Uhlfelder News

Week Six

Cliffhanger: Will Mark get fed up with his lack of knowledge of Spanish and learn something or will he just give up and continue to wing it?

September 25, 2007.  They put me in the lowest Spanish class yet, and I understand why.  I am illiterate and speak poorly.  Otherwise though, I’ve got the language under control.  It’s a drag because before the classes were fun and the people in them could spit out a sentence.  Now it’s just a bunch of beginners who can’t put three words together.  It makes me want to give up, but I guess I’ll tough it out for the week and decide how to proceed.  I want to learn the language but am not sure this is the way to do it.  Then lunch with Dan and Amy and off to pick up David from school (Anne picked up Joshua) and shuttle him to soccer practice.  This is an hour deal with heavy traffic in very public transportation.  Then watch David at practice with a bunch of kids who are older than he is.  I ended up sitting with a Spanish mom who spoke zero English which gave me the opportunity to stumble over the few words I’ve got wrong.  I’m certain I didn’t say even one thing correctly.  Then David had to pick up his uniform, then more public transportation to get home at 8:00 p.m.  Tomorrow is David’s birthday — he’ll be nine!!!  What a great kid he is (and of course Joshua is) to put up with our moving him to a foreign place — it’s a lot harder here to just deal with the daily routine, certainly as compared with Aspen.

September 26, 2007, David’s ninth birthday.  Anne dropped David and Joshua at the bus this morning for the longish ride to school.  They are dropped at 7:45 and arrive at school in time for a 8:45 start.  It’s probably just over a mile and a half. 

Off to class we went.  This week’s class is composed of a bunch of slightly overweight young women, an absurdly obnoxious swiss guy and Thomas, a French guy who was kicked out of my very first class close to a month ago.  In other words, I’m going backwords.  I’ve now covered the same material three times.  Thomas and I are joking about it and we make fun of the Swiss guy.  The Swiss guy is a “dirty old man” at age 45 and hits on all the overweight girls.  One of the girls is from Turkey and has the most striking features you can imagine, and is a fashion designer.  If she lost 25 a few pounds, she could model.  

There is a large German girl who seems to think smoking should be equated with freedom.  Nice.  Of course, I think I managed to insult her after she complained about how it’s not as “free” in the US at school, referring to smoking.  Great future — all that freedom and an early death!  The Swiss/English girl in my class is the only non-smoker, apparently, and she’s nice and easy to deal with.  Thomas, the French guy, is chamingly low key and predicably has all the women greeting him, kissing him and who knows what else.  The Swiss German 45-year-old must be wondering where he’s going wrong.  More as the world turns.

After class lunch with Dan and Amy and quickly to school via our apartment to have David’s in-class birthday.  When we got back, the fuse had blown, for about the third time, and I got the guy on the floor above doing a one-man renovation to replace it.  The wiring here is a joke.  We rushed to David’s school by taxi with muffins for the entire class which is entirely too large (24 I think).  Then the teacher and Anne left me with all 24 of them while they went out searching for fire for the candles.  The kids all claimed to be David’s best friend which led to some fist fights in the class.

Otherwise, it was easy but there were a few minutes of tension as I starred down 24 third graders.  When Anne and the teacher came back what seemed like hours later, no children were crying. 

We took David’s school bus home, which was so comfortable and I was so tired I almost feel asleap.  Then I went around looking for more fuses, and David and Joshua built David’s birthday Star Wars present.  Anne rushed off to Ikea to get our last items; a bed for David, who has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

September 27, 2007.  Off to another day of class and I’m still trying to catch up with sleep from last week.  After class, Anne and I did some shopping and I got a hair cut.  The barber was real old style and obviously inherited the trade from his father.  Super nice guy who told me the goal in Cataluna is to speak three language, Catalan, Spanish and English.  It’s clear that English is being pushed here.  Anyway, I got a free Spanish lesson and told him I’d be back monthly so he can monitor my progress (not that articulately though).  I then took David to soccer practice where the 9 and 10 year olds are playing at an advanced middle school level in the US.  I got to do a short 40 minute run and went through one of the barrios here, Sarria.  It was very cute, small streets lined with shops of all sorts.  I got into a square and with the light and the people around I could have been on a movie set; I really felt like I was walking through the set for La Dolce Vita — without the Dolce.  Kids were playing, people were sitting around, dogs, birds, noise, incredible lighting, quiet on the set, action.

