From KK: ...Prospero Año y Felicidad

Doug and I were talking about what a whirlwind year it has been for us. 

Here is a short synopsis:

I graduated from Auburn last Christmas and left for Verona, Italy to be an au pair in January. 

My sisters and their husbands came to visit me and we were able to travel to Florence, Siena, Pisa, Chianti, through Tuscany, Cinque Terra, Verona, and Venice together. 

A week later, I went to Amsterdam with my friend, John Anderson. 

The night we got back to Italy, Doug surprised me for Valentine's Day and came to Verona and we went to Venice together.  

My mom came to keep me company in Italy in March and we went to Milan and some other local places like Lake Garda with Nonna and Gigi. That's its own story. 

Two weeks later Megan Jensen came over to see Rachel Herring, John and me and we all got to be together in Rome. Jens and I went to Florence that week also.

I came back to the States only to pack up a U-Haul and my dog, Mamie, and move straight to Charlotte. 

After four days in Charlotte, we were in an accident and totaled my car. Soon thereafter, I bought a new car all by my big girl self because Doug was at World Championships in Manchester, England. That week Doug and his teammates, Bryan Lundquist, Nathan Adrian and Ryan Lochte, set a world record in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay. 

Doug went back to Italy for a couple of weeks for another meet near Milan. 

He spent the next two months just swimming and getting ready for Olympic Trials. Tama, Paul, my mom and dad, Becky, Mimi, Aunt Barb and Uncle Dave spent Fourth of July week in Omaha, Nebraska to watch Doug compete in the Trials.

The summer was speckled with trips to Asheville to roof on a mission trip with my home church, to Highlands to hike, Charleston to sunburn, weddings, D.C. for work visas, Auburn to watch us actually win a game, Birmingham to see the fam, more weddings, Panama City to eat oysters and watch Hunter drink virgin piña coladas, and Dothan to get breadsticks from Mama Rosa's.

I got my first real-life corporate job in Charlotte, for which I was clearly not cut out, because six months later we were off to Spain.

We also wasted summer nights away with our favorite hobby, going to see live music. We went to Ingrid Michaelson, Radiohead, Counting Crows, Missy Higgins, James Taylor, Damien Jurado, Avett Brothers, Joshua Ritter and the Indigo Girls, to name a few. 

Since we've been here, we have been busy traveling to Paris and other places around Spain, and are preparing our month-long Europe tour in April.

It was a fun and super busy year. We will be ushering in 2009 with some more weird Spanish traditions. At midnight, they begin shoving 12 grapes in their mouth, one for every stroke of the hour. In Barcelona, they then head to Plaza Catalunya to toss 40 oz. glass beer bottles, hoping someone is on the other side to catch it. This usually winds up with people getting pelted and, depending on which side you are on, getting to take an ambulance or police car ride. We will not be attending this festivity. 

We wish you all a very safe and happy new year!!!

iBon Nadal de Catalunya!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Ours was certainly different than ever before, but fun nonetheless. Doug promised we'd write about some of the crazy Catalán Chrismas traditions, as they are plenty, but we will get to those in a bit.

It's been nice to be so busy over the past week or so, so we have less time to miss being home. Last Thursday Hailey Carmichael, a friend from Dothan, came to visit for a few days before she went back to Alabama. She's teaching in Madrid for a year. One of her friends from Furman, Edward, has been travelling around Spain for six week studying its food. He goes to different regions to learn about their traditional techniques. We gladly had them over to cook dinner for us Friday night. We had rosemary hamburgers, sweet potato fries and grilled colchot onions with Romesco sauce, which was a nice change from canned tuna pasta and lentil soup.

Saturday night we had an impromptu Christmas party. Hailey and Edward were still here, and my friend Erin who lives in our neighborhood came over. Then Carrie, who was an Alpha Gam with me at Auburn and is living in Madrid, had a surprise layover here and showed up at our door. It was fun to have a little party since we knew it was going to be a quiet week. 

I finished my lessons for the month last week and have been being extra lazy. Doug had a swim meet last Sunday after everyone left and swam great. Most of his team was at Spanish Championships in Madrid, which he can't yet legally compete in, so he was there with the younger kids. It was so crowded and I walked in right when he swam his first race, but could only see him leaving the blocks, and not again until he was back in the same spot. He told me his races would be an hour and a half apart, so I went and sat on the floor outside and read for a while. I heard people cheering, as they had done for his race earlier, but thought it couldn't be him. When I went in about an hour later, someone started to speak to me in German, because that's apparently what I look like to them. It was a nice change from Dutch, which is what everyone speaks to us when Doug is with me. They were asking if I was Doug Pai'l (because apparently the name Paul doesn't exist hereand Pablo doesn't go as well) Van Wie's "woman" and that he "swim like from other galaxy," whatever that means. They had all given him a standing ovation at each of his races. I even got ushered to the front and center, the lady excusing herself from pushing through be saying "la mujer de Duck Pai'l. la mujer de Duck Pai'l."

We went skiing in La Molina, up near France, on Christmas eve. Doug kept saying we'd feel more at home if we had a white Christmas, which I'm pretty sure he's from Charlotte and I'm from Dothan and neither of us have ever had a white Christmas, but it was fun anyway.

Doug snowboarded. Correction, Doug tried to snowboard for the first time. He did a lot of tumbling down the slopes, even right off of the ski lift, which is just impressive. I am certainly not a great skier, but would ski past him and then wait and wait and wait at the bottom and then just see this big poof of snow, which was Doug wiping out again. People from the ski lifts were looking down at him like "are you ok!?" But he'd get up without saying a word and try again, only to wipe out harder the next time. I have become increasingly paranoid since knowing Doug who will just chuck himself off anything. I just kept telling him to give up because we don't have Spanish medical insurance and had he ever heard of Sonny Bono?

He came back with only a broken phone and a broken watch, thank the Lord.

