Saturday was another full day. We met our friends, the Rapkins, at the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit in the Dome of the Arenas which is now a mall but used to be a bull fighting ring. Seeing all his inventions and paintings in one large exhibit was certainly impressive. We ate at an easy restaurant for the kids and drilled our friends on more questions about Barcelona since this is their second year here.
From there I went shopping with the boys and Kelli went off with Leila to buy clothes and school supplies. The boys team got candy and football jerseys. Whoops.
Thanks to Instagram, I saw my long-time friend, Richard Banfield and his son where in Barcelona. A few DMs later and they were on our terrace drinking wine and playing guitar. He officially became our first visitor from Estados Unidos.
Sunday, we decided to hang low most of the day as it was hot out and the kids wanted to relax because Monday was their first day of school. Again, we pushed it by keeping the kids inside too long and before you know it they were on each other throats and it was def another low moment of our trip. As my long time coach, Kim Ades, says it is the low moments that give us contrast so we can appreciate the high moments. Suffice to say moving to a new country and starting a new school leads to hidden stress and anxiety that can come out in different ways.
We got lucky that our friends from Park Slope were in Spain on vacation and drove to Barcelona on their last day. We were able to have drinks with them in Turo Park and then they came over to hang for a bit before heading out.
The kids got their backpacks ready and we all went to sleep way too late for a 7am wake up for their first day at an international school in a new country!
As a bonus, one of Kelli’s friend who saw my posts used to live in Barcelona and shared with Kelli the W curve of Cultural Adaption people go through when they move to a new culture and then come back home. Shared it above.