Since Tom left, the week has been hard on all of us. The
kids have thoroughly enjoyed having their dad around all the time, and they
really miss him. To add insult to
injury, the rain started the same morning he departed. It continued throughout
the day and that night just before I was leaving to collect Zoe from swim
practice, a front moved through bringing a deluge of rain. It was so fierce
that it reminded me of summer thunder storms in the east. The water ran in
rivers down the streets, the gutters spewed torrents across the sidewalks
soaking my shoes. By the time arrived at the rec center, I looked like a
drowned dog, despite my rain gear. When
I arrived at the rec center, the news was broadcasting stories of flooding
across Andalucía. Fortunately, the front passed by the time Zoe and I walked
back, so it was just normal rain.
Thursdays are the most challenging day of the week. It’s the
one day both kids have sports at the local rec center: JT plays soccer from 6-7
and Zoe swims at 8 (until 10pm!). It’s a 20 minute walk each way to our
apartment, so it makes more sense for us to hang out during the hour-long break
than to walk home and back again. It’s the perfect time to feed the kids, but
finding something substantial to eat in Spain at 7pm can be a real challenge.
Our neighborhood is full of students, so there are several kebab and pizza
shops. The rec center is in a newer more “suburban” part of the city and so far
we’ve only managed to find a couple of bakeries who sell empanadillas and pizza.
So we’ve had to adopt the practice of eating our main meal at 2pm and then the
lighter snack after sports.
In that way and many others Spain is slowly seeping into our
daily practices. The kids regularly go to sleep quite late. One of best things about our apartment is it
takes 3 minutes for the kids to walk to school. The sun rises quite late even
with the time change, so they naturally sleep in. I admit that more than once
we have awoken in a panic after 8:15 on a school day. When Zoe swims, she tries
to have a siesta the following afternoon. We also eat a ton more “white” foods
here. This is partly because the bakery near our house sells baguettes for .70
euro or about a dollar. Fresh baked bread is irresistible, so it’s become part
of both our breakfast and lunch menu. Also, pasta and pizza are regularly
rotated through the meal list and whole grain options don’t really exist.
Time is a great healer. While some of the days that Tom is
gone will feel endlessly long, the weeks will inevitably fly. We have less than
6 weeks left and many other places to visit and things to experience in Andalucía
before we leave.
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