Hello From Torrelaguna, Spain

 

It’s Wednesday morning here in Torrelaguna and the sound of the rain is increasing my desire to sleep a bit longer, but, I need to train myself to wake up earlier like the other adults in this world are somehow capable of already doing. I walk upstairs at 7:30AM and the house is dark, the family is still sound asleep and I hope the sound of my coffee brewing doesn’t wake them. Today Mercedes and Alfonso will drive into Madrid for their first day of work where they will just be having a meeting and maybe getting their work schedules. They are both science teachers and both will be working 1-2 hours away from the small, romantic town of Torrelaguna which is my new home for the time being. I asked them why they will work so far away from their home and they explained that they are unable to work at the school in their town this year. First off, the town is so small so there’s only one primary school and one high school, not giving this set of open-minded parents many options to begin with. Then, due to COVID, people living in Madrid flocked an hour north to my new town to escape the higher population in Madrid. Essentially, just like how people had left NYC during this time. Mercedes, the curly-haired mother, told me that they needed to take a test and depending on this test score in addition to their overall teaching experience, they will be placed in some type of a queue to choose job positions. Due to the overflow of more experienced teachers who flocked from Madrid, they were unable to land a job locally. And ya know, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Sonia, Sofia, and Kika

Juan, a playful young boy with a gap between his two front teeth, is the youngest and he just woke up and is currently curled up on the couch behind me playing with his Nintendo Switch. He is always excited and will talk and talk and talk to me but only in Spanish and he most definitely isn’t very interested in trying to speak in English. That’s understandable, he’s only 7. I feel as if I will learn most of my Spanish from hanging out with him and trying to decipher what he’s trying to say to me. He’s super playful, definitely a bit goofy, and always has such a genuine smile on his face - except when he’s bickering with his sister Sofia, who is 10. I feel as if Sofia enjoys me the most so far, likely because of her age and we have been hanging out a lot this past week making Tik-Toks with her cousin Sonia and playing Marco Polo in her grandmother’s in-ground swimming pool. Today, which is now Friday, we organized her closet together and she loves that I’m good at math because I’ve also been helping her with her summer homework that she needs to finish by next Wednesday because school will begin again. The oldest child, Paula, is 12. Paula is pronounced paw-ooooo-lah and when I said Paula as I normally would, her mother looked so confused. The family is super silly and always joking around with each other and this is great for me because I, too, am like a grown ass child and enjoy a good joke. There is also a cat named Kika that Juan keeps literally throwing at Sofia….

Alfonso is super into astronomy and I can’t even wait to see the rings on Saturn through his telescope. Alfonso and Mercedes actually met during college while they were both working at a science museum. I fuckin’ love science and I love being here so so so much already and it’s only been five days. I feel so connected to the family already and actually, on the bus ride from Barcelona, I was sitting in the very last row of the bus and for whatever reason, I turned behind me to look out of the back window. Behind the bus was a truck and on the truck was the name “Sofia.” I’m telling you - the synchronicities be too real!!! I was chatting with Mercedes on the day I arrived and she used the word ‘serendipity’ to describe our situation. She mentioned there was one other girl who was going to work for them but she was only able to stay for two weeks and not only did she prefer me, but she prefers someone who is able to stay a bit longer. She mentioned how enthusiastic she was to receive my message back to her because I was the one she wanted and usually “people want what they cannot have.” I felt that so hard and I know that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

I probably could tell a few more stories but there’s a dog barking and he’s giving me a headache. Tomorrow there is some sort of music festival in the town that I most definitely will be attending. All is well for me and I hope all is well for you too, whoever you are. :)