September 28, 2007.  Rocket got here this morning.  Anne had to take a day off Spanish to get him which worked remarkably smoothly given he’s flying internationally via Germany into Spain.  He’s jet-lagged but otherwise all right.  Thanks goes to Shelly at Ski.com for taking such good care of him.

Now Anne can join all the uniformed maids every morning walking dogs but it’s a good chance to practice her Tagalog.

Rocket should feel right at home given that we now have construction on two sides.  The entire facade of the building contiguous to ours is covered with scaffolding and the unit upstairs is being slowly remodeled.  Hey, it’s just like Aspen — we can’t get away from construction. 

September 29, 2007.  Today was David’s official birthday celebration and a chance to shake down the locals for gifts.  We got some good stuff too, but I’ll let David tell you all about it.  Anywho, the birthday celebration involved six kids at the local bowling alley.  Now I realize why I’ve always loved bowling so much.  The sights, the sounds, the shoes, the ambiance, etc…

 

One kid was so stressed about it, every time he bowled he threw a fit, ran out and had to be consoled.  Time to break out the anti depressants or talk therapy. 

 

Back at the piso, we celebrated with food (peaches are now out of season, I learned), and some birthday song singing in both Spanish and English. 

 

Then I went on a longish run over to Parc Gůell via another park that wasn’t as well known but seems to have better views and fewer people called Jardins de Turó dél Putxet.  There were tons of steps and hills, some nice views and notwithstanding the stops and starts, it was a good work-out. The hills are really nice and some streets have escalators on them (up only).  The run, through the cities streets reminded me of what urban running is all about — the smell of urine permeated the fall air. 

 

We all went to a street fair in the Barrio called Sarrià near our house.  It was a sort of make-up for not attending last Saturday’s bigger festivities in Barcelona.  It included some of the famous local traditions like the “Gigantes” who are the giants who protect the city and come out and dance “Sardanas” which is a Catalan dance.  Also involved are devils, mules, eagles, etc…  We walked home to further stress Rocket out since the dogs here aren’t neutered and every dog tries to hump him.

October 1, 2007.  Back to Spanish class for week four and one thing is clear–it doesn’t come easily.  My class has dwindled down to five people plus myself.  It’s basically me with the four 18 to 20-year-old girls and Helmut, the dirty old man who is 45 and looks 60 and acts — I don’t know what.  He bought one girl a croissant for breakfast and calls the pretty ones “guapa” to their face. “Emma and Turget are very guapa.” At the break the girls and I enjoyed a cigarette and coffee and the girls tore into the teacher who I thought was fine, not great not terrible.  They all think Helmut is a jerk so it’s fun to make fun of him.

 

Then picked up David from school at 5:00 and brought him to soccer where I sat next to Juan who was there to watch his newphew and spoke no English or didn’t try.  It could be because he was retarded (no really) so he let me speak Spanish.  That appears to be the level my Spanish is on, on a good day.  I know it’s not politally correct, but no one should say who or whon’t I should speak with. 

 

Anne is enjoying the dog since it creates opportunites for conversation, as in “please get your dog off mine.” 

 

October 2, 2007.  Another day of trying to understand Spanish.  I went for a long run on trails above the kids’ school that are great and long without interruptions – problem is that getting there takes 20 to 30 minutes by foot.  There should be a book “The Barcelona Diet” which would consist of walking/almost running a huge amount in hot weather, always being late to where you are going, and eating drawn out meals at ridiculous times.  You rarely see anyone very much overweight here and now I see why.

For more, see week seven.

 Week Four

Cliffhangers (a new feature of Uhlfelder.com) — Mark is planning on an organized bike trip next week through the Pyrinees, will he survive the 400 plus miles of riding?  Will Anne take the opportunity to learn fluent Spanish?  Stay tuned to find out.

