Surviving Semana Blanca (or how to get thru February Vacation and live to tell the tale)

This week was February vacation for Aidan. At home I would have some options for him. A camp at the Y, friends in the neighborhood, etc etc. Here right now, I have pretty much nothing but we are going to make the best of what we've got this week. We are going to go to the aquarium one day and the zoo another. That leaves 3 days of what to do.  Thankfully the weather was just gorgeous this week - pretty much every day hit 60 with at least partial sun. 

It’s Monday and they started off the day before 6AM which is early even for them these days. They normally are up around 6:30. I have to say, not a great start.  However, the day turned out fine and while we didn’t really go anywhere other than the DeliStore (where we can buy American food products - yay!) and the bakery, it ended on a good note.  Alefiya came to watch the kids for 2 hours and during that time she also helped me call the doctor's office for the kids again.  Thank god she did because she spoke to several different people, all in rapid fire Spanish and she got the kids appointments for May.  So while my goal was accomplished, I'm disappointed that I had to outsource the job - a task that should be simple but just is not.  Josh said I should feel good that I got it done but I say the fact that I needed help to make a simple doctor's appointment is frustrating.  But I understand his view too and need to learn to cut myself some slack - the job got done and that's all that matters.  Just a day in the life I suppose...

Tuesday we had a fantastic day. Off to the zoo! And my goal, a zoo membership. For 70€ a year we can become members. Why is this a good deal? Because I went once with Liam which cost me 26€, once as a family for over 35€ and once more today. So with just three visits it will pay for itself. I managed to make it happen too which was a huge accomplishment on my part. And the bonus is I can use the pass at other places (weird that we each get our own pass and need to add photos to them after the fact) for discounts. I don’t know where those places are but good to know!

Left: Checking out the crocodiles - yes gators with an "s" - there is one on top of the other...

Right:  Liam is very close to the crocodile... a little too close...

 

Liam is looking at the turtle swimming on the surface.  Then watching the dolphins - they are awesome!

Liam climbing the "mountain" at the zoo.  And then Aidan on the zip line at the playground at the zoo.  He could ride this thing all day if I let him!

After a fantastic day at the zoo we went over to Ciutudella Parc for a little schmooze along the paths. The kids played on a really cool tree and then on the life size mammoth (Liam was a little scared of the mammoth even though Aidan kept reassuring him it wasn’t real) before we headed to another playground there.

Climbing the crazy looking tree.

Aidan is doing "fins" and Liam runs away from the huge mammoth!

Climbing up the fountain at Ciutadella Parc.  It was a lot of steps!  The picture of the left is actually Liam dropping his bag of potato sticks into a big, fresh pile of bird poop.  He was not thrilled when I took the bag away and threw it out.  The pic on the right is the view from the stairs.  Identical stairs are on the other side as you can kind of see.

There are very old fountains like this all around the city.  I see most people filling water bottles at them or rinsing things out in them, dogs drinking from them.  Lots of uses.  Don't love my kids drinking right from the tap as they always touch their mouths to them - yuck!

I was very surprised at how the local kids played at this little playground. It was a strange little playground with one swing, a slide, a bunch of picnic tables and a monument in the middle. The kids were primarily all playing on the monument. Jumping off, pushing each other off, etc. They were incredibly rough actually and I was a little fearful for Aidan who wanted to climb with the rest. What it reminded me of, and this may not be a bad thing –  the way we used to play as kids in the 70s/80s – without supervision and making our own rules. No one to tell us how to play or how rough to play. We used our imagination and did what we wanted to do. This is a good and bad thing because this is a good sized cement statue and if you are pushed from the top, you are landing on cement and potentially cracking your head open. I do believe we can be a bit overprotective in the US, but this was almost a bit underprotective – the parents could have cared less. But I watched Aidan (and Liam who was in the queue for the slide) like a hawk. But he’s a smart kid and he realized himself when they were getting too rough and joined us at the slide. One of the kids seemed to realize we spoke English and came over to chat with us using his one word “hello”. I introduced Aidan and Liam to him and asked his age (all in Spanish – good to know I can chat with a 6 year old at least!). Aidan just had no interest though and then shortly thereafter we headed for home.

The day was a fantastic one, til the trek home. The kids were overtired. Liam fell asleep in the stroller. And Aidan had a small breakdown. He told me he wanted to go “home home” to Attleboro. He started to cry and said how much he missed his friends from home. I told him I miss my friends too. Thankfully the meltdown was fairly short but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have an impact on me. It does. The rest of the day we went thru without issue. Loved that!!

Wednesday was supposed to be my morning with just Aidan and then lunch with all 4 of us at Josh’s office. But I forgot that our heat was being fixed! We now have heat in our room and the kids room – sweet!! And it only took 2 months to get fixed (still need the ceiling repaired though from them drilling holes in it to fix the heat).  Aidan decided that he didn’t really want to go do anything like ride his bike or anything like that so he just came with me to the Merkat and then to the grocery store. At least we got some bonding time in and just got to hang out.

We did end up making it to lunch with Josh – though all we ended up having time for since he was late and had to be back by 3 was McDonalds. Though not my particular favorite, I will say I thoroughly enjoyed it mainly for it’s American-ism. I almost even asked for a 2nd cheeseburger, but it is McDonalds and I will suffer the consequences for it later as it is.  Picture on the left is of the boys waiting for Josh at the Vistaprint office.

Thursday our plan was to visit the Barcelona Aquarium which we haven’t been to before. Cristy joined us for the morning as we made our way down to Barceloneta / Port Vell for our journey under the sea. It’s a beautiful aquarium – parts of it I liked better than New England Aquarium and parts of it not as much. I definitely think that NEAQ has a better selection of species but the Barcelona one had a better layout and had the cool tunnel you go thru so that the sharks and fish are all swimming around you. That was definitely a cool feature.

Aidan at Port Vell when we arrive.  The boys in the shark at the entrance .

Checking out some fish and a cool ray against the glass.

This is the cool tunnel area where you can see the sea animals all around you!

Liam during a meltdown.  Aidan and Cristy waiting for Liam to stop freaking out.

The boys checking out the sub and the kids play area.

Cristy also got to experience my life with children. She’s met the kids before but hadn’t seen them in a few weeks and when she’s seen them for some reason they’ve been really well behaved. Well, welcome to my life. They were terrors today. Listening ears? What listening ears? When I would reprimand them, they would smile at me which just angers me all the more. Overall I would say I kept my cool but they are now without tv or the wii for the next two days. However, I do think they enjoyed the aquarium regardless of their impending punishment. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the frustration today was from me being tired too! I noticed that when I took them to get lunch today I couldn’t even muster the strength to attempt Spanish which made me feel badly (though it was McDonalds again so that was a short lived feeling) that I didn’t even try. But I think I’m just emotionally and physically exhausted from constantly processing everything in Spanish that I just couldn’t do one more thing. I think they are overtired from the last few days of busyness as well – even Aidan took a nap and he never naps anymore. As a matter of fact, as I orginally started to write this it was 6PM on Thurs and he was still sleeping!! He actually ended up out for the day/night - we woke him to pee and he slept thru til 5:30 the next morning. Naps for all!!

