Doing Laundry Despite the Rain in Spain (Deborah)

Doing laundry here is, well, different.  First of all, we have a very small washer, which holds about 3-4 days worth of clothes for 1 person.  This machine was also quite the appliance to figure out--the knobs/buttons/selections not clear at all (at least not to us).  But Jim found the model online, including instructions in English, yay.

Also, the clothes are hung on lines and then take about 1 1/2 days to dry.  So, we do have to plan out our washing days, so that everyone gets their loads in each week.  We have something in the washer or something hanging to dry almost all the time.

So what to do when it rains?  It rained for about a whole week earlier in the month, and so I looked up at the neighbor's lines above ours to see what the secret was.  They had what looked like a shower curtain hanging from a rod on their laundry area ceiling.  Then it was pulled out over the end of their clothes lines and secured with clothes pins.  Got that picture in your mind?

Well, as we're trying to save money anywhere we can, I set out to design my own "laundry tarp" using things already in the apartment.  First I found some large garbage bags in a cabinet, took 2 of them, cut them open on 2 sides to make a large sheet of plastic, scotch-taped them together, and wah-lah, I had my tarp.   I set up a mop and a broom handle next to the railing, and attached them with rubber bands and twisties, then clipped the tarp to them with clothespins.  After 2 somewhat unsuccessful first attempts, I made some changes.  It works!!  Here's a pic:

Marianna helps out with laundry

Language Barriers/Dinner with Neighbors (Deborah)

Our neighbors, David (pronounced Dah-veed) and Rema 

We have met a few neighbors, and have gotten to know the ones next door a little more (father, mother, 13-yr. old son, 23-yr. old daughter). They have walked with us to show us a mall, flea market, post office, etc., made us an herbal tea for our coughs,  and have been very helpful answering many questions.

We have, however, had some miscommunications/misunderstandings on a few occasions. Here's one in particular. We invited them over to eat a week ago on  Saturday night at 7:00. We'd been told people in Barcelona typically eat the evening meal later, so we're thinking 7:00's pretty late, right? So I prepare the meal and I'm ready, and then we wait, but they're not here--no problemo, it's just 7:15. Then 7:30, 7:45, then I say to Jim, should we go knock on their door? Well that seems a little rude, like hey--would ya hurry up--you're late! Then we figure maybe they forgot, but hear guests of theirs leaving their apartment, so we're just not sure. But then we decide we'll just go ahead and eat--it's 8:00. Then we get a knock at our door at 8:15 (it's just the father, mother, and son). I/we try to communicate we're sorry we already ate, and it's no problem to heat up rest of food, like 5 minutes. But they seem to say they ate a late lunch and are full. We wonder if they're just being polite, don't want to eat in front of us. We may never know for sure. So then we get out the dessert--at least we can serve that to them.

We end up showing them a few "simple-to-teach" games we had brought from home. They were both just 2 person games, so we took turns playing each other, and they seemed to really enjoy that. We did too. We tried conversing some and usually it was successful, especially with Josiah's and Kathryn's help. And sometimes there would be facial expressions or short phrases that we'd understand and we had fun laughing with each other. It was an enjoyable evening.

Then they had us over for dinner this past Saturday night. We arrived 15 minutes late and it seemed we were early for sure. But we were served a wonderful Moroccan meal (where she is from), and enjoyed eating and conversing with them (using the help of all 3 of my translators: Josiah, Kathryn, and my electronic one).  They even seem to get excited when I say a more complicated sentence in Spanish.  Their encouragement and help makes the language barriers bearable.

First Chess Tournament in Spain (Josiah)

I went to my first chess tournament in Spain today (Saturday).  They separated the 30 players into 4 groups.  My group had 7 players in it.  The way it works is that I play all of the other players in my group.  Each group had a mix of good players and bad players in it.  There were two boys that weren't that good, a guy that's pretty good, and 3 guys that were, uh, good.  I beat the 2 boys, drew against the medium guy, and lost to the good players.  I got 5th place in my group.  However, the players are awarded trophies by age.  Since I got 2.5 points, I might get 1st for the 12-17 age group.  We left before they gave out the trophies, but I was able to get someone I knew there to hold the possible trophy for me until we saw him again.

