Saturday July 27th

Today we went out on the high seas!  Okay, so we stayed within sight of the shore the whole time, but we were out on the open ocean for almost two hours.  I absolutely love being at sea, the sights, sounds and smells...it just feels good.  Unfortunately, Nikki did not feel exactly the same as I did.  She said she enjoyed the whole thing except for two parts: the first time she threw up, and the second time she threw up.  Apparently the ocean does not agree with Nikki.  The woman at the counter when we bought our tickets told us that the water was really rough today and asked if we were sure we waned to go on the long ride.  We thought we would be just fine, but it would seem we were mistaken.  Thankfully, the beach wasn't a let down.  We enjoyed our bocadillos while watching some surfers off of Barceloneta. 

 

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Friday July 26th

Once again, we went to Montjuic, but this time we brought Dunkin Donuts with us!  I think I was more excited than Nikki, but then again, I absolutely love Dunkin and she is more of a Krispy Kreme girl.  Originally, we got an apple cinnamon and an orange donut (bet you can't guess whose was whose), but the gentleman at the counter decided to give us two free ones as well.  With our extra choices we decided to get a vanilla an a chocolate with chocolate frosting.  Again, kind of obvious who got which one.  Enjoy the pictures, this time we got one of ourselves! (Albeit blurry).

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday July 25th

Blinds are down and the house is much cooler. I don’t think we will ever take air conditioning for granted again. J Unless we live somewhere without it, which is sort of likely. We are loving having our own place and feeling free to cook or sleep or read on the couch without feeling like we are disrupting anyone else. We are very happy here. We are even getting used to the cats. I don’t think we’ll ever be cat people on our own, but these two are cute. The one is more like a dog and we are thinking of nicknaming her puppy. She likes to have her tummy scratched and she likes a little bit of rough housing. They both think the bed is their territory once we are no longer sleeping in it. In fact, Nikki slept in a bit today, and the one cat tried to push her out of bed. It kept nudging her and walking over her trying to see if it could get her to move. It was sort of like a light massage. Thanks kitty.

We decided that it has been too long since we have been to the beach. We went to a new beach tonight and enjoyed the cooling down weather as we talked, wrote, read, and just relaxed. We are loving living by the ocean. It is such a peaceful place.

One of the things we talked about tonight is how blessed we are for KD to have this internship. His research beforehand drew him to the Consular Section. This section helps citizens abroad: lost or stolen passports, births, deaths, hospital visits, and incarcerations. He said that he has really enjoyed helping those citizens. Although, there is a lot of data entry and that could be done for a posting or two, but not something that would be stimulating for an entire career. However, the Consulate is only available to the public from 9am to 1pm. This means that KD has been able to work on projects from other sections as well and has given him a broad training of the Consulate. What a blessing to have half of the day to do additional training on top of the specified training he came here for. The projects he has worked on have been great to show that he is a hard, effective, and organized worker. He has done amazing with every project and has learned a great deal. This experience is going to be indispensible for his resume and when we are looking into his master’s program. Thank you to all of you who helped to get us here. Especially our parents and family who have put up with us for 22+ years. We are such a lucky couple. We have the best family and friends!

Wednesday July 24th

Happy Pioneer Day Utah! We are going to miss the fireworks this year. We had a great showing my first weekend here, but it is always fun to have an excuse for multiple shows in a summer.

Today is visit KD at work for lunch day. It was an adventure to be sure! KD told me that it was about 30 or 40 minutes to the consulate by public transit. Perfect! I'll leave about an hour early just to make sure I get there on time. So, I started to leave at 12:30, but the door wouldn't open. I tried pushing the door and pulling the door to see if the lock was stuck. After awhile I thought, "I'm locked in with no way out!" Then it hit me. KD left this morning and locked the door behind him. That would've locked the bolt and I have to use the key to get out. Thank goodness we each have a set of keys! I had a bit more work ahead of me since the keyhole was taped (with electricians tape) shut. I got everything unlocked and then replaced the tape. Finally out and on my way!

I made it to the metro just fine as well as to the train. A fun glitch was that the normal train I take wasn't working. I had to find a different train to connect to my normal train further down the tracks. I accidentally missed it by one stop and had to hop on the train going the other direction. I made it! (Only 6 minutes late.) Totally worth it to eat lunch with my husband! He received two more new projects and is doing phenomenally. He even got positive feedback from professionals outside of the consulate.