We took the afternoon bus back to Barcelona and went straight to the beach, just so we could say we had done both in one day.

Christmas night, amongst calls from my sisters rubbing in the great food they were having a home, we went to Zoe and Jay's house for a "proper English Christmas dinner." We had roast chicken, potatoes and parsnips, English peas, mashed potatoes and gravy, pigs in a blanket, cabbage and carrots.

Santa/Papa Noël even found us here! My mom sent us a package with stockings already stuffed to hang in our house and both our moms sent presents to put under the tree, so our little tree from the Chino wasn't so depressing.  

Doug's favorite game to play is "let's not buy each other presents, we will just save the money for our month-long train trip and to go skiing. Oh look! I got you a present! Surprise!" So of course I didn't have anything to give him, but this is where the laziness of Spain comes in. They have another holiday as big as Christmas on January 6 for the Three Wise Men or Reyes Magos, so he can just get a Reyes Magos present instead. 

My Christmas present from Doug is awesome. I have been making him listen to the Wicked soundtrack since we met and have been jealous that I'm the only person who hasn't seen it, so he surprised me with tickets to Wicked! In London! We fly out the weekend of January 16. I am so excited! He knows I'm giving him a coat, which isn't near as exciting, but oh well. 

We got to have a Catalán Christmas also, with Brenton's family. We had lunch at their house yesterday with the aunts and uncles and the lot. It was Saint Stephen Day, because of course they can't go with another reason for vacation. We had canalones, which are apparently typical here in Catalunya, because we had them in the mountains as well. We also had little goat ribs and lots and lots of pork, as usual. Doug's favorite part was the turrons, which are just 100% sugar blocks in varieties such as chocolate or Crema Catalá, like solid creme brulee. We learned about Brenton's grandfather who was a famous magician in the 1960s.

So, Catalán traditions are nuts. We have already talked about eating turrons and Reyes Magos, but our favorite zany tradition is the Caganer. In their traditional manger scenes, among the wisemen and animals, is a man who is squatting to go number two. I don't know how to put it less crudely, but the statue is crude and the number two is visible.

Another crazed tradition is Cacatío. This is a log with a smiley face and a Santa hat. The kids beat it with a stick and it also number two-s presents from under its cape. Told you they were strange. 

Anyway, here is our Christmas week in a nutshell. We still don't have internet, but are hopeful that we will have it by next week. 

We are off to the mercat! Love you all!

From Doug: Contrasts and Christmastime

Everything I've been enjoying for the past week and a half have been a study in contrasts. From Paris last weekend to our night out this past Saturday, I find it incredible when different cultures, styles, and eras mesh and create something entirely new.

Paris was a wonderful contrast to Barcelona. KK has already given a detailed account of our adventures there, so I will stick to my impressions of the city. Apart from the obvious differences of climate and architecture, the city just feels different. True, there is an air of haughtiness but we didn't encounter any outright rude Parisians. Art has been such an integral part of their culture that it practically radiates from the countless museums and pours out in to the streets and people themselves. There is also a sense of rebellion inherent in the city. Despite the fact that the French have lost countless wars in the last 100 years and they seem desperate to unify and lead the EU, they seem to retain their strongly independent nature. Overall I really loved Paris and the short trip only whet my appetite to go back.

Going to a city as different as Paris and then coming back made me see Barcelona with new eyes. True there might not be as strong a artistic tradition here, but Barcelona has certainly made up for it in the last 100 years. Also, it's nice to be back to a slower pace of life and cheaper food.



Saturday night provided a few more studies of contrast. We have been receiving a weekly email about interesting cultural events going on in the city, but have yet to attend one of the suggestions. However, in a quest to find free things to do we followed their recommendation for a showcase of independent fashion designers in chic, modern hotel. While KK looked through racks of unique clothes, the hotel itself took center stage for me. The building was at least 200 years old, complete with ornate moldings and marble floors. This traditional architecture was contrasted by an interior painted completely white filled with minimalistic furniture. Instead of thumping techno music playing, there was one guy playing the acoustic guitar singing spanish indie songs.



After the fashion show, I took KK to see the Alabama Gospel Choir perform at the Palau de Musica Catalunya. I thought it would be a good taste of home in this time that we are both feeling a bit homesick. The performance was great even though all the performers we met afterwards were from (gasp!) Florida. They even peppered their performance with Christmas songs. The highlights were "O Holy Night" and "Amazing Grace," which gave me goosebumps. There were minutes at a time when I was consumed by the music and completely forgot where I was. It was interesting to see the Spanish peoples' reaction to Southern gospel music. By the end of the show, most of the audience was standing and clapping to the rhythm. The great contrast of the show, other than seeing a choir allegedly from Alabama in Barcelona, was hearing this gospel music in a music hall that is a temple to Art Noveau. Built between 1905 and 1908, it was created during the Renaixenca, or Catalan Renaissance. I could just picture it packed with a symphony performing classical or Baroque pieces, but here was a southern gospel choir filling it with their amazing voices.

On Sunday, we were determined to make it to a church service after the previous weeks' failed attempt. I did some research online and found the website for a Protestant church founded in the Methodist tradition. Turns out only the website was in English, with the service in Catalan. Those sneaky Catalans lured us with a website entirely in English, not just clumsily translated English either but grammatically correct English. Needless to say, the hymns were difficult to sing what with words like "t'involucris," "d'aquests," and "reforçar." We tried to stifle our laughs and made it through the entire hour and a half service.




We just finalized our plans for Christmas Eve and Day. I was a little bummed by the thought of waking up in our apartment on Christmas morning with nothing to do and nowhere to go. So we decided to take advantage of the proximity of the Pyrenees and have a white Christmas for once. We are staying at La Molina, which is the oldest ski resort in Spain. If I can convince KK to brave the cold we will spend Christmas day on the slopes.

