School? Check. House? Check. Now, could someone in the US please send me some yummy Thai food?

L got admitted to German school.  We went for a personal meeting with the kindergarden principal and I think she liked us. There was no space available in L's age group, so it would have been easy for her to reject L. But she moved things around and made it possible.  It definitely took her some time to relax. She would at first insist that L would come for some days, to see how her German was. While we were discussing pros and cons of that approach, L told me, in German, that she wanted to draw something. So the principal gave her some colors and relaxed.

We both loved the school. It felt like being in Germany. And I think L liked it because there were lots of other kids that looked like her. We also love the concept. I don't know a lot about Spanish schools, but C seems to be a bit traumatized. The schedule alone seems dramatic to me, Spanish kids go to school from 9am to 5pm which just seems so long.  Especially since they all start school at 3 years. It is too long at least for L right now. German school is different, she will have class from 8.45 to 1pm, and after that lunch.  And we will pick her up around 2pm. Also, it seems less academic but more about free play and learning while playing.  We like that, it could be a good alternative to Waldorf school.

School starts in two days. We are so ready! Poor L is so bored! We need to buy a backpack and then survive those first days...

It seems we also found a house to stay. We will be in Castelldefels, very close to the beach but also close to the freeway which is convenient for taking L to school. After looking at pretty much every house on the market right now, we were both quite disappointed and frustrated.  Most houses are very small compared to our standards from the US. This one is old, so quite spacious, and with new bath rooms and new kitchen. We both liked the energy. Old houses have so much more character anyways! We will have our own swimming pool, so I know for sure L will love it. Even though she fell in love with that pink house we saw last week...

I have bad cravings for Thai food. Who would have thought. I even made some summer rolls last week and they turned out quite yummy. I will need to get faster at it, can't really spend 1 1/2 hours for cooking my special food these days!  Also, the peanut sauce needed some perfection. Asian restaurants are definitely a no-no here. We went to a Japanese place in Castelldefels, and it was not good! But I guess that when they offer dessert and coffee at a Japanese place, it can't be that authentic. We went to a place called "Nou Wok" in Mataró and it was interesting. They fry fresh seafood, a la catalana, with salt and oil only. C was in heaven but I realized I enjoy cooked seafood more. Also, their Pad Thai wasn't vegetarian. Well, and sushi with tortilla or bananas or ham in it is just not good for me! I will have to get used to certain things. I guess if I wasn't trying to eat vegan, it would be much easier. I miss having some sophisticated options at restaurant. Not that lots of US restaurants would have vegan meals for me but there were lots of Asian restaurants with vegan options.Thai Gardens in Barcelona is supposed to be really good, I will have to try it out, it's just not convenient to have to go to downtown Barcelona to get some quick Thai fix!

L discovered that we have peanut butter and that was all she was eating today, all day long, peanut butter on rice cakes. I guess we all have our comfort food.

Carrefour Experience

I still don't like meat but found this picture quite impressive.

We went shopping at Carrefour. We used to shop there before moving to the states and back then, people would say “how American, the way you shop.” It sounds silly now. People here don’t shop at the mall, but they go to tiny stores and the farmers’ market in their neighborhood.

We parked in front of the mall. Parking lots here are tiny. Lucky for us we have a tiny car! I am still amazed at people’s parking skills. Hoping I will get there soon.

We walked into the store and looked in amazement at a wall full of scanner pistols. Called Scan & Go. We applied for a membership card and then were eligible for a scanner pistol. L loved it! With that pistol, you scan all the products while putting them into the bags in your cart. And that was what she was doing, I am convinced we ended up buying much more than we needed or at least paying for more than we had in our cart just because L had so much fun pointing and shooting at all the products. She was in charge! After our shopping was done, we just passed through a special cashier’s stand without having to unload our whole cart again. One of the employees came to scan some random items in our cart to confirm we didn’t forget anything, and then we paid and were good to go.

Of course, we did not have bags with us, like everybody else, but were expecting people to bag our stuff at the check-out. It will take some adjustment….  But, no, there are no free bags, but you can buy reusable bags. Which is usually a good thing, but of course, we will have to get used to that too and not forgot our bags home every time we go to the store!

