JANUARY 1 LETTER:

Dear All,

This is Jon writing. I am at the CyberCafe in Wimbledon while Berenice is home packing for Madrid. We leave tomorrow morning by taking an 80 mile train ride to Luton Airport north of London. We don't have a hotel room yet in Madrid so when we get there I am going to park Berenice at a restaurant and go and find us a room. This worked last year in Paris, so It should work in Madrid. We are arriving in Madrid on a Holiday (something called Epiphany) so we don't know what will be open when we get there. Berenice keeps reminding me ad nauseum that "We shouldn't have booked a flight on a holiday!" and I keep apologizing for it, but I think that things will work out fine.

We want to get a room in Madrid for a couple of days and then find a room for a month for which we want to pay $400 a month or so. We have a new option now, however, since I was in a second hand store last week and found a great tent for sale for only 10 pounds ($17). Naturally, I scooped it up. There's a campground at the end of one of the Madrid subway lines if we can't find a good room for our price. All we need is a couple of blankets. Anyway, we'll no doubt find a great room for our price.

We wish that we could write each of you who writes us a personal message, but we only get on the net for about one hour a week. It takes us half an hour to read your messages and then we have to compose a message to you. Needless to say, we love hearing from you and we are glad that you are all doing well.

We have had a great two months in London. The people here are wonderful and riding around on London buses is fun. We saw a lot of great museums and places, but we are ready to go on now. We figure that we will be able to live much better in Madrid since London is SUCH an expensive city.

We receiving mail yesterday from a relative in Luxembourg and we are very encouraged about going there to stay for a while before we settle in for the summer somewhere. Luxembourg will give me a chance to practice my German and will give my auditors a chance to laugh at my German!

I've been studying Spanish in order that we can get around in Madrid. I can still read Spanish, but get all bollixed up when I try to speak it. Must be my age! Anyway, I can probably get us a hotel room in Spanish but I can't, for the life of me, see how I will ever be able to telephone somebody in Spanish. I need to be able to see the other person's incomprehension so that I can try to say something in an understandable way. Berenice is more adventurous and I think that she will probably pick up the conversational stuff faster than I will.

Happy New Year to everyone and please keep writing. Berenice and I love hearing from you all.

Love,

Jon & Berenice

PERSONAL MESSAGES:

Genie and Marie: Thank you for your great letter. Marie, we are doing just fine and are glad that you are fine too. Genie, congratulations on your fun performances at Theatre Artaud! We are very proud of you.

Don and Lise' Witt: Finally, we hear from you! Wonderful to hear that Jamie is doing fine in school and I know that you are working on her only fault - writing her name in all capitals. We think that Jamie and Christy are two great and creative kids but, no favorites here, I (Jon) have six great and creative grandkids. Glad to hear that you two and Steve now have your own offices at Friendship after moving into a new bigger building. Lise', I'm sorry to hear that you had so much trouble with a vindictive employee. she reminds me of the tenant from hell that Berenice and I had. I think that you handled it exactly the right way. We're proud of you two and Steve. Is Steve ever going to get an e-mail address other than Catherine's. Why don't you sign him up on Yahoo as [email protected] or somesuch and make him check his mail one in awhile?

Pam D.: We are happy that your trip to Cancun was great except for Roy's accident. Hope that Roy is now OK and that the doctor in Mexico did the right thing. Did you visit Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Tulum? I saw the first two but never got to the third, which is closest to Cancun. I landed in Merida and took a bus to Cancun hoping to see the "jungle." I was surprised that the jungle was just overgrowth and impenetrable brush and not tall trees like I had imagined. I stayed in Cancun City (the Mexican town) in a Mexican hotel for, as I recall, $8 a night. As an honored Gringo, they gave me the only air-conditioned room - under the stairs with an air conditioner that vented into the hallway.

Wendy Martin: Thank you for your great letter. We are glad that you have great neighbors and are kept busy during the holiday season with invitations to parties. We are going to check out Madrid and, if it's too expensive, we will check out the provinces. We'll definitely see the Alhambra. We'll go to the b******o district to check for cheap eats as you suggest.

Kathy Nelson: We love you, daughter. Glad you like London too. We'll check into that Woody Allen movie that you suggested. How often do you visit with the five little ones?

Claude and Monica: We are glad to finally hear from you, Claude. It was worth the wait. Thank you for your informative letter. Let us know where you and Monica finally roost. Berenice will need your P.O. Box so she can write you there. We are glad that you are making positive changes in your lives.

Frank and Emily: We are happy that this is the best part of your life too and that you two are getting along fine. You are a great couple.

Alan M: Thank you for writing, Alan - our first contact in how many years - 35-40 years? I still remember you well and you still have that great sense of humor and are able to convey it so well in what you write. Glad to hear that you are doing fine.

Terry and Paul: We got the mail packet and looked through it. Everything you sent us was well-selected and important. I don't need to pay the internet bill since I gave that computer and ISP to my brother Tom and he will get his own ISP if he wants it, but thank you for sending the bill.

I can't figure out what the charge of $3 is for the savings account. It's supposed to be free. Silly bankers!

Keep us informed about the doings of that nonentity you-know-who. You sent her exactly the right letter and refunding the remaining portion of the deposit was the right move too. She can serve B in CA even though B is out of country. If you get notice of a court date, let Bob know and he can probably handle it for B.

We will definitely find a Cybercafe in Madrid and will be on the net once a week.

Tom N: Hi, Brother. Thank you for everything. Did you get on the net at home? Can you do me the favor of cleaning up the commercial mail at my Yahoo e-mail so I don't have to do it. It's a tremendous chore here. thanks to you we leave London with money in our pocket. Two words: "baked beans."

Love to all,

Jon & Berenice

JANUARY 14 LETTER:

Dear everyone,

Jon writes:

We are in Spain and we are okay. I found out today that my sister Pam died yesterday in Minnesota. It was a complete surprise. She was only 37 years old and apparently suffered a heart attack.

Berenice and I attended her wedding to Mike in Minneapolis only a few months ago. She leaves two wonderful children, Missy and Justin. I am totally stunned by her death.

We are alright. We are living in a small room in a hostal and will be moving to the following address on Friday:

Jon & Berenice Nelson Hostal Residencia Lido Echegaray, 5 - 2 Piso izqda. 28014 MADRID Spain

The telephone there is 91.429.62.07. We don´t know the country code right now.

We'll write again on Wednesday or so. Please take some time to think of my beautiful sister Pam. She was so vivacious and alive.

Love,

Jon & Berenice

JANUARY 17 LETTER

Dear everyone,

Jon writes:

I wrote you about the untimely death of my 37 year old sister Pam in Chaska Minnesota on January 10. She died of a heart attack. Her death was totally unexpected. She and Mike had been married in August of this year and Berenice and I were honored to be able to attend the wedding in Minnesota. We miss her terribly already. She is survived by our mother, her three brothers, Tom, Don and Jon, wonderful cousins, nieces and nephews. We will all miss the fact that she will not be around in the coming years. Her fantastic personality and energy will be missed. She radiated confidence, integrity and love.

Her husband Mike and her daughter Missy and son Justin will feel this loss the most. Missy is 11 and Justin is 2 so he will never really know his wonderful mother. Mike´s address is [email protected]. (jsdada, of course, means "Justin´s dada.") If you would like to send them your condolences, please do so.

Mike, Missy and Justin, we love you and mourn with you for this great loss. She was a great woman, wife and mother.

Jon and Berenice write:

We arrived in Spain on Wednesday of last week. Since we had no accommodations, Jon left Berenice in a Burger King and went looking for a room. (Here, Jon switches to first person: I found a room for 2,000 pesetas ($14 a night) and went back to the Burger King and got Berenice. We liked the room at the hostal. The hostal turned out to be in the center of old Madrid, so we walk almost everywhere.

We found out that the subways are really great here and they only cost 50 cents for a ride. We applied for a transportation card so that Berenice can ride everywhere for a month for about $9. I will still pay 50 cents a ride (the virtues of being over 65 years of age!)