This chess tournament was part of a festival in Spain, or maybe just Catalonia, or maybe just Barcelona.  That's how much we know about it.  But anyway, during the festival, there was music and inflatables that Kathryn, Liam, and Marianna enjoyed playing on.  Apparently, in the inflatables, Kathryn met this girl who was helping smaller children get around in the inflatable.  So Kathryn started helping her.  Liam and Marianna were trying to help a little kid get over an obstacle.  I never got from them whether they actually succeeded, but the thoughtfulness was nice.

Here are a couple pics from the festival:

Two more moves I got him.  Whoops missed a move.

Liam and Marianna trying to help a child

Science Museum Fun(Kathryn)

On March 24th we went to a science museum, and according to Dad, "The best science museum in Europe".  We took the metro to the last stop and then got on a bus to the museum.  There were a lot of things to do.  Of course they had the traditional pendulum, where a silver ball hanging from a string rocks back and forth, trying to knock over these metal tee-looking things that are placed in a circle.  The pendulum explains that the earth is moving, so the tees move.  So even though the ball never moves, it is still able to knock over the tees after a long period of time.

We did everything we could before it was time to have a snack of popcorn and dried fruit.  At snacktime, Dad gave each of us an assignment.  Marianna's was to find 2 exhibits that she liked and tell what kind of science it is(Physics, Biology, etc).  Liam's assignment was to find 2 exhibits he liked and to say what science it talked about(Waves, Air, etc).  My assignment was to find 3 interesting exhibits and explain how they work.  Josiah's was pretty much the same as mine, except he had to do 4 instead of 3.

So we explored more and then had lunch.  After lunch we played outside a little bit.  There was a time capsule that was moving very slowly and according to the plaque, in 150 years, we would be able to see a message.  Oh, well.  I guess I didn't want to see the message after all.  After lunch, we looked at the rest of the museum and went up the escalator to the gift shop(escalators are very common here).  We took our time at the gift shop.  Dad bought a bouncy ball and a birthday gift for Marianna(it's some markers shaped like farm animals).  Everybody else just looked.  All in all, we had a great time.  Here are some pics:

Josiah and me posing in front of a dinosaur

The pendulum

 Ball about to make the one at the end fly.

  

Spinning center makes the coin turn right

Sticker Shock

When I first made out a tentative budget for the trip to Spain, I left out food expenses. My reasoning was that "hey, we have to eat anywhere we live" so that food costs would not be an extra expense. I knew that food would cost more in Barcelona than in Murray but I was hoping that our savings on utilities, etc would cover the extra food costs.

Two episodes have dispelled that notion. The first episode was when we ate at KFC. Yes, KFC. It was late in the day and the children wanted to eat at a place with "Kentucky" in the name and I was hoping that it would be easier to order there than at a traditional Barcelona restaurant. (It wasn't.) So for the first, and only, time we ate an American restaurant. We ordered one (1) children's meal ("Boxie"), nine pieces of chicken, whatever Deborah wanted (a sandwich, I think), one fry (large), and one orange drink (large). Price: 28 euros = $39!! I was, uh, surprised. We did have one or two pieces of chicken left over, which was nice. 

The second episode was this past Sunday. We went with another expatriate family to a family-style (their words) restaurant for "lunch". I use the word lunch in quotes because it was after 3:00 pm when we got to the restaurant and after 4:00 before we got our food. Because it was late and loud and everyone was tired, both families just combined into one order to save time. We ordered three rotisserie chickens, some potatoes, salad and drinks to feed 11 people (4 adults, 1 teenager, 6 children). No food was left over. Final total = 104 euros = $145!  We split the bill with the other family which made our share over $70 - for rotisserie chicken, fries and salad. And this is the affordable restaurant!

