journal of a wacky expat family
Yesterday as a family we went out for a 3.5 mile bike and walk. There is a section of the king's old hunting grounds called El Pardo that is accessible from a spot near our house. The walk was nice, except for the occasional fit from Truman where he would throw his bike down and refuse to go any further.
Read MoreYesterday we met a few friends in downtown Pozuelo (our town) to see the local Three Kings parade. Unbeknownst to us, the Three Kings are a really big deal here. In the US, the kings play small side part in nativity, but then are mostly forgotten. Their biggest claim to fame is that when the children perform the nativity play at church, even though both the shepherds and the kings weard the same robes, the kings get to wear paper crowns and the shepherds only get head wrap things. That's about it.
Read MoreCured ham is big in Spain. I like it, but I'm not hardcore like the locals.
You can buy a jamon leg (an entire cured pig leg, hoof included) at almost any grocery store but the quality varies widely and I do not understand or appreciate all the subtleties of the various regions and options.
Enter "Cinco Jotas" brand. Apparently it is the highest quality so I looked for it at the grocery store. It was the equivalent of $750 for a couple of kilograms of cured ham. Pretty unbelievable. I certainly wasn't going to buy an entire leg but I bought a few slices of it to try tonight. It's good but I don't think it's $750 good.
Jess told me an antecdote yesterday which I think is a perfect example of the types of frustrations you can have living abroad.
Last week Jess and Henry went to the grocery store to buy some groceries and she saw a pack of gum that she wanted to buy. The gum (apparently) was a new flavor that reminded her of the Wintergreen flavor that you can get in the US but you cannot buy here in Spain.
During checkout, the package of gum wouldn't ring up so the checkout lady was unable to sell it to Jess. In Spanish (obviously), the lady asked Jess if she really wanted to buy it. Jess responded with an emphatic YES. Each checkout counter has one of those pathetic help me lights that the checker can turn on if there is a problem. She turned it on. No one came. Jess is getting more annoyed, but she can't really say anything because she doesn't know how.
The lady looks at Jess. Jess looks at the lady. The lady asks Jess a bunch of stuff. Jess tells the lady she doesn't speak Spanish. The lady misunderstands Jess's Spanish (I suppose hearing the word 'no'), thinks she doesn't want the gum and puts it into her drawer and moves on.
Jess realizes she's been misunderstood, points at the gum, does one of those "I don't speak the language but I'm going to point and grunt until you realize what I want" motions and says (in English) that she really freaking wants the gum.
Checkout lady is frustrated. Jess is frustrated. Line of people behind Jess and Henry are frustrated.
Jess finally gives up, pays, and leaves hating Spain just a little bit more than when she left the house.
On the walk home, Henry doesn't understand what just happened. Who cares about the gum?
It's not about the gum.
It's about being able to communicate your wants and needs in a situation. Like an adult.
The only analog I can come up with is like trying to talk to someone on the telephone with a really bad connection. If you lose 1 out of every 4 words, the conversation starts to get annoying but you can carry on. If you lose 1 out of every 2 words, the conversation starts to break down but you can sorta kinda make it work if you really have to. If you can only hear 1 out of every 10 or 20 words, then you might as well hang up the phone because the conversation simply doesn't work. That's what it's like.
Not being able to communicate brings with it a lot of frustration that manifests itself in all sorts of fun passive-aggressive ways. And by fun I don't mean fun.
Spanish isn't that hard.
True, it's not.
The US Government lists Spanish as a Category I language for native English speakers. That means if I work at it like a second job and practice approximately 20 hours per week, then I should reach fluency in around 1 year. If I study less then the time scales out proportionally to multiples of years.
Am I here to learn Spanish? No I am not. Would I like to be able to focus on it? Of course I would. The honest truth is that we're not going to live here forever. The long term motivation simply isn't there for us to down prioritize other activities (that everyone has with a busy life, busy job, and busy kids) in order to prioritize studying Spanish.
Do I wish I could change that? Yes I do. Because until it does I'm basically walking around with a broken telephone, unable to talk. It's not the other people's fault. It's my fault. But at this point it looks like I'm not going to get a new phone.
