Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! I hate not being at home to give you a hug!

Poor Cory is never going to live this picture down...this will be pulled out for graduation, wedding...hehe.

Well, my bank card finally arrived, so I can actually have a life again...very exciting! My mom sent me a nice little package with my mail, some books, and a couple DVDs for the kids. It is so nice getting mail.

After getting my new bank card, I jumped on itunes and caught up on the Lost and Grey's Anatomy finales...phew. I also need to catch up on new music- I feel totally out of it- who do I need to listen to? Suggestions please.

I also signed up for a gym membership. It was expensive, but definitely worth it...I feel better about life already. I had a really good run and lifted a bit...woke up Saturday totally sore- it was great. Then I went and did a spinning class...I realized the classes are going to be a bit tricky, since the instructions are all in spanish...but spinning is pretty easy to just follow along. The only thing I understood was "mas, mas...uno, dos, tres, mas!" I want to try the yoga and pilates classes, but I don't know if those might be harder without understanding what is being said...we'll see.

I went shopping. I came to barcelona with one pair of shorts, figuring I could buy what I need here...and then my wallet was stolen, along with my one pair of shorts. Luckily the weather hasn't been stellar...but the days are def starting to warm up. I walked along Pg. de Gracia and shopped...I should have just gone to H&M from the beginning...got 3 pairs of shorts and a pair of capris and 3 tank tops for under 70 euros. Not too bad...and now I'm set...no more shopping allowed. Until Paris anyway. :)

Speaking of Paris...my mom is going to visit me!! I have a week off in July- we have to be out of our apartment- it was already rented for one week of our 3 months, so the dads just decided we would take a trip during that week. Well, the grandparents are joining for that trip, so the dads decided 4 adults was probably enough to take care of the kids, so they gave me the week off. So Mom is flying out and we are going to spend the week at Disneyland Paris! I can't wait...I have been looking at all the Disney hotels and restaurants and special activities...and then we are going to spend a couple of days in Paris, doing the usual tourist stuff.

The dads are on a trip on their own for 4 days...so Grandma Ya-Ya and her friend Ginny came to stay with us to help with the kids. They have been great...I have really enjoyed them. We made a sign for the kids to hold at the airport... --->

Last night I went to a Couchsurfing beach party (couchsurfing is a network of people all over the world that let you stay on their couch while you are traveling). We met at 6pm and many people were planning on camping out at the beach. I left about midnight. It was so fun...it was basically a bunch of people from all over the world that are either living in or visiting Barcelona. I was sitting in a circle with 2 people from Barcelona, 1 from Portland, 1 from Holland, 1 from Cuba, 1 from Argentina, 1 from South Africa and 1 from Russia. And that was just my little group...there were prob about 50 people there. These people have such amazing stories...most of them have done so much traveling...they just move somewhere, live for a while and then move on to another city. As much as I love to travel, I have nothing on any of these people!

It's Sunday...the weather is a bit overcast...the kids are out...I'm enjoying some quiet time at the apartment...listening to some tunes. It's great.

Hope you are well...miss you still.

A Gaudi Weekend

I've never had a favorite architect before. But Gaudi is that. I spent the weekend enjoying a few of his famous designs...and I loved it.

I woke up on Saturday and went for a super lame run. I feel much better after reading an article in the monthly English magazine here, that said what a difficult city Barcelona is to be a runner. Between the grid-like streets, the tourist population and the polution...running is certainly not pleasant. Which has brought be to the conclusion that once my bank card arrives (please be here soon, please be here soon!) I will be signing up for a gym membership. I looked into it a couple weeks ago, and it is SO expensive, I figured I could just make do with running outside...but alas, the gym it is. Until then, the 5 hrs a day of walking will have to do.

After the run, I hopped on the subway and went for a good walk to Parc Guell. Gaudi was hired to create a community of houses for the wealthy, in landscaped grounds. The project wasn't commercially successful, so they turned it into a public park. You enter the park through two gate houses...that look like they are toppped with frosting. Then you enter into a large plaza area with a huge staircase with the famous Gaudi lizard in front. The park is full of pathways, arches, and even has a house that Gaudi lived in for 20 years.

After the park, I headed out to the beach area...there was a stage with live music set up, which I listened to for a little while. Then I headed into the movie theater to check out the new Indiana Jones movie. I was relieved to find movie posters for "Sexo en Nueva York"coming out 20 de Junio...phew, I have been searching everywhere for a theater to watch the Sex and the City movie and was concerned it wasn't coming to Barcelona. I just have to wait a bit longer.

This morning I woke up early and went to one of Gaudi's most famous buildings..La Pedrera (make sure you roll your tongue when you say that) Everytime I walk by there is a huge, hour-long wait to get in...so I decided to get there right when it opened...and I almost had the whole place to myself. La Pedrera was an apartment building. The front isn't overly inviting, but the inside is full of curves and arches and fun stuff. The rooftop (which apparently they have evening events at on the weekend in the summer) is so cool (picture worth a thousand words). And then they have one of the apartments set up, all furnished by true items that might have been there. How cool would it have been to live in one of his buildings?!

After the tour, I walked down La Rambla and found the church Gaudi was arrested at one day as he was on his way in to mass (for speaking catalan, instead of spanish, I believe). I was standing in front of the church thinking how crazy it is to be standing in front of the church where Gaudi was arrested. And then thought, but really...does it matter...is it that much different than looking at a picture...is my life different in any way now? I had a moment...and then moved on. Here is one of the street entertainers on La Rambla...this little skeleton was dancing and singing to Elvis...it was funny enough for me to pull my camera out for a picture.