Stay tuned for a zany post on Catalan Christmas traditions.

Our First Noel

Paris was amazing. Last time I went was with my 10th grade class from Houston Academy. Not that it wasn't wonderful with y'all too, but it was really different being there with just Doug, not 30 people and in a bus most of the time. We were only there Thursday to Saturday, so we had a ton to pack in to two days. Somehow we did it. All. We had Rick Steves' France 2001 that we found at a second-hand English bookshop in Barcelona, so we were well led.

We stayed in a Hotel in Montmarte, in the North part of the city, overlooking the Sacré-Coeur. It was unbelievable. Here is the view from our hotel room.

We didn't get to Paris until about 4 p.m. because RyanAir, the budget airline, takes you to an airport about an hour from wherever you are trying to go. It makes it worth it when you flights are 20 euros round trip. We dropped our stuff off and headed straight to Notre Dame. The city had been decorated for Christmas and there was a huge Rockefeller Center-ish tree in front of the cathedral. The choir singing, the decorations, the sun setting and just being in front of the Notre Dame created a beatuiful and humbling scene.

We walked through the Latin Quarter and grabbed a chevre and tomato sandwich off the street and watched the sunset before we went on a Seine river cruise, which I had done when I was there with H.A., and it was beautiful. It takes you down the river by the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Orsay, Parliament buildings and the Eiffel Tower.

As soon as we rounded the corner and were able to see the Eiffel Tower, it lit up blue and white, and had the ring of gold stars to represent the European Union. It was perfect timing. Being on the water during the cruise was the coldest we ever got. We expected it to be unenjoyably cold and snowing the entire time. We saw some flurries a couple of times, but no white Christmases for us.

We hopped the metro and headed to the Eiffel Tower. It is so nice traveling in the winter because there are no lines, far less people and everything is cheaper. As much as I hate winter and love blazing summer, we both thought Paris is a place to enjoy in the winter, bundled up in scarves and gloves. We got straight in and went to the top of the tower. The view was amazing and so clear. It was also freezing.

After that we had dinner on the île de Sant Louis at a place called Le Relais de l'Isle. We ate like kings.
We had foie gras of duck with tomatoes and pepper jelly, pepper and honey glazed duck and baked apples with potato soufflet, a croissant stuffed with warm goats milk cheese and a salad, pastry covered in mussels, shrimp and lobster sauce, and of course a bottle of French wine. For dessert we had creme bruleé and warm chocolate cake.

We woke up early and went for café and croissants and planned our big day. We did the Louvre first, lead by our Rick Steves' podcasts, so we would be able to get through it all. Highlights of the Louvre were the temporary Picasso exhibit, Michelangelo's Slaves, Nike of Samothrace, Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, Coronation of Napoleon, Raft of the Medusa and Liberty Leading the People. The building itself, at one time the largest building in the world, is one of the perks of the Louvre. It's enormous and so easy to get lost and wander around for days, but overwhelming.

We headed straight to the Musée d'Orsay which is said to have Europe's greatest collection of Impressionist works. It is in an old train station across from the Louvre. We both agreed we preferred the Orsay over the Louvre, if the two can be compared. Filled with Dégas, Renoir, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Millet, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec's works, it's manageable and you can mosey instead of sprint.

Having bought the museum pass, we decided we would go to as many sites that are included as we could fit in to one day. Among these is Sainte Chapelle, which could easily by skipped over and taken as just another gothic-style church from the outside, but it's certainly worth the visit. It was built to house the supposed Crown of Thorns. From top to bottom, the chapel walls are stained glass. It's much smaller than the other cathedrals, but the windows are the entire chapel, not a small part of a huge wall far away.

Next was the Arc de Triomphe. We got there as the sun was setting and rush hour was buzzing around its crazed round-about. No matter the circumstances, if there is an accident on this round-about, insurance splits the cost 50-50. No questions. There was some sort of military ceremony going on, so we weren't able to go to the top of the Arc, but we'd already seen the best views of the city anyway.

We spent the rest of the evening walking down the Champs-Elyseés, window shopping at the beautiful French designer stores and passing the hundreds of café's, each full of Parisians sitting outside people-watching. About half way down there was a Christmas market that went on for a couple of miles all the way down to the Place de la Concorde. We had big dinner plans in the Latin Quarter, but decided to eat street food. It was like the Peanut Festival on steriods. Doug had a sandwich, a chocolate croissant, a ham and Camembert crêpe, a chocolate-covered marshmellow thing, vin chaud (hot wine) and we split some cheesy ham and potato concoction. I am not sure how he does it. I've never seen anything like it in my life.

The booths were filled with Christmas ornaments and trinkets and basically anything on which they could squeeze the word NOËL. After successfully stuffing Doug, we went to the Pompidou Center, the Musée National d'Art Moderne. We didn't have much time to see the museum before it closed, so we decided it's a reason to go back to Paris. On the top floor there is a café that was filled with beautiful, fashionable Parisian people enjoying 20 euro martinis. We enjoyed that scene for a while, then headed back to our hotel. We were right by the Moulin Rouge, but couldn't afford to go as it is over 100 euros per person.

We saw in the newspaper yesterday that while we were there, 85 million euros worth of diamonds were stolen from Harry Winston, which was the biggest robbery in the history of France. Too bad they didn't drop a few on their way out.

We made it back to Barcelona. It funny how showing up earlier for your flight alleviates all the stress of missing flights, sleeping in train stations, etc. That's all I'm going to say.

I came to Spain prepared with my family's favorite children Christmas cartoon, Small One, that Hunter gave me for Christmas last year and some Christmas CD's my mom made me. I don't know how many times Doug will let me listen to this CD or agreeably watch Small One, but I hope he has another 18 days left in him.

