Last bit of Spain
Written on: Thu, 31 Dec 2009; 21:27
First of all: a very happy new year to you all! This is my very last blog about my life in Spain. Last Sunday another phase of my life came to an end. But of course, another adventure is already coming up, and that will also have several consequences for this website. I will expand on this towards the end of this blog. Firstly I would like to tell you what my last few weeks in Getxo with the Aristegui-Mirones family was like.

El Corte InglesCasco Viejo Several sources advised me to go and visit Bilbao, now that is was so nicely decorated for Christmas. Especially at night with all the lights it was supposed to be fantastic, and the inhabitants of Bilbao and the surrounding area are very proud of their capital city. With Alexandra and Budil (another Swedish aupair) I went to visit Bilbao on the 8th of December - a holiday in Spain - to see what everyone was so enthusiastic about. We were there around 1pm, and were just hanging around hoping to find enough to do until it got dark and we could see the light. The other two were fed up pretty soon, and to keep hanging around on my own did not seem like the most fun option, so we all went homewards. Two weeks ago on Sunday I went to Bilbao on my own to observe the lights, and it was pretty. Photo-camera at hand I paraded the old town.

Clarita dressed up A while ago already both children had a birthday party to which they had to go all dressed up. Although the party would only start around 5, their own little dress-up party already started around 11. Clarita tried on all sorts of outfits, and also managed to transform Borjita into many characters. After a few hours Borjita was fed up with it, and as such he went to the party dressed up as a very normal 3-year-old boy. Clarita went dressed as a beautiful Japanese princess. She did her own make-up, and proudly posed for a picture.

Clarita Clarita was aware that I was going to leave soon and hence was a lot sweeter than normal, although she did ask for a lot more attention. We made all kinds of Christmas decorations, amongst which an absolutely gorgeous poster for on the window and also many Christmas cards made by her for her friends and family. Borjita happily walked around painting on scraps of paper and to BorjitaClarita's frustration he tried to help with the decorating by leaving his cars and dolls at specific places around the house. Overall the atmosphere was most pleasant and there was no lack of Christmas carols. We went from "Dulce Navidad" to "We wish you a merry Christmas!" and "Santa Claus is coming to town." The last one was happily sung along with by Borjita - to our enjoyment.

Although Borjita did not really seem to understand that I was leaving, I think he intuitively still felt it. Friday night Clarita was staying over at a friend's house and so I was home alone with Borjita. He was very cuddly and we build castles together and sang a lot. When it was time to dress him in his pajamas, brush his teeth and go to bed he did so without complaining and he we had a most lovely bedtime. We rehearsed our entire repertoire of songs just one last time followed by many kisses and hugs "Muchos! Muchos! Muchos!" On Saturday morning we could also spend some time just the two of us and we had a great time. We went by metro to collect Clarita and he thought it was absolutely fantastic. On the way back we bought Christmas stickers which the kids happily used to decorate the house a little more. When I went for a short grocery trip in the afternoon Borjita would not let go of my leg and kept on screaming: "Quiero ir con tu!" (I want to go with you!)

Clarita boxBorjita box The very last day was wonderfully calm. I had all the time of the world to pack my last things and also to spend a little more time with the children. For both of them I bought a plastic box at IKEA for them to put their very own stuff in. Borjita does not quite understand the definition of "his" stuff yet, but I'm sure that'll come with time. He loved the box and carried it proudly around the house.

Paris More than in time I arrived at the airport, dropped off by Eunat, and I could check in my suitcase. Flights to Brussels and Dusseldorf were already cancelled, so could only hope and pray for my flight to Paris. Around the time we were supposed to be boarding, the word "Retrasado" appeared on the screen. Delayed. Luckily not cancelled yet, but I was fearing for my transit at Paris to Zurich. Luckily the delay was not too bad and I arrived at Paris Charles De Gaule just in time. The pilot who flew me from Bilbao to Paris was very nice and when we were flying over Paris at sunset he turned off all the lights on board and invited us to look out of the window. The view was gorgeous!

When we walked down the stairs onto the asphalt in Paris I walked straight into proper winter. It was cold and very, very slippery. In the waiting area it felt like a refugee camp. Everywhere there were people sleeping on plastic chairs and often even on the floor. Children were running around screaming and people were desperately trying to keep their luggage together. Not a place where I was hoping to spend a lot of time in. The screens were full of red words: "Delayed" and "Cancelled". Luckily my flight to Zurich was still on the screens without any red letters next to it. When I arrived at the gate it was filled with people, of whom many were supposed to have flown to Zurich earlier on in the day, but whose flight had been cancelled. The first crowd of people was on the bus to the airplane fairly quickly, but then everything suddenly got put on hold. Apparently something had to be checked with the airplane. When we could finally enter our bus, it simply did not start moving. No one could tell us why, and we spent over an hour in a cold, stationary bus. The airplane appeared to be broken and another airplane was being taken care of, and thus we arrived about an hour late in Zurich in an airplane where part of the passengers were even seated on crew-seats because there were too many people. Having arrived in Zurich my suitcase was apparently lost, and after a long time of it being unclear where my suitcase was I finally got it back on Saturday (after 5 days)!

Now let me tell you something about my future and the future of my website. On the first of February I'm starting university, studying "English language and culture" at the University of Leiden. I will go and live there too, so the new adventure in my life will be real college life. I am very much looking forward to it, so I suppose it'll be good. The website will also undergo several changes. My life as a student will not be very extraordinary, and I think a bit more of a challenge in blog writing is never a bad thing, so I decided to write less about myself and more about other things. Examples could be: politics, English, Dutch, society, culture and other stuff. What exactly it will turn out to be I can't say yet, as I'm still working on it. Early January I will post a blog with the exact details.

Lots of love, Indira

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