We’re Residents!

Our friend, Rebekah, took us to Palencia yesterday to pick up our brand new Spanish ID cards. We are now officially residents of Spain. This gives us the right to live here and spend our US money as freely as we want. I had thought that the residency card would be for a longer term than one year, but we will need to renew at the end of 2009 if we want to stay here more permanently. We will also need, at some point, to get our residence changed to Sahagún, since we applied for Moritinos in the province of Palencia and it looks like we have found very comfortable lodging here in Sahagún, which is in the province of León.

I am feeling very much at home here now. My language is not improving by leaps and bounds and we are working day and night on Elyn’s new book, but I feel quite at home when I walk out on the streets and do our shopping. We even visited a “big box” store, Carrifour, in Palencia yesterday—almost like being in the US. Well, no US “big box” in the US has jamon ibirico and a fish department with eels and other delights. It is all very interesting and new for us here, even though we did live in Spain for a year back in the late 1990s.

A big part of our comfort here is the presence of American/British friends, Rebekah and Paddy. Also the Luna/Tovar family, which has been friends with Elyn since the 1980s have made our transition to Spanish life very easy and enjoyable. We also have American friends living north of us in the province of Asturias. They have invited us up to visit them one weekend while we are here this time. I haven’t seen much of Asturias, which is on the northern sea coast of Spain. I’m looking forward to a train trip over the Picos de Europa (the mountain range just to the north of us) and getting to know Asturias

All in all, we like it here and will probably be here most of the time for a few years. Santa Fe will remain our US home and we may purchase another house there when we sell our current home, but I anticipate spending the majority of our time in Europe for the near future. There are many places I want to visit that are easy travelling distance from Sahagún, so we can be the nomads we like to be for this time.

Now the Work Begins

We have had a real celebration in Washington, DC and now it is time for us all to get to work. The size of the task is beyond my imagination. There was a cartoon in El Pais (the newspaper of record here in Spain) yesterday that shows Obama giving his speech on TV and a group of gangsters (read corporate crooks, the "defense" industry, the "health care" cartels, etc. etc.) laughing their collective eyes out. These forces are larger than our government and they are international. How can our law makers and the Obama administration deal with these forces to make the changes that will save our way of life? It will take collective action on the part of a large percentage of the citizens of this country to even begin to make a dent in the forces that confront us.

This is NOT the time to be a Democrat or a Republican. This division has been used for many years to divide and conquer us. It is time to be citizens, with all the responsibilities that that implies. I'm not going to favor everything that Obama does. He has already taken actions that show he is not a secure lefty, even though he signs his name that way. I'm going to have to grit my teeth many times, but the issues are so large that we must support him so long as his general direction is toward honesty, transparency, and support of the citizens of the US and the world. We just want a reasonable way of life, security in our homes, a decent education for our kids, and reasonable care when we are ill. We must become a country devoted to the rule of law again. We need to repudiate the policies of those who have trashed our Constitution.

This week I am proud to be an American. When we go into local shops here in Spain they often congratulate us for electing Obama. They smile at us much more than in the past. We are viewed as fellow human beings, not the enemy. There is a reservoir of good will for Americans that has not been evident in recent years. They understand that we are really all in this together and we all succeed or fail together. They appear ready to give us another chance to do things right. Now it is up to us not to miss this chance. The eyes of the world are on us.

As I sit here in this little bar I am being greeted with a smile by the numerous old men who spend their days here. They come in and have a coffee or a beer and play cards and talk. They greet us warmly and say "until tomorrow" when we leave. It is good to call the US my home again.

A Surprise!

Elyn and I were sitting in our apartment here in Sahagún and talking about how good life is here. There was a buzz at the front door and an American voice asked for us. We buzzed her in and who should be there but our good friends Jim and Renate Fernandez from the US. Jim was Elyn's major professor at Princeton many years ago and we have become good friends over the years. They have a place on the north coast of Spain and they were driving through to it, choosing to stop in Sahagún to see if they could find us. Of course, that was easy, since we are the only Amerianos in town!

We had a nice hour visit and they went on their ways. We will travel up to visit them there before we return to the US in mid February.

Life is Good!

Satisfying Saturday

We awoke to a cold and rainy morning here in Sahagún. I’m reflecting on a near perfect day yesterday. First, there was the Saturday market, not up to summer standards, but extensive nevertheless. We looked at the produce, bought some wonderful cheeses, and Elyn got herself a warm wrap to take the winter chill off. Then we met Rebekah, Paddy, and the two young (26-year-old) Americans they have visiting them. Adam is a fine guitarist and Marta is a singer. We were treated to a short concert late in the evening after a lovely dinner at the Peaceable Kingdom (Rebekah and Paddy’s home in Moratinos) of which, more later.

