Spanish views from a small town

Last night my husband and I drove his youngest brother to the airport to catch his flight back to Barcelona. My mother-in-law had mentioned that she wanted to go, but then she changed her mind. As the car drew away from her house last night, she waved and put her hand over her heart. This brother-in-law has always been her favorite. Probably because he is the youngest. My husband always complained that when they were single and went out on weekend nights with friends, his brother could come home the next morning and there wouldn't be any problem. But if he did the same, he'd get beaten with the broom.  At the airport we had some doubts about my brother-in-law's suitcase. He opted to pay for a suitcase weighing a maximum of fifteen kilos, but it felt like a lot more. His intention hadn't been to take anything more than a carry-on bag, but his mother, in true Galician fashion, urged him to take things back with him. Such as homemade orujo , a type of Spanish grappa di...

Yesterday afternoon my daughter came home on the bus to attend a funeral. I drove her back in the evening to her student apartment. The round trip, going by highway (with an eagle eye out for radar guns) takes around an hour, depending on how long I stay to chat or the traffic in the city. Last night it was over an hour and a half. At least fifty minutes were spent trying to get into Santiago. I took the usual route and at a rotary where I would have had to turn right into the city, there was an informative policeman. He was turning many drivers away, who then went around the rotary and back where we came from. It was my turn and I asked, "Can I get to the street Carmen de Abaixo through the South Campus?" No, impossible. I could only do it through the back lanes which I had no idea how to get to. I would have to go through the center of town. The reason? The tractorada . A tractorada is a parade of tractors blocking traffic. I later read in the digital newspapers that the...

Today is September 7th. Today is the first day of classes at the universities in Spain. From being the last to begin work, university students have become the first. Strange, unexplicable tweakings of the education system. But, today being the first day means that yesterday was also the first Sunday of a long school year of transport.  Most students attend university locally. In Galicia there are three universities, in A Coruña, Santiago, and Vigo, and an extension campus of the University of Santiago in Lugo. Almost all the Galician students who attend college can go home on the weekends. Most do. A lot of them are within driving distance of their campus. Which means parents become Sunday cab drivers.  It's not just making various trips with a full car to set up the dorm room or the (more common) student apartment. Though those trips do make for marathon drives sometimes in late August and early July. It's that the students generally go home on the Friday evening buses or...

If you like to watch a rally, then you're in luck here. Rallies are common in some townships with the appropriate lanes. I am not a fan. I don't see the sport in it, nor the excitement of watching cars careening around curves, throwing up dirt in their wake. I would prefer to be driving, but it doesn't sound to me like something interesting to watch. However, rallies bring together hundreds, sometimes thousands of spectators, lined up along the lanes. Security has always tried to set up areas away from some of the dangerous curves, but sometimes security has had to be rethought after serious accidents. Like the one yesterday. There was a rally in the township of Carral, near A Coruña, yesterday. It had been discontinued, but this year it was reinstated after fourteen years. It was also the patron saint of the parish, so many people were celebrating. From photos that appear in newspapers, spectators were lined up quite close to the lane along a stretch of road. I suppose i...

There are days when nothing new forms in your head, when it seems you are drifting through the world, catching what is thrown at you, and not reacting because you are simply too tired. Yesterday was such a day. And since it's my vacation month and since my daughter will begin classes on Monday, I decided to take her with me for a ride in the afternoon.  I tried to find a medieval bridge and waterfall in a neighboring township that is said to be a beautiful oasis of nature in the middle of quite a built-up area. I knew more or less in which direction it must lie, so I drove down the main road that bisects the township, thinking that there must be a sign on such a travelled road to lead the tourist. Well, I did find a sign, but that was it. It simply had an arrow to the "waterfall" and the "petroglyph". I turned onto the lane and followed it. And followed it. And continued following it. Finally, my daughter said we had just passed a homemade wooden sign saying ...

Have you ever wanted to learn how to knit? Have you ever wanted to own the most iconic cars in miniature? How about construct a model battleship? Read every important book of universal literature? Now you can. Beginning this month you can buy the first installment of any part of human knowledge at your kiosk. And, if you're a millionnaire, you can acquire every installment to its end, in about five years. I'm not kidding. September being the month kids return to school, some adults get nostalgic. So, many pretend to be students once again and learn something new. When you go to buy the newspaper or walk by a kiosk there is the first installment of "Learn German in Two Easy Weekly Lessons" staring at you. It will probably consist of a large booklet of ten pages, and a CD or DVD that lasts fifteen minutes with two lessons. At a modical cost of maybe 1.99. That is paid for and taken home. And yes, it's easy. You have just learned how to say hello , goodbye , and th...

The other night my daughter remembered to tell me that I could now apply for her scholarship. She had forgotten to tell me that the period opened on the seventh of August. It's a good thing the deadline is the thirtieth of October. I had thought it would begin this month. At any rate, I got down to the job on the computer.  The application has to be done on internet, so if you're poor enough not to have internet and really need the scholarship, you're in a bad spot. Another thing, be prepared to pay for your child's room and board until probably February. Because between the application at the beginning of the school year and final decision, you've got about five months that aren't covered. And if your child has to buy textbooks, you also have to shell out, unless you have any money left from the year before. Generally, there isn't. My daughter is lucky that in the Philosophy Department they don't use textbooks. But she still has to pay for the photoc...