Sharing the Good News in Spain (Deborah)

Before we left the U.S., I had ordered 500 gospel tracts, most of them in Spanish, about 50 in French, since we'll also be in Paris for almost a week. None of us have handed out tracts very much at all, so this is new to us, but I wanted us to do it.

First few days, I'd get home and say, "Hey, wish I'd given the cashier at that place a tract, wish I'd given that waitress a tract," etc. Then I finally decided, maybe I should put some of the tracts in my backpack, then I'll always have them when I'm out--what a brilliant idea, (finally)! So then another few days went by and they were still in my backpack. Once or twice I took it off, unzipped the part where they were, and got one out to give to someone in particular. Well, here it is 2 weeks later, and I am just now discovering that what works best is if I take a stack out of the backpack and they're in my hands. Wow. It's amazing how fast they get handed out now.

We hand them to people as we walk along the streets, and to people in businesses we purchase items from. Liam and Marianna have become pros at it--they always want to have some in their hands and smile at people as they bless them with some good news. They love to look back at the person and tell me, "Hey Mom, they're reading it!" Once at a flea market, Kathryn gave a guy one and I took a picture, and he said for the children to come over and hold some toys at his area and I could take another photo. (Side note: date is incorrect on this photo--settings got messed up. It was 3-16-11.)

Some people say no thanks with their hand motions. Some take it not so happily. But many smile and say "Gracias" as we hand them out. Sometimes we've seen a beggar sitting with a cup. We throw in a few coins and a tract. They seem grateful. Our prayer is they will see their need for Him! I try to remember to pray each day for the people who receive these, that God will use the messages in these tracts to reach people for His kingdom. Please pray with us for the people in Spain (and France) who need Christ.

Typical Day (Josiah)

For some reason, every day, the 1st 14 days we've been in Spain, I've waken up at 8:30.  Is it due to staying up till 10:30 the night before reading "The Hobbit", jet lag, or different culture, I don't know.  But somehow, I can't get myself to wake up earlier (come on, The Hobbit's addicting, especially when you're near the end!).

Anyway, on a typical day, I wake up, get dressed, check e-mail (getting passed the obvious now), eat breakfast, a typical breakfast week: cereal 3 days, sweet stuff, pancakes, biscuits and eggs, and muffins.  A lesson of Math and a couple pages of English, or Vocabulary in my case.

I don't believe there's been a day that I've been in Spain and didn't go outside the entire day.  What you should get from that is that we spend some time outdoors.  Sometimes, we just head to the grocery store to get some food.  We have to do this often, because we don't have much room for storage.  We also go on longer trips, like visiting La Pedrera and Salvador Dali's museum.  We watch about 90 minutes of cartoons a day, and play games by ourselves or together.

The whole family has had a bad cough.  Right now, Dad, Kathryn, and I have the worst case of it.  We have tried medicine, tea, honey lemon water, and pills, but nothing seems to work.  We hope to get better soon, but we have done that for 2 and a half weeks now.  Please add this to your prayer list when you pray for us.

I enjoy working on my Spanish with the people who don't speak good English.  There is a park about a 10 minute walk away and a small grocery store about 1 minute away.  Our neighbors continue to help us out a lot, and we invited them to eat with us tonight.

Basketball paragraph: I was disappointed when Murray State lost  This wasn't their year.  At least Morehead State gave the OVC some publicity.  I actually put Louisville in the Final Four on my bracket, so it's about time I started tearing that bracket up.  Besides, I went 0 for 4 in the 8 vs. 9 match-ups, and 1 for 4 in the 6 vs. 11s.  So, doesn't that give me a reason?  Congratulations, Kentucky fans.  You got a lucky win.  Let's see you beat WVU.

