As usual, they are in no particular order. . . As usual, I’m sure there are many more that I missed. If that was you, I’m sorry. Know that I love each and every one of you and any moment shared with you is a moment I treasure. Much love to you all, Rebecca
Author: renaissancerebecca
A First Time For Everything
“You are so lucky, kid,” I told my youngest sister Meg as we stood in St. Peter’s Square, the basilica looming over us. “You will never see it like this ever again.” It was January, 2022. By this point, we’d taken COVID tests in three different countries. In the coming days, we’d stand in an…
Culture Differences: The Morning Coffee Edition
“Do you want anything?” Michael asked as I looked at the piles of sandwiches and pastries sitting on the counter of the bar. “No, just coffee,” I said. “We make the croissants ourselves,” the barkeeper said. “Everyone who tries them likes them.” “Well, in that case. . . I’ll share one with you,” I told…
Lunches, Liquor and Other Rabbit Holes
“I just finished my small lunch,” Ricardo said. I knew what he meant. He had just finished his almeurzo. If you look up the English translation, it will say, “lunch.” But in Valencia, Spain (where Ricardo lives), it is definitely not lunch. Almuerzo consists of a small sandwich accompanied by a glass of wine or…
License to Drive (Part 2)
I looked at the street sign and realized I had no idea what it meant. An orange oval lay on its side attached to the horizontal orange line below it. This structure hovered over a black axle with a wheel on either side. Below all of this were three squiggly black lines. I was certain…
License to Drive (Part 1)
I am proficient enough in Spanish to read posters on the streets and emails confirming appointments. But I am certainly not proficient enough to navigate the questions asked on the Spanish driving test. So I took the test in English. And I’m not sure that was any easier. It seems they’ve used Google translate. The…
Learning Spanish: An Update
Yesterday Michael and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for 18 guests, all but two of whom were native Spanish speakers. And the two who were not native? They’re pretty much fluent. And guess what? I was able to follow nearly every conversation. Whether we were talking about the differences between buying a home in Spain versus…
Thanksgiving Compromises
“She’s bringing potato smoothies?” Michael asked. “Smoothies? Where did she say that?” I asked while scrolling through the messages in our Thanksgiving 2023 WhatsApp group. “Patatas batidos,” Michael said. “I looked it up — it means potato smoothies.” “But did you read what she wrote right after that?” I translated it for Michael. “She says…
Is Black a Color?
Ten years ago, a boyfriend told me I wore too much black. At first I thought (and said), “So what?” My funeral attire became a running joke between us. I’d show up at his house for dinner, pull off my jacket, and he’d say, “Ah. Black tonight, huh?” Having been on my own for so…
Another Friend ‘Til the End
My brother-in-law Danny took pity on Little One. The cat had, for most of its life, been in a home with a human caretaker and two feline house-mates, Taz and Puppy. But Puppy had died a few months earlier. Then Taz escaped out the front door not too long after that. And that human caretaker?…
RenaissanceRebecca 