We spent time having coffee in R. and P.’s favorite bar as we got to know Adam and Marta. Such delightful young people! They give me hope for the future when I see intelligence, wit, drive, and optimism in the next generation. Perhaps we will muddle through to a better world after all. Or maybe I’m just basking in the promise that a new administration in Washington brings. I know that “happily ever after” is just for the fairy tales, but it's good to think that we will have some new, fresh minds at the helm.

Rebekah has dreams of a concert series here in Sahagún and Adam and Marta may be the leading attractions for the first concert. To put her plan in motion, she needs the permission of the mayor to use the local auditorium. Enter Paca, the matriarch of our “family” here in Sahagún. Paca and her family go back many generations here and she knows everybody and doesn’t miss much that goes on. She has “enchufe” as they say here. She is “plugged in” and has pull with all the local authorities. We met Paca at the Liberia Luna and introduced her to the two Americans. Paca took over from there and became the instant center of attention, with a flood of stories, jokes, and dramatic gestures. She took us up to her apartment for refreshments and much talk. Pace will be 82 in February and she is a force to behold. She will go with Rebekah and Adam to meet the mayor on Monday, which will probably seal the deal on using the local facilities for R.’s planned concerts.

After a short rest, Rebekah picked us up to go to the Peaceable. This was the first time we have seen the place in the daytime, so we were given the grand tour. (If you haven’t done so already, you should visit Rebekah’s blog at http://moratinoslife.blogspot.com/ to see the place and what they have accomplished there.) They have quite a spread, with a walled farm yard at the back, a bodega (wine cellar) dug into an adjacent hill, and many rooms, stables, and storage areas, with a delightful central court yard. They have done a lot of work to renovate this place. It is built from the usual adobe over a brick foundation that goes back to Moorish times. There was much serious conversation covering the Gaza fiasco, the downed plane in the Hudson River, Jewish history and genealogy, and the wonders of technology (we took our MacBook Air with us and joined Paddy, who was surfing the net using their Wi-Fi connection). What a strange and wonderful world we live in. They have wireless internet in this ancient Spanish villa.

Altogether, it was a satisfying and enjoyable evening, punctuated with a luscious dinner that Rebekah served. There was pollo de corral (chicken from the farm yard), bread stuffing, and cauliflower, followed by goat cheese from the market and sweets that we brought from our favorite bakery in Sahagún. (Sometime I’ll write a piece about the shops and stores we regularly visit here.)

Then Adam played several pieces for us, some from the standard guitar literature, some pieces that he has unearthed here in Spain, and even some new works that have been written for him. He and Marta are living in Madrid, where he is studying contemporary Spanish guitar literature on a Fulbright Fellowship. He plans to produce a CD of the new literature he is discovering and bringing about. Describing musical performance in words is an art that escapes me, but I can say that the innovations in guitar performance that Andre Segovia brought about have borne fruit in a dramatic way in Adam’s performance. One hears the guitar, not as a single instrument, but a complete orchestra in his playing. It was truly the dessert and topper for a delightful day. Life is so good here!

Book Work

We are hard at work here in Sahagún. Elyn is completing her latest book, which has a tentative title of Walking Through Cancer: A Pilgrimage of Gratitude on the Way of St. James. It is the account of our three-year pilgrimage on the Chemin de San Jacques in France in the years from 2002 to 2004. We plan to publish it in February in time for the March gathering of pilgrims sponsored by American Pilgrims on the Camino. This year the meetings will be held in Albuquerque. We are doing final editing on the first half of the book while waiting for the second half to be returned by our favorite editor, Karah Madrone. I am reading the ms., making corrections, and suggesting words to go into the glossary. I am also doing book design for the book. Elyn is pouring over details of what place names in France are hyphenated and what are not and the like.

The book will also contain wonderful watercolors of the places we visited on the Chemin in France created by our friend Kate Lopez from Santa Fe (see cover illustration). Her contribution will certainly make the book a rich read. As usual, Pilgrims Process, Inc. (our publishing company) will publish the book. I’ll be sure and announce its publication on this blog.

You may wonder about the title. Elyn had surgery for uterine cancer in 2002 and we started walking the Chemin three months later. It was our way of dealing with the emotional aftermath of that shock. It took years for Elyn to want to look at her notes and complete the book, but now it will come out.