Friday was a no good, very bad, horrible day - at least the daytime portion… And I think it’s because I just fed off the negativity from the end of Thursday. It could be also that the kids started the day at 5:30AM. That certainly didn’t help. And my shower was interrupted by Aidan – “Mommy, you know that chocolate stuff you like on your ice cream but I don’t really like?” “You mean Nutella, Aidan?” “Yeah, Nutella… well Liam climbed on the counter and is eating it”. Seriously?? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I go downstairs and yes, Liam has gotten into the Nutella – his face is covered in chocolate as are his hands because he was scooping out the Nutella with his hands of course. 8AM and he’s already on a chocolate high. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the day has in store for me! Yeah, it only got progressively worse but I do think it’s because I was already in the mood and the kids feed off of that – I can’t say I blame them but they did still drive me crazy all day.   I had a total breakdown on the phone with my mom, crying about how I want to come home.  Mom, you'll be happy to know that I had a great night Friday night and a wonderful day Sat and while I'm still struggling to adjust everyday, I'm feeling significantly better now.  Thanks for listening to me though...

On the bright side, I found a second babysitter. Ananya is only 14 but seems years older. She happens to be from not only the US but from Massachusetts too which is great – a nice connection to home while here. The kids were very needy during her visit to meet them and yet she still wants to babysit them, so I love her already. She’s coming over on Sunday to watch them for a few hours. Hopefully after she leaves she will still want to watch them again!

And I have to say Friday night helped to improve my last day and a half as well.  Friday night Josh and I went to a wine tasting at my friend Kara's bar here in Barcelona.  I've mentioned Kara before in the blog - she's from RI but has lived here for 10 years with her husband and her son (who's the same exact age as Liam).  They own this great little bar, O-Bar, not that far from here so Josh and I hopped on the metro Friday night and headed over.  We got to listen to the person running the wine tasting explain all of the wines to us in Spanish.  My head hurt within minutes.  As Kara said to me, when you are just learning you pick up on one word but by the time you interpret that they are already on word 15 and you've missed the middle.  That was definitely the case.  And more often than not I'd say, "ok, did he say xyz?"  and she'd say, "no, he said abc".  Ok, so my interpretation has further to go than I'd realized.  But that's ok.  I think it's because it wasn't a necessity that I understand him unlike when I actually need to find a way to get somewhere or try to make a doctor's appt - that kind of thing.  We met some very interesting people most of which did speak some English and it also gave us a chance to try to practice some Spanish.  It was a bit of an informal intercambio.  For those not in the know, an intercambio is basically a meeting of people who want to improve their language skills.  Kara's bar actually does an English intercambio on Thursday nights which I'm planning to attend in the near future.  Yes Kara, I promise! 

Feeling the negativity of the end of the week has now but put aside, we started the weekend on a high note with our wine tasting on Friday night.  On Saturday, we took the kids to CosmoCaixa which is the Science Museum here. It was a pretty cool place I have to say.  Though it looks bigger than it is, we still managed to entertain the children for several hours and still need to go back at some point and hit the planetarium which we didn't do while there (kids were hitting a wall at that point).  The great thing is the signs were all in English too so we could actually describe intelligently what the kids were actually doing or looking at.  The only thing they didn't label was anything about the creatures that were alive - yes alive in the science museum (it was almost like part aquarium) - so we didn't know what types of fish were there or birds or turtles... not the end of the world but would have been nice to know. 

Left:  Best buddies...for now.  Right:  Entrance to the science museum.  It was a combination of very new and very old buildings.

Left:  view of very cool mansion/castle/chalet type building on Tibidabo Mountain.  Right:  Upon entering the museum you trek down 5 stories of ramps to the bottom of the museum.  Hanging down the middle is a tree from the Amazon.

Left:  The boys watching the pendulum swing and knock down the metal bands based on the time of day.  On the right is Aidan checking out giant catfish in the aquarium part of the museum.

Left: weird creature not marked of course.  Right:  This is compressed salt - it was an entire wall of the museum.  I thought it was a type of granite but no, it's salt!

The kids had a blast and we stopped for some tapas on the way home.  Made it back here around 3:30 and just chilled for the rest of the day.  I lost 2 hours of my life on Sat night watching Evolution with Josh - got under a 6 on IMDB... don't bother wasting your time on this flick.  Josh, I still want my two hours back!!! 

Left:  Walking back to the train station we came upon this amazingly beautiful house - check out all the frescos (must give Josh credit here - did not know they were frescos til Josh pointed it out to me).  On the right, Aidan took my picture citing that he wanted to get the background in the picture too.  Budding photographer perhaps?

Walked thru the Merkat in Gracia and came across goat brains - Aidan had to take a picture...

Today, Sunday, is the final day of Semana Blanca.  I can say that I (and the kids) survived this week on our own.  I am definitely going to need to be resourceful this summer on things to do and finding kids for Aidan and Liam to play with.  Thankfully Michelle is planning to come for hopefully the month of July so that will be a huge help for me!!!  Fingers crossed we can find a good flight!  Our new sitter, Ananya came over this afternoon for her first time to watch the boys.  Liam will be napping (hopefully) and so it will likely be just Aidan.  Josh and I started off by wandering the city during the daylight hours which we hadn't done sin ninos.  In the end we made an impromteu call to Cristy and Shawn and met them for a "late" lunch...late for me since it was after 2 but normal in Spanish time.  It ended up being an awesome time with fantastic new friends - a great way to end a great weekend!  And something we will definitely do more often now that we have not just one but two sitters!  Things are looking up.  Oh and not to rub it in my friends, but it was 60 and sunny here today! 

Love to you all!!

Julie

Aidan's Carnaval, meeting new people & Josh eats pigeon (yes pigeon).

I just realized it’s been over a week since I last posted. I can’t say that anything very exciting has happened which leads me to believe we are starting to settle in. Now that doesn’t mean we are actually feeling settled, just that the chaos of life and change has started to become the norm.

