COVID-19

Chapter 20: Danger and Delirium

When I found out that the Spanish proficiency exam would be on the morning of September 11, I sighed. As much as we love Madrid, New York...

Kay Diaz

Mar 25, 20219 min read

From mid-April through late July, online Spanish classes with Irene were the organizing principle of our lives. And despite the COVID...

Kay Diaz

Feb 28, 20214 min read

Being risk-averse lawyers, readers of history, amateur political prognosticators, and heeders of science, we have come to Spain to live....

Kay Diaz

Feb 25, 20214 min read

“I never get bored; I just think like a dog,” I said one late-June morning to my table partner Jayne as we sat sipping coffee. It was the...

Kay Diaz

May 24, 20204 min read

“¡Buenas tardes!” exclaimed the cheerful radio announcer as I made the bed in our Madrid apartment. I did a double-take at the radio, and...

Kay Diaz

May 1, 20203 min read

“It’s time to get stressed,” said Kate. Or so I thought. “Why are we getting stressed?” I asked. “I didn’t say that. I said, ‘It’s time...

Kay Diaz

Apr 22, 20203 min read

“I miss Greg,” said the ancient woman with a walker, gazing towards me but not particularly focusing on me, and I knew exactly of whom...

Kay Diaz

Apr 3, 20203 min read

We settled quickly into our new apartment in a 150-year-old atrium building, located in the Malasaña neighborhood within the original...

Kay Diaz

Mar 24, 20203 min read

We left the hotel in separate taxis, as required by the lockdown laws. The streets and sidewalks were eerily deserted. Under Spain’s...

Kay Diaz

Mar 22, 20202 min read

Following the coronavirus lockdown in Spain last Sunday, Kate and I became the only tenants of our residential hotel. No other guests...

Kay Diaz

Mar 19, 20202 min read

We quickly settled in to a one-room efficiency near Plaza de Antón Martín, a V-shaped plaza near Atocha, one of Madrid’s major streets....

Kay Diaz

Mar 17, 20202 min read