From Doug: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It was as if the Christmas fairy came while I was sleeping yesterday. I was taking a nap between prelims and finals of my first Catalan Circuit meet (more on that later) and when I awoke my eyes beheld the glorious sight of a towering spruce decked with shining ornaments and thousands of warmly glowing lights.

Ok, so it was only a 2 foot tall plastic tree KK bought at the "chino," (a cheap, pakistani store filled with products made from what I can tell exclusively in China), but it did look beautiful. She had bought it and decorated it while I was asleep. She even made an angel to go on top out of corks and bobby pins, complete with a champagne cork for the head and a five cent piece as a halo. It filled me with a Christmas spirit that later that evening carried me through the water with a speed I recently thought lost. Our project for later this evening is to make advent streamers to fill the apartment. Part of me fears I have opened Pandora's box allowing KK to decorate. I prefer to pace myself when it comes to Christmas cheer. If you go all out in the first couple of days of December, you might require a little more eggnog to get you through Christmas day. In our case, I'm worried I might not be able to get the door through all the decorations by the in a week or two. The fun part is since we are on a budget we must revert to grade school art class. It starts with streamers, pretty soon we'll have clothespin reigndeers and salt dough santas.

This weekend marked the beginning of my comeback in swimming. The first two meets didn't go too well, but I finally regained my form and posted somewhat respectable times. I won the 100 and 200 back, got 2nd in the 50 and 5th in the 100 free. My team is starting a short rest before the Spanish short course champioships in two and a half weeks, during which I will swim in a meet here to try and post some fast times.



Overall we are beginning to settle in to a routine here in Barcelona. The first month or so went by so fast as we were running around looking at apartments, swim teams, jobs, and even some tourist sites to boot. Now we have got our bearings here and life is starting to gain a semblance of normalcy. Hours have passed by at a time where I completely forget I am in a foreign country. I even try to walk different ways to the metro every day to avoid too much monotony. The amazing thing is whenever I feel the slightest tinge of complacency or boredom I just realize where I am and all the incredible opportunities that surround me. Little things never cease to capture my attention such as the amazing hospitality from my teamate Brenton Cabello and his family (and people say Catalans are unfriendly), or the way the autumn light cuts a path through the narrow streets, filtering the smoke of an old man's cigarette and airing out the neighborhoods' drying laundry. Man, did I really just write that last sentence. Sorry to make you suffer through that, I must need an outlet for my creative juices. I'll stick to logos from now on.

Thanksgiving was a little tough for both of us. We got to talk to our families through Skype, but had to do so at the local bar as our internet is still out. No disrespect to my loving family, but I think I missed the food the most. While I got to see adorable baby Hayes, the smell of roasting turkey and the taste of squash casserole don't travel as well over the internet. I know Christmas will be much more difficult. The holidays are a time for being with friends and family and we are short on both here. We will be thinking of all of you back home and wishing we could be with you in the coming weeks.

From KK: I can finally decorate for Christmas!

I always get really excited about putting up Christmas decorations. The city put up the lights on the streets weeks ago, apparently to encourage Christmas shopping to begin earlier to help the tumbling economy. Doug, on the other hand, made me promise I wouldn't decorate while he was out of town or at practice until after Thanksgiving. Well, that's today. I went to look for decorations at the Chino by our house and there are some very questionable decorations in there, so we will see what we can come up with. I just want a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

We had our Thanksgiving feast of KFC last night with our British friends, Jay and Zoe. We had chicken in a bucket and cartons of wine in coffee cups. We were so excited about getting to have some good "home-cooked" food, but when we got to KFC, the only choices were chicken, white rice, mashed potatoes, french fries and jalapeño poppers. No green beans, nothing in casserole form, no mac-n-cheese.

Doug had decided if we couldn't get KFC, he'd just find an all-you-can-eat buffet, not in the spirit of Thanksgiving food, but in the spirit of stuffing his chipmunk cheeks and being so full he'd have to unbutton his pants. This sounds miserable to most people, but is just about his favorite feeling in the world.

It was pretty different from the last 23 Thanksgivings we have been to, but it was fun just the same.

We have started loosely planning our train trip in April. We will be trying to see as much as we can squeeze into 21 days. It's going to be exhausting, but probably a once in a lifetime thing. Here is a picture of our proposed route. Yes, I am bored enough to get on Paint and draw out our route. 

We came down to the bar after supper to skype our parents, since fixing our internet has been postposed another 10 days. Unfortunately, the bar was the only place open with WiFi and they were having a birthday party for one of the girls that works here and it was so loud. It was fun to see everyone, but made it hard to be away.

Kara, Doug's sister, had her baby right after we left and we hadn't seen him until last night. He's absolutely precious and wanted no part of being held up in front of a webcam.

My middle sister, Hunter, is pregnant and wasn't really showing when I last saw her and now she has a belly. And a bum. It's weird how quickly things change. We've been gone less than six weeks, and already so much has happened.

Oh yeah, so I had my first two lessons this week! Both have asked me to come back every week, so that's great. I've picked up three more for next week also.

The first one was an 8-year-old and I was supposed to help her with a project. She didn't have a project and if she did she wanted no part in doing homework. It was pretty awkward for a while. I was there to tutor her in science for two hours, which is a really really long time for an 8-year-old. I had to teach her the reproductive and digestive track. I can't think of anything I'd rather not teach an 8-year-old than that. She kept walking out and turning on the TV. By the end of the two hours, she had learned everything for her test and begged her mom to let me stay and play, so it turned out well, but it was pretty tough for a while there.

The second lesson I had was a conversation lesson with a 30ish-year-old architect and her husband, an interior designer, that just moved back from Italy, so we had lots to talk about. My new lessons are grammar lessons which is my favorite thing, as pathetic as that sounds, so I hope they will be OK. I hope they will start adding up because it's nice to have something to do finally!

This weekend is going to be lazy since Doug has a meet tomorrow and Sunday and we leave Thursday for Paris!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is full of tryptophan from massive amounts of turkey! 