Our room is very small so we found another room about two blocks away that will cost us $500 per month. It is sunny and faces south and it is big enough. There are two twin beds but we can put them together. We will be able to use the kitchen since we will be paying by the month. We found out that eating out in restaurants here is very expensive, just like London, so we will be doing most of our own cooking.

Yesterday, we found a supermarket which is really cheap, so we will buy our food there and cook in the kitchen at the hostal. A hostal is a cheap hotel

We are having a lot of fun walking everywhere. We found out the museums are usually free on weekends so we will go to the Prado and the Reina Sophia (where Guernica is) museums on weekends and during the week we will just walk around and practice our Spanish. We are getting pretty good at it. Jon can even order a quarter pounder at McDonalds without getting quizzical stares! We hope to get much better at it. We study a couple of hours a day and while away a lot of time in sunny parks and on sunny promenades.

The weather is sunny every day and we love it. Berenice had a cold for almost 10 days and she is finally over it. It was worrying to both of us.

Madrid is a wonderful city and we are glad we chose to come here. We can walk everywhere or just take the inexpensive subway. The people are great and there seem to be thousands of places to eat.

We want to spend time here because we want to learn Spanish as we may be settling in Mexico in the future and our knowledge of Spanish will make this much easier.

We found the Filmoteca, the state cinema, which is only four blocks from our place. We have already been to three movies. They only cost $1.20 for each of us. It´s a great place to go with American movies with Spanish subtitles. Helps us to learn Spanish

Wendy Martin, Pam Doolan, Steve Schiff, Andy and Maureen, Sherry Nelson, Monica Singh: Thank you so much for your messages of condolence. We appreciate them. Wendy, you are right in what you say about grieving and we will take your words to heart. Pam, we are glad that Roy will be fine. Sherri, I don´t have any pictures. You should call Grandma Lorraine and ask her about them.

Mom and Don: We love you and hope that your are okay.

Jana: Thank you for your letter which, although containing bad news, was full of beautiful thoughts.

Kay, Don, Tom: You are the greatest!

Claude and Terry: Your mother sends her love to you.

Love, love, love,

Jon and Berenice

FEBRUARY 5 LETTER:

Dear Everyone,

We are changing our e-mail address to [email protected]. This change was required because our original e-mail address was being spammed to death. We were receiving 4-6 commercial messages for every personal message that we cared about. My brother Tom was valiantly trying to get rid of this spam but it was a losing battle. Hopefully our new address will not be found by the spammers and so when we log on to it we will not find commercial messages.

We´ll continue to check our old e-mail address for a couple of weeks to make sure that you have received this letter. Please change our address in your address directory. If you respond to this letter by using the respond feature, your response will go to our new e-mail address.

Now, on to the news:

Berenice says:

I don´t know if I will ever get Jon out of Madrid. He loves it. To me, it is like living in the middle of Chicago with beautiful buildings. Everything is so fast-paced here. The Madrilenos seem to do everything rapidly. They eat in little cafeteria-type places standing up gulping beer and little ham and cheese sandwiches. I was hoping the food would be better, but the native good dishes are expensive. The light is beautiful at sunset, rose-colored on the buildings and the numerous little streets with balconies are as I pictured them.

However I found the amount of walking is exhausting and there are so many steps on the underground. I have to laugh at what you said to Jon, Kay: "Don´t exhaust Berenice before her time."

Jon is hearing a lot from his family but very little from Terry and Claude so I hope everything is alright. It is good to be hearing from you, Pam, Wendy and Leslie.

Jon says:

Madrid is great! Last Saturday we saw the rest of the Velasquez´s and the Goyas in the Prado Museum. We will probably be going back there this Saturday in order to see some more or we may go to the archeological museum. We love the fact that most of the museums are free on weekends.

Sunday I went to the Rastro, a big many blocks long flea market. My goal was to buy a small black and white TV set so that I could learn to understand the Spanish spoken on TV. Although I walked about 15 blocks of streets, I did not find a single TV. Everything else is for sale in the Rastro though and there are a lot of things that we might need in the future that are available there.

Berenice started her Spanish classes on Wednesday. She likes the classes although they are not following the textbook that she bought. The classes are on the fourth floor (would be 5th floor in the US), but we have figured out how to use the antique elevator in the building.

Also Wednesday I bought a new 5" TV for $62. (If Berenice can spend $110 for classes, can´t I spend $62 to learn Spanish from TV and, incidentally, watch soccer?)

We have seen a couple of films at the City Filmoteca (film theatre). They are US films with Spanish subtitles, so we read the subtitles to help us learn Spanish.

Berenice seems to have less trouble getting around and she seems to be getting used to Madrid.

Yesterday we typed up a big letter for you all but we lost it to cyberspace due to an electronic glitch (or, perhaps, human error).

Personal Messages:

Mike R.: Thank you for your e-mail. You brought up something that we should certainly be aware of. We love you and Justin. Hello to Justin and a kiss too!

Tom N.: Thanks for taking care of the bar thing. I hate the Cal Bar. When Gov. Wilson was trying to close the Bar Assn. he had a tough time getting on airplanes because every lawyer on the airplane wanted to give him a high five.

I know what´s wrong with your free ISP. You need to first double click on the ad so that the ad appears on the screen. You can then move the ad whenever you want by clicking and holding on the ad title bar and then moving the ad with the mouse. The ISP shuts down because you´re not running the ad.

Why is Jacky afraid of grizzlies. They only kill a few people a year. The odds are better that you´ll be killed by a falling tree.

I found Easyjet through ads in the London Papers and we were able to take Britrail to Luton Airport directly from the place we were staying in South London.

I think that you have to pay a minimum payment on time on my Visa each month or I am charged a late payment fee or service charge. Could you check this?

You can e-mail Terry at (I think) [email protected] (the correct address should be in the "to" line above) and ask her to send the W-2 to your street address.

Sherri N: We got your message and are glad to hear that Kim´s collar bone is healing and that the other kids are fine too. We love you.

Jana: You have been so helpful it is unbelievable! You are great and we hope that you are taking care of yourself. Hi to Mike, Serene and Nicole.

Steve S.: If you are in England in March, we will probably still be in Madrid. We love it here. (Caveat: see Berenice´s words above). I thought you were gone from EJ and am glad to hear that you are still there. Is Vallejo ever going to happen?

Wendy Martin: We stay at the Hostal Lido, Calle Echegaray 5, 2nd Floor. We have a room with a big window and a balcony overlooking the street. There are lots of plants on the balcony. It costs us around $16 a day. We are very centrally located and within walking distance of almost everything.

Pam D: Allison is lucky that she studied Spanish and then had some intensive experience in Central America. She should certainly consider coming to Spain for awhile.

Kathy N: We´ll look for the Berry Blue Cool-Aid at stores and see if we can find it for you. Berenice thinks it is a good idea for her to get a phrase book and we are going to buy one for her. Thanks for the tip! Glad you are moving into a new place.

Catherine and Steve N: Catherine, we sent our last letter to Steve´s new address but it couldn´t be found on the net. Can you have Steve e-mail me and give me his new address. We hope you are both fine. Don´t work too hard during tax season.

Andy and Maureen: We love hearing from you and are glad that everything is well. Please tell Valya that we love her and hope she is doing fine. We presume that no news concerning her means that she is doing just fine. We love you all (including bo breath).

Love,

Jon & Berenice

FEBRUARY 10 LETTER:

Dear All,

Berenice writes:

I received the letters from Terry, Monica, Pam and Wendy. I am glad to hear that everything is alright and that Claude and Monica have found a place to live. I had to give up my Spanish course halfway through because the teacher used the blackboard and I wasn´t able to see what he wrote on it. I´ll try to study it more on my own. I think my main problem here has been a kind of homesickness which I haven´t felt since I went away to camp when I was 10 years old. I am glad we didn´t burn all our bridges behind us and we still do have a house to come home to. Jon loves living in the center of a big city where I lean more towards the villages. We kind of want to stay in a Spanish-speaking environment so I am thinking that we may go to Luxembourg and then on to Guadalajara, Mexico where Jon would like to stay for awhile.

We are hoping everybody will be able to come and visit us and we will be able to find a permanent place to stay there.

