Our visa applications have been successfully submitted! During our meetings Tuesday morning, we received commendations for our perfectly prepared paperwork (all credit goes to Jerry).
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| MY ACCORDION FILE TAKEN TO THE CONSULATE. JERRY HAD ONE, TOO. |
Everything was in perfect order. Our health insurance was exactly what was required. Our translations were certified as needed. Our photos were the right size. We had enough copies (and then some) of all the originals. When we arrived at the consulate, we were greeted warmly. The people we worked with were charming, knowledgeable, and exceptionally efficient. It was a great experience. We should have our visas in three months. Maybe less. So, now we just relax. Well, really, now we can focus entirely on getting rid of our stuff.
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| MARINER’S VILLAGE, WHERE WE LIVED. NO, THAT’S NOT JERRY IN THE BOAT. |
On our way home from the consulate, we went by way of Marina del Rey — where we lived for seven months in ’82/’83 — and had lunch at The Warehouse. We chose the place just because we happened to pass it as we drove around the Marina. Once we walked in the door, however, I recognized it as a place we frequented when we lived there. It was easy to recognize. Nothing had changed. All the decor — including the carpeting and upholstery I’m pretty certain — was exactly as it had been in 1983. Sadly, the place had the smell of 30-year-old carpet and upholstery. But, the mahi mahi sandwiches were excellent. So it wasn’t a bad choice. In case you never knew, the “tropic port” depicted in the opening credits of “Gilligan’s Island” was in reality Marina del Rey.
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| GILLIGAN. THE SKIPPER, TOO. THE MILLIONAIRE AND HIS… ETC. |
Wednesday night, Jerry cooked up another delicious dinner from the pages of his Spanish cookbook, “The New Spanish Table.” This time we had Moorish Chicken and Nut Pie (olive oil, onion, chicken stock, chicken, paprika, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, tomatoes, raisins, sea salt, puff pastry, pine nuts, almonds, egg, milk, and finished off with confectioner’s sugar). Unbelievably good. And we managed to restrain ourselves, which meant we had enough for lunch on Thursday.
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| MOORISH CHICKEN AND NUT PIE. |
Today, we met a dear and wonderful San Diego friend for a farewell-for-now lunch at The Public House in Temecula. If you haven’t been there and you can get there, you should. Unusual menu. Fantastic food. The best, by far, service. Huge portions. We finished off, well Jerry and I did, with their “S’mores” dessert, which was sinful and, if possible, even better than it sounded (graham cracker, marshmallow, chocolate ganache, chocolate brownie, fresh vanilla cream).
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| OUR S’MORES AT THE PUBLIC HOUSE… BEFORE WE HAD AT IT. |
Congrats! Now, as Tom Petty said, the waiting is the hardest part. 🙂
The chicken pie and dessert looks yummy. Hope the next steps go as smoothly as your application. We often wonder what it would be like to go live in a different country, never realized the amount of paperwork and preparation.
Grettings from Spain (Marbella), i accidentally found this blog and you did an excellent job Mitchell.I Felt in love with this website.
I checked all your post, pictures are great and your experiencies in my country made me laught.
It´s always nice see a different point of view and know how the rest of the world feels our "weird" culture.
Malaga is a very good place for living and 1 hour around by car, you both will find thousands of interesting spots, little villages and lovely places.
Just and advice don`t buy any property till you are 100% secure is the place you wanna live, explore the coast before choose.
When you in Malaga y highly recommend visit the "White Villages" of the Comarca and off course the cute village of Casares.
I´ll be back here another day , and i will give you more opinions if you don´t mind.Glad to see you like Andalucia.
By the way ,check this site: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/spain-expat-forum-expats-living-spain/
They are mainly british expats living in Spain, but i´m sure you will find some interesting points around the forum.
Bye bye guys!
I have that cookbook too(The New Spanish Table)! Now, I have a mission for you when you get to Sevilla… Will you please visit the Ines Rosales factory & hug everybody there for me? They make what is probably my most favorite food in the universe: tortas de aceite. I posted about the Ines Rosales company on my blog back in 2004; later someone was kind enough to add a link to a very good recipe for recreating tortas de aceite at home, and even now, in 2011, I get more referrals from people all over the world searching for "tortas de aceite" than for any of the other 1000 blogposts I've ever written.
http://tildology.com/2004/08/23/ines-rosales-tortas-de-aceite/
Mmmmm… Cosa maravilla!
🙂
I too would like to know if you've stopped by the Ines Rosales store. I haven't been, but my wife and I just discovered their tortas at Sahadi's on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn. They're delicious!
Adam:
Thanks so much for following up on this blog post. We were heading out and I missed responding to these comments way back then. Ines Rosales has a factory about 30 minutes east of the city. They welcome visitors and host tours, but since we don't have a car, it's probably not someplace we'll be getting to any time soon. I've got to start looking around for their products.