{"id":9,"date":"2007-10-02T19:15:06","date_gmt":"2007-10-02T18:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/blog\/?p=9"},"modified":"2007-11-17T19:17:30","modified_gmt":"2007-11-17T18:17:30","slug":"week-6-september-25-to-october-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/?p=9","title":{"rendered":"Week 6 — September 25 to October 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Week Six<\/font><\/p>\n

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?<\/font><\/p>\n

September 25, 2007<\/u>.\u00a0 They put me in the lowest Spanish class yet, and I understand why.\u00a0 I am illiterate and speak poorly.\u00a0 Otherwise though, I’ve got the language under control.\u00a0 It’s a drag because before the classes were fun and the people in them could spit out a sentence.\u00a0 Now it’s just a bunch of beginners who can’t put three words together.\u00a0 It makes me want to give up, but I guess I’ll tough it out for the week and decide how to proceed.\u00a0 I want to learn the language but am not sure this is the way to do it.\u00a0 Then lunch with Dan and Amy and off to pick up David from school (Anne picked up Joshua) and shuttle him to soccer practice.\u00a0 This is an hour deal with heavy traffic in very public transportation.\u00a0 Then watch David at practice with a bunch of kids who are older than he is.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I’m certain I didn’t say even one thing correctly.\u00a0 Then David had to pick up his uniform, then more public transportation to get home at 8:00 p.m.\u00a0 Tomorrow is David’s birthday — he’ll be nine!!!\u00a0 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.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

September 26, 2007, David’s ninth birthday<\/u>.\u00a0 Anne dropped David and Joshua at the bus this morning for the longish ride to school.\u00a0 They are dropped at 7:45 and arrive at school in time for a 8:45 start.\u00a0 It’s probably just over a mile and a half.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

Off to class we went.\u00a0 This week’s class is composed of a\u00a0bunch of slightly overweight young women, an absurdly obnoxious swiss guy and Thomas, a French guy who\u00a0was kicked out of my very first class close to a month ago.\u00a0 In other words, I’m going backwords.\u00a0 I’ve\u00a0now covered the same material three times.\u00a0 Thomas and I are joking about it and we make\u00a0fun of the Swiss guy.\u00a0 The Swiss guy is a “dirty old man” at age 45 and hits on all the overweight girls.\u00a0 One of the girls is from Turkey and has the most striking features you can imagine, and is a fashion designer.\u00a0 If she lost\u00a025 a few pounds, she could model.\u00a0\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

There is a\u00a0large German girl who seems to think smoking should be equated with freedom.\u00a0 Nice.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0Great future — all that freedom and an early death!\u00a0 The Swiss\/English girl in my class is the only non-smoker, apparently, and she’s nice and easy to deal with.\u00a0 Thomas, the French guy, is chamingly low key and predicably has all the women greeting him, kissing him and who knows what else.\u00a0 The Swiss German 45-year-old must be wondering where he’s going wrong.\u00a0 More as the world turns.<\/font><\/p>\n

After class lunch with Dan and Amy and quickly to school via our apartment to have David’s in-class birthday.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The wiring here is a joke.\u00a0 We rushed to David’s school by taxi with muffins for the entire class which is entirely too large (24 I think).\u00a0 Then the teacher and Anne left me with all 24 of them while they went out searching for fire for the candles.\u00a0 The kids all claimed to be David’s best friend which led to some fist fights in the class.<\/font><\/p>\n

Otherwise, it was\u00a0easy but there were a few minutes of tension as I starred down 24 third graders.\u00a0 When Anne and the teacher came back what seemed like hours later, no children were crying.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

We took David’s school bus home, which was so comfortable and I was so tired I almost feel asleap.\u00a0 Then I went around looking for more fuses, and David and Joshua built David’s birthday Star Wars present.\u00a0 Anne rushed off to Ikea to get our last items; a bed for David, who has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor.<\/font><\/p>\n

September 27, 2007<\/u>.\u00a0 Off to another day of class and I’m still trying to catch up with sleep from last week.\u00a0 After class, Anne and I did some shopping and I got a hair cut.\u00a0 The barber was real old style and obviously inherited the trade from his father.\u00a0 Super nice guy who told me the goal in Cataluna is to speak three language, Catalan, Spanish and English.\u00a0 It’s clear that English is being pushed here.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I got to do a short 40 minute run and went through one of the barrios here, Sarria.\u00a0 It was very cute, small streets lined with shops of all sorts.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Kids were playing, people were sitting around, dogs, birds, noise, incredible lighting, quiet on the set, action.<\/font><\/p>\n

