Daddy's gone, mice will play

(From Nathan) Spain is very boring. The only fun things we do is go to parks, go to the pool, play cards, and play on my iPhone, and eat out. The food's yummy here except the tomato sauce.

(From Nora) Today we went to a park and it's really near our school, so we can go there after school sometimes. Me and Nathan played a game where we could transform into anything we wanted, kind of like Pokemon. We had virtual pets that had lots of powers like us, and we each had battle suits. Nathan chose that his was invisible, and we had symbols.

We also went to a cool cafe (NB from HCH: well, it was Tony Roma's) for lunch. It had an English menu and at the end they gave us a balloon, a pencil sharpener and a pencil and eraser. I got a burger and fries, and they also gave us vanilla ice cream. We could have also chosen cake, which is called "Tarta" here.

On the walk up to the park, me and Nathan talked a lot about the virtual game, so it felt much, much, much shorter then I had imagined.

Last night at the pool I swam until Clara said there was enough kids to play games. So we played "jungle speed" and there was a thing in the middle and you had 1/4th of the deck because there were 4 players. And there were different shades and a card that's all gray and a card that's different colors. If you had the same shape as another person, then you needed to grab the thing in the middle. If you did, you get all their cards, If they did, they get all your cards. And in the first one, the Spanish boy won, and after that we played hide and seek for awhile and did running races and played in the pool again. My friend Bella, who also speaks English, played jump rope. Then played soccer until the ball fell into the school, then we jump roped a bit more. And then this girl, her name was Lalia and she also spoke English and Spanish, and we played with her. And then a couple kids left and we played hide and seek, just the four of us--Spanish boy, Bella, Lalia and me. And we played until it was time to go upstairs for dinner. Dinner was eggs, pasta, bread and apple. And then we watched a Fetch and then I got to read on the kindle for a couple minutes, then did math problems, and then fell asleep. (NB from HCH: Not exactly--it took her an hour).

(From Mommie) First trip to the school tomorrow to buy uniforms and learn the schedule. Jon's stuck in the UK with a flat tire. Will he make it, or will Mommie have to fend alone? Tune in tomorrow....

Date night plans

Context: Jon is on a business trip to the UK, but before he left he scored a babysitter. Here’s the conversation at dinner tonight (sans Jon) about what Mom and Dad should do during date night.

Mommie: We have a babysitter! The problem is, when should she come over? Spanish restaurants don’t open for dinner until 8. And if you eat at 8, that’s considered the equivalent of eating at 4:30 in the U.S.

Nora: Maybe she could come over during the day, and then we could play games for awhile and go down to the pool while Mommie and Daddy go somewhere for lunch. Well, the pool won’t be open. Maybe Clara could go down to the pool area and play hide and seek.

Mommie: What should Mommie and Daddy do on date night?

Nathan: How about you can do a little bit of everything, like you can teach the Spaniards how to play hearts. You should go out at 9:30, in the middle of the day. (N. B.: This is pre-dawn for many Spaniards).

Seth: If the cranes are working, you could see them working. If they are night-night, you could watch a backhoe. Or a jackhammer. Or a shovel backhoe. Or dump trucks.

Mommie: Should Mommie and Daddy leave home at 9 PM?

Nora: Um, you could go out at 7 PM and then take the metro somewhere and then you could walk around for like an hour, and then you could eat dinner, and then you could walk back to the apartment and be home by 9:30 (this is pretty much what happens in Arlington).

Nora: Second suggestion (holding up finger). So you could leave the house at 6, and then take the metro somewhere and find a restaurant and take the metro home. But try to eat quickly because you’ll be spending two hours on the metro, and then your walk will take an hour. If you don’t eat quickly, you won’t be home until after 9:30.

Nathan: More milk please.

Mommie: What would be fun to do on a date night?

Nathan: Baseball, soccer, find a café and eat some cake. Hug for an hour or two. Kiss.

Nora: You’re gross.

Nathan: That’s it. That’s what you should do.

Seth: And I want to go too.

Some more things to know (Nora)

Today I stayed home because my leg was sore from wearing my school shoes around town two days ago. I'm SO SO SO anxious for school to start. I wrote this at about 4 AM Massachusetts time, 10 AM Spain time.

