My last full summer in Spain - Log 1 - Return to the house of memories.

My Last Full Summer In Spain

LOG 1

CHAPTER 1 - Return to the House of Memories

Not a single summer in my entire life has gone by where I didn't visit my family in Spain. And eventually, I think I will talk more about those previous summers and how they've all changed 1 by 1 leading up to this one. But I'll leave those stories for future posts. And it will be a soon future as I must explain a lot in order for this summer to really come across as well as I'd like for it to. 

But right now, I'm going to start here. Now. Where I currently am. 

I graduate from The University of Akron in May of 2026. After that, my life changes from a train on rails to a plane in the sky. I'll be able to pursue my career job of choice, settle with my girlfriend, even marry her down the line, and I can live my life as I want with a degree in Photography. A passion that was a lifetime in the making even though I didn't fully realize it until around 2 years ago. 

Once I graduate and can gain a fuller sense of independence, I will not be able to clock in a full summer in Spain again. I'll have to look for a job and begin my career life. It's not something that upsets me. In fact, it's very exciting. I want this and have wanted this for years now. 

It's time I say goodbye to that special time of year in my life where I live in my second home. As in the future, I'll only be able to visit for 3 weeks a year. 

I will explain my feelings about this in depth and make sure that I am understood on where I stand in how I feel about my life in Spain. But right now, I want to talk about the trip over here. How different it felt than others. 

Usually, we take 3 flights. 

Sometimes it's:

Cleveland -> Newark -> Madrid -> Santiago. 

Other times it's:

Cleveland -> Chicago -> Porto -> Vigo.

The trip always varies but still remains long, a hassle, and takes a lot of energy away. 

But I still found these trips to be exciting. There were airports that I missed going to and airlines that I enjoyed taking. My favorite feat of architecture is the Madrid airport. I love that building so much. It has this beautiful waving ceiling and these massive support beams that are colored in a rainbow gradient, stretching across the entire building.

Some airlines I enjoyed taking were Iberia, or Tap Portugal. They were just better than our usual choice of American Airlines in many ways. 

This year, everything changed. We took a completely different airline. Went to a completely new country. And took only 2 flights instead of the usual 3. 

Recently, Aer Lingus began a flight route from Cleveland to Dublin in Ireland, and from there they had a flight to Santiago de Compostela. Which is only a 38 minute drive from Vilagarcia de Arousa (where my grandma lives)

We took this route and it was painless! Despite how absolutely miserable I felt from being really tired the entire time. And our first 6 hour transatlantic flight didn't load headphones for the passengers... so I had to watch Blues Brothers in silence with no headphones... It's okay, I made a bunch of art on my iPad and did some writing on my phone. 

Okay, so it wasn't 100% painless. But the excitement of going to a new country, trying a new airline (which was very decent), and only needing 2 flights!? That was awesome! I was only dead tired because instead of needing to get up at 7 in the morning to catch our first flight at 10 am, we had nearly all day to get ready what we needed to, complete some last minute tasks, and take our flight out at 8 pm! 

It was an awesome time to be able to leave for a flight but I just wish I was able to sleep on a plane. It's impossible for me. It didn't help that our second flight's plane made a loud "brrrr" noise the entire time. Which, unfortunately, is a common sound for Airbuses to make. 

After that 38 minute ride back to Vilagarcia, we arrived home. It didn't even feel surreal to be back here. It just felt like coming home. Abuela prepared a Milanesa con patatas fritas, and then I went to bed for a short 11 hour nap. Before I woke up at 3 am... and then again at 6 am... 

And now here I am writing this blog at EXACTLY 8:00 am (as I check the time to write down what time I'm currently writing this...)

The birds are chirping, dogs are barking, roosters and seagulls are screaming. It's a very peaceful morning. The noise may be a nuisance to others but to me, it's home. 

As per the title of this chapter, I call my Abuela's house, The House of Memories. 

I know, it sounds stupid. It is pretty stupid. But when you're as sentimental and appreciative of your own past as me, it makes sense. 

When in the states, we never stayed in one place. My home changed from one city to another. And during all that time, Abuela always lived in the same house. The same is the case with my Pappaw's house but this is just different. Mostly because when we come to Spain, we're not just staying over for a weekend, we're straight up living here. We put our clothes in dressers, decorate our own spaces, La casa de Abuela es nuestra casa tambien. 

Abuela's home, is my home too. Or -of course- that's how I feel about it. When I walk into this house, I just see my entire life happen as I grew up within these walls. It's my favorite way of connecting to sweeter times in my life. All those fun summers I've had in the past. All the memories I've shared with my family, cousins, and when my Abuelo was still around. I still look at the porch outside and see him smoking a cigarette out there. I'll look at the couch he used to sit in and still see him napping in it. 

A lot of my best memories were made within Abuela's house. And it's why it deserves the title that I've personally given it. 

CHAPTER 2 - Sometimes, Bitter Things Can Lead to Sweeter Endings.

