Spring has Sprung. Supposedly

Wisteria. I told ya it was spring!

Spring has sprung in Galicia. The flowers know this. They have been blooming like crazy. The geese know this. They've laid eggs and had a cute little gosling! The loquats (nísperos) know this. They're available for a limited time only at fruit stands and supermarkets, so I've been loading up on them. But does the weather know this?? Apparently not! For every three days of summer-is-around-the-corner sunshine and temperatures, it seems like we have seven days of cold rain. I get that spring means showers. April showers bring May flowers has its equivalent in Spanish (abril, aguas mil). But it's now mid-May and the highs barely crawl up to 60ºF. It's so confusing; it feels like it's November and time to start cozying up inside for the upcoming winter rather than getting outside because summer's almost here! At least we have the flowers to remind us what season we are really in.

And this has been your weather report for Galicia.

Blackout!

¨Here we go again,¨ I thought as I rolled my eyes last Monday a little after noon. The power had gone out once again. It has been going out on a monthly basis at our house since the New Year. Apparently this is almost normal in the countryside, as there are more trees that can fall and cut the powerlines. 

It wasn't until my cousin from back home wrote to check in and see if we had been affected by power outages. How did she know that? Then I checked out the local newspaper's website. What I assumed was yet another power outage affecting a few houses in our little hamlet turned out to be a massive blackout throughout Spain, Portugal, and on to other European countries. Wha-huh?!

Luckily for us, I had just finished boiling some eggs for egg salad sandwiches, so lunch was saved. And while I feared this could be a days-long episode, power was restored to our corner of Galicia a mere six hours later. As we don't live in the city, I didn't get to witness the chaos or boredom first hand. But the next day there were pictures and interviews in the newspaper online. It was a nice day, so natural light illuminated homes and the shops that stayed open (to accept cash only, obviously). Apparently one ice cream shop started giving away their stock when they saw that it was melting. Good on them! The blackout also meant no traffic lights, so the traffic department advised against driving unnecessarily. So I cancelled my classes and stayed home until the power came back. Which even after it did, there was no cell service or Whatsapp to communicate until nighttime. Really old school! But the message came through that school was cancelled the following day.

The experience reminded me of a blackout in my youth, which seemed to last for days, but maybe that wasn't the case. After this incident (and keeping in mind that our power goes off frequently), we may just put buying a generator higher on our list of priorities.