A break

Two and a half weeks ago, I finished my final exam for Spanish class, packed my bags and headed to the US for a break. And it has been a glorious break. I would describe coming back to an English language environment as slipping into a warm bath. I continue to revel in how easy life is when you can communicate clearly. And I turned off all the Spanish, deleting podcasts I should be listening to and ignoring all my flashcard reminders. That will all be waiting for me when I return.

In addition to taking a break from learning, I immersed myself in my friends' lives. I know that I will eventually make deep friendships in Madrid, but it is truly delightful to just bask in time together with friends I've known for years. DC has a high concentration of such people, so I headed there first. (Sorry to any DC people I couldn't missed - my time was so short!)

My best friend M and I met in Philadelphia, halfway between our respective locations, for s day trip. I am maybe 2" taller than her, and minimal height distances make for excellent hugging opportunities. Our big adventure was hearing a free organ concert at a downtown department store. Apparently this was the thing shoppers enjoyed a century ago.

Culture shock hit in a few ways, although mostly good ones. With this photo I am marveling at the size and selection of the grocery stores. I also forgot how great it is that Americans talk to strangers. Less good is the way we try to eat our meals as fast as humanly possible.

My friends N and S were kind enough to store my bicycle in their basement, which let me get in lots of riding. It turns out I still love bicycle riding, and hopefully I can finally get a bike sorted in Spain next month.

And of course it's not quality time with friends if you don't do construction projects. 

My friend E made me a cheese souffle! There is no better demonstration of friendship, in my opinion.

My friendship cup runneth over. 

What I do when I´m not studying

Things are ticking along nicely here. I have found a good balance between study and social activities. It's probably not surprising that school is turning out to be useful for meeting friends.

Inviting friends to your home for meals is somewhat rare here - that is usually reserved for family. I suspect this is similar to the situation in NYC, when people tend to meet in bars or restaurants because no one has an apartment big enough to host people. However, I love cooking food for people so I've just decided to play the "This is something we do in the US" card and I've had two small dinner parties.

 
I've been busy studying for my final exam in Spanish, which is tomorrow. Actually, there are three exams: the final for the class, a makeup exam offered in January, and a certification exam. I am hoping to avoid needing the makeup exam, but I plan to take the certification exam because it's good practice. At this point, I am pretty confident that I can do will enough to be admitted to the next class, but we will see if the gods of the subjunctive case smile upon me. In any case, I will not have to think about Spanish for the next few weeks, because I'm going to visit friends and family in the US. It's going to be amazing to just walk around and understand everything that people say!

My new friends T and A at the house of the Joaquin Sorolla, a famous Spanish impressionist painter. T and A are fun and interesting people, and, on top of that, A is really good at remembering to take pictures for my blog, so I hope to hang out with them more.

I cooked to for two days to make this Indian feast: roti, raita, urad dal (lentils), malai kofta (a cheese and potato dumpling in tomato gravy), cabbage fritters, and lassi (a mango lassi drink). That meant a feast for three people, plus delicious leftovers for days. Totally worth it.

This is a tiny baroque church where I heard a concert of English choral music. The acoustics were amazing, and the crowd of senior citizens plus me loved every minute of it. I couldn´t decide whether to focus on the music or everything that was happening on the walls.

Madrid puts of LOTS of lights for Christmas. It´s beautiful, but apparently all six million Madrilenños were out looking at them on Saturday. Overfull buses passed the stop rather than picking people up, so getting there and home was a challenge. Next time I´ll go view them on a random Tuesday instead.

Achievement unlocked

Are there phrase transitions in language learning? It seems like children can practice the various parts of skills needed for something and the suddenly put them together in a rudimentary way. I think that happened to me, at least when it comes to understanding spoken Spanish. In the past few weeks, I have had multiple conversations with strangers on the street, and I almost always knew what was going on. In the past I understood maybe half of the conversation, and could not do much more than nod and interject a "Sí" or "Claro." But now I am giving people directions and having conversations with little old ladies at the bus stop. I can make eavesdropping in the Metro my new hobby - after all it's language practice!