We had intended to get all this work finished before coming to Spain but our schedule is not often under our control. So here we are in Spain, needing details of places and names in France, and wondering just what the Chicago Manual of Style has to say about French punctuation. Of course that weighty volume is safely on the shelf in our house in Santa Fe. Thank Al Gore for the internet!

Meanwhile, our local social life continues. We are invited to dinner this evening with Rebekah and Paddy, where we will meet some guitarist friends of theirs who are planning a series of concerts here in Sahagún. What an upscale little pueblo we live in—today the circus is in town and now the planning for a series of guitar concerts. We also hear that Sahagún is the home of the first and perhaps only clown school in Spain. The fun just goes on and on here! Stay tuned.

Under the Weather

I woke up Monday morning with all the classic symptoms—runny nose, aching muscles, slight digestive disturbance—you know the rest. It is what everyone around us here in Sahagún has. They call it la gripe—we call it the flu. I’m taking vitamin C and Sudafed and eating warm soup and arroz con leche. It’s one of those uncomfortable, but not serious illnesses. The Spanish have an elegant word for “under the weather”—pachucho. So I’m un poco pachucho right now. They say it is an illness that a doctor can cure in a week or will go away by itself in seven days. I certainly hope so. In the meantime, Elyn took some wonderful photos of the hoar frost Monday morning that I’m posting below. Enjoy.

Now, on Wednesday, I feel almost back to normal. I’m told that this gripe is a two-day affair and that seems to be my experience. Anyway, this post is a day late due to the gripe and a failure of the local server.

Hoar Frost in Sahagún

The Food in Spain

One noticeable advantage to living in Spain is the quality and price of food. I would estimate that food costs approximately half of what we pay for equal quality in the US. While organic foods are available, we find that the local foods we purchase in the markets are of excellent quality and much less expensive. That is particularly true of certain foods.

Elyn eats a lot of lamb and she was able to purchase a half of a young lamb for less than half the cost of the organic lamb we have been buying at the farmer’s market in Santa Fe. We went to one of the local meat stores and asked for their young lamb. They brought out a whole animal, skinned and gutted, hung it up and split it from end to end, including one half of the head! The whole lamb weighed less than twenty pounds. The meat is very delicate and tender, and the animal was raised only a few miles from here, grazing in the fields. The butcher cut Elyn’s half into grilling-size pieces and Elyn has lamb for our entire stay in Sahagún this trip.

The Spanish cheeses we love to buy at Whole Foods in Santa Fe cost half as much in Spain and we have more variety. Our apartment looks out on the local cheese factory where we can see cheese being made every day. We can purchase our favorite aged sheep cheese next door for very little money—or at Corte Ingles, the big department store in León, we can buy unusual raw-milk Spanish cheeses with wonderful flavors.

Of course it would be more expensive to purchase American food products here, but we find that we can easily find most of what we want to eat from local sources. The bread is of excellent quality and baked locally, often in a wood-burning oven. We get a loaf for a little over one Euro ($1.35).

Most fruit is grown here in Spain and is of excellent quality and cheap. I just purchased Clementines that are sweeter than I can find in the states. They are like eating candy. Elyn finds the local apples as good as in the US, even if the selection is less varied and usually not organic (though we can buy organic in León). We can purchase all these fruits in the Saturday market here in Sahagún or in the corner grocery just a block away.

Shopping here is a different experience. We go from store to store with our little shopping cart, buying a few things at each place. There is a store that deals only in fish and chicken, several stores that have only red meat and cheese, several bread stores with a variety of baguettes and some cookies, several coffee bars that bake wonderful pastry, plus the (small) supermarkets with a bit of everything.

The quality in the local shops is generally better than the supers and they sell mostly local produce. Fresh seafood comes in by truck several times each week and is of excellent quality and tremendous variety. You can get octopus, strange shellfish, whole flounder, and many varieties of salt-water seafood. On the edge of town is a discount store, where there are great buys on quantity paper goods, frozen and canned food, and cleaning supplies, plus a huge selection of wine and liquor.

Life is good for us here. We get a lot more exercise walking from shop to shop and climbing to our fourth floor apartment (no elevator, of course). When we need things like computer supplies, clothing, and the like that are not available in Sahagún, we can hop on the train and ride to León for less than $15 for the round trip for both of us (we get a 40% discount because we are “of a certain age”), where nearly everything is available. The trains run many times each day and are usually on time and pleasant to ride. I’m really sold on our little pueblo and the life we are living.