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September 28, 2007<\/u>.\u00a0 <\/span>Rocket got here this morning.\u00a0 <\/span>Anne had to take a day off Spanish to get him which worked remarkably smoothly given he\u2019s flying internationally via Germany<\/st1:country-region> into Spain<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.\u00a0 <\/span>He\u2019s jet-lagged but otherwise all right.\u00a0 <\/span>Thanks goes to Shelly at Ski.com for taking such good care of him.<\/p>\n

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Now Anne can join all the uniformed maids every morning walking dogs but\u00a0it’s a good chance to practice her Tagalog. <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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Rocket should feel right at home given that we now have construction on two sides.\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/font>The entire facade of the building contiguous to ours is covered with scaffolding and the unit upstairs is being slowly remodeled.\u00a0 <\/span>Hey, it\u2019s just like Aspen<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> — we can\u2019t get away from construction.\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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September 29, 2007<\/u>.\u00a0 <\/span>Today was David\u2019s official birthday celebration and a chance to shake down the locals for gifts.\u00a0 <\/span>We got some good stuff too, but I\u2019ll let David tell you all about it.\u00a0 <\/span>Anywho, the birthday celebration involved six kids at the local bowling alley.\u00a0 <\/span>Now I realize why I\u2019ve always loved bowling so much.\u00a0 <\/span>The sights, the sounds, the shoes, the ambiance, etc…<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/o:p><\/p>\n

One kid was so stressed about it, every time he bowled he threw a fit, ran out and had to be consoled.\u00a0 <\/span>Time to break out the anti depressants or talk therapy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/o:p><\/p>\n

Then I went on a longish run over to Parc G\u016fell via another park that wasn\u2019t as well known but seems to have better views and fewer people called Jardins de Tur\u00f3 d\u00e9l Putxet.\u00a0 <\/span>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).\u00a0 <\/span>The run, through the cities streets reminded me of what urban running is all about — the smell of urine permeated the fall air.\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/o:p><\/p>\n

We all went to a street fair in the Barrio called Sarri\u00e0 near our house.\u00a0 <\/span>It was a sort of make-up for not attending last Saturday\u2019s bigger festivities in Barcelona<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.\u00a0 <\/span>It included some of the famous local traditions like the \u201cGigantes\u201d who are the giants who protect the city and come out and dance \u201cSardanas\u201d which is a Catalan dance.\u00a0 <\/span>Also involved are devils, mules, eagles, etc…\u00a0 <\/span>We walked home to further stress Rocket out since the dogs here aren\u2019t neutered and every dog tries to hump him.<\/font><\/p>\n

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October 1, 2007<\/u>.\u00a0 Back to Spanish class for week four and one thing is clear–it doesn’t come easily.\u00a0 My class has dwindled down to\u00a0five people plus myself.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He bought one girl a croissant for breakfast and calls the pretty ones “guapa” to their face.\u00a0“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.\u00a0 They all think Helmut is a jerk so it’s fun to make fun of him.<\/font><\/p>\n

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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.\u00a0 It could be because he was retarded (no really) so he let me speak Spanish.\u00a0 That appears to be the level my Spanish is on, on a good day.\u00a0 I know it’s not politally correct, but no one should say who or whon’t I should speak with.<\/font>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Anne is enjoying the dog since it creates opportunites for conversation, as in “please get your dog off mine.”<\/font>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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October 2, 2007<\/u>.\u00a0 <\/span>Another day of trying to understand Spanish.\u00a0 <\/span>I went for a long run on trails above the kids\u2019 school that are great and long without interruptions \u2013 problem is that getting there takes 20 to 30 minutes by foot.\u00a0 <\/span>There should be a book \u201cThe Barcelona Diet\u201d 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.\u00a0 <\/span>You rarely see anyone very much overweight here and now I see why.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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For more, see week seven.<\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 They put me in the lowest Spanish class yet, and I understand why.\u00a0 I am illiterate and speak poorly.\u00a0 Otherwise though, I’ve got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhlfelder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}