Shopping day!

It’s Saturday. A day to do some exploring. Damn these blackout shades are amazing – it’s 9AM and we all just woke up. Hopefully everyone is back on schedule now from the time change. We wake up and as I make the beds, I hear Josh yell from downstairs “you need to learn to use the washing machine!”. I say, “No, not til Tues”. He tells me that Sailor has puked on the couch (not our couch BTW, included in rental) and on the blanket on the couch. Shit, what a way to start the day.

As with the dishwasher, I’m intimidated by this washing machine. So I come downstairs, get the instructions and flip to the English page. No biggie – that was easy. But now I must choose a programme (spelled in the European English) – there are 11 of them. Oh and a temp – they just don’t have cold, warm, hot – they have 8 different temperature choices as well. Then I must choose a cycle – depending on what types of garments are in there. Several meet my needs but I finally choose cycle 11 which is for all washes (though not as fast as cycle 10 which is for everyday but I figure it’s got puke on it and may need some extra time). I choose cold because I don’t want to waste my precious hot water that I need for a shower – I don’t do extreme cold of 30, but choose 40. Odd that these temps are in F while everything else here is in C. There are also spin cycle choices – ranging from 200-800. Looks like perhaps rotations??? I have no idea. But it looks like most common is 800 and that is what it was already set to. Now finally detergent. It doesn’t state on the instructions for the washer how much I should put in and it makes sense that that is determined by the brand of detergent we have. Our brand is Colada Mixta – pretty simple – Mixed Colors. You can wash whites and colors together. Sweet. On the back it has a chart that shows one cap = 40ml. Then it shows Agua blanda, agua media and agua dura. I’m guessing light, medium, heavy. I didn’t have my laptop on at the time so I was just guessing and chose medium – 90ml. Of course it had another column next to it with an identical picture that states 160ml. I have no idea the difference between the two and so I go with the lesser because what if I use too much and have to manage to get the extra soap out of the blanket right? So I think I’m all set – so I push the go button. Then I see a time delay light up – there is a menu of them ranging from 2 hrs to 9 hrs. I don’t want a time delay, I want it to start now! So back to my trusty booklet and it says to push the timer up to 5 times but if the programme is already set you may only be able to go to less time delay not more – that works for me. But nothing is happening when I press that button. I don’t want it to delay 4 hrs! So I turn it off and turn it on and try again… same thing. I do it again and again. Now I’m getting frustrated and Josh and the kids come in to see how I’m doing… “go away, I’m working!”.

Finally I open the door to the washer and close it. The wash starts. Hmmm… no where did it say to open the door to start. But it did the trick and now my wash is going. Liam is fascinated by it since it’s at his eye level.

Off we go to the big market. It’s kind of like a farmers market and each neighborhood has their own. It was a very cool experience – there were several aisles and each aisle had little kiosks, kind of similar to Fanueil Hall except that each kiosk is open on all four sides. There were fruit stands, veggies, fish, meats of all kinds, candy, cheese, breads, pasta and more. There were even some prepared food stands that had bar stools so you could sit and eat your purchases. And this was the small local open market. The largest one in Barcelona is La Boqueria http://www.boqueria.info/Eng/index.php. I’m looking forward to that one as I hear it is amazing. We didn’t purchase much today, but no joke, I paid 3.80euro (need to find euro symbol on my computer) for 4 clementines, a large container of strawberries and 3 bananas. Normally the strawberries alone would have cost that at home. We also bought fresh bread coming out of the oven which was fabulous!!!

Went to little store to get kids some looney toon action figures – you’ve never seen happier kids. This is all Aidan wanted for his birthday and Xmas. If only I’d known I just had to move to Spain to find them!!! 3 little guys (made by Schleich – the same company that makes those realistic looking animal figurines and smurfs) cost me 13.50 euro – so about $20.00. Yes, $20 for 3 guys – we paid less for the food! But they are happy kids.

I made a trip to the grocery store on my own. It was nice to just take a look around and be able to focus without yelling “don’t touch” “walking feet” or “no” to the kids. Not much had changed from the other day as far as selection unfortunately – still going to have to suck it up at some point and start eating some Spanish food. I do find it interesting that they are focused on being “green”. They do it slightly in reverse from home – instead of getting money off for bringing your own bag – you pay for any bags that you need! Most people bring their own and leave them at the front of the store. When you are at the register, you put your groceries on the belt and then go get your granny bag to put your stuff in – no bags necessary. It’s very trusting that you leave your bag at the front of the store – there is huge pickpocketing issues here and yet people tend to be good about not taking things like your shopping cart.

Josh went out in the ‘hood looking for a printer this afternoon but the computer store was closed. So we decided around 5ish to head to Passeig La Gracia to go to FNAC (pronounced exactly as it looked). Side note, as I write this, Sailor just started drinking Josh’s Jack n Coke… that sneaky puppy!!! So we met Josh down at the Joanic metro station – about a 5 min walk from our flat. 2 stops later we were at Passeig de Gracia. Another 5 min walk and we were by FNAC but the kids needed supper at this point so yes, once again we went with an all-American treat…this time McDonalds. The kids RARELY eat fast food at home and now they have had it 2 times this week. Lucky kids. This McDonalds on a Sat night was hoppin’!! Overwhelming even!!

Ok, so enough about McD’s. We went to FNAC. It’s in a shopping plaza (that also houses Sephora!!). We had no idea where the entry to the actual store was but it turned out the 2nd floor is FNAC (could have also been the 3rd but we didn’t venture up there). We found the printers and then had to figure out where to pay. We saw lines galore. Looked like possibly a self pay area – but nah…what if it’s all in Spanish. And actually, this place looked like everything was written in Catalan which I really can’t interpret as well as Spanish. So we get in line, hand over the printer, hand over the credit card, hand over the ID (whenever you use a credit card/debit card they ALWAYS ask for ID). Josh shows his US license and she starts speaking rapidly in Spanish. Josh just nods his head. We finally understand that the license is not enough – we need a passport. Now I’ve only been here a few days and only have used my debit card 2x and at the same place but they took my license. Josh was here for 3 weeks before me and did not have this issue at all. So I say, “dinero” (cash)? She said “si” and Josh goes off to hunt for an ATM while I sit with the kids. Finally, after about 15 minutes Josh returns and we pay cash for our printer and head back to the metro.

On the way to the metro I just want to point out the fashion here. Everyone tells me how fashionable the people of Barcelona are… I’m just not seeing it. Either that or I missed it by 20 years because these people LOVE the 80s. Maybe the 80s are making a comeback? In FNAC I actually saw someone with crimped hair. I saw someone wearing purple ankle boots. I saw skin tight jeans…some that were shiny! I saw gold sequins tank tops in stores. I even saw someone with a banana clip in her hair (remember those?). Anyways, I’m going to have to find some tighter jeans, some sequins tops and some ankle boots to fit in here apparently!

Ok, so our round trip to FNAC took us about 2 ½ hrs. Can I just mention here that at home, Staples is less than ½ mile from my house and if I were home, it would have taken about 10 minutes round trip to buy the printer? Oh and I almost forgot, on our way getting on the metro to come home, there was a turnstile (I don’t remember that before) and I got stuck in it with Liam in the stroller. I managed to push his stroller under it because the handle was caught on the wrong side. A very nice woman behind me helped me and told me to go under – she said I needed to be faster… like I didn’t know that. The wheel got caught and that’s why I wasn’t fast enough. But it was an experience just the same. Shortly after, Liam got out of the stroller and I was carrying it down the stairs and a nice guy held his hand going down the stairs. You would NEVER see anyone, much less a man (he was probably late 20s early 30s) holding a small child’s hand to go down the stairs of a T station. Hell, at home they might have pushed him down the stairs!! Sorry, but it’s true – I remember getting pushed up the stairs at Back Bay before!!