Septmber 11, 2007.  Tuesday is a holiday here — some Catalan national holiday during which the only celebration is to act like it’s Sunday (everything is closed, even the “Open every day” stores).  In any case, it’s a good day for a bike ride and Anne took the kids to the acquarium.  Joshua told me they saw a three-d movie with those 1950s glasses (my words, not his) and he felt like he could reach out and touch the fish, even though he was sitting in the back row. 

The architecture here is really spectacular and the building are often ornate and interesting.

Here’s one thing we’ve observed, children being pushed around in strollers.  Often they look like they might be much older than David or Joshua since they are squeezed into the strollers and their legs are too long to fit.  I know for a fact that one kid had to be older since he was smoking a cigarette and generally the kids here don’t smoke until they are at least 10.

I talked to the bike trip organizer today, who lives in Sitges, a town about 20 minutes away.  Nick, who is a friend from last year’s June bike trip through the French Alps, is joining me.  The trip is well prices (not expensive) but features two star accommodations (that’s basically what’s available in the regions).  I asked him if they would be giving us snacks since we’re biking huge distances and he said no Powerbars, but yes to nuts and berries.  I wrote to Nick that we may have to forage for truffels.  We’ll see.

September 12, 2007.  Today the traffic started in earnest and we were late for David and Joshua’s school (only five or so minutes) but it’s something.  Starting next week there is a school bus and they will have to go with all the other kids from around here to the school.  Unfortunately, it’s 30 minutes or so of traffic, but that’s the way it is.

I have a very good Spanish teacher.  He generally just explains how things work — holidays, history, food, Catalan culture, and more.  It’s really interesting and a lot of fun and hopefully I’m learning some Spanish.  The food thing is a huge focus here in Spain and if you are a vegetarian, you are in big trouble.  The meats are incredible; they love ham, the cheeses are sensational and you have literally thousands of choices.  The vegetables are fresh, really fresh, there are about 100 types of olives I’ve seen around (there are olive stores and stands), and more.  The Catalans are really in a pinch because on the one hand they want to have a separate country but on the other they are somewhat pragmatic and know that being a part of Spain is the way to go.  All business in Spain is done in Barcelona and Madrid and there is a suttle between the two at least two times an hour.

The Spanish class is worth talking about.  Last week I was the only American; this week I think there may be two others.  One guy is very shy and hasn’t said much but he sounds American.  There is a woman in her 60s (her name is Tina but it just doesn’t suit her) who lived in Mexico for 10 (ten) years and doesn’t speak Spanish.  That has to be a record.  I assume she was in a closet or something.  When she tried to utter a word, it’s basically without any attempt (or ability) to pronounce something close to Spanish.  Then there is a Japanese girl, who like me, was not promoted into intermediate.  I find her boring but the German guy next to me, I believe, finds her exotic or something and I predict by the end of the week they will be sleeping together.  They both apparently speak some English.  Next to me is Mike from Ireland who is very nice and cool and sells chemicals for BASF from Germany where he lives.  In fact, his Spanish is spoken with a German accent.  In our food discussion, he mentioned that he is the guy who sells the chemicals that make Salmon red (note, it is a natural food additive) and oranges orange.

After class, Anne and I went to the market called La Bourgin where we bought lots of stuff including fruits and vegetables.  It is so much less expensive than other stores, it’s shocking.  In fact, Barcelona is cheap (for Europe) and not a bad deal for Americans even with the terrible exchange rates.  The bike store is so nice they sold me a pair of tires at a discount.

September 13, 2007.  I’ve put the finishing touches on my bike trip through the Pyrinees and it looks daunting!  Huge mileage and climbing, which I don’t have the mileage to endure with any level of confort.  Oh well.

Class, lunch, and a quick trip for Anne to school to get the boys.  Lunch included a stop in front of a very picturesque church with Dan and Amy.  I’m in the back (forgot to look at the camera — yes the bread here is great and yes I’ve been eating a lot of it).

As for the boys, they will be taking the bus starting tomorrow, which is great and gives us huge free time. 

