Acclimation
Bon dia! (or Good Day!)
This is how they say it in Catalonia which is the part of Spain where we live. Those of you who were expecting a "Buenos Dias" were surprised. They speak 13 different languages in Spain and here they speak Catalan. Under the rule of Francisco Franco, the former Spanish dictator, EVERYONE was required to speak Spanish but the unique languages of the regions survived and there are many differences between Spanish and Catalan as is evidenced by the signs that sometimes appear in both languages. Gary and I understand very little of either language which is already becoming a problem.
The food here is delicious. The problems I had with heartburn in the United States have almost entirely disappeared. We had the most delicious little cakes that were like little Twinkies filled with chocolate creme - these were a problem - instant heartburn. I stopped eating these and the problem stopped. I'd rather eat a chocolate croissant at one of the five bakeries just a short walk from out apartment - no problem at all. Hopefully we will have toured more of the delicious hole-in-the-wall tapas joints so we know which ones to take you to by the time you visit. Honestly, we could go just about anywhere and you wouldn't be disappointed. So many wonderful choices at every turn of the road.
We had a problem with our hot water heater/furnace. Yes, it's combined in one tidy little unit that hangs on the wall in the utility room. We haven't had hot water since we arrived. Showers are surprisingly short and unpleasant, but we are spoiled Americans. Today the repairman came and with the help of Google Translate we had a conversation with him that was basically like the 1st or 2nd grade. This was enough to get the hot water heater started again and we're off to the races.
Bureaucracies are complicated and tiresome but obligatory. Gary has managed almost all of the paperwork regarding our move. In Spain, each person, legal or otherwise, is required to register at the municipal office in the town where they live. This is how the Spanish government decides to allocate resources - education at public schools, trash removal, etc. The paperwork for the title to our property has a different address (Carrer d'Isabel Julia 18) than the bill for our gas and electric (Carrer d'Isabel Julia 16). We both had a feeling that this would create a problem but we were allowed to register as residents of Sitges anyways.
Our belongings are still on a container ship off of the coast of France. The communications say that they'll be in the port of Le Havre, FRANCE on August 20th. Click on the link here to see for yourself.
https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/MOL-EMPIRE-IMO-9407160-MMSI-477655900
The shipping company provides you with the name of the ship carrying your pallets. You can check its whereabouts anytime you like. Interestingly, the ship was involved in a collision with another ship in Hong Kong a few years ago which resulted in some minor damage and a few shipping containers falllng into the sea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1V5ux_4Qyg But I'm not worried. Really, I'm not. You can find out the most interesting things from the internet!
Gary said to me as I was packing box after box: "I think you fail to grasp how much smaller our apartment is than our house." He was correct. I failed to grasp it. The apartment is indeed smaller than I had imagined and while I'm afraid that we'll need to purge many of the belongings I had hoped we'd be keeping, I still love the apartment. The location is practically ideal. A short walk to the most adorable historic town center you could ever dream of, a short walk to any of a dozen adorable beaches ranging from family-friendly to clothing-optional, and a dozen bakeries, markets, and produce stands to keep the house stocked.
We're still learning to navigate the mass-transit options. There are buses that take you to the adjacent town centers and a train system that is clean, cheap, and on-time. We bought bikes this week that will allow us some leisurely in-town rides.
Our upstairs neighbor, Marcella, is a hoot. I adore her and can hardly understand a word she is saying. She speaks a million miles an hour in Spanish and refuses to learn a word of English. Why should she? She is one of my biggest motivators to learn Spanish.
I should mention that while I had been thinking for a long time about posting something, it was because my friend Maria Azocar asked how things were going. Thanks to Maria for translating our personal statement from English to Spanish for our VISA application.
This is how they say it in Catalonia which is the part of Spain where we live. Those of you who were expecting a "Buenos Dias" were surprised. They speak 13 different languages in Spain and here they speak Catalan. Under the rule of Francisco Franco, the former Spanish dictator, EVERYONE was required to speak Spanish but the unique languages of the regions survived and there are many differences between Spanish and Catalan as is evidenced by the signs that sometimes appear in both languages. Gary and I understand very little of either language which is already becoming a problem.
