Day 16: Life, Spanish-Style
We’re getting the hang of it, and navigating the differences, day by day.
Yesterday had a blend of together and solo time as, yet again, Bill had to work and I was still in vacation/move mode. Our early mornings (by Spain standards) consist of regular morning things (bathing, dressing), breakfast (American-style, involving eggs in some form), and reconnecting with the world (checking email & facebook, writing this blog, playing Wordle). By the time we get out to “our” cafe we’ve already been up for hours while the world around us seems to just be waking up.
I lingered for a second Americano when Bill headed back to the Hobbit House, doing my best to soak up the last bits of vacation. I read my book and had slow-and-limping conversation with one of the waitresses about how Bill and I were starting our language classes that evening. She seemed pleased which felt good. When people say that the Spaniards (and, I think, anyone in a country with a language other than English) appreciate the efforts of those who try to use Spanish it’s true. I’ve caught snatches of conversations where that is NOT the case — where the English speakers are NOT making any sort of effort — and it’s not pretty. Basically, when you plan your visit to Spain get at least some polite basics down before you board the plane and you’ll have a running start.
We seem to have fallen into a 50/50 pattern with grocery shopping which is a BIG shift from our American life. Yesterday was my turn, with a bonus stop of getting new transit cards. That part didn’t go quite as expected, but I totally nailed the grocery shopping! I’m getting comfortable in the store, no longer needing to go down every.single.aisle to find what I need, understanding the labels well enough, and having the routines around checkout feel less awkward. And I have my wheelie cart which marks me as a local (I hope).
I will confess…I did a little bit of work yesterday. Just enough so that today when my work day starts at 11:00 I’m not completely overwhelmed after this long break. I don’t think I’ve had this much time off outside of when I was recovering from surgery! This has been a much better use of my vacation time, I promise. We also had a big lunch, Spanish-style, and I found time for some resting of sorts in the afternoon. See, getting into the swing of things!
Now, we haven’t really braved shopping here much, or hadn’t before yesterday. Remember how we packed super light and got rid of so much stuff before we flew over? Well, I’d whittled my wardrobe down to two pairs of “outside” (aka non-athleisure) shorts and one of them died yesterday. American me would have had another something to choose from but, thanks to my intense packing, this was an item that needed replacing ASAP. And Bill still wanted sandals (so out of character it *has* to be the Spanish influence) so we left early for our first Spanish class to do some retail therapy (that’s what it’s called, right?) in Russafa.
Fun fact — Spain has even less “plus” size clothing options in stores than America (expect a HCEC blog about that soon). Another fun fact? H&M is here and, with their SINGLE pair of shorts in my size, saved the day. Another shop, Pull & Bear, in the same block, had sandals for Bill. We’re still not big shoppers (and I don’t see that changing) but we managed to get both our needs met within about 15 minutes. This was after discovering we needed appointments to get the monthly transit card we want…still plenty to learn about how things work here in Spain!
We had time to use up before our Spanish class (because we’d been so efficient at the shopping) so we strolled until we found somewhere to sit and sip (Cerveza for Bill, Tinto de Verano for me). I love how ubiquitous the outdoor seating is here, and how it’s not about the pandemic — it’s just how things are done.
The Spanish class had given me the opportunity to pull together two of the new friend groups we’ve made since arriving…Lee (from Chicago) and Melissa’s girls (from North Carolina) joined in on the trial class led by Inter Estudios. Oddly enough, another woman in the class was also from Chicago (originally from Poland, then France, THEN Chicago) so of the 7 of us around the table, 4 were from Chicago! The other person was from Texas (originally from Syria) and the teacher is from Argentina so we were quite the group.
Because I seem to bring that small-town feel with me everywhere I go, when Lee, Melissa, the girls, Bill, and I stopped for food and conversation it made total sense that Graham & Rissa should appear (two others we’ve met through this move). They were walking their SUPER SWEET dog, Bailey, who accepted all my puppy love and gave me people love back in equal measure. Something similar happened the day before during brunch when one of the women I’d met at the GGI event happened to be meeting someone at the same restaurant and said hello as she passed.
I promise, there are over 800K people here in Valencia! I’m taking these small-town encounters as (another) sign that we’re right where we belong.