That’s about it.  I’m working on two things for the site — the stupid English sayings on T-shirts page and the public displays of affection page.  Stay tuned.

September 14, 2007.  Imagine New York City, add 50 percent more people, more fluid underground and bus transportation and constant gridlock — welcome to Barcelona or BCN as it’s affectionately known (that’s the airport code).  Anne and I find ourselves basically running all the time.  It’s just crazy, fast and busy every minute.  At least in New York, basically, traffic moves.  Not so in BCN.  In any case, I’ve started the page for public displays of affection and will start to work on the t-shirt page soon.  I’ve seen a lot but forget to photograph them or write them down.

This was the end of week two of Spanish lessons.  I’m off for what apparently will be the Batan Death March of bike rides through the Pyrinees — many days of 2,500 meters of climbing and 90 mile rides.  Oops.  Luckily my friend Nick from London is coming along for the “fun.”  I’ll send in reports of the suffering in real time.

As for Spanish, this week my teacher was a great guy, Xavi (pronounced Cha-vi).  He had a very easy way about him and explained everything to us without editing his personal opinion at all.  It was lots of fun.  At the end I got a “certificate” that certified I had completed 40 hours of Spanish.  I noted to Xavi that maybe I was certifiable and he told me that yes, at the end of class a couple of very “nice” guys would be meeting me to show me some “nice” tourist sites including the Sagrada Familia, a huge church nearby.  It was a fun exchange.  In the last two weeks, I don’t think 10 words of English were spoken in class.

There is a really nice bread (Pan) place next to our apartment and Turó Parc, in front of our place, was incredibly crowded with kids and their smoking parents.  The family has enjoyed the cheeses, breads and even wines here, which are just fantastic — fresh baked bread and wine and cheese from the region. 

We bought some ping pong paddles and balls and they have public tables there which are sometimes useable for ping pong.

I’ll continue Spanish when I return from the ride and will, hopefully have Xavi of someone of equal teaching ability and good humor.  Anne and I insist that we either learn Spanish or really take a lot of classes.

September 15, 2007.  I just got the word this morning that this website won the second place award for Uhlfelder Websites from Uhlfelder News.  Hats off to the entire team that makes this production possible.  

But we won’t just rest on our laurels, second place gives us something to strive for — next time, we’re hoping to be in first.

In other news today, we went down to where our language school is (Placa Catalunya) and explored with the idea of going to the Museo Santa Monica.  Anne and I had eaten there last week and thought the art looked amusing for the boys.  What a terrible museum — the only redeeming feature is it is free.  Not worth the time but it makes you think that anything is art.  Someone got so pissed about the terrible waste of time, he turned his chair over.

Then we ate an early lunch at a sharma place (Pita bread) and it was fair and crowded on the Rambla which is the main street and very touristic.  We’re pretty much done with the tourist areas and walking around in the heat and humidity. 

September 16, 2007.  I dropped the car off this morning at the airport, about 10 days short of the rental agreement and asked if they would discount for the time not taken and the response was of course.  We’ll see but at least I felt good about it.  In any case, I found my biking group at the airport and they all seemed nice, Nick, my friend from England came over for the ride.  As I’m mentioned, the ride appears to be daunting given the huge mileage required to cross the Pyrinees.  Everyone sort of has the same “what have I gotten myself into” attitude. 

Today we did a “warm up ride” that lasted two hours of pretty hard riding including total climbing of over 1,000 meters (3,900 feet).  Nice warm up.  Total distance was 30 miles or so.  Tomorrow is the big day of 150 Kilometers — yikes.  There are actually two days of 150 Kilometers, which is about 90 miles.  Advice was eat as much and often as you can.  Here’s a photo of the group and one of me with the ocean in the background.  Stay tuned to see who I insult first, etc…  Peter, the very cool ride leader, asked Nick if I was always this way in response to one of my super sarcastic understated comments.  Nick advised that I get worse when tired and hungry.  All true.

Here are a few photos from today’s ride, first the group and then me.  Everyone rode amazingly well.  They are all Americans with the exception of Nick, my friend from England, a guy from New Zealand, and a guy from Hong Kong.  Out of 14 total.

