After 15 years in Chicago, we’re getting to know a new city on foot, over coffee, and around the table.
Steam rose from the pot of lentils into the cold Salamanca air. At our neighborhood lentejada, the ladle tapped the rim of the pot as people talked around us. The first spoonful took me back to Puerto Rico, to cool days when my parents would drive us into the mountains for a good guiso al caldero. And here I was, warming my hands on a bowl of lentils in a city we were just beginning to know.
That’s become our favorite kind of Saturday. We walk to whatever’s happening in the neighborhood, then find somewhere to sit for coffee. Somewhere between the first sip and the last, Nabol and I usually decide what we want to cook for dinner.
If it’s been a while since you checked in with us here at Kimchi & Beans, Nabol, Nico, and I now live in Salamanca, Spain. We loved our life in Chicago, and we still talk about our favorite places as though we could go back this weekend. What’s surprised me about the move is how much of the change I notice on days when very little happens.
We spend more of our days outside
We wanted to feel more at ease going out as a family. To take Nico for a walk and, if we were having a good time, stay out a little longer. I notice that ease on the way to school, or on a Saturday when we leave the house knowing only the first place we’re going.
On the way to school, Nico talks about whatever’s on his mind that morning. Little by little, the faces along the walk have become as familiar as the turns we take to get there. We’ve gone from meeting neighbors to sitting down for coffee with them, and there’s a particular pleasure in hearing someone say your name in a city where, a little while ago, hardly anyone knew it.
We have more room to take care of ourselves
Back in the U.S., the cost of health coverage weighed on us. So did the pace we were keeping. We wanted to be able to get care when we needed it without bracing for the bill, and to have enough room in the day to pay attention to how we were doing.What surprised us was how quickly we felt a difference. The migraines that had been showing up every week stopped. We noticed some weight loss, and the fog we’d gotten used to began to lift. We felt more focused and organized, with energy left to see people and make plans. I hadn’t realized how much I’d come to expect that fog until I started having days without it.
There are still afternoons when a single errand takes the whole afternoon. We’re learning how to do ordinary things in a place where they’re new to us. Even so, we’ve started to feel more like ourselves here, sooner than either of us expected.
We can think a little further ahead
After years of building our careers, we wanted some distance from our old routines to ask what else we could do with the skills we’d spent so long developing. What would we be excited to make? What kind of workday would leave us enough of ourselves to give to the rest of the day?We talk about those things on walks now. And sometimes we pick up the camera and see what’s worth bringing home from an ordinary week. In our Salamanca vlog, it was a trip to La Alberca, a stop at Yummy Market for Korean ingredients, and something simmering back at home. I like that we’re still finding stories in the same things we loved sharing in Chicago.
A Saturday in Salamanca you can borrow
If you’re visiting Salamanca with kids or want a quieter Saturday in your own town, give yourself a morning and one thing to build it around.- Pick one reason to go out. Look for a neighborhood gathering, a market tasting, or a community meal. If there’s nothing on while you’re in Salamanca, start at the Roman Bridge and walk back toward the old town.
- Leave time for coffee. Take a street you haven’t walked before and stop somewhere you’d like to sit. Invite someone you’ve been meaning to catch up with.
- Shop for one meal. Pick up an ingredient you’re curious to cook with or something that reminds you of home, and let that decide dinner.
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