We definitely had fun pushing around those carts that go into all directions. After we found someone with coins to give us change to pay for it in the parking lot!  Unfortunately not all of the carts here have child seats on it, ours didn’t so we didn’t have much time for shopping.  Another fun thing was to see how employees here react when you ask them for a certain product. I know, we are spoiled, at Whole Foods they would take your hand and take you to the right aisle.  Not so here. Most employees would answer that they didn’t know since the store was building a new section and moving things around constantly.  Still, employees were nice.  They could not help out but would start asking around and help you search.

Another amazing thing is the amount of MSG or other stabilizer or taste enhancer they put into food here. You really have to read all ingredients. It felt like shopping at Safeway in Hilo for the first time, before finding out about their organic products. 

We ended up buying way too much food, but of course, we really need to try it all! Lots of emotional and compulsive buying.  Overall, shopping during the week is quite relaxing.  Of course, when we came back on Saturday afternoon, the place was crowded! We had forgotten about stores being closed here in Sundays, and since people work a lot during the week, they have to go on Saturdays. 
How lovely that they have Cannabis beer, and it was even organic.  Found some tropical fruit, slightly overpriced. I got one Cherimoya for 3 Euros and a mango for about the same price. Then we got the second mango for free because we made the employee smile!  That is, in small format, how things here in Spain work. Once you develop personal relationships, it all becomes so much easier and convenient!

Running

There are good days and bad days. Not sleeping at night is definitely not helping. And we are making progress, it is just so slow. We moved our bedtime from 6am on the second night (first night doesn’t count since we were so exhausted from the trip that we did sleep a lot) to 5am on the third night to 3am on the fourth night. We do sleep in until 8am which makes for 5 hours, but I guess those morning wee hours are just not as good for sleep as the ones before midnight.

Anyways, today was a difficult day. Overwhelming. Everything becomes essential. Our Seventh Generation diapers are finished, so we had to start using the ones we found at Carrefour. I don’t like them. At least they don’t have perfume, but they still smell very industrial which I don’t like on my baby’s butt.  

We spent a day with my husband’s family. I did have a good time and I was glad to see my daughter play with her cousins. I have to remind myself that that was one of the main reasons why we came back. Still. It feels like taking one big step back in time. Like we had never left. I feel like I am losing all my identity, like I forgot it somewhere and didn’t take it with me on this trip. I’m turning into that woman that I was before moving to the US.

And I feel like turning around and running away, back to my life in the US.

But then there are good moments. Yesterday we went to the beach. I had to see it with my own eyes, how L enjoys being there. She took off her shoes and leggings and started running. Running up and down on the shore, in the water. With the dog and her dad. Splashing freezing March ocean water around her ankles. And running and running and running. She must have missed Hawaii more than we realized. She is a beach girl. And when I see her running like that in the sun, I know we have arrived where we were supposed to be. Our kids are happy and so are we.

Miniature Land

Everything here is tiny.

The minivan that my family-in-law had rented to transport our luggage was small. It actually looked much smaller than our Volvo in Seattle. The one we sold because we knew we would never find a parking spot for that car in the Barcelona area.

Our rental car, a Honda Jazz, is tiny. In fact, my knees don’t have room on the passenger seat. I either have the baby in her seat almost standing up behind me, or she is sitting normally and I can wrap my knees around my ears. Which, of course, isn't that big of a deal since, most of the time, I actually feel like I want to put my head in between my legs to protect it from all those crazy drivers that are racing around our car, only inches away from us. This is most likely not their fault, I assume I am either very sensitive right now (must be from the jetlag), or streets here are really narrow, probably enough for you to shake hands with the guy driving next to you while on the highway. 

And then of course, nobody wants big cars here since parking garages are built for miniature cars. Definitely not for a Honda Jazz. My husband tried to park our rental, twice, unsuccessfully. He then got stuck in the garage and after 10 minutes of maneuvering, managed to get the car out of the building again and parked on the street. 

I really do hope we get used to European sizes again soon.

