Sunday, August 28, 2011

Happy.... New Year???

For myself and many parents out there the New Year is not about a ball dropping in Times Square nor is it about  celebrating the end of a calendar year. No, my new year is the start of the school year.  When the kids go back to school and we go back to routines, sports, playdates, and only sleeping in on the weekends.  We lose some of the
spontaneity that summertime brings along with long, hot sunny days. 
However now that both of the boys are in school full time, I've recognized that for me the new  school year does have some similaries to the one we celebrate on Dec 31.  This is because for me it is about a fresh start.  It is a time for me to reflect on how the last school year went both academically and socially for the kids and also is a time for me to reflect on where I am in my life.  It's a time to reassess work, social and life changes.  It's a time to look forward to the new year and define what challenges I see ahead of me and come up with a plan of attack. With the school year starting in mere days I have already begun this process of looking forward and not because the kids are making me crazy (although that is true too) but because I find it cathartic.

So here is where I am on my challenges and resolutions for the academic 2011-2012 year ...

1.  I will go to the gym at least 3x per week.  I did this for most of last year but slacked off when I started taking Spanish in the mornings 2x a week and overscheduling my social calendar.  This is important to my emotional and physical health and I need to commit to it.  I did start off this AM with a short run (just over a mile before my knee began to hurt after 2 months of non usage).  In conjunction with this, I'm also going to try to each healthier (just watched Food Inc and Super Size me and it wasn't pretty...) though I did just put in a batch of cookies in the oven.  I'll start that part tomorrow :)

2.  I will practice my Spanish.  I will take another class but likely not til after the new year.  So until then I will go back to my trusty Rosetta Stone (which does really work when you commit to it) at least 3 times a week for 45 mins to an hour (without falling asleep!).  We still have over 22 months left - just over half - and I still have a long way to go!

3.  Work more.  Last year was the first time in over 6 years that I had the full week to myself and did not have to work around the kids' schedules during the day and no one was home with my part time.  A freedom that I most definitely abused by over filling my social calendar and working when I could find the time.  This year I need to reverse that and socialize (yes it is important to do that too) around my work calendar.  I'd like to actually grow this business but it takes time and commitment and I need to give it that.

4.  Work less with the kids around.  Yes a bit contradicting to the one above but the kids get home at 5 and go to bed at 7:30.  In the past I've had problems staying away from my laptop during those 2 1/2 hrs when no one is dying at work in that timeframe and can probably do just fine if I get back to them at 8 which is still 2PM their time.  One of the reasons we have chosen for me to work from home is so I could also be here for the kids so while I've always had a tough time with this one, I really need to make an effort to put them first during those few hrs of the day when they are here. 

5.  Since I'm hoping to do more work there may not be as much time for socializing but I still want to maintain my friendships here and see everyone so I'm hoping to reinstate my girls night once a week deal.  I started off with it when I first arrived and as time passed it has slowly fallen to the wayside.  But no more!! 

6.  I will not let my Spanish prevent me from doing this.  Yes, I've said this one before but I'm more confident now.  It took me a year to sign Aidan up for tennis (which we will do again this year, and Liam as well).  I will not let my lack of fluency prevent me from doing things I want to do.  What those things are yet I'm not sure but my Spanish won't stop me!!

7.  I will schedule more time with the kids' friends for playdates.  Yes, this seems simple but when you live in the city, have no car and most of your kids' friends live outside the city, oh and they don't get home from school til 5, this can often be a challenge.  I can count on one hand how many playdates each of the kids had last year.  Yes, this meant more family time on the weekends, but it also made for kids who ached for friends to play with on a more regular basis.  I will put more concerted effort into doing this!

8.  I will argue less with the kids.  When I overschedule I stress.  I don't overschedule as much here but I still find myself yelling for pretty much no reason.  I will do better about this and make a big effort to mellow out.  Yes, a big challenge for this right brain, anal, person, but I will try. 