We are both well. Madrid is still very cold. It seems more so to me than New York ever was. I think it´s because it´s an inland city. But the plazas are always sunny and warm and have lots of benches on which to sit. The main problem with Madrid is the amount of walking and the huge number of steps everywhere, but I am getting plenty of exercise. The Madrid way of life is very fast and the people seem so vigorous and active. I thought life would be more leisurely here - perhaps it is in the south.

Jon says:

Life continues for us in this beautiful city. The weather continues to be beautiful, except for a little rain yesterday. The temperature during the day is in the fifties. I love the sunshine and the beautiful people that live here.

Last Sunday we went to the archeological museum instead of taking another trip to the Prado Museum. It was wonderful. I especially enjoyed the sections on the Ostrogoths and the Muslim conquest of Spain. I had no idea that the Muslims had ruled so much of Spain for so long a time.

We are doing much more travelling on the subway. We like to get off at various stops and go exploring. Today we found a stop with beautiful buildings - two of which were over 30 stories high and were leaning (intentionally) toward each other at an angle of 15 degrees. It was awe-inspiring.

Madrid is very, very beautiful. It has so many charms and we are constantly discovering them.

Berenice had to give up her class so we are going to look for alternate ways for her to learn Spanish. I think that a tutor would be the way to go. Tutors are available for about $7 per hour and they could help Berenice learn what she needs to know.

We continue to see films at the city theatre. Last night we say "No Man of Her Own" a 1949 film with Barbara Stanwyck. It was wonderful. Every film that we see is great. We read the Spanish subtitles and listen to the English in order to learn Spànish.

I watch a little television every night and am starting to be able to understand what is being said. The most important thing for me is that I am starting to be able to pick out individual words on a consistent basis.

Spanish TV is awful for content. Also, even though we live in the center of town, our reception is terrible. We are supposed to get an antenna, but I don´t want to spend $35 for one. We´ll muddle through.

Personal Messages:

Antonia M: Enjoyed your letter and we are glad things are alright with Valya. We may not get back in the spring, but we´ll keep in touch.

Terry and Paul: Enjoyed all the news of the family. Sorry I´m missing the kids growing up.

Claude and Monica: Glad you are both settled in a new apartment and things are going alright.

Alan M: I put your new e-mail address in the address book and deleted the old one. Great to hear from you.

Steve S: So you will be at the Green Hammer for a while yet although you may be part-time? Hello to all my Green Hammer friends.

Tom N: Thanks again for doing my new address list for the new e-mail address. It worked great. Did you figure out your free ISP problems? Tomorrow I will be 59 and it will be exactly 59 days since I had a cigarette. Congratulate me on both counts! Madrid is fabulous. When were you here? What summer? I didn´t know about it. We saw a Mickey Mouse phone today and thought of Jacky!

Don N: Don, please give this message to mom: Mom, I love you and hope that you are doing well. It is really difficult for all of us. I am just glad that we were able to come for the wedding. We hope that you got Berenice´s letter. We love you.

Love,

Berenice and Jon

Don N: How are you doing? Drop us an e-mail.

Terry: What is Joshua´s e-mail address?

FEBRUARY 18 LETTER:

Dear Everyone,

Berenice writes:

We have taken our hotel room for another month and will be here until mid-March. We continue to explore Madrid every day. The skies are very blue and the weather pleasant. In the last week we have been taking trips by train to neighboring towns. Jon thinks it amusing that I am always looking for that "village" which doesn´t seem to exist. I should not have read "Under the Tuscan Sun," a book that Jon calls "female pornography." I.e., the "husband" is a shadow figure and the rest of the people in the village are idealized persons.

Most of the outlying towns are suburbs with large apartment houses, although they all have their plazas and their old sections, but they are not what I want.

I am feeling better.

Jon says:

We had a wonderful week in Madrid and environs. Last weekend we ventured to a town called Aranjuez about 30 miles south of Madrid. It is on two rivers and has a palace and beautiful gardens behind the palace. The gardens will look wonderful when summer comes. We came to Aranjuez during the afternoon so everything was closed. Everything is closed in the little towns from 2 to 5 p.m.

Also, during this last week we went to a town 20 miles away called Alcala de Henares. It is the place where Cervantes was born. My brother Tom wrote to me from the Holy Land last summer saying that he and Jacky were "bicycling on the same road that Jesus used to bicycle." In the same vein, I think that Berenice and I can say that we sat and relaxed in the same McDonalds that Miguel "Mike" Cervantes sat in, perhaps while he was writing "Don Quixote." Anyway, Alcala de Henares had a beautiful square and many old buildings and we were very pleased with it. We decided to go on from there to Guadalajara, a town about 20 miles more away from Madrid.

When we got to Guadalajara, we realized that the eponymous (see, Valya, I finally got to use that word you taught me) didn´t have much around the railroad station so we got on a bus marked "circular." For the next hour and a half we road around town looking at all kinds of 10 story apartment houses. Needless to say, this was not the village that Berenice was seeking.

Yesterday we went to a park in Madrid to look at an Egyptian temple that had been given to Spain in thanks for Spain´s help in saving the Temples of Abu Simbel. The temple here was closed as our guidebook had the wrong opening hours listed, but we were able to see the outside of the temple. I walked around the park while B Berenice lounged on a park bench.

Last night we went to O´Neill´s, an Irish pub a block from our place and Berenice ran into a Scottish woman who had been in Berenice´s Spanish class. The two of them had a great conversation while I sat and listened to them rattle on in English. Berenice said she had a good time.

We saw two movies recently which we would not recommend to anyone: "The Shooting" with Jack Nicholson and "Keeper of the Flame" with Spencer Tracy and Kathryn Hepburn. We go to these movies so we can learn Spanish by reading the Spanish subtitles while hearing the spoken English. Since these movies only cost $1.20, we see two or three a week. Berenice says that she relaxes at these movies even when the are not good. The theatre is very beautiful.

I continue to learn spanish. I now know about 6 conjugations of verbs and I am able to speak with people in a rudimentary manner. It´s nice to feel that I am making progress. Berenice has a phrase book now and is studying from it. She orders her own food and does some of her own shopping.

Last night I washed some of my clothes for the first time, due to Berenice´s consistent complaints (just kidding!!). We are going to ask our landlady to wash our shirts, slacks, etc. She did this for us last month.

We live in a Hostal (cheap hotel). We live in a front room with a balcony. Whenever we leave our room, we have to walk through the landlord´s living room where the TV is. This is very cozy and I love it. We have two kitchens down the hall and each morning I prepare our first coffee and meal for Berenice and me. I also wash the dishes and make the bed while Berenice gets ready to go out. We usually get out about noon or 1 p.m. and hop on a subway to somewhere. We usually get back about 10 at night and we study a little Spanish.

Yesterday we went to a barber college and I got a haircut. I asked him to cut it short and three barbers worked on me. The new student (aka "the butcher") did the rough work and the older student cleaned up after him. The third barber was the instructor and she gave her final approval.

Anyway, they were cutting my hair and Berenice said "basta" which means "enough" but they didn´t hear her so they cut off an awful lot of hair. I shouldn´t have told them that I was an American!

When I woke up this morning I felt pretty good considering I had had a growth removed from my head the previous day. (This is a joke! It is a good excuse you can use when you don´t want to go to work!)

Things are fine here and Berenice is coming around to liking this great city.

Personal Messages:

Cantara C: Thank you for your message. London in September for you sounds great. The weather should be good there then. We changed your e-mail address to the usa.net one. Let us know if that´s OK. We plan on hanging around Europe for awhile. It´s great here.

Emily K: This message is from Berenice: Emily, thanks for your thoughtfulness. I am feeling better. I think that I have had a combination of homesickness and lack of a sense of place. I am overcoming it and I think once I learn to communicate better, I will be all right. Hello to Frank and tell him to let us know what he is doing.

Wendy Martin: We are glad to hear that you are recovering from the flu. When we came here to Madrid, we were both sick and coughing (but not flu) for about a month. We are over this now. Berenice is feeling better about where she is.