Seth is taking his nap right now, and Nathan and I were playing on our iPhones. For lunch I had long bread (baguette) with PBJ on it, and also had an apple, which was not Granny Smith which it has been for the last week. And it was really good. And yesterday at the pool it was really fun because half of the time I was playing in the pool and playing basketball, and the rest of the time I was making a friendship bracelet for a pool party. It's to celebrate the closing of the pool, September 11. And also the little pool is now only a bit warmer, but they are both really really cold because it cools down so much at night. It's really uncomfortable to go in the pool.

For dinner I had a quesadilla, and it was good but the cheese is different from American cheese, which is my only favorite. But I like the cheese in it a little bit.

Yesterday we went to the palace and took a tour. And there's lots of fancy things. Not a lot of gold, but lots of Bronze. I don't know why. And there's lots of crystal and chandaliers, and there was a room that was like all mosaic and there's another room that had a table in it that was mosaic. And it had super-duper small pieces. And there's about 2000 rooms in the whole palace. Across from the palace is a church. And it took about 20 minutes to get there walking, and an hour on two buses. And on the way we saw a half-brick, half stone church. Our theory of the half and half thing was that it burnt down and they had to rebuild the top of it, but we don't know if that's true. They had a guide tour and a phone tour that you hold up to your ear, and they had a self-guided tour. Me and Nathan and Dad took the guided tour. Mom and Seth took the self-guided tour (which was over in about 10 minutes). We took the English guided tour. It had a huge courtyard, and lots of lampposts made of bronze. And a smaller courtyard.

And they had a collection of violins that were made by Stradivarius. There were 5 of them, and that's the rarest collection of violins in the world, because there's only a few Stradivarius. So if you have 5, that's pretty rare. And there are also lots of paintings and one of the three Caravaggio paintings that there are in Madrid were in the palace. And there's a huge dining room with a big table with 145 chairs. And there's two very tall chairs at the right side of the table. And those are where the King and Queen sit. If you're not as important you sit on the left side, and if you're pretty important you'd sit on the right side, near the king and queen. Our guide's name was Patricia, and she had a Spanish accent but we could understand her. There was only one other family besides us in our group. But at first we went with the Spanish group and he was speaking Spanish and we didn't know what was happening. So we went to the security guard who told us our group was looking for us, so we found them and started the tour.

I woke up at 3:00 last night, and there was a party and it was really, really loud so I couldn't fall asleep for like 20 minutes. I don't know where the party was, but I think it was near us because it was loud.

Weekend report (HCH)

Just a brief note to let everyone know that there's been no earthquake, hurricane, or whatnot here in Spain -- just sun, sun, sun. Even better, family attitudes have improved quite a bit, probably a result of setting appropriate incentives for sightseeing, including meals out, views of downloaded PBS shows, and Spanish Rioja (an incentive for the parents). So we've been out and about a) taking a bus tour of Madrid -- perfect for those little feet that don't want to walk; b) wandering around the neighborhoods adjacent to our house; and c) visiting the Reina Sofia museum to see Picasso and Dali, then walking in the big Madrid park. We've also tried out a variety of interesting Spanish foods, including my favorite, cream of melon with ham. Planning more tomorrow before Jon's trip to the UK and the start of school registration/shopping madness Thursday-Friday.

Nora checks in

Seth goes out every morning to see backhoes and me and Nathan usually walk to the Japanese grocery store, which we had to take the metro (which would be the T in Arlington). And then we took a 20-minute walk to the store. When we walk back, me and Nathan have to stop and sit down somewhere. And then we get home and then Mom and Seth are at home, and we either go to the park or see central Madrid. And then we have lunch either out or come back home. If we come home it's usually salami. If we go out, I usually get a hamburger. And my favorite restaurant is Pans, it has really good chicken nuggets and fries.

Me and Nathan both signed up for the pool, we got cards that say the name of the sports center that the pool is at. And the pool has a water slide, but it's open from 5 PM to 8 PM. You can go on it as many times as you want. They block off this area, and it's really cool. Also, there's steps, there's a little pool, but it's deeper than the bigger pool, and it's warmer because -- I don't know why. And I always go in the little pool first, because it gets me used to the warmer water, and then go in the huge pool. And then I swim around for awhile, and I really like to do dives off the deepest part, which is in the middle near the water slides. And then we go home after and watch a little TV and then we have dinner and then we get ready for bed and then we usually read the Wizard of Oz, which is the book we're reading after the Golden Acorn. Then we go to sleep. And then I wake up and then the whole day starts over again.

Our apartment is pretty nice, and once Mommie can download pictures onto the blog, I can show you some pictures.