I’m sure I’ll also enjoy Santa Fe when we return in February. There we have friends, the local art scene, the cultural activities, and films that we enjoy. I realized several months ago that we are really nomads. We settle wherever we find ourselves and enjoy what each place has to offer. Why be stuck in one place when we can have the whole world as our home? We’re just waiting for our Spanish ID cards to arrive before we can leave the country. Then we may go to Ireland, Malta, or some other place that calls to us. Then I may be enjoying a Guinness in a Dublin pub, or looking out on the Mediterranean while experiencing the local food and drink. Tally ho! Stay tuned.

The Tres Reyes Procession

The local procession was everything I remember it being. Small children very excited; older children enjoying dressing up in costumes, adults having fun watching the whole affair, and a small Spanish community out en mass to support and participate. The photos will give you a good impression of the evening’s festivities.

The Holidays Go Into Overtime in Spain

For most Americans, the holidays really end at Christmas. Sure, there is a momentary rebirth of holiday spirit on New Year’s Eve, but that hardly counts for much except for a chance to party for one night.

Here in Spain the holidays are a much more extended affair. It seems that the primary reason for this (other than the fact that Spaniards love to party) is that the Day of the Three Kings (January 6) is the primary day for giving gifts. The three kings, for those whose Bible history is rusty, are the wise men from the east that came to worship at the Christ child’s feet. I remember playing one of the three kings in a grade school pageant, wearing my bathrobe from home, a towel tied around my head to approximate Arab dress, and a fake beard. In the US, this day counts for very little unless you are really into the high-church calendar, but in Spain it is a big deal. This is a better day for gift giving than Christmas, since the wise men did bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child.

The shopping fever has been going on full blast here and the three kings are due to appear this evening (January 5) and bring the kiddies all the gifts that Santa brings on December 25 in the US. In Sahagún there will be a parade of sorts, the Cabalgata. The traditional Cabalgata involved the kings arriving on horseback or even camels if they were available, but if our Cabalgata is anything like the one we saw ten years ago, it will involve tractors pulling trailers with thrones for the kings installed. The kings will be throwing candy to the kiddies like the people do from an American parade float. The whole town will turn out for this cavalcade and the kids will be ecstatic. We have invited our new friends and neighbors, Paddy and Rebekah, to join us for the festivities.

El Día de los Tres Reyes will mark the end of the Christmas holiday. Our Spanish family, Angel, Piedad, and their two boys will return to their primary home in León and the boys will go back to school. I expect our lives to become more routine after this. We are anticipating the receipt of an edited manuscript for Elyn’s next book and then we will get down to serious publishing business for a while, unless we decide to make a trip to Catalunia to see the wonders of Barcelona and surroundings. For us retired folks, the holidays are whenever we decide to take them and a trip to Barcelona has been on our list for some time. Perhaps we will have our own extension of the holiday season. If so, expect pictures and descriptions.

New Year’s Day with Family

Elyn and I were invited to the New Year’s Day dinner with our Spanish family, the Luna/Tovars. This gave us yet another opportunity to view family life in a closely-knit Spanish family.

The center of this family gathering was Piedad, Angel, and their two children. It was held in their home here in Sahagún. Angel is a highly successful civil engineer whose business involves planning and building bridges and roads in this region. Piedad is director of the Department of Translation at the University of León, a department that does translations of articles and other documents from Spanish to other European languages. Her specialty is translation into French. The two children, Alvaro, age 15, and Marcos, age 13, are exceptional in very different ways. Alvaro is an athlete and loves European football (soccer), while Marcos is a gifted flute player and actor. Arrayed around this central family were grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, more distant relatives, and the two Americans.

Elyn became an adopted member of the Luna/Tovar family in 1982, when she spent a year here researching her dissertation on the Camino de Santiago, which passes through the center of town. When we lived for a year here in 1997, we were taken in as members of the family.

The people at this dinner ranged in age from the ninety-nine-year-old father of Angel to thirteen-year-old Marcos. The age range will increase early this year when María, the daughter of Piedad’s brother, Pedro, will give birth to a little girl. These people see each other nearly every week since Angel and Piedad return to Sahagún most weekends from their primary home in León. The family is the center of most of these people’s lives, unlike most Americans, who live far from family and center their attention on friends of their own age.

