Curious Curiosities

I have noticed a few things in Barcelona that I find very curious. I don't know why I find them unusual; maybe someone can analyze and explain.

Curiosity #1
Television in Barcelona consists of a few Spain-originated shows but the majority of the stuff on TV is popular American series and American movies. Most channels are American networks. I have Fox, CNN, TMC, Discovery, History Channel, about 5 different Disney channels, and Nickelodeon. I am sure there are some that I am leaving out, but I think you get the idea. To make matters more curious, everything is dubbed over in Spanish or sometimes Catalan. I find this curious because in the USA, you do not find movies dubbed over (except '60s Japanese sci-fi: Godzilla!). If you want to watch something that was originally in a foreign language, you get subtitles. Everything you see here is like watching really bad kung-fu movies where the words and the mouth do not match. At some point, I forget to pay attention to the movie. I just watch the bizarre motions of everyone's mouth. Maybe I am just weird...I do have a mouth fetish.

Curiosity #2
The other day Ron and I went to an Italian restaurant. I thought to myself..."at last I will be able to know what I am ordering. I know how to read an Italian menu." To my surprise, not so. The entire menu was in Spanish and Catalan. Turns out this has been the case at every ethnic restaurant. The Syrian restaurant - in Spanish. The Chinese restaurant - in Spanish. As in Curiosity #1 above...in the USA when you go to an ethnic restaurant, the name of the food is in the language it is supposed to be and you have a description in English. Now I can't even order my own food, even if I just want a cheeseburger!

Curiosity #3
Barcelona is not ethnically diverse. I see white people everywhere. Maybe I have special vision where I can only see white people. If this is the case, I just developed this special power since I have arrived in Barcelona. Maybe this will go away with time or treatment.

Curiosity #4
The public schools in Barcelona, Spain do not use the Spanish language. When children go to school here, their first language is Catalan. They begin to learn Spanish in the 3rd grade and even then it is only taught as a foreign language, a few hours per week. I do understand that Catalan is the original language of this region. The Spanish language was forced upon them during the time of Franco. What I do not understand is why they want to insist on teaching children as their "first" language a dialect that will only be useful in this region. Within their own country it is useless. For example, in Madrid, this language is not used. To make things worse for the children, while they are busy learning Catalan, another person is busy dubbing over all of the shows on Nickelodeon to make them Spanish. These poor children can't even understand their own kids shows. I think it is great that they want to teach their native language. I just think they would want to teach it as a second language. I would want my child to have a global advantage as soon as possible. That is just me.

Curiosity #5
There are parks everywhere within the city of Barcelona. This is a wonderful thing. In a city with concrete and stone everywhere, it is so refreshing to see it is still very green. The curious thing is this: you are not allowed to go in the grass. All of the parks have wonderful green grass, trees, and walking paths. The only place you are allowed to be is on the walking path. The parks seem to be for visual admiration but nothing more.

Curiosity #6
This curiosity may be related to Curiosity #5. The inhabitants of Barcelona love having dogs. Because of the nature of the city, people live in apartments with no yard. This brings people out in droves to walk their dogs along the ample city sidewalks. Now for the curious part....the dogs poop on the sidewalks. There is poo everywhere. You must constantly keep vigilance to avoid the poo bombs. Next to no one scoops the poo. The poo is just left in a steaming pile, waiting for the unobservant biped. I am happy to report that as for my family, we have managed to avoid the poo parade. (so far)

Curiosity #7
Those who drive in this city love to honk their horns. People try to make it through a traffic light before it turns red like someone who is being chased by a monster and the red light will somehow prevent the capture if they can just make it through. Because of this practice, during rush hour, the intersections just get completely blocked. Everyone is just at a standstill and everyone is honking their horns. It is not as if the person in front of them can move. The police come to the rescue. They clear the intersection and direct traffic to keep people from blocking the intersection. To add to this curious driving impatience, we were walking near one of these police patrolled intersections, when someone in their car honked their horn at the police officer to ask him to move out of the way and let the person go on through the intersection! I think the police officer allowed that particular impatient driver set a little longer than in the original plan. I don't think I have ever seen a civilian try to tell the traffic cop to get out of the way!

Curiosity #8

The majority of the women here have their hair colored. Don't get me wrong, I think coloring your hair is as necessary and basic as brushing your teeth and drinking water. I color my hair all the time. I need to make the gray disappear. The women here, have three favorite colors; red/purple, blond, and jet black. Sometimes these colors appear one at a time on a single head. Most of the time they appear all together at one time on one head. This practice is not limited to the young and rebellious. I have seen women in their 70s with this hair. The worst part of all is they appear to be home done jobs. The color is chunky and boxy with no real theme. To be honest, it looks like paint cans exploded on their heads.

