first day I arrived. Admittedly, the first couple days were a struggle because she spoke quickly and never slowed down, but I adjusted quickly. Her two favorite phrases are "no pasa nada" (it doesn't matter) and "no te preocupes" (don't worry yourself). Like most Spanish women, she is always dressed to the nines and she definitely has the spirit of a younger woman. Through Rosa, I definitely got immersed into the Spanish lifestyle and cuisine pretty quickly. She fed me lots of lentils, fish (I'm pretty sure she ate the skin too), tortilla, and of course, pan. And of course she made me try morcilla (blood sausage). She watched the news every day and loved watching the weather most of all, because she had to decide whether or not she would go to the beach the next day. If it was sunny enough with not too much wind, she would meet her amigas at the beach and stay all afternoon. Sometimes on the weekends she would stay out later than me, and she seemed disappointed if I said I wasn't going out, even on Tuesday. She loved to iron, and she ironed everything. Even t-shirts. She also did her shopping very traditionally. Fish at the fish store on Tuesdays, meet at the butcher on Thursdays, fruit at the fruit store on Mondays, bread every day. And she would only buy fruit and vegetables that were in season. She was absolutely horrified by the idea of spinach in a bag.

However, although she was very traditional in many ways, she was also very anti-machismo. She is a classic example of an older Spanish woman whose life was influenced in a very saddening way by Franco (the very pro-machismo dictator who ruled Spain from 1939-1975). Apparently, she was stuck in a marriage to a less-than-respectable man for longer than she wanted and could only divorce him late in life. And due to the fact that under Franco she couldn't get the education she wanted, she had limited options upon her divorce. So now she is a professional host mam á! And I'm very lucky to have spent the month with her that I did!

More pictures of Rosa's piso...