Speaking is more of a slow, steady effort. I did quite well on my midterm exam, so I'm planning to continue studying the same way. Language practice with friends three times a week, Disney movies on the weekend, and flashcards as often as I can bear them. 

In other news, Madrid is delightful in the fall. I have discovered what might be my favorite park nearby, Juan Carlos I Park. It has everything: lakes, gardens, olive groves, and for now, gigantic animal sculptures that will be lit up for Christmas.

Festivals

´Tis the season of festivals here in Spain, apparently. I think they are a great way to learn about culture and history, so I´ve been participating when I can. And since they all seem to involve standing in crowds, my new-found height is put to good use. 

Almudena Day

Yesterday was a Madrid holiday, in honor of one of the two patrons saints, Our Lady of Almudena. She disappeared or reappeared at miraculous times (I´m not quite sure of the details). With some friends from class, I attended part of the outdoor mass held in front of the palace, and then I got to see my very first pageant. Living in a very Catholic country, I am sure these will soon bore me, but it was fun to stand in the large crowd and watch the statue, carried on an ornate platform by a team of churchgoers, slowly glide by. We trailed the procession for a while, the peeled off to head to the main plaza. Almudena is also turns out to be patron saint of bakers, and there is a sweet bread filled with cream associated with holiday. The city was handing out free servings, which we eventually secured, but only after some semi-heated arguments with little old ladies about whether we were cutting in line. (Which we were most definitely NOT doing. But Spain is turning out to be a country that takes standing in line very seriously.)

Halloween

Since everyone has been asking, I´ll just say that Halloween is barely a thing here, and is very much seen as an American import. I saw a handful of kids wearing costumes, but mainly it´s the equivalent of Cinco de Mayo in the US - an excuse for adults to go to the bar and drink, with or without costumes.

A royalty sighting

October 31st was important for a different reason - it was the 18th birthday of Princess Leonor, who will inherit the Spanish throne after her father dies. Democracy is quite new here, and one of the ways they protect it is the tradition that the heir publicly swears loyalty to the constitution in front of the Parliament on their 18th birthday. I happened to be downtown that day and got to see her procession from the palace to Parliament - she is in the antique car, accompanied by the royal guard. I was just tickled pink by the whole thing, both because the presence of a royal family is so foreign to me, and because I live in the capital and can just stumble upon things like this. 

All Soul´s Day

November 1st is All Soul´s Day, a national holiday. I don´t have any family graves to visit or tidy, and the only other activity seemed to be attending mass. It turns out that my interest in experiencing local traditions doesn´t include attending outdoor masses held in cemeteries if it is cold and rainy, so I basically skipped this holiday.

Luz Madrid

A few weeks ago, they invited a lot of artists to create light and music installations for local landmarks. A video would capture this much better, since the lights were timed to change to the music. It was cold and rainy that day too, which seems to be a theme in November.

Who am I?

Someone I have been, and continue to be - a person who likes to drink coffee on the terrace

I've been thinking about identity a lot during my move to Spain. Identity is a construct that was studied a lot in my field. Although I'm no expert, it is I can roughly describe it as the type of person you see yourself as. You construct this picture from how other people treat you, what arenas you are successful in, whether people in that group treat you as one of them, etc. Some of my identities are a white person, cisgender female, a physicist, a good cook, a cyclist, a person good with money, even a Trekkie.
I knew that moving to a new country would mess with some of those identities. For example, I think of myself as an intelligent person who is mostly good at navigating the practical components of life. When I arrived, I could barely speak, so no one else could see those smarts, and I had so many experiences, such as not understanding the bus system or not knowing how to get internet installed, that I felt like someone who didn't know how to adult. I also expected that my American identity would become far more salient, although that turns out to be not quite right - I'm not an American here, I'm simply a foreigner, in a group with many other people who can't communicate well and don't know how the system works. Plus, it turns out that many people think I'm French, even if they haven't heard my first name.