Last Friday Liam and I went to Aidan’s Carnaval parade which included the entire elementary school. I honestly teared up because I thought it was so wonderful to see the school, parents and kids all coming together for a community activity. They even had drummers come in from another school to perform with the children. All in all a festive time! Aidan's class was dressed as Franklin the Turtle as they had just finished a Franklin section in school.  I had a few minutes to chat with Aidan’s teacher and with some other parents that I had met once or twice. A very nice couple who has been doing international relocations for 15 years now (god love em) started at the school at the same time we did and we were chatting again and it turns out they live near my friend Brenda.  They said that perhaps during Semana Blanca (Feb vacation) we could all get together for a bbq at their house (FYI I have yet to hear from them beyond their intro email and then my response back). Soooo nice of them! And it would be nice to see what the suburbs are like since we have yet to see them. I also ended up meeting Max’s mother – Max is a little boy that Aidan had some slight conflict with a few weeks ago, a misunderstanding between the two. I didn’t make the connection til I had been talking to his mum for a good 15 mins. Very very sweet woman who has been here for 3 ½ years and before that Paris (which is where they are from originally) and before that NYC. We exchanged numbers and Aidan and Max had a blast playing while we waited for the bus.

One of the cool things about the buses for BFIS is that the parents get to ride them. I had not gone on the bus til now primarily because I don’t want to encourage Aidan who once he knows I can ride it will want me on it every day which isn’t reasonable. But also because the driver and the monitor speak only Spanish and I didn’t know how to ask if it was ok since sometimes the seats fill up. But the monitor saw me and motioned me over so instead of taking the looooong way home (3 different forms of transit – 1 hr) we hopped on the bus. There I met another mom, who turns out to be the mom of the boy who punched Aidan in the penis in his second week of school. Nice huh? She was very nice though and so it made me a bit sad that her kid is a bully – even she admitted that he can be a trouble maker on the bus! I have to say the one thing that made me sad about the bus ride was I found that the kids were very disrespectful to Conchi who is he bus monitor. They would say things to her in English that she wouldn’t understand or kind of push her a little if they didn’t like what she said to them. I can only hope that Aidan realizes that that kind of behavior is unacceptable and I was very tempted to say something to these kids but I also have no idea where my boundaries are in this situation.

Saturday night was a treat here.  We went to the Hard Rock Cafe down in Placa de Catalunya.  It was a treat mainly because (a) it was American food and we've been craving it and (b) the prices are ridiculous for things such as a burger at 16€ each.  However, we all thoroughly enjoyed our meals and it was nice to just eat something from home!!  The picture below is of Liam checking out the drink menu - he seemed quite engrossed in it.  Hmmm...this child bears some watching apparently...


Valentines Day was on Sunday and I feel terrible that I didn't do anything for the boys (or for Josh). I just didn't have it in me I guess. I don't think it would have mattered except that Josh surprised me with a beautiful flower arrangement and so of course Aidan said, "where's my gift?". Sorry buddy!!


As is the norm for us here, it rained a lot this week and so Liam and I didn’t venture out that much anything on Monday or Tuesday during the day. On Monday, Josh was out and we had a power outage and this one was not caused by me running the washer and dryer at the same time. This is a perfect example of how something that is not a big deal at home in my comfort zone can completely throw me off to the point of an almost paralyzing fear. The first outage was only about 10 mins (by the way this was around 9PM so pretty dark out and rainy). I didn’t realize that I was not the cause of the outage and when I saw that I hadn’t tripped a circuit I started to freak out about how to get the power back on. I tried to call Josh…no answer. I tried to call Cristy figuring maybe her husband would know what to do…no answer. So now I have no power and no one to call to see if I’m the only one with an outage and no way to get it back on. The hallway outside our apartment had lights on, though they were dim – down the street had lights. Finally they went back on. However, the second outage was for 40 mins. I honestly couldn’t really move from the couch once I realized it wasn’t something I could fix. Freaked me out a bit. I wouldn’t call it a meltdown – there were no tears or absolute freak outs or need to go home (want not need) but just an emptiness of what I’ve left behind and what I’ve got to slowly progress thru here.

I went out on Tuesday night with Cristy and got saw her new apartment which is beautiful and would absolutely not fit our needs – tiny elevator, one bathroom, no outdoor space… but for the two of them it’s perfect. It has old style Catalan ceilings and huge gorgeous windows and an amazing view of Rambla Catalunya. Feeling emotionally exhausted from the funk I was in on Monday and Tuesday, we went out for pizza (again) and it was soooo good. My funk for the last few days is now over.

I do think the weather plays a role in my moods here just like it does at home. The winter blahs. While the winter here is nothing like the winter at home, you can only do so many days of rain before you just get bummed out. I’d feel the same way at home with the cold and snow but at least at home I’d be able to get together with people more often and the kids would have playmates and we could jump in the car and just go somewhere, anywhere. I don’t have that here yet and I think that makes it a bit harder, getting out is a struggle in the crappy weather since we have to walk everywhere.

Wednesday I met up with Kara, a new friend of mine that I have been emailing with for the last month or so but had yet to meet. It’s really funny how we met. My father-in-law, who is a textile/fabric rep, knows her best friend. He happened to mention to her friend that we were all moving to Barcelona and she said, “oh my best friend has lived there for 10 years, let me give you her info”. My father-in-law gave me her info and I emailed her. But that’s not the funny part. I’ve also gotten to be friendly with a co-worker of Josh’s wife who just left Barcelona not that long ago. Her name is Wendy. So I email Kara introducing myself and she said, “I feel like I know you, Wendy Habeski has already sent me your info”. Talk about your small world! So I’ve met Kara thru two connections and she is awesome. She’s a wealth of info and has been here for 10 years (originally from RI so a fellow New Englander) and has a son exactly Liam’s age. She and her husband own a bar here that Josh and I are going to next week for a wine tasting / tapas event. I’ll let you know how it goes! Anyways, I had my sitter and so I ended up having coffee with Kara for 3 hrs and it flew by. I really felt that we connected well and I look forward to getting together again and at some point would love for the boys to meet as well.

Thurs was an amazingly gorgeous day which we desperately needed. Met up with my new friend Leigh whom I’ve been emailing with (she and her husband are from the US but were living in Ireland the last 2 ½ years) and her 6 month old Emma. Adorable! We met up at the Arc de Triomf since she was coming from out of the city and there was a commuter rail stop there.

We walked all around Ciutadella Parc which I had only walked the outskirts of – it’s a beautiful park and really the most green area I’ve seen in the city so far and you can actually walk on the grass which you can’t do in most areas (I know, who would think there could be sooo many areas where you CANNOT walk on the grass). It was a perfect day for a walk and so Liam and I did the long walk home as well instead of hitting the metro.

I’m glad we walked because, Friday it rained… again. Liam and I hit the Merkat de Gracia, our local market, for some fruits and veggies and then a little toy store near by. At the market I’ve found that they recognize me at my favorite fruit and vegetable stand. I’m even able to say a few things above and beyond my needs. Poco a poco – little by little. I’ve noticed, mainly because I happened to love a good puzzle…that they are EXTREMELY popular here and every toy store has a huge selection of them. Perhaps it’s because everything moves at a slower pace here and a puzzle is the perfect slower pace form of entertainment?? But it’s a puzzle mecca!

