Sometimes the stars align

Ali's mother and sister arrived safely Saturday after a very long trip from Tampa.  They brought gifts for the kids, food, clothes, and a much needed lens cap for my camera.  Not sure how they fit all that stuff in their luggage but we are very grateful.  

Anyway, back to the "stars align" theme.  Ali has a friend from Tampa who is a big DJ (Tony Faline) who was coming into town to play a music festival here called Retro 2011.  As the festival was on the same day Ali's family was arriving, we had some concerns about how the timing would work out.  As they were pretty beat up from the trip they went to bed with the kids around 9 and so we had our childcare set.  The first star was in place. 

Turns out Tony wasn't spinning until 4 AM!  "Oh boy!"  After a brief moment of hesitation, we cowboy'd up and decided to put our big girl panties on and go.  We left the house around 11 PM and had some drinks across the river on calle Betis then headed over to the venue.  The festival was being held at a big outdoor amphitheater in Isla Cartuja.

http://www.sevillismoymas.com/2010/05/sin-noticias-de-la-final-en-el-auditorio-rocio-jurado/

We arrived to a crowd of crazed, undulating, gyrating young people with pacifiers and dilated pupils.  The entrance was packed with hundreds of people trying to get through the bottleneck the understaffed entrance security had created.  It was a mess.  We explained our guest list ultra-VIP status to the security guard, but to no avail.  We would have to brave the line with the lollypop kids.  Well, that just wasn't going to work.  Did we mention we were on the guest list?  After a few moments of deliberation, we made the only logical decision: bribe the security guard, which we did.  He must have found us amusing or something and let us through.  The looks of disbelief on the faces of the Spaniards waiting around us were priceless.  We were in.  The second star was aligned. 

After a very invasive pat down (at least buy me a drink first guys), we were let into the amphitheater and went to looking for Tony.  Amazingly, we found him pretty quickly after figuring out where the artists were hanging out.  He was able to get us backstage passes and we spent the entire night backstage hanging out with the artists and watching them spin.  The third star was in place. 

I am a big fan of electronic music, so to say I was like a kid in a candy store would be an understatement.  Tony's set was amazing and he had some hard core fans up front that he went down and met with afterwards.  Very cool.  It was a very unique experience and Ali and I had a great time with Tony and his wife Raquel.  Thank you guys!  We arrived home at the tender hour of 6.

Isabel is 2!

We celebrated Isabel's birthday on November 9th with a small family gathering (me, Ali, Camila, and Isabel).  The neighborhood baker made a nice little mascarpone cake that was delicious.  Isabel was very excited about her new Bullseye and Jessie toys and was able to enjoy them for a few fleeting but precious moments before they were usurped by her sister.  Isa also got a Nemo and Dorrie doll which are her new bedtime buddies.  It was a good 2nd birthday for our big girl.

 Isa with her new Nemo doll

Bullseye and Jessie

 Isa and Daddy

 Birthday dinner

Mac and cheese imported by Grandma

And now moving on to the injury/illness update:

1. Ali is recovering from what I believe was "walking pneumonia" following a Z Pack that a pharmacist was nice enough to give us without a prescription.  She has had a cough for a month that is finally improving.  Last week, however, she had a bout of Salmonellosis from eating an undercooked egg.  This is just now resolved today.  No broken bones or head injuries luckily, but the week isn't over yet. 

2. Dave: I also had a relatively mild case of Salmonella from the same meal as Ali, now resolved.  Other than dry feet, I have been healthy as a horse. 

3.  Camila:  My superstar!  Has been very healthy for the last few weeks.

4.  Isabel:  Our little petri dish.  She had a runny nose for a month, so I finally pulled the trigger and put her on antibiotics which dried her nose up nicely.  Awesome right?  But not so fast!  Over the last 48 hours she has broken out in a total body rash which has me concerned.  The rash appears to be erythema multiforme, which if googled may illicit an involuntary gasp.  We are watching it closely as this one can rarely get serious.  Worst case scenario is we take her to the hospital here, or if possible, get her back to Tampa in a hurry.  Most kids do not get the severe form of this disease, so we are remaining calm for now.  I think how things progress over the weekend will be tell tale.  As if this weren't enough, yesterday she did a face-plant and split the inside of her lip open.  She can't seem to catch a break on this trip health-wise.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and we will keep you posted.

-Dave

Thoughts and Reflections

A friend of mine recently asked me some interesting questions that caused me to reflect. 

1. What have I enjoyed about my time here that I did not expect?  I had to think about this one for a while.  Sure there are the obvious things anyone would probably expect moving to an interesting and culturally rich city such as Sevilla.  The food, the music, the architecture, the Spanish customs, the immersion, the language, the travel, the utter novelty, and of course, the rare opportunity to not have to work.

But what did I not expect?  Following a relatively lazy morning this week having a long breakfast with a friend it dawned on me. Time.  Simply having time.  The luxury of time to have a 2 hour breakfast and never look at my watch.  To go to the park everyday with the kids.  Time to think, read, write, learn Spanish, annoy my wife for sport, whatever.  This is what I bought.