Seth checks in

I'll tell about jackhammer and shovel. So jackhammers bang like this (makes banging motion). And they grab stuff and they change jackhammer stuff. I'll talk about shovel backhoes now. So shovels ones, they work and push dirt. And motorcycles, two motorcycles, round and round. And cars go round and round. Yeah. They do. And dump trucks dump over. Watch my backhoes! (He goes and gets his backhoes/dump truck out and shows how it all works). "Bah bah bah bah bah bah bah."

(Now we're onto a new topic) So those letters, zero and six. And brother. People walk and doggies like to go poop on the ground and they have, and they have poop on the grass.

Everyone’s well, and we’re off….

All the stars aligned today – we have internet, zero sick children, and beautiful and cool Madrid weather. The appearance of pinkeye (harbinger of fever + stomach flu) in child #2 led us to get out while we could. Here’s how it all went down.

9:00 Rise.

9:30 Seth and Mommie do backhoe loop. This has become such a morning tradition that Mommie now dresses for the backhoe drivers, lest they see her in the same outfit two days in a row. More on comparative sociology of backhoes in another post.

Meanwhile, Jon signs the older kids up for membership at the enormous sporting complex in Alcobendas.

11:00 Leave to go downtown via metro.

12:00 Realize that Madrid is really, really big – we are still in transit on the metro. Kids growing restless.

12:30 Arrive at la Corta Ingles, the major upscale department store in downtown Madrid. Kids starving and grouchy. Ascend 7 floors to the cafeteria. Wait to be served while Jon descends to the sub-basement to search for Tahini in their supermarket. Jon successful. Heather not so much in controlling children. Spanish matrons flee our vicinity in droves.

1:30 Kids sufficiently fed and sugared up, depart for la Casa del Campo, a Spanish park.

1:31 Child #2 complains that he has walked too far.

1:32 Child #1 says that she can’t possibly go on.

1:33 Child #2 complains of deadly pain in hip.

1:34 Child #1 says the heat will kill her if she is forced to take another step.

(Repeat until 1:40)

1:40 Arrive at Cable Cars at el Casa del Campo. Take a beautiful 10-minute ride over the parks and neighborhoods of Madrid to the middle of the park. Look down at desert paths below, realize children will not survive in that environment for more than 30 seconds. Take same cable car for return ride.

2:00 Start walking back to metro.

2:01 Child #1 complains of hunger. This after burger, fries, and ice cream at the department store not even an hour ago.

2:02 Child #2 complains of pain in feet and hips.

2:03 Child #3 enters fray by insisting on running alongside stroller.

2:04 Child #3 loses shoe.

2:05 Child #3 insists on emptying sand out of shoe.

2:05 Child #3 loses shoe again.

2:05 Child #1 complains of hunger.

(2:06-3:15 repeat as necessary).

3:30 Ride back to house on the metro.

5:00 Head to the pool.

5:10: Seth announces gleefully “The pool is my potty!”

5:11 Discussion of Golden Rule with Seth.

5:15 In the one redeeming moment of the day, Seth dunks himself underwater by accident, gets up proudly, and announces “I just like Nora now. (Pause) I learn Spanish next.” (Context: Nora is an excellent swimmer).

6:00 Mommie starts drinking. Children with distemper are sent to their rooms until attitudes improve. Wine and "go to your room" are the best weapons in the parental arsenal.

9:00 Everyone in bed.

We have internet!

I'm sure we'll write more soon, but just a quick note to announce our big news - we have internet access at our apartment now! So staying in touch just got a lot easier. Yeah!

Sick Starhill update

We've still got 2 sick boys, both with fevers this PM. This morning, though, Nathan was well enough to go on a test run out to the Japanese grocery store (needed miso for salad dressing) and Seth and I spent about 90 minutes outside looking at various backhoes do their business. Hoping to be well enough to at least take a bus tour in the next few days.

How I (Heather) came to appreciate French Social Theorists in Spain

A long time ago in a faraway land called graduate school, I encountered French social theorists. I can’t say I remember much: I know I read Foucault, and I know one of the main messages was something to the effect of “cultural tastes signify social class and membership in social class” and “the U.S. is increasingly determining cultural tastes.” Later, a colleague of mine (David K. Cohen) characterized Foucault as “a cabal of Frenchmen out to vex Americans” (try reading even a page of Foucault!) and I pretty much agreed with his casting.