But other identity changes were completely unexpected. For example, I see myself as a navigator, since I'm always the person in the group with the map telling everyone where to go next. But here, I seem to have lost my sense of direction. I don't know if it's the multitude of non-parallel streets, or if it's because most street signs are either high up on building sides or non-existent, but I get lost about a hundred times more frequently than in other countries I have lived in. Similarly, I have always been a short, petite person. I didn't even think of this as something that could change, except if I gained weight. But suddenly, in Spain, I am almost of average height for a woman. I can see the tops of many people's heads! And because the Spanish are also very thin, I feel of average weight or maybe a little over. There's nothing wrong with being tall or short or skinny or fat, it's just that I hadn't realized how culturally constructed it would be.

All of these changes are less disorienting as the months roll by. I already feel better about my ability to navigate things like the bureaucracy or the Metro system, and someday I will feel as confident about the subjunctive case as I do about quantum mechanics.

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. 

Back to school

When I tell Spaniards that I am retired, they are generally confused and perhaps think that I don't know what I'm saying. Early retirement is rare in the US, but it is almost impossible in Spain, given how taxes work here. So I often tell them that my visa doesn't allow me to work and that my job this year is to learn Spanish. That is turning out to be truer them I expected.

I was able to enroll in one of the intensive Spanish classes offered by the local government. I attend four days per week, 2.5 hours per day. Add in my two languages exchange partners, and I'll be spending almost thirty hours per week either learning or commuting to my lessons. After a year and a half of retirement, this feels like a huge constraint, especially because the evening classes mean I won't be able to do many social activities. But I'm hoping that if I put my head down, I can make some serious progress by the end of the semester.

Yesterday was my first day. The teacher is great - I think it might be a universal retirement that people teaching immigrants be enthusiastic and encouraging, the same way kindergarden teachers are. The students in my class come from all by over Europe and China, but I am the only native English speaker.

I am normally nervous starting new things, but not yesterday.  Classes can be intimidating because I have to talk to new people and there are exams that I want to do well on. In this case, I am already living a daily language exam, and school can only make it easier.

First day of school photos are compulsory, 

even if you are 48.

Everything is new

 Rain!

I don't know if this is typical, but the changing of the seasons came very suddenly. A few days after I returned from Asturias, we had a few drops of rain and suddenly the weather was in the high 20s instead of the high 30s. Last weekend I found myself walking (with an umbrella, thankfully) in the pouring rain! It was delightful! Everyone has returned from holiday. It's not yet quite the kind of autumn where you're kicking through leaves and eating warm soup, but now that seems like something that could happen someday.

The end of summer means a return to normal life in the city, and I hope to set up something like a regular schedule. The first step is trying to enroll in Spanish classes. The key word here is "trying".There are many private schools that cost a fortune, but in return they make it easy for you to enroll and give them money. In contrast, the government run schools are affordable but come with bureaucracy. I spent three days reading and filling out the forms, and this week I take two two-hour placement exams. At the end I'm not even sure if I'll have be allowed to enroll, because I'm still not sure if I have followed the correct process.

Not following the correct procedure is more or less my life right now. As a new arrival, this constant state of uncertainty is really challenging. Along with the language, I'm learning the culture, history, geography, and bureaucracy. Let's say I want to buy something at a new grocery store. I might get lost on the way to the store (this happens all the time since I moved here). The store might not be open at the time I thought it was, or it might turn out not to be a grocery store. They might not sell that product in Spain. I might not have enough money on my transport card and then not understand how to pay cash on the bus. Almost all of these things have happened at least once, and this is just the grocery store, not even anything important, like a visa or applying to a school!

I am educated and have lots of time and (relatively) lots of money. This gives me an intense amount of respect for immigrants all over the world. It is really hard for me, and yet my experience is comparatively a walk in the park.

Closed for vacation

Being the hottest months of the year, July and August are vacation time for the citizens of Madrid. In particular, large numbers of them flee during August. It is not unusual for small businesses to put up a sign in the window that says, "See you in September," which is fairly incomprehensible to someone raised in workaholic America. The larger restaurants and supermarkets are still open, but even offices will reduce their hours in summer.