I will sign off now.  Here are a few pics.

Hereford Family posing in front of Torre Agbar

fountain

We're Going on a Train Ride(Kathryn)

Yesterday (Friday, March 18) we went on a train to the little Spanish town of Figueres that we were going to explore for the day.  It took about two hours to get there since we went by train. The train ride was enjoyable, as it had been a while since we went on our last train. We played a few games, and I had brought my stuffed animals so we did stuff with them, too.We got off the train to and walked to a outside place to eat lunch (Dad said we'll be seeing more of those once it gets warmer).  After lunch, we went to the Salvador Dali Museum.  There were many beautiful surreal pictures and statues, but some were inappropriate.  Oh, well.  We tried to skip those.  My favorite was a picture of a tiger that was made up of several squares and three heads (We didn't get a picture of that because flash wasn't allowed, so we didn't take any pictures of the paintings).  Here is an example of some appropriate surreal statues:

As you can see, these are not the normal statues. Surrealism means to change, make things different, and that's exactly what Dali did with his paintings and statues.

Fresh Markets (Deborah)

Yes, I'm going to post about food again, but this time about the really fresh stuff--the pictures are just too neat not to show (I'll leave out the one of the fresh rabbit--not sure if seeing "Floppy" that way would be too much for some of you, as it was for some of mine).  So as I said before, we'll get most of our groceries from the supermarkets, but sometimes we'll pick up stuff from some of these markets, big and small, scattered all throughout the city.  Here are some pictures of some of the ones we've checked out.

Chocolate!

Flowers

 

Seafood  

                                                            

                                                                        Pastries

  

Hardshell Critters

Fresh Produce--by the kg.

Dried Fruit                             

                                          

                                               Smoothies

A Few "Oh Well" Moments (Deborah)

One day when we were in the supermarket, we decided to pick up some prepared pizzas. We got what we were pretty sure looked like pepperoni, and then we saw bacon, something, something, etc. (They have the same word for bacon as we do--the other words we didn't recognize, but probably something about cheese or sauce, right?). Well the next day we heated the pizzas, and 2 or 3 of the children made a comment that they weren't crazy about the bacon one. Jim said it tasted really weird, maybe like fish. I said, no way. Can't remember what I was having that day, but I took a bite of their pizza, and thought it was strange too. We go back and look at the label, and it said in small letters among other words, "al tun", which we looked up and it means tuna fish, which we all hate. Oh well, the pepperoni one was good.

Another day I bought some fish from a fresh market, and then picked up what I thought was cornmeal to bread it in before cooking. It said something about "Maiz", and I know that means corn, so how could I go wrong? When I opened the package to pour some on a plate, I realized I had corn starch instead. Oh well, I had flour and the flour breading worked just fine. The fish was wonderful, by the way.

Then I was in line to check out at a supermarket, and I set my produce on the counter, and the cashier started telling me something that none of us understood. (Some people talk really fast here, and even when they find out you speak only a little Spanish, they don't slow down). Guess I gave her that American "huh?" look but tried to say that I didn't understand, then off she went somewhere. Meanwhile, 2 young men over in another lane kindly said "You're supposed to weigh your produce and price it back in the produce department." They said it slowly and in English, which I so appreciated. Asked where we were from, they were from Belgium. Then she came back with nice little labels on the produce items. Oh well, now we know. So the next time in the produce dept., I watch someone else do this, and I've got it. Actually, it is pretty cool. You pick up an item of produce, a sign below it shows you how much it costs per kg, and gives a code number. You take your produce, put it on the scale, push the code number, and out prints your label, which you stick on the produce or bag, and all your produce is priced before you get to the checkout. I like it.

Church

Kathryn and I were the scout team this weekend to investigate the International Church in Barcelona. And something unusual happened (at least for me) - there were people from *6* different continents in attendance among the 40 or 50 worshipers. (I suppose the boat with the penguin contingent was delayed.)

