Spain Day 13 - MORE Relaxing

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Trip Start Jun 25, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 01, 2008 Next
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  Barcena de Pie de Concha, Spain
Friday, July 11, 2008

I neglected to mention yesterday that while at the beach, our car was given a little white paint on the corner by a mystery driver. We returned to the car and found the car lightly damaged, ... and no note. I believe most of this will come off with some elbow grease, but still, a bummer.


Today, we wake up and enjoy a breakfast of toast with Nutella ... tea for me, coffee for Janice. Weather forecast for today and tomorrow is heavy rains so we plan on just sticking close to home base. Today the rains haven't come, just a lot of clouds.

Down to the library for some work/email/play, and then back home to start cooking lunch. I have to say, I think we succeeded in making a meal fit for a Spaniard! A big ol' salad, bread, and then potato leek soup ... and dessert. Good fun working with Janice to make everything, and really neat to see the kids eating everything served to them. (Tonight Samuel even chose to pass on a chocalate dessert ... instead asking for nectarine!) We finish lunch around 4pm ... at which point I take some of the soup to our across-the-street neighbors who own the bar (and have been very kind in helping us with various things each day).

As evening rolls around, I grab the kids and head back to the library area to make my last call of the week to the office and work a bit more

a bit of a scratch/ding

. I send the kids to play nearby at a playground. Not a happy work day for me as I see its been yet another brutal brutal day on Wallstreet. In times like this, nobody is immune from losses. Even though I understand the markets from a business and intellectual prospective, it never feels good. I believe time will heal these 'wounds' as has occurred in the past, but maintaining discipline to stay invested (and invest more) in a down market is a difficult thing to do.

Before we go, I let each kid make one phone call. Ella chooses to call Sydney Fritzsche. Sam calls Daniel Burt.

On the way home, we make our first stop at a second playground that is even closer to our house. Just as we start to leave, Francisco (one of the local kids that we had played with earlier in the trip) comes out and invites Samuel and Ella to join them playing soccer. We head back and have some fun. I believe the final score was USA 3, Spain 1. YES!... USA! USA!

Its nearly 8pm as I write this and we haven't even started making dinner yet. I think our appetites have FINALLY adjusted to the European way, and I'm loving it! Janice is going to put together a small dinner of Quesadilla con jamon with some sliced fruit. A perfect end to the evening.

Its been really neat to be here in Spain to see the Euro2008, experience their Wimbledon victory, watch the Tour de France occur less than an hour from places we've been, and now at this very moment, we are relaxing at our house watching the Olympics

Cookin'

. Great memories.

Janice has started to miss her routine. And as amazing as all of our experiences have been here, the length of our stay is starting to smack me upside the head too. Its the small things like milk and cereal, or Top Ramen, or news on TV that you can understand easily ... ... One thing I'm noticing is how outright exhausting it is to be living outside of our element. It takes extra energy to do everything. To drive a stick shift when used to an automatic, to pay with euros instead of dollars, to use keys that don't look or feel quite like ours do in the States, to order from a menu that doesn't have anything familiar on it, to have a foreign language around you 24 hours per day, to fill up at a gas station that uses different measurements, to not have internet at the house, to have it be light outside from 6am to 10pm, to have all four of us using clothes over and over again because we packed lightly. None of its bad. But all piled on together ... all the things are so DIFFERENT ... and its tiring to my brain to adjust and interpret it all. Another thing thats a bigtime difference for me is not having any time or space just to my self. I didn't realize it before, but just the calm and quiet of driving to the office, working with my door closed and DND on ... there is something very nice about having control over my own space. Here, we are joined at the hip. If we need to go shopping, we ALL go shopping. If we want to go for a walk, we ALL go for a walk

Kids outside

. Time to eat ... we ALL eat. Again, not a bad thing, just different and a bit tiring.

One awesome benefit about all this change and forced proximity is that we (me in particular) are experiencing great bonding time with the kids. I already shared my story of adventure yesterday at the beach, but even small things like time at the playground or walking to the library are great memories. My dad always told me that the only way to get to the 'quality time' that everybody desires with their loved ones is to put in QUANTITY TIME, that is ... you have to put in the hours just being there before you can get those special looks, hugs, conversations, experiences. ... This trip is giving us just that, the quantity time needed to create special quality time.

To end the day, we set up the kids with a movie upstairs and I run across the street to buy some popcor. Afterwards, I take my laptop across the street to share our photos and videos of San Sebastian and San Fermin with our friends Mariangeles and Jose. They bar is full of patrons and everybody gathers around to watch. We talk about all the great food of Spain and Mariangeles offers to teach me to make the Spanish Tortilla tomorrow at 12:30pm at her house. Can't wait!

One other quick little story. I've spent half the day teasing Janice about something she said in a little tiff we had yesterday. We were right in the middle of a heated argument and whe trying to tell me just how mad she was, she busted out with "I'm really - EALLY mad!" ... Maybe it doesn't translate well here in to writing, but it was a hilarious moment and made us both break in to laughter (kind of like another time she was upset and called me a name, but inadvernatly rhymed the curse words) .... sort of takes away the oomph, ya know?. LoL.

Not a whole lot else to do tonight but chill. Sounds perfect.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Books from the local library	One of the gifts from Inigo & Jaione	Asher cookin	Rock city.
Eating like Spaniards	AlienBoy	The finished product	More animals
A new playground	Spain 1, USA 0	fun.	More fun.
Goalie Sam	Instructios	More instructions	A crowd has gathered
Sam getting a running start	Spain 1, USA 1	almost there...	GOALLL!!!!

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