Friday afternoon I tried to call a doctor to make an appt for a physical for the boys. This doctor was recommended to us thru a co-worker of Josh’s that had lived in our area and had a child. Supposedly this doctor speaks English, however, the support staff apparently does not. I am near tears as I write this because all I want is to make an appointment and I can’t even do that. I google translated ahead of time what it was that I needed – a physical for my children. I managed to get transferred a few times and finally ended up in the doctor’s office that I needed, I believe. And NO ONE spoke English. Though I think I understood that on Monday someone will be there after 4 that speaks English. Fingers crossed as I will have to go thru this painful process again on Monday. It made for a messy Friday evening since I was now in a mood. The good news is that we got our first big care package on Friday and the kids were thrilled at the stash they got! Thanks Granny and Papa! And we know there is another one on it’s way from Nana and Papa – can’t wait!

Saturday we went to go check out a sports club up in the Sarria area near Aidan’s school. The school counselor had recommended it to me because a lot of families from the school go there and that she believed they spoke English AND they have tennis. We figured that even though this place is a haul, it appears that they have many activities here including a full gym, pools, playground, soccer fields, tennis courts, etc. And it’s close to Aidan’s school so we could go once or twice a week and hit the ball around a bit after school. The bonus as I saw it is that if there are families from the school that go there, we could make some “crossover” friends for Aidan that he would see at school and at the club. Win win. So armed with our info, we took the hour long ride up to the club…only to find out that the contact there does not speak English. And when I tried to ask if we could come after school and play tennis just the two of us, she said no. Now I don’t think that is necessarily the case but I’m not spending 80€ a month plus 20€ a month for his tennis lessons and not be able to just hit the ball around with him when I feel like it. And I need to look more into the daycare situation there because if I could use the gym while Liam plays that would be great. Regardless we left there without a membership because we just didn’t feel we got the information we needed. Back to square one on that which was very frustrating.

On the way home from the sport complex we took a long walk thru Gracia and happened upon another open market – it’s about another 10 minutes past ours and a bit smaller. But it was different too – it had a supermarket inside it and more fish than any other offerings. Aidan was especially entranced with the swordfish head and the fish tank. (Aidan took the pics to the left).

Saturday night was date night!! Woo hoo! Alefiya came around 6:30 and Aidan seems to take to her right away which was reassuring for us. We had no specific plan in mind other than to just walk until we found something. We walked around Gracia and went into a bar called Mr. Browns. It was really nice out the outside and we figured it would be equally nice on the inside. Wrong! A haze of smoke welcomed us upon entering. We figured we couldn’t turn back and so sat down at the bar on the torn stools for a quick drink. I will just say that the wine kind of burned going down. That was Mr. Browns.

We passed by a cute looking Italian restaurant during our walk and figured it could be a good option but they weren’t open yet. We continued on for another 15 mins and then decided to turn back to the Italian place. And I’m glad we did. The restaurant, Specchio Magico Barcelona, was fabulous! The service was wonderful and one of the owners waited on us and spoke fantastic English. He was from Italy and had lived in England before settling down in Barcelona 17 years ago. And the food, well the food was wonderful! I had a caprese salad which is one of my favorites – and the mozzarella was very fresh (as it should be in a good Italian restaurant) and for dinner I had the pasta purses filled with cheese and pears in a walnut gorgonzola sauce. Yum!! Josh, had cured ox meat as an appetizer (which he said was fabulous, I passed on tasting) and then he had pigeon, yes you read it correctly. I think he just wanted to have pigeon so he could tell Aidan he ate it. Of course as delicious as it was, Josh has been suffering the consequences of it this AM – no more needs to be said there. Though I do question where they get the pigeons in these restaurants. There are pigeons everywhere in this city – do they pluck them off the street or are they “farm raised” pigeons? Sorry, just have to ask. I’m going to say since this was a reputable place that they were probably farm raised. Two hours later and a great bottle of Syrah later, we were on our way back home feeling much more relaxed. Looking forward to date night for next week too!

All in all, a good week. Today is Sunday, a day of rest here. The only thing open on Sunday is restaurants. We’re trying to convince the kids that we should go out for lunch. So far we are not winning the battle so it may be a day of puzzles, video games, books and toys. Not a bad way to end the week.

Julie

Living a more spontaneous life...

Do you ever feel as though your life is constrained by your calendar?  That every day and every weekend books up faster than you can imagine with meetings, personal appointments, birthday parties, playdates and more?  One of the so-called "freedoms" I've had here in Spain is to take a step back from my over-scheduling (and believe me, I can over schedule with the best of them) and really play things day by day, even hour by hour.  Don't get me wrong, Liam and I are starting to establish some routines as far as when we go out, when he has a nap, picking up Aidan, etc, but for the most part we start each day new and don't really have a game plan.  It's been rather liberating!

However, as liberating as it has been, it's also been a bit lonely not having as many plans as we are used to.  I'm craving more adult time - just general interaction with adults would be fine at this point - having a quick chat with the waiter/waitress somewhere, talking to my hair stylist, asking someone's opinion in a store about if they have purchased this product before.  But alas, I don't speak Spanish fluently and to do this is a struggle.  So some of my new free time is time that is spent in isolation - not necessarily isolation from the outside world because Liam and I go out and about pretty much every day, but isolation from people.  It's not a great feeling but it's a feeling I'm bound and determined to change in someway. 

One way to make those changes would be to join some groups.  I'm ambivilant about the groups even though I know they could be useful to me.  I think it's because I just want the friendships to happen in an organic way - thru introduction of others, casually at a playground, at an event, walking around the neighborhood - you know what I mean.  The same way you meet people at home.  I don't want "forced" friendships and that's not to say they would truly be forced because no one HAS to become my friend but I don't want to base my friendship with someone just because we happen to have children the same age - I'd like some common interests too.  So I'm working on getting over this need to "survive" on my own and just jump in and join a group. 

Overall this week has been relatively non-eventful.  Not necessarily a bad thing.  The weather was kind of crappy here on Mon and Tues.  Now by crappy I mean 50s and rainy.  Not crappy like the East Coast getting battered with not inches but feet of snow.  Though the last two days have been only 40s and I can't get rid of the chill running thru me - I think I've acclimated to this climate already - not sure I can bear a New England winter again!!! 

