Christmas

From the best husband ever.

Lisbon

Lisbon seems to be the city of tiles. There are beautyful tiles all over the place, inside, outside, wherever you look. And they are usually blue.


The house on the right is covered entirely with those tiles.
Water fountains also make nice places to put some more tiles.As do restaurants. And all kinds of places, in fact. Though I have to say they create a somehow cold ambiente. But we tackled that with loads of good food, wine and hot chocolate.

Fire!

How to get the room temperature from 17°C to 22°C in only 15 min?

The challenge: a table fire or a bio ethanol chimney.
The problem: the table fires sell for around 80,- a piece.
Chimneys start at 200 and the cheap ones are not recommended.
The solution: two do-it-yourself table fires to heat up the room.

I spend almost an hour fighting my way to the local "muy mucho" (a kind of local "nanu nana" for the Germans among you). There I got two big glass jars, white sand, rose and purple coloured stones and some purple paper grass for decoration. At home I assembled the decoration around a cut fanta can and a corn can within the two glass jars.
Put some alcohol (of 96 or 98 saturation) from the local farmacy inside the cans.
Light the fire.
Enjoy the room warming up.This is the big fire, with a corn can as the fuel container.

And this is the smaller one.
You will need between 300 and 500 ml to warm a 20sqm room by 5 degrees with these two fires ;-)
AND it looks good.
For safety: the fires consume quite some oxygen, so check that your windows are as inefficient as ours when it comes to keeping fresh air outside.

Relax relax relax

So, while at my parent's house I started cuddling up with the kitties. Then I earned loads of un-innovating books for the graduation. And my mom came to BCN with me. And then I come back from work... and there is just a book. Some emails. But no homework, no mandatory books. Sooo great.
I'll start thinking about a PhD.

Graduated

Monday I survived my last oral examination: the defense of the Master thesis.
The results.
International: A
Germany: 1,0
Denmark: 12
Spain: Sobresaliente

And I am happy happy happy.
And now I have to celebrate.
Cheers.

Catalan National Day

Today is about the most important day of the year in Catalunya: the celebration of national identity. Of course it is a holiday and of course everybody getting hands on a flag will put it outside. Besides this there are loads of political acts, demonstrations etc (Per os paisos catalans - la lluita continua).

Sogar die Busse werden mit kleinen katalanischen Flaggen ausgestattet. Alle!

Museum Night

Yesterday we finally went to the FC Barcelona museum. Usually it costs you about 12 Euros, but yesterday there was free entrance to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first Catalan-speaking public television (TV3). Most of Barcelona's museums were open, however the usual touristic places (casa Battlo, la pedrera) would have meant a 2-3 hour line before entering.
The FC Barca museum however was almost empty. Probably due to its location.

Of course Ric was more than happy to see the "campo", although this time without a game running.
So he just took advantage of the "quite-realistic looking paper mannequins" ;-)

Exchange experiences

I have been a host sister. I have been an exchange student.
Time to be a host mom.

So this is our 15 year old exchange daughter, passionately trying to explain something in Spanish. Or was it Catalan? Considering she has been here for two weeks now, she copes quite well with those three languages surrounding her (Portuguese is her third language now, coitadinha).
Pacco adores her.
She does long walks with him.

remembering the holidays

OK, this is kind of late, as these are still from our July vacation when my parents and my brother came over to Barcelona. However, some smily faces come in handy at any point in time.
So, the first one is us, flavouring the world-best ice cream from Amorino en Grácia.

And here, me and the sexiest man alive, who happens to be my husband ;-)
Me and my mom, probably discussing fellow tourists.

Me and my favourite dad.

August

My favourite sentences at most small shops and even at newspaper kiosks:

Cerrado por vacaciones
del 1 de agosto hasta el 31 de agosto.
Ambos incluidos.

Literally meaning:
Closed for holiday from August 1st to August 31st. Both included.

Honouring local traditions I will be back in September. Need to finish a Master thesis.

