When You Take the Spaniard Out of Spain…

…What happens? Good question! It’s been over a year now that we’ve been back in the U.S. It feels like a long time ago—and yet not so long after—that we packed our bags, said farewell to Madrid, and hopped on that Iberia flight. In fact, we were back last October to celebrate my brother-in-law’s wedding, held at a lovely vineyard outside of Toro. (If you know Spanish wine, you’ll know Toro.)

It was a whirlwind visit, leaving on a Tuesday and coming home on Monday (or something like that, my memory’s a bit of a blur), but it was wonderful to have our families reunited again. And, of course, there was a bit of wine, a bit of cheese, and lots of wine to wash it all down.

As for life in the U.S.? Mario’s certainly loving his new job as a paralegal; it’s all the lawer-y stuff without the stress of, you know, being an actual lawyer. He gets fun perks like open-bar office Christmas parties, tickets to the Indianapolis Colts preseason games (a suite!), and dinners with clients from time to time in one of Indy’s hip downtown neighborhoods.

Me? I’m back at school, earning my teaching license so I can continue to work with the little ones. Teaching was not always where I thought I would end up, but turns out that 1) I love it, and 2) I’m pretty good at it.

I’m going to try to update you on more things about our lives, because I just miss sharing from time to time, and who knows, maybe someone out there is still reading.

For more frequent updates, check out my Instagram or Twitter, and please email me if you have any visa questions, because I’VE BEEN THERE. I can help. In the meantime, here are some more photos from the past, I dunno, year.

My birthday in Colorado

Trying to hang with college kids at IU

My beloved alma mater

Friends drinking beerMario ran his first-half marathon in the U.S. in 1:29

See you soon (I hope)!

What Do You Miss Most?

You know how, when asked to list what we miss about ourrespective countries, expats always say “friends and family”? It’s true, of course, that we (mostly) all miss those nearest and dearest to ous who happen to live thousands of miles away, but it’s also kind of a cop out. I mean, I know I use it that way. Just in case someone decides to get offended by what I miss, whether it be customer service (Don’t generalize) or people actually saying excuse me when they bump into you on the street or in the supermarket. Those are two things I do miss, but I don’t say them a lot for fear of being seen as one of “those expats”—my worst expat fear, being one of “them.” Not really, but it’s up there.

With that said, can I just say that, even though I chose this life, sometimes I wish I could just get all of the people I love and keep them in one place? Yeah, that would be nice. Unfortunately, it’s rather difficult to do when you have a Spanish husband, Spanish in-laws, Spanish cousins, and Spanish friends who all live in … yep, Spain. But last summer I got to have my in-laws visit Indiana and Chicago, and it was a magical experience. There’s some photos I’ve not really shared, so I’d like to do a throwback Monday and remember! Throwback Monday may not be a thing on Instagram, but it’s a thing now on Y Mucho Más, so just roll with it.

Spanish-American Family

With my brother and sister-in-law

Bloomington/College Friends

Since we’re in the U.S., of course we had to eat Mexican food

Don’t deny it—my FIL is cuter than yours

Taught them a real “Indianer” game—cornhole. Do not call it “bags” to me

Hilary and Kanyi don’t care about this explanation

Learning about IU’s legends—if you kiss here at midnight, you’ll get married. Oops, already did that!

Colleen is funny

At Assembly Hall … We sneaked in

The dads

Exploring downtown Indianapolis

Mounds State Park

I love him!

My Life Lately + Photos

Hi all! You may be wondering why it seems my blog has suddenly become so neglected. I haven’t really felt the blogging muse lately. In truth, my life is not all that different from yours, if you’re reading this from the USA. I was working, paying the bills, shopping at the grocery store (I mean, supermarket), hanging out with friends, and the like. June has been a good month all in all: I finished the school year with good memories, and the World Cup started, which has been keeping my attention even if Spain had an early and rather ugly exit.

But now I’m back at my parents’ home in Indiana, and I couldn’t be happier about it. And since I haven’t felt inspired lately, I thought I’d share some unshared photos from this past year.

An image of Zamora in tilesA weekend trip to Paris—a bit cloudy and cold, but beautiful nonetheless

Munich in Photos

I don’t have a lot to say about these photos other than most of them would end up being the top stock photos on my social media if I ever posted them. And it’s not because I didn’t learn anything or I found it boring! Not at all—it’s just that I won’t presume to tell you what to see, or how to see it, or how to get from place to place. If you want advice, try Lonely Planet or Rick Steves. I’m just going to show you some photos! Deal?