Joe Camel seems to have mostly disappeared from our part of Washington and the Seattle area. And I don’t just mean the actual Joe Camel image but smokers in general. My perception is that the puget sound area just doesn’t seem to have many smokers. Maybe it’s just that the laws on smoking — not inside a building or within 25 feet — have pushed them around the corner where I don’t see or smell. Maybe it’s just my section of suburbia. Either way, I’ve become quite accustom to not having to smell or be exposed to cigarette smoke. I miss that. Try as I may, I quite often picture myself as a child waving away my grandma’s cigarette smoke, plugging my nose and scowling at strangers as I walk down the street while running errands, taking a run or walking my kids to school as folks around me puff away. It’s an unpleasant cultural difference. Smoking is quite pervasive here. Moms with kids strapped to their front are smoking on the way to school. People smoking with their dinner. Teachers standing just outside of school grounds to have a smoke. Teenagers at the playground. It’s everywhere. I tried to explain to the girls the best I could that it’s a different culture and it’s seen as normal so PLEASE try not to hold your nose and give them the stink eye; all the while hoping my stink eye isn’t obvious!
Category: Everyday (Page 5 of 5)
Here are some pictures of our flat here in Spain. We have lots of doors in the place since it’s definitely not an open concept. But it is nice. Everything is tile, so I’m hoping my slippers from Amazon.es actually arrive and arrive quickly.
This is the from the front door. Straight through is the living room/dining room. To the right is the kitchen. There is a sharper right to the playroom/October’s room. To the left is a hall to the bathrooms and other bedrooms. And I’m not sure what crazy Scarlett is doing.
Lavender & Scarlett’s room. We went and got the comforters at IKEA last weekend. When it gets colder, we plan to move October in here as well and this will be the sleeping room and the other the playroom.
View from our deck. It’s a pretty cloudy/rainy/misty morning otherwise you could see more mountains in the distance. The river around the town is at the end of that street.
Our deck. The master bedroom and Lavender/Scarlett’s bedroom look out onto the balcony. Right underneath us is the China Bazaar store. The building in the distance is the library.
The playroom/guest room/ October’s room. We brought all their little lego’s from home and then they each brought a quart size ziplock bag of toys. That’s it for the toys!
Kitchen. Looking out into the entryway and then down the bedroom hallway.
Kitchen – looking in through the entryway.
Living room/dining room. A small balcony behind couch and then the larger on off to the far left.
I have no idea the square footage or the metric equivalent. It’s plenty big enough for us; especially since we have such few belongings with us. On our 9 hour trip to IKEA last weekend, we picked up blankets, pillows, candles, utensils, dish clothes, wash clothes, bowls, candles, a roll of paper for the kids, hangers, night lights, bedside lights and a few other items. While the house did come furnished, it was with the basics only. It’s a little rough going to buy stuff for a house we’ll only live in for 8 months but I guess that’s just how it is. We’ll donate it all at the end. The house has a dishwasher although with only 5 plates, 5 bowls and 10 glasses it hardly seems worth it to run it. No microwave. No small appliances at all. It also has a washing machine but there are no dryers here. The beds, couches and table/chairs all came with it. As well as a tv … which we finally managed to get some channels in English! Okay, I know you want to know, how much does it cost to live here? The rent is $400 euro’s per month (approximately $520 U.S. dollars) and then we have to pay for electricity and heat. I’m told the heat is very expensive and could be another $400 euro’s as well. We don’t have the internet yet – which will also include the phone line and that will be around $90 euros/month. I’ve found the food to be fairly cheap; as well as over-the-counter medications. I haven’t found out the price of prescription medications. On the other hand a toaster at the hardware store runs $30 euros!
I went to the store looking for matches – actually two stores looking for matches. This box was right next to the lighters and it seems the right size for a box of matches. However, they are not matches! They would burn very easily and quickly though; if I had a flame to put them in.
It’s been pretty isolating not speaking the language so little victories are important. Last Friday, I had an English speaking woman from Jeff’s school ask if I was interested in teaching conversational English and if she could give out my contact information. I said YES, Please! On Sunday, I got a welcome to Buitrago email from a family that lives here, speaks (well at least writes) English, who have two daughters the same age and have lived in Michigan for a year! It was nice. We’re getting coffee (?? I don’t drink coffee but hey…) on Thursday. I managed to go to the Pharmacy buy Prilosec for Jeff, kids Ibuprofen, band-aids, and a thermometer. The thermometer was the most expensive item! I managed to communicate through lots of hand gestures and my english/spanish pocket dictionary that I needed Scarlett’s glasses fixed. I’m pretty sure they are being sent away to be soldered and will be 15 euros when they return in a week. I managed to get light bulbs for the kids night lights and an electrical splitter and the hardware store shopkeeper told me he was excited when I come in because (well…you know, wink, wink). Yeah, I’m hilarious huh? Because he likes trying out his English with me. And the VERY BEST PART!!! There was reliable internet at Jeff’s school and I could update photos, post to my blog, order slippers from Amazon.es (which is how I found out I had my address wrong), purchase a book on Amazon Kindle, order AND download “Learn in your Car Spanish” and CALL MY MOM using Viber! We still haven’t managed to get internet at home….but I feel we are getting closer (now that I have my address correct!)