The food here is delicious. The problems I had with heartburn in the United States have almost entirely disappeared. We had the most delicious little cakes that were like little Twinkies filled with chocolate creme - these were a problem - instant heartburn. I stopped eating these and the problem stopped. I'd rather eat a chocolate croissant at one of the five bakeries just a short walk from out apartment - no problem at all. Hopefully we will have toured more of the delicious hole-in-the-wall tapas joints so we know which ones to take you to by the time you visit. Honestly, we could go just about anywhere and you wouldn't be disappointed. So many wonderful choices at every turn of the road.
We had a problem with our hot water heater/furnace. Yes, it's combined in one tidy little unit that hangs on the wall in the utility room. We haven't had hot water since we arrived. Showers are surprisingly short and unpleasant, but we are spoiled Americans. Today the repairman came and with the help of Google Translate we had a conversation with him that was basically like the 1st or 2nd grade. This was enough to get the hot water heater started again and we're off to the races.
Bureaucracies are complicated and tiresome but obligatory. Gary has managed almost all of the paperwork regarding our move. In Spain, each person, legal or otherwise, is required to register at the municipal office in the town where they live. This is how the Spanish government decides to allocate resources - education at public schools, trash removal, etc. The paperwork for the title to our property has a different address (Carrer d'Isabel Julia 18) than the bill for our gas and electric (Carrer d'Isabel Julia 16). We both had a feeling that this would create a problem but we were allowed to register as residents of Sitges anyways.
Our belongings are still on a container ship off of the coast of France. The communications say that they'll be in the port of Le Havre, FRANCE on August 20th. Click on the link here to see for yourself.
https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/MOL-EMPIRE-IMO-9407160-MMSI-477655900
The shipping company provides you with the name of the ship carrying your pallets. You can check its whereabouts anytime you like. Interestingly, the ship was involved in a collision with another ship in Hong Kong a few years ago which resulted in some minor damage and a few shipping containers falllng into the sea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1V5ux_4Qyg But I'm not worried. Really, I'm not. You can find out the most interesting things from the internet!
Gary said to me as I was packing box after box: "I think you fail to grasp how much smaller our apartment is than our house." He was correct. I failed to grasp it. The apartment is indeed smaller than I had imagined and while I'm afraid that we'll need to purge many of the belongings I had hoped we'd be keeping, I still love the apartment. The location is practically ideal. A short walk to the most adorable historic town center you could ever dream of, a short walk to any of a dozen adorable beaches ranging from family-friendly to clothing-optional, and a dozen bakeries, markets, and produce stands to keep the house stocked.
We're still learning to navigate the mass-transit options. There are buses that take you to the adjacent town centers and a train system that is clean, cheap, and on-time. We bought bikes this week that will allow us some leisurely in-town rides.
Our upstairs neighbor, Marcella, is a hoot. I adore her and can hardly understand a word she is saying. She speaks a million miles an hour in Spanish and refuses to learn a word of English. Why should she? She is one of my biggest motivators to learn Spanish.
I should mention that while I had been thinking for a long time about posting something, it was because my friend Maria Azocar asked how things were going. Thanks to Maria for translating our personal statement from English to Spanish for our VISA application.
Thanks for pausing long enough to write some of it down for your fans! There are so many challenges to making a big transition like yours. Or even mine, impending, which is not quite so dramatic. I am already feeling worn out by all this, but that doesn't stop me from offering what I hope passes for a little bit of wisdom. Make sure that each day holds a few hours of what you sought in making this big move. If that's eating chocolate croissants in the morning sunshine, do that. If it's riding bikes down the coast or hiking in the hills, do those! Learn Spanish first, then Catalan. It's essential to learn Catalan, but if you don't have Spanish first, you can't take the language with you on jaunts to the rest of the country. Everything will be easier once you have some language skills. But thank goodness for Google Translate! Te quiero mucho, mi amigo.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Susan. Today we try to jump a big hurdle - getting an appointment for Residency cards. You're supposed to secure an appointment within 30 days of arrival but there are none to be had online. Walking into the office instead and I'm a little fearful it might not go well.
DeleteI am so happy for you. I enjoyed that clothing optional beach quite well. And yes, language...I brought home horse feed instead of coffee one day. (Okay, it was loose leaf tea, but I was sure it was hay!)
ReplyDeleteMy dear friend! Spanish and Catalan will come!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the update <3
Patrick! It's time to post again! Your friends need to know how you're doing.
ReplyDelete