Monday morning I hired a babysitter!  Yes!!  And she was the one that was 25€ but no, I promise you, I'm not paying that rate.  We compromised with 12 for Liam and 15 for both kids.  Very comprable to home as long as I don't do the conversion of dollars to euros (which I'm trying really hard not to constantly do these days).  She then came by on Wednesday for an hour and a half to just hang with Liam and get to know him.  I really like her and am hoping she will connect with Aidan as she seems to have connected with Liam.  She's also offered to watch the kids on the weekends so we now have a date night planned for next Sat night (she's not free this weekend) and then the following Fri for a tapas/wine tasting at a new friend's tapas bar (more on that a different day).

Monday night we had a little impromptu gathering with Cristy and Shawn.  I'm so glad Cristy called to see if we wanted to get together and they were so fine with coming to us since the kids were in bed.  We drank lots of wine and cava (kind of like a champagne) and laughed A LOT.  We watched Couples Retreat on demand which didn't get the best IMDB rating but I have to say, it was hysterical to watch with a group of people and we had some much needed good belly laughs!  It was really a great way to start off the week.  And something we hope to do more often!

On Tuesday I met up with Brenda and we headed over to L'illa Mall on Diagonal (http://www.lilla.com/en/index.html).  Malls are a relatively new concept here in Barcelona (and I think in Spain).  The setup is interesting because often times it combines the inside and outside together.  Picture the Wrentham Outlets but semi-contained - so there may be no roof over the common areas or it may be a combination of indoor outdoor space but done very differently at home.  This could also be because of the more favorable climate here in Barcelona as opposed to Boston where you can really only shop outside 6 months of the year.  The downstairs floor had an amazing food court - since there really is no "fast" food here unless you find a McDonalds or BurgerKing (which are both plentiful here but not in the mall) the food court was really lots of little restaurants and food shops.  We actually ended up having Mexican and after eating pretty much the same thing day in and out lately, it was nice to have a fajita for a change!  The stores themselves were very ecclectic which was nice - the clothing here as I've mentioned is a mecca of change - you could literally throw on the first things you see in your closet and you know what, it will work even if you think it doesn't match - it really doesn't matter.  But the store that interested me the most was Zara mainly because I can see that as a store where the close most appeal to our sense (or maybe lack thereof) of style from the US.  http://www.zara.com/.  I would say it most closely resembles Banana Republic as far as fashion but more like Gap or Old Navy as far as quality.  But it works...and I bought each of the kids a shirt.  Ahhhh to shop again...what a great feeling!!!!

Once again ambivilent about the public transit, I decided to hoof it home by foot despite the rain.  I made a poor choice of jacket that morning with no hood so it meant carrying an umbrella while pushing the stroller (one of my purchases while in the mall was a 30€ rain shield for Liam's stroller (my hope is for that money it would be made of gold but alas it was made of plastic and hopefully will outlast my stroller) which came in very handy given the long hour plus walk home.  But hey it meant I got to explore a little different part of the city while walking.  Why did I walk in the rain instead of attempting to the take metro you ask?  Well, basically I was too tired to try it.  Ok, so that doesn't make sense does it?  But it does.  I was too tired emotionally to be let down one more time when I have to struggle to figure out where I need to stop and switch lines (I would have had to change trains, buses, etc at least 3 times).  It's not that I can't do it - I'm sure with a little focus I can absolutely do it.  But it's that somedays you are just too emotionally exhausted - your brain is tired from constantly trying to remember words in Spanish or interpret what someone else is saying.  You actually get tired from overthinking all day.  When you talk to someone in English, you just do it - you don't have to think about what it means.  Here I must actually think thru the process if I even want to just order something at a food counter.  After a while, your brain just goes on meltdown - that's my brain after a day of shopping here - I just didn't have the strength to figure it out and so it was actually easier to walk the hour than attempt to interpret the metro and bus maps. 


On Wednesday my landlord returned with new heat repair people and SURPRISE, our heat still doesn't work.  Ahhh Spain!  Given the very chilly last few nights this kind of sucks.  But the kids still have a space heater in their room though Josh and I do not have one in our room.  They think it has something to do with a pipe upstairs (our downstairs heat works fine) and so they will come back in 10 days (why 10 I have no idea, this is just what he told me and I figured I probably couldn't argue it) to drill holes in the ceiling to figure out which pipe is causing the problem - it will be a day long process.  They will then repair the ceiling and paint it.  Good times.  With spring just around the corner why am I stressing about getting this done?  Because that heating unit is also the AC unit and I'll be damned if we are without AC in the spring/summer! 

While this was an uneventful week I'm realizing as I write this that it was busier than I realized.  This is great since really none of it was preplanned.  On Thursday Liam and I had a scheduled playdate with my new friend Mim and her two boys (Mani 3 1/2 and Rishi 1).  She and her husband, Sanjay just moved here from London and Sanjay works with Josh at Vistaprint.  Liam and I hopped on the metro over to Mim's flat – she lives overlooking Parc de la Ciutadella and has just a totally different living space than here - a much more open floor plan than what we have an compared to most in Barcelona (Barcelona most definitely has living spaces that are more compartmentalized). Mani and Liam had a nice playdate which ended at a little restaurant where I had a fabulous veggie lasagna – I never would have found this place- totally obscure place and construction around it. Loved it because even though it was a nice place, it had bins of toys for the kids to play with and the patrons didn’t mind the kids playing around them. It’s called Bar del Convent.  It's a place I would definitely go back to with or without the kids.  Apparently on the weekends they have live music and sometimes storytellers for the kids. 

Thursday night I have to say was probably the highlight of my week.  While it was our usual girls night out - we managed to put a little twist on it.  Normally Cristy and I will head out for some dinner and drinks but last night we also managed to go the Joss Stone concert!  Totally a spontaneous thing that Cristy happened upon while searching the web yesterday - we made these plans around 3 or 4 Thurs afternoon!  We met up near the concert area and ended up at a creperie for dinner.  OMG, the most fabulous crepes I have EVER had in my life!  http://www.crepsabarcelona.com/index.htm  - for some reason I think they changed their sign but this is the place.  We of course had to have each a savory crepe and a dessert crepe.  I had the spinich, goat cheese and honey crepe and it was the most fabulous thing I have ever tasted with the cheese melted just perfectly, the spinach cooked but not wilted and the honey gave this little bit of sweetness so that the goat cheese wasn't too overpowering.  I have to bring Josh here even though he's not a huge crepe fan.  And for dessert was the Dulce de Leche crepe which had just a hint of cinnamon and I think some nutella as well.  Cristy and I split the desserts so I also got a taste of her strawberry & nutella crepe.  Also super fabulous!!!  Definitely a place to return to!

On to the concert.  First off, it was 18€ which is a bargain anywhere!  Secondly it was held in the most beautiful theater I have ever in my life seen (http://www.palaumusica.org/).  And third, she's an amazingly talented singer and performer.  Though our seats were slightly obstructed we were able to see Joss perform and just chill out to some great music.  What interested me was that music is one of those things that transcend culture - people shouted out to her like they would here in the US, they sang along, and at the end they cheered and cheered til she came back for her encore.  It made me feel like I was home for just a little bit and it was a good feeling. 

