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!
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