Week One

It's the weekend! And we couldn't be more thrilled to slow down, sleep in, and relax a little.
It has been a hectic week.

Yesterday marked the end to the kids' first full week of school in Spain. We celebrated with una taza de chocolate y churros after school.
The hot chocolate here is very different than what we are used to. It's thicker, more like melted chocolate. And the churros are for dipping-- yum! There's a good place just around the corner from our hotel. It's always packed, but worth the wait.

Their first week was a success, despite an occasional setback.
Alex couldn't communicate that there was no toilet paper in the bathroom, and so she just held it.
Derek fell out of his chair and bonked his head.
(Twice.)

There were also successes-- Alex was introduced to multiplication for the first time, and she was able to learn her number 2 times table and recite it-- in Spanish!
It was a double accomplishment to learn multiplication while still not totally familiar with the numbers.
It's super cute to hear her..."dos por cinco, diez" with the characteristic lisp of Castillian Spanish.

Derek had a note sent home asking if we could let him know that it's okay for him to eat the soy yogurt. We had seen yogurt on the menu and told him not to eat it, not realizing that they would have a soy option. He didn't believe his teacher when she told him he could eat it.
We were glad that he was overly cautious, and also glad that the school is being careful about his food. A big relief on both counts.

Here's a picture of Alex in her dress uniform.

Unfortunately, when we picked her up on Friday, her brand new sweater which she had worn exactly two times was missing. It does have her name in it, but we're not totally optimistic that it will make it's way back to her. In it's place, the school gave her an old one from lost and found that looks...old. And is too big.
We may have to take out a small loan to replace it if it's not returned.
Sheesh.

This week Josh and I logged miles and miles as we hit the piso market. There are lots of options, it's just a matter of weighing the apartment itself with location and how connected it is to local markets, Metro stops, and places we will frequent.

I fell in love with one place that was a little over our budget, so we made an offer that was within our budget and are waiting to hear back. We do have some backups in case they don't want to negotiate.
Hopefully this coming week we will be able to nail something down.
Once we choose a place, the Embassy security team has to come and do a security check before we can sign a lease.
I can't wait to be in our own place again! The hotel is great, but it's just not the same. The kids need toys and space and though it's impossible to believe that these words are coming out of my mouth-- I'm ready to eat a few meals at home.

Here's some little restaurant we found for lunch one day.

I like the Spanish foods, even though most of the time we have no idea what we're ordering.
Things are getting better now, but for the first week of being here, Spanish food did not like me. Before we'd leave the hotel, I'd map out where I could find restrooms along our route.
For all that people say the Metro here is so great, there's not a baño to be had in the whole system.

So Josh and I managed to get our metro passes! We felt like we hit the lottery or something ;)
The kids have appointments to get theirs on Monday before school, so soon we'll be swiping our cards and looking like we belong ;)

Or something like that.

Today (Saturday) we relaxed over breakfast and coffee, and headed out to Madrid's central park-- El Parque de Retiro. It's ginormous, so we really only went to one small section that we knew had a playground as well as a lake.

Waiting for the metro

Playground

Blurry shot of the lake

After that we headed to a different neighborhood, where our piso number 2 choice is, to scope out the area some more. We found this great park just around the corner from it, so the kids definitely wont mind too much if we can't get our first choice.

Enjoy the weekend!