Layers

(Before I report on TIFF, I have a few Europe posts I've been meaning to do for months . . . )

Of the five times I've been to Spain, the first time was--perhaps not surprisingly--the most influential. Many details sunk permanently into my eight-year-old brain: the crinkly waxed paper that oranges were wrapped in at the small fruit stores; the tile that paved the wide, tree-lined sideswalks; the pigeons gathered in every plaza; the odd sized graph paper neatly displayed at the paper stores.

But one of my best memories was playing in the courtyard of our apartment building with my sister and a large group of Spanish girls a couple of years older than us. Despite their limited English and our total lack of Spanish, we played goma (like Chinese jumprope) for hours on end, got candy from the corner store almost daily, and climbed the trees that surrounded the apartments.

There was a particular girl that Diana and I made good friends with: Julia Maria. Though nearly ten years passed before my second visit to Spain, this time a quick visit on as part of a European tour, we had kept in touch sufficiently well to warrant a trip to her house and a fun day in Madrid. We were both young adults by then, recently graduated and embarking on the rest of our lives.

Our friendship continued throughout the next three visits, and during each another layer was added to our friendship, my experience of Spain, and our lives.

This last visit was especially fun since Sharon, who became friends with Julia Maria when she came with our family to Spain in 2000, was there with her family too.

Julia Maria is now a mother to a gorgeous little girl, Alba.

Someday I'll have to scan the photo of me and Julia Maria standing here when I was eight. This tree will always be a central feature of Spain for me.


And maybe for our children too!