I started my day determined to figure out what I did wrong the day before that lead to getting lost of almost an hour on what was suppose to be ten minute drive to school. So after focusing on work all morning, I went for a run just after 10:30am. Ok, make a right here, go straight and make a left on this main road. Ok, now I will run straight and see what happens.
Just under a mile later it becomes crystal clear what I did wrong. If you stay in the middle of the road it goes down into a highway, if you stay on the right it continues as streets. Waze had me going into the highway, but making the first exit off it (so unnecessary!). Right past that exit I could see the tunnel that actually goes right through the side of the mountain. I look up and to the right and the school is essentially right there. Doh! Exactly where I get into the tunnel is where the school was located.
These are all the different things you learn many times by trial in error in a new city that we take for granted at home. How fun to be learning new things outside our comfort zone!
I decided to run by the school, heck maybe I would get lucky and see them outside. I ran up the hill and looked over the fence into the courtyard. The students look around my kids age, but no luck. I kept running up and hit a dead end so I headed back down. Maybe I’ll do one more look. I pierce over…and victory. I see my kids waiting in line for food. I scream there names and get a wave, smile and some small talk. It is these little things in life that make us happy.
As I head back down the hill (it is essentially a mile up hill to my kids school) the sky opens up into a torrential downpour (that is for you Lauren). I had not run in rain like that since my marathon training days. While it was a cold rain it was fun.
I did so more work at home and met Kel there. She came from her normal morning routine of dropping the kids off and then headed to yoga. That’s how you know it is starting to feel like home. She did that almost every day in Park Slope. She was soon headed to a lunch with 11 other mothers. Isn’t that great, I thought.
I headed to the gym. Love that it is so close and I could get a quick workout in almost every day even if I run in the morning. I feel like I have so much more time here as my meetings with the NYC office do not normally start until at least 4pm. After my workout, I got food from my favorite Wok place and brought it home. Okay, feels like I am starting to get my routine too.
We have monthly meetings in my company with the whole team going over the highlights from the month. I joined the meeting via zoom. Inside I was smiling ear to ear hearing all the updates and progress we are making on our projects. After I had a couple more video chats that lasted until just before 8pm.
We were invited out to dinner with Jonah’s class buddy family which was so nice. They are from Barcelona so I appreciated the opportunity to have alone time with locals. The restaurant did not open until 8:30pm, so when we sat down we were the first ones there. Gotta love Spain.
It was great dinner. All the kids got along. We had nice conversations. Because it was still pouring when left they gave us a ride home. Such a nice family. In fact, they are going to introduce me to some local lawyers so I can better understand how the legal system works in Spain. Looking forward to continuing the conversations with them.
We got home and were pooped. The next day is 9/11 which of course means so much for us. In Barcelona, coincidently there is no school as it is the National Day of Catalonia. It is a day that commemorates the fall of Barcelona during the war of Spanish Succession in 1714. I am told up to one million people will be out on the streets. More recently, it has been a place for protests for those who call for the independence of Barcelona. So it promises to be a full day, of course as was today.