To bare or not to bare
So, it's 12 weeks later! Is 12 weeks really 3 months?! It's gone by sooo fast!
The school year is drawing to a close. I finished my last Saturday morning today. This morning as I walked to the train station it was cool and quiet. A brief rain shower early today has helped to bring down the increasing summer temperatures, at least for a little while.
Just before crossing the street to walk toward the train, I always look to the right to get a glimpse of Montserrat. It's big and strong and beautiful and mysterious and it's always there. There's something solid and comforting about seeing this giant immovable figure there in the distance.
It's a good thing we're wrapping up at school because it's becoming more challenging to get around physically. I will try to keep up my walking this summer but the class books seem to have gotten heavier and heavier as the weeks have gone by.
I'm also getting bigger and bigger. I am still learning to re-calculate distances from my belly so that I don't bump into things. I've had to search for alternative comfortable sleeping positions to get a good night's sleep. I've long outgrown my normal clothes for the moment and am sporting large tunic tops and leggings. Another creative idea I discovered was trying out my husband's jeans! They worked well the first time and the second time; but by the third time they had stretched out and actually started to fall off of me on my way home from work one evening. I had to hold them by the belt loops to keep from giving a show to the neighbors.
With my teaching responsibilities winding down, one of my new tasks is to survive the heat and make the most of these remaining months. The local swimming pool opened last weekend and I'm hoping to keep cool and keep moving over the next few weeks by emersing myself in the water.
One of the challenges this summer is searching for the right bathing suit for this season. It's a challenge for all women, but even more so for a pregnant woman, and ESPECIALLY for a pregnant American woman in Spain. Now I know that I've lived here quite a while but I never ceases to be amazed by the subtle differences that I continue to discover in our cultures.
As I enter my 3rd trimester, I've confessed my shyness about bathing suits to some other female friends here. While they listen kindly and patiently, they seem to give me the same blank stare and then say, "But you can wear a bikini. Lots of pregnant women here do." I try to explain that this is not quite as common at home as it is here, my cultural lessons seem to fall on deaf ears.
Of course, I live here not there. So, I lower my expectations for sympathy and just enjoy the encouragement from my Spanish friends. I chuckle to myself at how different the perspectives can be on the same situation. While I appreciate the freedom to bare my belly, I predict that I'll be taking the more conservative route this summer and spend my free-time pool hours in a modest maternity swimsuit. :-)
The school year is drawing to a close. I finished my last Saturday morning today. This morning as I walked to the train station it was cool and quiet. A brief rain shower early today has helped to bring down the increasing summer temperatures, at least for a little while.
Just before crossing the street to walk toward the train, I always look to the right to get a glimpse of Montserrat. It's big and strong and beautiful and mysterious and it's always there. There's something solid and comforting about seeing this giant immovable figure there in the distance.
It's a good thing we're wrapping up at school because it's becoming more challenging to get around physically. I will try to keep up my walking this summer but the class books seem to have gotten heavier and heavier as the weeks have gone by.
I'm also getting bigger and bigger. I am still learning to re-calculate distances from my belly so that I don't bump into things. I've had to search for alternative comfortable sleeping positions to get a good night's sleep. I've long outgrown my normal clothes for the moment and am sporting large tunic tops and leggings. Another creative idea I discovered was trying out my husband's jeans! They worked well the first time and the second time; but by the third time they had stretched out and actually started to fall off of me on my way home from work one evening. I had to hold them by the belt loops to keep from giving a show to the neighbors.
With my teaching responsibilities winding down, one of my new tasks is to survive the heat and make the most of these remaining months. The local swimming pool opened last weekend and I'm hoping to keep cool and keep moving over the next few weeks by emersing myself in the water.
One of the challenges this summer is searching for the right bathing suit for this season. It's a challenge for all women, but even more so for a pregnant woman, and ESPECIALLY for a pregnant American woman in Spain. Now I know that I've lived here quite a while but I never ceases to be amazed by the subtle differences that I continue to discover in our cultures.
As I enter my 3rd trimester, I've confessed my shyness about bathing suits to some other female friends here. While they listen kindly and patiently, they seem to give me the same blank stare and then say, "But you can wear a bikini. Lots of pregnant women here do." I try to explain that this is not quite as common at home as it is here, my cultural lessons seem to fall on deaf ears.
Of course, I live here not there. So, I lower my expectations for sympathy and just enjoy the encouragement from my Spanish friends. I chuckle to myself at how different the perspectives can be on the same situation. While I appreciate the freedom to bare my belly, I predict that I'll be taking the more conservative route this summer and spend my free-time pool hours in a modest maternity swimsuit. :-)
That article makes me laugh and frown a little -not at the pregnant woman, but at the readers. They need to get over themselves.
ReplyDeleteJill, you do what's comfortable for you. :) Hope you stay cool this summer.
Love, Kobi