End of Week 12...

I cannot even believe it's been twelve weeks--three months--of this crazy new reality.  Thankfully it's been a few weeks now that things have been lightening up.  Kids were allowed to go out at the beginning of May (for an hour a day and within 1km of home).  This is the third weekend we've had the bar open.  So things are creeping back in the direction of normal, although I am fairly certain nothing will ever be the same again.

School has continued online and that is partially why I have not been blogging--I cannot take any more screen time by the time classes and prep and record keeping are done with for the day.  This weekend, I'm a little ahead of myself with prep (only a little), but I thought I owed you all a little message at least. ;)

Today is a big day because we have a playdate. :)  No social distancing with two five-year-olds.  I'm fine with it, and I guess our friend's parents are also okay because there was no hesitance when we asked if he could come over and bake brownies.  My assistant bakers ditched me completely for the pool, however, and I was on my own in the kitchen Little Ren Hen style.  Emily was happy to just help eat the brownies.

They've been playing with magic sand, legos, musical instruments...  Today is the first day that Emily has asked to have a friend over in all of this time.  I'm very glad that Carlos was able to come over because I guess virtual play on video calls with Ga only gets you so far.  At some point we do need real contact, and not just seeing each other, either.  We're all starting to go a little crazy starved for interaction.  I am happy that Emily asked for this.  I think she needed it more than she even realised. 

Finishing Week Three

Strange things happen when you're actually not allowed to go outside--thank God for Norte--or carry on with life as always.  Priorities shift. 

Our dog is a welcome excuse to get out a little bit twice a day (taking turns, usually; we cannot go out together), but Emily doesn't get that option.  Children are not allowed outside.  Emily cannot walk Norte alone, obviously, so she just cannot go out to the street.  If we didn't have our wonderful patio for her to run and pick flowers and jump on her trampoline, I don't know what we'd do.  I have two students, siblings, who live with their parents in 60 sqM.  They have zero outdoor space.

I am so grateful that we have not sold this big house of ours in La Roda.  I can honestly say, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now.  It is not at all the prison that many seem to be finding their appartments to be, but rather a true shelter from the storm.  This is our own little refuge of peace.  That is not to say we are stress-free, by any means.  I am working, albeit with reduced hours, now; and Angelines is playing teacher-mom, but we are so lucky to have space and our own little bit of nature to enjoy.  Even if we were dogless, we'd be fine.  Our quarentine looks more and more like a holiday when compared to the situations of those around us.

There is perspective to be drawn from this craziness.  It is new uncharted territory in work, for example: new, challenges and obstacles arise daily.  But it has been really wonderful to remember how fortunate I am for everything I have, namely the people I love right here with me.  Inevitably, 24/7 contact leads to occasional conflicts, but the balance is always positive.  I am filled with admiration at how well Angelines (who is not known for coping well with unexpected situations) is dealing with all of this.  She is on a whole quite calm and I'd venture to say even enjoying a lot of her time with Emily.  Emily, for her part, is still pretty happy that we're all in this together, joyfully soaking up all of our attention.

Written with invisible ink (another science project)

I, in the meantime, am struggling to remember why I wanted to go to Granada.  It is hard to be here, seeing children on zoom, preparing online classes with no real contact.  We are working in a vaccume, making everything from scratch... However, it has been immensely gratifying to see how the children have reacted to the little time that we are together online.  They are visibly motivated and excited, not just to see each other but to listen, learn and interact.  Last night a family sent a video they'd put together of the science experiment I sent to do at home--the boy's face was priceless.  And today I got a phone call from a very reserved little girl in class.  She read me a note she'd written for me: Viola: Thank you for teaching us to learn.  I cried.

It is worth it, for moments like these.

All the same, rumor has it school will be out through April and at least half of May...some say early June--daunting to say the least.

There is much speculation online already about life after COVID-19.  I wonder what lasting impact this virus will have on me and my family's situation regardless of whether or not we get sick.

One Week Later...

The week's fruit and veg: disinfected and drying

Here we are one week later, still at home and no end in sight.  Everyone is saying this mandatory quarantine (that's right, no longer voluntary--fines of up to 30,000 euros!) will last through mid-April at the least.  Some are expecting it to be early May before schools open again.  Nothing has been declared officially yet.

The death toll has broken the 1,000 mark.  Hospitals are feeling the strain.  Andalucía is still relatively low on the list of cases, but here in La Roda there are 3 confirmed cases alone.  The first case we knew of was a man whose wife died about a week before the quarentine.  Nearly the whole town was at the funeral hugging, kissing and shaking hands with this guy.  It is very likely that there are going to be many more confirmed cases here in the next few days.  Anyone who was at the funeral must stay home.