In some respect, Sunday was a comedy of errors. Around 7am, the quiet house got a whole lot quieter as the power went out. Not a critical deal since the temp is in the 40s - 50s, but annoying none-the-less. And the sun doesn't rise until approximately 8:30am so it gets pretty dark in a house without power.
We had to call the power company twice. If you ever want to be put in your place, come to Spain and call the electric company. You get to talk in Spanish and feel dumb. It's a good way to stay humble.
We have been wanting to try out a new church in Madrid. We left a little late because a certain 4 year old (who will remain nameless, but rhymes with 'THRUMAN') decided to throw a tantrum and delay us. We took off with the GPS guiding us a little late but I hoped we could make up some time on the way. You never want to walk in late on your first day.
Driving in Madrid is a lot like sailing into the wind. There are so many crazy roads, roundabouts and one-ways that it's nearly impossible to go directly you to your destination. Instead, you get close, then tack to another direction, then get close, but can't make the turn, then get close, but you're going the wrong way and there's no turn lane, then you get close, and .... there's no parking.
We gave up once we were 30 minutes late for church. Truman fell asleep in the car anyway so it was for the best.
Picture of the candles in our kitchen:
As I drove through our neighborhood I discovered that a transformer in our neighborhood blew up. Smoke and police cars everywhere:
Henry being Henry. Addi and Truman look tortured...
Truman slept with Henry last night. Henry complained that he "didn't get to sleep at all" last night. He's sleeping with me tonight so tomorrow I can complain "that I didn't get to sleep at all" last night. :)
Kick-butt yellow curry we had for dinner. I told the kids it was chicken and beef curry. In fact, I used left over turkey (from Thanksgiving) and beef liver. I'm freaking evil. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! They loved it. :)
This week was not easy. Even though it was a short week (Monday was a holiday) it was pretty action packed and tiring.
The Truman school situation continues to deteriorate. He is rebelling against putting on his uniform every day and is more or less exploding in anger and frustration before and after school. Oddly enough he is fine at school. Jess discussed the situation numerous times with Truman's teacher but her concerns fall on deaf ears. Yesterday she met with the principal and he was super understanding and solution oriented. Jess was impressed. He gave a number of options to try this coming week.
Work is extremely hectic at the moment. I've experimented with getting up at 4:30 instead of the usual 5:00 to try and cover the difference but that 30 minutes seems to be very important so I've abandoned that experiment. :)
Next week is the last hectic week since Europe tends to get very quiet for 2 weeks around Christmas. I'm looking forward to the break but we wish we were coming home or that someone would come visit us. It's a little depressing.
Addi's Christmas party for girls scouts:
Truman being Truman:
We are a little loose with timing around here. Perhaps it is the infusion of Spanish time culture, or the fact that we are not surrounded by traditional thanksgiving reminders such as Black Friday commercials and NFL games. Whatever the reason, we felt okay having Out Thanksgiving dinner on December 7. :)
Like last year, we invited our "Spanish family" to celebrate with us. Everyone brought a few dishes to share.
Paleo pecan pie:
The bird:
Cheese ball:
Our front door:
The table:
The weather in Madrid is nothing like Des Moines. Here is a shot yesterday by our house.
There are actual flowers and bees outside. Very strange.
After a very early morning Paris - Madrid commute, we are in Madrid and back in our normal weekly routines. Luckily it's a slightly short week. :)
After a long week, we're having "Friday night Spanish dinner". Jamón, queso and wine.
If you're ever curious what the parking garage at my office looks like at 3:00pm on a Friday, this is it. People start taking off at 12:00pm. Despite all my charm and pressure techniques, this is one aspect of Spanish work culture I cannot seem to change.
Last week we received our August/September water bill for the new house and it was shocking that it's approximately 800 euros cheaper than the same one we received last year (at the old house).
Right about this time last year I remember thinking "Holy crap! We can't afford to live here, the utility costs in Europe are insane!".
Or, we were just renting an older house with a massive (unknown) water leak in the backyard.
Look at this cool art exhibit that Henry did!
Jess sent me the picture; Henry never even mentioned it. He communicates just about as badly as his dad.