Now that I’m living abroad, however, you can really see the influence of the U.S. (or Great Britain, perhaps) on store names (Nine, City 100, N.Y. Factory, Look & Find, Curves for Women), school names (we live near “Brains” high school) and t-shirts (mainly focused around NYC sports teams, but some also featuring semi-sensical English expressions). Without asking about the reasons for these names/t-shirts/NYC paraphernalia, I can’t know why there’s this emphasis. But perhaps Foucault had a point.

Heather and Nora at the internet cafe

Today’s updates:

1) Sick children

2) The state of lettuce in Madrid.

3) Madrid is gorgeous.

On the sick children: Original Festering Mess is back to normal, mostly. There’s some burst blood vessels in one eye from throwing up so severely, but otherwise the child is back to sunniness and light. Hot Mess is still very hot (104), but we’re hoping this is the beginning of the end. And Junior Festering Mess is now in Stage 2 of that illness, running a 101 fever in addition to the pinkeye. This is all to say, Jon and I have not left the apartment at the same time in over 10 days, and it looks like it’s going to be another 5 before everyone’s on the mend. Thus you’re going to be hearing a lot about the rather mundane aspects of life in Madrid (i.e., the lettuce situation), as all we pretty much do is shop at the store, drink Fanta at the internet café, and swim with whomever is not sick. And play cards. Jon taught the big kids hearts, and they’ve been known to play as many as four hours straight.

On to lettuce. For those of you who know me (Heather), you know that I’m very attached to my salad at the end of the day. Sometimes it’s my only ruffage and certainly at least half of the “fruits and veggies” that the U.S. Surgeon General frequently urges upon me.

Lettuce is not so important for the Madrileños. I started off searching for lettuce in the giant K-Mart-like grocery store we’re near, and there amongst various shrines to peaches and tomatoes was…one very wilted, brown head of lettuce. I thought this might be just the K-Mart-ness of the store, but upon voyaging to shop at little green grocers, the story is much the same: mountains of tomatoes, peaches, melons, buckets of olives….and in the corner on the floor, a few browned heads of lettuce.

Confirmation of this was received when I searched in the store for salad dressing. Was it near the vinegar? No. Near the oil? No. Near the fresh veggies? No. Near the condiments? No. (Mind you that all these items are all in different parts of the store). Thinking that asking the local clerks for “ropa de ensalada” (clothing for salad) would result in only laughter, I returned home, consulted the dictionary (it's aderezo) and marched back to ask. The result? One tiny little packet of seasoning to add to oil and vinegar. In the whole store.

Finally, despite all the illnesses and the endless search for ruffage, Madrid is gorgeous! We love it here and are having a great time. Favorite activities = wandering through neighborhoods with non—sick children, who seem to have taken a holiday from whining for the special occasion.

Nora checks in (Daddy is scribe)

Hello. This is Nora. We are what we call the Internet Cafe because it is one of two places that has Internet and it has really good food. I just had an orange Fanta and some potato chips. My British friends are on vacation. We finished reading the Golden Acorn, which is a book we started reading in Massachusetts. And now I'll read the next book in this series, which is called Glassruhen Gate.

Spanish people go to bed late - I'm going to say at 1 am! Even kids sometimes!!! I go to bed at 9 but usually fall asleep a lot later. I usually wake up at 7:30 or 8:30 and then read on the Kindle. And then after I read on the Kindle I have breakfast after Mommie and Daddy wake up. And then I either go to El Campo or play a little bit and then go to El Campo. El Campo is the grocery store. And after I go to El Campo, I usually either play a little bit, have lunch, then we play a bit, and then Seth takes a nap and we read or draw and play. After Seth wakes up, we usually go swimming for about 2 1/2 hours. And then we dry off, Daddy is cooking dinner, and then we have dinner. Then we read a book. And then me and Nathan play a little bit since Seth goes to bed a little earlier. And then we go to bed.

I learned to play hearts today. We are keeping a tally of our scores. I'm losing because I have the highest points. In hearts the goal is to get the lowest points. We've played 6 hands already today. Daddy is winning because he has negative points! A hand is not like your hand that you write with - it is a part of a game.

We have to go now because Daddy has to cook dinner at home. Bye!

Well, we are up to 2.5 sick children. In addition to Festering Mess, who is actually almost better, we have a child we shall call Hot Mess (high fever, cold) and Junior Festering Mess (headed down same road as Festering Mess). Who knew we’d come to Madrid to sample not the tapas but instead from the germ pool?


