Thirteen Ways to Drive Yourself Crazy Pining for Donosti from the Swamps of D.C.
1.Stay up late following your husband on FlightAware as he travels from Miami to Madrid. Imagine him on a half-full Iberia jumbo jet drinking red wine, easing into chat in his native tongue, dozing off to the quiet sounds of Spanish as the plane…
Jul 08 20July 08, 2020
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Despedida a Donosti
On the train to Madrid today, I wondered: Can I still post on Dispatches from Donosti if I am no longer in Donosti, in fact, not even in Spain, or even Europe? Heading out on a trip that will take me almost 48 hours to get home, it occurred to me I…
Jun 17 20June 17, 2020
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The Post-Pandemic Pee Pity Party
I know, I know, this is SUCH a trivial problem it seems insensitive to blog about it. The pandemic is killing thousands of people a day, wreaking economic havoc around the world, and I’m bitching about this. On the other hand, maybe a trivial…
May 19 20May 19, 2020
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Wacky Wednesday Words: Day 39
Unlike the French, who have an academy to maintain the purity of their language, we English speakers have no such institution, nor do we desire one. We delight in moving words between parts of speech, and with open arms we welcome new words to the…
Apr 22 20April 22, 2020
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Escape From Intxaurrondo II: Resilience
As of this last weekend, my mother-in-law has been locked down for one month. Thirty one days, by herself, in her apartment, in a neighborhood called Herrera, on the outer edges of San Sebastian. And while the rest of us, far younger, healthier and…
Apr 14 20April 14, 2020
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Spain, Socialism and Sanders: Day 26
I woke up today, the first day of a five day Easter Holiday, to some very loud Spanish rap from the building behind mine, the news that Bernie Sanders had dropped out of the U.S. presidential race, and a sweep of bad news on the home page of the…
Apr 09 20April 09, 2020
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Good News Bad News: Day 17
This morning I really wanted to dispatch some good news. Because as of yesterday, the number of new cases in Spain seemed to be leveling off. This would indicate that just past two weeks into lockdown, we were approaching the “peak,” a critical…
Mar 31 20March 31, 2020
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Monday Desmadre:Day 9
Suddenly, all that good cheer from last week seems to have evaporated on this manic Monday. The Autonomous regions, always looking to pick a fight with Madrid, are claiming that because the Central Government insisted on distributing incoming…
Mar 24 20March 24, 2020
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Escape from Intxaurrondo I: Capricho
My mother-in-law has not left her home since Friday the 13th (no joke). Paying close attention to the news throughout early March, she decided to self-isolate in her apartment a few days before lockdown. Weeks ago she and my son and I made an…
Mar 24 20March 24, 2020
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Todos a Casa: Day 1
Today, Spain went into lockdown. Sort of. We woke up to a gorgeous blue sky, rare around these parts–San Sebastian is in the humid north where it rains a lot, and I mean A LOT. In a state of disbelief, because truly, no one around us looked sick, my…
Mar 15 20March 15, 2020
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