Jess and the kids come back today and I'm SOOO excited! Not that I don't enjoy my summer monk-like existence, but I'm really looking forward to being with the kids and having all five of us together again. Once nice thing about living abroad and being segregated from everyone we know is that the five of us get a lot of 'family unit' time. I miss that.
This year is not quite as complicated as this time last year, but it's close. Last year they were getting off the plane in a strange country, eat strange food, move into a new house, to attend a new school, and meet new friends. This year, the country and the food are the same, but the house, school and friends will change.
There is a lot of anxiety.
Of course we can overcome it, but it's hard to do that when we're separated. Together, all things become much more manageable!
In the past two days, Jess and I have walked 25 miles (says our Fitbits) from moving nearly everything we own from our rental house in La Moraleja to our new rental house in Pozuelo. It's been hit and long, but more or less we were able to move things at our own pace.
Today is the last day with a major focus on moving. After this it's all about cleaning and organizing the new house. The moving company will arrive in about an hour to pick up the large furniture that we couldn't get. Hopefully it goes smoothly!
I saw this online and I find it really interesting. Spanish is listed as easy (it's all relative I suppose) and Chinese is listed as hard (I believe it!). Now if only I had 575-600 hours to sit in a class and learn Spanish! :)
Read MoreIt's finally here!
Friday was the last day of school and now Jess and the kids are off to their annual "Iowa Summer". Yesterday was basically an all day packing event. Things are more complicated this year since we are moving houses in July. Jess has been trying to do some house move packing as well but it's slow going.
Everyone was up at 5 to get ready and headed to the airport in high spirits. Three flights and they'll be home!
Many of you know that Henry has taken guitar lessons this year at school. He took a few lessons while we were in China but there were many kids and the quality of the instruction was quite low. This year he received 1:1 instruction from his teacher, Jorge. Once a week all year he and Jorge would practice. And not boring stuff either! Each week Jorge would show him the power chords for a popular song. Henry practiced songs from the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Boston, etc.
On June 4 was the music recital at ICS. Kids played their songs on their chosen instruments (violin, guitar, drums, or piano) and Jorge or the other teacher played accompaniment parts so no matter what instrument they played (well, except for the violin) it was like they were in a rock band.
Henry played "Horse With No Name" by America. yep, the 1971 classic. :) His friend Alejandro joined him on the drums.
We recorded video of it but it's too large to upload so here are a few photos.
Truman's working on his guns for summer vacation. A. Kettlebell workout in the basement.
Watch out ladies! :)
A few weeks ago, Truman got a visit from a fire truck at school. Here are a few pictures.
Perhaps it's because many of our friends have been on summer vacation for a few weeks already, and Jess, due to the miracles of modern technology, gets to see friend's photos of their summer fun piped directly into her phone 24/7 (thanks Facebook mobile app), or the fact that we have been in Spain 6 full months since our last visit home, or the fact that in Madrid the sun doesn't set until 9:50 (and it doesn't get dark until 10:30-ish) so it definitely doesn't feel like school should be in session.
Read More
United Airlines sends me emails all the time. They are trying to convince me that they don't hate me as a customer, although each time I fly with them I'm unfortunately reminded that they do.
Last week, they sent me an email that "Madrid is waiting for you" and that I should book a trip to Madrid to check it out.
Hmmm. If I'm not in Madrid, where am I?
The Champions League final game is tonight in Lisbon, Portugal. The Champions League is made up of all the best professional soccer teams in Europe, and they play games in this 'shadow' league during their regular national leagues seasons. Since the Champions League lets the best teams play each other, regardless of nationality, the competition is extremely tough.
This year, the Champions League final game is between Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid (as their names indicate, both teams are from Madrid). Even I, who has no real appreciation for soccer (ahem, football), can understand the impressiveness of this.
For the past two weeks, the final match is the only thing people have been talking about at work and tonight we find out which Madrid team gets bragging rights for the next year.
My money's on Athletico, but then again, I have no idea what I'm talking about.
Update 2014-05-25: For those of you that are interested, Real won last night 4-1. I'm pretty sure they will be able to measure the reduction in Spain GDP because so many people will spend the next several weeks analyzing and discussing the match ...