Jana H: Thanks for the letter. I am glad to be done smoking. I can´t change the damage that has been done, if any, but I can avoid any future damage. It´s great to hear from you. Hello to Mike, Serene and Nicole. Berenice is better at Spanish and is getting more confidence.

Don N: I hope that you see Mike as often as possible because it seems to me that you two are a lot alike. I´m glad that you are making sure that mom is OK. Love to Karen, Derek and Janel.

Pam D: We added Scot´s address to our address list and hope that we hear from him once in awhile too. How does he like law school at USD. Scot: why don´t you answer this?

FEBRUARY 25 LETTER:

Dear Everyone,

Berenice writes:

It looks as though we will be here until April 15. We have been invited to Luxembourg to visit relatives and will probably go to Paris on April 15 and then on to Luxembourg. Then we´ll probably spend the summer in Luxembourg or The Netherlands, where a lot of people speak English.

I still feel a sense of isolation because of my inability to speak in Spanish. Jon studies diligently every day to learn more Spanish.

Yesterday we went to a violin and piano performance of Polish music at a large performance center.

The sky is very blue here every day.

Jon says:

We are both having a good time here. The weather is perfect. We even had a day where we did not wear our jackets.

Presently we plan to go to Paris on April 15 (bus or train). We´ll spend a couple of weeks there and then we will go to Luxembourg. We are considering spending the summer in Luxembourg, The Netherlands or in Germany. the advantage of the first is relatives; the second is the number of English speakers; and the advantage of the third is that I speak passable German. None of these countries should be too warm during the summer, whereas Madrid gets really hot.

We continue to go to the City Cinema and see films. This week we saw "Who is Julia Ross" starring Nina Foch. It was a great film.

We have found several performance venues where we can listen to classical music. Last night we went to a great concert and it was free. There are several free concerts each week that we can go to.

Now we travel everywhere by subway. The subway here must be the best in the world and we love it, although Berenice hates all the stairs. (There are lots of escalators here in the subways, unlike Paris where they are almost nonexistent.) Some days Berenice does not even want to ride the subway because of the steps, but it is more difficult to use buses. The buses are much better than London, but, like all buses, they take more time than the subway.

The people here are wonderful and so are our landlords, a great couple with three children. The landlady even washes our clothes for us. The other day we were about the only people staying in our hostal so we watched TV for awhile on the big color set. Spanish TV is the worst I have ever seen. Boring shows of all kinds. Probably there is some good stuff, but I haven´t found it.

We went to ride the teleferico the other day, but it was closed so we will go Saturday. It´s a ski lift type thing which goes from town through the big park to the east. It´s supposed to have fantastic views.

Berenice got her hair cut a couple of days ago. I wanted her to dye it brown and have it cut short, but she refused and just had her bangs cut. Since a dye job is only $5, I think it would be fun to see Berenice with brown hair. How about you?

Berenice continues to be bothered by the fact that most things shut down between 2 and 5 in the afternoon. I don´t mind it at all - in fact I think it is charming. We just wander around in the afternoons anyway, unless we stop at a McDonalds so that I can study Spanish.

Berenice and I had a big continuing rolling argument about when we were going to leave Madrid. She wanted to leave on March 15 and I wanted to leave on April 15 so that I could spend the maximum time in this City studying Spanish. I begged her and begged her for the extra month and, finally, she relented. She´s a wonderful person! As she just said "Our tastes are entirely different! You love big cities, I love villages."

Anyway, we seem to be getting along, except that Berenice says she feels like a child because she can´t do anything by herself. This is her problem. I don´t hinder her from doing anything she wants to do with or without me.

Yesterday we went to another free museum, the Municipal Museum where we saw the history of Madrid. It was nice to see our street was there in 1730, although with a different name.

PERSONAL MESSAGES:

Leslie Martin: If we got a message from you, we responded to it with a personal message in our next letter. So if you wrote and we didn´t mention your letter in our next letter, we didn´t get it. We got your two letters dated 6-25 and 6-23 and they were delightful. I believe we also got several other letters from you. We love hearing from you because you agree with me (Jon) on the issue of villages v. cities and on other points. Your letters are great. Love to Loren, too.

Bob B: It´s great to hear from you and we think what you have done with the furniture was right. We are so glad to hear that the tenants are good people after the nightmarish experience we had with the previous one. Take care of yourself, Bob. We value your help and friendship.

Pam D: Berenice got your airmail and is glad that Steve is going to get operation over with. We´ll add his name to our address list.

Sherri N: We love hearing from you and are glad to hear that the kids are fine and that Matt is doing great and Kim is doing better in school. Has her collar bone healed completely now? Are you becoming a laptop computer expert? Isn´t e-mail a great thing to have.

I find it hard to believe that Matt and Kim will go to Bemidji to study Spanish, when they can study Spanish in Hobbs. It´s a great language to know. But I guess anywhere they learn it is a good idea. I´m struggling with my Spanish, but these two bright kids will probably pick it up quickly in Bemidji or anywhere. I´m sure they´ll be better than me at it after only a short time, so it´s a good time for them to learn.

Emily S: Sorry about your pneumonia but we can´t think of a better person to take care of you than Frank. We hope that you are well now. Your letter was lovely and very much appreciated. We are getting along better and better.

Wendy Martin: We hope that you and Allison have recovered from pneumonia. We know what is is like to be so sick that we don´t even want to ever get up, but thank goodness we are both well now. Our first month in Madrid we thought we would never stop coughing.

Love to Jed and Allison.

Cantara C: Cantara, thanks for your letter. We had no trouble finding a month-to-month room for $490 a month. We just looked in the book "Let´s Go - Spain and Portugal" under accommodations in Madrid and picked the places we wanted to check. Wherever you go, you should get the Let´s Go book for that area. You can even reserve a room ahead of time because the book usually lists phone and fax numbers. It´s good to hear that Rob is still working at the restaurant.

Kathy N: Hi, Kathy, Derek, Daisy, Shyguy, Wedge, Wiley and Camie. Good to hear from you and that you got a BIG apartment in the same complex you used to be in. We see some signs of America here, especially on clothing. For example, you might see a jacket that says "Oshgosh, Ohio Bowling Team" or a T-shirt which says "New York Raiders." I guess it doesn´t really make a difference to people here if there are any New York Raiders and the T-shirt maker doesn´t have to pay any royalties to a non-existent team.

We are not in need of anything American here, but thank you so much for the offer. We have everything that we need here except good TV programs.

We love you and hi again to the 5 ferrets.

MARCH 4 LETTER:

Dear all you great people,

Berenice writes:

Thank you everybody for your letters of encouragement, sympathy and advice during the bad period that I have been through. It was a combination of depression, tiredness, trauma from such a change in my life, and homesickness.

It was very, very cold when we arrived after leaving all the ambience of the Coe family in England. Madrid is a huge cosmopolitan city and we are right in the center of it. I withdrew because I could not communicate. I am now learning some Spanish and getting more accustomed to the life style.

The women over 50 mostly wear fur coats and I could not understand why they were going hatless in the cold weather until Jon pointed out they were mostly wearing wigs which are very popular here as well as the fur coats. Mostly the younger Spanish women under 50 look exactly like younger English women in London, black jackets, three-quarter length or longer with black straight leg pants (maybe a slight flares) and heavy black shoes. Muffler type scarves around the neck or little rolled brim black hats. The younger women all seem tall and slim, while the old women are mostly plump and short. The men seem quite conservative.

There is a saying that Madrilenos get bored in Paris or New York because nothing is happening there. This city is always ON. Very blue skies, but it can be very dry and cold, although the air seems clean.

Every day between 2 and 5 you hear the bang-bang of store shudders going down and city closes up for siesta. Then at 5 it is like an awakening. People who have gone home on the subway from work come back again and the city becomes alive, full of bustling people and cafes and restaurants and crowded streets. Supper seems to be around 10 at night. Our little alley-street is very lively with many eating and drinking places. the cafe con leche must be the best in the world.

We plan to go to Luxembourg via Paris in May. Jon is seriously studying Spanish and very well able to communicate. He is a great map reader and knows his way all over Madrid by public transport and has contrived to get us two monthly transport passes, which are inexpensive compared to London.