And what does a church service look like with people from 6 different continents? . . . A lot like a contemporary American church service. There was a band with 3 guitars, 2 singers, a drummer, a keyboard player. They sang worship songs with a couple of them in Spanish. They prayed, gave announcements, and "passed the plate". There was a message, which was the weakest part of the service but the people were joyful and friendly.

And for a socially inept person like myself, there was a natural follow-up question after the initial "Hi, my name is Jim" introductions: where are you from? This invariably lead to interesting discussions. 

Supermercats (Deborah)

Shopping for food in Spain is quite interesting, and sometimes enjoyable, sometimes a bit frustrating. But mostly enjoyable. After having tried a few stores now, I've pretty much figured out where we'll get most of our groceries. There are so many nice supermercats (grocery stores), but since we carry them all back by foot, we can't be going across town for lots of things. There is a small grocery store (like a mom & pop store size) just one block away. They have most things we need, so we go there a lot for convenience reasons. We buy all our heavier things there for sure (bottled water, milk, juice, etc.). Then there is another one about twice the size and it is about 2 1/2 blocks away, still fairly convenient and has more items, better selection, etc. I really enjoy going to that one. Here is a picture of the children on our first trip there.

Liam, Josiah, Kathryn, Marianna helping choose drinks.

As you can see, everyone is carrying a backpack so we can carry groceries back home more easily. They liked the soft drink section, though that is not something we have every day, it is a special treat. Just found out this store charges for bags (only 2 Euro cents each), so now I just always carry extra plastic bags in backpacks and a large reusable vinyl bag I brought from home just for that purpose.

Another store we went to (by subway), was actually a large department store, with a grocery store on the bottom floor. I picked up kleenex in one section, then walked over and found paper towels in another. Then when I went to pay for things, found out I could only pay for the kleenex there, then had to walk back over where I got the paper towels and pay for them at that counter. How crazy, I thought. Why can't the kleenex people and the paper towel people work together? Decided to buy some olive oil, and of course, that was yet another checkout. We're talking on the same floor, looks like it's one big store. Not my kind of shopping place. But it was an adventure for sure.

Day in the City (Josiah)

Mom, my siblings, and I decided to take the subway to a block where we could see La Pedrera and 4 other famous buildings on it. Unfortunately, we were there about 4 hours and only saw 2 of the structures that we wanted to see. Or maybe the 3 other buildings were right in front of our eyes and somehow we didn't see them. We went around the block one and a half times, which I was not in favor of, and stopped at a few places for 10 minutes and got nothing, or maybe 1 thing. Eventually we found this interesting building that had some cool designs. Then after a couple more hours, we found La Pedrera!

I'll go ahead and tell you I took about 80 pictures with my camera and Kathryn took another 20. So we decided we could take a tour of La Pedrera. We looked at the 1st floor which had some clay models in a glass frame and a few movies on the history of the building. Up to the roof. There's like 300 good pictures to take out here and I took like 30. Believe me, if I had the time . . . You could see the Sagrada Familia from here, there's a little arch where you can get your picture, there's some designs that look really cool. The 3rd floor is Gaudi's apartment building, I think. There were a few bedrooms and a couple bathrooms. I think my favorite place was the roof. There were a lot of good pictures to take there and it was a great view.

La Pedrera

I had a great time. When we got home, we showed Dad our pictures. He thought they were nice. Here are a few of them.

Picture on the roof

Wow! Thank You!(Kathryn)

So Mom set up a time and day that our neighbors would show her a mall of some sort. There's a mom, a dad, a daughter, and a son(The daughter was the one we met first). The mom and dad took Marianna, Mom, and me to the mall. Mom told them what she wanted to look at, and told me to ask them if there was anything they wanted to look at. They said no. I told Mom I wanted to look at craft supplies because I wanted to make a stuffed animal. They had a hard time understanding what I wanted, because I didn't know the Spanish words. Anyways, when they finally understood, they told me this store didn't have what I wanted and on Friday they would take me to a store that did. While we were walking Marianna saw a Hello Kitty bag thing, and the mom offered to pay for it! Of course we said no, but that was still really nice.