9.  I will start to plan for more travel.  Since we are almost halfway to our time being up here, I need to make a list and start making some plans for our remaining time.  I know that this year we already have at least 2 trips to the States, one to Minnesota for my brother's wedding and we'll go home likely in August.  Josh and I are also hoping to go to Oktoberfest next Sept (but that's technically the NEXT school year so I guess that doesn't count).  Also on my potential list for this year is Switzerland, Austria, northern France, Gibralter, Belgium, England and perhaps Germany (though may just wait til we go to Oktoberfest for that one) as well as more in country travel.  In almost 2 years we have only been to Costa Brava, Valencia and to Port Aventura (near Tarragona) so suffice it to say we need to do more in Spain!

Finally... #10.  I will stay in touch with friends from home more. I opened my Skype for the first time in months today and that's only to prepare for a potential call. I have not skyped with any friends or family in months and while I do email and facebook with them, it's not the same as having a face to face conversation when you are so far away. In addition, I will make sure the kids do the same though since they are only free on weekends (because of the time change) we will have to schedule accordingly and I will try to do it more often.

So we'll see how far I get on these but I'm starting with an open mind and am going to commit to making this work for a productive, happy and healthy new year :)

Julie

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Festa de Gracia

Every year the neighborhood of Gracia competes in a street decorating contest that has become incredibly popular in the city for locals and tourists alike.  This is a time where although we do not have friends in our neighborhood, I can see how you can have a close knit group despite the fact that you are in the city.  That you do not need to be in the suburbs of Julie-ville (though I miss Julie-ville) in order to be a part of a community such as this.  And as a note to my friends in Julie-ville, I think we should have a contest like this when we come back - you know Bernardo vs Buena Vista vs Cullen vs Maureen and then Nora... it would be hysterically funny I'm sure and everyone would have a great time!

So anyways, last year I missed the festival as the kids and I were in the States but Josh was here and took pictures and I was amazed at the creations in these little side streets.  Decorated to the hilt you can tell that this wasn't a weekend project for these people but had probably taken months to not only plan but to prepare.  When we arrived from Greece on Sunday, it was the last day of the festival and so Aidan and I took a schmooze around to see if the streets would still be decorated or if the disassembling had in fact begun. 

We were thrilled to see that no, nothing had been taken down yet (and it turned out that it did not end til 11PM on Sunday night so we had plenty of time) and that the streets were amazing!  Not every street was decorated but the ones that were stood out from everything around it.  All of the streets we saw had tons of lights (that were not lit during the day obviously) that I'm sure make each street look amazing at night - next year we will have to make sure we see them all lit up!

Our first stop... the Jungle Book.  This has always been one of Aidan's favorite movies and so it was a great first street for him to see as he became incredibly excited about the prospect of finding all his favorite characters. 







Each street had a completely different theme and each had been rated by a judging committee.  It was my understanding that the Jungle Book came in 7th... that amazed me because I thought this display was unreal!!  However, I could also be totally wrong on what place they came in too. 

The next one we stopped by seemed to have to do with coffee though I didn't 100% get the display.  Yes there was a giant coffee carafe and then there were bags of coffee hanging.  I think they also had coffee trees/leaves but not really sure what the actual theme was other than coffee.  Not one of my favorites. 




The next street we came upon felt very whimsical and light.  It was chinese lanterns decorated with flowers.  There were white tubes that represented trees and it was just all very pretty.  Not super exciting and there wasn't any paper mache that took someone hours to create and decorate but it was still very cool to see.  We walked pretty quickly thru this one. 





At one point as we were walking we heard live music coming from one of the placas.  We turned the corner and it was decorated in a rock n roll theme.  As with all the streets, there was a bar set up so that people walking thru could purchase water or beer and in this case also some snacks.  Aidan was more fascinated by the squirt guns that many people were using and wanted me to get him one... only I couldn't find out where they were being sold.  We bought a bottle of water for the road and continued on our way.


The next street was another of Aidan's favorites - SpongeBob!!  The whole street looked like Bikini Bottom down to the jellyfish floating above us.  Aidan searched for all of his favorite characters and other than Patrick (whom we think for some reason was above the sea - you'll see the pic) we found them all.  Sadly someone had stolen Squidwards head!!







Our final street that we saw decorated before calling a day was my favorite.  From 2 blocks away, I could see the pirate ship looming ahead, 3 stories tall.  Remember those simple Chinese lanterns?  Yeah, those are nothing compared to a street that built their own 3 story pirate ship!!  Aidan's favorite part on this street?  The mermaid with crabs on her boobies... ahh the joys of having boys right?