From Doug: Gobble Gobble

First let me apologize for keeping all you readers on the edge of your seats. It has been far too long since I posted an update. I know you all have been slaves to the refresh button, just itching to hear about the mishappen adventures that are our lives. I'm not big on excuses, but our internet is still out. We have finally convinced our landlord to switch providers, which somehow is going to take 10 days to do.

As KK told you, I had a swim meet in Pisa last week. Just getting to the meet was an adventure in itself. Ryanair offers really cheap flights around Europe. They have a hub near Barcelona, in a city called Girona. I knew it would take about and hour and a half to get there by train, so I showed up to the train station about four hours before my flight figuring there must be at least one train every hour. I waited two hours before a train finally came that was going to Girona. By the time I got to the Girona train station, my flight had already left. I weighed my options, including a late flight to Rome and a 3 hour train to Pisa arriving at 4am, but eventually was persuaded that it would be best to wait until the following day.

I have experienced this a few times but it never ceases to make me feel like a rock star: I arrived at the Pisa airport and was met by a woman holding a sign with my name on it. Not just a quickly scribled magic marker sign, but a real computer print out! And this is the same woman who only a night earlier had waited four hours at the airport for me to arrive. Nevertheless, she greeted me with a warm smile and firm handshake, one that lasted a half second too long for my liking. It was then that I learned that the swim meet wasn't actually in Pisa, but in a nearby coastal resort town of Viareggio.

The one day of the meet that I did make it to I swam subpar. I swam the 50 and 200 back. I felt a bit like Goldilocks. The 50 was a little bit too short and the 200 was a little bit too long. I am swimming the 100 this weekend and hopefully it will be just right. The meet was fun even if I didn't swim as well as I wanted. There was a good group of American swimmers and Europeans that I had swam with before there. I didn't fly out until later on Sunday so I had the opportunity to wander around Viareggio. The beach is beautiful and I stumbled on a charming antique market.


Ever since we moved here, there have been more incredible concerts than I can remember. However, since we can't go to a show every night we have to be picky. At last we went to our first show Tuesday night. We saw Damien Jurado who I hadn't heard of previously. I noticed a poster for his show posted on a bulletin board somewhere and decided it would look way better on the wall of our apartment than on this dingy board. When KK saw the poster she had heard his music and turned me on to him immediately. She bought me his CD along with the tickets so we were familiar with his music when we saw him. The venue, a place called Sidecar, was intimate and the perfect setting for his stripped down heartfelt music. My eyes were burning from the dense cloud of smoke that filled the room, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the show.

Perhaps our biggest news of the week, aside from KK finding a job, was our decision to purchase Eurail passes. There was a limited time special on Spring travel which allowed us to get a 21 day unlimited pass for about half the normal price. We will begin our European oddyssey on April 6th and in all our excitement have already started to plan a tentative route. I'm thrilled by this once in a lifetime opportunity to get to see Europe. We are planning on making stops in some of the less touristy parts of Eastern Europe, including Croatia, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. I hear from my well-traveled friend George Bovell that that area is some of the most beautiful he has seen.

Sorry to be long winded, but there was so much catching up to do. I'm sure I've forgotten something. I have another swim meet this weekend, the first of the Catalan Circuit in the neighboring town of L'Hospitalet. I will do my best to keep you better informed in the future.

From KK: A Kentucky Fried Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is in two days and we have no turkey. There are some turkeys at the mercat...head and feathers included. They are just sitting there in the glass case, like they are sleeping. I'm not woman enough to deal with that and I have the excuse that we don't have an oven, so looks like it's going to be a turkey-less day. The good news is there is a KFC on Las Ramblas so maybe we can scrape up some mac-n-cheese and green beans or it's going to be a sad sad day. Feel free to send us your leftover cranberry sauce and turkey and Hinkie green beans...mmm. That's just too depressing to think about.

Good news! Today I found a job teaching English. For the time being, I'll just be doing private lessons, but once I get comfortable, maybe I'll be able to teach at the World Trade Center and other big corporate companies around town. Most of the people who work with my company get into that after a while. I don't yet have the certificate to teach at the big corporations, but hopefully the private lessons will fill up enough time for now. I have my first one tonight. I'm helping an 8-year-old little girl with her school project about God knows what, so we will see how that goes! I have two lessons tomorrow and three more on Thursday. I'm looking forward to it and enjoyed teaching English when I was in Auburn for the Literacy Coalition, so maybe this will be as fun.

This weekend we had our third weekend in a row of visitors. Kelly McCallum is an au pair outside of Barcelona and her friend, Kara Lynn Joyce, came to visit her, so I had them to hang out with all weekend for my first weekend all alone without Doug.

He left Thursday night for Pisa, but didn't make it out of Barcelona. To give him credit, he left with four hours to make his flight, but in Spain, you just never know how long it will take. He got to the train station and the next train didn't leave for over and hour. It dropped him off at some bus station and he had to wait over an hour again for the next bus to the airport. Of course, his phone died and even if you charge it, you can't turn it on without the passcode, which he didn't know...so that's how Thursday night went.

He told me he was just going to sleep in the train station and eat cookies all night. I assured him that was a bad bad idea and to just come home, then he cut off. So about 10 that night I still hadn't heard from him and was waiting at home when he showed up with a pizza and a 40 oz. San Miguel. We had to find a way to buy him a new flight and our internet is still out, so we walked around our neighborhood trying to steal internet off anyone who didn't have password protected internet. Thanks to Antonio of Atlantida Street, we got him a new ticket, standing on the street with his laptop.

Friday we gave him 5 hours to make it, and thank heavens he did.

