As I wrote earlier Mike described our departure like being going up the stairs to the water slide. Our traveling was like going down. Right after a big water slide there are a few seconds when you are a little dazed, you have water up your nose and your bathing suit is falling off. That was exactly how we felt.
When we arrived in Barcelona we were met by the property manager who showed us around and gave us keys. She gave us lots of technical information about the apartment which we should have written down. We were so tired and now we don’t remember a lot of it. We keep asking ourselves, what is this key for? Where is the button for the hall light?
Our first day were we exhausted but managed to unpack our suitcases into our rooms. Our apartment came with furniture but nothing else. No towels, sheets, plates, pots, pans, toilet paper or cute cup to put our tooth brushes in. We are incredibly fortunate that we have some old friends with an apartment (totally coincidentally) next door. They graciously allowed us to stay in their place wh
ile we provisioned ours.
The next few days were filled with provisioning and sleeping at our friend’s place. We also started to deal with some of the administrative logistics. Steps by step over the first four days we bought and bought and bought. Basic groceries like oil and flour and eggs. Basic household like dish towels, mugs, garbage cans and soap. A few extras for fun like stuffed pandas and cute napkins with birds on them. We went to Ikea, Carrafour, Corte Ingles, Casa Viva and many other places I don’t know the name of. We just kept asking simple questions to find things, saying “gracias” a zillion times and handing over our credit card. We were able to buy a few things from a family who had left Barcelona to return to the US. We tried to be conservative but for a couple of days we bled Euros.
We bought so much stuff at Ikea (or just more crap depending on your perspective) that we needed to hire a man with a truck to bring it all home for us. Everything we bought came to our home via walking, taxi or a random man with a truck, and up the elevator to our apartment. I am sure our “portero” (doorman) thinks we are bonkers.
As we provisioned our apartment it felt a little like the creation story. On the first day g-d gave us keys. On the second day g-d gave us towels and plates. On the third day g-d gave us sheets and toilet brushes. And on the fourth day g-d gave us INTERNET. After four days a man came and set up the internet and telephone in our apartment. As pathetic as it sounds we were all quite relieved.
It was not the physical things that made us feel comfortable moving into our place but the virtual internet. Our fourth night in Barcelona was spent in our own apartment. It wasn’t perfect but we were all relieved and excited to “be home”.
A couple of days after arriving Jacob got quite sick with a headache, sore throat and a fever as high as 103. I kept going back and forth about taking him to the clinic. If we had been in Madison with our family pediatrician only five minutes away and speaking English it would have been an easy choice. Here I would need to figure out where to go, take a taxi, be totally confused with a sick kid in a clinic waiting room, be confused again, get important instructions that I didn’t understand and get home again. It’s not like I was living on the Mosquito Coast with medical care hours away, but it definitely was not as easy as in Madison. I kept telling myself that if he got worse or was not trending towards getting better I would take him. Luckily he did not get worse and over the next couple of days he got better. I know I will have tackle medical care this year I just wasn’t quite ready on our third day.
On our secod day here we joined the gym/pool. We are very lucky that we live about one block from a very large fitness facility that includes a gorgeous, huge pool with a retractable roof. Joining the gym took quite a bit of time and in our first days we seemed to always get things screwed up. Mike got admonished for not wearing flip flops, I got admonished for wearing sunglasses in the pool, both Mike and I got admonished for wearing sunshirts in the pool…although it turned out that the problem was that our shirts were not tight. For about five days our entry cards didn’t work. BUT, as the days rolled by we figure it all out and now we are swimming just about every day. It is a joy to cool off with a quick dip. Other fun features of the pool include big mattresses with a long round sausage shaped pillow for relaxing poolside, lounge chairs made of mosaic tiles and an area with lounge chairs where all the buff, tanned and mostly hairless men hang out. Mike and I also went to work out and I have been to water aerobics and he has been to spin class (really just a video of a man yelling at you in Spanish for 45 minutes).
We also had our first social engagement. Our friend Edith who lives in Seattle had friends living here. Edith made a connection via email and I had emailed and Skyped with this family while were we still in Madison. I contacted them (Andrew and Esther) and we met for breakfast. It was so much fun for us to compare notes and learn more about their lives and travels. Their children are older than ours and they are more experienced ex-pats. I feel like we are hiking the same trail but they are a few miles ahead. They were generous with their advice which we appreciated.
Along with all of our provisioning we were trying to just deal with being in Barcelona and also having a little fun and a few adventures. We went to the beach, we walked around the Gothic Quarter, we explored the mall (it is air conditioned) and we went to a big outdoor flea market. We are also enjoying the quirkiness and adventure of learning about living in a new culture. We have been learning about:
- Fish spas –where you put parts of your body in water and little fish eat off your dead skin
- Beach café seating – Maybe it is my imagination but I think they only put beautiful people on the perimeter (like the fancy cars in the driveway of nice hotels).
- Cute little dogs – Lily is desperate for one.
- Hanging laundry – What happens when you drop your bathing suit onto the patio of the family five floors below and then send down a paper airplane asking for it back (still waiting!)
- Being a voyeur – The apartment across the street has a very pregnant woman and a man who wear knee socks and likes to take off his pants at the end of the day. We can’t wait to see the actual baby.
- Making cookies – Trying to find baking soda and vanilla at the supermarket (they are not with baking needs or spices)
- Receiving a delivery – Having to talk with the flower shop all in Spanish over the phone to receive beautiful flowers from a friend
- Using clothes softener – To soften our line dried cloths. The problem is figuring out which product goes in which slot of the washing machine. After our first week we were feeling more settled and ready for our real adventure to come.
- Chinese markets – The small crap markets (do you sense a theme?) that sell thing inexpensively like a dollar store
Your posts bring back so many memories from our time in Peru. When I had to take Everett to the doctor for the first time a Peruvian friend went along. I didn't so much need her to translate as to explain what I was supposed to do – where to go, where to go next, how to pay. So many things are just "understood" but it all worked so differently there. How well I remember the feeling of living in a constant state of mild confusion. When we moved back to the United States everything felt rather dull – there wasn't much challenge in a trip to the grocery store.
From what you wrote about getting your residency I would say that the Peruvians must have learned some of their bureaucratic skills from the Spanish. In Peru, even buying a toaster involves quite a lot of paperwork – and stamping – there was always a lot of stamping with official-looking stamps- I suppose that is partly because in Peru a toaster is a luxury that few can afford.
Your message made me smile. We are now in England where things move quickly and I understand what is happening and it does feel so different and frankly a little dull (but just a little). I heard some people speaking Spanish on the street and I felt like joining in.