Visitors

Yay, my parents came to visit me! When I told my Spanish friends that my parents were coming for ten days, they were horrified that my parents were coming for such a short time. I guess to a Spaniard, a vacation is a minimum of two weeks. We Americans can't imagine using so much of our precious, rare vacation time at once. Even the retirees can still think this way.

Unfortunately, my father arrived with a cold that knocked him out. He spent more than half of the vacation sleeping. I was sorry for him, but also grateful that we didn't have once-in-a-lifetime plans. It was fine for him to just rest at their nearby Airbnb apartment while my mother and I checked out all the parks that would have bored him.

I am really pleased that I encouraged my parents to come visit so soon after I arrived. Now that they have seen my house and my neighborhood, they feel more connected to me. For me, their visit helped transition Spain from location where I am frequently bewildered and lost to a place where my friends and family visit me at home.

In the Royal Botanical Garden. The flowers are much prettier here in the fall, 

when they don´t have to battle the heat.

 My mother loved chocolate and churros. I will be indulging in this regularly during the winter season.

My father managed to stay awake and upright for a trip to the railway museum. Unfortunately, Madrid specializes in art and history museums, and is quite light on the machinery museums, so we will have to venture further afield for his next visit.

An immigrant at school

Now that I´m a few weeks into class, I can definitely say this was a great choice for me. I am learning a ton, and it turns out that having a regular schedule, even if it is packed, is less stressful than all the random socializing and life admin that I did in my first two months here.

My Spanish class has about fifteen people, ranging age from their 20s to their 50s, and largely largely from Europe and Asia. Unsurprisingly, there are a fair number of people from Ukraine. I think I am the only native English speaker, but it is likely that everybody in the class speaks English. Since we're all very good about only speaking Spanish, I may never know.  

All of our talking exercises give us a chance to get to know each other. Some people have come here for schooling, at least four are getting doctorates or higher degrees in science, and others seem to have come for better jobs or a better way of life, or just because a significant other moved here. I suspect that I am the only person not working a full-time job, although perhaps that is because I´m in an evening class.

I read today that immigration to Spain has increased significantly in recent years. In the last 25 years, the population of foreign born residents has jumped from 2% to 15%. It is amazing that they have been able to integrate all these groups so well, and that Spain has a relatively low incident of xenophobia and pushback against immigration. I don´t know all the reasons for this increase, although they fast track citizens from former Spanish colonies, who make up a large percentage of these numbers, and the economy boomed in the early 2000s, making an increase in workers popular to both immigrants and employers alike.

In any case, I am very glad that all the students in my class came to Spain, because they are a delightful bunch and make learning past tenses (we´re up to four so far) more fun.