Kara and Kelly came Friday and we went to meet up with some girls we met visiting from Chicago and had fun uptown. Saturday they toured all day and I hung out at home and watched movies all day like a lazy bum. When they came back we got ready for a great dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, La Fianna, where the seats are all couches and they bring your drinks on trays and set them on your big sofa bed-ish thing. It's a really neat place. We tried to go out, but the clubs were packed, we just headed home. It was a lot of fun regardless.

Doug said he had fun in Italy and got to see some old swimmer friends, but we were glad to have him back in Spain. This weekend he has a Catalan Circuit meet outside of the city and it getting ready for that all week, but are still keeping pretty busy. I say that loosely, as in, by busy I mean going to see James Bond last night and to a Damien Jurrado concert in a really cool venue off Las Ramblas tonight.

Next Thursday we leave for PARIS!! Can't wait!

I've got to run get ready for my first class! Maybe I'll wear my glasses and look extra professional. Just a thought.

We'll post pictures soon...

From KK: I love this place

Spain is still great. The weather hasn't changed much. It's definitely warm enough to still be at the beach, though maybe a jacket is necessary if you are like me. Doug is leaving tomorrow for a meet in Pisa.  The flight was only about 60 euros, so I thought about going, but we don't really have that to spare at the moment, so I'll be braving it here alone. 

It has been a busy two weeks(ends)! Doug wrote about Adrienne and Avery's trip some last week. It was such a fun weekend with them. Friday night we had a great dinner at a place called Limbo. The great thing about Spain is that the nice restaurants (save the touristy places) are no more than 20 euros an entree, so it's affordable to go out every so often. We left Limbo to go see the Sardana dances in front of the Catedral when Avery heard talking in a building. He knocked on the door. Someone answered. The man checked us out. He wondered how we heard about his secret bar. And let us in...

 We have read about underground bars in our travel books and how they don't have signs or anything because they don't want tourists. Too bad! It was so random and we were a little wary, but went in anyway and had a great time at some little underground bar in Born. There were many things like that throughout the weekend that we've decided we need to keep Avery around for our impromptu moments.

Avery and Adrienne left Monday and Steve Segerlin, Bryan Lundquist, and Bryan's sister, Haley, came on Thursday. This weekend was equally fun. We did the necessary tourist stuff again, but went up Montjüic to see the Olympic stadium and of course, pool and diving pool. Anytime you see a picture of the 1992 Olympics, you see a picture of the diving pool that overlooks the entire city. It's a shame that the pool is now used only as a birdbath for the seagulls. 

We walked around Montjüic, Las Ramblas, and our other favorite spots, only to wind up back in Barceloneta.

We have communal ping pong tables in the Mercat square that are never used and Doug has been talking about playing beer pong since we got here, so we went to the Chino and got ping pong balls. Thank goodness in Spanish it's "pelota de ping pong" or I never would have been able to figure that one out. They don't have Solo cups here, so we opted for paper party cups with clowns on them and 40s of San Miguel. We played flip cup and beer pong for a while before going out to Born. 

We met up with Kelly, who swam at UGA and is an au pair outside of the city. We had many similar au pair stories, so that was fun. It was a fun stint having visitors and it has made the time fly. 

We've been here over a month now. It's one of those things where it feels like we've been here forever and, at the same time, like we've just arrived. We are staying safe and feeding Doug more than lentils, so don't worry. Now he's just eating tubes of digestive chocolate cookies and knock-off Magnum ice cream bars. Sounds about right, doesn't it?

From Doug: Thank goodness for Rick

Ever Since I first met KK, she has been espousing the genius of Rick Steves. For those of you not in the know, he is a author of travel guides and the host of a travel show on pbs. The first thing we did after discovering we were moving to Spain was to purchase the 2009 edition of his book on Spain, and it has come in handy numerous times.

This weekend marked the first in a long stretch of busy weeks for us. Our friends Adrienne and Avery came to visit us from Italy where they are finishing up a semester abroad in the Auburn MBA program. Obviously It was great getting to see some familiar faces and having the opportunity to show of our town to guests, but I personally enjoyed the chance to do some touristy activities we wouldn't do on our own.

Saturday afternoon as we walked along the harbor Avery asked if there were any sightseeing boats you could take out in to the Mediterranean. I remembered reading something about that, so I consulted our trusty Rick Steves' book and good 'ol Rick pointed us in the right direction. We got there just in time to get on the boat as it disembarked, and we had great fun on the hour and a half journey. We got to see the city and our neighborhood from a new perspective which highlighted its beauty and the beauty of the surrounding landscape.

Later that evening, Rick came to the rescue again as Ade and I were craving some sweets. Sure enough Rick Steves had a section in his eating guide entitled "A Short, Sweet Walk." He did not disappoint. The walk led us through the Barri Gotic, a maze of narrow, windy streets packed with people and shops of all description. Among these stores were hidden a few gems known as xocoleterias. We sampled chocolates of all varieties and even stumbled onto a night market selling gourmet cheeses and preserves during our paseo. Sunday after a day of laziness recovering from the previous two nights we found an English language movie theater and went to see "Burn after Reading." Curiously, movies are released much later here than in the States.




Over the next few weeks, we have Steve Segerlin and Bryan Lundquist visiting, I am going to Pisa for a swim meet, there is the first of the Catalan circuit of competitions, and we go to Paris the first week of December. It will be a busy few weeks, but better to be busy than bored and homesick during the holidays. Also, this hectic schedule should give us good material for the blog to keep all you dedicated readers interested.

On an unrelated tangent, our internet has been down the last week and it had got me to thinking. Information truly is a commodity. We have grown so accustomed to having unlimited information at our fingertips in an instant. This has been especially true for me over the last year with my iPhone. Whenever a trivial question arises at dinner or out on the town, I could find the answer within a few seconds. Now without that constant access I am forced to make economic decisions regarding my information intake. Is it worth it to sit in a smoky bar and buy a drink just to be able to get my information fix? Or is it worth it to jockey for position to the one electrical outlet with ten stressed out students in the library? As far as information goes, this has been an important week, what with the election and Auburn's only guaranteed win for the rest of the season, but I have sacrificed that information this week for the sake of maitaining my Spanish life. It's hard to see the beauty of the city through the smoke of a bar or fluorescent lights of a library.

