Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Empty Nest

This morning we got up early so Emily could catch the bus to the Sevilla airport to begin her long journey home to Santa Barbara. After farewells, she and I caught the bus out to the airport. I left her at the security line. As I write this, she's about half way through her Madrid to Los Angeles flight:


I've been following it for the past 6 hours. I still feel a little bad about what she went through to get here and back. I don't wish a 12 hour flight and a 9 hour time change on anybody. That said, it was nice spending time with her and Rachel.

Speaking of Rachel, she arranged to meet her friend Emily (different Emily), in Tangier these next few days. Emily is teaching music at a K-12 school in Casablanca, Morocco. Casablanca is a two-hour train ride south of Tangier, so they're kind of meeting in the middle. I went to back to the airport bus stop with Rachel this afternoon, but didn't go to the airport with her. Since she's coming back to Sevilla, she was able to just take my bus pass with her. After a much shorter flight, she's already tucked into her airbnb with Emily in Tangier (I spoke to her on the phone).


This is her giving me the thumbs up after she got on the airport bus. She'll be back on Saturday, but Laura and I are getting a preview of our impending Sevilla empty nest for the next couple of days. After three weeks of guests, Taylor, Rachel, Emily, Kathy and Ric; two trips, Granada and Tangier; things are a little too quiet, haha.

***

Sevilla is still in holiday mode until Jan 6th. Public schools don't resume until Jan 7th. Life was kind of back to the normal hustle and bustle in the neighborhood today, but maybe a bit more so because the children are still out of school.

I got a bit of work done today. Tomorrow, I expect to put in another full day.

Laura went back to her Spanish class today for the first time in 2 weeks. Her teacher from last semester, Lucia, has left the school and is moving to Australia. Her new teacher, Carmen, seems good so far.