We walked around for about an hour checking out different streets and their amazing displays.  By far we did not see them all but we had been up since 4AM, tired, hot and hungry.  After an hour we were near our favorite crepe place, Creps A Barcelona, and decided to stop in for a snack before heading back home. 

As a side note, I was walking around Gracia yesterday, Wednesday, and there was not one single piece of evidence that these streets had ever been decorated.  Clean as a whistle!  Amazing!  Til next year!

Julie

Monday, August 22, 2011

Summer by the Numbers

This summer was one that was full of travel and adventure like nothing I'd seen before in my life.  I'm well aware that we have been incredibly fortunate, not just with the opportunity to live abroad, but also with our ability to travel to all kinds of wonderful places.

When it came to planning our trips for this summer I knew 3 things that I had to work around. 

    1.  I needed to take the kids home as it's the only time they go home each year and it needed to be a minimum of two weeks. 

    2.  Michelle would be visiting most likely in July and we wanted to plan a road trip.

    3.  Josh was thinking of taking his VistaBreak and if he did (at the time we weren't sure if he would wait to take it or not) he would take it in August so I couldn't plan 1 or 2 for August just in case.

So in the end our timeline looked something like this:

June 17 - Last day of school
June 18 - leave for the USA
July 6  - Return from the USA
July 8  - Head out on road trip with Michelle, Kelly and all the kids
July 19 - Return from road trip 
July 22 - Friends in town thru Monday that we were entertaining
July 30 - leave for VistaBreak
Aug 21  - Return from VistaBreak

So all in all, we were literally in town for 12 days this entire summer - July 6-8 (and I wouldn't even call that 2 days since we didn't arrive til mid day on the 6th and left by noon on the 8th, just enough time to unpack, do laundry and repack) and July 20-29th.  Seriously, a crazy travel schedule.

But now that we are back and all the blog entries have been completed, I was curious about all that we had done and when I started putting it together it looked something like this... 

Number of countries visited:  7
(USA, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Ireland and Greece)

Number of days on the road:  54
(summer vacation was a total of 75 days so just over 3/4 of vacation was spent on the road)
Number of islands visited:  4
(Devil's Foot, Hydra, Corfu, Paxos)
Number of hotels:  7
(Aix-en-Provence, Nice, Arles, Killarney, Swords, Athens, Corfu)
Number of houses:  8
(our house in Attleboro, my parents house, Josh's parents house, the Anastasia's house, our apartment in Spain, Rapallo Italy, Fanore Ireland and Paxos Greece)

Number of planes: 8
(to/from USA, to Ireland, Ireland to UK, UK to Athens, Athens to Corfu, Corfu to Athens, Athens to BCN)

Miles flown (guesstimate): 12455 miles / 20047 km
(definitely added to our carbon footprint!)

Miles driven (guesstimate): Too many too count... thousands???
Number of boats or ferries:  5
(Ray's boat, ferry to/from Portofino, ferry to/from Hydra, ferry to/from Paxos, boat rental on Paxos)

Number of pictures taken:  2673 (250 June, 1110 July, 1313 August)

Number of caves: at least 10!
(Doolin cave Ireland, caves of Paxos)

I sit here trying to think of more numbers for our summer but after all this travel, my brain is a bit mushy!  All I can say is it is a summer we will never forget and hopefully we're all ready for the new school year to begin which will bring new adventures and challenges that we will all have to face.  It also brings us closer to our halfway mark (speaking of numbers) to our time here in Barcelona.  Now that I've shared all our summer travel stories with you, I hope to go back to more of our traditional life in Spain stuff and talk all about the new things going on as we get closer to that halfway mark.

Julie

A Final Night in Corfu

Because we had a 7AM flight off of Corfu on Sunday morning we decided that it was best to stay there for our final night in Greece.  Corfu is the island next to Paxos and significantly larger. We had considered Corfu when looking at places to go in Greece and while I'm sure it has it's beautiful areas and plenty of beaches, I'm really glad we chose Paxos.

Our hotel was a part of a water park which we thought the kids would love.  However, when Josh booked the hotel we didn't know that our ferry wouldn't be til 4PM from Paxos (the ferry was only booked a few weeks ago) therefore, the water park part was already closed by the time we got to the hotel.  Thankfully there was a nice pool!