From KK: Too bad I have the sink tap

I tried to convince our landlord yesterday that I had the "grife," which means sink tap...yeah, I was trying to say "gripe," which is a cold. SAMSONITE, I was way off. So I haven't been out and about much this week.

In the mean time I have been reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. Well, I should say I'm attempting to read his seven "Signature Classics," but have only begun to make it through the first. I guess I do have some of my dad in me because for some reason I've been reading it as I would a text book, underlining, taking notes in the margins, etc. and really trying to studying it. Doug laughs at me because about every five minutes I utter a "hmm" under my breath at a point I have always thought impossible to prove, and C.S. Lewis was just able to prove it in a page. It's maddening really in some ways, but I guess some people are given that talent of reasoning and simplifying things so that people like me can understand them. It also makes me look over my shoulder, thinking, weird, I was just thinking that or trying to escape that point and there you go putting it in my face again and writing in second person so I can't even pretend to ignore it. This started out as a journal entry and not one to put on my blog so everyone could read it, but oh well. 

Last night I read the chapter on relationships and marriage. It talks of the progression in a relationship from being in love to simply loving one another. Not that these things have to be separate, but how they change over time. 

And, of course, the promise, made when I am in love and because I am in love, to be true to the beloved as long as I live, commits me to being true even if I cease to be in love. A promise must be about things I can do, about action: no one can promise to go on feeling in a certain way...What we call 'being in love' is a glorious state, and in several ways, good for us. It hleps to make us generous and courageous, it opens our eyes not only to the beauty of the beloved but to all beauty...Feelings come and go...Who could bear tot live in that excitement for even five years?...But, of course, ceasing to be 'in love' nead not mean ceasing to love. Love in this sense is not merely a feeling...This quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

I think it's a beautiful image actually, but then I think of certain people in my life, my parents and grandparents as perfect examples, who seem to defy this 'fading away' thing, so who knows.

 

Lewis goes on to talk about the initial thrill and its fading away. This applies to everything in my life, as I tend to get restless easy. I like change, new places, new experiences, but he says that those who accept the loss of the thrill and settle down will then discover new thrills in a different way. "This is, I think, one little part of what Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies," he says. He uses the analogy of a man moving to a new beautiful city (hmm) and that of course the thrill of this new city will fade, but it is in letting that thrill fade that the man will discover gardening. I think my mom would tell me maybe I need to discover gardening and stay put. 

I have really enjoyed reading it and have been kept entertained by his writing as well. A topic I found very interesting is about things that have gone bad. He says,

One is the Christian view that this is a good world that has gone wrong, but still retains the memory of what it ought to have been. The other view is called Dualism. This means the belief that there are two equal and independent powers at the back of everything, one of them good and the other bad, and that this universe is the battlefield in which the fight out an endless war.

He said that the catch with the latter is the bad and good are to be independent: equal and neither with greater power than the other, but independent. This would be impossible because those who are truly evil are cruel and do bad things for their own pleasure or joy. Pleasure and joy themselves are good things, so the bad cannot exist without a relation to the good, so it is the idea of a fallen angel who knows good, pleasure and joy and uses evil to gain it in which we believe. Of course, his has an eloquent way of saying it, but that's it in short. 

The thing that made me look over my shoulder was the controversial topic of the man being the head of the household. Lewis believes that God deemed man the head of household because the relation the family has to the outer world, or as he calls it "its foreign policies," must be governed by the man because the woman will fight vigorously for her family, no matter what, against the whole world as "the special trustee of their interests," whereas the man tends to be more removed and therefore just. 

The part that got me most, which is definitely Doug's and my biggest issue, if we even have any yet. He says,

If anyone doubts this, let me ask you a question...Much as you admire your husband, would you not say that his chief failing is his tendency not to stick up for his rights and yours (hmm) against the neighbors as vigorously as you would like? A bit of an Appeaser?

You win again. You always do. (sorry C.S. Lewis and SNL don't go too well together, but I couldn't help it)

Sorry for a book review instead of fun news from Barcelona. More of that to come. We've got our frist visitors this weekend!! Adrienne Binder and Avery are coming to stay with us for the weekend. Adrienne swam at Auburn with Doug and she and I have become great friends over the past year so we are really excited about their trip.They have been in Italy since September with Auburn's MBA program and far more adventurous than us by far, skydiving, canyoning and the like.  Their blog is linked below so you can read about what's going on in their European travels too! 

From KK: The rain in Spain falls mainly...in Barcelona.

They lied to us. It rains here. A lot. Our 5 euro umbrella from the Chino store that flips inside-out when you open it has become quite useful this week. 

The rain hasn't stopped us one bit.

Thursday night Doug really wanted to go see "I'm from Barcelona," a Swedish pop band that is not at all from Barcelona in El Paral-lel. We got off the metro and saw two strip clubs and a casino and knew we might be lost. The naked blinking lady in the window of Bar Bangladesh gave it away. Doug had researched this and decided we should get there about 11:30. We asked to buy tickets and they said the band was over at 9. We headed back past the naked ladies to the Metro stop at about 12:15. Funny, the Metro stops running at 12. Not wanting to spend any money we walked all the way back. These late-night-post-bar walks may be why Doug has lost 10 pounds. That and the lentils. 

Friday was Halloween and quite depressing. We had all intentions of dressing up and going out, but it was the coldest day we've had yet and it was pouring. We stayed in and watched scary movies and James Bond (Doug's vote) instead.