Off to chill out for the night. We are thinking of hitting this place for brunch tomorrow – we heard it’s great. Will let you know. http://www.milkbarcelona.com/indexFlash.html#

Have a great night!

Julie

TGIF!

Another new day and a slightly better night of sleep. Sort of. Kids slept in my bed – I slept in their freezing cold room and Josh on the couch. I think the kids were comfy though. I got up around 8 again – still dark out. Didn’t go for a run again because I was … Well, I guess just lazy. So there!

I will admit that last night, I didn’t get to #8 – rosetta stone kept giving me an error – waiting on the rosetta stone people to get back to me.

It’s not raining today (though still very cloudy and chilly – upper 40s perhaps?) and so I had hope that I would leave the house today!!!!

I woke the kids around 8:30 – trying to get them up a little earlier each day. Tried to give Liam a tub this AM – should be simple right? How many tubs have I given over the years? Except that even though it had been an hour since my shower, it wasn’t long enough for the water to reheat and so ½ way thru his tub the water was freezing. You probably heard his screams in the US as I rinsed his hair with freezing cold water. Aidan wasn’t much better and though you might not have heard his screams in the US, you definitely could hear quite a distance away! And I waited a ½ hr for his shower after I finished with Liam – he had luke warm water and that was it. From what I can gather, the Spaniards are pretty eco friendly and so I’m not sure if I just have some super duper eco friendly hot water heater that takes a long time to reheat? At least when it is hot, it’s got great water pressure! Much better than the US!

Learning to wash dishes by hand. Yes, I have a dishwasher (see yesterday’s entry) but I also only have 3 cabinets that need to hold all dishes and food. So we brought very little silverware, dishes, cups. Often times we need to use them again before we can run the dishwasher so most stuff is done by hand. Pain in my ass. I spoke to our landlord about it today and apparently I was NOT using it correctly – close but not quite. Because of the water here, which I guess isn’t great??? They add salt to their dishwasher – there is actually a salt holder in the base of the dishwasher that I guess you just add salt into this holder until the water and salt rise to the top of the holder and then you stop. Interesting…

The landlord came today to bring us our spaceheater. And she’s very nice. She lived in the US so her English is really good though she doesn’t agree with me there. She brought us the space heater to use for the boys’ room til they can fix it on Wed (when she called yesterday it was Mon or Tues…now Wed. I expect this trend to continue.). I asked her about fire hazards, you know, because often times space heaters are considered that. I asked her about the lack of fire alarms. This is not something I normally concern myself with. If I were to buy a house in the US I would never check to make sure there are fire alarms – it’s a given they will be there. Apparently no one here has them. Unless you are on the 10th floor or higher. Given we are on the ground and 2nd floors of this place, apparently there is no need. Very Darwin of the Spanish as my friend Cristy commented – I have to agree.

Cristy was running a little late so I decided to take the kids and find the dumpster. I know, very adventurous. It was just up the block and they are all marked for what they are for and have nice little handles. They are all closed so they don’t smell which is nice. Cristy mentioned to me that there are grey ones in certain parts of the city that are like chutes and suck your trash into the netherlands of the city. Hmmm…sounds healthy! Anyways, it’s not that far from us which is good because who wants to carry a bag or bags of trash all that far? Not I…

Cristy came and brought lunch. Buitoni pasta!!! Something familiar and yummy! Thanks Cristy! It’s nice to have something I know I’m not scared of to eat! The kids were absolutely stir crazy so we took them for a walk. Because on the first day here Josh bought Aidan a little Rayman (very big here along with Simpsons and Looney Toons) toy at a newspaper stand, Aidan now associates EVERY stand with toys. And wants to stop at EVERY stand. It’s rather annoying. So we looked at the stand and in fact they had Rayman toys and something Spongebob. And he wanted one. To which I answered no – his reply being a tantrum and refusing to walk with us. This lasted on and off until we got to the playground – maybe 4 blocks away. The only incident we had was Liam stepping in a pile of poop. Oh so fabulous! Cristy thank you again for helping to scrape it off… you’ll make a great mom someday!! I’m sure she thinks my kids are wild and crazy and I don’t blame her!!

Oh and we stopped at an ATM which I used successfully. I guess because our La Caixa bank account was set up in English they have it as our primary language for our ATM because the menu automatically came up in English – nice feature! One of the things we’ve noticed here is that you don’t use checks AT ALL. Everyone transfers money. So we know our landlord’s bank account number and we transfer the funds to her each month. Many transactions are done like that or with a debit/credit card. You cannot transfer without a special code – which apparently prevents people from stealing your bank info.

A little note on food since today has been a relatively quiet day. First off, I’m picky… super picky. I was iffy on my survival here but I may be able to make it. I also stocked up at home on shelf stable items and shipped a bunch of stuff here. Hey, at least it gets me started – I need to acclimate slowly. Tonight I’m going to attempt cookies, from a mix. This is a Betty Crocker mix I brought from home. Only need a stick of butter and an egg. Egg, check. Stick of butter… kind of check. These come in blocks and it’s 250g with no markings. So I’m going to have to take a guess on that. Also, my oven is in Celsius. And yes, I had to take out the instruction manual because it has several settings – all done with pictures. If I had my printer/scanner I would scan and include image with this entry but I don’t have that yet. But anyways, there are 5 different functions of this oven – Alton Brown (Of Good Eats fame) would be proud of this multi-tasker! I, on the other hand, am hoping these cookies come out at least halfway decent. FYI, 350F is 176C in case you ever need that info (thanks google). The dough seems to taste good. I have the oven set to conventional with fan setting. The oven smells a bit odd to me – like it’s burning but let’s see what happens… Ok I did the conventional with fan which states that it is appropriate for roasts and cakes. The fan spreads the heat uniformly inside the oven. That sounds better to me than grill or grill with lower element or just lower element which is for heating dishes and raising pastry. Hmmm… but my cookies look cooked on the top but raw on the bottom. Ok, now switching to lower element. This is going to be interesting. First batch…not so good looking. Second batch, much more like normal and they taste great. Ah cookies…they fix everything!

The rest of the day has been pretty uneventful. I’m hoping the weather is decent on Sat as I’d like to actually go on that run (in the daylight) and perhaps do a little wandering around the neighborhood (maybe even without kids so I can focus on my surroundings). I’m sure there will be an adventure or two thrown in as well…

Buenas noche!
 
Julie

I'm alone in Spain (with the kids)!!! Josh goes back to work...

