Duality

31 December, 13

I have mentioned before that most people see me in one of two ways:

1. Very serious-minded.
2. Very jolly.

The truth is I am both, which makes for some interesting conversations in my head. Serious and funny often comes out as biting sarcasm. Seriously funny emerges as self-deprecating humor. I love to deprecate all over myself, particularly when masticating.

Moving to an entirely new culture has unleashed parts of me that were more or less safely held in check back in the States.

In America, I was the upstanding citizen: community volunteer, church elder. I was also mischievous and a little deviant, but that was usually under cover of darkness, with a select group of friends. The trick was to keep circles of relationships separate and distinct, to prevent one group from talking to the other. Every once in a while, those groups would intersect, which created some great Lucy Ricardo moments.

In Spain, I have no identity. I could import one of the old Dan’s or choose to forge a new one. In some ways I have reverted to my college days. I think this is due, in large part, to the fact that I have no major responsibilities. Basically, I just have to show up for “class”, which means trips to the market to buy groceries.

After a few months, I think I am ready to be Upstanding Citizen Dan or Entrepreneur Dan.  Opportunities abound for both, but the Entrepreneur costume seems to fit a little better right now.

So far, I have identified several needs in Spain. The BIG ONE is English translation for businesses. You can fall over and hit a poorly written web page. They look like Google Translate, with a mix of jibberish thrown in for good measure. My idea is to charge a flat fee per page. This is a job that I can do from anywhere. The next iteration would be to translate English pages to Spanish, but I will need to hone my Spanish quite a bit, before I can pull that one off.

Teaching English as a second language is another avenue. Right now, Susan and I volunteer teach a class of about 12 people. We are also about to enroll in formal Spanish classes, so we should be getting a good idea of how to do it. I think Business English would be fun, focusing on how to market goods and services to English speakers.

If I can get a Worker’s Visa, we will qualify for the Spanish health care system, which is excellent and free. 

So many directions lie before me. I am like a mosquito in a nudist colony. I know what to do; I just don't know where to begin.