September 17, 2007.  I survived.  It was hot, very difficult riding (lots of up and downs), 150 K, one hill at 16 percent plus.  Just terrible but I made it.  In fact, with two big climbs tomorrow looks easier, but still 2,500 meters of climbing over a shorter 120 K ride.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007 we got down to business.  The boys went to school by taxi, we went to school by taxi and subway.  This is day two of our lessons and day two of the boys school.  It’s a new thing for me.  Apparently my ability to foreflush the language got me ratedinto a higher class, but I suspect I’ll soon be demoted.   The French guy was demoted today, que lastima por el.  Now it’s me with my nine women.  They are all young, except for the teacher, and consist of the following: two Japanese one of whom I swear is speaking Japanese but some of the others think it’s Spanish, an Italian who speaks so softly no one can hear her, at least three Germans one of whom obviously is (or should be) a model.  She is very blond, tall, thin, classic but sports a nondescript beauty and acts like she could care less about the class or anything else.  I assume she is a supermodel.  The teacher keeps asking her about her hangovers and the local discos (apparently they still exist).  The girls and I go out after class and get plastered together (just kidding).

I also found a road bike shop which avoids my having to take my bike to Boulder or some other place where they care and can actually service a pro bike.  They are really nice and seem to like me.

Traffic is getting back to normal (gridlock) and we are wondering how to get rid of all car commitments.  It is worthless to have a car here.  Riding around on my bike I can easily keep up with traffic and it’s good interval training.  Parking is either impossible or so expensive you don’t want to know.  Cars more more slowly than walkers.  There are millions of motor bikes and regular bikes that people move around on and can park more easily.

I rode up Tibidado which is an amusement park at the top of a 1,200 foot hill that overlooks Barcelona, and took a photo of myself.  I just can’t get myself to smile!  I’m working on it.  I finally found my way there more easily, it took about 25 minutes to climb it then I tried to find some other places for biking and spent an hour riding around.  It was perfect cycling weather.  I actually saw three or so other road bikes so at least I seem to be finding the right place, kind of.

Wednesday, September 5.  Went for a run today and got some distance in on the hills and saw some of the very nice areas of town.  I ended up coming out at the kids’ school, so it is in the right area.  Another day of class.  The supermodel keeps starring at me, and it’s making me nuts.  I feel so violated.

Jueves, seis septiembre, 2007.  Es el tercero semana que estamos en Barcelona.  Es el cuatro dia que estoy en las classes de español. Me apprendido much en cuatro dias. Pero, todovía, no puedo hablar español sin hago muchas faultas y es muy díficil a decir lo que quiero. Despues esta tiempo aqui, comenzco de comprender la vida español y como los españoles ver la dia.  Habia un articulo en un de los periodicos locales que dice 60 % de niños en Barcelona no durmen bastante.  Puedo ver por que. A las ocho de la manana es la tiempo por dispertirse y comer el desayuno. Duespues, sin un momento par hacer otras cosas, necessito ir al trabajo o a la escuela. Mi trabaho es de ir con los niños a son escuela y directamente déspues va a la escuela de ideomas con Anne. Si vivo en españa, trabaho o va a la escuela hasta 1:30 or 2:00 y es el tiempo por comer almuerzo.  El almuerzo es dos horas or dos y media.  A las quatro o quatro y media, mas trabaho o esquela a las 8:00 or 9:00 (si yo soy de aquí).  Afortunadamente, no trabaho y no voy a la escuela pendiente las tardes.  La gente aqui come de 9:00 hasta 11:00, mas o menos, y dormi. Hay tiempo para mi para hacer cosas que son imortantes como paso tiempo con mi familia, hacer exercício, leer, o mirar el television por que no tengo nada durante las tardes.  No comprende como la gente aqui puede viver y guardan sus razón. 

Wednesday, August 29 — it was exciting and fun.  We rented a car until our car we ordered through Europe by Car arrives October 1.  Then off to Sitges to the beaches.  Sitges is best known as a gay beach and fun it was.  It’s pretty and relatively upscale from last week’s beach.  Great swimming and the water was warm.