I finished my Gaudi weekend off by heading back to my favorite place- Sagrada Familia- and went to the evening mass. Again, in Spanish...I do need to find an english speaking church.

The dads are out to dinner so I'm home with the sleeping, but coughing, kiddos.

Hope all is well...later.

The draught is over

Hey! I'm sorry, this is going to be a kind of lame blog post because I don't have any new pictures. I'll do better next time, I promise.

This week was a pretty basic week. I watched the kids everyday from 8am-5:30pm. They started their new "school" this week. I stayed at the school with them and gradually went in other rooms for a bit, and then finally on the last day, they had me leave the school for a couple of hours. Their teachers and the kids all speak Spanish, so the kids come home with new random words each day. It is pretty cute. I think we will probably have the kids in the school 3-ish days a week...which will be good for them to get some play time in with other kids. They are still having a tough time adjusting to all the change. They aren't sleeping very well at night.

I went out to dinner with a group of people on Tuesday night. The group of from Oklahoma I met on the cava excursion invited me out with a big group of people they know in the city. Had my first Spain paella. It was tasty...I'm guessing there is better though. It was a lot of fun- I really enjoyed being out with people!! And I met a couple of people that are living here now, but are from the US and we exchanged info, so hopefully we will have a chance to get together soon. One of the girls told me it took her 6 months of living here to finally feel like she understood the conversations going on around her, and a full year to feel fully comfortable speaking. So, that makes me feel a little bit better about not having a good grasp on the language yet!

I had the afternoon off today, so I decided to head down to the beach...check out the beach scene, get a little sun on my totally sunscreened self, read a bit more of my book (currently reading Grapes of Wrath...I have been whipping through books, so if you have any reading suggestions, let me know- there isn't a huge english selection...but the bookstores have an english section). While somewhat expecting it and having heard it before, I was shocked to discover that about have the females on the beach were topless. Just a big ol public beach...no tops. I heard a couple of guys from the US walk by and one guy said "I can't just sit here, I have to walk around- there are boobs everywhere". So now who is coming to visit?

I'm sure you are happy to know that the draught in Barcelona is over. It has been raining some serious rain lately. The last few days it has been beautiful in the day time, and then right around 6pm, the huge drops of rain start falling. This is unfortunate for the playground situation...as the days are nice, but the slides and swings have huge puddles under them. And puddles on the playground are time-outs just waiting to happen!

I'm trying to figure out a plan for this weekend...I need to do one touristy activity...check out some museum or something. There is also a couchsurfing party happening out in Sitges- which is the little beach city just out of Barcelona...where my purse was stolen. I really want to go, but they aren't even meeting up until 11pm...and planning on taking the train back to Barcelona at like 4am. I know, I know...that's how it works here....but I am a WAKE UP at 4am person, not a GO HOME at 4am. We'll see. I may just need to take a long nap in the afternoon.

Hope you are all well. Keep me updated on you!!
E

A cava excursion

Hola...I just spent the last 4 hours listening (a little bit of talking) to spanish at the kids' new school. The dads decided to enroll them in a program that is all in Spanish, in hopes that, as kids, they will pick up the language. I have to say, it was pretty cute...the teacher would ask Cory something...some long spanish sentence, that you know he had NO idea what she was saying, and he just smiled and nodded. And about halfway through the afternoon, they picked up "que pasa" and just kept saying it over and over to the other kids...it was really funny when the other kids would try to answer, but they had already moved on to asking someone else. The language thing wasn't an issue like I thought it would be.

I had a great weekend...it was definitely nice being back in Barcelona after our trip. On Friday, the kids and I spent the whole day together...we got up and played in the house for a bit, then headed out to a park...had McDonald's for lunch (I know...what kind of babysitter am I?! But the house cleaner was in the house, and it is the only restaurant I feel comfortable taking the kids to) Then we came back to the apartment and rested. Had a tea party with animal crackers and water. Then we went back out to another park. The kids were great- we had so much fun.

Then Saturday I slept in a tad, and went to the Picasso museum. I did a report on Picasso in my 8th grade art class, and have been a fan since. I like the blue period...fairly depressing. I think I want a print of Barcelona Rooftops for my next casa. After the museum, I found a little restaurant for lunch and did a bit of reading. While I totally filled myself with lunch...I decided gelato was def in order for my touristy afternoon. The guys went out that night, so I stayed home with the kids.

Sunday I met a group from meetup.com for a winery tour. We went to Freixenet, which is a huge cava maker. The tour wasn't overly fantastic, but it was fun to see (and taste) and it was great chatting with new people. The group (about 20 of us) went out to lunch after...2:30 until 5:30...it was the longest lunch ever! I met a few new people that I will probably do some other activities with...there was a group in town from Oklahoma that I really enjoyed...they are, of course, leaving on Friday. But they invited me out for paella tomorrow night at a place they always visit when they are in Barcelona...will be my first paella experience in Spain (I've been holding off because I've heard they don't make very good paella for tourists). Once we got back to the city, a few of us went out for a drink.

Then I got back to the apartment, one of the dad's brother and sister-in-law flew in yesterday for a week and half. And they are from Seattle! They live in Green Lake...so obviously they are great people. :) We sat around and chatted over dinner (I was still full from the marathon lunch, so just had some cereal).

And that leaves me off at today with the kids first day of school. I'm pretty pooped (as in tired...and as in chicken poop everywhere because the school has a chicken coop and the kids had it all over their shoes...gross!)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend..please feel free to tell me about them...miss ya.

E