Today I’m going to try to write my blog as my day happens rather than just a recap – this is my first day on my own so I have a feeling some monumental things will be happening. So keep in mind while you read this that it is a progressive account of my day as it happened…


I want to first and foremost give a shout out to Josh. He was here for three weeks on his own and did not complain once to me (maybe out of fear since we are doing this for his job and he’s afraid I’d hurt him or maybe because he really had nothing to complain about, I may never know why). Anyways, he was a superstar. He found stores and used ATM machines and took the metro to places unknown. Finding his way thru this strange city with a language he can’t understand. I think maybe if I didn’t have the kids with me I might feel more confident about braving this on my own but as of today, I’m not so sure how far I want to wander…yet. Plus it’s raining out so who wants to go anywhere in the rain? I have to say, he’s been great since we’ve been here too – taking charge as far as going out to get things we need to turn this flat into a home. Sure, I’ve done the majority of unpacking but if it were up to him it would all remain in boxes – I suppose each playing to our own strengths. But what’s surprised me is how much I’ve come to rely on him in the last few days. He’s been fixing things, he’s been using the kitchen that for some odd reason frightens me (most kitchens frighten me but this one more than most), he’s been taking care of the dogs… in short, he’s been doing all the things I normally do in everyday life except unpack. And this has all been fine. But today… Josh went back to work and I’m on my own.

As I said, Josh had to go back to work this AM. Oh and he is going out tonight so not only am I on my first day alone here, but my first night! I had grandiose plans of going for a run today but with my 1-2 hrs of sleep it just wasn’t happening. That and at 7AM, it was still pretty dark outside – like middle of the night dark. Hello?? It’s 7AM! I finally got out of bed around 8ish – boys are still sleeping. For those that know me, sleeping til 7 is a luxury, much less 8… but I’m still adjusting to time change AND a lack of sleep (reference back to children in our small bed every night since arrival).

On Tues night we realized that the heat didn’t work in the boys room. Tried in vain to see if it was just us being idiots and not knowing how to work the heat (the heat is turned on/off via remote control in each room). It was not. Tues night not so cold, we didn’t even use heat in our room. Last night cold. Tried to email the owner of the building on Wed but it being Three Kings Day and a high holiday, no response. Sent email to management company too just in case. In the end, as expected we did not hear back from either. Boys ended up sleeping on our double bed with us. Josh ended up on the couch and I in a weird contorted position at the foot of the bed. Another night with no sleep. So is it jet lag or just lack of good sleep? I must get the heat fixed today or suffer yet another sleepless night. But we are in Spain and the Spanish are different regarding their sense of urgency and their response time.

However, I am determined to make the most of Josh being away today. It’s raining, again (hello, 40 days of rain a year and we’re already on our 3rd day??? And I looked at accuweather – January must be the rainy month as it’s expected pretty much thru next week…grrrr) so we may be inside today. So I plan to finish any unpacking left to do (random clothes on everyone’s floors that need to be put away, office that still needs some organizing, etc etc) and come up with a game plan of things to accomplish. Like to put a note that I will translate on google translate on our door for the maid service. We had a cleaning lady at home 2x a month and since I will be spending significantly less here without target, baby gap and toys r us, I feel that I can still rationalize that expenditure. But if you recall my attempt to talk to Virginia (I did get her name) in my poor Spanish and her poor English, we may need to resort to note writing. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Yes, that is my goal today, a note to the maid. I tend to be an overachiever and in a normal day in the US, that one item on my to do list (aside from cleaning this place up), would normally go down as a day where I accomplished NOTHING. But here, it’s a huge accomplishment. If I can get out and go to an ATM (about 2 blocks away) AND be able to actually take money out of it, I will consider the day a success.

Another goal – work the TV. For those in the know, you know Josh and his gadgets. I can barely work our tv on the cape. This slingbox thing – probably hopeless for me! On a positive note, I haven’t watched ANY tv since we’ve been here. Josh put it on last night and I kind of listened. You can translate the US shows to English but the commercials are still in Spanish. Very interesting. We haven’t used the slingbox since we’ve been here. I’m about to try to turn on the TV before I wake the kids and see if I can get the dvd player to work. We shall see how it goes… pause for moment while I go to attempt… 3 mins later. YES, SUCCESS!!! I can work the DVD player. I don’t think you realize how big an achievement, not to mention sanity saver that will be for today!  However, I still have no clue how to work the slingbox (for those of you not in the know, the SlingBox is attached to our tv at home and the slingcatcher is here in Spain - once I learn how to work it, I can watch my tv at home here in Spain).

Listening to Mike FM as I clean up and organize my office. Feels like home already! I’ve got my American music, my desk, my laptop… all I need is a printer. Maybe a task for tomorrow unless it stops raining. My office is now ready other than the printer part. Feels good to feel that as soon as I have that I can say that I am completely up and running. Hoping to be back to work pretty much full time as of Monday.

And because I’ve got 6 hrs ahead on the US, I’m going to actually go and play with my kids!!! Something I feel like I don’t do enough of at home but hope to do more of here with the time difference playing in my favor.

Tackled dishwasher. Yes, you would think it would be easy. But while I found the booklet had an English section, there is this whole schpeil about salt and water hardness. Afraid that I might break the dishwasher, I followed the instructions and still have no clue – I’m hoping for the best at this point. Will let you know in an hr when the dishes are done. If this doesn’t work we may be handwashing for the next 2 years.

Tomorrow I’m going to get my NIE number. I’m going with 2 of Josh’s co-workers that he has not met and Josh can’t go with me. Supposedly the place where I do this is about 15 mins from me but I need to switch trains on the way. I will tell you – I’m terrified to do this by myself!! Ok, I won’t be by myself, I’ll have my children with me who I’m guessing will be no help! If I can get thru this tomorrow, I can do anything. Just thinking about this endeavor is making my heart race.

While my heart is racing, it makes me think that I haven’t figured out the heat issue yet. Since I had no response from our building owner or her management company, I’m trying to call our realtor, Mele, from my Spanish phone. But I can’t do it and I’m almost in tears with frustration and fear. Am I supposed to dial something before the number? I keep getting an automated sounding message in Spanish so I don’t know what to do. I’ve got to get the heat fixed for the kids and I’m hitting a desperate moment here. It’s not going to be pretty. I can feel the tears coming. All I want to do is fix the heat. If I can’t make a phone call how am I going to do things like find a doctor (Liam was rubbing his ear a lot during the night, I probably should do that soon), a vet, make an appt and honestly, fix the stupid heat!!! I’ve tried IM’ing Josh and he’s not responding. Yet he’s responding to my emails about NIE stuff so I know he’s at his desk. Josh??? Josh are you there???? I’m going back to the US – day 4 and I’m already toasty!! See you in 2 years!

Ok, fast forward about an hour… I’ve sent Josh a desperate note to please contact Eva, the building owner. I do not have her phone number (or I would call her) and to please just take care of things. And you know what? He did! In all the time we’ve been prepping for this move, I kept complaining that Josh needed to step up to the plate and participate in the details. This is his moment to shine and I am thankful to have him – he is a rock when I needed him to be and this moment makes up for all those times when I was complaining he wasn’t doing enough. This is stepping up Josh…thanks! So tonight we are supposed to have someone come between 6-7 to do the repair AND he arranged for the dryer install for Tuesday. I can postpone laundry til then… I think. So no need to tackle that today. I did the dishwasher, delegated the heat issue to Josh (still accomplished something) and have been slowly making my way thru the pile of clothes to be put away – somewhere to be determined.

Josh did note to me that he believes Eva, our landlord is on vacation. Just a side note here but when the Spanish vacation, they vacation. There is no work on vacation. A definite difference than in the US. If you were on vacation in the US and your tenant emailed you to say they had no heat – you would have received that message via email, blackberry, home phone and cell phone – AND you would have stopped what you are doing and fixed the problem (mainly if it were urgent – if they were looking for you to mow the lawn or something you might tell them to shove it and I wouldn’t blame you).

