Less Excitement = Fewer Posts
I am way behind in posting. Apologies if anyone has been waiting with baited breath.
The week of 02OCT was great because my Spanish class was really outstanding. There were only 4 students in the class, all 4 of us loud-mouths who were easily sidetracked into all sorts of discussions. It made a huge difference to be in a smaller class and we really bonded. Somehow I wasn't the oldest in the class. There was Gary, early 70s, from British Columbia, and Peter, maybe late 30s, from London, and cute Omar, from Iraqi Kurdistan, all of 30 years old. The 4 of us took our breaks at the coffee house across the street where we inhaled coffee and pintxos in the 10 minutes we had, chatting about this and that. Elena was our teacher again and she was cracking up with the rest of us.. A great week..
The big bureaucratic accomplishment of the week was opening a bank account! The previous week I had gone to two "hip" banks where I waited in long lines only to find out that I had to have a residency card to open an account. I thought I would try Bankia, which is just around the corner from the house. The bank was near empty and I think they have a rather stodgy reputation, but they were happy to open an account for me. It took something like 45 minutes of paperwork filling but I am now the owner of a Spanish bank account! I don't know why but a lot of places don't accept credit card payments on a monthly basis, and more than one place has told me that Spanish law prevents them from keeping credit cards on file which sounds ridiculous. So now I can pay for my gym membership and Andreas's tennis lessons with my bank account.
I also got back into the pool this week. There is a 25m pool about 10 minutes from the house and this is one of the reasons I am in the Chueca neighborhood. Swimming for me in Brooklyn was a ridiculous ordeal. Last summer I remember driving to Williamsburg, parking the car, swimming, and driving back to Fort Greene. But in September (2016) when everyone came back from wherever they were I drove to Williamsburg and couldn't find parking anywhere. I drove around and around for 20 minutes with no luck. I gave up and drove home, where I drove around and around for another 20 minutes just to find parking. The whole ordeal took about 90 minutes and I didn't accomplish anything. So from then on I decided to take the subway to Chelsea, but that took forever. I decided then and there in the future I would live within walking distance of a swimming pool. And the pool here is really nice. I pay all of €47/month with access to a beautiful pool. It is a bit crowded, and no one seems to pay any attention to the signs that say "calle rapida" and "calle intermediata", but for now I am very happy having a pool so close.
Friday night the 6th we had Ana and Murat and Mateo over for dinner. I made a collossal (sp?) amount of Pad Thai and it worked out great. I am happy to be cooking Asian again!
Saturday night I flew to Togo for business. I hadn't been in Togo in about 10 months and I needed to make a trip to work with my client ASKY, but the summer had been so chaotic I didn't have any time. Markus had a soccer game on Sunday, which I missed, but Ana was sweet to go to the game and cheer him on. What would I do without her?
I was concerned of course about finding the right person to stay with the boys, and Ana recommended Mery, a very sweet Bolivian woman. She spent school nights with the boys to make sure they were fed and woken up in the morning. It worked out extremely well, espeically as Mery speaks not a lick of English and the boys have to suffer with language, which is the only way to learn. Andreas praised her food and the boys said they would be content with her again in the future. Which is great because I am going to Ethiopia on the 22nd and I want to squeeze in a trip to San Francisco to see my dad.
I got home the following Saturday, the 14th, after flying from Lomé to Dakar on ASKY (my plane is above), and then Dakar to Madrid on Iberia. The flight arrived Madrid at 04.30am but it was a quick connection. Markus had had a soccer game planned, but Thursday and Friday were school holidays and the game was cancelled! The boys spent most of those days in front of screens which I wasn't happy about but they do a lot of running around so I guess it isn't the worst thing. I slept most of Saturday but we were getting cabin fever at home by Sunday. Mateo had a game Sunday evening so I rented a car from Respiro and we headed out to Alcobendas. It was great to see Ana and Murat again. Mateo played well, and after the game we went out to dinner at a local Italian place. It was fantastic to have dinner with them and just hang out.
Next week back to Spanish class!