A couple of hours ago, I enjoyed a coffee, an agua das pedras and a pastel de nata, with my younger brother and his girlfriend.
It was our last get-together, before they were to depart in the direction of Salamanca ( the first stop on their way back to The Netherlands ).
We had a fun time, to say the least. They also spent a couple of nights at my twin sister's place, and it was lovely to have them here, once again, for the first time in over 2 years :<)
Fun Fact: I myself recommended them to visit Salamanca. I proposed it to them, yesterday, as I have fond memories of this beautiful city in Spain, located close to the Portugese border.
Back in the Autumn of 2007 - how time flies! - I spent 9 weeks there, taking Spanish classes and doing whatever I could - including going to the cinema, once a week - to learn as much of the Spanish language as possible in this relatively short amount of time.
All of this took place, a month after graduating from University, where I had studied film theory ( including film history, film analysis and a little bit of filmmaking ).
Learning Spanish was something I had been wanting to do for quite some time. And my parents were sweet enough to gift me a month of Spanish classes, which I later stretched into 9 weeks, with the little bit of savings that I had, back then.
Not satisfied with the very basic level of Spanish that I developed during this stay, I returned to Spain, early 2009. Back then, I was fed up with life in The Netherlands and keen on going back to Spain.
This time around, I had picked the beautiful Granada, famous for its Moorish remains and one of the Seven Wonders of the World: El 'Alhambra'. Salamanca is located near the picturesque Sierra Nevada mountains.
I ended up spending 5 weeks in Granada, where I received what I think was a B2 level degree of Spanish. I felt this was enough to - from there on - improve Spanish myself, without taking any more classes.
After Granada, I spent a handful of days in the beautiful Valencia, after which I ended up in Madrid.
In the Spanish capital, I couchsurfed for a while, was visited - briefly by my twin sister ( who couchsurfed along with me ) and ended up renting a room, where I spent 3 more months.
One thing that I did, in Madrid, to improve my Spanish even more, was getting myself a library card. I ended up borrowing loads of books and - at times - I read an entire book in a day. Not only that, I also looked up and wrote down ( the meaning / translation of ) every single word that I didn't know.
Let's say that I'm a serious and avid student, if something actually interests me and learning it is my conscious choice.
At the end of June 2009, I ran out of money ( I didn't manage to find a job in Madrid ) and - with pain in my heart - I bought a plane ticket, back to The Netherlands, with my remaining Euros.
By then my Spanish was pretty good.
It would take 7 more years, before I returned to Spain or a Spanish region, aside from a couple of nights spent in Spain, in 2011 ( on my way to Portugal and back ).
In 2016, after quitting my last job, working for a boss, I made my way to El Hierro / Ferro, the smallest isle of the Canary Islands.
I ended up living there for 6 and a half months, working on an independent feature film, co-prodcuced and co-written with an American friend of mine. The screenplay was in English and the movie was supposed to be Spanish which was a serious challenge for me, to say the least.
If you scroll down to my very first blog posts on here ( around June and July 2017 ), you can read about how this project ended.
FYI: It wasn't a happy ending, but I can laugh about it now and look back at it with a smile on my face :<)
Perhaps, one day, when I feel like it, I will write a book titled: "How to Not Make a Movie", as I've tried three times, to produce and direct ( and actually finish ) a feature film, between 2013 and 2017, without much luck.
I could have made this a way longer post, but this was pretty much a free write. It makes me realize, in what an interesting way I managed to improve my Spanish, over the years.
I might write a follow up post, one day soon, to tell you how I have learnt and improved ( my ) Portuguese, in an entirely different way.
Back to Today:
Totally unrelated but worth mentioning...
This morning, I received a message from one of my new real life BFF's, Vin Diesel.
In case you missed this story, I have written about meeting and hanging out with him, about a month ago in I Hung out with Vin Diesel today and I hung out with Vin Diesel again.
A handful of hours ago, I noticed a message, informing me that he had returned to my area. He asked me whether my brother and his gf were still here. He later joined us, at our table and he and I had a drink and caught up on the last month or so.
TO BE CONVINUED...