So I’ve decided to postpone my laundry day til either this weekend or if I can make it – Tues when the dryer gets installed. Why air dry in 50 degree cold (or inside hanging off a chair) when I can use a dryer. I would also like to note that my dishes came out clean! Oddly, the Spanish silverware didn’t clean as nicely as the US in the Spanish dishwasher and I ended up doing those by hand. Hmmm… wonder why that is?

My children are still alive after being together for many many days straight now. At least over the last 2 weeks I had Josh to play intermediary with them when needed. So far I’ve only had to take away the DS today. I think the jetlag has gotten to Aidan – he wasn’t happy I woke him today and he’s had some majorly grumpy moments. His approach to me is rather entitled and it’s a bit on the annoying side. He’s very demanding. I don’t think he seems to get the whole “tone of your voice” thing. Liam is taking a nap so I’m hoping that gets him back on schedule or close to. However, Aidan is the loudest child on this earth and I think he gets pleasure from seeing me cringe each time he makes a very loud noise that I fear will wake his brother… Yup Liam is up but since it’s almost 4 it’s about that time. They are now playing whack-a-martian together. Nothing like hitting something to bring out the brotherly love!

Kids now playing hullabaloo. Haven’t played that since Liam was born I don’t think. I will say, he loves it. Any excuse to jump around. Of course mid jump he let one go… Liam Marcus!!! Must have been all that jumping that shook things up a bit ;)

On to my note to Virginia – if I can do this, I can call it a successful day. This is my English and Spanish version of my letter. Yes, it is very simplistic, but A. I get the point across, B. Google translate can only do so much and C. I don’t speak Spanish so it’s my only alternative. I will post it on my flat door tonight!

Dear Virginia,


I apologize for our communication issues the other day. While we are currently studying Spanish, we are not yet fluent. We are definitely going to be in need of house cleaning services. Can you please let me know how much money we would pay you if you cleaned one time every two weeks? Do you have a key to the flat in case we are not here? We have dogs but they are friendly. If you don’t like dogs, I can put them outside when you are here. Please let me know at your convenience.


Thank you!


Julie

Estimado Virginia,


Pido disculpas por nuestros problemas de comunicación, el otro día. Si bien actualmente estamos estudiando español, aún no estamos con fluidez. Estamos definitivamente va a estar en necesidad de servicios de limpieza de la casa. ¿Puedes por favor hágamelo saber cuánto dinero pagaría usted si usted limpiarse una vez cada dos semanas? ¿Tiene la llave de la vivienda en caso de que no están aquí? Tenemos perros, pero son amistosos. Si no te gustan los perros, me puede poner fuera de cuando usted está aquí. Por favor, hágamelo saber a su conveniencia.


Gracias!


Julie

I’ll keep you posted on her response! I’m sure she’ll think I’m an idiot… but at least I’m a resourceful idiot! Now to find the tape to post to door… did I ship tape???? Ah… tape.

So I just received a note from HR at Vistaprint for the procedure for the NIE number (equivalent of a social security number for foreigners). I have to say I am completely and totally freaked out by this process. As cowardly as this is, I’m not ready to do this on my own. To go into a state office and ask somehow in broken Spanish for my ID # and then go to another office across town to get that number approved by the appropriate people and filed away. Especially with two children in tow. I’m considering doing this on Tues when Aidan is at school and I only have one child that I can strap into a stroller so that I can focus. Anyone with children will understand where I am coming from. Two children in a government office while I’m trying to focus on something I don’t understand spells DISASTER! Maybe I can psyche myself up for it tonight… we shall see.

It’s 7PM and I have yet to see the guy to fix the heat in the boys’ room. Do I take this as a Spanish, everything more relaxed kind of thing or should I be in a panic that once again my kids will be without heat for the night meaning they are bunking in with us again???

It’s just after 8 and I got a call from the owner of the building. She was super nice (and spoke great English – bonus!) and said that they can’t fix the heat until Mon or Tues. I told her that really doesn’t work for me and she actually agreed and said that she is going to bring over a space heater tomorrow. I’m a little freaked out about the space heater / fire hazard thing especially since as I’ve mentioned, there are NO fire alarms in our flat (yet it’s new construction so it’s even more surprising). But if it gets the kids out of my bed for the weekend, I can deal with it for a few days.

Well Josh is out and the kids are in bed (my bed) so I’m off to re-install my Rosetta Stone on my new computer so that I can get on the ball again with my Spanish… but before I go, a quick summary…

To recap accomplishments of today:

1. Got up before 10! Yes!!! Actually showered, dressed, woke kids, dressed and fed kids… all before 10!

2. Swept floors – easy peasy…

3. Did I mention that “I” fed the kids today and not Josh? I feed them at home but it felt different doing it here.

4. Tried to get kids on a schedule which meant waking kids before noon and having Liam take a nap today. Check and check…

5. Washed dishes via the Spanish dishwasher… dishes are now clean!

6. Delegated the fixing of the kids’ heater to Josh. Heat is supposed to be repaired tonight (fingers crossed). Heat not fixed tonight but not Josh’s fault…

7. Wrote letter to potential cleaning lady.

8. Reinstall my Rosetta Stone so I can hablo español sometime in the next 2 years…

Hasta la vista amigos!!

Julie

Finally a day to explore!

Day 3 of Barcelona. Is it really Day 3? Feels like we’ve been here longer. Or maybe it’s just that we really haven’t left this apartment in days other than a trip to the grocery store that I’m just going stir crazy. The sun is out and to me it’s a new beginning!

However before we have a new beginning I must touch upon the fact that I was wrong to say the kids seem to be adjusting well to the time difference. I jinxed myself. They went to bed at a relatively normal time last night and yet around 11ish (this is after Aidan came downstairs 2x before that to say he couldn’t sleep), they were both up and having a par-tay in their room. The challenge of them sharing a room I guess – one wakes the other. Around 12:30 I felt safe to think they may sleep thru the night! WRONG!!! Night #1 Liam came into our room…Night #2 our guest was Aidan. Aidan who also kicks and thrashes in his sleep just like his brother. It was probably 2AM or later (Our clock is analog and doesn’t glow – nice purchase Josh) is my guess before I fell asleep. Thank goodness for those blackout shades though! While I heard Josh much earlier than when I got out of bed, trying to fix the boys’ heater which seems to be broken… think constant beeping is what Josh was getting it to do. Anyways, we got up around 10:30 (we’re fitting in with Spain and it’s only day 3!) and the sun was shining! It’s a new day!

It being sunny out and Josh’s last day before he goes back to work, we decided that we absolutely must leave the flat (I sound European already) today and go somewhere, anywhere. Armed with our winter jackets (yes, it was still chilly though not nearly as cold as home I’m sure), our new $200 stroller (reference back to trip to airport if you are questioning that purchase), a sippy cup and the dogs, and we are off! 

Just a random side note here – as I type this Josh and I are IM’ing on Facebook to determine what the kids should have for dinner. This whole close the door for heat thing is going to improve our communication drastically I can see.




Our fruit stand by our flat
Anyways, so today is Three Kings Day. The biggest holiday there is (I believe) in Spain. EVERYTHING is closed except for restaurants. This was incredibly frustrating to Aidan. He wanted to go in and check out all the stores (he apparently takes after me with his desire to shop til he drops). The walk itself was relatively uneventful – it was a beautiful day. The dogs behaved very well – I say this because normally Jake barks at anything or anyone that walks by us on a walk. Not a peep! A good start to their time in Spain – I will walk them often if this is the behavior I can expect.

