It’s a walk in the park, a stride across an empty street, as easy and pure as a toddler pushing a toy stroller. It’s my granddaughter’s unconscious switching between Spanish and English. It’s what I envy and delight in as I continue my daily, ongoing, and never-ending Spanish acquisition process.

Our daughter Natalie, who became fluent in Spanish during her university year abroad in Granada (an osmotic transfer that happened in bars and cafes), has spoken Spanish to Malaya since her birth. They were living in New York City at the time and the daycare that Malaya attended in Morningside Heights was run by Dominican immigrants, so Malaya was immersed in Spanish. When Natalie and Malaya moved to Málaga last January and Malaya began attending an escuela infantíl, Natalie switched to speaking English at home so that Malaya would develop both languages. While Malaya often mixes the two languages at home, she slides effortlessly into Spanish on the neighborhood playground and at school.

Of course, she doesn’t have a name for any of this. If you ask her if she speaks Spanish, she’ll say no. At the school she attends, the children receive English instruction three times a week. If you ask her if she had English class that day, she’ll say no. She doesn’t put a label on the two modes of communication she possesses. She does know, however, in what circumstances and to whom she should utilize which mode.

Whatever is happening in her developing brain as she acquires two languages at a time is something that can’t happen in mine. That particular ship of neural pathway elaboration has long since sailed. But my adult brain is changing. As I slowly acquire new vocabulary and sentence structures, I’m improving cognitive functions like memory.  Or that’s the theory, anyway. In the meantime, I’m aware of how our different rates and manners of acquisition play out in everyday life. Not long ago, I took Malaya to the doctor while Natalie was working. The doctor spoke to me in English and to Malaya in Spanish. Humbling, to say the least.

On the other hand, I’m getting more comfortable and adept at acting as interpreter for James whose acquisition of the language has stalled at gracias. I accompanied him to his massage therapy to treat the muscle inflammation from a nasty fall. The therapist’s explanation of the injury and treatment was perfectly clear and my responses, though not error-free, came semi-trippingly off the tongue for a bit of an ego-booster.

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Now that I live in Spain, any books I purchase are from local bookstores or on my e-reader. But I did order one book from overseas last month. Alan Lau’s This Single Road: Postcards and Notebooks from Kyoto, published by entre ríos books and distributed by Asterism, took a month to get to me since for some reason it sat for over a week in the Málaga post office. It seemed like a major event to receive it. It’s a delight to hold in my hands and just admire the cover and then flip through it for the drawings and paintings, the haiku and postcards, and the longer, prose entries.

Here are a few books in Spanish I’ve purchased recently.

When in Madrid, one of the bookstores I like to browse is called La Liberia which specializes in books about Madrid. The last time I was there I picked up Madrid bombardeado whose narrative of the destruction of the city by German and Italian bombs in support of the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War is accompanied by maps and photos.

I also like to visit the Cuesta de Moyano in Madrid, a series of casetas that sell used and vintage books on the other side of the fence of the Real Jardín Botánico. My most recent purchase there was a copy of Carmen Martín Gaite’s Usos amorosos  de la postguerra española, essays on the male-female relationship in the years following the Spanish Civil War.

In Malaga, aside from favorite contemporary bookstores, I like Isla Negra whose focus is old and vintage books, postcards, and documents. Recently, I picked up this book whose back cover describes it as

“El eroticismo y la sexualidad a través de los consejos y recetas de un códice médico-erótico de la Edad Media.”

(Eroticism and sexuality through the advice and instructions of a medical-erotic codex of the Middle Ages.)

As for the title, Speculum al joder, “speculum” is Latin for mirror. Joder is the Spanish verb “to fuck.” Note that all this is in service of advancing my Spanish vocabulary.

For now, these books in Spanish are ones that I pick up to read short passages at a time. For more prolonged periods of reading, I usually prefer novels whether in English or Spanish and I make a point of reading one of each at a time. The novel in Spanish that I’m reading now is called Blitz by David Trueba. I recently saw the movie Siempre es invierno written and directed by Trueba and based on his novel. The book is fairly easy to read but when I feel taxed by reading Spanish, I switch to the English-language book, which at the moment is Last Night at the Disco by the talented Lisa Borders. Tom Perrotta, one of my favorite writers, calls it a “comic gem.” Seriously, folks, this is a funny book. It’s smartly written with captivating characters and a narrator you wouldn’t believe, except that you do because, well, this book is smartly written.

I met Lisa in 1997 when we were both residents at Hedgebrook. Neither of us had yet had a book published. Now we each have several and our latest ones are from the same publisher. Regal House Publishing released Lisa’s book this fall and mine (Ofelia and Norma) will come out next fall.

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After a summer-warm October, fall finally arrived in November. We’ve switched out of shorts and summer dresses into long pants and sweaters, and at times, raincoats. The clothes on the line take a lot longer to dry. (Clothes dryers are not a common household appliance here.) Still the afternoon sun can warm you, though heaters and blankets are now fixtures in most outdoor cafes. Christmas lights have been strung throughout the city and the castaña vendors are out sending the smoke and aroma of roasting chestnuts in the air.

And now, the Christmas season has officially begun with the light and music show on Calle Larios that happens three times each night until Three Kings Day.