I decided to follow their head and go somewhere cooler too. This past week I've been in Oviedo, the capital of the autonomous region of Asturias, in the north.  They have a climate similar to the UK or Seattle, WA, and so it seemed like a great place to get away from the heat. It is also one of the few places I have considered living besides Madrid, and once of my goals of the coming year is to visit more of Spain and make sure that Madrid is the best fit for me.

Oviedo turned out to be really, really lovely. It is full of old architecture and a huge chunk of the city center has been turned into a pedestrian zone, which makes it walkable and quiet. It was cool and humid (except for a single day that was hot and therefore especially miserable in a city that isn´t used to even having fans available).

The surrounding countryside was lush and green, something I am already missing. There are huge craggy cliffs and tiny houses and villages tucked in between.

I am not sure it is the place for me long-term, though. Oviedo has 200.000 residents, and its nearby sister city Gijón is about the same size. When I lived in Gainesville, which is slightly smaller, it felt too small to meet people who share similar interests. I think this might be a good place when I am already fluent in Spanish and integrated fully into Spanish culture, but I´m not there yet. 

Still, I had a great visit. My friend P lives nearby, and he make sure we went to a sidra tavern. Sidra is the alcoholic drink in Asturias - a sour, alcoholic apple cider. It´s not really carbonated, so the waiter pours a small amount in your glass from a great height (like this), which adds a few bubbles. Then you drink it up right away, and wait until they come back a few minutes later to pour you a bit more. I liked it, and am hoping I can find a bottle or two in Madrid. (Although I won´t be trying that pouring technique. Even the experts relied on wood shavings covering the floor to soak up their spills.)

P and I at the famous statue of Mafalda, who stars in Argentinian comic books. I will be looking her up next time I go to the library.

A beautiful and very old 9th century church. I climbed a very big hill to get to this. During the tour, I noted the guide´s warning that we were not to take picture while standing on the patio, which is the open area in front without rails, so that we wouldn´t fall. Then I saw people taking tons of photos, which means that either the Spanish don´t follow directions or I don´t really understand the language. Probably both are true.

Home, sweet home

To properly appreciate my apartment in Madrid, you need to know what my options were. For example, I loved my neighborhood the first time I walked through it, because there is so much green. Parks, and even trees or bushes can be extremely rare in parts of downtown, Some streets don´t seem to have left room for anything except a narrow car path, and you pretty much only get trees if there is regular irrigation. (Here is one of the first neighborhoods I looked at, for example.)

I managed to snag a small apartment with a terrace overlooking a very quiet street and a few trees. (That´s my place, on the second story behind the green awning.) The neighborhood feels suburban, filled with apartment buildings, but most of the businesses like restaurants and grocery stores are tucked into the ground floor space of each building. And the public transportation is better than what I had in Maryland - I can walk to two different metro lines, a few bus lines, and lots of shops within 10-15 minutes. 

Furnished apartments are really common in Spain, thank goodness. And I´d describe the style of mine as 1990´s elderly lady with a cat. I think the owner previously lived here, and she did not see a spare foot of wall space that she couldn´t fill with seating, shelving, or hooks. I am now the proud owner [renter] of seven bookshelves, and I own one book. Perhaps I will rotate it so that it can visit a different location each day of the week?

The kitchen looks small from American standards, but many small apartments here omit ovens, and have only counter-sized fridges. I have tons of storage space and cooking is very efficient - you just rotate in place to reach oven, sink, counter, and fridge.

More shelves in the bedroom. I´d estimate the apartment is about 350 square feet (32 m2). My place in Miami was about that size, and I shared it with a dog, a cat, and another human. So this feels quite spacious, if you discount the eleven chairs plus one sofa living with me. 

And the very best part is that I have air-conditioning. I have realized that when it is 38C (100F), which is often the case in summer. I am sad and think about returning to the US. When it is 28C (82F), I think, "Golly, gee whiz, I live in Madrid! How amazing!" Climate control literally makes me happy.

It turns out minimalists need stuff too.

