Arroz con pollo

We made it and it was delicious! Stop by if you want to help us with the leftovers.  We also made delicious liver and onions for el primer plato. 

Before: Bag-o-chicken

After: Sabroso!

Vivir en Gracia y los primeros días de trabajo

Dos cafes con leches en una plaza

We have been living in Gracia for the last week and are slowly getting used to living in Spain.  Gracia is a lively area of the city, filled with markets, shopping, plazas, cafes, and bars.  We have spent a lot of time drinking delicious cafes con leches and walking all around the area.  Max has been able to find a suitable substitute for chasing squirrels--pigeons!

Un perrito en la piso

Shopping for groceries is nothing like what we were used to in the US.  We have made our way through different markets and have somehow managed to buy food from the vendors through a lot of pointing and using hand gestures to signify how much we want.  We have been studying Spanish everyday and have learned basic numbers to order fruits and vegetables.  We are also finally starting to understand when we are told how much things cost!  Buying meat and cheese is a bit more daunting.  Today we bought a chicken!  We pointed at a WHOLE chicken (including the neck and head) and then the lady behind the counter started cutting it up with huge sharp scissors.  It was then given to us surrounded with wax paper and placed in a plastic grocery bag.  Tonight we are making arroz con pollo!

Un pollo en una bolsa

Life hasn't been all chicken and coffee, we also started work this week!  Everyone at work seems really nice and we have gotten to see and try out some really interesting VR demos.  We don't know exactly what we will be working on yet, but there are so many promising projects in the lab that I am sure it will be interesting (at least to us).  We will write more about work once we know what is going on.

La playa

Next week we will be leaving our temporary apartment in Gracia, and moving into our new apartment, which we are both excited about.

Los primeros dias

Our first few days in Barcelona have been very hectic.  On our first full day we did some apartment hunting and found one we really like, but aren't able to move into for a couple of weeks.  We therefore had to find a temporary apartment, rather than live in a hotel until then.  Finding one that would accept dogs was a bit of a challenge, but we found one and moved there sight unseen.  Luckily, it is really nice, and in a pretty cool neighborhood called Gracia.  The taxi had a challenge navigating the numerous narrow, one-way streets to get us here, and lugging all of our luggage up two flights of stairs wasn't fun, but we are here, and are enjoying having such luxuries as a kitchen and a washing machine (although figuring out how to use the dish washer and washing machine was quite a challenge).

Probably the most fun we've had was sitting in a police office for hours with many other people trying to get a national identification number.  Bureaucracy is the best!!!   After a few hours, David was able to get part of the process completed (go UK passport!).  Tabitha will have to wait until David has his to apply, since she has an American passport. 

Barcelona has been a really cool city so far.  Very easy to get around, either via foot (which we have done a lot of), or metro.  We have already had some wonderful meals (quartered lamb, iberian hams, white bean stew, even olives that David doesn't hate!).  The coffee is also wonderful. 

Max is doing well, and is rapidly adjusting to life in the city.  We think he misses an abundance of grass, but all of the interesting smells seem to make up for it. 

We've taken a few pictures we will try to post later, but we have to go watch the Barca game right now!

Estamos en Barcelona

We (including Max) made it!  We dropped off Max for his flight, checked all four of our (just under) 50 lb bags, ate some McDonalds for our last meal in America (not ideal but it was the quickest thing we could get) and got on our plane.  After the eight hour flight we arrived in Spain at 8:30am.  After asking numerous people how to get Max, we found out we needed to lug all of our bags to the other terminal and walk to the cargo center.  The cargo center was hundreds of yards away.  We gave up on trying to go together and Dave walked back and forth between the terminal and all around the cargo center trying to get Max while Tabitha stayed with the bags.  Five HOURS after getting through customs, we finally had our dog! 

We made it to the hotel tired, hungry, and in desperate need of showers.  (It rained on Dave and we were lugging over 200 lbs of luggage, including our carry-ons).

After an afternoon seista we went on a hunt for cell phones.  Even though it had been a long day, we were reminded that we made the right decision as we walked past the Segrada Familia on the way to find our cell phones.  It is going to be a long week, we just need to remember to stop and enjoy the scenery.