In other news, we have located some backhoes for Seth. He and I took a long ride out to the edge of the city yesterday, where they are building new high-rise apartments and digging out some new parks. He was in heaven – cranes, excavators, backhoes of all kind and type. Then this morning, we took a walk and located an additional set of backhoes closer to our house. Unfortunately, there was a long pause as the foreman and backhoe driver paused to discuss (well, argue about) where to dig the hole. Later on down the avenue, another backhoe driver invited Seth to “take a ride.” I believe he meant “get in, I’ll let him help operate the backhoe.”


Our bus ride around Madrid yesterday revealed that there really are a million banks (or so) here. In our area, they are on every street corner, sometimes lining whole blocks. That seems to be the case in other neighborhoods as well – more banks than food stores, and possibly also more banks than restaurants.


The kids would like to report all the new drinks they like: Pineapple juice and mango + apple juice. Mommie has sorted out the coffee situation after several times inadvertently ordering instant (oops). And coffee and beer? Same price, pretty much.

Contagion

Update: The Spanish virus is taking a liking to our comfortable and cute little apartment. Child #1 is recovering a bit - no throwing up last night, fever a little lower today, eating is a bit better. But child #2 now is feverish but as yet still playful, energetic, and eating. Child #3 (Seth!) woke up this morning with pink eye. Suffice it to say that Seth is not as cooperative with the thrice-daily eye washes and eye drops as child #1 is!

Today is the hottest day yet, so we went ahead and turned on the a/c. It works really well - so we are quite comfortable.

I successfully registered us at the town hall today - this is a required step for living in Spain (becoming empadranado). So now we are official. Next step - getting our 90 day visas turned into one year residence visas - this is a bit more tricky and complex, so I am seeking help from a specialist (and paying him).

Martes 8/16/11

I’m assuming that Jon uploaded the sociological analysis of the Spanish Emergency Room / Health care system. My bottom line: We owed $0 for about 4 hours in the ER, drugs, plus a thorough set of tests for previously described Festering Mess (see “Domingo, 8/14/11”). Said child is holding her own, but the doctors said it could be a week until she’s better (see Facebook post titled “Mother of All Spanish Viruses.”) Unfortunately, the virus does not explain the lice, which would have been very convenient.

The Starhill family is in a holding pattern because of a) Festering Mess and b) the Pope and his minions. Yes, I said the Pope. He arrives Thursday, and in anticipation, Madrid is jammed with almost a million young people. They march up and down our avenue from time to time carrying flags and looking pious. I can only assume the Catholic hierarchy is sending them on these strolls to give them something to do while waiting – lest they begin to riot.

In any case, we filled the day with a European breakfast, free wireless, strolling around, watching lawnmowers (poor substitutes for backhoes, but they will have to do), downloaded PBS TV shows, and the pool. Tomorrow looks to be more of the same.

Still love Madrid. Things that amaze me:

1) If you’re in the sun it is extremely hot, but 90+ degrees inside does not seem to require A/C. If in Boston, we would have decamped for Nana and Grampy’s A/C house by now.

2) Nobody (NOBODY) here speaks any English. It’s excellent! I find myself remembering words I learned 25 years ago in high school Spanish. Trying to avail myself of new words, but finding that the ones most easily learned are the stuff frequently spoken to toddlers (LATER. COME HERE. DON’T DRINK THAT. YOU NEED A BATH)

3) I can’t speak for real houses, but the well-equipped apartment doesn’t have some of the conveniences of the US: garbage disposal, dryer, etc. It’s kind of nice – definitely more eco-friendly. Although the eco-friendliness only barely cancels out the fact that we shop at the Spanish version of K-Mart.

Update

As unnamed child's fever spiked to about 104, we decided it was time to check out the local hospital. The end of the story, gentle reader - lest you are worried - is that all is fine. I had a very successful conversation with the taxi company, who promptly arrived at our home and 20 euros later dropped us off at the children's ER of a local hospital. Several decent conversations later, we were examined by a doctor. Strep test negative, other stuff negative. They pulled some blood and did some tests. It turns out that two of this child's 3 ailments (pink eye and high fever) are related - we had a case of adenoid virus. Took a cab home (the whole adventure took about 4 hours) and then continued the ibuprofin. Last night we had one more vomiting episode, but today unnamed child did not vomit, started to eat, and seemed more like we had turned the corner.

