School year 2020/2021 sum up

I'm back again to update on how our past school year went since it just ended last week. My last post was written just having started back and I was nervous. I'm here to report that things went much more smoothly than I thought they would. Carla was in daycare and LOVED it. She walked in happily every day and went with her teacher (who constantly had to wear a mask) without even waving goodbye. Laura and Vera were in their second year of preschool and have learned a lot. They are starting to read in Spanish and have started to learn chess. Jose was back at his school full time and I went back to teach part-time while finishing another Master degree in bilingual education.


Here in Spain there were a lot of health restrictions at schools (and in life in general). Kids from primary up had to wear masks all day, there was social distancing in classrooms and windows and doors were open for ventilation. All that said, we were in-person schooling for the entire course and besides one two week quarantine in the girls' class in the fall, things went surprisingly well. Jose and I were also vaccinated fairly early compared to other people our age because of our teaching profession. Spain has done a terrible job sourcing vaccines and thus getting people inmunized but that's another story for another day. I'm happy to say that we stayed healthy albeit a bit bored this year.

For most of the school year Spain had a lot of other restrictive measures in place, including mandatory masks EVERYWHERE, limitations on social gatherings and quarantining communities depending on how pandemic numbers looked. That meant we spent a lot of time at home with just our family unit or with my in-laws until basically the spring when things started to open up as more people were vaccinated and numbers started going down. Our Christmas was unlike any we've ever had before. We spent it just the five of us instead of the regular huge family gatherings we are used to. We haven't been to any birthday parties and the normal cultural celebrations here in the south of Spain (Holy Week and the April fair) were canceled again. We've chosen to do outdoor activities where we can avoid people when necessary. It's been a bit surreal and we are looking forward to things getting back to somewhat normal, slowly, so slowly.



Another big change for us was finally deciding to sell our apartment and buy a much-needed larger home with outdoor space for our growing girls. We sold in February and moved in with my in-laws for what was supposed to be a few months to do a complete renovation. We are still waiting. The drama of this process deserves its own post which I will write soon but suffice it to say that currently we are in a rental, trying to decide what is the best move for us for the future. We are in a holding pattern and it is frustrating.



Now were are looking forward to the summer and disconnecting a bit. I wish we had access to a pool like we did in our apartment but that is one of the must-haves for our new place. We are hoping that things continue to open up and that people stay healthy and safe. Things haven't been easy for anyone this past year and a half but it looks like we may just be seeing the light at the end of  a long tunnel.




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