So anyways we headed down Travessera de Gracia which is the main road that we live off of. From there we headed south down Passeig de Joan. This is a main road that has a really nice walking/biking/rollerblading area in the center. There are also a few playgrounds scattered here and there. Very interesting since you have northbound and southbound traffic on either side of you. We stopped at one of the playgrounds for the kids to play for a little bit. Aidan wanted to head home after this so we continued south another block or two and then headed back in the direction of home – but first we came upon La Sagrada Familia. The famous Gaudi church. The kids could have cared less. However, they did like the little café just outside the church. First they wanted popsicles which I indulged them in (brrrr…. It’s maybe 45-50 here, not really ice cream weather). Then I told them that they had waffles with chocolate and whipped cream. YES!!!! So we got one of those and sat down for a few to enjoy our gofres con chocolate y nata. Delish!!! We finally made it home and took a few minute breather while I caught up on work.

When Josh and I were here in Nov for our Discovery Trip we knew that the city is at the base of several mountains. The one that I know is Tibidabo. Aidan’s school is not far from there. As you can see there is a huge church on top of Tibidabo (I told Aidan it was a castle – but it got him excited so you’ll have to excuse this one lie).

 Per my friend Wikipedia: Tibidabo. Located on the mountains of Barcelona (farther north from Gracia) and offers a spectacular view of the city (532 m high). This is a place where according some legends, the Devil tempted Jesus Christ offering him the whole in exchange for his worship. At the top there is an awesome church, which offers panoramic views of the city. The church is almost surrounded (bizarrely) by a big funfair. You will also find an observatory and an ascendable communications tower nearby. We have not made it up to Tibidabo yet but it’s on our plan.

Anyways, I’ve digressed. The reason I was mentioning Tibidabo is because when we went for our walk, we headed south, as in downhill. We live in Eixample which is in the center of the city. It is also uphill from most anything. I thought it was a gradual incline and for the most part it was but there were a few moments where my legs were crying “oy vey!”. Part of my original “plan” while living here is to bike at least once a week to Josh’s work – about a 3 mile trek with a trailer and 30 lbs child… towards the sea, aka downhill… Now I’m thinking I may have to work my way up to that since it’s also a 3 mile trek back uphill with said 30 lb child and trailer. I will keep you posted on that. So anyways, back to the flat to catch up on some work before heading out again.

Work you say? Yes, work. Don’t forget, I’m still working while we are here for 2 years. So any clients reading, don’t forget me!!! I expect to be fully up and running by Mon. Right now I’m just missing a printer but otherwise I’m a go!! Ah the beauty of internet!

Thankfully the first few days of the year are slow but I can see things picking up already (thank god given my disaster of a 2009). So after a quick check of email and processing of an order, we are out the door again. This time we’ve decided to visit Las Ramblas. The tourist area. We may be residents here now (ok Josh is, I still need to get my resident #).

This time we had to take the metro (otherwise known as the T in my world). The kids were very excited about riding the train. I actually think it may have been Liam’s first time on a train. He was a little apprehensive but then kept saying how much he liked the train (as he gripped on to my hand for dear life). When we got off at Passeig de Gracia, he told me he wanted to go again!

After taking a wrong turn out of the T, I mean Metro, stop – we turned around and headed towards where we think Las Ramblas looked like it would be. Good navigation huh? It worked at least! However on the way, it was a little chilly and while jonesing for something warm we pass one of many Starbucks in Barcelona. A little chocolate caliente will warm me right up. Around the same time Josh and I spot a Burger King (this is right around a meltdown that Aidan was having). So off I go to Starbucks for my expensive (3.50 euros = approx $5) small hot chocolate. Yum!!! I thought it would be easy – how hard is it to say chocolate caliente? But then she had to ask me questions. Shit!!! Ok… I think she just asked me the size. So I put my fingers together closely and say pequeno/ small. Then she asked something else and I finally figured out that she wanted to know if I wanted caramel and whipped cream – thankfully she also spoke some English. I really didn’t want the caramel but now I’m freaking out because I can’t order a stupid hot chocolate without messing up so I just say si, si!! Yes, yes, to both! I get my hot chocolate and run!

Josh and the boys are outside the BK and the kids are super excited. We are supposed to be in a culinary capital and we are going to Burger King. I don’t even take them to BK at home! But they’ve been good about the move and I suppose deserve some kind of treat from home. So in we go to BK. This one is on the stylish side, similar to articles I’ve read about new models of Burger King that have more of a retro look. Or it could just be Spain (I did see a girl in legwarmers on the metro – apparently I was stylish just 20 years too early) has a retro look and feel. Anyways, the menu was in both English and Spanish so we were all set. What was interesting to me beyond the English on the menu is that all the music playing in the background was also in English. They seem to like their Beyonce there because I heard at least 3 songs of hers in the short time I was in there. I’m not a big Beyonce fan but as my friend Stephie who is also living abroad pointed out – it doesn’t matter what song or artist it is and it could be someone you absolutely hate, but the fact that it is in English will make it the best moment of your day because it’s something that’s familiar in unfamiliar territory. She’s right. I embraced that Beyonce song!!!

From BK we headed out towards fountains that we saw that we guessed were the start to Las Ramblas. This was Placa de Catalunya. A very pretty little center area. A fountain and a little plaza. The plaza was filled with pigeons… lots of pigeons. Lots of pigeons that my children felt they had to chase. Tracie it was your worst nightmare!!!

We gave them a few minutes to chase the pigeons and then headed off towards the crowds. It being a chilly day, we were surprised at how many people were out and about on La Rambla just strolling around. Like the Passeig de Joan, La Rambla has a northbound and southbound side with traffic and a center that is for walking. There were little stands like pet stores (I found this very interesting that they had pet stores as a stand, like a newspaper stand), newspaper stands, etc. There was also lots of live art – the kind where the people are painted up and sit still as statues. The kids really liked that. We didn’t walk that far since this was our second adventure out today and we could sense the kids getting tired. We made it as far as Hotel 1898 where we have friends staying this summer – Lisa it looked nice to me from the outside!! And Lisa, while there is no Dunkin Donuts there, there is a StarBucks next door so at least you can get a coffee fix.

Whew – what a day! We headed back towards home. Our only big glitch of the day and I wouldn’t even call it big is that when we went to use Josh’s metro pass, he sent Aidan thru first and he didn’t make it thru fast enough – and so Aidan was stuck on one side of the doors and we were on the other. Then Josh’s pass wouldn’t work (they have clear glass doors instead of a turnstile like we have here – the doors separate when your pass goes thru and close behind you). We finally had to ask a metro worker to help. Apparently this is not an uncommon thing where the pass doesn’t work. I’m just glad it was Aidan on the other side and not Liam – I would have

Aidan liked this statue - it had "boobies and a pirate ship"

been freaking out! At least I could see Aidan and talk to him – I just couldn’t get over there. We finally made it over to his side and had an uneventful trip back home. A great day with my fam!!

Above - pet store on La Rambla                                                                   Lisa - this is your hotel

Tomorrow is Josh’s first day back to work and my first day alone with the kids in the city. I think it may rain again but if not, we’ll try to venture out and maybe find a playground or something. I’m not ready to bring them into a store by myself yet – I don’t think I can focus on saying “don’t touch that” “don’t do that” “leave that alone!” “You break it you buy it” and on looking at labels, paying for stuff, etc… give me a few days. I’ll tackle that with just Liam on Monday while Aidan’s at school!