Other than the fact that my child was very sick and miserable, I have to confess that I found the whole adventure in the ER to be fascinating. The Spanish health system (at least based on this one experience) is excellent. We got in fast; we were seen by very high quality providers. When it was time to leave, it appeared that we could just walk out the door. Do we need to check out, I asked? Necesitamos pagar (do we need to pay)? The answer was no - everything was free. In addition, it was very interesting and exciting to try to communicate and to be somewhat successful. I had been worried about the possibility of health problems - how we would deal with them. So part of my excitement at the success of this episode was that it all worked remarkably smoothly. So if it ever needs to happen again (which I hope it won't), we are ready.

And while I'm on a roll, I had another minor victory today. It turns out that our apartment complex comes with TV service. We just needed to get a converter box (which I bought today for 20 euros) and voila we have TV! Nothing great, but certainly with a sick child this is a good thing. I'm beginning to realize that the key to navigating Spanish bureaucracy (is this true for all bureaucracies?) is to figure out the right question to ask and then determine the right person to ask this question. I got lucky on both counts today with the TV!

So, we seem to have weathered this storm with the sick child. Heather and I are just loving it here so far. Today I had the sensation (yet again) when swimming that I think is unique. It is 95 degrees here and hot but very dry. So after getting out of the swimming pool, the water evaporates so quickly off one's body that you become quite cold! But once you dry off, it is hot again. But because it is so dry, we haven't felt the need to turn on the A/C in the apartment yet - just don't need it.

Domingo 8/14/11

We were anticipating some struggles during the weekend/Spanish holiday (Monday), owing to the fact that the whole family is easily bored, and because life slows down considerably here on the weekend. But that’s hardly been the case.

Suffice to say that one of our children (name withheld to protect the innocent) is a festering mess: insomnia, lice, pinkeye, stomach flu, fever. The kid has spent two days on the couch and it doesn’t appear to be over yet. We obtained the name of a good children’s hospital and taxi company in case there’s a turn for the worse, but we’re optimistic it’ll only last another 24 hours. The child has become combative with the siblings again, which indicates we’re almost done.

Life for the other two kids (and for the festering mess while not sick) has been pretty good: Play at the park, shop at the mall, play ball in the park, take bus rides, swim. Nathan, who could barely float over the 4^th of July weekend, can now swim the width of the pool in both breast stroke and crawl. He splashes everyone else in the pool and makes various gasping sounds while doing it, alarming the life guard, but he gets across that pool (thanks Grossman Camp!). Nora is still a fish, and has found some friends to play with at the pool. Seth refuses to enter the pool (an extension of his extreme reluctance to bathe, most likely) but plays ball in a nearby basketball court. Seth is also holding up fairly well in the total absence of backhoes – we’re in a fairly new section of Madrid, and there’s no street construction to speak of.

We are still without internet, plunging us back into early 1990s (but without the good music). Apologies if one of you reading this is sitting in our in-box; we have to walk 15 minutes to the mall to get free wireless. It’s trite to say, but we really don’t know how people survived without the modern conveniences.

Nathan has been asking all sorts of interesting questions about the banking system, Euros, what happens in Spain, and whether his teachers will speak Spanish to him. Here’s some questions we made up for the blog:

What is your favorite thing about Madrid?

Nathan: My new basketball. I also like Pans’ French fries (Pans is a restaurant with fairly gross fries).

Nora: Swimming in the pool.

What’s the most surprising thing about Madrid?

Nora: There are kids at the park at 12:30 at night.

Nathan: There’s one of my favorite restaurants here!

Are you looking forward to school?

Nora: No. At first, I won’t be able to understand people.

Nathan: No, because I can’t tie my shoes.

What do you miss most about the U.S.?

Nathan: The Red Sox. The Red Sox winning. Isaac R.

Nora: Everything.

What do you NOT miss about the U.S.?

Nathan: Robbins Park.

Nora: Getting scrapes and cuts. I don’t get them here.

What do you know about Spain?

Nathan: There are a lot of parks. We get to go swimming almost every day!

Nora: That there are no backhoes.

Stay tuned for details of sick child's Monday visit to the ER (sick child is fine, just has the mother of all Spanish viruses)

Heather y Seth in Madrid.

We (Seth and I) made it to Spain. Google has courteously started speaking Spanish, the weather is hot, and we spend most of our time shopping. To accomplish the latter, we are getting pretty good at asking the sales force things like "We have mop clean in store?", "Do you need dried tomatoes?" and "I don't need a purse" but the result has been relatively satisfactory -- we ended up with cleaning supplies and sun-dried tomatoes but no plastic shopping bag.

