A couple of hours ago, I enjoyed a coffee, an agua das pedras and a pastel de nata, with my younger brother and his girlfriend.
It was our last get-together, before they were to depart in the direction of Salamanca ( the first stop on their way back to The Netherlands ).
We had a fun time, to say the least. They also spent a couple of nights at my twin sister's place, and it was lovely to have them here, once again, for the first time in over 2 years :<)
Fun Fact: I myself recommended them to visit Salamanca. I proposed it to them, yesterday, as I have fond memories of this beautiful city in Spain, located close to the Portugese border.
Back in the Autumn of 2007 - how time flies! - I spent 9 weeks there, taking Spanish classes and doing whatever I could - including going to the cinema, once a week - to learn as much of the Spanish language as possible in this relatively short amount of time.
All of this took place, a month after graduating from University, where I had studied film theory ( including film history, film analysis and a little bit of filmmaking ).
Learning Spanish was something I had been wanting to do for quite some time. And my parents were sweet enough to gift me a month of Spanish classes, which I later stretched into 9 weeks, with the little bit of savings that I had, back then.
Not satisfied with the very basic level of Spanish that I developed during this stay, I returned to Spain, early 2009. Back then, I was fed up with life in The Netherlands and keen on going back to Spain.
This time around, I had picked the beautiful Granada, famous for its Moorish remains and one of the Seven Wonders of the World: El 'Alhambra'. Salamanca is located near the picturesque Sierra Nevada mountains.
I ended up spending 5 weeks in Granada, where I received what I think was a B2 level degree of Spanish. I felt this was enough to - from there on - improve Spanish myself, without taking any more classes.
After Granada, I spent a handful of days in the beautiful Valencia, after which I ended up in Madrid.
In the Spanish capital, I couchsurfed for a while, was visited - briefly by my twin sister ( who couchsurfed along with me ) and ended up renting a room, where I spent 3 more months.
One thing that I did, in Madrid, to improve my Spanish even more, was getting myself a library card. I ended up borrowing loads of books and - at times - I read an entire book in a day. Not only that, I also looked up and wrote down ( the meaning / translation of ) every single word that I didn't know.
Let's say that I'm a serious and avid student, if something actually interests me and learning it is my conscious choice.
At the end of June 2009, I ran out of money ( I didn't manage to find a job in Madrid ) and - with pain in my heart - I bought a plane ticket, back to The Netherlands, with my remaining Euros.
By then my Spanish was pretty good.
It would take 7 more years, before I returned to Spain or a Spanish region, aside from a couple of nights spent in Spain, in 2011 ( on my way to Portugal and back ).
In 2016, after quitting my last job, working for a boss, I made my way to El Hierro / Ferro, the smallest isle of the Canary Islands.
I ended up living there for 6 and a half months, working on an independent feature film, co-prodcuced and co-written with an American friend of mine. The screenplay was in English and the movie was supposed to be Spanish which was a serious challenge for me, to say the least.
If you scroll down to my very first blog posts on here ( around June and July 2017 ), you can read about how this project ended.
FYI: It wasn't a happy ending, but I can laugh about it now and look back at it with a smile on my face :<)
Perhaps, one day, when I feel like it, I will write a book titled: "How to Not Make a Movie", as I've tried three times, to produce and direct ( and actually finish ) a feature film, between 2013 and 2017, without much luck.
I could have made this a way longer post, but this was pretty much a free write. It makes me realize, in what an interesting way I managed to improve my Spanish, over the years.
I might write a follow up post, one day soon, to tell you how I have learnt and improved ( my ) Portuguese, in an entirely different way.
Back to Today:
Totally unrelated but worth mentioning...
This morning, I received a message from one of my new real life BFF's, Vin Diesel.
In case you missed this story, I have written about meeting and hanging out with him, about a month ago in I Hung out with Vin Diesel today and I hung out with Vin Diesel again.
A handful of hours ago, I noticed a message, informing me that he had returned to my area. He asked me whether my brother and his gf were still here. He later joined us, at our table and he and I had a drink and caught up on the last month or so.
TO BE CONVINUED...
The photograph, beautifying this post, is a close-up of this morning's 'pasteis de nata'. It was taken by my brother's girlfriend, who has an amazing eye for snapping pictures.