We have found some nice places for concerts and libraries and go to museums when they are free on weekends. We have also found a wonderful lake in the park, which is surrounded by outdoor cafes with lots of nice places to walk and is accessible by subway.

We will probably try to stay in a northern climate through the summer and can think about Italy for the next winter.

Jon writes:

Thank goodness Berenice is out of her funk. She has been a burden not gladly borne. She now has realized that she likes Madrid a lot. There´s a lot to do here.

She has been to three free classical music concerts in the last week. They have been great for her.

Last weekend we went to the modern art museum and saw an exhibition of Man Ray´s photos and an exhibition of Robert Capa´s photos of the Spanish Civil War. They were wonderful.

This Sunday we are going to the gypsy market to buy some clothes for Berenice. Like all women, she thinks that there are "winter" clothes and "summer" clothes and she says she "needs summer clothes." I am looking forward to bargaining for the clothes.

We don´t watch much TV anymore, it´s just too boring. I will probably sell our little TV set before we leave Madrid. I will really regret leaving here.

Personal Messages:

Leslie Martin: It looks like you won´t have any problem with the year 2000. Your last computer message was dated 2006! It´s always great to hear from you. Glad to hear about your classical guitar recital and I also think that wild purple hair might be a good option for Berenice. I don´t like Barcelona - it´s just too busy for me and it´s a bit more expensive.

Terry and Paul: Hey, thanks for the package. It arrived today. Your packing was BRILLIANT! It was so good, it fooled us for awhile. The arrival of the package ended Berenice´s obsession about whether it would make it to Spain. Please send for the next 90 days worth and just hold them when they arrive at your house. Thanks again. YOU GUYS DID A GREAT JOB!

Steve Schift: Thanks for your letter. Do you remember that we saw the ballet at Zellerbach after I got two free tickets. Say HI to Julia. I added her new address (she finally got rid of that awful address she had) so she should write us. You are the greatest!

Arnie N: Great to hear you were in HW and had a good time and that Steve and Chris will deliver a granddaughter for you shortly. Believe me, retirement traveling is fantastic and I recommend it to anyone. Love you.

Claude and Monica: We are waiting to hear from you and want to know how things are going with your new location. Claude you would enjoy the streets we are on because they are very lively with cafes and a jazz club at the end of the alley.

Wendy Martin: We are glad you are over your pneumonia and back at work. We´ll probably be in Paris from about April 15 to about April 30, then on to Luxembourg. Berenice is pushing for Italy next winter, but do I have to learn Italian too!

Wendy Morrison: We were glad to hear about your mother´s convocations in England and Berenice thanks you for the invitation. As far as we know, we will be in Luxembourg during that time and Berenice will be unable to attend. I remember your mother well and wish her well.

Pam D: Berenice dictates her own letter and we sometimes argue about what she says, but she is the final arbiter of what is in her letter. She has finally seen the light and accepted Madrid as I have, as the next best thing to Heaven. Madrilenos have a saying "from Madrid to Heaven." We love your letters Pam and Berenice agrees that her hair color is her decision, although we will still discuss it.

-Love,

Jon and Berenice

MARCH 11 LETTER:

Dear Friends,

Berenice writes:

Am enjoying the letters and really appreciating what e-mail can do especially with Jon´s proficiency. It looks like spring has come to Madrid, although there always seem to be blue skies here and never any wind. Yesterday we went to the Royal Botanical Gardens and saw the first flowering trees plus daffodils. many evenings we go to a city cinema which is very inexpensive, called the Filmoteca. We can walk from our hotel. Tonight we are going to see Zakir and His Friends, a Swiss film. Last night we saw a Swiss film called Baurenkrieg which means the War of the Farmers.

We are waiting to hear from the relatives in Luxembourg as we plan to go there after two weeks in Paris and we should be there (Luxembourg) on about May 1. If Jon likes it, we may spend the summer there in a rented place, but we can´t afford more than $500 a month. We want to be located somewhere permanently for the summer months before the tourist season begins.

Jon studies Spanish two or three hours a day, but I seem to have some kind of a block in learning a language and want to give everything an Italian pronunciation. According to my phrase book, the Castillian is used here, but I do not find it entirely so. For instance the word beer is not pronounced thervetha as shown in my phrase book but is pronounced servesa.

There are wonderful food markets here and it would be wonderful to have a kitchen of our very own.

We have gotten a library card and are enjoying reading checked out books. We are thinking about coming back here next winter but I will need warm clothes.

Jon writes:

We are having a great time and the weather is perfect. The botanical garden yesterday was magnificent. It costs about a dollar to get in and you can stay as late as 7 p.m. There are many beautiful trees and plants. We plan to go there once a week in order to see the spring proliferation of blossoms.

Last weekend we went to the San Bernardo Fine Arts Museum which is supposed to have a collection second only to the Prado. It was great. The art was fantastic and we will go there again. The original of Suzannah and the Elders by Rubens is there and we saw it. Also, one of Goya´s madhouse paintings is there.

We also went to the Anthropology Museum. Right inside the door is a huge Mongolian yurt fully furnished. We especially loved the materials dealing with the Philippines.

The theatre we go to is showing Jean Luc Godard films and Swiss films this month. We also saw the Swiss film Congress of the Penguins and recommend it to any greens among you. Julia Olsen: take note.

I am continuing to study Spanish and am getting pretty good at it. I finished the book Spanish in 90 Days and am now spending my time reviewing it and increasing my vocabulary. I can now understand, in the main, what people say to me. Now it looks like I am going to have to relearn German. It should be easy because I took it for four years in college.

I found out that the only way to learn a language is to have a good book and study it assiduously. I am careful not to sidetrack myself into just reading or watching television. Berenice thinks that she can learn Spanish by osmosis. We will see if she can.

We saw a German pianist Herbert Hencke play the works of John Cage at the Modern Art Museum. It was wonderful - the acoustics were the most perfect I have ever seen. We could hear the string vibrating on the piano for up to 30 seconds after a key was played.

Personal Messages (to all those who wrote us this time)

Kay Nelson: We too miss Pam and the only way that I (Jon) can handle it is to believe that Pam is in Heaven where she is not feeling any pain and where we can rejoin her someday. The worst thing is for Mike, Missy and Justin, who really need her. I light a candle for Pam once a week at the local church.

Check with Tom regarding what Dennis is doing. Tom knows what lawyers can do.

Happy belated birthday to you too, my beautiful sister who means so much to all of us. We are glad that you and Jana are talking to each other about things.

Glad you talked to Kathy. What color are you going to make your hair?

Of course, I remember H.E. Harris and Garcelon Stamp Companies. I used to get their stamps on approval and hide them behind the radiator. Then, they would write me and say that they were having the postal inspector look into why I was not returning the stamps sent on approval. I was only about 10 at the time, so I avoided the post office box near the corner of 8th and Chestnut for fear that the postal inspector would be hanging out there.

Bob B: It is OK about the rent for this month just so it doesn´t become a pattern. Bob, if you want to extract anything from my letters for the paper, feel free to do so. Glad you´ve cut back with the Observer. It´s enough to do what you are continuing to do.

Pam D: We are glad to hear from you and glad to hear that Danny will be finishing his course. We remember Cheryl too from the party at Leslie and Lorens. We added Dan´s internet address to our list.

Tom N: Thanks for sending the fax. What is the fax number anyway. Do we have the wrong one? How come Winfax doesn´t work? I used it many times.

you need to do my CA taxes too. Terry should have gotten my forms. As to the question about dependents, the answer is yes - you can save me some money.

The name of that book is Bicycling the Pacific Crest Trail. PS: There is a Spanish film here entitled "Entre Las Piernes," which means "Between My Legs." You should contact Chaim Sil for possible action for copyright violation!

I will probably need a book entitled German in Three Months put out by Hugo, an English firm. Can you find it in Amazon. Will Amazon ship it to me here on your credit card or do they have to send it to you for transhipment? Can you just get the info for now?

Please pay $1,000 from Calfed to USAA. We are getting our $ from USAA now.