Family visit I

Last week we had visitors. First my parents came with my brother Daniel from India. He left after three days, just to free the bed for my other brother Mathias who happened to give his car to a colleague of mine in order to finally start a conservative, boring life with a proper bed (and going back to studying).
Here you can enjoy the first photos of the visit. As they are from my brother's camera as of now you only get me and my parents. More photos will follow next week after I get my father's pictures into my computer.
So, here we are near the beach (at the Columbos Column near Drassanes). The weather was gorgeous. Not like in Germany at the time (16°C, raining). My father while enjoying our hammock. He definetly took to the Spanish life: sun, hammock and tapas. What else could you possibly need?
Meanwhile I would just re-organize my favourite bag (thanks to Edith for that one!), enjoying... ...that I had a full week of vacation.
We even managed to make a trip over the World Trade Center, where I work. Take a look at my desk (literally!!!):

Bit by bit

So this is me and Pacco, tadaaaaaaaa, on our balcony in our hammock! He doesn´t like it very much though, because it shakes. And as I am lying here, typing the transcriptions from the interview I did this morning, I can show you also our newest shopping result.
Finally we have a decent place to put our TV on (not this very old, second-hand black plastic IKEA-table I herited when I was still living in Leverkusen!). I am too lazy to get up from the hammock though so you get this rather shady picture done with the compu directly from the hammock. I promise to give you something better later.

Still looking for a good cause today?

If you have not done your good deed today, this is just your chance (and if you have: twice is always better): help the angels continue angeling.

As some of you may already know, I have been volunteering with Chemo Angels for quite some time now, working as a card angel. Chemo Angels is a program dedicated to supporting people undergoing cancer treatment. In addition to providing helpful information and cancer related resources, we match patients who are going through the difficult time of chemotherapy with "Angels." The function of these Angels is to bring a bit of cheer and encouragement- through little notes, cards each week and occasional care packages. The goal is to simply brighten the life of someone going though a rough time in their lives. There is absolutely no cost to patients.

Being a charity, Chemo Angels is entirely funded by donations made by the general public just so that they can keep paying off their day-to-day running costs. Please consider to donate a small something (or a bigger one), to Chemo Angels to make sure the Angels can continue to make a real difference in someone's life -

it is really easy!!!

You can donate by mailing a check or money order, or you can donate online with a credit card on their secure site, OR you can donate with Paypal.
Here is the link:

http://www.chemoangels.net/Donation%20Pages/donations_main.htm

Please consider contributing. Additionally, if you know a lonely senior or someone undergoing chemotherapy, please consider signing them up! You can do so, and find more information on Chemo Angels on their website: http://www.chemoangels.net/

How many pesetas do you still have?

It is very common to receive little papers when getting out of the metro, advertising different services like painting your apartment, changing your garden fence etc. This seems to be a good way to get new customers. At least it seems to work good enough in order to put somebody (usually the girlfriend/wife of the painter) giving out these papers in the morning. Usually I receive those papers to put them directly into the next bin, where already thousands of the same papers are waiting. Sometimes I even think that the girl that distributes them at the end of the day just takes them out of the bin to distribute them again the next day.

Anyway, here you see a photo of the paper I received yesterday. The person is offering to do different repairs in your house, painting stairs, painting apartments, tiling your floor etc. I was about to throw it away when I saw the prices! He'll paint your apartment for 95,000 pesetas!

Great!

But what if I do not have any pesetas left, because as everybody else I turned them over to the Bank of Spain to exchange them for Euros in 2002. And although you can still turn over pesetas in order to change them for Euros, you cannot do it the other way round. So, in case I want to paint my apartment, where the hell do I get those 95,000 pesetas???? Just in case you wonder how much that is, some banks still offer a tool on their site to do the conversion (http://4w.cajaduero.es/atclient/simula/eurocalc.asp).
95000 pesetas are 570 Euros.