I had one week from the time I rented the apartment until I moved in to procure household goods. Luckily, furnished apartments are really common here, so I only needed things like towels and kitchenware. When I've lived outside the US in the past, I stayed with other people, so this is the first time I've started from scratch, which had meant shopping and sleeping bags of stuff from all over town.

My go-to for household goods are thrift stores. Unfortunately, selling used goods is not really a thing in Spain, except for furniture and clothes. In a city of 6 million, there are perhaps a dozen thrift stores, and I visited most of them. With diligent searching, I managed to find many useful things. But as is the case for all moves, you eventually end up at IKEA.

Ikea turned out to be a 6-hour adventure, what with navigating public transport to the very edge of the city, purchasing lunch (the meatballs are ubiquitous, but now come in vegetarian as well), and briefly getting locked inside a metro station (but that is a story for another day).

As everyone knows, I don't like spending money and I don't really like shopping either. I decided everything I bought would be white and the plainest, frugal-est version I could find. I did realize that there should be a few exceptions, and I carefully considered where I would appreciate quality. It turns out I don't care about dishes or sheets or tea cups, but I like luxury when drinking coffee, helping my groceries around, and keeping warm. 

My new favorite things: a beautiful French press, a three -season down duvet, and a rugged, large-capacity shipping cart.

So, answers on a postcard (or in a comment): what would you splurge on if you were replacing all your household goods?

Things are looking up

I have lots of good news to report. Most importantly, I have an apartment! The key was that my agent contacted all possible landlords and asked them if I could pay a year in advance. But, I hear you say, I thought you said you couldn't prepay! I did say that, but I was wrong. I have said on this blog that I frequently don't know what is going on, and this is proof. In this case, I'm delighted to be incorrect. It still took some time, because many apartments were rented by the time we even contacted the landlord, and only if a few would even consider me. But the first place I was able to see I took immediately.

It has many good features: it's on the second floor so I only have to climb 1.5 flights of stairs, it's in a lovely neighborhood which is quite green and tree-filled by Madrid standards, and it has an air conditioner. It also has a bidet and a tv, which were two things I didn't think I'd ever possess. I have already made friends with the portero ( the combination front desk / superintendent / custodian that many apartments have here) because I couldn't figure out how to unlock the doors without an extensive tutorial from him.

I will move in at the end of this week, when my house sitting gig is done. Just one week after I arrived in Madrid, I met some lovely people who were friends of friends and they asked me to house/dogsit while they were on vacation. It's been almost like a vacation, because they have a beautiful apartment with a tiny pool, plus the most adorable dog ever.

Having a signed rental contract means we could proceed with scheduling the many appointments I need for my visa. Tomorrow, if all goes well, I will register my address with the police, which is what they do here instead of taking a census. There are several more steps after that, but I wouldn't want to reveal them to you all at once and spoil the suspense.

Celebrating a new home!

July in Madrid

I have no news on the apartment search. Two days ago, my agent snagged a viewing for a possible apartment. As I emerged from the Metro stop to walk to it, she called me and said the apartment had been rented by the very first person who saw it. That's the way it goes in the very hot market. But my agent has not given up hope, so neither will I.

GOOD
I've already met two people who want to be language partners. That means we'll meet up periodically and I will get to practice my Spanish for a while, then they'll get to practice their English. One of them is a very serious student. I can tell he's going to make me use my brain a lot in these sessions.

GOOD
Madrid is very Instagrammable. Lots of beautiful buildings, and luckily the photos don't convey the heat.

HMMM
I continue to have no idea what's going on most of the time. I have tried three times to pick up my ATM card from the bank, but they don't have it yet. They give me an explanation, but I didn't really know what was said. That's okay, I understand that they're telling me to come back, and I'll keep doing that.

GOOD
Two weeks ago, I stumbled across a Symphony concert in the park. I went back the following week for another one, but 30 seconds into its start it was shut down by the police. I'm not entirely clear why, but I think it was due to the expected high temperature of the day. It was sort of fun to watch all the senior citizens on their lawn chairs booing the police.

