I’m on a roll – two posts in one day! Had some thoughts so going somewhat stream of consciousness on my Wednesday. Had class from 9 – 1. Four hours is a lot each day but still loving it thanks to an amazingly patient, kind, dedicated and talented teacher. I have a long way to go, but you can’t say I’m not trying. Point of reference – school is about 3 blocks from home. I pass by the beautiful campus of the University of Barcelona every day.

Came home for a quick change and walked the two blocks to the bus stop so I can make my way across town to meet a friend for our regular Wednesday singles game. Those who know me well, know that I’m better at doubles than singles, nevertheless we have great games every week. I walk in the door around 4:00 and head off immediately with Lilly – there are errands to be run.

The goal of this day’s excursion was to find some Rice Krispies. We did that at our first stop – a nice grocery store about 5 blocks from the house. You should know that there is another one closer (a lot are closer) but they don’t carry Rice Krispies. Off to Fruteca, our favorite little fruteria. We get the usuals – fresh milk, yogurt, fresh juices, clementines (oh, how we eat so many clementines), limes, blood oranges, and pre-packaged ibérico ham and fresh eggs. Net door is a bakery that we normally find with a line snaking down the block. We were in luck and walked right in. Bought a couple fresh loaves of bread, a tasty chocolate muffin and seasonal, delicious, sugary small donuts. With all the groceries and now fruit and milk weighing down our shoulders and filling our canvas bags, maybe we should make our way home. Then I remember the cute little spot for coffee on the way home – ODD KIOSK. Picture the cutest little pink kiosk, serving the best coffee brand in the city, stocked with curated and curious gay art. It’s amazing. And the owner in his adorable pink apron and awesome spectacles. I introduced myself (yes, in Spanish) and explained that we were soon to be neighbors! It’s actually just one block from what will be our new apartment in a few weeks! More on that later.

Coffee in hand, the bags were starting to get heavy. Dropped our haul off at the apartment with plans to go right. back. out. I had more errands. Again with canvas bags in hand we headed out for the liquor store (3 blocks from home). Got what I needed, even asking in Spanish for the ginger beer that was not in its usually spot on the shelf. The gracious employees knew just where it was in back, explaining that the shipment had arrived but it was not yet out. I feel more and more like a local every week. I promised Lilly that she could grab an A&W from Taste of America on the same block. It’s just what it sounds like – mostly American food imported and sold at ridiculous prices. I couldn’t pass up the bag of marshmallows though – I mean, we had a fresh box of Rice Krispies….we needed to make treats! Ok. Doubled back down the block, popped in the cooking store to do some recon on a soda siphon and French press. Didn’t need to buy anything but always fun to stop in. OK. Now around the corner to the gourmet store owned by the same people as the liquor store. These guys are total pros. I wasn’t sure how to describe them to you all – so I found this sweet picture online. Although the product line is slightly more updated than shown to included hand-carved jamón, cheeses, foie gras, the fanciest water I’ve ever seen, and a curated wine shop, this picture perfectly represents the space. The men all wear the same style uniform. It’s 2021 not 1960 and I love it so much! All I needed was a bit more ham (we ALWAYS have local ham in the house) and cheese and we were out the door. Walking back the few blocks to home I was reminded just how close everything is for us. And just how beautiful the surrounding architecture. Every day I notice something new and beautiful.

So, that’s a bit of a day in the life here. News from home is that our dads have both had their first vaccine shots…could it mean that travel is going to open up in the coming months? We feel like there is a light at the end of what has been a dark and lonely tunnel for them. We want to share all of this with our dads and whoever else can make their way over. Eventually.

Oh – and we are changing apartments! This apartment has served us well and was a great place to start our Barcelona life…but it is a bit small and has too many problems to overcome (still don’t have a fridge in its proper place, just one sitting near where it belongs in our tiny, tiny kitchen). We are sad to leave our kind, helpful doorman, Hugo. He’s the bright spot here! We will still come back and bring him sweets. Will post pictures when we get in our new place in a couple weeks. It’s 3 blocks up the street. That’s all for know. Love to you all.

This is the strange story of how I sort-of got my Spanish residency card (it still isn’t ready to be picked up).

When I went to go apply for my residency card, all my papers were good but the passport-style pictures we had taken at Walgreens in the US were apparently unacceptable. When my mom and brother went through the same process a couple weeks before, (it took a long time to get an appointment for me) the employee who approved them was baffled by the size of their photos. After much struggle, they just cut off the sides to make it smaller (they were very dramatic about it). The same thing happened to my dad. I, which I thought was lucky, had two photos that were taken on different occasions, one is in my current passport and the other is a backup. Because I had two that were pretty similar, we cut off the size of one of the photos to match it to the size my dad’s photo which had been cut down.

When we went to the appointment, the size of the photo was not the issue, it was the background color. I do not speak spanish so all I heard the employee say to my mom was blanco (white). I assumed that it was because the background of my photo was too white. For one of my two photos I thought there was no way to argue that the background wasn’t white, because it definitely is. For the other photo I thought there was a little brown so we might be able to use it as a non white background, even though I would still qualify it as a white. Turns out, he was flustered that the photo (according to him) did not have a white enough background. So he made us leave and go across the street to get a new photo. I was not ready at all because I had no idea that I was going to have my picture taken for a government document that day. We walked in, I sat down in front of the white screen, the lady there picked up her camera, I took off my mask for no more than five seconds, she took my picture, I put on my mask, and four copies of my picture were printed out (because they only come in four packs, obviously). We went back across the street and it all worked out, but it was still an aggravating process. Since you are given your picture back, because apparently only a scanned version of your is needed, I now have four copies of a really medicare picture of myself. Because I don’t have in person school this year, I thought it would be funny to send them to family members back in the U.S. as my school picture for this year. So, if you receive a copy in the mail, enjoy! You can totally frame it, though it is only about 1×1 inches big.