Another tiny thing - the apartment where we are staying temporarily here in Vilassar. Everybody tells me it is huge, including my own husband. It is his grandmother's old apartment and I guess things do seem bigger in our memory we carry from when we were kids. This apartment is definitely not big. The glass door that leads to a balcony facing the ocean certainly makes up for it, but when you enter the kitchen you better make sure there are not more than two people in there. The kitchen is filled with tiny appliances, even a small dishwasher, compared to US standards. We have tiny plates with tiny cups and tiny glasses, tiny cutting boards, tiny salad bowls, a tiny fridge, small counter space, tiny knifes, you name it. Well and you can go out onto a tiny balcony in a tiny patio. Oh and the bed in the master bedroom, according to my brother-in-law it is huge, but it's actually smaller than queen size. I guess this would be enough if it wasn't for the two kids that invade our bed at night. And for the memory of our American king size bed.

No wonder Spaniards are tiny people.

They definitely must be shorter than the rest of the world population. The tunnel we have to take under the highway and railroad is too low for both my husband and I, we need to bend our heads.

Walking can be a balancing act at times since sidewalks are narrow.

We went to the mall and looked at furniture, and even the sofabeds and couches we saw were smaller than what we are used to in the US.

Everything is tiny.

To no surprise, the shopping carts were about the same size as the ones in the US.

And there is another thing that is not small which is the bath rooms in our apartment, they are big with big showers! Taking a shower on our second day here, I was actually having all those flash backs from back when we lived here, listening to the familiar noises in the patio, and taking in the familiar smells. It felt good to be back. Even if it was in miniature land.

Small apartments under dark blue sky

This is not too shabby

After pouring rain for the first two days, the sun finally came out yesterday! I was told it only rains here for two weeks out of the year, and it seems this is one of them - well, what are the odds. However, yesterday’s temperatures climbed up to the upper 70s, the sun was shining all day long, and the sky was blue. I can live with that.

View from our balcony

After only sleeping for 4 hours, I realized that it is definitely harder being jetlagged with kids than being jetlagged alone, but there is one thing that tops it all – it’s being jetlagged with a jetlagged baby and a kindergartner who is not jetlagged anymore and full of energy after a good night’s rest, while baby and I only slept for 4 hours!

So out of the house we had to go, in order to keep me awake.  We walked the dog around the house, and then walked to the beach that is just one street away.  Except for an ugly tunnel underneath the street and the railroads, the walk was nice and there is a nice playground at the beach so L was happy.  

We were dressed too warm for this sun, so went back home to get rid of some clothing.  Our next walk took us to the opposite side, up the street on tiny sideways. Everything seemed deserted around 2pm (of course we couldn’t make it earlier because I only caught some sleep between 6 and 10am). We found another nice playground but with no kids on it, because they were all in school. All stores were closed, but we found an open panadería where L got a donut – the closest we could find to the cookie she wanted!

We walked back to the beach, but L’s little legs and feet started hurting, they are definitely not used to walking so much! We went back to the apartment to rest. 

In the evening, C came back from work and took L and the dog to the beach while the baby and I got some rest.  L put on her bathing suit, telling me that it was not too cold but she would definitely test the water temperature with her feet before going in, and “don’t you worry, mommy!” They both had fun running with the dog on the beach. 

Back to the Old World

We made it to Spain!  It took us 24 hours door to door, and lots of coordination and patience. We basically just kept counting:  6 suitcases, 6 pieces of hand luggage, our daughter’s pink little suit case, 1 portable crib, 1 kennel with dog, 2 car seats, 2 kids, 1 stroller, 2 over sized packages. The only thing we lost was the stroller, but it returned the following day.

First off, I am so grateful for all those friends who gave us physical and emotional support these last weeks in Seattle.  I asked myself many times if we were doing the right thing, and too many times I passed all that burden on to listening friends – who most of the times probably didn’t even get why I was panicking so much since “honey, Barcelona is a wonderful city!” And I agree, but the thought of moving out of the states and leaving our “American life” behind would send cold shivers up and down my spine. We are permanent residents in the US but once we leave the US we will have one year to return, one short year, or we will lose our Green Card privileges. We have lived in the US for 7 years, I had a professional career in the US, both my daughters were born there, I discovered yoga and raw food living in the US, and we lived in Hawaii for one year. We have become different people over these past 7 years, this country has formed us, and now we were to leave all these memories behind! I have better memories of my life in the US than of my life in Spain. And we had given it some serious thought, we had decided to move back because we wanted our daughters to grow up in Europe, and we were home sick and wanted to be closer to family. However, the thought of that seriousness of our move was still very stressful for me. At one point, there would be no return for us. It felt like breaking up with a beloved boyfriend that you know you cannot be with, but you also know it will break your heart to leave him. This was it for me, at least this is what it felt these last weeks – a pure decision in my head, and my heart was hurting.