HMMM
I think next month will be even quieter than this month, with fewer meetups and activities and less chance for making friends. That's because even more people are leaving town to avoid the heat. Maybe by next year I'll be settled enough that I can do that too. Or maybe I´ll have an air conditioner, which would be almost as good.

The more modern part of the city (plus antique water tower), near where I´m currently staying.

Learning Patience, or How to Not Rent an Apartment

I´m trying to put down roots...

Even before I arrived, I was worried about finding an apartment. There are dire warnings on the internet from other expats, and alas, my experience seems similar. Ideally, I need to find an apartment within a month of arrival, because an address is needed to continue the steps of the visa. And it has to be a real address, not an Airbnb or one borrowed from a friend, because I have to present the lease as evidence.

Apartments in Madrid are in short supply. This is probably partially due to the Airbnb trend, but also because tenant protections are so strong here. Landlords need to be picky, since it is hard to remove tenants if they cause problems. It is so serious that if squatters move into your own home, which you might have only left empty for a few days, it can take up to a year to remove them. So I can only imagine how hard it is to get unpaying tenants out of a home.

And I am a special case in Spain, because I am not working. If you cannot show your work contract or payslips, landlords don't want you. Credit checks or bank statements, for some reason, aren't accepted. In the past, I had heard that expats would prepay six months or a year's worth of the lease to get around this problem. However, they just passed a law making prepayment of this kind illegal. Alas, I wish the government would not protect me so much. And how do retirees in Spain deal with this? A local told me that people just don't move after they are retired.

About one week in, I realized I could not find an apartment on my own. Agents would refuse to show me places once they knew I didn't have a job, and when I did see a place there were would be 30 other people viewing it at the same time. I have now hired someone who works with expats, which means she helps navigate the system along with speaking Spanish and English. Even she is finding it hard to locate a landlord who will consider me. I am really glad that I am working with a professional relocator as well as my paralegal, but I see how much patience and time I have to put into the process. I don't even know if we will succeed in the end. Surely there must be a plan B and a plan C, but I don't know enough about the system to know what that might be.

Nine days in Spain and counting

My AirBnb

Here's my experience in the past week. I borrowed the format from a blogger I read, since it helps convey the mix of emotions I feel all the time.

GOOD

Not having to add tax and tip. The price you see is the price you get! (Except a lawyer I met, but I didn't like him anyway.)

HMMM
The Spanish government continues to ask me for documents I could not possibly have and requires me to make appointments I'm not allowed to make.

GOOD
I have hired a paralegal (Using a lawyer or paralegal to assist with things like buying a car or getting health insurance is incredibly common in Spain, due to the amazing bureaucracy.) He had already helped me get the shipment of my belongings out of customs purgatory. He only speaks Spanish, but was oodles nicer and more helpful than the fancy pants English-speaking lawyer I tried first.

GOOD
I have a Spanish bank account and a Spanish phone number. The bank teller was especially lovely and took extra time to teach me how to download and use the bank app.

HMMM
It is really, really hot every day, and will be until September. Like, 38C/100F. Yes, it is dry heat, and no, there is not much air conditioning. They don't have AC at my house or many restaurants. When they do, many have to follow the new government rules of not going cooler than 27C/ 80F. This is part of an initiative to reduce energy use because of the war in Ukraine. In theory, I support this kind of policy, but it's rough going.

GOOD
I have already connected to friends of friends who have been welcoming and helpful with advice. I have started going to meetups, but I'm balancing it with downtime alone, since my brain is worn out from struggling in a new country and a new language.

HMMM
It is wearying to just never quite know what's going on. I'm shuffling along all right. But every day there are new things to learn. How to open doors. How to weigh the fruit in the grocery store. How to pay a bill. How to pronounce the letter G so I can spell my name. Rinse and repeat all day.

GOOD
That fruit that I now know how to weigh? It's all been super tasty.

And I'm off!

My flight to Madrid leaves this evening. I currently own 175 pounds of worldly goods, valued at $300 by the Spanish government and $3000 by me. (I mean, do you know how long it would take me to recreate a custom made wardrobe of vintage woolen clothing?) If the fates allow, I will arrive in Madrid in what is their Wednesday afternoon. The most urgent items are to get over jet lag, open a bank account, and buy a new electric toothbrush.