No internet in the casa, so we're pretty hamstrung. Sneaking off to the local grocery store/mall which does have internet, but then we spend all our time googling things like the Spanish version of nit-pickers and trying to find train schedules for the dreaded Sunday, the day when NOTHING (save IKEA) is open. We've discovered that 3 crabby kids in 100 square meters does not equal fun.

More after yet another grocery run....

First entry from Madrid

Today (Sunday/Monday August 7/8) was such an eventful day – I feel I need to write about it while it is still fresh. Not sure when I’ll get to post this, as I don’t have Internet access yet. But is 10:15 pm Madrid time on Monday, and I’ve been up since 8:30 am Boston time on Sunday.

The trip to the airport did not appear to start well. First of all, it was pouring rain in Arlington, making packing of the car a somewhat wet endeavor. Second, due to weather, US Air significantly our flight from Boston to Philadelphia, making it impossible to catch our connection from Philadelphia to Madrid. However, the US Air representatives were incredibly helpful and put us on a non-stop Boston Madrid Iberia flight. With out 5 big bags to check, 2 smaller but very heavy carry-ons, and two kid backpacks, Nora, Nathan, and I pushed two heaping luggage carts from one terminal in Logan, through the parking lot, to the international terminal. The Iberia reps were also very helpful and didn’t make us pay for our extra checked baggage – we had already paid online with US Air.

The flight was surprisingly short. Nora and Nathan did a wonderful job of being good travelers. My only complaint is that they didn’t sleep (this was a red-eye flight). When sleep time came, Nathan rested for a bit but then needed to go back to using his iPhone. Nora couldn’t stop watching (even without sound) a movie on the cabin TV. I probably had about 2 hours with my eyes closed, but no sleep. Nathan did fall asleep as he was listening to his iPhone and ended up getting about 2 hours of sleep. Nora did not really even rest.

Madrid’s airport is very easy to navigate; customs was smooth sailing. We bought some euros, checked email (boingo wireless at the airport), and ate a bit. We then loaded our huge mound of luggage into a taxi (it wasn’t easy finding a taxi that could hold all of our luggage and us as well) and went to near Nuevos Ministerios and the Real Madrid stadium to meet with the relocation office.

As seems to be typical of the way things are done in Spain, everything was happening at the last minute with our apartment rental. The relocation agency was on the phone and email with the bank to set up a bank account, with the rental agency to set up the lease paperwork, etc. We waited for about 90 minutes at the relocation agency for everything to be ready – Nora and Nathan were amazingly good and even energetic, listening to music and dancing. We left our luggage at the relocation place and then took a cab to the rental agency headquarters which was somewhat near the Prado. Paperwork was signed (imagine a 10 page legal-ese seeming lease but in Spanish) and keys were exchanged. (They handed me two sets of keys, with (no kidding) about 10 keys in each ring. I don’t yet know what all of the keys are for, but there is one for the main entrance to the urbanizacion, one for the entrance to my ‘portal’ or building, one to our apartment, one to the mailbox, one to the paddle ball court, a garage-door opener for the parking garage (which we don’t need), and a few more keys that I’m not yet sure what they do.)

Back to the relocation agency, picked up our luggage, and took a cab up to our apartment. (By the time, Nora was having trouble staying conscious.) Lugged our huge mound of luggage from the curb through and up to the apartment. Our flight landed at 7:15 am, and we were in the apartment by noon. All told, this was remarkable progress.

The relocation agent and the rental agent went through a checklist of what was in the (furnished) apartment – the lease had a long list (e.g., 10 forks, etc.). Nora fell asleep and Nathan did for a short bit. The apartment is really nice – very clean and new feeling, small but just the right size for us. Small kitchen, pretty big living/dining area, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a nice porch. This place is a good bargain and just what we were looking for.

After letting Nora sleep for a couple of hours, I worked hard to rouse her. We then went in search of food (on foot). The weather was typical for Madrid right now – hot (low 90’s) but very dry. Very bright and intense sun. We walked about 15 minutes to an area where there are a ton of restaurants. It was about 2:30 pm, which happens to be when Spaniards eat lunch. Typically you get a daily menu (at these places, for about 10 euros) with a 2 course meal and dessert. The kids had hamburgers off a kids’ meal. My meal really wasn’t good at all.

We then walked 10 minutes or so back to our local grocery store and got some minimum supplies for dinner and breakfast. The kids were very good about walking the 15 minutes back from the store carrying groceries. It is nice that this walk is through a very nice park with good shade.