Today is Friday - we have no plans yet for the weekend.  Kind of a good feeling as well.  We'll play it by ear.  It's supposed to be chilly (upper 40s is chilly here!) but nice.  I'm still on a hunt for a tennis court here - I've come to the conclusion that you need to pay to use any tennis court in or outside the city - there are just no municipal ones that you can go to.  This afternoon I'm picking Aidan up from school.  They have their Carnaval parade this afternoon which will be great to see.  The kindergarten classes were making their own costumes and I can't wait to see them! I'll post more later once I've been to the parade!  Carnaval, like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, is a ginormous party here with eating, drinking and lots of festivities before the beginning Lent (http://www.barcelonayellow.com/content/view/185/1/).  We have friends going to Sitges this weekend for some of the festivities - not sure we are ready for that with the kids but you never know! 
Have a great Friday!

Julie

Barcelona Zoo (take 2) and the Best Day so Far...

Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day in Barcelona.  I'm sorry to rub it in to all my New England friends who are suffering in subzero temps and lots and lots of snow.  But I think it made it to 60 here on Fri (and Sat).  Wanting to take full advantage of the beautiful weather, Liam and I set out on another exploration.  Today's goal - the Arc de Triomf (for a little history check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomf) and the Parc de la Ciutadella (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parc_de_la_Ciutadella) which also happens to abut the zoo we went to earlier in the week.  We essentially walked the entire length of Passeig Sant Joan - which runs north to south in the city and we pick up just a few blocks from our flat.

Liam and I made a pit stop to at least 3 different playground on our way to the Arc.  One of the great things about Sant Joan is the playgrounds that line the walkway in the middle between the north/southbound traffic.  It was a great day with my fabulous little boy who was content to walk with me or to hang in the stroller.

Random church                                                           Statue before Arc de Triomf

 
Liam eating choc donut                         The Arc de Triomf with mountains in the background

However, Friday night was not so fabulous.  Aidan had yet more meltdowns, triggering more meltdowns on my end.  His screams were so loud that I really thought someone might call the police.  He's just having some truly miserable moments, misses home terribly and then it projects on to the rest of the family.  Not an easy time.  Josh and I had a long talk about him and about Spain that night as I sat there in tears just feeling totally isolated and frustrated.  Nothing is easy here and I've about hit my limit of patience.  And I think Aidan has as well.  Thankfully Aidan and I also had a long talk about other ways to express our frustration beyond screaming at the top of his lungs.  And that most importantly he needs to talk to Josh and I when he's having a tough time.   I'm tired of being emotionally exhausted all of the time and celebrating the little victories - I just want one day to be simple and I feel like it's too much to ask most of the time. 

Apparently wishes really do come true because on Saturday we had the best day since we have arrived in Barcelona over a month ago.  Believe it or not, I saw at least one, maybe several, smiles on Aidan's face.  He wanted to stay home and watch tv or play tennis against our back wall but we convinced him to go the zoo.  Yes, I know I just went to the zoo the other day with Liam but Josh and Aidan had not yet been.  And I'm so glad we went because not only did it invoke a much needed smile on Aidan's face, but more animals were out this time then when Liam and I had gone.  We've decided it will be well worth it to become members there so we're going to do that this week (it takes up to 15 days and like everything else, it is not an instant membership - we have to wait for it to be mailed to us).  We also got to see the dolphin show this time which was amazing to watch.  The kids absolutely loved it!! 

I think this camel looks Elvis-like...he even had the snarl.      Boys playing at the one good playground here   

After returning home from the zoo, I headed out to El Corte Ingles on a mission for a new pair of boots.  This is the one thing that is consistent in Barcelona - everyone wears these flat boots (I can't imagine walking these streets all day in heeled ones so I can totally understand why they are the rage).  So of course, I need a pair.  That and I have my Uggs and that's all that goes with my skinny jeans right now. 

So I head to El Corte Ingles - I think I've mentioned this store before - it's 9 stories and incredibly overwhelming.  It's a bit like Macy's on a much bigger (and lesser quality) scale.  Since I've got time on my hands I head all the way up to work my way down and see what this store has to offer me.  The highlights being the toys and the boots for me. 

On the toys - I'd like to say to my Hasbro friends, you must make a killing in other countries.  My thoughts is that it's cheaper to ship to Europe than the US and yet the cost of the toys is ridiculous.  I looked at a 2 pack of SuperSquad guys - 10€ (so like $13).  Another example - a non-Hasbro toy was the Fisher Price Imaginext Dragon Castle.  I got this for Aidan for Xmas to the tune of I believe somewhere between $40-50.  However, here in Barcelona, it was 87€...yeah you read it right... that's oh maybe $110 or so.  Insane!!!  Suffice it to say, I didn't end up picking up any toys though I wandered the toy section for a while.  Given their 9 floors of general crap, the toy section was not that big nor was the selection and most of the items I could definitely have gotten at home (and for significantly less money). 

On to the shoe floor.  It turns out there were 2 - well they were both partial floors.  I was really disappointed by the selection on the first one and was heading downstairs to leave the mall when I realized the next floor also had shoes.  Why they aren't together???  Because it's Spain, that's why.  Now I'm faced with a new dilemma - one that I hadn't thought of before I left the house.  What size shoe am I in Europe???  I look around desperately for a shoe sizing thing.  None.  I finally find a group of boots that are on the edge of the children's section but I'm not 100% sure if they are junior size???  Turns out they aren't since I saw another woman pick up a pair and just try them on.  So I basically did the same - grabbed a pair, put it down by my shoes and said, hmmmm too big... ok, so I'm not a 38...let's work our way down.  Found a 35...too small.  Ok so either 36 or 37.  Making progress.  Finally figure out that I'm a 36.  I find in another section a really nice pair of brown boots that I ended up purchasing.  Would have liked a pair of black too but now I've been in El Corte Ingles for 2 hrs and I'm just done with shopping (yes I was believe it or not).  It was on my way out as I was passing the pocketbook section that I realize that I have a black purse and now brown boots.  Hmmmm... ok, thinking this could be a problem I schmooze the purses.  Nothing screams at me.  And then I realize, this is Barcelona, does it really matter?  I've seen some scary fashion statements here and if I mix brown and black am I going to stand out as much as the girl in a polka dotted shirt, striped knee socks, tall boots and daisy duke shorts?  Probably not. 