Yesterday, we celebrated the Fourth of July and my departure with a very American cookout. It was delightful and I felt loved.

The day before, I took a 30-mile/ 48km bike ride with N and R, my long time biking friends. We gorged ourselves on the wild raspberries and blackberries lining the trail and suffered through what one of them called 175% humidity. I will not have air-conditioning for my first month on Madrid, but that ride made me appreciate that dryness does make heat more bearable.

The rest of my belongings, which will arrive in either two days or two months, depending on Spanish customs authorities.

Honestly, I am not very excited right now. I am tired and know how much work and discombobulation are ahead of me. But I'm also older and wiser than when I lived outside the country twenty years ago, which means I have confidence that all of this will be worth it.

Farewell, dear Scion

 

Yesterday I sold my surprisingly beloved 2006 Scion XA hatchback. In 2011, I convinced Andrew to buy a Mini Cooper, because a cute convertible car sounded like the perfect choice for a childfree couple living in Miami. But within a year, we had discovered the early retirement movement and decided that a gas guzzling turbo engine was not the right choice anymore. Andrew was given carte blanche to pick out a frugal car, and he came home with the Scion. It turned out to be perfect - reliable, gas efficient, big enough to carry loads of lumber home from Home Depot but tiny enough to park in small city spots. When Andrew died, I felt like he had taken care of me by leaving me with a car I could depend on.

Every spring, I used this car to move loads of compost, shovelled onto a tarp spread across the back seat. This car transported me and a dog who hated car rides to Ohio several times a year. It hauled me all over the eastern half of the country since I retired. And now it belongs to lovely man who immigrated from Bolivia last year and was excited to buy his first US car. I hope he has as many wonderful adventures in it as I did.

Physicist camping, now with less camping

Last weekend was the annual physicist camping trip in Pennsylvania. Four families (one couldn´t make it), fireflies, and a bunch of cows. We now rent a large house on a farm, which is so much more enjoyable for the non-camping-inclined among us. I´m still in a tent, but appreciate the use of a full kitchen and working plumbing. We stay at a working century farm (that means it´s been farmed by the same family for over 100 years), so we got to watch the them mowing and baling the hay while the cows got to watch us. 

One of the main events was a kids versus adults whiffle ball game. The final score was 12-6, kids winning, and they would have scored even higher if the mercy rule hadn´t been invoked. Which really was a mercy, by the way, since two of the adults sustained injuries. I wisely confined myself to cheering from the stands. 

We also repeated our journey through the abandoned turnpike tunnel, some of us by bike and some of us on foot. The tunnel is 1.25 miles (2km) long and it´s a long but interesting path through darkness. It´s also very good for singing, if your tastes incline toward echoey, monastic-style chords. It´s very memorable to cycle for ten minutes or so in blackness.

I will really miss this annual outing when I´m in Madrid, but I expect they´ll welcome me whenever I can manage a return visit.

Americana and oddities

Spending time in the Midwest in June feels very American. When I went with my parents to the town square to listen to the community band, I thought about how long it might be before I again sit with a group of people who can hum along to Stars and Strips Forever and all the other patriotic songs that are played at concerts like this. And how nice it is to go somewhere and just bump into people that you know - it will take many years in a new city before I experience that. 

I decided that it was time to repeat that smash success from 2020, parent-daughter summer camp. You can take me out of my project management job, but you can´t make me stop being a project manager. I suspect that this both delights and annoys my friends in equal measure, but luckily my parents are quite tolerant of my planning tendencies. 

And now for more roadside attractions from my travels...

From the Garment District in Manhattan. I continue to be a fan of anything larger than life.

A twenty-foot tall quarter. 

Probably the world´s oldest operating roller coaster. This is definitely a picture of the amusement park in Altoona, Pennsylvania which has said world-famous coaster, but I couldn´t really pick it out among the rest. I´m sure Altoona is very proud of it, in any case.