It’s amazing to me that we have already been here for almost 2 months.  This trip was a very long time coming.  The amount of preparation for this trip bordered on the ridiculous.  I left a good job working with good people, sold my car, sold our house, shed untold amounts of belongings, and turned our life utterly inside out.  Some people didn’t get it.  Why?  For me it was simple.  I simply couldn’t continue to plug along in the trenches of human suffering indefinitely.  I needed to step away, get out of the hospital for a while, and regain some perspective.  And I don’t regret it.

I had big plans for this trip.  Intensive Spanish instruction, extensive European travel, cooking, lots of writing, etc.  Once again, the check-box mentality a lot of us can relate to.  Now that I have been here a while and my mind has slowed down a bit these plans have been moderated.  Sure, I want to pick up some Spanish, learn to cook Solomillo al whiskey, write and do some traveling, but chill out man, take it slow.  Poco a poco as they say here.  It took me about 6 weeks to get to this point and it feels good.

2.  What has been a challenge that I did not expect?  Interestingly, it turns out the biggest hassle has been completing the day to day, no brainer, routine errands we all take for granted in the good ole’ US of A.  Need milk on a Sunday?  Sorry, all the grocery stores are closed.  The kids will just have to drink water.  Want internet for your laptop?  Sure, after 3 exasperating days of dealing with inept Vodafone store employees (who were probably former shaken babies), multiple technical support phone calls, then finally connecting with the one person in the company with two brain cells to rub together, it gets done.  For a recovering Type A, get-r-done, to-do list making nutcase, this is challenging.

3.  Is Ali pregnant?  This was the easy one: NO.  Two drooling, screaming, histrionic, near-psychopathic at times preschoolers is enough for now thank you.

Time marches on and I look forward to whatever lies ahead for us in Sevilla.  My goals, simple as they may be, are not so much to emulate “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski, but to enjoy this down time and this unique place as much as possible.  If in the process I learn a little Spanish and make a few less to-do lists then all the better.


-Dave

What is that on the floor??

I had the pleasure of visiting the clinic yesterday.  I have been coughing for over 4 weeks now and I don't seem to be getting any better.  For 80 euros I got my lungs listened to, a quick look in my throat, and a diagnosis of pharyngitis.  Oddly, I don't have a sore throat.  Medicine must be taught differently here.  I am pretty sure I am suffering from some kind of irritant, most likely the air pollution and cigarette smoke.  Dave hasn't gotten sick from me, so it's got to be the air, right?  I am now on 3 different medications to alleviate my symptoms.  On a brighter note, Isa is finally showing some signs of getting over her incessant runny nose and cough which she's had for 6 weeks now.  However, in an unconscious effort to maintain a yin and yang balance in the universe, she promptly had a blowout diarrhea which leaked down her leg, was stepped in, and then tracked all over the house like a dog coming in from a muddy backyard. Needless to say, we spent our Friday night mopping the entire apartment. 

We had a great time with Dave's parents.  We did some sightseeing and checked out the Seville cathedral... which was amazing!  The architecture was incredible and as a bonus, we got to see Christopher Columbus, or at least his tomb.

 That's Christopher Columbus in there! 

 Camila definitely deserves a trip to Disney after enduring all the visits to churches and cathedrals we've been doing.

You won't find another 2 yr. old and 3 yr. old that can drink out of wine glasses better than my two.  Who needs sippy cups?

~ Ali

The Witches of Sevilla

Halloween in Sevilla!  Unfortunately, they don't trick-or-treat here like in the U.S., but the kid's school was decorated and all the kids dressed up for a class Halloween party.  The kids looked so cute in their costumes and they had a ball at school eating candy and scaring each other.  I was happy my parents could be here to see them all dressed up.  We are definitely missing getting together with our friends this year for Halloween.  

Tonight is my parents last night in Sevilla before they move on to Madrid.  One of the twins is babysitting and we are going to take in some more tapas and wine and stroll through the old quarter.  The weather is great today so it should be a nice evening.  Happy Halloween!

Dave

The Parents are in Town

This week my mom and dad arrived and we have been doing a lot of sightseeing around Sevilla.  We went to the top of The Giralda for the first time and were lucky enough to have great weather.  The views at the top are amazing.  During the week we were also able to squeeze in a Flamenco show and some great tapas at Albarama restaurant.  A busy week despite some serious parental jet lag.

Cathedral and Giralda Tower

View from Tower

Another viewpoint

This weekend we rented a minivan and headed over to Cordoba.  The old jewish quarter in Cordoba was really amazing and I think has Sevilla's Santa Cruz neighborhood beat.  The main cathedral, called The Mezquita, is a huge structure with mixed Moorish and Christian architectural styles. The original parts of the structure were started in about A.D. 600 by the Visigoths, then converted into a mosque by the Moors.  The massive darkened interior with all the arches is quite a sight.

Interior Arches

Moorish doorway

Camila in The Mezquita

Isabel being 2

Cleaning Day

My parents are arriving tomorrow so we spent the morning cleaning up preparing for the "white glove" inspection.  I have to pop over to Corte Ingles after Spanish class to grab some beer and wine and re-up on some ingredients for a few Spanish dishes I plan to make for the folks.  Another hectic, stressful day here in Spain.