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I really love being a tour guide I have the coolest friends! Ken and Pab were here this week from Denver. They stayed Sunday to Wednesday. I’ll give you the rundown (with the alternative motive of inspiring you to come visit). We celebrated my six month anniversary of living in Valencia and they saw a…

I didn’t send an update last week because there wasn’t much news. But two weeks feels like too long to go without an update. We had a chorus concert on Friday, June 28. I went to beach when I had some free time…as is becoming my summer custom. The beach is my happy place! The…

Don’t let anyone tell you that vaccines don’t work. Not only was my stint with COVID limited to one week, when I added Shingles to the mix, that vaccine shortened the sick time to three days, not 3-5 weeks as is normal. So this week was full speed ahead. I didn’t meet with Dima this…

Thanks for all the well wishes this week. By Friday, I tested negative for Covid. I’ll plan to head back to school on Monday. Sadly (despite being vaccinated for Shingles), the Covid must have weakened my defenses. Because I then came down with Shingles. Ugh. The itching on my back is driving me crazy. I…

On Saturday, I tested positive for COVID. My weekend is focusing on sleep, drinking lots of water, reading and binging on Netflix. The week though was good. On Monday, I continued to stir things up at choir. Like before, the keyboardist was struggling to play the notes. Although to his credit, he was trying to…

One of the things I’ve been working on in my life is to know what I want and to be more clear about asking for it. Being “nice” and enduring for the sake of harmony is not a virtue. That’s sometimes hard for me to remember in my home culture and native language. Practicing such…

Lots of good news this week! On Wednesday, I took a metro ride. Then Google maps led me on a longer than necessary walk to get to the Patraix Police Station, where I had my appointment for the next step in continued residency. I’m glad I left early. Once there, at the scheduled time, I…

What a great birthday week! Thanks for all the messages and WhatsApp texts. I love hearing from you. Monday, we got all our new music for the summer choir season. Check out this line up! Nabucco is the first opera I ever saw. and when they sang this piece, La Pensiero (the chorus of the…

First, Happy Mother’s Day! I’ve talked about couchsurfers in the past. I’m being much more selective about the ones I accept into my home. This week, I welcomed a Dutch father and son for four nights. Pieter and Alex were lovely houseguests. Pieter cooked a couple of delicious meals. And because my under-equipped kitchen didn’t…

It’s been a busy week and weekend. In addition to Spanish classes, and my work with Dima, my English student all week, and our rehearsal in Torrenta on Monday, we had three concerts this weekend. It always amazes me. Things can sound so rough in the last rehearsals before the concerts. Then, we get there…