Merry Christmas!!!!!

It is Christmas Day and I am sitting in our apartment as the sun shines in and the cold north wind from the Pyrenees howls outside.  It has been a very different but lovely Christmas for us here in Spain.  Some of you may know we were planning on being in Ireland with friends for Christmas but due to work issues for Anatolijus we needed to rebook that trip so will be spending from Dec 30 –Jan 4^th with Gwen and Monty in Greystones.  At first we were very disappointed and in the end everything has worked out for the best, more on that later.  Christmas Eve was a quiet day with Anatolijus getting home from work at 3:30pm and we enjoyed  a lovely candlelight dinner of marinated roasted pork and a spectacular red wine.  The part that has been missing is being apart of any community activities, carol singing etc.., just as I was really feeling this Grace and Tessa appeared in the kitchen with red ´song books´ and began singing all our favourite Christmas carols.  It warmed my heart and all of a sudden it really felt like Christmas had come.  This is the first time it has been just the four of us and, although quieter, it has felt special and has been a bonding time.  We are thinking of all our friends and family in Canada and elsewhere and wish you a very merry Christmas.

The Container is coming!  The Container is coming!

The other big event this week is that after sitting in customs in Valencia for 3 weeks we were notified that our container would be delivered to us at 10:00am Thursday Dec 23^rd.  The big hold up was that all of Anatolijus´ identification and documentation are under his Lithuanian EU passport.  This has been very helpful for his work status, getting a Spanish ID card etc…, however the problem was that they wanted to charge us tax on our belongings because it was a Lithuanian importing a container from Canada into Spain.  It took some convincing to prove that for the past 14 years Anatolijus has lived in Canada and is a citizen.  The timing of this wasn’t ideal, however it was great confirmation that our trip to Ireland would have been ill timed.  The two men unloading the truck took 2 hours to get all our belongings into the apartment and everything has arrived in good shape.  It is strange to see all our things again and although we gave away lots and put more in storage we are still unpacking things and wondering why we brought it.  This ´downsizing´ has felt great and in fact living with a few basics these last 5 weeks has been very refreshing.

We bought a Picasso!!!!

                   

Yes it is true: our family is the proud owner of a Picasso, not the ones you hang on the wall but a lovely new 2011 Citroen Picasso C3 car!  In an earlier blog Anatolijus described our experience with our car shopping, but we are happy to report that the salesperson at Citroen was very helpful and we were able to get the car two days after having to return our rental vehicle.  One advantage of Anatolijus´ client being Barclay’s bank is there is a bank right out at his office and he now has a personal banker.  Just as with everything in Spain, it takes lots of signatures and stamps to get things done, and, given nobody knows our Canadian history, companies are not prepared to provide discounts based on your past.  For example, insurance quotes for the car ranged from 1K to 1.5K € per year!  Fortunately a coworker of Anatolijus, who just returned to Spain after working in Britain for years, was able to hook us up with his insurance provider and with a translation of our ICBC good driver reports we were able to get a 50% discount, which was wonderful.  As a side note, one evening Anatolijus and I were looking at the ICBC website wondering how we could get a hold of our good drivers discount info, and saw there was a number to call.  We called and talked to Michael who was very helpful and friendly and he emailed us the info as we spoke (no stamps and signatures required!) – what great customer service and all from our apartment in Zaragoza.

Our Spanish Niños

On November 30^th both Grace and Tessa began school at Colegio Jesus Maria El-Salvador.  Tessa is in Infantile 2 and her wonderful teacher is Marta.  She has made some good friends already and, aside from a very difficult first day, is settling in much better than we could have imagined.  She gets lots of hugs and Spanish kisses and somehow she has responded to all of this very positively.  Her class did a Christmas presentation for all the parents and with 40 strangers in the room Tessa was very uncomfortable, but, to her credit, she stayed apart of the circle and if you looked closely you could see her saying the Spanish words.  Since then she hasn’t stopped singing the Spanish songs at home and it is wonderful to hear.