Marie: Berenice misses you too and congratulations on losing your first tooth. Keep up the good writing. I would love to hear from Genie too, but I know she will be leaving soon. We wish her bon voyage.

Schifty: Those Mephisto shoes permanently warped my feet I think. They were $200 shoes and I got them for $10 at a thrift shop. I wore them for vanity´s sake even though they were one and one-half sizes too large. They hurt my feet (it was like wearing boats) and I finally stopped wearing them.

Yes, there are seasons for clothes. You and Berenice are right. We just went to the Gypsy market and got new jackets. They are great and cost just a few bucks each. Berenice is a hard bargainer and saved herself some money. She´s looking for more summer clothes now.

Terry C: Terry, you are right and we are keeping that in mind when we move next. Has the house insurer been notified of the house status? Our cash card for CalFed doesn´t work - it says transaction not authorized. Could you try your card to get $20 to see if it works. We want our card to work otherwise we have to get our $ from the credit card and this is much more expensive for us. Any way the bank can activate our card again so it works?

Kathy N: Salem is a nice town, north of Eugene. It has a nice Unitarian Church where I slept one night under a fir tree in the front yard (I always slept out at Unitarian Churches on my travels when there was one since I am a Unitarian.) Do you know what a Unitarian is? It is a person with no invisible means of support!

We hope that you and Lise have a good time shopping. We went to market last weekend and brought great jackets. Berenice in now looking for a pair of jeans for our hoped-for trip to Luxembourg.

Hi to Derek and we are glad that fonts he designed are popular and being downloaded. Hi also to the Five Aces.

We travel light but we have a tent and groundpad in case we get stuck. All we need do is buy some blankets and we can camp. We carry our two suitcases on one of those little carts and of course I have a backpack.

Julia O: We are glad to hear that you starting your own practice and glad to hear that you have cases. You know that the first year is the worst since everything is accounts receivable it seems. It´s a good idea to avoid office expenses right now. It was great to hear from you.

Wendy Martin: We were happy to hear from you. We are glad to hear that Laurel is such a great driver and that she has her drivers license. Aren´t you looking forward to summer when it will be less hectic?

Emily S: Glad that you and Claude are doing Grapes and Figs and that you are videoing it for sale. It seems like a great way for people to see a great shoe. Tell Claude we are waiting to hear from him. Hello to Frank, a great caregiver.

Leslie M: Say hi to Dan M for Berenice. Congratulations on you nomination for a literary award from the (a North Dakota boy can say this) Canuck government. We hope you win. We were in Paris last year about this time and saw some of the places you mentioned and we will see them again.

Regarding "Platero and Me," we´ll look for this book and Berenice promises to read it because of your recommendation.

You and Loren would really enjoy Madrid (says Berenice) because they probably have the best collection of renaissance art next to Rome.

Love,

Berenice and Jon

MARCH 18 LETTER:

Dear Friends,

Berenice writes:

Primavera es aqui. Tiene muchos arboles. More than any city I have ever been. Plus a plaza or square or park every few blocks.

Regardless of what Jon says, I will have to discard my few worn-out winter clothes and find some cheap light apparel. One color silkish polyester suit with straight leg trousers and suit jacket with matching sleeveless t-shirt are all the rage here. In pastel colors. They are like a uniform. But I-I have to get something cheaper and more practical. Of course, jeans are also worn everywhere but not by older women. They are really too hot.

I will be glad to leave Madrid by mid-April as it will be very hot.

We have heard from Luxembourg and we will be going there May 1.

I think we have really explored most of Madrid by bus and metro and next week may visit Toledo and some of the surrounding cities.

Jon studies Spanish diligently for four hours every day and is communicating well. I just try to get by with my phrase book.

We have been to some more free concerts and further exploration of museums. Sometimes we just walk and explore the city. The streets are always full of people late at night and cafes and bodegas are always open, as well as Irish Pubs which are popular here.

Jon writes:

We love Madrid because it is beautiful and fantastic. It is a city in which everything works. Each morning I get up early and take the subway to a restaurant in another part of town to study. It never takes more than 5 minutes before the subway comes. I then walk home about noon and meet Berenice, who has finally arisen from the bed. We have breakfast-lunch together at home and usually get out the door together about 1. Needless to say, this late start puts a crimp in some of our plans because a lot of museums close at 2 for the day. We always find something to do, however. Yesterday, we went to the Retiro Park and sat on a bench by the lake eating peanuts. There were a lot of geese around. A trashman came by and two white geese started to make a lot of noise. We looked around and saw that the geese were a mother and father trying to defend their egg against the trashman. They were successful and fended off the trashman. (Sorry, Berenice informs me that he wasn´t a trashman, but a gardener.) Anyway, the gardener came back with two friends but they were unable to get the egg because of the stiff resistance of the geese. You might say that the gardener came up with a goose egg because he failed to get the goose egg. We´ll check back later this week to see if the egg is still there.

Last weekend we visited the Romantic Museum, which contains furnishings and paintings from the 19th century. It was all on one floor and very interesting.

We have also seen 3 great Swiss movies. One was about Rivesaltes, a WWII concentration camp in southern France. People who were later sent to Auschwitz sometimes went to Rivesaltes first. The picture was based on the diary of a Swiss nurse who worked at the camp and was very moving. I was reminded of the memorial behind Notre Dame Cathedral where you go down stairs and come to a long hallway where you can see 200,000 points of light (no, I am not talking about George Bush) one for every person who was deported from France during WWII.

We also went to the Prado again just to see the Goyas. We can´t seem to get enough of these beautiful paintings.

We went to two free classical music concerts this week and they were both wonderful.

Personal Messages:

Tom N.: I too wish I were fearless and could just go up to all and sundry and try my Spanish, but, alas, I cannot and therefore I am using what you properly describe and the "book intensive" method. It seems to work for me too. I can usually understand what people say to me now as long as the speech isn´t too rapid. However, I can´t undertand conversations that I overhear - too fast, perhaps I´m not really interested, whatever.

About TV, I can understand a lot of what´s on TV, but it seems like a waste of time compared to studying and studying. Besides, I like to study.

Terry and Paul: We hope that Genie got off to Paris okay for her two week stint.

Dan and Cheryl: It was great to hear from the two of you. Dan, I feel the same way you do: Right now, I want to speak German to the Spaniards and when we get to Luxembourg, I am sure that I will be trying to speak Spanish to the Germans. Cést la vie. It was great to hear you describe a major difference between Spain and Italy thus: "When I was in Italy the prices were so high I felt I was being robbed all the time." I am trying to convince Berenice that this is so, but we will probably have to give Italy a try. It was great hearing from you. Hi to Cheryl, whom we remember from Leslie and Loren´s party.

Wendy Martin:

We are glad that you have a spring break and are able to rest. Belated birthday greetings. We hope you had a great birthday.

Pam D: It must be noisy with two teenage girls in the house. Here it seems that every teenage girl has a cell phone and they are using them everywhere.

Leslie M: We are glad you are busy with your classical guitar and that you are having the opportunity to travel. We love your letters.

Love,

Jon and Berenice

MARCH 24 LETTER:

Dear Friends,

Berenice writes:

We have been receiving everybody´s letters at the computer place to which we come, usually on Thursday. If you don´t get a personal response below and you sent a letter, we did not receive it.

Madrid continues to have beautiful weather with blue skies and in the 60s. A little rain today for the first time in weeks. This will be our itinerary: we plan to stay at Echegaray in Madrid until April 15. After that we may go to the northern coast of Spain (maybe Bilbao) or to Valladolid, a town about 150 miles from here, we think. On May 1 we will arrive in Luxembourg and we will spend two weeks at the home of Vic´s cousin Alex and his wife. Alex has told us that we can stay there for two weeks and he has said he will help us find a room, but it will be very difficult because we can only afford $500 American. We want to be settled somewhere before the tourist season begins.

Madrid will have many events during Easter week, holy parades, etc. and I will write about them next week.

Jon writes:

As Berenice told you, I study Spanish about four hours a day and I have (in my opinion) become a Spanish speaker. I am also a reader of Spanish. Last night I polished off 50 pages of the mystery novel I am reading.

