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That first weekend was just amazing !
We really couldn't have asked for more !
Of course there was the normal teething problems ! The biggest one was that we realised that even with all the work we had put in on the Spanish language, we didn't know anywhere near enough !
Some people are so much easier to understand, others you have no hope ! When you hear family members and friends in a conversation asking the person they are talking to 'como or que' basically meaning what, repeat, what (that is not a dictionary definition, but what they intend it to mean !)
You start to understand that here in our little village, even the locals don't always understand each other !
Great, if they don't understand each other what chance have we got !!!!!!
Under the post code of Serón is a tiny place called Los Zoilos, it is a ten minute walk from there to the main village square, yet right from that first weekend it became clear that they spoke a slightly different dialect, I find that amazing, just so amazing !
We just had to get on with it and do the best we could ! Steve's language skills were invaluable but his work not at the same level, but you already know that !
Coffees, OMG how many ways can you have a cup of coffee ?
Seven come straight to mind ! But think i have missed a few !
Then of course we can't just have one word for each, have to at least two !
Then they add little bits on the end of the name! What is that all about ? Although I came to love the 'cafeto' when they wanted a small coffee, thinking it sounded cute !
Have just looked it up in the dictionary and the direct translation is 'coffee tree' how cool is that !
Even after a few years people from different areas of Spain would come in and ask for coffee, I wouldn't have a clue what they meant and they would have to explain it, just because of local dialect !
The locals were so unbelievably patient with us, in the main, of course you always get one or two !
At the beginning we listened to all feedback, all ideas and it has to be said although like every nationality the Spanish have an opinion, they seem to be more keen to share it!
Somedays we would be told by ten different people 'you don't want to do that, you want to do this' but each was a different thing that we should be doing !
We ended up just going 'ok, we will just do it our way' politely thanking the person for there input and doing what we felt was right, whilst making them think we were doing it their way !!
We worked very hard at getting a good mix of tapas, from our research, we had found that this was a key point to make a Spanish bar work !
We mixed in local dishes like 'Tortilla de patata' potato omelette, 'carne en salsa' meat in sauce, 'caretta en salsa' pigs face in sauce. With more Typically English tapas like 'cheddar cheese','chilli con carne', 'curry', okay not that typically English, but more typically English than Spanish ! Why because no where else was doing those tapas, the locals didn't know what they were ! Did they like them, oh, yes, did they keep coming back for them, oh, yes !
Result the plan was coming together, always love it when a plan comes together !
We knew we where different, we knew we had to maximise these differences to stand out from the crowd in a good way ! We managed it on the whole, most people here embraced us and we suffered from very little racism ! Well I hardly noticed anyway !
Weekend one successfully completed and we were flying high !
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