I will leave you with these things to ponder. Please drop me a line if you have some insight.

Things I love about Barcelona

After yesterday's post, I have decided to write about all the things I love about Barcelona so far.

I have been here for a month and it has been cold and rainy twice.

There is a beautiful beach two blocks from the apartment.

I have gone to the beach almost everyday.

My apartment is lovely and in a lovely neighborhood.

I have been forced to experiment with my cooking.

The kids have there own bedroom.

I have no dresser, so all of my clothes must be on hangers in the closet. (no folding, no wrinkles)

I have a guest bedroom.

I am living in a really cool city and a great place for my friends to come visit.

Maybe my friends and family will come see me here.

There is a nice little mall across the street.

I am learning a new language.

The kids are learning a new language.

This place has a night life.

There is more wonderful things to see than I will ever have time to see.

The rest of Europe is a train ride away.

Every person I have met has been positive and helpful.

I have had the opportunity to home school the kids and really learn their strong points and where they need extra help.

The movie theater across the street shows movies in their original language.

The kitchen is super easy to clean.

I do not have a lot of clutter.

I love magdalenas fresh from the bakery.

I have mastered the art of making espresso.

There is really good wine for cheap.

There is really good espresso everywhere.

A 2-liter of soda is 60 cents.

The shopping possibilities are endless.

It turns out, I like ham flavored chips.

Barcelona loves Christmas and it is about Christ.

There is an ATM on every block.

I am a total Phineas and Ferb junkie and it is even better in Spanish.

I get to watch movies from all over the world on the TV.

When I talk to people from back in the US I have to use Skype. Which means I get to see their face as well.

Well that is all I will right for now. I know there is more to come.

Food Fetish

I have had a serious learning curve when it comes to buying food. Everything in the grocer is in Catalan and sometimes Spanish. I thought I had figured out cornmeal; in Spanish it is harina de maíz. I buy this from the store, it turns out to be corn starch. Oh well, scratch the fried green tomatoes. Well with another try I have found espesante. I think this is the right stuff. I will find out tonight.

There are just lots of foods that I have taken for granted, that I just can not buy here. You can not buy pancake mix, but you can buy crepe mix. I think this is a suitable substitute. You can not buy pancake syrup...not in any flavor. The nearest thing I could find was a burnt sugar syrup (caramelo líquido). The kids hated it. This did bring about a culinary experiment that Ron and I thought turned out great. Blue cheese, sugar and pears all cooked together in a gooey mess. Try this sometime. It is AWESOME! I guess the kids will have to stick with jelly (mermelada). The eggs here are fresh. This is nice, but I mean really fresh. They still have some feathers and poo stuck to them every-now-and-then. They are extremely rich and I have to put 3 yolks to 7 eggs just so the kids (and Ron) will eat them. I can not find spices here. It seems that in Spanish cooking you use parsley, cilantro (fresh), basil, and thyme. This is the end of what I can find. Ron has been given the mission of retrieving my entire collection of spices from Seattle. I have nightmares of them being confiscated in Spanish customs. Let us all hope for their safe transport to me (I need them).

Things from the sea are in abundance. I am just not sure what to do with some of it. Octopus (pulpo) is very popular here and you can buy it whole; frozen or fresh. They also sell these tiny little fish that look a bit like eel. According to the picture on the packaging, you just eat them like a bowl of noodles. I can not remember what they are called , but sooner or later I will have to try them. Yogurt is very good here. I guess the Spanish do not like fruit pieces in their yogurt because all yogurt is smooth. This is great for the kids, they hated pieces. There are not a lot of flavors. I miss Yoplait and all there wonderful dessert flavors. I used to like to pretend I was being healthy and somehow better-than-thou when I was eating all that strawberry cheesecake yogurt. Well that is gone now. I guess I will climb off that horse.

Missing home food has caused many hours spent on the internet looking for someway to buy the things I miss most. The search has paid off a little. There are several British stores here in Barcelona that sell some American type food but with a British spin. That is ok...I will take what I can get. I also found a restaurant that serves American food from 10am-4pm every Sunday. I have heard a rumor; I can buy maple pancake syrup from the imported foods section of  El Corte Inglés. Ron and I tried to go there on Saturday, but the store was so crowded you could hardly move. I never found the imported food section. Who knows, this may be a pipe dream. On a positive note, I found a tiny jar of peanut butter today. I have not tried it and I have not told the kids. I do not want them to be disappointed if it turns out to be a bust. Adrianna and Antonio have got so used to food being different, they asked me if the banana was a "Spain banana or American banana". It took a while to convince them that the fruit would taste the same. The kids love the orange juice here. They are scheming ways to have the same orange juice when we get back to Seattle. What is not to love...it taste just like an orange...a really good orange. I could go on forever about the food (this is my obsession of the week) but I will not.

