And so it begins...

“Why are you going to Spain? Why Bilbao? Isn’t 5 months a long time?”

These are the most frequent questions I hear, so if you’ve asked them yourselves, you are in good company. I’m tempted to say that this all started with a comment Amy made to Tom last spring: “why don’t you and Ellen come to Bilbao with us so I’ll have something to do while David is working?”  Maybe it started much earlier than that, during third grade, when I took my first Spanish class, or when I was a junior in high school and thought briefly about becoming an exchange student, or with the joy I’ve felt during 50 years of Spanish classes. I also remember hearing my father’s mother talking to him in Ukrainian and my thrill of recognition that it was a secret communication that neither my mother nor we children could understand. Maybe it’s a convergence of all those elements, plus having the enviable, unstructured time of a retiree and a wonder of a spouse that enjoys the sublime adventure of travel.

So we are going to Bilbao on the north coast of Spain, in the Basque county for 5 months because: we love the Spanish language and feel comfortable communicating in Spanish (although there will be challenges!), we love to experience new cultures and we want to stay long enough to feel we are a part of the place, to understand and fall into the rhythm of everyday life and, very important, we can share these special things with our great and good friends David and Amy. Tom, who on occasion can be sometimes at least partly (!) direct, says “I’m going because it will be interesting” and I’m sure he’s right and this excites me. Sorry. Times change and so does libido.

The geography round-up: Bilbao is in northeastern Spain, about 12 km from the Bay of Biscay. This is green Spain: think Costa de Lluvia rather than Costa del Sol. It’s also Basque Spain, where Basque or Euskara  is spoken by about 25% of the population. More about language later. It’s about 1.5 hours by car from the French border and near the wine producing region of La Rioja. It’s the home of the Guggenheim museum, regional tapas called pintxos, a light wine called txacoli and now, Tom, Ellen, David and Amy.

Next blog: the pain of the non-lucrative residence visa.