Barcelona — Week 1

Overall, many comedic moments.  4 people in our group, only 1 of us has had *any* training in Spanish.  Two of us have spent time with Rosetta Stone, but in my case it was brief and stopped months ago when the pressure of moving and work and so one took over.    Barcelona folks have been wonderful to us, graceful, helpful, humorous.

Day 1, Monday August 27.  Arrive!

Day 2, Tuesday.  Keys to apartment acquired!  Air conditioner installed.  Much discussion with doorman, who fortunately is a very nice guy who isn’t too put out by a family that doesn’t understand his language.  Buy refrigerator, not able to find washer /dryer.   LOTS of sweeping and mopping.  Enjoy the snacks and useful items in the apartment thanks to Alina. Internet installation “completed” at apartment but not working.

Day 3, Wednesday.     Move to apartment from hotel.  Refrigerator delivered.  Acquire SIM for unlocked phone — not so easy in Spanish, with unknown systems and unhelpful sales person.  Affordable phone calls now possible!  Local phone number now available for delivery folks!  IKEA trip yields dishes, towels, glasses, silverware, a few chairs, etc.   Inflatable beds a la Amazon our only actual furniture.  Internet connection acquired, but flaky.  The splitter “installation” is something out of a comedy routine — jammed into a window frame, hanging from the wires, one wire sort of jammed in, mounting hardware sitting on the radiator.

Day 4, Thursday.    IKEA chairs arrive.  Find and visit various local stores.  Acquire drill / driver, tape measure, door stops, keys, food.  MovieStar installer returns, sheepishly upgrades splitter installation into something passable.  Internet acquired!    Landline phone acquired!

Day 5, Friday.  Buy clothes washer and dryer.    IKEA trip to identify mattresses to buy.  (IKEA too busy to buy).

Day 6, Saturday.  Washer and dryer delivered.  Clean clothes possible!  Work sessions to get comments back on upcoming Mozilla matters.  3 small plants acquired for window-boxes.

Day 7, Sunday.  Try to get transit passes for boys, but arrive after 2pm cut-off.  First time of pure relaxation on the terrace admiring the view.  Work session related to upcoming MozCamp.

Day 8, Monday.  IKES tables, chairs, desk purchased.  (3 hour shopping trip).  IKEA stuff delivered, desks under construction.    School computer for our son acquired.  Birthday cake made, low-key celebration for son’s birthday.

Day 9.  IDEA tables and chairs built.  We now actually have a table!   Bed acquired!  Good-buy inflatable mattress for us.  (Tomrrow for the boys.)  Local phone capability lost after I tried to put SIM in a different phone and realized I don’t seem to have the PIN.  First trip to the beach, though just for dinner.  First scheduled work teleconference.

Day 10 (tomorrow).  School Orientation — 2 14 year olds starting high school.  Should be interesting. First full day of school is Thursday, I leave Friday for MozCamp Europe. Many exciting new things on the horizon!