Unfortunately, the hotel was also pretty far away from both the port and the airport... like a 45 minute drive.  Whew knew this island was so big????  The taxi driver didn't speak English (which was fine, after all, we were in his country) but when he spoke he yelled.  He also didn't turn on the meter and was driving like a maniac.  And I thought the drivers in Barcelona were psychotic?  No way, nothing compared to the Greeks I've experienced!!!

We drove along what I assume was the midlands of the island until we came to the north.  With the exception of the port town, for 45 minutes we saw very little of anything other than trees and road.  A few houses spotted here and there and no towns until we reached the end of our journey.  Suffice it to say since he didn't turn on the meter at all and we were in the middle of the boonies and yeah I'll admit to knowing that Americans aren't the favorite people of the Greeks these days...that I worried for a few moments if we were perhaps being kidnapped. 

However, towards the end when he made a few wrong turns and patted Josh on the back and said in his broken English (very loudly) "It all OK", I realized that he's just a quiet guy and that the island is just very sparce once you get out of the main city.  Whew!!!  But as we looked for the hotel in this beach town (which sprung up out of no where!), I was a little concerned since it looked all a bit run down.  Did we really drive all this way for crap? 

And there amongst the fields with the alpacas was our hotel.  We had to drive along a windy dirt (path) road to get to it and I once again had concerns about what we had gotten ourselves into.  But I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived and the hotel was fantastic!  Clean, updated and most of all, exceptional service.  They came right out to the cab and brought our bags in and then brought us right upstairs to our room.  The kids immediately wanted to swim in the pool which we of course let them.  We had some snacks by the pool and the kids swam til around 8:30.





Finally it was time to go upstairs and change so we could have some real food.  Aidan slipped on the stairs going up and his head made some significant contact with the marble stairs resulting in a huge egg on his head.  There were a few times during dinner where he didn't respond to us and all I could think of was where in the hell is the hospital from here and what if he has internal bleeding or a concussion???  Thankfully all was well and we had a very pleasant (though not super yummy) dinner before settling down early.  After all, we had a 4AM wake up call and a 4:30AM taxi waiting for us in the morning to take us back to reality.  And reality bites :(

Josh still has one more week left of vacation and we'll make the most of it while at the same time getting the kids back in to some routines since school starts at the end of next week.  We don't have any plans in particular other than to catch up on some sleep (though we were both up by 6 this morning!) and take care of things around the house, such as the 50 loads of laundry we brought back with us!  Perhaps we'll even make an attempt to start talking about our next vacations we need to plan!  Regardless, this has been a summer and a VistaBreak to remember!!

Julie

Sunday, August 21, 2011

A Boating We Shall Go!!

Wednesday was yet another beautiful day in Lakka and over the weekend we made a reservation to rent a boat for the day.  It was a simple 16’ center console fishing type boat and our plan was to do some exploring and then end up on Anti Paxos, an island just to the south of us.

First thing on Wednesday we headed out for our day of adventure.  Lakka is at the northern most point of Paxos so we made the plan to bear left (west) and then south towards Anti Paxos.   Josh, as always, was the perfect boat driver, navigating not only the caves but all the waves we encountered.
I know how much everyone loves the shots of the harbor... again :)

Our boat
Captain Josh and his hat
As we round the outside of the harbor
This is actually the other side of where our villa is, in the open sea
The next couple of shots are just ones I took of the island as we were going down the coast...


You can see where the erosion is wearing away at the island










You can see caves in this one!
All of the caves we explored were on the west coast and the terrain was definitely more rugged than the more protected eastern side (which is also where all the towns happen to be located).The caves were huge and my pictures don’t do them justice.Our boat fit quite comfortably in to just about all of them with room to move around, yes they were that big.

Upon entering our first cave I was definitely a bit ambivilent... yes I know that these have been here for hundreds if not thousands of years, but you never know when a cave might collapse.  And as Josh says, I'll probably get struck by lightning sometime too... though here we are in our first one!

Our first cave

Close
Closer...

