Sabbatical Journal - 1

One finds oneself doing things, one had not imagined, on sabbatical. For one, there are no clothes dryers in Barcelona, it is not the custom, so while working on my feminist film about women presidents, most days I find myself hanging my little boy's underwear and sheets on the line to air dry, becoming expert with clothespins as I look out at the other señoritas, each of us on our terraces in the morning sun. I find it oddly meditative.


Also, this makes me wonder about U.S. energy consumption. I can't help notice that the dishwasher and laundry machine use less water here then in the states. And of course, then there is the air drying laundry....we have a fourth floor apartment with a small terrace that we thought we would have our morning coffee on, but honestly serves as our humble laundry room. But that's okay because really we are in Barcelona, right?

Boulangerie (bakery) located WAY too close to our house

While our carbon footprint may be diminishing - our CARB consumption is significantly expanding. All of my vows of a carbless existence hit the pot when each block has no less than two boulangerie (bakeries) and it seems like a national insult to walk by without getting our daily baguette...and a bottle of wine...and chunk of cheese, of course to go with it.

Like other times when we have rented a house - on the vineyard or on vacation - the first week has been filled with constant trips to the grocery store as we realized what we "must" and "don't" have - from the exotic (hearts of palms, olives, pate) to the old standbyes - milk, oj, cereal, yogurt - and all the million other things in between - toilet paper, soap, hand soap, laundry soap, shampoo, fabric softener, oh how many different kinds of soap one family needs to stay clean! And we need hampers, and paper towels, and hangers, and ketchup and you see it really all adds up fast!

I am not complaining, just wanted to give you a clear picture of sabbatical life. So far. School for Travis began today and he had a great first day. His tutor Julie is smart and creative and energetic and so they seem well matched. They had a very productive first day filled with science and math and art and reading and they both seemed quite happy (and relieved) that it went so well.

Someday it will be warm enough to wear these...

Barcelona is a curious city in regards to weather. Most days it is beautifully sunny with the clearest blue skies one can imagine. But the wind is also fierce. Perhaps because it is a port city. So the sun and the sky and palm trees make me think it is a beach day. But the wind chill in the 40s reminds me otherwise. As you can see, I did not have room in my luggage to pack many winter clothes because i had other packing priorities...:-)

We are having fun though doing things like....sleeping in. Incredible! I think jet lag had something to do with it, but week one we gave ourselves permission to "be on vacation" and we all stayed up late and slept past 10:00am and wow what a difference this makes in one's world view.

Hospital St. Paul located around the block, quite beautiful.

This week as we begin school mode and work mode things are slowly moving back to a regular time schedule. Travis's home school schedule beginning, David's class schedule beginning, and me back to working on the film. Though time is a crazy thing here too. Most stores are open 9am-1pm and then open again 6pm-9pm. Or if it is a restaurant, they are open 1-3pm and then again 9pm-midnight. So, it took some getting used to, but we are slowly getting the hang of it.

Most people here speak Catalan with a little spanish. We speak English with a little Spanish. But hand gestures and large expressive eyes seem to help break the language barrier. David and I begin spanish classes next week for real!

View from the top of Casa Mila

The public transportation is WONDERFUL. Travis is already an expert at the metro and we are all learning our way around. It is a great city for kids this age because Travis (and his tutor) can get around so easily without the need of a car at all (and us too). The metro system here is very clean, safe, and efficient and so are the buses. Next week we hope to connect Travis with some after school classes (and classmates!) at an American School here.

So, all in all, expat life is really wonderful and such a great experience for us as a family. Already Travis seems more independent and confident and the journey seems to be very good for him.

More soon...Heather