By now I'm on a shoppers high - I found what I wanted and needed and while it took a bit more effort than I would have liked, I now know my shoe size here and can move forward.  I'm thinking since I'm feeling so good about the day, maybe we can try dinner out with the kids.  A lot of restaurants in Placa de Catalunya tend to be open earlier than 8 to cater to the tourists that are not as accustomed to eating so late.  I get home and say to Josh, what do you think about taking the kids out to eat in Placa de Catalunya?  He's all for it and the kids were actually excited too.  So we headed out to Ciudad Condel where I had gone with Cristy a few weeks ago.  I was familiar with the food, the waiters speak English and I knew we could find things on the menu that the kids would like.  And they really did enjoy it.  They had their first tapas and enjoyed them.  Ok, more so Aidan than Liam but just the same Aidan really enjoyed the pimientos del Padrón (fried green peppers with salt on them), the calcots (the long onions that you dip in romesco sauce) and the mussels.  It's a really nice restaurant with good quality food and I can see us coming here regularly with the kids in the future.

Aidan eating mussels                                                Liam trying peppers (wasn't crazy about them)

Josh eating calcots

Because they were so good all day we decided to end the day with a trip back to El Corte Ingles where neither Josh or Aidan had been and took a little tour of the toy section.  After being told no a few too many times to things that at home may cost $10 and would be reasonable but here were 40€, we settled on a pokemon toy for Aidan and a toy story toy for Liam.  It was the perfect end to the perfect day.  You know what, Spain may not end up so bad...

Julie

Spain is like a possessed rollercoaster ride (that I can't get off of)!

Yes, you read that correctly... I think Spain is possessed.  Ok, maybe not possessed, but it has this curse that it keeps putting on me where things seem to be more extreme than they would be at home.  Sometimes this can be a good thing when it's more of a good possessed...other times, not so good.  Thursday, not so good. 

Let me preface this entry by saying that one of the reasons I really looked forward to our move to Barcelona was because it was/is my hope to spend better quality time with my family.  In a world full of everything moving at the speed of light and technology, I feel like I am always in constant motion and have the constant need to be accomplishing something.  If I'm not doing something, I'm sleeping or sick.  And things got to a point where if my children interrupted my groove, all hell would break loose.  I have high expectations for myself and if anything, even a small child, were to throw that off, I would be completely off balance.  The result, a lot of yelling at the kids.  Something I'm not proud of and continuously make strides to change.  My goal when I got to Spain, take a load off, not try to be super woman all the time, and make time for my family and the things that are important to me, especially my kids. 

Well, yesterday was not the day for improvements.  Yesterday was a day full of just pure chaos.  And it was once again my problem where I in a way took on too much and my kids were acting like, guess what, kids, and it threw my whole world in a tizzy.  Yes, I said it... a tizzy.  It started off well enough.  I had to take Aidan to get his NIE number yesterday (the foreign social security number) since he didn't go with Liam and I a few weeks ago.  He was excited about the fact that he got to go to school late AND mommy was going to be taking him to school.  I was excited because I was actually going to use public transportation to get him to said school.

We walked down to the NIE office which is I'm going to say at least a mile and a half.  Aidan was a super star!!  No complaints and was just chilling out.  But now the wait begins - we're early because the line will eventually wrap around the building and you must get there before 8:45 or your screwed timewise.  We were 4th in line so not so bad.  But now my kids are just sitting outside the building (building doesn't actually open til 9) and they are antsy.  I let Aidan bring his DS so he could hang out and play that.  He'd rather taunt his brother and vice versa.  Not a pretty sight.  Biting my tongue I just kept asking them to keep their hands to themselves.  By the time we get inside, I'm a stress case.  Elise (HR at Vistaprint and all around very nice person) helps out with the communication with the NIE people and we're off to the bank (because remember, they don't let you pay your fee here - you go to the bank, come back, wait in another line and then get your actual certificate).  Kids are running like madmen around the bank.  I'm pretty sure at some point I had taught them some manners but apparently they no longer apply now that we live in Spain.  I'm trying not to yell to them but now they are heading towards people's offices. 

Let me just add a side note, I have YET to hear any parent yell at or to their children.  When my kids get too close to the road (there is no breakdown lane here, the cars ride right along the sidewalk edge) I yell to them to move back.  Have yet to hear anyone else do that.  And that's not an angry yell, that's a concerned, move away from the edge of the sidewalk before a car takes you out kind of a yell - maybe even more of a shout). 

Well, we're done with our NIE numbers and the kids are already toasty.  It's about 10AM now.  I figure with any luck I can get Aidan to school by 10:30.  He's already asked no less than 20 times if he's missed lunch at school and he's very very concerned about when lunch is and mommy, is it lunchtime yet because I don't want to miss lunch??  All answered similar to, no Aidan, it's still breakfast time, don't worry.  By the 20th time, I'm annoyed.  And who wouldn't be. 


Off we head to the FGC.  We're almost to the stop and Aidan's wearing out (it was all uphill) and we come to an intersection.  I happen to look at my phone and see an email from Josh - "Aidan had a field trip today and has missed it".  Shit!!!!  My original plan to get the NIE was to go on Fri and when Elise emailed me last minute to see if we could go on Thurs, I didn't think twice - I knew my schedule was empty and I didn't even think about Aidan's.  So now the poor kid missed his field trip.  I'm so winning that mom of the year award this year!  Yeah, the crappy mom of the year award.  Now I'm wondering, hmmm... should I even bring him to school?  Will there be other kids there that didn't go on the trip as well?  Or should we just go home?  We were close to some benches and an outdoor eating area so I told the kids to sit while I called the school.  Ring ring... ring ring... beeeeeppppp... damn, why is there a fax answering?  Try again... same thing.  And again and again.  At least 12 times.  Same result.  I look at my business card I have since now I'm wondering if I had the wrong number saved in my phone.  Nope, same number.  I email Josh to see if he has another number - try that.  Same thing.  Ok, so now what do I do?  School or home?  School or home?  School wins... I figure that at the very least we'll learn how to get there on our own.  Hindsight is 20/20 and since my kids (and I) were already on the edge, this may not have been a brilliant idea on my part.

Now I've only taken the FGC once so far and it was with 2 experiences FGC takers.  Again, we're not talking brain surgery.  However, the last time I was here I had very little time to get to Aidan and was feeling a bit frazzled.  This time, I've got more time but still feel frazzled.  I don't know which train to take.  I know I can take any but the 7 from what I've been told.  But I never thought about the fact that the trains go in two different directions.  For some reason the map just isn't laid out right in my mind - I know I need to go to Sarria which is north.  But which of these trains is going to take me there.  I'm getting frustrated and the kids are running around the station.  I yell.  I can't help it.  I put Liam in his stroller and he's crying and I'm frustrated and near tears.  All I want to do is take Aidan to school.  Is that really asking so much?  We figure out the train and make it with seconds to spare (they run about every 6-8 minutes whereas the metro runs about every 3-4) and get on. 