Julie

Day 2... unpacking and our first trip out!

So today is day 2 in Spain! I’m still alive and kicking and we had no major incidents to report since last night. I would like to put in a link from my new friend Cristy’s website that has a different perspective of our move yesterday: http://abroadabroadinspain.com/archives/date/2010/01.

Last night I realized just how much jet lag affects children. They were crabby all evening and then went to bed around their normal time, maybe a little later. We shut the black out blinds (more on those in a second) and they were out like lights. Or so I thought. Aidan was out – Liam, not so much… of course he didn’t decide to wake up til after we went to bed. He woke up a few times and seemed a bit panicked about his surroundings. I can’t say I blame him at all. However, being dead tired myself I finally convinced him to come into our room before he woke up Aidan. Of course Aidan sleeps like the dead so I’m not really sure why I was worried. Anyways, Liam proceeded to kick Josh and I alternatively in the head ALL NIGHT LONG. Oh and Jake (the dog for those who don’t know) took up a good ½ of the bed. Let me back track a sec here – did I tell you about the bed??

In Spain they must like being close to each other unlike in the US. From what I understand, the average adult bed is a double. Yes, a double. Now Josh and I have a queen bed at home so it’s not huge but definitely bigger than here. So here we are, Josh, myself, Liam and Jake (who weighs a good 80 lbs). Not a fabulous night sleep. On a positive note, the children slept til almost noon today. A feat never even closely accomplished in the past (ave wake time is 6:30AM).

Now to those shade I referenced. I have no idea if this is common beyond Spain, but here they have these amazing blinds that are outside the windows – they could be in between the window panes, but I’m not quite sure. They are multi purpose and ours are metal. And thankfully they are electric. We looked at a few places that had manual ones and they looked like they were a bit of a pain. These blinds are good for keeping in the heat/coldness, security and they are totally black out blinds. I feel confident that it was not really the jet lag that kept those children sleeping but the fact that it looked like it was midnight in those rooms at noon today!

Speaking of the dogs, I apologize to those that were worried that I didn’t mention them last night. They apparently had a fabulous flight (for the cost it had best have been luxurious!). They ran into some slight complications at customs since their paperwork was lost. Glad we hired a service for all this because I can’t imagine having to deal with that yesterday. They arrived around 6ish all excited. Well, Jake was excited. Sailor was her usual freaked out self. She ran into the living room and other than going outside (the door being at the side of the living room), she has not left this room. She has not ventured upstairs, to the kitchen, office, anywhere. I expect her to pretty much stay in this area for her 2 years here other than when we go for walks. I do have to point out that one of them is not taking to well to new Spanish food and is extremely gassy. There are moments where you can hardly breathe. Sorry…had to be said! As I write this Josh and I are both holding our shirts to our noses so we don’t have to breathe in.

Side note… Josh just took Sailor out as I was typing. She was resisting the whole time having to go thru the door from the living room to the front of the apartment. You would think he was killing her – she sooo didn’t want to leave the comfort of the living room!

Today was mainly spent unpacking. Last night we were about 70% there, today about 90-95. Really just some clothes left. I really want to spend tomorrow exploring before Josh goes back to work on Thurs. Today we hit the grocery store and it was a very interesting experience – more on that in a moment as well. And tomorrow is Three Kings Day. As I mentioned last night, this is a big deal in Spain. It’s a very Catholic holiday and taken much more seriously than Christmas here. Apparently the adults get off very cheap in Spain when it comes to Christmas. Gifts are small and few – Three Kings is where it’s at. And even then, it’s more about candy than gifts. Last night while I was watching the parade, they were tossing candy from the floats. I hear there is a big parade tomorrow – I think we are going to try to catch that with the kids.

I did a little more research on Three Kings – thank you Wikipedia: In Spain there is a long tradition for having the children receive their Christmas presents by the three "Magos", (the figure of Santa Claus only appeared in recent years) during the night of January 5th (Biblical Magi Eve). Almost every Spanish city or town organize cabalgatas (rides according to google translate) in the evening, in which the kings and their servants parade and throw sweets to the children (and parents) in attendance. The cavalcade of the three kings in Alcoy claims to be the oldest in the world, having started in 1886. There is also a "Roscón" as explained below. In Spain in the Biblical Magi Eve is also represented the Mystery Play of the Three Magic Kings. I also had a friend fill me in a little bit on the traditions – Lorena I hope you don’t mind me copying and pasting here. “. You’re right – it’s a much bigger celebration in Spain than Xmas. It’s THE celebration for the holidays. There was never Santa Claus in Spain. Kids set out shoes instead of stockings and if they get coal in them, they were naughty. If they get candy in them, they were good. Milk is set out, but you need to put 3 glasses because there are 3 kings! You may see more about Christmas these days, due to US influence, but the tradition is really 3 Kings Day.” Josh said he also saw cakes similar to the funnel cakes of Mardi Gras (the ones with the little baby inside). It’s interesting to see traditions from a different perspective than the US.

Some things I’ve learned that are different than the US – and this is just from one day:

1. Most doors open in, not out… that’s going to take some getting used to.

2. In order for the heat to work effectively (also the AC) you need to close the doors to the individual rooms. For instance, the living room has a door and even though my office was just 4 feet away each room was completely closed off for heat. This is very weird for communicating when I’m used to an open floor plan. This is also going to take a bit of getting used to. Supposedly this is more efficient but I really don’t understand how – if you left all the doors open and left the heat running in each room, wouldn’t it all really just merge together in some way??? I don’t know…

3. Because I’m using a Spanish internet service, many of my websites come up in Spanish now. And so I need to find out on each website where the language preference is. It’s getting to be a bit of a pain in the ass.

4. Light bulbs are even different here. Not to mention the light switches and of course the plugs. We have adapters galore. I have yet to see a fire alarm in here – and this is a new build…hmmm…. Should I be concerned? Children are fascinated with light switches – more at their height. Liam just stands there turning them on/off, on/off, on/off. You can imagine how fun that is for us.

5. There are dumpsters on every street and they aren’t your traditional wide open ones. They have them for various forms of recycling as well as general garbage. There are NO alleys in Barcelona which is pretty nice – all the space is utilized - so these dumpsters are in spots where you may normally park a car – right out in the street. They aren’t the eyesore you would expect though (not that they are pretty). We have to walk down the street to our dumpster – there is no trash service here or any kind of trash chute. I think this might help in our going green campaign because it’s going to get old having to walk down the street to dump the trash.

6. Everything is in military time. So not only do I need to think about the words I say or listen to, but I also need to think about translating time. Even our cable box is in military time… for instance right now it is 22.35. After careful thought… 10:35PM.

7. Food – obviously different here. Things that I thought were simple as far as food goes, not so simple. Even the grapes – we got simple green grapes for the kids. Turns out they don’t have seedless grapes. At least at the fruit stand we went to. When was the last time you had a grape with a seed (or multiple seeds as was the case) in it? And ketchup? Josh and I spent a good 10 mins trying to figure out how to open the ketchup. Simple task? I think not! He finally had to take a knife to it and open it that way. I’m assuming that’s not the way it was supposed to be opened but nonetheless, we now have ketchup (which smells a lot like bbq sauce).

