Ever wonder why Spain? ¿Por qué España? http://ping.fm/K12DJ

Check out Notes From Spain
Recently I posted in the forum, about: Why Spain?

My first experience with Spain was in the third-person. My Grandfather had retired from working for the Navy, and when we would drive out from D.C. to see the grandparents in San Diego, he would often talk to us grandkids about the places that he had been to.

By far, the most intriguing were the stories of Spain. He had worked on a ship with unmanned submersibles that had helped to find one of the nuclear bombs that fell off a B-52 over Palomares, in Almería during the Cold War. For about two months he lived in the South of Spain, and he and my Grandmother always seemed to just 'light up' when they spoke of this country. In fact, they were actual 'fans' of Hemingway, and kept their home filled with an 'hispanic' air.

As luck would have it, when I was 20 years old I was assigned as a volunteer in the Canary Islands, and from 1996 to 1998 I lived on various islands there. (I was a "Mormon missionary.") That is how I really learned to speak Spanish, even though I had studied high-school Spanish in California. I loved Canarias, and not because they are a nice vacation spot, and sadly, I have not been able to go back there.

About a year after coming home, and after taking a college course on the History of Spain, I got really fired up about going to see the Peninsula for myself, at least for a semester. I took out a loan, and signed up for the classes, and it came and went so quickly I can hardly keep it all straight.
In Madrid, at a church dance, I happened to meet up with a Madrileña I had met in the Islands, who was among several people that I had lost touch with during the year I was back in the States. It was love-at-2nd-sight. I really was smitten for this Eva, from Boadilla. I even let her talk me into crashing her older sister's wedding. (She was invited, I wasn't.)
Even though I was still an outsider, it was the first time I felt that I was participating a truly Spanish event, organized entirely by Spaniards, for Spaniards, and her family seemed charming. Some of her cousins were actually on T.V. that same weekend, as banderilleros for a bullfight. (gross)
Ironically, she didn't have much time to hang out with me, as she was headed to the U.S. "to study English," as her mom put it. And I still had at least a month left before my semester was over, in Spain. So, when I finally got back to the States, totally high on Spain, Eva just happened to be living a student apartments on the same street as me, about a block away.
I officially broke up with the American girl I had been going out with, prior to leaving for Spain. (I am ashamed to admit that this is still one of the hardest things I've ever forced myself to do. I felt like such a complete jerk, but I was so sure I was "following my heart.") Anyway, Eva and I spent as much time together as possible, trying to get to know each other, and less than six months later, Eva and I got hitched, and, well you know how fairy tales end...

...Well, prior to getting married, we more or less agreed to make five-year-plans. In the beginning she had no intentions of ever go back to live in Spain, but after the first five years in the U.S. (and many circumstances beyond our control) she began to truly miss her home, and became exceedingly homesick, and really put me through hell with all her negativity and complaining about my country. Forgive me if I now take it out on Spain.
Luckily, we were was able to visit her family almost every Christmas, and she went back by herself, when her father got very sick and died, and was there to say goodbye in person, and also to attend his funeral. Of course, as soon as I got a decent vacation, and we were headed for south Florida, her mom HAS to hop a plane to come join us. Aaarrgh.
Anyway, our second five-year-plan, which had to be postponed a few years, was to come to Spain, and so here we are, finally. Film at 11.
Good thing I work in real estate and construction, it seems we came at just the right time. Oh no, wait, this is the worst time in decades. Well, it's probably all the same, even back in the States the companies I might have worked for are also making huge lay-offs, just like the one that laid me of this year in Madrid. Blessings in disguise, I say. A really, really good disguise. With Groucho Marx nose and glasses and everything.

Anybody need Spanish to English translations? ;-)