Melyssa-with-a-Y

September 11 is The National Day of Catalonia, also known as the Diada, a day-long festival. We had the day off, and spent most of it lounging around the apartment. It was pouring rain, so I did laundry and baked cookies. The sun came out in the afternoon, so we decided to go for a walk. We haven't made it down to the waterfront since we moved here. We were clearly not the only ones with that idea! Lots of flags, people in "independence" t-shirts, etc. There was a stage set up at the bottom of La Rambla, and lots of people gathering in various places. But they were very friendly and peaceful - more of a party than a protest.  As we were walking along, we noticed a giant yacht in the harbor, towering over everything. Turns out it's the Maryah ,  #37 on the list of largest yachts in the world. According to one website, its amenities include a dance floor, movie theater, beauty salon, and underwater lights. It has 27 state rooms. The interior photos are stunning . It...

Bucket list - iStock I was going back through old blog posts, and I found a bucket list I called "50 Things to do Before I turn 50." I wrote it in 2010, when I wasn't even 40. I didn't have "move to another country" on my list, but that apparently happened before I managed to go up in a hot air balloon! Didn't do a lot of these in thirteen years, so maybe I'll do better this time. Y'all are gonna have to keep me honest. I've got about 8 years before I turn 60.  Hmmm... I might change a few of these to reflect new realities and new interests.    Here's my original list: 1. Visit the Aquarium (Monterrey, Baltimore, Sydney, Auckland... I love aquariums) 2. Dance in the rain 3. Ride in a hot air balloon 4. Buy a house 5. Visit all 50 states (hmmm, not as likely now) 6. Own a big girl camera 7. Spend a day at a winery 8. Tutor Someone 9. Host a dinner party 10. Go camping 11. Write a book…or...

Well, the big news is, we got our 'empadronamiento' paperwork done, so we can get on the public healthcare (OoOoh, socialized medicine!) and we have given our fingerprints to the police to get our 'foreigner identification cards'. Whee!  We also spent a few hours at IKEA a couple of weeks ago, and  added some more necessary furniture pieces to the apartment. I have a desk and a chair now (in the main bedroom), and a utility cart in the kitchen to make our countertop space more available. We will also need bookcases when our stuff shows up... I'm not used to living in places without bookshelves! The desk and chair turned out to be super useful this week, as the A/C went out at the office last week, and they show no signs of having it fixed so far. So, WFH it is.  IKEA also had mixing bowls, kitchen tongs, and some other necessities. So I've also been cooking more, trying to get used to the kitchen, different pots & pans, knives, etc. Some of that stuff wil...

Well, we're all moved in, and while we wait a few more weeks (months?) for our bed and books to arrive, we've started buying things to make the apartment work better for us. I did go out and get an electric kettle (red, of course!) and have made tea a few times, but it's usually too hot to drink tea. Yesterday we even got a descaling kit for the Nespresso machine... Barcelona has very hard water, we're told.  We have a new favorite store - Leroy Merlin . It's like Bed Bath and Beyond and Home Depot combined (and pared way down). It's less than a half mile from the apartment, but we have to walk through one of the most touristy parts of town to get there. Although really, it's getting back with all of our purchases that's the hard part!  I've been trying to find a spice rack, but I gave up and bought a little wooden box at LM to keep my spices in - it'll do for now.  I've found a few "standard" spices in different grocery stores - on...

Well, we did it. We rented an apartment! We were going crazy in the tiny Vrbo, so we were extra glad to get out of there a day early.  Those of you who were playing along with the "House Hunters International" game: we ended up renting the 3BR version of apartment #4 ( see previous post ). Was that your guess? Here are some photos and a quick video (sorry if you get a little motion sickness, I sped it up by 2x!)  It  took four trips to get everything moved - one by Uber black ($) another in a taxi (that we hiked a few blocks to catch) and two on the metro. We stopped and bought a wheelie grocery cart after the second trip, so I filled that with the non-fridge stuff and it was pretty easy to move - although I wish I'd looked for the metro elevators more closely - too many stairs to bounce up/down!  Once we got everything moved and enjoyed the central air for a while 🫠, we unpacked and started laundry. I washed the new sheets but they're still a little... crunchy. ....

Bueno, pues... It's still very weird to think that we're not here on vacation. My job starts on Tuesday, so I've had a week of adjusting to the time change (finally getting more sleep), figuring out where things are, and getting used to the heat, with very little "to do".  Sadly, in true Fratkin-McCalpin tradition, we brought a heat wave with us. I was hoping that, because we're moving here, the universe would be more forgiving than our usual summer scorcher in Europe, but no... It's about 8 degrees (C, or 10-15 F) above normal and has been all week... And will be for at least another week. Oy.  The tiny little apartment we're staying in (while we look for our longer-term place) has A/C only in the bedroom, and faces northwest, but the afternoon sun is awful. I feel like I'm living in a cave - we keep the wooden shutters closed most of the time. On Thursday we started visiting apartments! The first one was enormous, with giant wood-paneled cabinets...