No Carefree Tourists

How different it is to move to a city than to visit as a tourist. Finding a place to live, getting cell phones to work, finding places to buy lunch boxes and power cords, figuring out how to make an appointment in Spanish with a Doctor -- this is what fills our thoughts. The museums and ancient monasteries that intrigue me are not even in my peripheral vision (Thank God, says Adele).

13th century monastery north of Madrid, that we are NOT visiting

Where to Live?

When we were sorting, rather rapidly, through our possessions in Concord, designating items to store or send to Spain, we were imaging moving, almost directly, into an unfurnished house of about the same size where we would reside for 2 years.

One of many Spanish houses that we are definitely NOT living in

Shortly before the moving van arrived we learned that it would all remain in storage until we had our residency visas, which could take until sometime in October. So, we quickly pulled out some more clothes, some documents and, most importantly as far as I was concerned, lots of art supplies for an air shipment.
We thought that, while awaiting our furniture, we would move right into a lovely, furnished apartment near the girls’ schools.

NOT the apartment building that we are staying at

That plan, like so many, evaporated on the trail between Spanish realtors and the many bureaucratic links of Matt’s American company, Oracle. What actually happened is, we stayed at an average sort of hotel the first night. The next day, while the children read and slept off jet lag

Matt and I drove around looking at for a decent “aparthotel” to stay in, we hoped, very temporarily.

Here is Matt coming out of the first aparthotel. It had the look and feel of a state mental institution after severe budget cuts. The one we have ended up in, while nothing close to the lovely, well located apartment of our imaginations, is not too bad.

Margot doing dishes and laundry
in our kitchen

One of my secret fears about getting married was that I would end up looking like a character from a George Booth cartoon. What do you think?

George Booth character

Here are Matt and I in the lobby of the hotel. The girls found the name of the hotel amusing as it seems to be a confusion of several distant locations in the States. I would have more photos of the Adele and Iris, who are obviously a good deal cuter than us, but they are quite squirrelly about photos.

Since arriving in Spain we have learned that the process of getting our visas, and therefore all our furniture etc., is more unpredictable, and probably a good bit lengthier than we thought. As a result, we will either be in this hotel for 2 to 4 months (possibly longer) or get a house and rent a smattering of furniture to get us by till the shipment arrives.

Settling into a new country with a new language can be pretty exhausting. Here is how we have been quite content to spend our evenings in this exotic new land:

Till next time!
Margot