Grace is in Primaria 2 and also has a very special teacher Paloma.  The children in the class have welcomed Grace with open arms and when she arrives 3-4 girls come running to greet her.  On the first day the English teacher was there to greet her and in class Grace got to show where she was from and how she traveled to Spain.  It is hard for her to not be able to communicate very much but playing doesn’t  seem to need words.  On the last day of school Grace’s class along with the other primary classes did presentations for each other.  Grace’s class dressed up like pirates and did a song and dance routine.  Again it has been wonderful to hear her singing her song in Spanish and practicing the dancing.  Grace still misses her friends and says she would prefer to be in Canada and yet is doing a marvelous job at adapting and opening to new experiences.  The schedule for the girls for the first week was to go to school 9-12:30pm and then come home.  They then started going 9-12:30pm come home for lunch and then go back from 3:30-5:00pm.  All the other children stay for the whole day having a hot lunch, extra-curricular activities and play time.  In January the girls will try to stay for a full day 1-2 times a week.  The school is a semi-private Jesuit-Catholic school that is well respected for offering excellent education and we have been totally impressed with the teachers, admin and curriculum.  The school is a 20 min walk so the girls and I are enjoying this new experience.  The thing we were most concerned about in moving to Spain was how the girls would feel and especially what would happen with school, so we are thrilled that they are happy and are having such a positive experience.

Crisis! What crisis?!

When one thinks of crisis, words like "desperation", "need", "loss" and "necessity" come to mind.  I may have mentioned in one of my previous posts that it is hard to see the signs of this "crisis" here, lest the ghosts of semi constructed apartment buildings and ghostly cranes watching peacefully over them, as if to awake one day and complete the things once started.

So we went car shopping, to further test the laws of macro-economics during the "crisis" period.  We went to a few dealerships and the first signs were somewhat encouraging: the dealers were open on a Saturday: an excellent start.  But that is where the expectations of a car shopper should be kept to a minimum.  After an hour at a KIA dealer, we decided to visit Skoda dealer (made by VW).  One small Skoda dealership told us to drive to another and, since dealerships close at 1pm on Saturday! (and don't open on Sunday), they asked the other dealer to wait a few minutes.  We got there, to find quite an unhappy dealer: we were interfering with his plans of duing something else during this cricis of a recession vs selling a car.  In fact there were a few other people that came to the dealership 5 minutes later and he did't even want to let them in (he did let them in after they promised not to stay for more than 5 minutes).

After viewing the car, we arranged for a test drive for next Saturday at 10am at Skoda dealer and then at 11am at KIA (all this time we have a wonderful Spanish speaking friend helping us).  We get to Skoda to find that nobody is there at 10am.  The people show up at 10:15am, but they don't really want to talk to us.  Instead, they choose to talk to another couple who wanted to test drive a car.  After about 45 minutes, we decided that maybe the whole concept of crisis is just a figment of Western Society and not applicable to our locale, because there was certainly no desire to sell anything.  At one point I did ask about trying a different model, to which the dealer briefly (in broken English) replied "I do not recommend it" (not sure what that meant; maybe cars are just bad for your health, or something).

We were bewildered, puzzled, amazed, frustrated and determined not to ever come back to this dealership again.  So no Skoda for us (nothing against the cars, they are actually quite good).

So on we go looking for a car, hoping that just maybe there is a dealer around that is a little bit more worried about the current financial situation of this wonderful country. 

A

Hola from Spain!!  The girls and I arrived in Barcelona safely and on time on Friday Nov 19th.  Our flight left Victoria on Thursday at 2:00pm and although there was lots of emotion we were mostly ready to start our adventure.  Our traveling could not have gone better and the girls were wonderful.  On the long flight from Vancouver to Frankfurt we had three of the four middle seats but the lady who checked us in moved the man somewhere else so we had the whole middle section to ourselves.  Tessa thought Lufthansa was just ´wonderful´ - they had the best food and nicest attendants and weren’t we fortunate.  I really appreciate when she is so affable and pleased with everything.  Tessa ended up sleeping for about 2.5 hours but Grace did not sleep a wink.  This proved challenging when we transferred in Frankfurt because it was the middle of the night our time and she was beyond exhausted.  Again good things happened and we got put in a special security line that took 10 mins instead of 45mins!!!  Walking through the airport was long and tiring but with encouragement the girls hung in there and once we were at our gate for Barcelona Grace fell fast asleep.  She was basically unconscious walking onto the plane and didn´t wake until we landed at 3:15pm (6:15am Victoria time) in Barcelona.