We held a virtual birthday party for a co-worker yesterday.

We are fine.  All of us are a bit sick, but I think just colds.  Lots of runny, stuffy noses and sore throats.  So far, not much coughing.  Staying at home itself hasn't been horrible, but balancing work and home has been difficult without any real physical space to separate the two.  Angelines has been acting as teacher every morning from 9-2 and I have locked myself upstairs to work making video calls to children with my co-guide and having virtual meetings with the teaching team.

It's been good to see the children's faces and make contact with my collegues, but thinking this could last through April and into May is daunting to say the least. We are lucky to live in a day and age that we have so many tools available to connect without the barrier of physical space, but getting everything up and running and figuring out how to provide quality education online without any previous infrastructure  in place is a big task.  These are unprecedented times, for sure.

The family's daily schedule...(really Emily's)

Emily seems to be doing pretty well through all of it.  We video called a friend Thursday night--her first contact with friends from school since the shutdown.  On Friday she woke up saying, "Mommy, since there is coronavirus and I can't go to school in Granada, I want to call all my friends to be sure they are okay.  I am worried about them."  She called three different friends yesterday and had a great time giving virtual tours of the house.  I think we underestimate how this situation can effect our children.  Emily has been waking up quite a lot at night wanting me, saying she's scared to be alone, and becoming tearful remembering our dog Bela.  She's happy we're all together, but this new routine will take some getting used to...and there is no getting away from the news of virus spread and rising death toll.

Hope you're all home and safe.  Wash your hands.

A (not so) sh**y excuse to get out of the house!

Quarentine: Day One

Anyone who's been watching the news probably knows by now that Spain has declared a state of emergency.  Schools have been closed in Madrid for over a week.  Here in Andalucía we were told Thursday night that Monday would be the beginning of a two-week minimum shutdown of schools from preschool and daycare through university and tradeschools.  Within 24 hours we were told all public buildings and events were to be cancelled.  Now bars, restaurants, hotels and beaches are closing.  Parks are also closed.  Semana Santa has been suspended nationwide.

Now only supermarkets, pharmacies and hospitals are open.  On Monday the total deaths in Spain were 17.  Today they've reached 197.  Supermarkets are restocking shelves constantly and even so when I went to Mercadona Thursday evening there were entire ailes empty.  Surreal to say the least.

Chalk art in the patio

I drove home Friday after the last day of school, struggling to decide how best to confront school from home... The highway signs along the way all warned: "Coronavirus: Avoid Travel.  Better stay at home".  We are being told to stay at home.

Today was day one of voluntary confinement.  We went out for a lovely bike ride in the afternoon, but other than that we were home all day.  Angelines has also closed the bar indefinitely.  So today we were all home without the presure to do anything more than organize ourselves--unpack from La Zubia--and enjoy each other.  Emily was extatic.  She was so obviously happy to be with us that it made me begin to feel sad for the way our current lifestyle lends itself to living together without BEING together; hearing without listening and looking without seeing.

We'll probably all get cabin fever at some point, especially with the expected rains this coming week; but it was beautiful to have this imposed relaxation today.  As Miriam commented via WhatsApp: "enforced peace".  Monday I'll begin working from home: catching up with materials and record keeping and doing everything that I have barely had time to do for a very long time.  Balancing will be difficult and finding time won't be easy.  It never is.  But today was a little slice of perspective for which I am very grateful.

Stay home, stay healthy.

A little art therapy this morning

Sibling love

Coming to an End

Dare I make a New Year's Resolution to blog more??  I promised a post before year's end, and here I am four days into 2020...  Happy New Year, all!

We rang in the New Year, as always, at my sister-in-law's house with plenty of cheese, jamón, shrimp wine...and 12 grapes at midnight.  Emily almost made it this year.  She was so excited to eat her grapes (it was the first thing she asked about when she woke up on the 31st), but then she passed out in her cousin's bed at 11:45pm.  We played a youtube video of the bells the next day for her to eat her grapes.  She was perfectly happy to do it late.  In fact, it was actually better because she was nearly choking (as we all do!) trying to eat them with the bells, and with the video we could pause and wait for her to chew. ;)

King's Day is fast approaching and things are gearing up here.  Today the Royal Emissaries made an appearance in town to ask for the keys to La Roda in preparation for Their Majesties' arrival tomorrow evening in the big parade.  Emily's King's Day gift is late arriving from Amazon, and although the King's always drop by Tita's house, we decided she should have a present here when she wakes up, too.  Today I made a last-minute trip into Antequera to get something to give her. 