Speaking of food, as I’ve known from day one, it’s going to be an obstacle for me. I’m already (happily) down 2 lbs. I made a sandwich this afternoon and the bread here is significantly smaller in size (may not be a bad thing) and to me it’s texture is more dry, almost stale like. It took a lot to take that first bite of pbj – yes, that’s how picky I am. I’ll have to adjust or make toast more often! I made spaghetti tonight and used my prince pasta, the sauce we bought at the market and some hamburger (which by the way smelled different than the hamburg at home.

My final thought for tonight is regarding our venture out this afternoon. We went to the grocery store. Who knew what excitement lay ahead??? The grocery store here is not like those at home. First, significantly smaller. I think there were maybe 5 or 6 aisles. Many of the items I recognized, others not so much. A few things I’d like to point out:

1. You bring your “granny cart” with you. You have to pay to get plastic bags if you need them.

2. You leave the granny cart at the front of the store and grab a big blue rolling basket – think basket like in the US x 2 with wheels and an extendable handle.

 3. Jamon, or ham, is HUGE in Spain. You see it EVERYWHERE. They even had jamon flavored Pringles!

4. There were many brands that we have in the US – Nestle, General Mills, Proctor and Gamble… some items had different names and even different mascots (like coco krispies – there was no snap, crackle, pop but a monkey on the box).

5. At the end of your shopping, you put your items on the belt like in the US, but there are 2 lanes at the end – one for you and one for the person before you who may still be bagging their items. Once the items are at the end they ask you if you have your own bags or not so they know if you are to be charged or not for them (this took a moment to interpret) and you go to the front of the store, grab your granny cart and fill it with the items. No plastic bags (going green again).

Some more photos from our trip to the grocery store.  Maybe a trip to your store isn't as much of an adventure but I'm excited that we conquered something today!

We may have found peanut butter!      Aidan's psyched at the Simpson's crackers!

Large stand of pig legs                      Urs, they are really good about gluten here!

Eggs are shelf stable...                          and so is the milk!  This is the milk aisle..

This was an odd one.  It's in the refridgerated section and looks like some kind of yogurt, you know because it says Dannon on it.  But it has a picture of a candle and shows it being inserted into the jar???  The one on the right is also Dannon and I think it's chocolate pudding but it's in a glass jar, no candle image so I think this is edible.

Final picture of the night.  This is bread... sin corteza or without crust.  I know many a parent in the US who would love this!!! 

Well, it’s pushing 12:30 now here so I’m heading to bed - images took a good hr to upload...grrr. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow on our first day venturing out as a family goes!!
Julie

Moving day... finally!!!

Today (Sunday) is the day…the big day. Moving day. The day we have been waiting months for. It’s here. It’s still a bit surreal and I think the chaos of the day is making it a little easier. We started the morning just finishing up our packing – more suitcases than we anticipated…really only one more. But Josh wasn’t thrilled by that. I think he forgets we have small children sometimes. But overall, a rather low key morning.


The afternoon brought more goodbyes. Like the ones before, they were filled with tears and hugs and promises to stay in touch. Do I really need to say more on this topic? Probably not – I cried as we pulled out of the driveway knowing it’s the last time we would see our house for a long long time. Aidan asked why I was crying. I just told him how much I would miss our home and our friends and that it’s ok to cry.

Once we were on our way, I felt a little better. Slightly carsick (I don’t do well in the backseat of the car) but better. That was, until we hit 93 in the Braintree area. I happened to mention something about Liam’s stroller and Josh said “I forgot it”. I will say, I probably did not handle that situation with much maturity and I may have called him an idiot which was probably not the most mature or appropriate thing to say in front of Aidan (Liam was fast asleep). Especially since I always tell Aidan what a bad word that is. Oh well… I still say, how could you forget the stroller!!!

So I asked the driver if he could please swing off 93 and head down Rte 3 because I knew there was a Babies R Us down there. I ran in like a woman gone mad and scrambled down to the stroller aisle. There was a sales person helping a very pregnant couple. In my mad woman craziness, I said “excuse me, I’m on my way to the airport to move overseas and my idiot husband forgot the stroller – can I borrow your sales guy for a moment PLEASE??”. I don’t think they knew how to handle me. So I asked the guy about the Maclaren stroller (that I just bought 2 months ago) and he was all out. The best I could do for one in stock since I didn’t exactly have time to do any stroller testing. He had one floor model on sale for $200. I’ll take it!!! It’s already assembled, red and black so masculine (there was a lime green that I just didn’t think was Liam’s color) and we are good to go. “thanks so much” I yell as I run to the front of the store to pay. I told the cashier about my plight as well and she wished me luck. I think that was the fastest Babies R Us / Toys R Us trip EVER.

Now that we’ve started our journey with a tiny bump, we make it to the airport. Other than the very very long line to check in (we waited about ½ hr for checkin), I have to say I really saw no new airport regulations. Because we had carseats, a stroller and a diaper bag, we actually ended up with 9 bags for check in. Hmmm…. So much for one bag each and then one extra for the DS. I think we were at the check in for 15 mins just trying to get thru the check in. I forgot how much harder and time consuming it is to check in with children and all their gear. This is Liam’s first time flying so I guess I should have expected it. Oh and we were also trying to prevent them from killing each other as we waited for the check in guy to finish up already!

So now we are on to the security checkpoint. Again, not really seeing much difference from before and the line was MUCH shorter too. But that doesn’t really matter because I’d like to see you with a stroller, 2 children, 2 stuffed animals, a laptop bag, a pocketbook, 2 backpacks and Josh’s computer – take off everyone’s shoes and jackets, remove the laptops from their bags, keep the kids close because you don’t want them wandering in security and see how fast you move!!

We had less than an hour from there to get on our plane which was perfect – just enough time to grab a snack before our long flight to Dublin. We got on the plane without issue though Liam was most definitely not thrilled. So Josh and I took turns holding him until we had to take off. The look on his face was precious – so very serious! And he was gripping both armrests for dear life – something I would expect an adult to do, not a 2 ½ year old child. You couldn’t even talk to him, he was just that focused on what was going on. We were in center seats on an AirBus and it was dark out so he really couldn’t see what was going on.

I have to say though – the kids were beyond amazing! Kudos to both of them but I have to give special props to Liam who’s never flown before and whom I never thought in a million years could sit in a seat for 6 hrs straight (other than a diaper change). The crying from both was minimal on a 6 hr flight to Dublin – I’d say less than 10 mins each. Hell, I wanted to cry I was so bored to tears and uncomfortable!!

Our flight was late leaving Boston since we had to wait in line to be de-iced (that makes me feel good about flying in the cold weather). Speaking of not so great things about flying, damn if my kids didn’t reference dying in the air like 50 times each. Aidan was fascinated with the engines and kept asking me what happens if one doesn’t work? And two? And would we just land in the ocean? Yup…that’s it Aidan…we’d land in the ocean nicely. No need to freak him out. But it’s one of those things like, ok, is he getting some kind of weird vibe that I should know about? And Liam kept saying CRASH!! CRASH!! CRASH!! And die! I was like please don’t say those things… please!!

But as always, I’m digressing from my topic. So we were late leaving Boston and therefore late arriving to Dublin. Our original time between connections was one hour and 20 mins. We now had 20 mins to get off the plane, race across the airport, go thru customs, go thru security (again with the shoes, jackets, computers – fun times!). They claimed they were holding our flight for us and so we raced as fast as we could carrying Liam and all our gear. Oh did I mention I accidentally checked the $200 new stroller at the gate to go all the way thru to Barcelona??? Yeah, that was a good time. Josh had his backpack with his computer, carried 30 lbs Liam and I had 2 backpacks (the kids), my pocketbook which weighed about 20 lbs full of stuff to entertain the kids during the flight (did not need one single item by the way, rather annoying), and my computer bag which also probably weighed a good 20 lbs. We made it though! They actually held the plane for us. Actually they claimed they were holding it for a number of passengers that were coming from trans-Atlantic flights…but no matter, we made the connection!

