Will Work for Room and Board

 Churrros y chocolate... taste even better when eaten
while skipping school!

My last full day in León. And I guess it was inevitable that at some point I’d have to earn my keep. But life can’t be all work and no play (this is Spain, after all) so we did some other things first. 



A typical Leon street, with a 12th century cathedral in
the background. You know.

In the morning Jane and I headed out (yes, we actually left the house before noon!) to pick up her nephew from school to take him to an eye doctor’s appointment where, I might add, I got a lesson on social healthcare. Quite an interesting experience as well as a very interesting conversation. Pedro had no apparent interest in going back to school and, as he was with his Auntie Jane, he got his wish. Instead we ran some errands, among them getting my suitcase fixed (at the airline’s expense, so even better), some shopping and, of course, a stop for churros y chocolate. We finally took Pedro back to school when there was just an hour left, although he still thought that was too much as his parting words were “A sufrir”, or “Off to suffer”. A tad melodramatic, perhaps, but funny nonetheless. We then headed to Jane’s sister’s bakery to pick up bread for lunch where, of course, it ended up with us sitting outside on a bench for about an hour, shooting the breeze with some other ladies as well as just about everyone else who happened to come and go.

When I say that Jane knows people everywhere we go, that is in no way an exaggeration. She literally knows people every single place we go. She has lived in León for about 35 years and has been teaching here for over 20. So you never just run errands with Jane, you visit, you chat, you kiss lots of people, you catch up on life. And then maybe you get your bread.

We made it home for lunch but there was, gasp!, no time for a siesta afterwards as we had to go back into town in time for Jane’s first class. I’ve been in León a couple of times before but I’d somehow forgotten just how charming (and, no, I’m not overusing the term) the old part of the city is. The academy where she teaches is right smack in the heart of the ancient part of downtown León and everywhere you walk it’s cobblestone and centuries-old buildings, a cathedral built in the 12^th century, a building designed by Gaudi, clusters of well-dressed elderly people out for their evening strolls, restaurant and bar patios filled with people, and whole streets lined with bright flower boxes. This place just oozes charm.

But, alas, some of us had work to do. Which, for me, included attending classes with Jane and speaking English and answering questions about life in the US so, really, I can’t complain too fiercely. Today she had four classes with students between the ages of 5 and 16. In the beginning most of the kids were kind of shy and intimidated by having to ask me questions in English but pretty quickly loosened up. By the end of the time with the older kids a few more challenging topics came up such as if it’s true that American students are mostly only taught American history, if it’s also true that some Americans think that Spain is next to Mexico (you may laugh, but I’ve actually known people who have said this to me, as did Jane when she was in the US) and why so few Americans speak a second language. But the funniest was when one of the boys asked me if my blonde hair color was "authentic". Uhhhhh....

We walked outside after classes around 8 and the streets were completely full of people out for their even stroll. The place was just bursting which, no matter how many times I have been in Spain, still always throws me for a moment. But it’s just yet another thing I totally dig about the Spanish lifestyle. In the US, most people are heading home to hunker down around 8 on a weeknight; in Spain people are just coming out to go for a walk, to visit with everyone else who’s out doing the same thing, and maybe to have a drink (with some tapas, of course) before dinner, which is around 9 or 10. We sat outside on a lovely evening and had our drink and tapas (which, by the way, come free with the drinks here) and then headed to the most charming (yep, there’s that word again) Italian restaurant I’ve ever been to, where everything is hand made by the owner when you order and there are only 5 tiny tables in the whole place. 

In the end, even though there are SO many things on the list, I’ve realized that what I love most about Spain is that, even though things may be changing, I still get such a sense that people come first here, that nothing is more important than making time every day to spend with friends and family and neighbors. That people still just pop in unannounced on each other and then sit for hours over tea. That when you see someone on the street you know, instead of a “How ya doing?” said where no one even slows to hear the answer, people kiss each other and then spend time actually catching up on each others’ lives. That families still gather for lunch and dinner and sit and talk and catch up with each other for hours over the meal. That you can walk into a pub and more likely than not run into someone you know who will buy you a drink. That kids walk out of school at the end of the day and their parents and/or grandparents and/or their aunts and uncles are waiting to walk them home. That whole, extended families live in the same town and kids grow up surrounded by cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents (and great grandparents and godparents and second cousins and third cousins once removed… ) and that they don’t have to make plans to see each other, you just SEE each other. A lot. I think these things are so good for a society and provide such a sense of community and well-being. Yep, I heart España.