Day 21: A Side of Bravery
Moving to a new country sight-unseen requires equal parts of faith and trust with a side of bravery, or so I’ve been told since we started sharing our plans. We’ve been here three weeks as of today, and we’ve done a lot. I honestly didn’t see the bravery part until now.
Yesterday had two three things planned: Spanish class with Sinaí, a trip out to the suburbs to meet friends of friends, and exploring a nightlife scene that was new to us. My day started at 6:30 and ended at around 3:00 (both of those are morning times, by the way).
We did, of course, also have coffee at Dream (that’s what we call it now, since we’ve gone for both coffee in the morning and vino/cerveza in the evening). That’s where we did a review of our homework from Sinaí and I realized just how little I know and how far I have to go. I also looked up, again, how to ask about petting dogs (“¿Puedo acariciarlo?”) and vowed to use it the next time the opportunity presented itself.
(Brave actions: interacting with strangers while in pursuit of basic needs without a command of either locally spoken language)
Our lesson was cut short due to (another) power outage at the Hobbit House and we’d only just gotten to my confession of how behind I feel. We shrugged off the annoyance and got ready for our second planned thing: a metro ride out to the suburbs. This was our second outing beyond the city of Valencia since arriving (our first was when we rode the rails with Lee) and thankfully didn’t need anything beyond our Zone A transit passes to get there. We took a bus from our neighborhood into the city center, then hopped on the metro. Our host met us at the train station and walked us through the woods and over to their villa. Our afternoon whiled away over wine and food and conversation, giving Bill his first taste of sobremesa (I’d experienced it myself the prior weekend). After a slow farewell we headed back through the forest to the metro stop and home again, choosing to trust our understanding of the connecting stops over the directions from the app. We got it right and climbed back into the Hobbit House for some resting and recharging before heading out for the night.
(Brave actions: navigate a new public transit system consisting of busses, trams, and metro trains; explore a new city and its surrounding areas; meet new people; adopt new customs)
Our evening plans required us to dig into one of our suitcases for hard shoes and, for Bill, a shirt with buttons. We’d chosen to go outside of our comfort zones to, of all things, a nightclub with a dress code. I wasn’t entirely sure we weren’t going to be sent back home (actually, I was pretty sure we WERE going to be sent back home) but put a brave face on and headed out. We made it in! We did need to ask for English to understand what was going on but everyone was super kind about it, and it turned out the dress code wasn’t as strict as the website led me to believe. We had a lovely time and will likely go back (though not with the regularity of our visits to Dream). We’d left the Hobbit house at 22:00 and didn’t get home until almost 3:00.
(Brave actions: put ourselves in new environments, adapt to different time tables, visit establishments with dress codes)
Another observation from the day: I barely used my phone beyond navigating to our lunch date. It sat in my purse while we were eating and chatting, and it didn’t even come with to the nightclub (no pockets). I have only a couple pictures from the day and wasn’t in constant contact with anyone but Bill. It felt amazing.
Three weeks. We’ve been here for three whole weeks and things are starting to click. It feels like we actually live here even with every day presenting something new.