Welcome

This will be the fruit of my first full salary. Have a look at our sofa-in-the-making. From July 25th on you may pay us a visit and have a look (or a night) on our first real sofa.
By the way, to find an L-shaped sofa with the option to turn into a bed and for a decent (well, almost) price is quite a challenge in Barcelona. But we made it:
And voilá: that's what it looks like with the bed. Actually there is enough space for 3 people to sleep.
copyright: shiito.es

I'll be back later

So, this is where I spent 90% of my non-working time awake. The other 10% is for eating ;-) I am SO looking forward to finishing my thesis and spent some quality time with other things...

Things are falling into place

I got a proper job, with a proper salary, proper working hours, and two afternoons off a week until september to finish my Master's.
Ricardo got a proper job, with a proper salary, proper working hours, and proper career plans.

The only thing missing is good weather ;-)

Rain in BCN

Sometimes it DOES rain even in Barcelona. Which is a pity for all those tourists that decided to spend their prolonged weekend (many European countries have a holiday on Monday - pentecost) in Catalonia. But the Catalans are more than happy, because we have been on water restrictions already and summer has not started yet. So every rain drop that helps to fill the local water resources is welcome. Could have been during the week though.
Anyway, THIS is the view from our balcony when it is not sunny... (doesn't happen so often, so I thought it was worth a foto):

Tibidabo

Last weekend we did a little excursion. There is this gorgeous church upon the hill behind our house (well, some 5 km away). During the night it basically glows in the dark, and we've been wondering how it looks like in reality ever since we moved here. So last weekend we finally made the journey. And THIS is how it looks like:
We were almost a little disappointed. It certainly looks better at night. Plus there is a huge fun park in front of the church which kind of spoils both the church atmosphere and the view on Barcelona. But well, if you have children up to the age of 12 aproximately then this could be a good choice to spend some time. And here is the view if you try to take the photo just cutting away the fun park (you can still see the last loop of the rollercoaster).

What we actually enjoyed much more was walking in the park afterwards and the tram. It is called "tramvia blau" in Catalan which means.... yes, you are right "blue tram". I honestly don't know how the word blau ended up in Catalonia, but it's one vocabulary less for me to learn ;-) Oh, and blau for female is blava. Just in case you wondered, hehe . I

The best ice cream in town

It is Italian. Of course. It is horribly expensive, but you won't regret even one cent. And you'll come back.
Vale-BCN proudly presents:
So if you ever come across Gran de Gracia (Metro Station Fontana, get out at Gran de Gracia, turn left and go down the street. The ice place is on your right... after about 500m.
Those of you who are more into milky creamy ice cream: get some joghurt or chocolate, or tiramisu or mascarpone. Or all at once. Because the special thing here is, that you buy a certain size and than you may put as many flavour into it, as you feel.
Today was my fruit day, so here you find a medium-sized cone for 4 Euros with Mango, Passion Fruit and Strawberry. I specially recommend the mango ice-cream. It feels like eating freshly-picked mango fruit without those naughty fibres sticking between your teeth.

Sant Jordi

In Catalonia, April 23rd is a special day: Sant Jordi (St. George), who killed the dragon in order to get to his princess. In remembrance of this special event, on this day women receive a rose from their husbands, fathers and friends, while men get a book.
But, knowing that most people realize their rose-and-book-duties on the very day, the rose-selling and book-retailing services are prepared: all over the town you can find loads of book and flower stands.Of course the Catalan colours need to be present at ALL times. As well as the usual more radical groups like "one language - one country", "Catalonia claims independence", etc. Most people smile and keep on picking up roses.
By the way, you don't even have to decide on the colour:

A glimpse at our living room

Yeah, we still need a sofa.
But I love the colour of the walls ;-)
Oh, and the things around the carpet are mainly to keep Pacco away from it until he learned it.
And the small table fits on the balcony.

Ficitous Marriage

I just heard a brilliant feature on ficitous marriage on Deutschlandfunk. So for those who speak German, you might have to spare some 40 min on www.dradio.de --> search for "Love Police".

BCN in the morning.