When we got home the dad showed me a Rabbit and I got to hold it! Then later he brought us some tea to heal our coughs. It worked for most of us(I don't think I drank enough). Oh, well. We'll probably invite them over to eat sometime.

First day of work

I arrived at my office this morning at 9:00 am after about a 5 minute walk, a subway ride of about 30 minutes (had to transfer midway), and then about a 10 minute walk up a steep hill. From what I can tell, that seems to be a typical commute in Barcelona. I have my office key, my laptop from the US, the power cord and mouse (good thinking!), and a few folders with notes and papers. Dr. Blum has already told me that he will be in Vienna today, so I am on my own.

The work day was prematurely cut short, however, since I forgot the mechanical adapter for my laptop power cord that takes the two narrow prongs used in the US and converts them to the two cylindrical prongs that the European plugs need (bad thinking). But at the end of the day, I had accomplished the following items:

1) determined the phone number for the telephone in my office;

2) determined that you have to dial "0" to get an outside line from the university (this was not at all obvious and took at least 30 minutes to determine);

3) found the restrooms (again, not as obvious as one would expect);

4) found the water fountain;

5) read and commented on two papers;

6) left the computer with a discharged battery.

Not a bad day. Plenty of "hmmm" moments like when I tried to find the department secretary. There is a "welcome to the department" visitors guide that has the secretary's office number on it. I found the office but the door was closed and there was a sign with Catalan words (I believe) and an arrow pointing to the door on the left. I walked down the hall to the next door, which was also closed and had a sign with words and an arrow pointing to the door on the right. Hmmm. I decided to talk to the secretary another time.

Our apartment (Deborah)

Here are some pics of our apartment.

Dining and living area

We watch a little TV to help us learn or at least continue to hear Spanish spoken, and maybe put words with pictures to make some sense of things. Slow process, but helping a little.

Our bedroom

Our room also has a nice size wardrobe (can't see from picture), a chest of drawers, and 2 small nightstands.

One of children's rooms

 Here is a pic of one of the children's rooms.  They are all 3 very similar.  But we moved mattresses and desks around, so 2 children are in one room, 1 in another, and 1 on couch that folds out (thought we were getting another bed, but this works). So now 2 desks (one with our laptop) is in 4th bedroom. All bedrooms have a wardrobe, desk, and a small nightstand. 

 

Kitchen

Small kitchen, but sufficient.  I am learning to cook with the oven and stove--it is very different.  My pocket translator is also helpful with metric conversions, which comes in very handy for setting oven temps.

Can you see small white washer in back on left?  Also, area is for storing mop, broom, has lines for hanging clothes to dry (dryers are extremely rare here).

Then there's the bathroom with sink, shower, toilet, and bidet (it's a Europe/East Asia thing--I'll let you look that one up if you don't know and are curious). Also has a decent medicine/storage cabinet and linen cabinet.

Last is the terrace/balcony overlooking our street. Only you have to turn your head right to see it correctly (blogger isn't smart enough to rotate it like other programs are, either that or we aren't.)





Things are small, different, and sometimes slightly inconvenient, but never dull--it is a good experience for us.

Some of you asked for our address, so here it is for anyone who would like to have it:
Carrer Dels Enamorats 70 3er 4a
08013 Barcelona Spain
(Addresses are written a little different here. First our street, then our apartment unit no. (70). We're on the 3rd floor (not counting the ground floor), apartment 4.

Let's Try to Meet our Neighbors(by Kathryn)

We are in apartment 4. Our neighbors are in apartments 3, 5, and 6. I told Dad I wanted to go talk to our neighbors and he said OK. So the next day we got some candy that we bought in the U.S.A. and went to apartment #3.