Pictures of the town we live in here in Spain. We took a hike last weekend and I have finally found a working internet connection to be able to post some pictures. The castle walls and mountains surrounding us are very cool; the mountains look like they’ll keep us cold though! While the town itself looks fairy small, I was expecting a much smaller town. That being said, I can quickly walk from one end of town to the other. There are several fish markets, several butchers, several “supermarkets” — lets use that term loosely. Very loosely. A children’s clothing store, two hardware stores (1 with an English speaking shopkeeper), a shoe store, many restaurants, a pharmacy (bought a 28 pack of Prilosec for 2,45 Euros compared to $20 US), and even a small Picasso Museum. While there is much more here than I was imagining or could see from Google Earth 🙂 it is a small town and everyone knows who we are. I went to the Pharmacy yesterday and the woman helping me (who spoke English! Yay!) mentioned – oh, my 6 year old sits next to your six year old in class. When the kids see us they smile and say “HELLO!” . I’m pretty sure it’s the only English they know and I also know they know we are the American’s. All the local kids know October & Scarlett but since October is more outspoken with all different ages (Thank you, Emerson K12!) the kids all shout to her and say hi. At the library yesterday, some teenagers took advantage of running into October so that she could help them with their English homework. I thought it was cute. She would read them the instructions then they would point to more on the worksheet and she’d say the answer. They’d point to their eyebrows and we’d say the “eyebrows.” They’d circle a word describing the picture and ask me if they were correct. Like I said, I thought it was cute. Jeff asked me if she was helping them cheat. Now that I think about it, cheating is probably what she was doing.
Moving into our own space was very nice. My clothes are still in a heap but I have unpacked 2 of 3 children´s clothes. Interestingly, the water heater is in an upper cupboard in the kitchen and has two potential plugs. We were warned in very fast and energetic Spanish that the one on the right was VERY, VERY expensive to use and to only use it when we REALLY, REALLY, REALLY needed hot water RIGHT NOW. Hhmm…I guess when you are standing in the shower with soap in your eyes you need it now? The plug on the left will come on when the energy company has decided it is the most economical to use power and will heat the water in the tank. Essentially, the water heats overnight when it is least costly and then you have what is currently in the tank to use for the day. Unless, of course you want to switch plugs and pay through the nose. Not that I actually know what paying through the nose costs as I still have not learned Spanish numbers and we will be given our utility bill by a neighbor who is the friend of the owner who does not speak English either. A watched pot never boils nor it seemed that a watched water heater ever heated. After being in the house for two days, we still had no hot water. We gave the kids a quick, cold wash before the first day of school. Jeff & I applied more deodorant. Then Jeff came home and had the brillant idea that maybe the breaker wasn´t actually on! I used my newly purchased Spanish/English dictionary to translate what the breakers said. AND YES! Hot water!
Now, I know I´ve left you hanging about the kids school and if it´s improved. It has. I mean where do you to go besides up from a kid puking in the school yard? And I´ll write more later on school but really the lack of my understanding of the language and the fact there are very few people here who speak English has been challenging and all consuming for me. Jeff leaves for school, I walk the kids to school and then here I am. With very little understanding of the language, an extensive to-do list and no one to speak to. I´ve been lonely. I have no internet connection at home. And getting it seems like an insurmountable challenge. I have no cell phone to text Jeff with and he hasn´t a cell phone that actually texts either (even though we ended up purchasing a new one here as it seems we were wrong in that our U.S. phones were not unlocked). The news is all in Spanish — although “Ebola” pretty much looks the same in Spanish as it does in English. I managed to sign myself up for the local grocery store discount card, which also now allows me to use my credit card to pay. I manged to sign myself up for a library card. Basically, I would say things like “Mi Casa, Buitrago!” and pull out my address to show I wasn´t a tourist but living here. The librarian would say something and I would pull out my passport. She´d say something else and I´d pull out the little passport picture of myself. (SO, glad I went to a copy shop in the states and made 10 copies of our passport photos!) Eventually, she showed me the computers and handed me a card. Yippee! I guess I didn´t really give much thought as to what it would be like here. You know on House Hunters International they all seem to be laughing and eating and drinking (which by the way, a bottle of wine $1.66). Everyone kept telling us we´d run into lots of folks that spoke English. There aren´t. Going to a restuarant is just a plain guess as to what we are ordering. We got an entire plate of cheese the other day. The following day we returned and the server actually gave us a menu translated into English. SO HELPFUL!! Turns out we could have ordered pig ears, instead we ordered cuttlefish which we thought tasted like squid and that plate of cheese. I wander around the grocery store looking at pictures and trying to decide if that means it´s dish soap or laundry detergent. Or shampoo or body wash. The eggs and milk are not refridgerated so those took me forever to find. The kids found the junk food quite easily. I guess the Nestle Quick bunny is pretty recognizable! The pop/soda/Fanta (which by the way 489 calories in a can) is easy to find. Only today, after I´ve been to this store at least five times did I find the apple juice.