I am not a fan of consumerism at the holidays or any time.  Giving to give is the most pointless thing ever, in my mind.  As I was walking though the toy aisles in the shopping center, I heard a mad comment: "Except for what we need, we've bought everything else!"  That sums up the holidays for so many people.  So you can imagine, I was not really very happy to be on this mission with nothing in mind to buy, limited time, and only a few shops to choose from.  I saw loads of baby dolls, and even some Frozen leggos, which I'm sure Emily would have liked for a day or two; but I don't want to encourage her princess obsession and she rarely plays with the dolls she has!  I was beginning to become exasperated by all the pink packaging that abounded, when I stumbled upon a National Geographic Solar Telescope!  Jackpot!  Emily loves Space.  This year`s birthday party was space themed (I should put up some pictures!) and she has a really wonderful book on space from Ga that we've been reading lately.  Just yesterday, in fact, she lamented not having a telescope.  Now aspirations to become an astronaut are definitely something I'm willing to encourage. ;)  So I spent more than I'd originally set out to, but I am pleased with our purchase: educational, useful, interesting and durable.

With King's Day comes the end of our holiday season here in España and the end of my break from school.  This year's vacation has been much needed, for sure.  The way the holidays fell--Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve on Tuesdays--has meant that Angelines has been working nearly non-stop through these two weeks, and consequently, so has the cleaning crew (ie. me).  Still, doing work that is not school work is another kind of break, so I'm not really complaining.  However, in preparation for this Tuesday, I am up late doing some preparation and getting caught up on things I should have done before the holidays.

For Emily, this break from school has meant a lot of baking and cooking with me, lots of time with her tita and abuelita, and plenty of time to practice riding her bike.  She has come with me nearly every day (and sometimes twice) to ride her bike as we walk Norte.  For a while now, she's been wobbling about without training wheels, but until just recently she was still quite unsure of herself on the bike.  Now she breaks and turns confidently and most exciting, for her at least, she can ride through the bumpy country roads!  Thursday she had me walking all over the olive groves after her.  We were exploring!  We took a picnic and Norte and headed out into the great unknown.  About 6km and two hours later, we came home again.  What a trooper--she surprised me with how far she rode and zero complaining...except when I insisted it was time to head home because the sun was setting on us!  She finally is using her brakes confidently, the only thing left to master is getting started herself.  Once she's got that down, I can ride my bike with her and that will be a lot more fun for me!  She walked me to death Thursday.

I hope your holidays have been as merry and adventure-filled as ours, ;)  Here's to a new year and a new decade filled with excitement, discovery, love and fun!

Santa's Slip

Merry Christmas to all!

It's been a wonderful Christmas day.  I am now eating the delicious, leftover mushroom and zucchini quiche from last night's dinner and my little Christmas elf is sleeping.  The fire is blazing, Norte is dozing and Mama is at work so the house is quiet except for the clacking of my typing.

This year might have been my favorite Christmas yet despite Santa's slip.  Angelines and I were sure to buy each other a little something from Santa.  Do you remember last year's fiasco: Angelines running off to buy presents last minute after Emily was so devastated that Santa had apparently forgotten us?  This year we were so prepared. It turns out our subscription to Amazon Prime was a blessing!  My neighbor has been playing post woman for the past month receiving all our packages for us while we've been in Granada during the week and then delivering them over the weekend (we baked her a "healthy" tray of Christmas cookies as a thank you).  And still, with all our preparation, this years slip was worse than last year's: Emily discovered her Christmas present!!

We ordered her a huge doll house, which required about an hour's worth of assembly.  Being so on top of things, I put it together the night of the 22nd.  I left it in a closed room upstairs...but didn't think to cover it with anything.  On the 23rd Emily was calling me when I was in the patio sweeping leaves.  When she heard my distant answer, she went upstairs looking for me.  From the patio all I heard was the shout, "A giant toy house!!"  I panicked and called her downstairs after throwing down the broom and racing inside.  Meanwhile, she was running down to call me up and show me this amazing discovery of her's.