Almost there...
Still doesn't look like we would fit does it?  We actually would have but I wasn't ready for Josh to go into a cave at this point... he went into the next one which was a bit larger

Next caves


The picture on the right is actually one of the walls inside the cave.  The picture does not do the size of this wall or cave justice but perhaps the exiting picture below will...
As we leave the cave...
The coolest cave in my opinion was a triple one where the center cave had collapsed therefore letting in tons of sunlight from the open cave ceiling.  Again I don’t think the pics are going to do this one justice.  And this is the video of us going thru it:



First mate Liam LOVED the caves!
Isn't that water unbelievable???
And so clear!
Triple cave with the center one collapsed... my favorite one
Center cave
Cave we actually drove into since you couldn't go in the collapsed one...


Inside the cave

And because I'm not sure which cave this video goes with, I'm going to just plug it in right here: 

Inside the cave was actually a small beach area.  Josh wanted to anchor here but I said no way!  I know, I'm a total spoilsport!

View into the collapsed cave

It may look like it's pretty low but this cave was probably at least 10-15 feet tall at the entrance

Inside the cave was another little cave starting!

View into the collapsed cave from within the one next to it
On our way back out again

Loved that I actually got a reflection of the sun on the water



One of my favorite shots of the day
We made it to Anti Paxos around 11ish and our biggest challenge was finding somewhere to tie up the boat.  Josh dropped the kids and myself off at the dock and proceeded to tie up the boat himself – I did get a comical picture or two of him doing that J

Anti Paxos in the distance
Beach at Anti Paxos

As always the gentleman that he is, Josh dropped the kids and I off at the dock and then had to tie up the boat on his own - you can kind of catch him climbing back on after tying it up
The beach was fabulous – beautiful soft sand and clear turquoise waters.  The only downside was that it was crowded, very crowded.  We did find an umbrella to put our stuff under before the crowds really started to show up but ferry after ferry after ferry kept coming by to this little beach (they were more like water taxis than ferries size-wise) to drop people off.  However the kids loved building sand castles and Aidan enjoyed more snorkeling in the water of course.
Ahhhh the beach!  And sand!
More clear beautiful water!
My little fishie
Building sand castles, the one thing they can't do on Paxos
All smiles
Competing castles
Getting some rocks for accessories
Swimming and building
Out for a swim with daddy
Not a bad attempt Liam!
We had lunch at a little taverna on the beach where they grilled everything right there.  We even saw an octopus hanging out to dry waiting to be grilled.  My chicken was fabulous, Josh’s lamb, just ok by the looks of it but the view was amazing!
Taverna where we had lunch
If you look really close on the left side of the grill, just above it you can see the octopus just hanging there waiting to be grilled...
After lunch we had time for one more quick swim before we had to leave Anti Paxos.  The boat rental company had advised us not to leave too late due to it getting too choppy and windy in the afternoon.  We completed the circle coming up the east coast making stops in the harbors of Gaios (where we had dinner on Tues) and in Laggos which we’d heard a lot about.
Harbor view of Gaios
Small peninsula with lighthouse
Harbor of Loggos
Closer up shot of Loggos...
Ok, I'm getting bored now, are we almost done??
We finally came upon our harbor and I still think it’s the most beautiful of the three hands down.  We anchored to the opposite side of where we are staying and Josh and the kids jumped off the side of the boat several times for another swim.  Ok, Liam didn’t jump in, I lowered him down, but it was still a huge Liam step amongst many this summer when it comes to his fear of water – I think it’s safe to say he loves the water now! 
Lakka harbor
Lakka
Our villa on the hill
Cannonball!!!!
Liam "driving" the boat
Aidan getting ready to jump off  (notice I'm not in any of these, that is because I'm nice and dry, albeit very hot, on the boat)
And there goes Aidan into the water!

My courageous Liam joins Aidan and Josh
That was AWESOME!!!

And I'm going to do it again... and again... and again!

One more boat ride to dry off
We took one last boat ride to dry off and headed back up to the “yellow house” as Liam calls it.  We’ve only got a few more days left in paradise and I’m so sad to see it is going to end soon.  I think we are going to come back next year that’s how much we love it!

Dinner in Lakka
Square where we had dinner
The boys obsession with finding crabs in the harbor

Running back up to the house

Sunset
And more running!

Julie