We stayed at the consulate until 5:30 and then stopped by the grocery store to get a few items. It was so hot and we were excited to get home to some colder air. Too bad that we didn't realize that it wouldn't be colder. We hadn't quite figured out all of the odds and ends of our house. There is a set of doors that the sun shines through about 4pm that had heated the whole place up. We had to find the blinds and figure out how to get them down. We'll try to cool it down tonight and then try again tomorrow.

Tuesday July 23rd

Today KD is working on four new projects for the Consulate. He loves it! He absolutely loves being busy and making a difference. One of the projects is working on the web page. The Consular General has told him that he has done some great work and she feels that he can make the website look better, as well as be more helpful.

We have started all of our responsibilities here at the apartment. One of which is watering the plants on the porch and inside. This takes about an hour to do with how many plants there are. It is relaxing and we have decided that we are garden people and would like to have our own garden in the future.

 This one seems to be the food section. Although, We can't identify everything. There are tomato plants, basil, mint, other herbs, a few different types of lettuce, a few small trees, possibly an olive tree, onions, and some other plants that we aren't certain of. The tomatoes are great for cooking!

 Patio furniture and more plants. We like the ivy starting to grow up the walls.

 A nice bed for sunbathing and more plants.

 

 More plants and some cool wall art.

 

Monday July 22nd

Moving Day! This was fun, exciting, and hot! We packed up all of our stuff last night and this morning so that we could move from Herlinda and Paco’s to housesit for MaryAnn while she is away on her honeymoon. They went to Thailand and will be gone until a day or two after we leave, so it works out perfect! We made it safe and sound. The sheets were still in the washer and for some reason it had stopped, so we started it again. Thankfully, they have a dryer here so we didn’t have to wait for the sheets to air dry. The dryer here is very different from the US. I think it is because they don’t have all the vents set up for a dryer. They have a filter in the bottom that the water slowly drains into and once it is full you have to empty it or it won’t dry anything. It makes the apartment awfully hot and from now on we will be air drying everything. It is kind of fun to do that anyway. We might do it in the US too.

We love the new place! It has a great vibe to it and we decided that if we ever move back to Spain we would like to move into something similar. More rooms if there are children with us. We have sort of been in between places since getting married and have been living with people up until now! We realized our first apartment to ourselves is in Spain! How many couples can say that. We are very happy about it. KD was so great to move the bulk of our stuff here. I’m afraid he is going to be very sore for the next few days.

 

 This is the entryway into the apartment. We had to walk up a narrow, four flights of steps as there is no elevator here. Fire codes for these buildings probably don't exist. KD was super strong and carried the heaviest suitcases. Way to go!

 This is to the right of the entryway. The light is awesome and I wish we knew where we could get one. That little hole in the green wall where you can see light, that is the cat door. Yep, we are taking care of two cats. The flight of stairs leads to...

The bedroom! The bed is only off the floor by about half a foot. It is on a very low wood and wicker bed stand. It allows us to have our own stuff right next to the bed, similar to the night stands that most Americans are used to.

 This is our bathroom. It has a cute plant in the left corner that I has to be watered every few days. 

 This is the hallway that connects everything.

 Here is our cute, little kitchen. The only thing missing from here is the refrigerator, clothes washer, and dryer.

Our two person dining area.

This is our cute front room!

 More of the front room. This is the artwork and another awesome light!

 

 

 

 

Sunday July 21st

Wow! We can't believe it! Nikki has been here for 1 month and KD has been here for almost 2! Time sure does fly! We looked at our calendar to see what we've done and what we have left that we really want to do before returning to the states. Parc Guell was on this list... and since it is free we felt it was a great choice for a Sunday adventure!  For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is a massive garden on El Carmel hill in the Gracia neighborhood.  The park contains Gaudi's house and the rest of his "backyard" is now a garden which Gaudi designed to blend into nature.  (Remember, Gaudi is the artist who designed Sagrada Familia).  Personally, Nikki and I think the house and area immediately surrounding it looked like Candy Land, which is not necessarily bad.  The most famous part of the park is Gaudi's mosaic salamander, more commonly referred to simply as el drac (the dragon).  Basically it's a giant lizard.  The park also features a large mosaic bench allegedly representing a sea serpent.  The rest of the park is Gaudi trying to imitate nature and the natural form, for example carving stone columns to look like tree trunks. 

 

 

 These reminded us of candyland.

THE Lizard