Hello again! Thank you for reading through my back-to-back updates. Here is a catch-up of my January adventures and a preview of the February adventures to come!
After my family left, I had a few days to get settled before starting back up at school. I went to yoga with Mom’s work colleague, Sandra, who lives here. She and her partner (who owns the yoga studio) invited me for coffee afterwards. I bought some lentils, very exciting, I know, and made lentil curry! I made a lot of curry, well…assisted as Sophie made curry the summer before my senior year while living in New Haven. It was tasty and good for the slightly gloomy, cold weather of Madrid. Cold, I will say, is very relative. People exclaim “Qué frío!” when it dips below about 40°F. Add some wind, and it becomes “unbearable.” They didn’t believe me that it could be 6°F in Boston during the day.
I had two Birch Rock meet-ups! The first was with Manu (again) and Jimmy, who was visiting from Kansas. The second was with Álvaro, at his house outside of Madrid, for Sunday lunch with his family. At school, we were missing a lot of kids who took a few extra days of winter break, but overall, I had a relatively easy transition back to teaching.
Then I went to Switzerland (which you can read all about here). Back in Madrid, we celebrated Paula’s birthday with a group at a pottery painting studio (with coffee and snacks!). I’ll include a photo of my finished product when we get it back.
Then came my next big adventure, a return to the US. It was not my plan to come back, but when I was invited to speak at a conference in Tampa, and my mentor at Yale helped me secure some funding to do so, coming back became a more real option. The wonderful HR lady at school helped me secure a few days off from school under a professional development category. I booked my trip, leaving on a Wednesday morning from Madrid. With a connection in Miami, I should have arrived in Tampa by about 6pm EST. I was scheduled to present in Tampa on Thursday afternoon, plenty of time to get settled.
Well, the travel did not go to plan, not even a little bit. But, spoiler alert, I did make it! It snowed in Madrid! Actually, quite a bit! I didn’t know it did that, and apparently, neither did the airport, because they shut down the runways while we were all boarded and about to start taxiing. So, we spent about two hours on the plane at the gate before we eventually got an opening and the weather eased up. By the time we made it to the de-icing line, it was sunny, and most of the snow was beginning to melt. We waited another hour or so for de-icing, and just before we were going to take off, about three hours late, we were met by the crew timing out. Back to the gate we went, except there wasn’t a gate for us. So we waited another hour on the tarmac to be bused to the terminal. I quickly re-booked myself on my phone after some very helpful travel consultation with my mom due to my less-than-consistent phone service. I had to go back through security, but made it just in time to board my new flight to Tampa, which was….delayed for almost three hours because they didn’t have enough food for us? Finally, I made it to Miami after an almost eleven-hour flight. I did sleep about six of those hours. My mom had booked me an airport hotel (I’m very lucky), and I spent about 5 hours of my 8-hour layover there sleeping. I woke up the next morning (was it evening? time was just an abstract construct by that point) and took my quick hop of a flight over to Miami, landing about 15 hours after I was intending to.
I met with my mentor in the morning and spent the day in a few conference sessions. Finally, it was my turn to present! And it went really well! I got some great feedback from the physicians with whom I work, as well as a few other researchers in the audience! There is no recording, but I’m happy to do a repeat performance any time. I was treated to a very lovely dinner with the whole group of Yale ER doctors at a sushi place. It was great 🙂
I headed back to my hotel and had a good sleep before waking up to have breakfast with a former EMT colleague and now nurse practitioner student at Yale. Then it was back to the airport for my flight up to Boston! I took advantage of the lack of direct flights between Madrid and Tampa to build in about 20 hours in Boston on my way back.
On the flight up from Tampa (also delayed, but only by an hour and a half), I had the best view of New York City and New Haven! I waved to all the friends below, did you see me??
Boston was a whirlwind, but I got to see as many people as I could, including my dentist 🙂 Dental care does exist in Madrid, but it seemed much easier to see the dentist at home than find one here. Luckily, I am cavity-free! I had Shabbat dinner with Gogo, Opa, Nomi, my mom, and Manny before seeing my Dad for a little while. Then I headed out to Tufts to visit Lev! The next morning, I went out to see Manny wrestle with my Dad and saw Nana and Pop.
Manny crushed the kid from Arlington after a very hard-fought battle, which was awesome. I headed back to Brookline to pack up, make a stop at Trader Joe’s (American snacks for the kids at school acquired), and get back to the airport to head back to Madrid! Despite our delay, the tailwind got us back across the Atlantic early. I waited in the very long customs line before making it back home and sleeping for about 5 hours. I hope my description conveys what a wild four days that was, with a flight each day. I’m very glad I made this trip, but being back in one bed has been very welcome.
Back to school this past week, it’s taken a bit to get caught up to the time zone and pace of school life. We had parent-teacher conferences, and I have caught some virus somewhere along the way. I’m hoping that by the time you read this, I’ll be feeling better!
Upcoming in February are two exciting adventures. The first, to visit Solenne in Étampes, France! So excited for French provincial life and all the clown school updates. The next, to chaperone the school ski trip to the Pyrenees during “Semana Blanca” (White Week, or Ski Week). It sounds like a pretty good setup that will let me ski for about four days and help out mainly during meal times with the kids! I’ll report back 🙂
That’s the update I have for now! Just a few photos on this blog, but stay tuned for France next week! I promise to be better about posting regularly, a new New Year’s Resolution.
Abe Tolkoff 