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Published: December 14th 2009
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Hector, Rosa, and Marco at the bay in SantanderToday marks a week that I have been in Bezana/Santander staying with our old friends Nisio and Pili. I feels like two days. This was the first time in almost three months that I've seen someone familiar - before now everyone were new acquaintances. It is so relaxing to be here. I loved the farm work, but it has been nice to have a break where I don't have to work every day. For almost this whole week the weather has been incredible (although totally rare for December in Northern Spain) - I went swimming twice in the ocean. The sea was chaotic but I had a blast body-surfing. I went on a 42K bike excursion with Jesus and Ana (those pictures are still on my camera so you'll have to wait) and yesterday we went hiking in the mountains behind Bezana. Santa Cruz de Bezana is a suburb/small town outside of Santander by the way. That's where Pili and Nisio live. Hector (their son) and Rosa (his partner) are renovating an apartment in Santander, which I've been helping with from time to time. Their son, Marco, is 2 now. He is super cute and obsessed with Epi (Ernie) from Barrio
Marco!
even though they don't get licensed until age 18 in Europe, they learn to drive early Sesamo (Spanish Sesame Street - it brings back some fond memories because I was a big Sesame Street fan back in the day). Esperanza, Nisio's mother (who lives with them) turned 101 in September. She still feeds the birds every morning and sweeps the kitchen like she did four years ago when I was here - for a woman of 101 she is in phenomenal shape. But she is slowing down, and above all she has become extremely pessemistic - a big change since my last visit. Whenever she gets the chance she tells me stories from her 101 years, which are interesting but always depressing and punctuated by "ay Dios mio"s. She also tends to pick out the depressing details from the news she sees on TV and fixate on them. According to her there are no airplanes in Spain because of an airline strike, regardless of the fact that Nisio arrived on Thursday from Bolivia via airplane. Speaking of which, Nisio's stories of Bolivia make me really want to travel there. But that will have to be another trip. Study abroad perhaps?
So that's about it. When the weather was nice I was able to run every day,
la bahÃa
this is why I love el mar and Santander but winter finally arrived, so I'm confined to long core workouts inside. All in all, things are super chill and enjoyable. I have all the comforts of my second home in Spain: the sea, the mountains, cookies and milk for breakfast, tortilla patata for dinner, loving friends, and lots of Castellano practice. I can't say I'll ever be fluent, and I think I still have some of my North American accent and apparently somewhat of an Italian accent as well. But at this point half my dreams are in Castellano and when I speak English some words come easier in Castellano. I cringe as I write this because of how much English I'm having to expose myself to. Modern technology is ruining my immersion experience. But it's important to me to stay in touch with those back home, so it's a worthwhile sacrifice.
I'm not sure when I'll be writing next. In a week I leave for Israel. I'll be staying with friends of my Uncle Gary's for a week or so and then heading to the Negev to work on a wildlife refuge. I'm super excited for that. But I'll probably be able to check in when I get
swimmies!
note the chaotic waves in the background. aprovechando del tiempo bueno de Diciembre. to Jerusalem.
Oh, and last but not least, my holiday gift to anyone reading this: a selection of photos (and believe me it's only a selection) from my trip so far. Enjoy and Happy Chanukah!
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Kim Cermak
non-member comment
Great photos!
Wow. I love all of the photos. What an experience you are having!