Sorry, no new pic. Ron is gone with the camera.

Apartment Living

Before we came to Barcelona, I knew we would be living in an apartment. I have lived in an apartment before, about 20 years ago. I knew what I was in for; smaller space, less storage, up and down steps, and the like. Well I was mostly right. I have less storage, but I have less stuff. I have to go up and down steps, but I can use the exercise. The apartment is actually bigger than the house in Seattle, so I was pleasantly surprised with that. One of the greatest selling points of the new apartment is Adrianna and Antonio have their own room. In Seattle, they share a room (a very small room). How grand is this? Well, at least that is what I thought, and what the kids lead me to believe. Turns out, that the idea of your own room is a grand notion in theory. When actually posed with the idea of sleeping in separate rooms, Adrianna and Antonio were appalled. Now they say they are having a sleep over with each other. The problem with this is now we have two kids trying to sleep together in a twin bed. We tend to have lots of falling out of the bed. We are hoping that they will gradually adjust to sleeping in different rooms. I had not thought about not sleeping in my own bed. Sometimes it can be very difficult to sleep in a new bed. This has been the case for me. Given, I have a difficult time sleeping in my own bed, but this has been impossible here. The bed that is here, has a mattress that has no squish to it at all. When you sit down, it is just like sitting on a wood plank. After a few weeks of tossing all night, being in so much back and neck pain I could hardly get my self rolled over, and in general, getting next to no sleep, I became very irritable. There came one day, when Ron could take no more of me and my attitude and asked "What is wrong with you?" My reply..."I NEED TO GO TO IKEA" He got the message and off to Ikea we went. I now have multiple cushy down mattress pads and new down pillows. I have turned back into my "sweet and joyful" little self...life is good. I guess there is some truth in the idea that shopping can cure what ails you.  Now the thing I had forgotten about apartment living - noise. I had gotten very used to living in a house. The noise that I would hear would belong to someone in my house. This is not the case anymore, When I hear a loud noise, I am going to see what the kids are into. This mostly turns out to be a neighbor coming in or out of their door. I will hear water running and I am up looking to find where the water is coming from. This also turns out to be a neighbor using their water. When I hear the argument, I know that is the neighbor. Now this next one confused me for a brief moment. I was dead asleep and I was awaken by my own snoring. After being fully awake I realized it was not me, it was the neighbor upstairs. I can not even imagine how loud this persons snores are when in the actually room with them. Every night, I lie awake listening to snores that seem to shake the ceiling. I still wake up every now-and-then and wonder "was that me?" Turns out it is not. We had decided, earplugs may be a wise investment. After some searching, I can not find where to buy earplugs. Mental note: I have to live with the snoring a little while longer. Well last night I had an unplanned breakthrough....wine! I drank a few glasses of wine before bed last night and when I awoke this morning, I realized, I heard no snoring whatsoever. Ron claims there was still plenty of snoring, I just didn't hear it. I guess I will stop looking for the earplugs and just drink lots of wine before bed. Why change what is working! With that problem solved, it still leaves me with another. Around 7 AM every morning, the upstairs neighbor wakes up. I hear them walk across the floor and go into the bathroom. The next thing I hear is the trickling sound of pee in the toilet. This noise is not so disturbing in itself, it is the thought of what does the person downstairs hear us doing. I guess I should not worry so much, the apartment downstairs is actually an architect office. They are not there all of the time. Still, I just can't help wondering what they think of what is heard. There are some aspects of the apartment life here that are enjoyable. One neighbor plays the piano. This is always nice to hear. In the evening, the apartment is filled with the aroma of dinner coming from all directions. I love the smell of food cooking. When I take out the trash, I just open the front door and toss it down the chute. I don't have to worry about remembering to set out the garbage on the right day. Over all, I am loving the apartment. This is feeling like home.

We are still on the search for a tutor for the kids. I did find a playgroup for the kids. Beginning in December, they will begin going across the street to a child center from 5-7pm every day of the week. I am so glad we were able to find a place where the kids could have social time with children there own age and I can have a few hours of free time to re-coop from the school day. Adrianna loves doing her school work. Well, I should say she loves to write and color. You should see all of the sadness that appears on this babies face when she is asked to read something. She hates to read. I think she lacks confidence in her ability to do it. She has improved a great deal, in such a short amount of time. She still struggles some, but it gets better every day. Antonio is doing some better in the school work. When I say better, this does not mean good. We still struggle to get him to do his work. He loves to read. He will read anything you ask him to. The writing part is what is so grievous to Antonio. God love his little heart, he is a work in progress. God bless my little heart, give me patience to make it through this.