Not all memories that I've had in Spain are good. I cherish the ones that bring me happiness but I acknowledge those that were bad and have made things bitter over time. 

In short, my uncle's wife, who I cannot call my 'aunt', is a narcissistic jerk. My uncle Luis and his wife Sophia have two kids, Luis (jr.) and Ana. 

A lot of the good memories I have about the summer are when Luis and Ana were still a part of our lives. My sister and I got along very well with them and we hung out every weekend. 

Sophia never liked this. And for no particular reason other than she's a lunatic. 

Things changed and there came a time when Sophia was done with us and stopped coming to us every weekend within the summer. 

Things with Sophia got so bad that my uncle Luis has to walk on eggshells if he even wants to talk to his own mother (Abuela). Sophia gets mad at him for talking to his own mom, his own sister, his own family.

What makes it worse is that my uncle has no balls on his body to stand up against his wife. He doesn't stand up for his mom, he doesn't stand up for his sister, he won't stand up for any of us.  

I haven't seen or talked to Luis or Ana in over 5 years by this point. 

And I am now alone. 

I am not able to bond or connect with someone close to my age when I'm in Spain. It's a complicated situation but I'm willing to explain it. 

I still spend plenty of time with the family I still have. My mom, Abuela, my sister. As well as my great aunt and uncle: Maruja and Roberto next door. Roberto has passed away in April of 2024 and this is my second summer without him, but I'll get back to that later. 

In recent times, our routine in Spain becomes a lot of simply staying around town or even chilling at the house all day. We still go out and adventure plenty, but for my liking, it doesn't happen often enough. But I get why, Abuela is in her 80s and my mom has been struggling with a neurological condition. It's hard for them to keep up the energy they need to go out and do something away from Vilagarcia more than at least once a week. Yet this situation still stresses me out sometimes. 

I am left to just go through the day and the same routine over and over without making the most of being in Spain. To explain it in the best way I can, last Summer in the summer of 2024, I brought my girlfriend over to see Spain and meet the rest of my family. 

My mom was struggling with PNES (Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures) which absolutely drained the life out of her. She would have at least around and up to 8-14 seizures a day. We managed to go out and show my girlfriend all sorts of sites and places that we wanted to show her while she spent only a short 3 and a half weeks with us. Which is enough to do a lot! But way too much of that time was spent at home doing nor planning anything. I never asked for us to do something new every single day, although I hoped we would be able to manage new activities close enough throughout those 3.5 weeks that my girlfriend would be able to get a nice, full experience. We had a lot of fun! Don't get me wrong, we were able to pull through a do a lot of great stuff! But this feeling of being able to do a lot and just not fitting it all within the time frame is how I feel for the entire summer. I often feel like I leave my friends, dad, and girlfriend to come here and do nothing. 

A lot of summers in recent times haven't felt as fulfilling. I think the biggest reason why is because I have a HUGE family out there who often make a lot of time to see us and spend time with us. But we just don't visit them. Abuela doesn't want to get in their way and make them feel obligated to treat us to a lunch or coffee. 

But on the other hand, I only see most of my extended family at least only 3 times each person throughout the entire summer. That's 3 times a year. I see and hear from my American cousins twice as much throughout the year than I get to see my cousins and great uncles and aunts over here in Spain. 

I always hope I'm not demanding too much from my family when it comes to how often we do things. I am still understanding to our situations. And I am independent enough to go buy a train ticket and go literally anywhere I want to. I just don't like doing things alone because I'm here to spend time with people. I'm here so I can spend quality time with Abuela, my mom, and my sister. 

I just want us all to Carpe Diem the summer because we're running out of them. And now, this is it. This is my last full summer, my chance to truly Carpe Diem is here because after this, I'm locked to coming back for 3 weeks at a time. 

Next year, I won't know if I'll even be able to afford it or take vacation days off for it. I might not even be able to return Spain next summer. I need to make this one count. 

And I will. Even if my mom, Abuela, and sister wants to stay home and do nothing for nearly an entire week, I'll break that shell of not wanting to do things alone and just go where I wish, when I wish. 

I'll be sure to log these adventures here on my blog. I want to remember it if I have a good summer this year. And I will want to talk about older summers and share stories and memories about them. 

Everyone will also be properly introduced to my family and get to know who everyone is. I've gained contact with my cousins before the summer so I can coordinate visits on my own if I'd like to. 

Beforehand, my mom had contact and every time I asked to join our cousins' group chat, she would forget and just neglect to ask if I could join. It wasn't ever a strictly private chat and I was always allowed to join if I wanted to. It's just been a hassle to get into it for once. And now I am. I'm in and I'm able to talk to the family I don't see for more than a couple of days in the entire year. 

I'm excited to just make this summer my own and make every day count. I've even brought my Nikon camera with me so it would motivate me to get out there and take some pictures. Those of which I will share on this blog!

I will use Log 2 to further talk about my first week this summer and share those pictures!