Anyway, we found a nice place to sit, David and Joshua went diving into the sand and it started to rain.  Time for lunch, which took about 1.5 hours at the Kansas Bar, then back to the beach where the sun was shining.  Our tans are getting really good and we’re going native — that is, we’re using sun lotion, not sun block.  Pass the SPF 2!  (Just kidding, we’re so white the locals have to block the reflection). 

There are these African fellows who have very dark skin selling stuff on the beaches that no one buys.  Seems like they could sell things that might have a market.  Some of the Spanish seem to entertain themselves by asking about everything, then just saying they aren’t interested. 

August 30 was our chance to fill in some of the gaps of things we needed, electronically speaking.  Bought a cheap HP printer and an expensive Sony TV.  Everything here seems about twice as expensive as in the US, but it always includes all taxes and delivery.  I’ve been told there is a rebate of tax when you leave the country, but I don’t see how that would work unless you export what you purchased.  The tax is 16 percent, so it would be nice.  We ate lunch at the top of the Cortes Ingles store at Placa Cataluya, which has amazing views.

August 31 we took the car to the kids’ school.  We got terribly lost, which we should have predicted, plus the usual problems trying to leave the garage and were half an hour late.  This apparently did not matter to anyone but us.  Then Anne had a lunch “with the girls” which is the incoming class of people who are living here for a year and are being helped by Olympic Advisors.  Olympic Advisors is a relocation service run by a husband and wife team; John does the marketing and sales and Christina does the service which includes finding a place to live.  There were some nice folkes, like ourselves, with whom we will likely become friendly.  Since Christina is doing a “girls” thing, I think John will do a guys thing which probably involves smoking cigars, talking about the time we shot an elephant; that sort of thing.  Jordan — I’ll need some help here.

The porter from the garage was in the apartment to install a light and it turns out that he loves cycling and wanted to see my bike and advise me about cycling routes.  He said there are tons of cyclists on the week-ends and they go every which way and told me the best routes to use to get out of town.  It was a funny conversation since I think he spoke mainly Catalan and my broken Spanish.  My impression is that the Catalans find a way to understand and express themselves.

September 1 we decided to take a look at the Costa Brava, which starts about 60 kilometers outside of Barcelona.  It’s a toll road and has plenty of traffic, but of course going to the beach on a Saturday was not an especially unique idea so it took a while to find any beach once we got far enough north to consider ourselves on the Costa Brava.  The travel books generally say that this coast, which means Rocky Coast, is spoiled by overdevelopment.  There are a lot of people, no doubt about it.  It took about an hour to reach the first resort that was there, called Blanes and we parked where convenient (expensive) and walked 50 yards (meters) to the beach.  The boys didn’t like it as much as the beaches to the south since it had rocky sand and a shore break.   I went on a run for about 55 minutes and ended up running down to the trailer park and then up to the top of a hill, probably about 500 feet high, and down a lot of steps.  There were lots of restaurants and generally a pretty scenic place.

September 2, Sunday, is a day of rest in Spain.  I told Anne that of course the Carrefour is open (it’s the second largest retailer after walmart) so we got the car from the garage (probably would have been just fine renting a car here and there when needed, but that’s another story) and made our way through the very quiet streets to the store, to find it closed.  We went next door to IKEA and it was also closed.  In fact, we found out, everything is closed on Sunday except for restaurants so you better have your shopping done.

I went on a bike ride and got lost, predicably, and it took me 40 minutes to find a road I was on a few days ago.  Once I found it, I did a 20 minute climb up to a tower above the town, the views are amazing, and around trying to find alternative routes.  Eventually I will get this organized. 

Anne had the idea of attending a Barcelona Football Club game and it just happened they had one tonight so we went.  Strangely it went off on time, at 7:00 p.m. and we go there as it started.  The stadium holds 100,000 people but there were probably about 80,000.  I learned that this equates with about 80,000 packs of cigarettes smoked.  As tolerant as I am, this started to get on my nerves and took something from the experience.  David has been looking forward to the experience and Joshua seemed to like it too.  The stadium is about a mile from the house so luckily we walked and didn’t have to worry about transportation.  I’ve never seen so many motorscooters parked in one place.  The game was high-scoring and Barcelona won 3 to 1.