I am against outright lying to my daughter...even if it is about something fun like Santa Claus.  I prefer not to play it up and when she asks questions I usually ask them back to her as a way of avoiding the answer.  She asked who it was for and I asked her who she thought it was for.  Her answer, "Eloise and Jibril?" (my co-teacher and her son, who stayed in that room at Thanksgiving) made me laugh despite how upset I was. I told her it was a present for her from Mommy and Mama, but that it was supposed to be a surprise and I was sad she'd discovered it ahead of time.  I explained that at Christmas sometimes we hide presents for a surprise and asked if we could pretend she was still surprised.  I also told her she couldn't have it until Christmas day.  Bless her, she didn't even try to go upstairs again.  Instead, she took some of her toys and hid them  as presents from her. ;)  Hiding gifts was apparantly an attractive game to play.

This morning when she saw the doll house together with other presents from Santa, her first question was, "Did real Santa bring them?".  I asked her what she thought and she decided that he had.  Later in the day, she asked again if real Santa brings the toys or just a person dressed up.  I asked what she thought and she said it was a person dressed up.  I said maybe that was true.  Then she started trying to guess who it was...

Despite the slip and the questions, this year was still a favorite because Emily was so happy about her presents and so excited to give us the things that she had wrapped with Ga over her autumn visit. It's just so wonderful to see how truly "Christmas"-spirited she is.  She really isn't obsessed with the gifts, there's no post-unwrapping let-down, she loves watching us open ours, and truly enjoys the morning.  I know that for some kids/people, Christmas without Santa isn't fun...or loses it's magic, but I really feel as though Emily doesn't really care too much about Santa and I hope to keep it that way simply because enjoying the giving and the togetherness is really what Christmas is about and Santa can easily turn into a distractor from those true holiday values.

Last night, as is now tradition, my mother-in-law ate Christmas dinner with us.  Before dinner, she and Emily watched Frosty the Snowman (the old 1960's version--a personal favorite) and The Grinch (also the animated 1960's version).  Then we sang and danced and laughed until Emily couldn't keep her eyes open.  After she was asleep, however, Angelines and I enjoyed our meal and dessert while being regaled with the most outrageous stories of La Rodian (sp??) history/family history.  Abuelita was in a storytelling groove! Angelines didn't take her home until past midnight.

Once again, it was the togetherness and really just enjoying each other that made me feel like it really is Christmas.  Today we ate lunch over at Tita Toñi's house and after a wonderful afternoon bike ride with my girl and my dog, primo Francisco came over to watch Moana with me and Em.  Finally, we topped off the day with a quick skype call to Sierra Valley.

I hope your Christmases have been as merry and well-spent.  I'm going to get at least one more blog in before the new year.  I promise.  But for today, I just wanted to focus on our lovely Christmas celebration.

...And to all a good night!

Thankful

I realize that this is now a record for virtual silence.  I haven't even bothered to look at the date on my last blog because it's embarrassing!  All I know is this is long overdue and I do miss blogging terribly.  As usual, however, I can make no promises to be bettter in the future, so let us just enjoy the moment and I will take advantage of this quiet time at two in the morning with a pie crust in the oven to just reflect and be thankful.

I know I am early for Thanksgiving, but we are celebrating tomorrow.

This year my South African co-teacher, my "partner in crime" as she says, has come to La Roda with her son to join the celebration.  I am so happy and thankful to be able to share the best of American holidays with yet another international friend.

And best of all, my mommy is here to partake of the feast (and help cook...or clean up after me, as the case may be). ;)  She's been here nearly two weeks and flys home Sunday, so our celebration isn't a moment too soon.  It is so special for me and maybe especially for Emily that she can be here with us.  She even adventurously took the bus on her own into Granada center today in search of fresh cranberries...and was successful!  At 4.50 each for a small basket, I'm afraid it was rather an expensive endeavor, but we will have the most delicious cranberry relish this side of the Atlantic, for sure!

I am thankful for my hard-working wife, who actually is the reason I can even afford to work this crazy job which leaves me with no time for anything, but does at the end of the day feel rewarding and important.  She's the reason we can give Emily a different kind of education, and one that I feel is empowering, enriching and far superior to the public system.  She has my back, despite frequent grumbling ;) but in the end I couldn't do any of this without her.

I am thankful for my beautiful, intrepid, increasingly naughty, funny, dramatic, amazing daughter.  She delights me every day.  It is such fun to watch her play and interact with her Ga.  They are two peas in a pod.

I am thankful for my job.  I am thankful that it allows me a means to continue learning and growing personally and professionally.  It is stressful and hectic and far from perfect...but things quite often are.

I am thankful for quiet moments like these when I can sit and send a message out to all of you whom I love so much and are so far away.  I am thankful that you can read this and know I am thinking of you and wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving with your own families and friends.

The smell of pumpkin pie calls.