Now, if only I can become a Spanish listener. Most of the folks here talk too fast for me. Why can´t they ever say anything simple in Spanish, like: Can I borrow your pencil? Why do they have to say something so complex instead? Oh well, I can understand some of the things on television and I am enjoying the studying and reading. It is nice to be competent enough to order a sandwich and a beer without fear that the barmaid will trip you up!

Berenice continues to practice learning Spanish by osmosis (the transmission of things one way through a semi-permeable membrane). It doesn´t seem to be working, but she seems to be able to get along. Yesterday she went to the tobacconist to buy stamps. She was in there 20 minutes and when she came out she had the right stamps. She has found out that if you speak English, you will be able to basically get by. She´s my wife and she is monolingual, and I accept that. Whoops, she does speak some French though for being married to a French-speaking person.

I am very happy with the Spanish that I have learned and, except for my shyness in trying to speak to everybody (brother Tom take note) I am pleased to be able to communicate competently.

We took two days this week where we just walked somewhere not knowing where we were going. The first day Berenice led the way and we ended up at the river, which we had not seen since we arrived. It is not much of a river, but it is all that we have. We also ended up at the lake in the park and sat down and enjoyed the sun.

The outdoor tables are out everywhere and Berenice really likes this. I keep trying to get her to go to the McDonalds near the two leaning towers where they have great outdoor tables in sun all day, but she doesn´t want to go there for some reason. Does anyone know why someone would not want to go to McDonalds?

Berenice likes the fact that McDonalds does serve beer and they have some salads but she likes to bring in a vegetable sandwich from outside. We are finally branching out from fast foods by going to some of the other places to eat. Berenice reminds me that we also go to American fast food places because we can sit there for hours and study and read.

Lately we have both been sleeping til noon. I usually wake up earlier and practice my Spanish in my head. When I am both sides of a conversation, I can usually understand both sides!

This week we are going to a ski town in the mountains. We were going to go today, but we don´t want to go when it is cloudy.

We saw the movie "Detour" starring Tom Neal (1948). It was great as was "The Great Gatsby."

Personal Messages:

Tom N: We haven´t been to Toledo yet but, after your description, Berenice will probably make me go. In fact, we´ll go next week! Please do the CalFed thing just like you said.

Tell Claire I sympathize with her. You can represent me if they bring an action against me.

Zimbabwe sounds like a good idea. Keep quiet about the lions and Jacky probably won´t even notice. If you hear any, you can just say they were wombats. 52 hours of flying seems like a long time, but when you consider the folks who went on the Oregon Trail, it seems like a short time. Don´t forget to bring those neck pillows and plenty of tapes for your tape player. Also, before I forget it, bring a handheld recorder and a Polaroid camera to amaze the natives.

My Spanish is coming along. I figure I will be like a chrysalis: suddenly, without warning, I will just start talking and listening. Ah well, I have to do things my way and I´m happy with myself.

Pam D: It´s always sunny here, Pam and we don´t miss the rain at all. We are glad the kids are coming in and out. It´s nice to have a way station for your kids.

Berenice finally got a letter from Claude, but it would be nice if you had a chance to talk to him. It was a great letter. He said that their move was successful and that he would be making a CD of his oud music. Sounds great.

Dan Doolan and Cheryl: Thanks for all your advice. we will keep in mind which towns in Italy are least expensive.

Leslie Martin: We identify with your New York experiences as we have both had the same feelings when walking there early in the morning. (Jon lived on Long Island for 1 and 1-2 years). We will go back tomorrow to see if the geese had to give up their egg. It´s our hunch that the egg is gone but one can always hope.

Probably next spring we will go to Bari just to satisfy Berenice´s desire to go there and so that we can both have the experience.

Kay Smith: Dear Sister, you say that you too have difficulties learning other languages and that you heard the word porque and didn´t know whether it meant how or when. Let me tell you how to remember the word: It seems that President Zedillo of Mexico decided to appoint Porky Pig, a resident of Burbank, California, as Minister of Hacienda (income tax). All over Mexico people were asking "Por que Porky?" (Why Porky?) and Zedillo´s response was "Porque!" (Because!). Now you have learned the meaning of that word. PS: The denouement of this story was that Porky never got the job because he was a US resident.

Great that you are going to a lot of birthday parties for the grandkids.

Kathy N: Hey, daughter, don´t you think it is understatement when you say "We´re leaving the (5) ferrets with a sitter since it might be difficult to get them on the airplane)? anyway we are glad that you are going to Salem, OR to interview. They probably need an MIT grad. It´s a great town. We´ll see about getting Berenice overalls. She likes the idea but feels she might be too old for them. Thank goodness for "ice blue island twist." We love you. Hi to Derek.

Love to all of you,

Jon and Berenice

PS to Jim Schefter: Stop spamming me with "61 ways to spot a Minnnesotan" or i´ll report you to the thought police.

APRIL 5 LETTER:

Dear Friends,

Berenice writes:

It has been frustrating to be out of touch for 12 days but Madrid has been in a mad passion of Easter called Semana Santa (Holy Week). Everything was shut down tight even food stores but we did enjoy the parades. It reminded me of the Italian section of Philadelphia when I was a little girl. There were parades into and out of all the main plazas and since we are in the direct center of the city called the Puerta del Sol.

Jon is criticizing me because my English is so idiomatic and that is probably why I am not understood when I try to speak present tense Spanish. The parades featured traditional pointed hat robes and the most amazing lifelike statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary that I have ever seen. I went to some of the cathedrals just to look at some of the statues.

The heat has descended but it is very bearable and pleasant and always blue sky. I have found the solution to summer clothes - long simple sleeveless dresses and sandals. Luckily, I brought one of each.

We will be moving on and Jon will tell you about it. Incidentally, he is able to read the Spanish newspapers because he has been studying 4 hours a day. Until now the news about the war has been really unavailable to us unless we spend $4 or $5 a day on English newspapers. We have found two libraries that carry two London newspapers. However, this does not enable me to know what is going on in your area - how the Americans feel, etc.

Spanish TV in Madrid not only dubs everything into Spanish but never uses captions. (It is really funny to see the Simpsons dubbed.

Jon says:

We will be leaving Madrid on the 15th and we are not sure where we will be spending the next two weeks before we go to Luxembourg. Madrid is getting warm now, so we are ready to move on. We no longer wear sweaters at all as this is shirtsleeve weather.

Leslie, we went to the Retiro Park and found the two geese still had their egg. They had built a nest of down feathers and the mother was sitting on the egg. We are going again this week to find out if there is a fledgling yet.

As Berenice said, everything closed for 4-5 days and a lot of people left town so we didn´t experience the usual crowds. It was nice. Now the people are back and that is nice too.

Despite what Berenice says, I have had no trouble reading the Spanish papers for the news about Serbia. Unfortunately, Berenice will not listen to reports from me about the news, but demands to read it in English papers for herself.

We spend a lot of time in parks sitting on benches and in libraries sitting on chairs - such is the life of a person passionately devoted to the learning of the Spanish language! (the previous writing is what is called in Spanish "la mierda del toro".) Anyway I have been working hard and now have the grammar down. What next? I read papers and books and talk in a rudimentary fashion. It is now time to declare victory and move on to learning German in Luxembourg. Since I took four years of it in college, it should be duck soup for me.

I now speak (sort of) three languages, a fact of which I am proud. Berenice refuses to study, as she just wants to have fun. Fun consists of lying awake all night worrying and then sleeping until 1 p.m. We are, however, enjoying ourselves very much here and we intend to return next fall so that I can work as a carnicero de Espanol (butcher of Spanish).

Personal Notes:

Leslie: We told you about the goose and gander above. Further news will follow as it is discovered.

Terry and Paul: If Paul and the kids come over, we will probably be in Luxembourg and we will arrange to get together with them as Berenice and I are anxious to see them. It will help alleviate Berenice´s heimweh (German for homesickness).

Sherri N: Every time we get a letter from someone we send them a personal message. If you don´t get a personal message, we didn´t get your letter. It was great to hear from you with your news about Steve and Kathy. Love you. Hi to Othon and the kids.