Our luggage arrived with us and as soon as we walked out the doors Anatolijus was waiting expectantly with a big smile.  Our luggage was the last off the plane so he was getting worried as we were one of the last to emerge.  After lots of hugs and happy hellos we headed to the car park and started the last part of our journey, the 2.5 hour drive to Zaragoza.   Aside from Tessa throwing up (oh yes, she threw up on my lap during the last 30mins of our flight to Barcelona, she was fine and I was damp and smelled sour) and the drive feeling long we arrived in good shape.  When we walked into our apartment we were so happy to see a couch, coffee table, arm chairs, and a dining room table and chairs.  Anatolijus had gotten approval to rent furniture until our container arrives so we have no complaints as our biggest concern was this ín-between´ time which is now taken care of.  Tessa thought the apartment was beautiful and wonderful and Grace was quite unhappy saying, ´It is so empty and nothing what I expected¨.  In the morning with the sun shining in we all had a new perspective and Grace felt much better. 

The first week has been the girls and I adjusting to the time zone and being at home, walking to the grocery store and finding parks to play in.  It has felt strange not having access to any communication -  we don´t have a phone yet or internet or TV or radio.  At the same time the girls have played wonderfully together using their imagination and big pieces of cardboard and this únplugging´was something I was also looking forward to.  So we are safe and comfortable while also quite isolated so pangs of missing home and friends have certainly come.

Our next big thing is school – we have decided not to go to the private schools but have been accepted into a semi-private school run by the Jesuits.  It is considered one of the best schools in the city and people cannot believe they have found space for both the girls.  The other amazing thing is it is a 20 min walk from our apartment so my hopes of adopting the European lifestyle of walking most places is coming true.  Tomorrow we have a meeting at 11:30am with the teachers and then the girls can most likely start on Tuesday.  Grace is a bit nervous but mostly excited and Tessa has informed me she is not going to go to school.  The biggest relief to me is that the schedule of the school is 9-12pm and then I pick them up and take them home for lunch and then they return to school from 2:30-5pm.  It will be very different for us, however my biggest concern with the private schools was that both girls were to go from 9-5pm without seeing me and I didn’t think they could handle it.  I feel much better about this and the teachers we met briefly on Thursday could not have been warmer and kinder (good for a mother’s heart).

This weekend we took the girls to the old town and had café con leche and pastries at a beautiful café, we also went to IKEA with about 3,000 other people.  Today we visited an amazing aquarium that recreates the marine life of the Nile, Amazon, Mekong and Ebro rivers.  I have never been so close to a live crocodile in my life and the huge tanks of exotic fish were very interesting.  So we are getting to know our new city, it feels safe and clean and filled with families and young children.  We definitely need to now focus on learning Spanish so we can participate and get to know people.  We are feeling very blessed and quite surprised that we are actually here! 

We would love to hear news of you, Anatolijus just got internet for his laptop so in the evenings and weekends I can now access email.  We hope this finds you all well.  Cathy and Anatolijus

Family coming! Family coming!

Yes, only 4 days left until Cathy and the girls land in Spain, cant wait.  

Tomorrow I am finally moving into our new apartment (they call it a duplex here, because it is on 2 floors).  This weekend I was finally able to go and contribute to Spanish economy by buying a bed (at IKEA) and a few misc things for us to use while waiting for our things to arrive in a container in December.

Family is arriving in Barcelona on Friday, then we take a fast train to Zaragoza, which takes about 1.5 hours.  The girls will love the train: it is very new and very fast.  And then: to our new home.

On the weekend, depending on the jet lag and tiredness, we may do a bit of exploring of the city and just hang out, hug and cook our first meal (or go out if we are too tired to cook).

By the way, the bed I just bought is the one for the guest room: even before our stuff is here we are already all good to go for the visitors (wink, wink).

Ok, time to go iron some shirts for work tomorrow (did you know I can now iron and do laundry?

Canada in your pocket...

While I have been working most of my spare time, there are a couple of new experiences I am happy to share.  Here is one of them.  

Police.  Or Policia Zaragoza.  The other night I was driving home and turned left off the main street to my hotel.  Just as I stopped in front of the underground parking gates of my hotel, a little police car pulled up behind with their lights flashing.  Was I speeding?  Did I cut someone off? Did I make a wrong turn?

