Author: Kate Wilson

Heated Discussions

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

On Wednesday I returned to my Catalan class feeling unprepared after a month of speaking English in Cornwall.
I was also feeling a bit jaded after leaving my Lamorna home and returning to several problems here as well as facing the house again which now feels empty after the death of my mother not in law. I haven’t felt able to write about that yet but just to say that she was a great support and a good friend to me in my first year here and I feel her loss acutely.
So, after resisting the temptation to stay at home and ‘study’ I cycled through town to the school and rejoined my class which is a mixed group of people from Latin America and Morocco.
Near the end of the session we were discussing sport and suddenly a slightly boring (to me) lesson grew legs and started to run.  One moment we were talking about which sports we like and the next we were having a heated question and answer session about Islam, the wearing of the veil and the burka, Palestine, war in Iraq, Libya, Tony Blair …….

It started when one normally quiet Moroccan woman in a headscarf said she can’t attend gym classes or the swimming pool because of her religion. All classes here are mixed gender and she can only go if it is woman-only but that doesn’t exist in Granollers.  Everyone started asking questions. Why can’t she chose to do as she likes, why wear the veil, what is written in the Koran…etc etc.  A man from Morocco spoke about the European fear of Islam and the situation in Palestine.  Someone else asked if she would have to wear a veil if she travelled to Morocco. The conversation was so fast I could hardly keep up let alone contribute anything. Most people speak fluent castellano so when their catalan fails them they fill the gaps with that.
I think that in the UK we are so nervous of saying the ‘wrong’ thing that we don’t ask lots of questions about religious and cultural differences so it was refreshing to hear everyone just being curious. But it also made me slightly anxious.  It was like a tap which once turned on could not be stopped.

Mention of the UK and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all eyes seemed to turn to me – suddenly I realised what it is like to be seen as representative of all things questionable in your country.
How close sport is to politics.  Perhaps language classes like old fashioned dinner parties should avoid all mention of Politics and Religion and ….Sport. Or perhaps not?

Today

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

Had a nice walk with man and dog this morning checking up on Resident Adolescent to see if he was at school. This is one of the fun things we have come home to!
There is a cafe very close to the school called La Dolce Vita which is second home to crowds of school children attracted by the two futbolin tables and the relaxed attitude of the staff to such questions as school hours. It reminded me more than a little of Togs Cafe in Troon where I grew up and where we used to go when we skipped out of school. There was a jukebox and you could sit for hours drinking milky coffee and eating fried egg rolls.

Futbolin is the game known to me as table football and is a bit of a craze here. Unfortunately there are also gambling machines in La Dolce which provide further temptation. Isn’t it a shame that jukeboxes no longer exist in their original form with piles of singles and a moveable arm that reaches in and grabs the one you have chosen for 10p?

Crossing the road

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

I just saw someone almost knock down a woman and her baby in a pushchair as they tried to cross the road with the green man. Here it is allowed to make a right turn even when there is a pedestrian crossing around the corner with the green light on for pedestrians. I imagine you are supposed to look first to see if there are real human beings already on the road as you swing your car round the bend but today a man in a large car didn´t bother with such niceties – after all he was in a hurry to arrive at the pre-school to collect his granchild!
What surprised me was how everyone reacted – the woman just pulled back her pushchair to let the car past, the other people also stepped back but carried on chatting, the man in the car drew up a few yards further on and calmly went to the school to find his child.
I seemed to be the only one feeling angry. I considered yelling at him but in the end came here to the locutorio to write about it.

Singing Away Your Fears

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

It takes 12 hours door to door. Lamorna to Granollers by car and train and plane and bus and train. I think that’s an incredibly short time to move between two different worlds.

Back to heating not working, wifi not connecting, same old stuff with resident adolescent although we are trying to keep positive and hopeful. Cloudy sky and a chill in the air.
I have a month of Catalan to study in one day before tomorrows class.
It’s one of those days when I need to count my blessings in order to stop my mood sinking.
So…..

  • lovely walk with Tiffany and Duna catching up on news
  • daffodils blooming on the terrace
  • hyacinths smelling wonderful and in their prime in spite of a month of neglect
  • Roca Umbert cafe has a cafe with wifi, friendly staff and nice music
  • my Catalan teacher sent an email about a choir which will practise singing Joan Maragall poems over the next months and do a performance in July. The message begins Qui canta els seus mals espanta which roughly translates as Those who sing scare away their fears.  A good thought for today and it reminds me that singing and music can sometimes help when all else fails.

What songs do you sing when you want to lift your spirits?