Anyways, the only thing that seemed to keep my emotions under control was to plan our move to the detail. We had lists over lists that needed to be done, and lists that organized the lists, and so on.  Surprisingly, the day of the move arrived without us going crazy, and on Monday morning around 10am, the SUV limo was being loaded.  

It looks less than it actually was

Our entire luggage fit in there, except for the kids!  So C took off with the cab and I had to return the rental car. While driving, L shared with me that every time we go on a trip she was so excited! How sweet! Returning the car at Hertz at the airport I found myself with two kids, a diaper back, a purse and two car seats.  Too much to carry to the next cart, so I asked the Hertz employee for help and he decided to just drive me to the terminal, which really blew me away.  This was setting the bar very high, and no way would customer service in Europe be up to that standard, I thought.  At the terminal, C was already standing in line for check-in.  He had managed to find a porter and to get him to help in weighing all our suit cases and moving things around, partly unpacking, in order to get every single suit case under the weight limit. That nice guy was also hiding our way too heavy hand luggage – while everybody else’s hand luggage in line was being weighed by the Lufthansa employees, something I had never seen before.  Good for us, because I don’t know what we would have done if they had told us we couldn’t take our small suit case full with documents like birth certificates, family books, etc., or C's backpack with our computers! We also lucked out with the person who checked us in since he only charged half of what we expected to pay for the dog and for the oversized items. 
We made it through security in time for a quick sandwich right before boarding started.  The flight was as smooth as a 10-hour-flight with two kids can be, with us sitting in the front row and S snoring away for some time in a little baby bassinet. Unfortunately, our baby stroller wasn’t at the gate when we got out in Frankfurt. No stroller, one airline employee there told us, so it must have gone to Barcelona already and not to worry. The thing is, my German fellows seem to be nice and organized and hardworking, but they don’t really care about it, often enough they have no passion for what they do. In his defense, I am pretty sure he just told us what he thought was right, but didn’t really want to deal with it or double-check. Oh well, customer service is something we will painfully miss in Europe.

Anyways, we got to Barcelona airport, were both amazed at the architecture of the new terminal, and I realized that I hadn’t been there for 3 years. Waiting for our luggage, I met a nice German mom who had only good words about L’s future school here in Barcelona. And our entire checked-in luggage had made it, including a very upset dog!  Of course the stroller had never left Frankfurt – why wasn’t I surprised?

An almost perfect start into our new life, you would think, right? It did get a little comical when we were standing there with our four (4!) luggage carts full of luggage, that we alone were unable to push to the exit that was about 500 meters away, and nobody was there to help us for 5 minutes.  And it’s not that everybody was too busy, there were at least 10 airport employees – wearing bright orange or yellow jackets – standing around and chatting. When I asked them for help, they looked at me as if I had just insulted them. They were really nice and explained to me in length what I should do or, better, should have done, but still no one wanted to lend a hand for only 5 minutes. Turns out that in order to get a porter here in Barcelona you need to hire one in advance before you even board your plane. Since we hadn’t done that, we were told to go to the office in front of luggage belt number 6 and place a request with the company that was in charge of that work. Of course, at that moment, we were next to belt number 2, the exit was next to number 5, so getting to number 6 seemed even more of an effort – especially with 4 carts that were going in all different directions and could not be pushed two at a time. If it wasn’t that comical, it would almost be sad!

We somehow made it to the exit and my husband’s family was waiting there. Of course, after the first excitement, we still had to decide what was the plan, what was next, who would get our rental, where we needed to go, how we would meet after – an endless process of decision-making in a family of many strong opinions! And I really love my family-in-law but they can be overwhelming at times! 

We finally got to our rental car and were on the way to our new home. Dinner was prepared for us (thanks, family!), everybody got acquainted with the new baby and around 7pm we were alone and able to get some rest. Of course, both kids were wide awake again around midnight, but hey, it will only take about two weeks to get over the jetlag!