I will leave you with this last bit of irony. I could not find turkey for our Thanksgiving meal, so I made ham. It was a very expensive ham, but it was for Thanksgiving so I decided it was worth the outrageous price. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. (Well with the exception that Adrianna was disgusted with the sight of mango chutney on her ham and refused to eat it.) The next day, I decided to have some me time. I went for a 30 minute walk to a nearby neighborhood. Destination - Mercat Barceloneta. I ended up getting there about the time everyone was closing up shop. I did spot one thing -TURKEY!

Finding English

There is something very comforting in hearing words that you understand. You can not get a real appreciation for this until you have truly faced the world where everyone around you speaks in a language that you have to think long and hard about what they are trying to tell you and hope they used some kind of gestures to help get you going in the right direction. With comfort in mind, I have now found a church that the sermons are in English, I found a play group for Adrianna and Antonio that all the children know some amount of English, the FOX channel is in English in the evening, there is a TV channel that is trying to teach English to Spanish speakers (more on this in a later post lol), and the theater across the street shows movies in English. The grandest discovery of all...on the back of the boxes in the grocery store, they will list the ingredients in English. Not always, but a lot of the time. Now maybe I can figure out what I am buying without depending solely on the picture. I feel like of five-year-old...just look at the pictures and hope for the best.

We took one of the tour buses around parts of Barcelona this week.  We had lots of fun, but we realized, we will never be able to see all there is to see in one year. There is so much here, I don't even know where to begin. One of the things I noticed, was all the public art. There are statues and art structures everywhere. They go from classical figurines to crazy modern/abstract somethings that I am not sure what it is supposed to represent. I have not been able to find the explanatory plaque as you would see in the US. Oh well, I guess I will have to use my imagination. This brings me to the above photo. This is, so far, my favorite statue I have found. This is located very near the house. We walk by it every time we go to use the subway. Now use your imagination and tell me what you think it is. Keep in mind, there is nothing there to tell me the artist or his/her intent. I will not tell you my opinion, that would just ruin the surprise. Please leave me a message and tell me what you think. I am curious how many see something different or the same as I do.

We are still on the search for the tutor for Adrianna and Antonio. The home school project is going fairly well. Antonio had to miss the park today because he did not finish his work and it was quite traumatic for him. I am hoping this will encourage him to stay a little more focused tomorrow. He would be done in no time, if he would just spend less time trying to get out of doing the work in the first place. I keep explaining this to him, but so far reasoning has not made a difference. I hated to leave him home today and just take Adrianna to the park, but I had to try a new tactic. Ron says that Antonio cried the whole time we were gone. We explained to him that he can choose to either finish his work and go to the park or not do his work and miss the park. His response, in a crying so hard that we could barely make it out, was "I don't want to have choices". Then as soon as we came back, he started crying again when Adrianna talked about all the fun things she did while at the park.

Well is is bedtime for me. More later.

Today is day 4 in Barcelona

Here I am again. I have been mostly hanging in the apartment for the past two days. I will make some adventures out today. I spent most of the day yesterday researching schools. The kids need to get enrolled...soon!! This research actually began before I arrived in Spain. Ron had discovered that the public schools in Barcelona use Catalan as the first language. In case you are not familiar with this language, this is the language of this part of Spain. It is not used anywhere else in the world and has no use outside of these borders. With that said, we do not want the kids to have to learn Catalan. They are already at a disadvantage by having to learn Spanish. So the decision was made to look for private schools that the first language is English and the second is Spanish. Sounds like a good idea! I found a few British schools and a few American schools. The average cost will be $40,000. This is a little out of our price range for tuition into Kindergarten. When I learned the cost of private schools here, I started to panic and thought to myself...there is no way I will be able to home school the kids everyday, all day. Besides what about the need for time with other children and how would they ever learn Spanish if they were inside of this apartment all day. On top of all of that, the greatest panic came when I realized I may go insane trying to get the job done. After some slow deep breaths, I started to come up with plan C which is to hire a tutor to come in and help with teaching the kids Spanish and to offer me a sanity break. To get the time with other children, I can enroll the kids in dance, music, etc. I don't even know where to begin looking for a tutor, but I am going to try. I had this idea that maybe Ron's cousin in Mallorca could come and stay with us for a little while and be my personal assistant. He can help me through the language problems I have. Everyone please wish me luck in my task.