Once back, we went down to the swimming pool in our complex. It was a hot, clear day, and the pool was wonderfully cool. There we met the English-speaking lifeguard and our first neighbors – Brits with 3 girls, the two youngest of which are Nora’s and Nathan’s age. Instant playmates and very friendly parents – we hung out by the pool for several hours. In addition to a nice pool (which is 1-2 meters deep) there is a kiddie pool, a small basketball hoop, and a slide in a sandbox. It is a very nice hangout for this small urbanizacion – there probably are only 32 apartments in this complex.

A quick and lite dinner of pasta, read a few pages to the kids, and then they collapsed at about 8:45 pm. I did some unpacking and now am ready for bed! As we flew into Madrid, we saw a gorgeous sunrise, and the sunset was just as wonderful. A good beginning to this year!

Update: Had some jet lag issues with the kids sleeping last night. Nora woke up at midnight and was up and needed some company until 1:45, and then Nathan was up at 2 and needed some hand holding until about 3. But the good news is that everyone then slept until 11 am! So at least we are rested....

Things to know, from Nora

This is from Nora. We are in Spain now. It is very different here. I feel weird being one of the few people who speak English. Almost everybody is speaking Spanish. I’m so tired because the Eastern time is 6 hours different from Madrid. I miss America already. I slept until 11 today!!!!! That is the latest that I ever slept. My apartment has a pool and I made two friends at the pool. They speak English. Their names are Bella and something I don’t remember. The pool is 7 feet deep. I can touch in the shallow end because it is 3 feet deep and I am 4 feet. There is a little baby pool that is warm and only a foot deep. When you go in the shallow pool you swim around a bit and then you jump in the deep pool the deep end because it is really cold. If you get in the deep pool first on hot days, it feels really good. Yesterday was the first day that we swam in it and I went to the deep pool first. So I don’t know what it feels like to go in the little warm pool first on hot days. We missed breakfast today! We got a grocery shopping cart today.

Heather’s first blog entry.

I feel a little self-conscious blogging – I’m not sure how much to “share” (being a good New Englander) and it also feels like a guilty pleasure to take time away and write about my own goings-on (another blessing from my New England heritage). But here goes.

For my first post, I thought I’d answer the top 5 commonly asked questions about our sabbatical.

1. Why Spain?

I wanted Spanish-speaking, Jon wanted Europe, Spain was the intersection of the two sets.

2. Why Madrid?

We considered both Barcelona and Madrid, but two reasons led to the latter: Catalan is spoken in Barcelona (see #1 above) and because I have a cousin, Mary Prendergast, in Madrid. Mary is married to Manolo and they have twin almost-3-year-olds, Liam and Gabriel. All to say, good playmates for our kids and someone to counsel us about Spanish bureaucracy.

3. What are your goals for the sabbatical?

Here’s what I wrote on my “Reasons for sabbatical” form at work: “My work has me watching hundreds of hours of U.S. math lessons. Invariably, some of the instruction is conducted in Spanish. I’d like to learn enough Spanish to allow me to watch and understand the mathematics instruction in those tapes.”

What I didn’t say on the form is that if I stayed in Cambridge, my life would’ve continued pretty much as is (meeting, email, meeting, email, email, daycare pickup). The beauty of Spain is that I’ll have no meetings until about 2:00 Madrid time (8 AM US time), and email traffic should also be slow during the day as well.

Finally, we’d also like the kids to learn some Spanish and live in a different culture. If they know Spanish, then when they decide to take French in high school I won’t have to convince them that French is fairly useless.

There’s a longer set of personal goals for the year, but I’ll write about them later.

4. Do you have a place to live yet?

Yes! Exactly 6 days before leaving, we procured a place to live. 100 square meters of love, about a 20 minute walk from Seth’s school. We’ll send the address/photos when available. Given that Jon and I have a habit of being, um, over-prepared, the Spanish housing schedule was a little bit of a shock.

5. Do you speak Spanish?

I took 6 years of Spanish in high school/college and never became competent in the language – I speak toddler-level Spanish (Porque? Porque? Porque?) and can read only at about a K level (“El oso come el pez.”). Jon does a little better than I – he did the high school coursework, and has been taking classes all year to brush up on the pluperfect tense of “eat good tapas” “drink sangria” and “take a long mid-day nap.”

More later!

Suitcases are packed!

Just finished packing 6 suitcases, each one is about 48 pounds. This is what we'll be living from for a year!