vacation

My family had an amazing time in Spain. My experience was enhanced by the fact that I inexplicably experienced no jet lag. We arrived at the apartment where we would be staying at midnight. We went to bed. I woke up about eight hours later, exercised, and read a book for three hours in complete silence as my family, all in the throes of jet lag, slept off the journey from the USA. There is no peace like the peace of a silent house filled with sleeping noisemakers (children). So, I luxuriated whilst my family slept. I went to the local market and bought us cereal, milk and bread. This was a particularly joyful event as, when on vacation in Spain, I am allowed to purchase Frosties (the Spanish name for Frosted Flakes). I am a true connoisseur of sugar cereals. At home, I cannot indulge this expertise because I don't want my children's teeth to fall out. But, when in Spain....
So, I arrived back at the apartment, had a delicious breakfast, and read some more. My family was still asleep. More time for myself generously donated by the gods of jet lag.
I began to meditate on the vacation ahead. My first thought concerned necessities for the passage of time. In other words, I determined that we needed to buy sports equipment of some type to pass our days. We bought a soccer ball. It seemed the best option. One can take a soccer ball most places and play without worrying about equipment. Spain had recently won the World Cup (a wonderful sporting event witnessed in near-entirety by my boys and I- not merely the final game, mind you, but the entire tournament). We decided that soccer was our favorite sport. This realization led, logically, to the next: we needed to go all out in our embracing of this wonderful sport. We needed jerseys (my eldest came home with two, my youngest acquired a jersey/shorts/socks combo, and I purchased three), we needed a knowledge-base sufficient to identify us as true fans, we needed to practice so that we looked cool while kicking the ball around, and finally, and perhaps most significantly, we needed to refer to the sport as football. Sorry Tom Brady. We still love you, but only in an American Football sort-way. Our true heroes now? None other than Fernando "El Nino" Torres, David Villa, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Xavi Hernandez, Cesc Fabregas, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, and Iker Casillas. I could mention every player on the Spanish team, but I won't bore you. Nor will I drop names like Messi, Robinho, Kaka, Tevez. But I could. We all could. Even my wife is conversant when Spanish football is discussed. And my boys? Totally conversant! We became football (soccer for you Americans) experts in a matter of days. I initially quizzed my boys to test their knowledge of Spanish/European/Brazilian players, but realized, with considerable gratification, that my job had been successfully completed when I found my boys arguing, near blows, as to who would be Ronaldo and who would be Zidane in their match. There is something quite thrilling for the avid sports fan to develop a passion for a previously uninspiring (personally) sport. I have stuffed my (and my boy's) heads so full of soccer information that we appear to have been avidly following the sport for years, not weeks. Now that we're back in the states, I am following La Liga (the Spanish premier league) on the internet. I am in the know. But I digress. Back to our vacation. Every day, we would wake up, go outside and play soccer. We did this at the beach, at the pool, during long lunches (after eating or before). We even played with Spanish kids, and held our own.
Not surprisingly, there was a lot wonderful about this trip besides soccer/football. We spent time with some really close friends who were visiting Spain. We saw my in-laws, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law (and his family) It was awesome. San Sebastian has great food. Much of it can be found in child-friendly restaurants with play areas close by. Therefore, eating out is often a far more pleasant experience with children than eating out at home. It also has an awesome aquarium which is interesting, educational and fun. Perhaps most conducive to family fun are San Sebastian's three beaches where we spent significant time jumping waves (and playing soccer). From a parent's perspective, however, I think that my favorite thing about San Sebastian regards my in-law's apartment. It is in a residential, as opposed to tourist, section of the city. Therefore, eating out, going to parks, going shopping for groceries is all done surrounded by Spaniards. It is really cool to see one's children playing with other children from a completely different culture. Providing one's children with an opportunity to see that the world is bigger than they previously had thought is really cool. It's nice to feel like one is instilling in one's children important life lessons. In the immortal words of EPMD, my favorite rappers when I was in high school, "it feels good, my friends."