We finally get off at our stop (with a bit of stress because when Liam acts out like this my fear is that we won't be able to get off the train fast enough and miss our stop or that Aidan will get off and Liam and I won't make it in time).  Liam has a bit of a meltdown on the stairs but we've made it to Sarria on the FGC.  Score one for me!!

We make our way out, and honestly if I hadn't done it with Jami before I would have no idea which direction I needed to go in.  But the bus stop was right near the exit to the train - maybe 50 yards away.  I see the #30 bus pull up as we are coming out of the train station. RUN!!!  Yeah, we missed that bus.  And I was totally unrealistic thinking they could make it and that was completely unfair to expect them to.  Again, hindsight being 20/20.  However, not having taken the bus before I'm not sure how long we have to wait between buses and so that frustrates me.  Kids are once again poking each other and egging each other on.  I finally tell them "your butts are glue now stay where you are and don't touch each other".  If only they would listen.  I raise my voice a bit and two other people have arrived at our stop. 

We get on the bus, finally... I think we waited about 10 mins, maybe not even.  It was forever in my mind.  I'm frustrated, I'm anxious and I'm on my last string of patience.  We get on the bus and other than the two other people with us, we have the bus to ourselves.  My kids think it's disneyworld or something.  Hop from seat to seat.  I'm beyond done now, JUST SIT STILL!  Then Aidan pulls my arm and whispers "hey mommy, that's my music teacher over there".  Ohhhhh great.... so now one of his teachers has seen me very very far from my best.  I manage a meek, "hi, how are you?? - it's been one of those days, you know?".   I'm sure she thinks I'm the worst mom in the world and all I do is yell at my kids.  But she ended up being super helpful as I wasn’t sure how long we were supposed to be on the bus (answer, til the end of the line).... Got to school and yeah, he wasn’t supposed to be there.

Aidan's pretty excited now - no school!  Though now it's 11AM - and it's been a LONG day already.  On our way home (took the bus and FGC again, getting to be a pro!!) I noticed a store on Travessera de Gracia that was in English – any store that has it’s name in English is appealing to me because I usually can guess it’s content or hope for some product that’s familiar. This place is called DeliShop. I walk in with the hopes that perhaps I might find vanilla extract since the sign says it’s for international cooking. Well, not only did I find vanilla extract but I also found Jif (YES!), Fluff, maple syrup, fruit roll ups (an indulgence for the kids), the infamous bisquick, cookie mix, brownie mix, muffin mix, goldfish crackers, microwave popcorn and lots more. About 30€ later my job is complete and my crappy day has taken a much brighter turn for the better.  I looked up their website and they have several locations in the city - I'll have to check out if any of them have a larger section of US stuff as this store was tiny.  I know, I know...beggars can't be choosers, but now I'm on a mission!

The rest of the day was pretty non descript.  Kids miserable, I’m miserable… we’re really feeding off of each other from earlier in the day. It’s a life that I feel trapped in today – where there is truly no escape for me. I can’t call up a friend and say hey, I need some relief, you help me and I’ll help you later when you need it. Yeah, can’t do that. My children’s misery is now truly mine.  And that makes me feel even worse.  Not to mention the fact that I really do enjoy being with them and these feelings make me feel worse because it's not that I want to get rid of them, I just want a few hours in the city a week to just do my own thing during the day - maybe get work done, errands, have coffee and there are days where it's just harder to be a parent than others - this is one of those days.  I have had Liam with me now for over a month - EVERY SINGLE DAY.  You stay at home parents out there - I admire you even more than I did before.  I've been a work at home mom since my kids were born and have had the best of both worlds but my kids always had some form of daycare at least part time so I could work and then they were home with me part time.  It worked out.  But to be working as close to full time as I can and having Liam full time and trying to adjust and wanting to spend time out in the city with him, I'm pretty much toasty. 

I had one brief glimmer of hope today that I had secured a babysitter. What was I thinking? That I might actually get one?  Elise, HR at Vistaprint, and I were chatting while waiting in the NIE line about finding a sitter, and she said she had a friend and would contact her to see if it might work out. And the woman was proactive and contacted me, I’d say within an hour of knowing my existence. Brownie points there, already like her. Sent her an email back asking a little bit more, talking about potential hours (like maybe 8-10 a week), etc etc… oh and how much do you charge per hour?  Now at home we’ve always paid anywhere from $10-15 an hour depending on experience, age, length of time they are watching kids, etc etc. I truly believe you get what you pay for and don’t ever want to be cheap when it comes to my kids. We’re good tippers too, or so I like to think. But when this woman came back with 25€ an hour (I just did a conversion on yahoo currency to see how this compares with today’s US rates and it’s an astonishing $34.30 a hour), I was just blown away. And not in a good way. My life once again came crashing down upon me. All I want is a babysitter – not a brain surgeon. He’s 2 ½. Make sure he doesn’t eat something he’s not supposed to, change his diaper occasionally and watch him on the stairs. I’d like it if you play with him too. But as my friend Cristy pointed out last night, for that rate, he should be working on his degree with her as well!! I emailed her back this morning and basically told her she’s a bit too rich for my blood. Sorry!! Back to square one again on this one.  Since then I have spoken to her and we're meeting on Mon to discuss if there is any happy medium that might work and I've also reached out to my landlord who may have some resources there.

I feel like this entry has been yet another negative one and that's not my intent.  I feel that if I'm going to talk about my life here it has to cover the good, the bad and the ugly.  Today was not a waste.  Today was a learning experience.  I learned to take Aidan to school on my own (and it's a haul) without relying on a cab.  I learned I need to be more patient with my kids (maybe not a new lesson but one I need to actually focus on).  I learned that I need to take a step back and focus on the big picture and not the little things that irritate me - why do those things irritate me and how can I change that?   I learned that when life gives you lemons, you need to make lemonade. 

I ended the night on a positive note.  It was girls night - been sooo looking forward to that, especially after my experiences that day.  Cristy has been going thru some rough patches as well and it's good to have someone to commiserate with.  We got manicures at this cute place called the Pink Peony (http://www.pink-peony.com/) that was recommended to us by our new friend Jami and then had dinner at this fabulous Italian place.  I had one of the best caprece salads ever - super fresh mozzarella and tomatos!  Yum!  And then an amazing pizza - thin crust, wood fire grilled pizza.  Just delish!!!   The best part was getting to just talk to an adult for hours and get things off my chest.  And laughing - laughter truly is the best medicine to fix any situation.

Today is a new day - I'm taking the bull by the horns and not taking any shit from Spain today.  I'm determined to start my weekend on a positive note!!  More later with our explorations from today!!

Julie