Angel is interested in keeping the “old ways” alive. He planned and built the house and surrounding walled garden area. He raises an extensive garden, keeps chickens in the back area, makes his own wine, and butchers a pig to make his own ham and chorizo. He has his own traditional kitchen with wood-burning oven in the lower area of the house, next to wine cellar. Piedad, on the other hand, has her own thoroughly modern kitchen on the floor above. Angel prepared most of the New Year’s dinner. He cooked chicken from his own chicken coop, steamed clams, and sautéed gambas, which are large shrimp, cooked with their heads on. In the modern kitchen above, Piedad prepared the salad with greens from their own garden. Other family members provided side dishes and desserts, including a beautiful traditional flan prepared by one of the aunts.

My impression of these family dinners is that everyone talks at once and there are multiple topics of conversation. I feel totally confused both by the din and the speech, which is filled with colloquialisms and the overlapping topics, which shift rapidly from topics of the day to stories of ‘the olden days.’ My very limited Spanish totally deserts me and I hardly recognize a word.

The food is of amazing quality, as is most of the food we experience here. These people live well and eat well. They are happy with their life in a small pueblo and interested in expanding their horizons to include the wider world. They are looking forward with great anticipation to the Obama administration and interested in what we have to say about conditions in the USA. They prize their traditional way of life while being thoroughly modern in their thinking. We truly like these people and are grateful to be considered members of their extended family.

The Grapes of the New Year

We were invited to spend New Year’s Eve with our American friends Paddy and Rebekah in nearby Moritinos. We had a good evening of conversation and sharing stories of our lives. As midnight approached, Rebekah suggested that we go back to Sahagún to join the locals in the Spanish traditional way of passing the midnight hour. In Spain, it is a tradition that one eats one grape for each time the bell tolls at midnight. Rebekah had laid in a good supply of grapes and we piled into their car to join the teaming crowds of New Year celebrants here in our new hometown.

Imagine our surprise when we discovered the main plaza (el plaza major) completely deserted—not one soul in sight. Surely, they must all be in the bars. But no, the bars were all closed. We walked around town not seeing anyone and ended up at the ancient city gate that is part of the ruined monastery from the ninth century. Finding no one, we decided to await the bells and observe the tradition among ourselves. Right on time, the bells tolled and we laughingly tried to keep up with eating twelve grapes in the space of twelve seconds. Rebekah took pictures to record the event and we wished each other Feliz Año Nuevo with hugs, handshakes, and kisses. Just as we finished, we began to hear the explosions of fireworks around town and the sound of many voices coming out into the streets. The party was just beginning! (To see the photos, go to http://moratinoslife.blogspot.com/ where you can read Rebekah's account.)

We are foreigners with imperfect understanding of our adopted culture. It appears that New Year’s Eve is a family affair here in Sahagún, and the party begins after midnight. This is in keeping with what we have observed in previous visits to Spain. There is a tradition called transnochar, which means to party all night. The matriarch of our Spanish family says that the more you sleep, the less you live. Spaniards will party all night, eat some breakfast, and go to work. Being foreigners and unaccustomed to Spanish culture, we had Rebekah and Paddy take us to our apartment where we drifted off to sleep accompanied by the sounds of fireworks and parties. Happy New Year everyone!

Why Sahagún?

Darlene has asked why Sahagún and perhaps others are also wondering why we find ourselves in a very small town in rural Spain. Here is our answer.

Elyn first lived in Sahagún in 1982, when she was doing research for her dissertation on the Camino de Santiago (a pilgrimage route across northern Spain). She spent a year here with her young son, Jesse, who attended the local school. A local family, the Luna/Tovars, became good friends and they more or less took Elyn in as a member of their family. In 1997, when we decided to return to Spain we chose Sahagún because of this family.

Everything here is made easy because of the friendship of the Luna/Tovars. The son of the family, Pedro, is vice president of one of the local banks so all financial matters work quite smoothly. The daughter of the family, Piedad, took us to the local officials and helped with processing our visas and application for residency. Paca, the matriarch of the family and Piedad worked to find us housing and we find ourselves after only two days in a nice three bedroom apartment which costs us very little money.

When we arrived in Sahagún, Pace cried tears of joy to see her “Elynita.” The warmth and love this family shows us daily makes Sahagún an attractive place to live, in spite of the lack of cultural life like we find in Santa Fe.

Sahagún has other advantages, including a major train line that gets us very quickly to Madrid, León, or into France. Since we are senior citizens, we are eligible for the senior 40% discount on most train fares. The regional capital, León is only an hour away by train. Anything we need can be found there.

Almost no one speaks English, so my Spanish is bound to improve here. Overall, we find ourselves happily settled here and we plan to travel from here to other European destinations from time to time.