The photograph, beautifying this post, is a close-up of this morning's 'pasteis de nata'. It was taken by my brother's girlfriend, who has an amazing eye for snapping pictures.
Ah this is nice to read how your emigration went at the time. I've lived near Granada too, but honestly, it was so cold in the winter! From our balcony, we could see the Sierra Nevada snowy mountain top. Such a weird experience when the weather is great :)
I immediately recognized the pastel de nata, our friend in Spain was a fan. I never actually tried it yet. Now I live here and miss everything about Spain, seriously can't wait to close the door here as I loved it there, but due to work we took the best option we could get, and made the best out of it.
I also considered Portugal a lot myself, but my boyfriend is really afraid he will never learn Portuguese, he also had trouble with Spanish, while I could visit my doctor and not use Google translate anymore the last months. I have to pick it up again obviously..
And from there we will probably find our way to Portugal for a trip one day, maybe we can meet. But first, working towards the move, and actually moving. Still lots to figure out as it's quite a headache not knowing how life is in a month from now, let alone 6 months to a year.
Have a lovely weekend! hugs!
That is pretty cool ( literally and figuratively )
Cool to hear that you still plan to make your way to Spain in the near future, which would indeed make us neighbors.
Yes, Portuguese isn't an easy language to learn, on the contrary.
This part is so true. The future has never been so uncertain, even for the optimists among us.
Um abraço!
It's impressive how many languages you speak. I never made it beyond level B1 with German but I wasn't motivated enough since it's rather easy to live in Berlin and not really speak German. But at least I enjoyed taking German classes again. (I took German classes full-time for about 2 months whilst living there). German was my hate subject in school so I see it as a big improvement.
I get your point about not really needing German in Berlin. It's a different story with Portugese in Portugal, let alone if you're not living close to ( big ) cities.
Although German is easy to understand and read for me, writing ( and talking German ) is a different story. In 6 years of high school German, I never learned to really master "Die vier Fälle".
I actually saw pastel de nata a couple of days ago and I instantly thought of you and Portugal as I remembered a post of yours in which you talked about this. I must try it for sure, the frozen stuff might not be as great as the fresh version but still it would be a new experience for my taste buds
Nice to hear that and yes, it should not be defrosted ( I guess the Portugese would see that as blasphemy ) and preferably be sprinkled with cinnamon and enjoyed with coffee or tea.
I still have to wait for the electrician to install my stove but I promise you the first thing I will put inside will be a frozen pastel de nata hahahah. I am very curious to see how it tastes.
I also wonder how that frozen pastel de nata is gonna taste ( warmed up, that is )
Has your stove been installed, by now?
Me too! It is the next thing on the list of things to get done lol. Who knew that setting up in a new place takes so much work 🤣 Now I can understand the amount of work necessary if you live in a bigger house or a mansion. Oh my oh my, it never ends. And I don't know about you, but here in Romania good workers are hard to come by. As soon as I get it done I am writing to you hahaha, let the whole Hive know that I finally have a stoooveeee hahahahaha🤣🤣🤣
Oh man that looks yummy!
And so it is, unless I would eat it daily ;^)
Seriously, even when my eyes were good, I couldn't read a book in English in one day.
It's weird how exotic every place you mentioned sounds and I can't imagine why you would like the Netherlands over Spain, but I know nothing of these places.
So how soon before the two of you do a film?
Edit:
Is CONVINUED Spanish...?
Oops! I almost forgot to reply here...
You don't wanna know how many books I've read and in how many different languages ;<)
I don't but I prefer Portugal over Spain these days ;<)
Now I'm curious who you are referring to with the 'two' of us here :<)
P.S. Convinued is a word joke based on my name haha!
I meant you and Vin Diesel.
I am not a fan of his acting, so we will just stay friends.
Well... Agua das pedras, pastel de nata and a coffee (Expresso, I'm assuming) ... You can ask for the Portuguese Passport heheheh They will just check if you're always late for everything and voila hehehe
Think that book title, has potential as well.
Hahaha!
I have to admit that I drink meia de leite, these days and that I'm usually on time. Working on that last part, as I know it's inpolite / not done.
Glad you like that book title. I knew you could relate :^)