We had a slight meltdown from Aidan during this flight. He was determined to believe we weren’t moving. He was just so exhausted he couldn’t understand why were on the plane that wasn’t moving and why can’t we just go home? Poor little guy! It’s hard to explain to a very tired little boy that the plane is actually moving around 600 mph and that we have travelled something like 3000 miles today. He slept 90% of the flight from Dublin to Barcelona (a 2 hr flight). I was exhausted by now and Josh, of course, was sleeping. I kept dozing off even though I knew I needed to keep an eye on Liam who was in an aisle seat. I figured he was so good on the first leg of the flight. I woke up a few times and realized that the little bugger undid his seatbelt and was playing the floor in front of his seat. Ooops!! At least he stayed by us. We won’t win parents of the year awards for that one.

Finally after a VERY long day in the air and a long day at home before that, we landed safely in Barcelona. Once again, we had a small issue upon landing. All of our luggage made it (thankfully) except we couldn’t find the stroller (oh yes, the new stroller) or one half of a booster seat. We stood in line to make a claim for about 15 mins before I spotted something red that looked like it could be one of those things – over on an empty baggage claim lane. One that was 3 or 4 baggage lanes over from where we were. Oh and when we arrived in Barcelona, ours was the only flight using that baggage claim area the entire time we were there so not sure how it was that those items ended up on the other one, but we avoided what probably was going to be another ½ hr in the claims line. Whew!! That stroller was almost our downfall!

I was disappointed to see it was very cloudy out given that there are only approximately 40 days of rain the whole year. I would have liked the kids first impressions to be that of a beautiful sunny day in our new city. Aidan did, however, point out the palm trees and he liked those right away. He also liked the tree lined streets. He did not seem to notice the language as of yet – the cabbie didn’t speak English and we speak broken, very broken, Spanish. I give it a few days and he’ll realize it. All he wanted to do was to get home (yes we have a home in Attleboro but we are determined to make this feel like home while we are away) and get to his legos that he hasn’t seen in 6 weeks. Simple pleasures!

We were very lucky to have Josh’s co-worker’s wife Cristy meet the movers today. They had wanted to arrive at 9 and we knew we weren’t getting here any earlier than 11:30. We were determined to get everything in today even if it’s not unpacked. We haven’t seen our stuff in a good 6 weeks and the best way to get settled is to jump right in. So thank you again Cristy! We both really appreciated your help.

When we arrived at the house I was astonished at all the boxes – you couldn’t even walk thru the house anywhere. Hmm… I may have packed too much stuff. And to think, I still have another 500 lbs coming. I’ll post the pictures of some of it tomorrow. I didn’t get any of the actual boxes blocking all the halls but Cristy said she did so I’ll get those. But I do have some of the stages of unpacking we did today. We were very lucky that the movers not only unpacked many things – mainly emptying the boxes in the appropriate room – but they also assembled all our IKEA furniture that we bought and shipped from the States. YES!!!! Divorce avoided!! That would have been a messy one. So we were able to get that much more done today because the movers took care of that. Thanks moving guys!!

Once we got semi-settled this afternoon, Josh suggested that Cristy and I go out for lunch. Thanks Joshy – awesome idea!! And it was! Cristy and I definitely have a lot in common and I think we’ll become good friends here. It’s a nice feeling to know that on my first day here I’ve met someone I’ve clicked with. She and her husband Shawn just moved here 2 weeks ago so they’re old pros now! And it showed – she did the ordering in the restaurant, interpreted the menu via IPhone app (I would have done the same thing), and got the check for us. In Spain, they don’t like you to hurry even though lunch tends to be a much quicker meal than dinner. For the most part, they just don’t believe you when you ask for the check. You have to ask several times. I also learned today that you never put money or a credit card on the table. It’s like bad ju ju or something – the Spainards just don’t like that so don’t do it. You either hand them the cash/card or you put it on their little check holder. But not on the table. Good thing to know since often when we are ready for the check we place our card on the table!! I avoided a near disaster there!! All I need to do is offend someone that works at my neighborhood Italian place on my first day in town.

So our meal was a very good one. For 9.95 Euros (about $15), we got bread (apparently not always included), a drink and a 3 course meal. We had the tortellini, a chicken dish and a dessert. Cristy’s looked like ricotta in the shape of a cheesecake. I didn’t even dare to try it after seeing her face. Mine was decent though by then after an appetizer of tortellini (enough that I could have had that for the meal) and chicken, I was about done! We chatted thru the entire meal and probably could have gone on all day but Josh called a few times and I didn’t get good reception in there and probably should get back to unpacking.

While spending time with Cristy I also learned that many places expect you to pay to use the bathroom. Often around 1 euro. Interesting. In Spain, or at least Barcelona, you RARELY tip someone. Waiters, cabbies (unless they unload luggage and then you tip them), hair salons, you name it… you don’t tip. So my guess is that they make their money elsewhere, like charging you to use the facilities. I guess not all places do this but a good majority do. Cristy told me that she went to Starbucks and they have a code to the bathroom on the receipt. And she went to another Starbucks and they had the same code – so it must be universal. Of course I’ve already forgotten the code she told me, but good to know that once I have a code, I can probably use it anywhere and won’t need to make a purchase to use the potty!!

It’s nearing 10PM here and I’ve been up for something like 36 hrs now so I’m going to wrap up our first day in Barcelona. This evening I heard the doorbell ring. I’m not sure how to use the buzzer but I went downstairs and it was the building cleaning lady. She spoke NO English at all…not even broken English. We introduced ourselves and were stuck. She said something to me that I could not interpret. I tried to tell her I’d love to hire her once every few weeks. No hablo ingles. Hmmm… So I said, un momento and rushed inside to get my cell phone. Google translate to the rescue! No luck. I had no internet access on my phone for some reason. Finally she said something that sounded like if I need her to clean… I hear necesito and something else. So I said, si, necesito!! We finally communicated for her to leave her phone number. What I will say to her when the time comes to call is way beyond me but I think that’s a project for next week.

On a final note, Josh went out to the store tonight after the kids went to bed and when he returned he told me that there was a parade going on at the end of our street! I heard noise out there but just chalked it up to city noise, never having lived in the city. Hope! A parade… for us???? Awwww… so sweet! No such luck! It was a parade to celebrate Three Kings Day which I believe is this Wed. I’ll look up info about it tomorrow but I’m too tired to do it tonight. Regardless, my understanding and I’ll double check this, is that Three Kings Day is actually more important to the children here than Christmas. Christmas here is not like Christmas in the US from what I’ve been told. It is much lower key when it comes to things like gift giving. The kids really don’t get much. But on Three Kings Day there are parades and candy is given out! Tonight they were throwing candy off floats like beads at Mardi Gras. It totally reminded me of a much smaller scale Mardi Gras. I think this was just a neighborhood parade as I believe there is a larger city wide one on Wed (Josh has yet another holiday from work). I’ll let you know what I find out about the holiday and if we make it to the parade with the kids.

Ok, I’m beyond exhausted now… more tomorrow from Spain!!!

Julie