The policeman spoke quite good English once I told him I did not speak castelliano (Spanish' that is).  He asked me where I was from.  Once I told him I was from Canada you would have thought the guy was a friend of mine from long time ago.  He wanted to tell me that he heard lots of good things about Canada and one day he would like to go there.  I told him I was from the west coast, Victoria, which just made him so much happier.  Of course, being a polite tourist-like entity I am, I had to remind him that he does live in a very nice country, with lots of neat history, excellent food and cheap wine.  He was still quite keen on visiting Canada, to which I had to remain encouraging and very pleased of his enthusiasm (I do already miss the greenery in Victoria, not the rain, yet).

In the end, after asking me a few more questions, he suggested an alternative way to turn to the hotel driveway and drove off with his cop-partner.

Conclusion: Spanish cops are much more forgiving and less materialistic than my Lithuanian cop friends.  On my last trip to Lithuania just over a month ago I did have to volunteer some hard-earned cash in exchange for a friendly conversation about new Lithuanian traffic signal rules.  I suppose Lithuania is further east and less people know about a country called Canada.

On Argentine Tango

Last Friday my new friend Clara invited me to join her at a restaurant where she and a number of other people come together to dance Argentine tango.  She had told me before that tango was her passion and now I was going to be able to see her dance.

Of course, as the Spanish would have it, you don't want your dance activities to start too early.  We got to the restaurant about quarter to 11pm, which was still early judging by the empty place.  But people started pouring in around 11 and, without much ado, people got to dancing.

Here is a visual for you.  Picture any Hollywood movie staged around WWII, the place at a navy base, officers' ball.  Everyone dressed in their uniforms and the ladies in their evening dresses.  Officers smoking, all quite classy and the music is from 1930s.  Now just loose the uniforms and you have the picture...

Being an outsider and taking things in from a Canadian perspective, it was very interesting to see that: a) everyone wants to dance with a good dancer, so saying "no" quite openly is Ok (there goes our Canadian inclusiveness); b) I was told there are more women than men around, so men, especially the ones that are good dancers, are in high demand (not sure if that is a good thing, as it seemed the men had very little rest and opportunity to have an extra drink :); c) age truly does not matter - there were couples and singles anywhere from their twenties to dancers in their eighties!  And the best part of all, they rarely danced with their partners, rather they switched around to mix up the style and the tempo.

One couple who was there was Spanish professional dance couple, and they did look the part.  While, being a novice, I could not pick up the very intricacies of the dance, I certainly could tell the difference between the very good ones and the so so ones.  I also made a special note of the fact that women bring their dance shoes with massively high heels and men bring shoes that help them dance better on smooth surfaces.

Along with the variety of ages, people seem to mix with various socioeconomic classes.  For example, I sat with a couple, who were very well known neuro surgeon and neuro physician (I was told they were some of the best in Spain).  They were very pleasant, spoke good English and have been to Victoria and Vancouver.  Whenever I tell anyone about being from Canada and Victoria, they always say "oh, I would love to go to Canada, I hear it is very nice", which I readily confirm.  And then I do have to reinforce that in Spain they do have the best food and much cheaper wine :)

At about 1:20am I have to politely excuse myself as my still-Canadian-stamina obviously cannot keep up with the average 80-year-old, so I will need much practice on this.

Kisses on both cheeks, a few handshakes and I head back to my hotel. Very civilized, passionate and enlightening way to head into the weekend...

First impressions... Zaragoza!

Hi all or should I say buenos dias!

So here comes my first (of many) update from the sunny Spain.  Just
finishing my second week here and impressions are plenty.  So here we
go...

First, I must say that for the most part, Spain, and the city of
Zaragoza in particular, have already exceeded expectations.  Cathy and I
came here two weeks ago on a home finding trip and had a few days to
check out living spaces and schools for the girls.  We were expecting
small spaces and were very surprised and impressed with the types of
accommodations that were available for families.  We saw many, and most
all of them were more that adequate.  We ended up getting a lease on a 4
bedroom 3 bath 2 story apartment ( they call it duplex) in a new part of
the city, area called Via Hispanidad.  Lots of windows, 2 terraces, pool
for the complex and a tennis court.  And the most important part: a nice
size bedroom for guests with completely separate bathroom.  Oh, and did
I mention all that closet space?  Our agent thought we were funny when
all we did was ooh and aah about the closets in every room.  Very
impressive space planning.

We also checked out schools for the girls, one interdenominational and
one catholic, so decisions still remain on which one will be a good fit
for the girls.  One very different part of schooling here is the fact
that kids go to school from about 9am to 5:30 pm.  A very long day.  So
this part will be hard to adjust to, or at least that is what we think
at the moment.