Right now I am mostly reminded of the movie “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks. Each to do list item is a challenge and each success seems to create a new problem. I guess I´ll continue to buy cheap ass wine. On more positive notes, Jeff had a great meeting with the international office of his school yesterday and they helped him figure out his cell phone and will help us get the internet at home. They also gave him a list of English speaking doctors. And October had a great success of purchasing a toy on her own at the shop below us (China Bazaar – which deserves it´s very own post as well). She was so excited!
I just about lost my mind today.
Jeff has been putting in floor trim. It looks awesome. I’m little sad we won’t have it to enjoy for ourselves. I have been painting window sills, existing door trim and cleaning. I’ve gone through 4 boxes of Magic Clean Erasers (which by the way are awesome). I’ve cleaned all the little tiny closet door slats. I’ve washed the blinds. I’ve washed walls. I’ve washed two of four windows (along with the screen and the tracks). There’s a lot more to do. The girls have nearly no toys in their room; yet, it’s a disaster. We’ve been asking for days that it be picked up. And let’s be honest, Jeff and I have been busy cleaning and fixing and didn’t offer a lot of follow-through either. But seriously! There is a big box of duplo lego’s and another Rubbermaid for the miscellaneous toys (which is only a quarter full). That’s it! Yet, they managed to have the room so messy I couldn’t even walk in it. Fine. It’s messy. But how hard is it to clean when you have two buckets to choose from? Is it a lego? Great, lego bucket! Is it NOT a lego? Great, random box! That’s it. And this is how I nearly lost my mind.
There’s always help needed and nagging required over cleaning their room. But there are TWO boxes!! TWO!!! Can you hear me losing my mind? I think the neighbors may have. I resorted to sorting the toys into three piles and each child has their own pile to take care of. It’s our way of limiting squabbles over who is doing more work. Still, they couldn’t get their piles picked up. They spent 6 HOURS ….let me rephrase this….I SPENT 6 hours trying to get them to pick up their room. Can you picture me losing my mind? Did I mention….there are TWO boxes! Okay, fine, three if you count the laundry bag for all the random pairs of underwear and socks around the room. October & Scarlett got their piles, finally, picked up. I left for the store and when I returned Lavender sadly pronounced that daddy told her no one was allowed to help her and…she….NNEEEEDDDDEEEEDDDDD……help. I hastily told her to just throw the rest away. She hadn’t thought of this plan and quite happily decided the best way to clean was to indeed throw the toys away. Fine. But, not before carrying the soon-to-be tossed toy’s into the living room to show her sisters and proclaim that she was throwing it away! To which the other two children started losing their minds! Can you hear me losing mine? The other two decide to help Lavender since they don’t want ANYTHING thrown away! Nada. Zip. Discarded clothing tag? Absolutely it must be kept! I am losing my mind! While trying to cook dinner, I hear them goofing around and find all three playing and jumping…..right on top of the remaining toys and garbage that needs to be picked up! AAHHHH!!!!!!!!! I announce that my head is going to explode and leave the room. They decided it’s in their best interest to finish the room. SIX HOURS LATER!! To which, it’s been determined. I have already lost my mind. I gather my packing tape and head into their room and tape all TWO of their boxes of toys closed. Yup. Now they lose their minds! They recover quickly (much too quickly if you had asked me) and sit at the table to await dinner (and by wait, I mean ask for snacks while I am nearly finished cooking dinner). Scarlett looks over the Magic Clean Erasers and asks “Is there anything I can help clean?” Are you kidding me? Yes, it was your room! SIX HOURS AGO! I pour myself a cocktail and look for mind at the bottom of it.
We left for our road trip on June 26th. We’ll leave for Spain on September 29th. During that time, Jeff has been off work and I’ve worked (about) sixteen – 4 hour shifts and one 8 hour shift. October spent a week at resident camp. That equates to A LOT of time together as a family. 24/7. To be exact (okay, not be exact) that is three months of us being together without strict schedules, buses to catch, or clocks to punch. We’ve drifted to sleeping until 10 am (and yes, including the children) and the kids going to bed at 10 pm with us following at midnight. We’ve ALL gotten our monies worth from Netflix; whether it’s cartoons in the morning or movies for the adults at night. This second setback in the Visa paperwork has kick-started us back into getting kids to return to their school work, DAILY! (A kid at the playground asked October what grade she was in. She said she was going into 3rd. I smiled silently as I realized, everyone else is already back to school….they are no longer “going into” a grade!) It’s allowed us some time to get stuff done that we were probably going to start throwing money (that we don’t have) at. The time together has been nice a lot of days and crappy some days. And I’m looking forward to our next adventure!
Recent Comments