The lady who answered the door was about in her sixties. We said hola and she replied. Then we told her we were visiting and that we lived in the U.S.A. All of a sudden she started pointing to our door and letting out this gush of Spanish words. We couldn't figure out what she wanted to say. She rang the doorbell of our apartment and opened the door. She said"Llave?"(YA-vae) which means key in English. Dad took out his key and she looked confused. So we kept trying to talk to her but we couldn't communicate with her very well.

Back in our apartment, we decided that she probably thought we meant that we were visiting the people living here instead of us visiting Spain. Oh, well. The next apartment we visited was #5. Lady again, about in her late twenties. This time was much better. She seemed to slow down if we didn't understand. Towards the end she said we could visit her anytime. Then when we were coming back from KFC she had the door open and said that her brother(13) could take us to the park anytime. We gave her brother a football. We might get to know them well enough to give them a Bible tract.

Flight to Spain (by Deborah)

Okay, I'll get to Spain, but I must mention the flight over. Is this just a Continental Airlines thing or what, but we all get our own screen and so many choices! About 40 or so movies to choose from, 15 or so games (including chess, backgammon, a fun word game, etc.), several types of music, plus a map. I checked it all out, as did each of us. The map thing was cool, as it showed departure and destination sites and where you were in the journey, plus day/night zones so we could see that we were about to approach Europe where it was daytime, while it showed N. America at night. Told how many hours and miles total for trip plus how many hours/miles left to go. Okay, yes this homeschool mom enjoys learning geography any way she can get it. And I think at least the 2 children I was sitting next to (J & M) also checked that out. It showed a lot more, but I won't go into "every" detail. Just book a flight over to visit us and you'll see for yourself. So we arrived in Barcelona, Spain (along with all our luggage too--Yay!) around 9:30 in the morning, though it was 2:30 a.m. back in Murray--and we all felt the difference! We are slowly getting over the jet lag and transitioning into Spain time. Which it is almost 11:00 p.m. here now as I write. So I will sign off here and write more "manana".

First Days in Spain(Josiah)

I woke up. I had been asleep on the plane for a couple hours. When I looked out the window, I saw clouds and when the clouds passed, I saw Barcelona!

At the airport, we met Dad's friend, Dr. Blum(the guy Dad was going to work with) and his 3-year old son who is fluent in Spanish and German. When we were at the airport, I bought some bottled water! All I had to say was "Hola" and "Gracias" and I had bought my first object in Barcelona. In fact, the bottled water cost 1.6 euros, which is equivalent to about $2.

Some things I didn't know about Spain: A lot of people wear earrings and smoke cigarettes; more people than America. Because so many people walk across the streets, you don't have to push a button. The walking sign changes automatically. I saw a few beggars, some shaking a pot, some playing an instrument, some with an inventory of food or movies, some just sitting around homeless. There are few cars, but motorcycles, and buses are more popular than they are in America. There are some pigeons and seagulls that walk around and fly over our heads, so when you feel some drops, you gotta hope it's raining.

Arrival

We made it!

At the Nashville airport: family, luggage, and the all-important box of kleenex

Muchos gracias to our friend Pam for getting us to the airport in the US and to Dr. Blum for helping us get from the airport in Europe. We arrived at Barcelona airport a little before 9:00 am on 2 March (local time) and arrived at the apartment about 2:00 pm (had to sign contract, get keys, move luggage). My goal was to stay up till 7:00 pm before falling asleep and I think I made it by 2 minutes.

The apartment is, well, "rustic". The present challenge is to determine how to work the appliances when there are no directions or indecipherable directions. The only success so far has been the heater. After much experimentation I have determined that turning the top dial to the *right* makes the heater stay on longer, though I still have not determined what is the purpose of the bottom dial. Up next to get working are the hot water heater, the stove/oven, and the clothes washer.