Ola from ESPAÑA!

We finally have internet. Yay!!!! It's slow and sometimes can't connect but better than not having at all.

arriving in Madrid

Right now we are in Alhama de Murcia. We're staying in an apartment from Keith's work friend until we find our place. It's been a blessing, much better than staying in a hotel. It's a nice place but far from the city. So we always have to drive and driving  here is an adventure! They have these roundabouts everywhere that at the beginning they were a little scaring but now I think we're getting more use to them. Driving a stick hasn't been a problem at all. Keith is doing great and in fact he drove from Madrid to Murcia in a rain and with traffic. He did a wonderful job. I also didn't have any problem. As Keith said driving a stick is like riding a bike, once you know you'll never forget. So as soon as I started driving it was like I've been driving all of these years. I think the difficulty we face in driving is more related to the streets. I had to get a GPS to help me get into places (and I still get lost : )

exploring Murcia

Life here so far has been an adventure, too. Simple things as taking a hot shower or getting a shopping cart at the grocery store are in the list to learn and adapt to this new culture. It is so interesting to see how europeans live. They are much more concerned with the environment and their lifestyle reflects it. For example plastic bags that we use to pack our groceries (if you don't have your reusable one) are recycled, cost 0.001euro and we have to put as much groceries in one bag as we can and we do it ourselves.  It took me a while to understand how to get a shopping cart. A nice woman saw me struggling and offered to help. I needed to insert an euro to get a cart. To get the euro back just had to return it to the cart area. So there are no carts scattered all over the place.

tapas

One thing that impress me the most is how people here are soooooooo nice! They are very helpful even without us asking.Here people  have dinner very late. Most restaurant that we've seen open from 8:30PM.  Also weekends are for rest, specially Sundays. All stores are closed! We were driving around (and again getting lost) trying to find a store and a Spanish restaurant. The only one we found open around 7Pm was a Chinese buffet. 

Europeans also dress nicely. That's for sure some thing that I have to change since I'm so used to the Californian way of using flip flop everywhere. Here people look nice even when they go grocery shopping!!!

My happy boy ready for take off

Nicholas so far has been a trooper! He gave us no trouble at all during our flight. He actually slept throughout it and without benadryl!  He is doing great with the whole process. The only thing we're working on is a routine to sleep. He doesn't want to sleep in his kidco peapod (funny cause he slept fine back home) so he is sleeping with us, some thing that I'm not fan of but at least he is sleeping through the night.

sweet dreams with his stinky blanket

Keith and I are also doing good. Keith has been very busy with work and I with apartment hunting! We're very happy and thankful for being here!

PS: This is my third time living in a different country besides Brazil and I always have funny/ embarrassment moments. This time I'll try to share with you guys. I'll call it "OOPS"

So my OOPS of the day: I bought a cheap umbrella stroller at Carrefour. When I opened it at home I noticed it came with a wired alarm from the store. It didn't go off when I went through the security door but it did when I cut the wire at home. I felt like a thief! It was loud and didn't stop for several hours. I put in water to see if it'd stop and nothing. Step on it and nothing. It only stopped after several attempts of throwing it on the floor. I threw with so much power that it opened and finally was able to take the battery out. For those that watch FRIENDS, I was like Phoebe when she tried to turn off the fire alarm!!!! 

PPS: For those that don't know, my family and I moved to Spain. 

PPPS: My heart and prayers are with Japan right now! It hurts seeing the country and people that I love going through this devastation.