Pam D: Porky is now in a rest home in Pasadena. His failure to get the job in Mexico affected his health, which declined precipitously thereafter.

Glad to hear that Steve went to Arizona for baseball. What a great game! I (Jon) grew up on baseball. Glad to hear that Scot is OK and that he´s coming to visit you and Roy. Berenice bought a pair of jeans and a pair of slacks. She cut holes in the toes of her cloth sandals and they are now comfortable. We save a lot of money now because when people see Berenice´s cut sandals, they give her money. (Joke)

Wendy Martin:

The Alhambra is in Granada in Andalucia. We think it is away from the coast and we want to see it but it is hotter than ____ in Andalucia beginning about now so we will see it next year.

Tom N: Good Afternoon, Mr. Nelson. Your mission should you choose to accept is to call the Hotel Printemps, 31, Rue du Commerce in Paris (01.45.79.83.36, Fax: 01.45.79.84.88) and make reservations for Tom Nelson and wife for two weeks beginning the night of April 16. You should get a room for two (cheapest) with one bed if possible. No WC, no shower, nada. Lowest floor possible. Charge it to your credit card and we will replace it with our credit card when we arrive in Paris on April 16. Room should be about 140 Francs per night (Let´s Go France, 1999). A little more is OK. Ask them if McDonalds has replaced the Burger King at the corner.

Let us know immediatemente by e-mail that you have a confirmed reservation. If we don´t get a confirmed reservation for at least a week, we will probably stay in Spain for that two weeks. Should you or any members of you Impossible Missions Force (IMF) be caught or captured, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your mission.

Don´t go to Zimbabwe - too dangerous for the two of you. Look what happened recently in Uganda.

Love,

Jon and Berenice

APRIL 13 LETTER:

Dear Everyone,

Berenice writes:

We are still in Madrid and leave here by bus for Paris on the 15th. The bus is cheaper than the train and maybe safer. We have booked at the Hotel Printemps in the 16th Arrondisement for two weeks for only $25 per day. Jon is happy about this.

Then we go to Luxembourg to stay with my relatives the Jacquemart family.

About the "war", I am running with "the hare and the hounds." I have always been a pacifist and always will be, but, as most others, am torn by the atrocities and the need to do something about them. My only wish is that the UN were not so "wimpy", and could have acted quickly rather than having put the burden on NATO, which seems to make it a unilateral action.

I go to the library which carries an English newspaper (the Independent) and read it from the first page to the last. It has a wonderful coverage of the "war" but of course does not give the US viewpoint. Protests against the bombing are happening here, but too many Serbians are really involved and there is a fear of violence.

Blue skies always in Madrid and wonderful warm springish weather. If it weren´t for those two boiling hot months in the summer, we would just stay here because we could get an even cheaper room (even less than the $500 a month we are now paying). We are also mostly eating in the kitchen so our expenses are below what we are making from the house rental.

"Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice; from what I know of desire, ice is nice." My aunt had gone to Europe to visit her relatives before WW II. While she was there, war was declared and she had one helluva time getting back to the US. I hope that doesn´t happen to us. What Jon and I would really like to do is help the refugees. I wonder if we could provide that help in some way. I have my nursing license with me and Jon still knows how to wash dishes, set up tents, type and generally assist in little ways. Having been born in a War and served in another, I just want to see this whole thing end quickly. I also lost my only brother in WW II. Enough of this and my fears. Spain seems like an island, and a beautiful one.

Jon writes:

We are going to Paris and very much looking forward to it. The bus trip is overnight and 16 hours long, but we will go through Tours and Orleans in daylight and I have never seen them. Berenice fears the Basque country. There is no reason for concern, as far as I can see. Spain is offering the Basque limited sovereignty and most of them want to accept it and end the violence that has been occurring there for over thirty years.

We will be staying at least two weeks in Luxembourg and then we want to stay there for the summer if possible, but we don´t know if we will be able to afford it. Berenice´s relatives are knowledgeable and will be able to tell us where we can find affordable accommodations for the summer (even if they happen to be in Poland).

The weather has been wonderful here and I go each morning to study Spanish. I can read it very well now and can say everything in Spanish, except for the most esoteric things. However, I don´t understand everything that is said to me because I haven´t developed an ear yet. I can understand a lot of what is said on Spanish TV. It´s still boring! When I speak, I have to take time in order to get my point across, but I can always do it.

As soon as we hit Luxembourg, I will start renewing my study of German. Since I had a German major in college it should only take a week or two to get in the rhythm. We´re taking our little TV to Luxembourg so we can watch German TV. I think the No. 1 program there is Baywatch.

Berenice thinks that her French will get us around Paris, so I will spend no time learning French since I can lean on her there.

Personal Messages:

Arnie N: We got your granddad website address and will check it out.

Monica S: Thank you for your informative letter. First, we are glad to hear that (1) you like your new place, (2) you are getting lots of work assignments, and (3) you and Claude have developed an interest in photovoltaic technology. We think that this is a great thing to learn about and that you can really help the environment by doing what you plan to do. We love you too.

Tom N: We are taking the chance that we have a reservation in Paris. Wish us luck. Thanks for what you did for us. We could not have done it ourselves from here. What are the summer plans now? Still Africa?

Pam D: We´re sorry it´s still cold there. It´s great here. If you could come to Europe some time that would be great. We´ll send you our Luxembourg address and phone number with our next message. Regrettably, the assisted-living facility in Lodi (to which Porky has been transferred) does not have e-mail. (The previous is a running joke.)

Andy and Maureen: We are glad to hear that everyone is fine and that you are busy doing a gig a week in addition to your job. We loved staying at your place and we know Paul and the kids will love it too. There are a lot of pubs here and we visit a particular Irish pub often for coffee con leche. Glad to hear that you finally got your laptop and can now work more easily at home. Love to Maureen, your wonderful wife, Valya, Antonia, Sean, Tristan and Victor.

Wendy Martin: It´s funny you should say that we write like Hemingway. We are presently working on three books and we need your opinion. Below a precis of each:

"To Have and Have Knot" - The story of a man who had trouble tying his tie.

"For Whom the Bull Toils" - The trials and tribulations of a man who runs a bull ranch in the Extremadura.

"The Short Happy Life of Francis MacGiver" - The story of a Scotsman who accidentally walked off a precipice.

What do you think - are these commercially viable projects?

We are glad that Laurel is driving which reduces your need to be a "soccer mom." We love your letters

Berenice is trying to get off caffeine by increasing her beer consumption (Jon is writing this). She staggers into bed each night telling me how proud she is to have reduced her caffeine consumption!

Julia O: It was great to hear from you. Read the above to see how well my Spanish is coming. Berenice also is torn by the war and is not sure what to think. Personally, I (Jon) feel that something must be done to stop the ethnic cleansing and NATO is doing what it can to do this.

It was great to hear that you went to Michigan to find out more about the life of a famous American (I refer, of course, to Esteban). Tell him this dentist joke: A guru from Rashneesh Purim (Oregon) went to a dentist to have his wisdom teeth removed. He refused an anesthetic. Why? He wanted to transcend dental medication. Let us know how your practice is coming along.

Leslie M: The goose is still sitting on the egg or on a gosling, we could not tell. We´ll probably go check again before we leave.

Jon likes Scottish food so we will be going to McDonalds where Berenice will order a beer and have a salad. There is a Belgian fast food in Paris called Quik and we will probably go there too. Jon wants to know what the loin of Shakespeare is. He doesn´t know French very well.

Great to hear that you are into alternative medicine. Did you read about the doctor who gives his patients a placebo and tells them "This has no active ingredients but it has been shown to help some people?" Apparently placebos are as effective as anti-depressants for most people and this doctor therefore just gives the patient a placebo. Interesting, huh?

Don N and Mom: Don, how are you and mom? How is Mike doing? Please let me know. Mom, we love you and hope you are doing well. We think about you often.

Love to all of you,

Jon and Berenice

PS: Jim "Spammer" Schefter: You are a great guy but cut out the spamming and just send us a letter and let us know how you are.