As for my language problems. I do understand some things said to me in Spanish and I know a lot of words in Spanish. The problem I have is putting the words I know into some kind of order that will make sense. I am sure I will get better with practice.

Now on to things I have learned.

Lesson #1 - Women here wear black almost always. I mean from head to toe. Sometimes I see brown but that does not happen too often. I guess I need to throw out all of my clothes with color. If I try to wear that stuff I will be sneered at and they will mumble under their breath (or maybe even out loud) "stupid American." We can't have that now can we? Oh, just forget it. I don't think I can pull off goth.

Lesson #2 - To get to the apartment outside court yard and play area, use the key to the building and go out the back door. I know this sounds obvious, but when there is absolutely nothing on the door to tell you where it might go, you just don't know what you may find behind some big metal door with no windows.

Lesson #3 - Spanish television is actually all American shows dubbed over in Spanish. I have yet to find a single channel on the television that has programs actually created in Spain. Well, at least I know what is going on. Most of the shows so far I have seen before. That really is something, considering I hardly ever watch television. I am still looking for the Spanish version of South Park. I have not found it yet but I have not given up.

Lesson #4 - In the grocery store the junk food is mainly American brands. Especially the chips. There are differences, such as the packaging is in Spanish, the price is cheaper than in Seattle, and Lays Potato Chips comes in the flavor of ham! Just so you know, ham is like the most prized food in all of Spain. The grocery store has a section dedicated to the many ways you can buy ham. The size of this section is about two times the size of your entire dairy section in the US.

Well it is time to go to the grocery store. Let's go see what I learn this time!

Things learned in two days

Well here I am in Barcelona. I have been here two full days. My apartment is bigger than the house in Seattle. I have two bathrooms ( that is a needed bonus). The kids have their own bedrooms. They are not too sure about the whole "sleeping in your own room" concept. I am sure they will get used to it. In each bathroom I have a bidet. I am not at all sure how to use it but I am sure I can find out how on google. I have not looked it up yet, because I am not at all sure if I want to know how.

I have learned a few things in my two short days. I am prepared to share this wealth of knowledge, just in case you find yourself needing to know and also if I put it in print, I can go back and reference it just in case I forget.

Lesson #1-The people that work at Starbucks speak English.

Lesson #2-The people that work at Starbucks think all Americans like lots and lots of sugar in their coffee.

Lesson #3-50 percent of the women here wear scarves around their neck.

Lesson#4-I have no idea why they wear scarves around their neck. I think it may be like jewelry.

Lesson#5-A small bottle of Revlon foundation and a blush cost $30. I thought I was going for the cheap stuff.

Lesson#6-The subway system is awesome here! I think as soon as I learn my way around a little more, I will rule.

Lesson#7-Sometimes sign language helps when you don't know how to say what you need to say.

Lesson#8-You must weigh and price your own produce before you go to the check out. This lesson was learned last night at the grocery store. I tried to get tomatoes and a cucumber. The cashier held them up and asked me something in Spanish. I did know that she was wanting to know how much, unfortunately I did not know. I nice gentlemen in the line behind me explained that I need to weigh it and print out a sticker and put on the bag. I explained that I was just a "stupid American" and that I was very thankful that someone took the time to explain this to me.

Lesson#9-The cashier does not like it when you give her a 100 Euro bill. This lesson was learned in the same check out line as the previous lesson. When I handed her the bill she kept asking me if I had something smaller. I kept saying no. I think she may have thought I did not understand the question because she asked me several times (of course she was asking in Spanish). The kind gentlemen in the previous lesson, pulled out his wallet and started to pay for my groceries (talking about the kindness of strangers) but just in the nick of time, the cashier in the next aisle over gave us some change. For a minute I thought we were going to have no dinner for the night.

I must be leaving you now. I know there are many more lessons to be learned today.

Hanging in Manassas

Well this is an exercise in developing a habit of writing on the blog. Ron is off to a business meeting and the kids and I are hanging at the house in Manassas. I am not at all sure what we will manage to get ourselves into today...we have no car and nothing within walking distance. I guess I will have to live with Nickjr and the back yard.

The beginning of the blog experiment

This is the setup of the blog site, where I will document the comings and goings of the Oliver family during our adventure of living in Spain and touring about Europe. This is mostly to keep the fam back in the states informed, but anyone else can feel free to comment and make suggetions. I am hoping to turn this into a video blog site as soon as I can figure that part out.