There are more motorbikes per person in Barcelona than any other place, according to the tourism bus, and I believe it.

September 3, Monday, is the first day of school for the boys and the end of our second week in Barcelona. 

We cabbed it to school. 

David was totally happy with his first day of school; Joshua a bit more circumspect.  Here is a photo of Joshua and David ready for the day:

Anne and I also had our first day of Spanish class.  It was at an emersion school called International House of Languages (not Pancakes).  I had to pee for about an hour but since I was surrounded by 20 somethings, I didn’t want to appear like the guy who couldn’t hold it.  There was one other French guy and myself and the other six were women (girls).  Two Japanese, one Italian, two French and two Germans and me.  The entire class was taught in Spanish, which was nice.  Anne was put in a lower class, which upset her since she is probably better in terms of vocabulary.  I have a certain je ne sais pas about languages and pancakes which confidence seems to work well for me.  Anyway it all doesn’t matter except that I have homework and Anne does not.

After class we had lunch with our new friends, Amy Fox and her Husband Dan who are attorneys from Pennsylvania.  They, like us, are here for a sabbatical and introducing their kids to a new language and experience.  Then off to pick up the kids for a long walk back home. 

August 21 we arrived in Barcelona and hit the ground running.  This was after four flights, lots of lost sleep, etc…Went directly to our apartment, which predictably was dirty.  We got the concierge’s wife to clean it, checked into a hotel, and went to IKEA.  If the IKEA shopping experience is any indication, this country is thriving.  It was so crowded, we could barely move around.  Given how tired we were, we called it a night without buying anything but got some good ideas.   August 22, the next day, we spent thousands there, to be delivered Thursday.  Jet lag is keeping us from sleeping through the night. August 23, and we’re trying to settle in.  I finally built my bike (and some IKEA furniture) and our delivery made it exactly on time.  We had to go to IKEA to fill a few holes on our purchases, but we have two couches, a bunk bed, our matrimonial bed, tables, chairs, kitchen items including flatware and dishes, etc… Anne and I are trying to get our bearings, which is a challenge. Business here must be booming.  Basically every store is either self-service (IKEA, electronics, sporting goods) or it’s really good service but only in certain ways.  You can try to put your rooms together at IKEA (No help) but you can buy everything and have it delivered and built the next day.  The supermarkets here deliver the same day, so you can buy all the heavy stuff and get it delivered.  

Friday, August 24, and I finally went for a run.  There are actually some good running tracks about 20 minutes away, which makes for an hour plus run.  We also took a bus tour on the “Bus Touristic” which takes about two hours and has a top deck to see the sights.  We’re done these tours in New York City and Granada, Spain too and they are usually good.  It was a chance to see the main attractions and the city.  We also dismounted for a visit to the Parc Guell, featured in the movie Barcelona, and the FCBarcelona football stadium that holds 100,000 people — we even saw their locker rooms and a sign (removable probably) that said “antidoping control.”

 The language is a challenge, the people are pretty nice, and there are just tons of people everywhere.  It’s really something.  Catalan is the first language and anything but Spanish seems to be a second language for some (including our neighbors, apparently who speak French and Catalan).  People seem pretty nice here and appear to speak Spanish too.  Catalan sounds like Portuguese to me. 

We haven’t gotten a car yet but have one reserved as of Oct. 1.  Parking is such a hassle that we may wait but will probably end up renting in the interum.  Taxis are relatively cheap here but we want the freedom of a car.   We went on a bus tour to see the sights, do the tourist thing and get an idea about how the city works.  It’s pretty hot and humid, something we haven’t really experienced for a while.  The boys have been great, getting dragged along and enjoying the experience.  Of course, we toured the soccer stadium for David and went to the beach for both boys.  As we approached the beach, David told us he was “so excited.”

