Leaving Granada

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We are getting ready to leave Granada, again facing a bit of a transition from a very settled and comfortable existence with a fair bit of regularity (shopping at our neighborhood market where Koby was given treats by the kindly and elderly owner, chocolate chip cake from our neighborhood panaderia, walking the once confusing but now very familiar winding streets, viewing the impressive Alahambra in all the lights of day and night, lunches of jamon and cheese and tomatoes all soaked in olive oil, special trips to Café Futbol for chocolate and churros (basically melted chocolate in a cup to dip fried dough in), time at home for schoolwork, studying Spanish, playing soccer squash, and watching our favorite Spanish TV shows, home cooking, …).
It is a bit hard to fathom how the on the road life will be, especially for Koby who is less than thrilled to eat out too often, and is a bit homesick, particularly in light of the recent snows in the surrounding mountains that remind all of us of our favorite season at home. Thankfully, we are meeting our friends Mike and Barb and their two kids when we leave here and head to Cordoba, Sevilla, and then to Morocco for a week before a week in Barcelona after which they return to Wyoming and we go on to Israel. Having other kids along will help a lot, we hope, and travelling with another adventuresome family should be interesting. And since we have found the value (both economically and psychologically) of renting apartments, we have lined up several places that can help us settle in even in shorter periods of time.
For the most part, we accomplished what we hoped to in Granada. It was certainly a break from cycling and our time here had more of the feeling of having a home and being a small part of a community. We are well rested and well fed, and had great weather except for the week of unusually early winter that coincided with my parents otherwise wonderful visit. This was a great spot to host relatives, especially after finding the rental apartment 3 doors away from us. I know they found it a different experience to be on vacation in one place rather than travelling about ticking off sites.
And we learned a fair bit of Spanish, although we still have not figured out if we feel overwhelmed because we learned so much in such a short period or because the instruction was so immersion oriented and not so well organized (very Spanish feeling) that we are sorting out things that could have been done more efficiently some other way. I know we all would have liked to have become more fluent than we feel (once we learn various verb forms, we get hung up on the correct form more than acquiring more vocabulary and everything slows down). But I think this is a really important foundation and I probably expanded my vocabulary by several hundred words, which may be all that can be expected in a few weeks, especially when speaking English at home and most of the day (of course, my vocabulary is all words about the occult and horoscopes and reincarnation, as this was the prime interest of one of our teachers, so I am not sure the utility of this).
I think we heard the weather back in Vermont is warmish, although I imagine the doldrums of November must be coming soon. This is always a hard season for me at home—too early for snow and too cold for biking and things looking gray and all. The days are certainly getting shorter here and the nighttime temps are almost near freezing, but the well lit streets and warm days are a contrast to a gray November back home.
We need to move on to the departing rituals of sending our extra belongings home, our last trip to the mirador for the best views of the Alhambra and the snow capped peaks, our last chocolate and churros, the last dinner out here, etc. For those who were captivated by the saga of shipping our bikes back, we ended up sticking them on the place with my parents (the only half feasible option we found). After asking many airline employees, we confirmed we could ship them whole without any box, so that is how we last saw them, hopeful that once in NY, my parents could find some kindly cab driver to hoist them into the city to sit in their apartment building until we return in May. I guess we will hear about this soon.

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Comments

[Sheila]

Great insight
Thank you so much for sharing your trip.I opened your blog because we are making a short visit to Israel next week(not a first trip) and am looking to see what's new. Having enjoyed San Miguel d'Allende in Mexico for the past 4 years,this year we are staying home in toronto,but have been thinking about Spain or Portugal for winter long stay,so I appreciate your insights-thank-you