Going to Spain, the Frequently Asked Questions Post

When people hear that I am going to Spain, they ask many of the same questions. I have pretty pat answers at this point. So if you haven't had the pleasure of hearing me recite these answers for the 20th time, here is the FAQ for Renee Michelle Goes to Spain.

Why Spain? 
Well because I've always wanted to live in Europe, and that is one of the few countries that will give me a visa. Basically many of the Southern European countries have weaker economies, and they offer visas that allow people to come and live there, as long as they bring their hard-earned cash with them.

Why Madrid? 

Because I have visited Madrid twice, and it's a large vibrant city, which also happens to be very welcoming to foreigners. They also have a good tax situation and speak Castilian, which is important to me because I don't want to learn another language.

What will you do when you get to Madrid, if you're not allowed to work? 

Probably for the first year I'll just study verbs. In all seriousness, I know very few retired people who are not swamped with activities. If you are a person interested in the world, interesting things find you.

What are you bringing with you? 

Probably about four suitcases worth of stuff. All the expats that give advice about this kind of thing say that less is more. Your American furniture won't fit in a Spanish apartment, you will prefer to wear Spanish clothes to fit in with the natives, and you can buy almost everything there that you can get in the us. So my yardstick has been to only take things that are sentimental,  like two of the pans from the set we got when we were married, or my vintage sewing pattern collection.

Will you travel a lot? 

I certainly intend to take advantage of the fact that so many European countries are near to me. However, I have been traveling almost non-stop for the last 6 months, and I am looking forward to staying put in one place for a while. So that travel may happen in a couple of years, once I've put down some roots.

Can you speak Spanish (Castilian)? 

Not nearly well enough, honestly. But I'm confident that I will improve when I am fully immersed, because I managed to learn an enormous amount when I was in exchange student living in Germany. Currently I can read children's books and understand children's movies. but I express myself in a fairly rudimentary way.

Will you come back to the US often? 

I'm planning on two visits per year, but I can't make them real long. My visa has the potential for me to become a permanent resident in five years. But to do that, I have to follow the rules, including not working, and demonstrating that I consider Spain my home. And the government has decided that Spain is your home if you are not absent for more than ten months out of five years. So please, come visit me!

Do you know anyone there? 

No, not really. But I hope I will soon. So if you have any friends or relatives who might give me guidance, especially if they live in Madrid, please connect me.

Thinking big thoughts

Wyoming, land of antelope, big spaces, and Stoics. Yup, it´s May again, which means it´s time for Stoic Camp. Like last year, it was held in thd mountains near Centennial, WY.  Since neither the departure location or destination are near a major airport, this time I just accepted at the start that it would take me two full days to get from my home to the camp, and then everything was more manageable. Gosh, this country is big. Of course, if I had been going by covered wagon or foot like a few centuries ago, it would have taken me months, so I won´t complain.

This is what it looks like when Stoics study Stoicism. Picture forty people in a large, echoey room, taking it in turns to read a passage which we discuss. About two-thirds of the people have formal philosophical training, ranging from a few classes to PhDs, and the rest of us have just studied on our own, with books and podcasts and meetups. When the instructor says, "We splurged and bought everyone a copy of the new, annotated complete works of Epictetus," this is the kind of group that "Ooohs" very appreciatively. Even me, I must add. I am planning to keep that book, bringing the grand total of books that I am moving to Spain to one.

This year we did not have a blizzard, but there was still lots of 

snow up in the mountains when we were hiking. 

I was pleased that I remembered some of the things I learned last year, and I can see a few places in my life where I am applying Stoicism more regularly. I left with a renewed sense that this philssophy should be part of my life, and a few new, small goals to implement. 

And if anyone is looking for a little philosophy or religion for their life, I´d like to recommend this book, How to Lead a Good Life. I read it several year ago, treating it like a menu from which I could choose the philosphy that best suited me, and it´s how I chose Stoicism.

If you want to learn more about Stoicism, you can read more at Stoicism Today, some of the podcasts from Philosophy as a Way of Life (co-hosted by the leader of the camp), or just read the Wikipedia page.