Spring?

In May the trees finally started to show fresh leaves, the plaza's rosebushes began to bud, and I finally FINALLY retired my winter coat, long after my friends in the states had been lounging on the beach. The idea of transitional seasons does not reach Madrid, however, and the one week of semi-Spring in Alcala de Henares launched into full force Summer the next week. The thermometer on the street hit 38 degrees the first week of June (that's 100 degrees for you Fahrenheit people), baby storks started popping up in giant nests everywhere (looking strikingly large next to their padres, but bright clean fluffy white), and my shoes started melting while I walked through the industrial center to the pharmaceutical company where I teach.

There is a Spanish saying that goes something like, "Don't pack away your coat until the 40th of June," meaning that the winter weather never completely disappears. But 90% of the time now it is HOT HOT HOT, blindingly sunny, pounding heat. Summer storms brew up quickly and hit hard with thunder and lightning like on the Gulf, then dry up in the powerful sun as if they had never been here. It's desert dry and my skin tightens immediately upon walking outside. The sun is so strong that I have new freckles despite numerous applications of sunscreen per day. This with no air conditioning in my apartment.

But really I am grateful. The winter here was 6 months long and much of it was sunless, so this is a refreshing change, especially knowing that by September it will be sliding back into cool. After 7 months of pants I was ready to wear a skirt!

Alcala is beautiful in the sunlight. The people are smiling, happy. Terraces are set up throughout the Plaza de Cervantes and on Calle Mayor, and residents lounge outside under large umbrellas with their tinto de veranos y tapas. As one of my students accidentally put it, "the scent of the flowers and plants burning in the sunshine" surrounds you (along with the occasional stab of hot sewage or dog poo baking on the sidewalk). The sun does not set until 10:30 during these warm nights and people are still eating and walking with their families, screaming children, and dogs at midnight all days of the week. Ice cream stands have appeared on every street corner, and there is nothing like seeing a 90 year old woman walk down the street with a soft serve vanilla cone.