Day 75 – The Flamenco Show
After getting back from a full trip in Valencia, Kel and I went back into our normal routine and gave my parents the day to explore more of Barcelona. They chose to go to the Gaudi Museum and really enjoyed it. Kel had another trick up her sleeve to give my parents one last unique experience before they left.
We got tickets to a flamenco dinner show. It was as touristy as it gets, but my parents loved it. The performance lasted about an hour and even all 3 kids seemed to be mesmerized. In fact, I could not believe how focused Jonah was until he closed his eyes and his head roll back, and I realized he was just exhausted. But it was a fun night with a great performance.
Day 77 – Parents Slept Over/ Forum Meeting
For my parents last night, they ended up sleeping over which was a good way to end the trip. Leila was nice enough to give up her room for them. During the day, I had my forum meeting with the second forum I joined. It is a nice mix of international people who have businesses in different places in the world.
We started with lunch and then went into our 4 hour forum meeting. Long story short, my final take-away was that it was good to be back in it, learning about other’s businesses and sharing about mine. A big part of staying outside your comfort zone is knowing you are not alone in your challenges, and being in a peer group like this is just the type of support entrepreneurs need.
I walked back and had an hour conversation with Lawline’s COO about the closing out of the year and our 2020 strategy. There are ups and downs about being 4000 miles away. On the one hand, it allows me to focus on the future. However, on the other side, I can get more disconnected about the day to day. Conversations like this on a regular basis are key.
Kel made dinner for everyone for my parent’s final night and we all headed off to bed. During dinner, we discussed highlights of their trip.
Day 78 – Wednesday – A Great Dinner with Friends
My parents left first thing in the morning and I took the kids to school. In my Spanish class we started doing role playing, which was an important shift from passively listening to actively trying to speak with others.
After the gym the rest of my day was focused on work. Then I had my monthly touch-base call with Bryan Wish. We discussed the possibility of expanding the reach of this blog because it is as authentic as it gets for me. It combines a few key areas that I believe many others can connect to and relate it back to their own lives. This includes:
1) Getting out of your comfort zone
2) Travel
3) My personal story and not too much business
4) It focuses on mindset
5) It is open and vulnerable, including the struggles of raising a family in a new situation
Stayed tuned for more on this in the coming months!
That night we went to dinner at Xavier Pellicer with new international friends. One of my goals in my 50 day grade post was to connect with more non-Americans. It worked out great because she was a vegetarian and he was as sarcastic as me. It turned out that other friends of ours were at the restaurant too, and once again reminded me how great it is to have such a strong community in Barcelona, less than 3 months in.
Day 79 – Thursday Parent/Teacher Conferences
Today was our first parent/teacher conferences at our kids’ school. One thing that was new for us is it was the first time they involved our children in the review in the middle school. It was more of a 3-way dialogue vs. in the past, it was teachers sharing their two cents with us about our kids.
This is so silly, but I realized that we’ve been here a while as today was my second haircut. What was cool is that I searched the word “haircut” in the blog, as I could not remember the exact day I got the last one, and I saw it was Day 38. Second haircut, 41 days later at Day 79.
Afterwards we picked Jonah up from soccer with the twins, walked them to the art class they all take together, and Kel and I went to a cafe to relax. Finally, we got home to a fully stocked kitchen with fresh food and several delicious-looking meals from our amazing chef who comes once a week. We ate dinner, did laundry, and packed to head off to London the next day.