American in Spain

My photography walk last Saturday that first went by the fishing harbor then turned inland. My camera and I admired autumn’s fanfare and the sunset’s long shadows. Some may search for the exotic with expensive holidays to Sharm el Sheikh, but with the right eye and attitude, a simple walk around the place where you live can be an exotic adventure.
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When I was sitting on the beach yesterday, I noticed something off in the distance out of the corner of my eye. In a split second, my unconscious pattern recognition neurons decided I’d seen a flock of birds. After several seconds of gazing at the phenomenon a kilometer down the beach, I’d determined that they were too big to be birds, and the flying was too orderly. They must be kites, my brain suggested, but…but…how?? They were flying in perfect formation, up, down, swooping, soaring, diving… What they really reminded me of was Boids, the artificial intelligence algorithm – one of my favorites! – that demonstrates how lifelike natural flocking behavior can be mimicked with very, very few lines of code.
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Today the weather was better than it’s been pretty much all year long. The key was the noticeable lack of wind, which normally makes our beach a little chillier than one would like. That the weather is so out of season made it all the more special, since we know there won’t be days like this until 2012. We decided to go to Laredo to walk around, but Nora caught wind that we’d be near the beach and insisted on taking her backpack full of buckets and shovels and things. We ended up sitting on the beach for about two hours playing in the sand, with Marga and myself in street clothes, not beach clothes. We had a grand old time.
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We had some really nice weather last weekend. On Sunday we were able to take Nora to the beautiful nearby Laredo beach for the first time this year. I’m pretty certain that she didn’t remember her visits to the beach last year. Walking barefoot in the pristine white sand was an immediate delight for her. There were a few times, however, when she got into a region with a little shell and stick debris where she froze up and insisted on being carried rather than risking a stick to the sole.
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We had a nice Christmas celebration. My Spanish family does a big Christmas celebration with aunts and uncles and cousins on odd numbered years, and the big get together on New Years Eve on even numbered years, so this year was a small Christmas celebration with just my wife’s parents, sister, and grandfather. As with most holidays, tradition rules, so the meals are pretty similar every year. Jumbo shrimp, stuffed eggs, paté, and gildas are the usual appetizers. We also had a fun time making a racket singing traditional Spanish Christmas carols.
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It’s that time of year again. Time to walk through the chilly air from bar to bar in Laredo, Spain, eating elaborate tapas, called pinchos, and imbibing fine wine. This is the third year, and it seems to be getting better every year. The Semana del Pincho is one Christmas tradition I could definitely get used to. Before we get to the mouthwatering photos, I’d like to quote myself from last year about why I like this event so much:
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When we were in the States for Thanksgiving, I was impressed to learn of a new social program in my hometown that has allotted some space in the old Junior High School as a play area for young children, with all donated toys. Ambiguously called Family Connections, it’s a free, dry, and warm place for even the poorest parents to bring their kids and let them run around and play with toys that perhaps their parents could not afford to buy them individually. Nora absolutely loved it.
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Occasionally a set of photos that I really want to publish get lost in a sea of other interesting content. When my parents were visiting one year ago, we noticed a giant lemon in a local bar and asked if we could pose with it for a few silly photographs. The bartender, who got to know me during a USA v. Spain fútbol match a few years ago, was happy to oblige. So here’s a giant lemon…
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Nora’s language skills have made major advances lately. I continue to be astonished at the facility with which she understands both English and Spanish. Below are some anecdotes from this past week.

The other day, I was walking her down by the docks on a sunny cloudless day, and she looked up and said “Water!” In retrospect, I’m pretty certain that she was asking me for some water, but at the moment she said it, I thought she was associating the blue of the sky with the color of water. “No, no, I said, that’s sky.” She repeated, “Sky.” And after a second or two, she said, “Cielo,” which is the Spanish word for sky. I was blown away. Obviously she’s going to pick up some Spanish vocabulary from daycare, but understanding the generalization that is “sky” and perfectly equating it with its equivalent word in her other language is no simple feat.
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This week, without a daughter to care for, my mornings have been free. I’ve been taking advantage of the good weather to get some exercise, walking up to 16 km (10 miles) around the neighboring towns. The first few days, I just walked to the beach at Laredo and walked up and down the maritime walkway several times. It occurred to me yesterday that I might have been caught on the yacht club’s webcam, but alas I was not there on the hour or 15, 30, or 45 minutes past the hour on any day. The archived panoramas I was looking through for Monday, August 18, were so pretty that I decided to make a timelapse video out of them.
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