I’m afraid I’ll be completely out of shape in a month.  I haven’t found anywhere to ride so I’ve been running out of desperation.  The good news is I’ve taken up smoking (albeit second hand) and probably will take up drinking tomorrow.

Other than that, we’re trying to settle in.  We got a load of IKEA stuff, all purchased, delivered and assembled in 24 hours.  They have great names for their stuff, like snuf, scum, smak, phükme, and more.  The delivery system here is great.  We had our groceries delivered too. 

August 25, we all woke up to discover that Anne, myself, David and Joshua speak fluent Spanish and passable Catalan.  We discovered this about half an hour into breakfast and suddenly realized we were all speaking Spanish.  Mission accomplished!  This emersion thing really works.

Today, Sunday August 26, 2007, we went to the beach at a town about 20 minutes away from Barcelona called Casteldefells.  We discovered the wide city beaches which are covered more or less with people about three deep.  The beaches are huge, so it really doesn’t seem that crowded.  They are clean mainly since they take a zamboni and groom on a nightly basis.   

About one-quarter of women are topless, which would theoretically be nice, but in fact as a general rule, it isn’t (unless for some reason you’ve decided to do a study of areolas).  Essentially, people are almost as much out of shape as in the US, so there’s nothing to see or less (or more but you still don’t care to look).  Some people are very out of shape but not fat and just look like they have no muscles or muscle development and could be knocked down with a feather — it’s as if they are 10 years younger than they are.

Everyone takes the nudity in stride.  One woman had a boob job, which was pretty obvious.  Good for her.

One other thing, we’ve changed our schedule and stay up late every night — until almost 9:00 p.m.!  Just kidding — it’s almost 12:00 as we’re writing this with the boys — okay, the boys have been asleep for almost 30 minutes.

Monday, August 27, 2007 was a day like any other.  We woke up late, got the boys dressed and out the door by the crack of 1:00 for a 1:00 appointment.  This was for health insurance, which is a much better deal than in the US.  You get full coverage, no deductible and you can go out of network, for example to the US, and get reimbursed for 90 percent. 

By 2:00 or so, we went to a lunch place, which was across the street from out appointment.  The place we found was “all you can eat” and pretty good food.  This gave me the opportunity to discard all my civility newly learned and show my American grossed out.   I left feeling that I got a large meal with no portion control.  Nice.

Then off in the heat for errands to find household appliances and fill needs.  We were totally unsuccessful here.  By the way it was about 35 degrees Celcius, whatever that means – to me it means it’s hot.  We decided to join the local pool and like almost everything here, there was a time investment of close to an hour.  Probably not worth it but we only joined for a month.  Longer would have required some sort of medical certificates—we wondered how many of the Spanish people at the pool/gym acquired their certificates, but assumed someone felt that were free of infectious diseases or whatever it needed to say.

August 28, started off like any other.  Getting up early at before 10:00 and eating a breakfast until 11:30.  Reading a few choice articles on the New York Times website.  Finally buying some plug converters for our computers and phones.  We now have two computers and our US phone number (970-920-9520) which is a local call from Aspen.  It happens that it’s cheaper to phone from this line to Spain than from our cell phones here. 

Then off to the pool that we joined yesterday. More areolas here.  What’s funny is that neither boy has noticed all the women without tops–I guess I got them used to it by not wearing a shirt at home.  The pool is huge and very busy with tons of human traffic.  It seems everything here is big and highly trafficked.  I finally got a weight work-out in, which was nice and the kids were at the pool cooling off.  There is a 50 meter lane or two, which is usually crowded with kids but is supposed to be a lap lane or two.  It’s an experience to swim that long a distance in the pool.  One end is so shallow that you touch the bottom doing freestyle. 

Since it’s hard to describe all the food and meals and that’s what we’re been up to mainly—along with getting situated, we promise photos of interesting food to come.  One place we’re eaten at twice and is popular is Cervezaria Catalana, which serves tapas.  Tapas is the only food you get before 9:00 at night so eating early, like 8:00, requires the abbreviated eating experience of tapas (small portions).  We forgot our camera but the Japanese people next to us all took photos so that should be enough.