We arrived in Zaragoza during one of the most important celebrations in
Spain and Zaragoza, commemorating Pilar, guardian saint of Zaragoza.  As
you may know, Spanish celebrate well, where everything is shut down for
a week; but the advantage is that there are lots of special street
markets and foods from Aragon region.  And, of course, we had to visit
the Basilica del Pilar, which is the largest one in town and one of the
biggest in the world.  Spectacular, and very catholic (isn't the whole
country?) ...

So we celebrated too... Enjoyed our first tapas y pinchas, went out to a
few restaurants, which do not open until 9, but are certainly worth the
wait.  Food here is amazing.  While sodium intake is likely somewhat
higher than in Canada (think much higher!), they don't really use much
processed food, which is much healthier.  Everything is fresh and
prepared from scratch.  And the best surprise of all was our restaurant
bill...  Let me explain: Cathy and I love to do estimating before the
bill comes.  So we did.  (I need to mention here that we are experts at
this game).  The bill came and it was way low.  The reason: we had 2
glasses of excellent Spanish vino blanco each, and each was less than
2$!  Now we are talking!

Wine deserves it's own special mention: Aragon region borders Rioja
region, which produces some of Spain's top wines (which Spanish region
doesn't !?).  Every grocery store has a spectacular selection of Spanish
and world wines, at prices that will make you weep.  For example, vina
Albali 2004' is just under 4$.  Or Monasterio de las Vinas 2003 Gran
Reserva is under 10$.  Ok, ok, I will stop now.

Shopping, being an important part of our lives, is very good and
convenient here.  Supermarkets are plenty, accompanied by very nice
local markets, where you can buy fish, meats, cheeses, veggies and
fruits.  Other than the stores close early and are not open on some
days, the selection is excellent and in some cases much better.  For
example, fish, meat and cheese selections here are much more diverse
than what we are used to.  Notable is the lack of processed foods.
Prices on most basics are at about 60% of Canadian prices, with some
items being similar.

Transportation in the city is very good if you are not driving and
taking a public bus.  Driving here can be tricky, since they have many
roundabouts with no lanes in them, so it is a bit of a road version of
their bull fighting, where you hope not to get hit.  Lots of people ride
scooters and bicycles.  Overall the roads and highways are very good,
and the highway to Barcelona is amazing, with barely any cars on it.  It
appears that during the recent boom lots has been done through
investments in infrastructure.

How is my work going?  Well, it has been an interesting week.  The
building from which we work is located on the outskirts of town in a
place called Plaza, by Zaragoza airport.  It is a bout a 20 minute drive
from downtown.  Our offices are in a brand new building that was built
by Barclays as their flagship Spanish operation.  HP now has taken over
the building and we run the operations in it. 
Operation is just over 500 people, all located in this site on 3 floors
of one big building.  Lots of space with lots of glass.
My first impressions of the team are very good: they are very young,
capable and energetic, excellent potential all around.

My first week hours: 8:30am to 10pm.  I did manage to get out early on
Friday about 7pm :). Reminded me of the days when I joined EDS after 1.0
went live.

Last night I had a few memorable experiences here in Zaragoza.  At 6pm
one of our it analysts, who speaks excellent English, got us tickets to
go to a football game (yes, football, not soccer).  And who was playing?
Nobody other than Football Club Barcelona vs. Real Zaragoza!  Saw Villa,
Iniesta and other stars, who are best players in the world.  It was very
interesting to see opposing fans do their chanting and screaming at the
referees.  These games appear to be a great outlet for human emotion
during the challenging economic times.  Felt like going to church...

After the game, a few tapas and some wine, I met with a lady friend who
was our agent in helping us pick a place to live.  She invited me to
meet a group of friends that meet once every week to practice their
English, French or Spanish.  We met at a restaurant, had a communal
dinner for 30 people, listened to excellent live music and even did some
dancing.  Clara, who took me to meet these people, also is a competitive
argentine tango dancer, so seeing her dance was quite an experience.  I
looked at my watch and could not believe it was 2 am.  Now I am starting
to get why people start work around 9 or 10 am...

So here I am, still waiting for reality to kick in once all that
adrenalin and excitement wears off.   Looking forward to Cathy and girls
coming in mid November.  In the meantime, off I go to IKEA to start looking at some furniture to outfit the guest room for YOUR VISIT!

Miss you all (it is true), and will write more soon.