Ana and Hector

We sat down for a very late dinner after our stroll down Alcala.  As Spencer was moving a chair to our table, a woman in front of him yelled to her girlfriends, "Mi bolsa!!" (My purse!!).  I mean she screeched it!  I think she thought the noise of Spencer moving the chair was someone behind her taking her purse.  A couple, Ana and Hector, sitting at an adjacent table were laughing and Hector told the girls to quiet down...there were visitors from the US sitting next to them and the girls were disturbing everyone.  We motioned that there was no problem and he responded that the girls were drinking a lot and were crazy.  We began chatting in Spanglish and they came to join us at our table. 

Hector has been to Denver and Boulder.  His brother works in Boulder.  Hector loves it there!  He sells electric bikes (Ebike).  On his bike is written, "Ya mi moto."  Hector let August and Oliver try out the bike in the adjacent alley.  Hector is from Vitoria, in the Basque region, and Ana is from Santander, just east of Ribadesella.  Ana went to a bilingual school and now teaches English in Madrid to preschoolers/kinders.  They were very excited that we were coming to the north coast and gave us a list of places to see.  Hector gave us his email and told us to let him know if we were going to Vitoria, he has connections for us there. 

Conversation tidbits:  We talked about the conflict between the different regions of Spain and they thought that US Americans are less divided.  We did point out the dislike of folks from different parts of the US.  Hector and Ana both smoke and talked about what a bad habit Europeans have of smoking.  :)   They were also very impressed that all of our boys are learning Spanish in school. 

It was a very cool chance encounter, indeed.  Our dinner went until about midnight...