Saturday we were very productive. We got up bright and early (OK, noon) and headed out to tour Barcelona.  We went to Gaudi's Park Güell in the Northern most part of the city.  It's a beautiful place with a great view of the entire city and Mediterranean. We walked around this Alice in Wonderland type park, listening to street the artists scattered throughout the park playing violins, guitars and steel drums until dusk. 

We headed up to Passeig de Gracia for some shopping. Doug and I are good for each other when it comes to shopping. I assure him it's OK to buy a pair of one euro socks and he reminds me that I can only afford a pair of one euro socks.

After shopping we headed up to Gracia, the more upscale, business-y area to a Torilleria called "Flash Flash."  It was started by a famous 1970s fashion photographer and his wife, who is painted all over the walls with her camera in hand. We were unfashionably early to dinner at 9 p.m. at the most fashionable restaurant. 

We walked back to Barceloneta so Doug could get Gelato at our neighborhood Gelateria and a pint and the FC Barcelona fútbol game at the Irish Pub. 

Today we went to wait in line with the masses at the Picasso museum, which is free the first Sunday of every month. It's an incredible museum and seeing his art's progression from detailed realism to cubism is beautiful.

We headed to the Catedral de Barcelona and attended Mass. The stand-up-sit-down-stand-up-sit-down-stand-up routine is even harder in Spanish. On the way in to Mass there was an old man playing jazz on the trumpet with a young guy playing piano. On the way out, there were a group of teenagers who had amassed quite a crowd having a break dance-off. This is why I love Spain. Every time you turn around, it gives you something new, something real and something completely unpretentious.

I have decided to stay away from Spanish vitamins. Doug got some from his swim club. I looked at it and said "Geeez this is a big vitamin. I'll just take a big sip of water to swallow it." As soon as I swallowed it I looked and Doug in horror. This thing was not going down. Doug, of course, googled the Heimlich (that's the only way I know how to spell it) before he tried it. This might have just made the situation worse. We realized it was like an Airborne and you are supposed to let it dissolve in water THEN swallow it. Not my finest moment. The good news is I lived. 

The Europeans are insanely fascinated with the upcoming U.S. elections and we got a lecture from some French guys about saving the earth. They didn't speak English so this made for a long conversation. 

We also got to talk to Mamie Clementine this week! My mom got a webcam so we can skype and so we can see the little lady who is temporarily living with them. It was really just depressing because she could hear us and couldn't find us so she was sniffing in the camera and looking at Mama trying to find us, then she found her tennis ball and forgot about us. This is Mamie in her raincoat. I love her.

Well, we are off to dinner. Miss you all!

From KK: Peter Peter Lentil Eater

Well the weather sure has made a sudden change. Today, like yesterday and tomorrow, is rainy and about 45 degrees. I hear it is even colder at home. No ma'am. No can handle the cold. I think I need to live in the Caribbean where I can be warm all year round. As a matter of fact, I heard a rumor about myself! Apparently I live there. Doesn't sound all that bad right now.

We have found the way to stay warm in our cold little house is to eat Lentil soup, with little chorizo pieces in it which sounds really gross and definitely not like something I would eat, but the off brand kind is 0,55 euro cents so that's what we'll eat. It's pretty cheap to survive here. Most of our meals are about a euro worth of food for the both of us if we eat at home. Not too bad. But lentil soup, half the price!

This weekend we were tourists. We carry around a little black notebook wherever we go and take notes about where we eat, what we see, etc. so we will have a good idea of where to take people when they come visit us. 

Friday night we went to the city centre and got tapas and had a wonderful dinner and wine. We wandered through the streets for a couple of hours, watching the Sardana dances like Doug talked about. If you know anything about me, you know these big scary dancing heads would scare me to death-

-Or in my opinion, it would scare anyone in their right mind to death, except for Doug and the entire population of Barcelona who just seemed to love it. No thanks.

Anyway, after I cried and hid in the corner until the scary people were gone, we continued botellón-ing around la Catedral, El Barrí Gotic (the gothic quarter), and through L'Eixample district until we stumbled upon a bookshelf.

Doug decided it was very necessary that we have this bookshelf, so we hauled it for what would have been a grueling hour-long walk. That is until Doug decided he wouldn't listen to me and knew a shortcut home. Our long walk turned longer when I finally stopped to ask someone which way our neighborhood was and they pointed the way from which we were coming. 

At this Doug decided we should throw it over the wall to the Zoo where "the Giraffes could play with it or eat it," and that we would "always laugh at it later." I overruled this idea, so we continued home with the bookshelf, up 5 flights of stairs and into our apartment.

So here it is, our lovely bookshelf. I'm pretty certain the landlord isn't going to be happy with this and I might be out of town when the move out process commences.

Saturday we sat on the beach all day on this block statue where I like to sit and read if it isn't warm enough to lay out in the sand. We got Chinese for dinner and had a really lazy day to rest up for Sunday.

Sunday we did Barcelona. We started at our house, in Barceloneta and walked to all biggest sights like Plaça Reíal, La Catedral, La Rambla and all the way up the Passeig de Gràcia up to Gaudi's Casa Mila. 

Casa Mila had a neat gift shop full of coffee table and design books. We picked up a book of some of the world's best graphic designers and thought the cover looked a lot like Miguel Ripoll's (the designer Doug went to meet with) work and sure enough he had designed the cover and was featured a few times throughout. It was really cool.

We walked up to the Sagrada Familia which is the drip castle church. It is so beautiful although it is still unfinished and will be for the 25 years or so. We decided to wait to go in it for when we have visitors we will have to take to see it.  It is my mom's worst reoccurring nightmare from having a panic attack at the top and still have to climb down the hundreds of teeny tiny stairs, but it is beautiful nonetheless. 

Doug started back to two-a-day practices today. My biggest objection to this is that we have four towels, three which are wet from the pool and not drying because of the weather. There could be worse things in life...

Everything is still great here and we promise if you come visit you won't have to eat lentil soup.