The view from the balcony, at about 7:30 in the morning.

What you get at the local market

... for barely 16.23 €
Including some entertaining quarrels with stressed out old ladies, totally convinced that they should be served first. 3 kg potatoes
2 kg onions
12 eggs
2 heads of letuce
4 pieces of leek
1 kg tomatoes
2 kg oranges
1 kg pears
2 kg bananas
1 kg strawberrys
5 cucumbers
600 g lean beef
200 g liver (for Ricardo)

+ one Ricardo to carry everything home ;-)

Breakfast

And that is our sunday morning breakfast scenario ;-)
Me, trying to peel some mini eggs (Wachteleier? huevos de cordoniz - don't know what it is in English), with Barcelona behind me.

First impressions

The Weather
During the day: warm and dry, though sometimes a bit windy.
At night: cold and dry.
I think we have seen rain twice since we arrived. During the night of course. However, Catalonia could need some more rain; they are talking about summer water shortage already.

Schedules
People won't work before 10 a.m. Consequently the library only opens at 10. But on the other side I can stay there until 9 p.m. Basically the day here starts later and lasts longer. Good for Ricardo who loves to sleep in. Different for me as I am an early-bird. Well, I just do some work before heading off to the library ;-)

Telephone and Internet
While in Germany it is difficult to get OUT of the contract (I am still fighting with Telekom who insist in offering me there "Umzugsservice" within Germany and refuses to acknowledge that Barcelona is NOT in Germany), her in BCN it is difficult to get IN. We signed our contract on February 23rd. And they can't even predict when we will get our connection. Probably before August (no kidding!).
Luckily our neighbour has a reasonable stable internet connection available. Without password.

The Mercat
We already found the local market around the corner. It is just gorgous. So much fruit, vegetables, olives, fish, meat and whatever you might imagine for about half the price than in the supermarkets. Lately we've been eating very healthy and very fresh...

The apartment
(photos will follow). The washing machine was delivered yesterday and is working just fine. We have a bed, a wardrobe, even a balcony table (see picture) and the only thing still missing is a sofa for our guests to sleep on. But I'll let you know as soon as we are prepared for you to stop by ;-)

Almost gone

This is a really strange feeling.
Yesterday I turned over the keys from the old apartment.
Today is my last day at work.
Tomorrow I'll be flying to Barcelona.
And then will start our new Spanish way of living.
With lots of work, a Master thesis on the run and good weather.

Did I tell you it snowed in Flensburg yesterday. We are having lovely 2 cm snow in front of my window. Who cares about white Christmas anyway, it's white Easter this year. But I am not really sad to leave I have to say. Time was OK here, university was great, work was interesting, but the town is just a little bit too small for me and a little bit too far away from everything.

In contrast: Barcelona! Regular flights to everywhere, loads of people, job and university remain the same (though on a distance basis). My godmother, namely Fortune, is doing quite a good job.

Well, I'll keep you updated. Also with fotos... as soon as I am reunited with my husband and the camera ;-)

Packing

We justed wanted to let you know, that we are packing things up. Ric leaves tomorrow, I'll follow on Friday!

And: Pacco is of course coming with us, so all of you who wanted to steal him away - no chance!

The view from the balcony...

Some complained that there was no balcony view... so here you go again. You actually see the sea on the horizon ;-)

The living room

Welcome to Barcelona... and our living room.
And the good thing: they will paint it before we move in.

Bedrooms

There are two bedrooms. One is directly next to the living room, which will be our bedroom. The other room is next to the kitchen and will be my study room / the guest room.
So, this is the sleeping room. It has the same view as the balcony, so every morning we'll be reminded of where we are from the very beginning of the day ;-)And this is my future working room. It does not have the great view, but well... I'll be looking at books and my computer anyway.. 80 pages to write for the Master's thesis...

Küche

That's the kitchen with loads of space for machines: coffee machine, Senseo, toaster, water boiler, micro wave etc... plus a space for the freezer and the washing machine. Perfect.