It's Been One Year and La Rentrée

We celebrated the one year anniversary of our move to France at the end of August at the Pyrénées-Hô adventure park, which is located on the French side of the Pyrenees Mountains, an hour from our apartment in Spain.  Besides having an unfortunate name when anglicized, we had the best time scaling rocks and zip-lining.  I had so much fun that I didn't have time to take any pictures, so you'll just have to believe me.  Even after one year, I still think it's so cool to be in Spain and then decide, "oh, why don't we go to France for the day."

Playdates in Paris

Here's what we've been up to since we got back to Paris two weeks ago.  (It's long, so brace yourself.):

Jiu-Jitsu

The kids had their first jiu-jitsu class this morning.  The good part is they have the same "professors" and classmates as last year.  It was really good to see the same faces again and was la rentrée that, selfishly, I needed since we decided to take the kids out of their previous school.  The bad part is, for those of you who have visited us in Paris and come along to jiu-jitsu  it's at the same (far) dojo in the 14th.  I had a fleeting hope that it might move back to the dojo in the 5th where the kids had their first class, but no such luck.  I know I shouldn't cry over spilled milk, but that dojo in the 5th was on a direct metro line from our apartment and very close to my mother-in-law's apartment.

Our next visitor

We've had 11 guests stay with us since we moved to France.  Uncle Adam arrives on Wednesday and is kindly lugging a bunch of stuff from the U.S. to Paris that we ordered off of Amazon and Zappos.  I can't wait to try on my new ankle boots.  (Merci beaucoup mon beau frère!)  Since this will be his second time visiting us, does he count as number 12?

Things around the neighborhood

Weather has been great and the annual La Parisienne run was this morning.  Our neighborhood and part of the Champ de Mars was fenced off with tents for the race.

Back to school

C'est la rentrée.  The children started at a new school on Monday.  Peanut entered CE2 and Rocky in CP (that's 3rd grade and 1st grade for us Americans).  They are going to a bilingual Montessori school that was started by an American woman about 30 years ago.  Our commute to the new school is a bit long for my taste; 20 minutes as opposed to 10 minutes last year.  While I was profusely sweating as I scooted across the Champ de Mars, I dreamed of moving to a closer apartment.  We'll see.  It's just the first week, so Jared and I have been tweaking the commute to find wide sidewalks with few pedestrians on smaller (ie quieter) streets so we can scoot easily without, literally, running into anyone.

Speaking of school, the kids like their teachers and are getting to know the kids there.  There are 3 boys and 8 girls, ages 6-9.  Peanut and Rocky are in the same class.  Rocky has made 2 friends - a Russian/French girl who speaks mostly French and an American girl (half Caucasian/half Pakistani) who only speaks English.  There is one boy whom Peanut might be friends with.  He hasn't hit it off with any of the kids, but also doesn't seem to dislike any of them either.  I asked Peanut, "who are the 3 people to talked to at school today?" and he answered, the two teachers and my sister.  Yikes.  Both kids already like this school more than their previous school because 1) the teachers don't yell and 2) everything seems easy.  I believe the kids will not have any homework, or very little of it.  I've been brainwashed for over 2 years thanks to the French schools in TX and Paris that this kinda freaks me out.  Although if I remember correctly, I don't think I had homework in 3rd grade.

We're official

Some super news ... 1) Jared and I were both approved for new cartes de sejour (like a long-term visa renewal to live in France) on Thursday and 2) on Friday, got new French driver's licenses!  The French bureaucracy, which I'd like to change to, "bureauCRAZY", is unlike anything I've seen in the States.  The French are notorious for listing 12 required items to bring to an appointment, yet asking for 15.  We spent hundreds of euros on translating documents into French, made tons of photocopies, reviewed our dossiers multiple times to make sure we had everything, stressed out a lot, and second-guessed items they might want.  But all that hard work paid off in the end -- we've been officially approved to stay in France for one more year.

Hiking the Spanish Mountains

After Vigo, we flew back to Barcelona then drove 4 hours to a ski resort town in the Pyrenees mountains of Spain, in hopes of finding "the" Spanish day camp.  One that the the kids would like and is in a place where Jared and I would also have things to do.  And, by golly, I think we've struck gold.  But more on that later.  

On the last day of camp, which was Friday, parents were invited to join the counselors and kids on a hike.  Even thought I hadn't packed any athletic clothes for our 4, or is it 5, or is it 8 weeks vacation, I thought it would be fun and figured I'd be fine given the hike was planned for kids ages 4-12.  So, I put on my sportiest outfit and followed these Spaniards up the mountain.

For a city girl, Rocky is quite the little hiker.

Peanut is a little billy goat.  He's at the top waving his hat at us.

John (in red) and Peanut became instant friends over their Pokemon Go addiction.

Our reward at the top of the mountain, a dammed lake.  Cold and refreshing after a long climb up.
Bathing suits were optional for a few of these kids.  While I'm used to my relatives swimming in their skivvies and little cousins going totally commando, seeing Westerners do this still (pleasantly) surprises me.  

Our group heads down the mountain.

Thanks to my bike ride in Switzerland, I recognized the sounds of those bells in the distance.

Rocky picks wild raspberries.  My very picky daughter tasted this fruit for the first time in her life (she's 5!) and is now asking to have raspberries for dessert.  It only took a long hike to make her thirsty and hungry enough to try them.

I've never been to the mountains in the summer and realize what I've been missing my whole life.

Family photo op.  We're just missing Peanut who was way ahead of us. 

The hike took us about 4 hours and was really fun.  I trekked along with a couple of 4 year olds, and I could easily tell that it wasn't their first time doing this hike.  Peanut and Rocky were also quite agile and made the excursion look easy, even though they're totally new to hiking.  Jared and I didn't do too badly either.  Although, by dinner time, I was ready to turn in.  Peanut and Rocky were bouncing around like usual.  The way they were acting, you'd have no idea the day they had.

It was a great day and made me appreciate the beauty of nature even more.

One Week in Vigo, Spain

We are surrounded by the pine trees of the sunny Spanish Pyrenees Mountains now, which is summer vacation destination number 5 of five.  However, I don't want to skip over our fourth destination, Vigo, Spain.

Vigo is a 30 minute drive to the border of Portugal.  This sunny Galician beach town off the Atlantic coast has some of the coldest water I've ever had the pleasure of sticking my feet into.  Vigo is also the biggest provider of seafood to Europe.  We were there for 6 nights, of which they were experiencing a heat wave.  I'm talking Texas-style 100+ temps.  We rented a sweet house on the bay of San Simon (love the name for obvious reasons), but, it did not have air conditioning, yet had a wealth of mosquitoes.  I thought I was going to melt into the travertine floor.  We made the best of it and didn't kill each other.

Why Vigo?

We had the first 4.5 weeks of our summer vacation planned with stops in the European cities which our friends from Texas were visiting.  But, we had another 4 weeks unplanned.  Inspired by the great day camp in Switzerland, Jared and I decided to find a Spanish version of it.  Spanish day camps are surprisingly hard to find, but we managed to find some and one of them was in Vigo.  We'd never been there, didn't know anyone, but, like gypsies, decided to pack up and move there with the idea to stay for 1 week if we did not like it or 2-3 weeks if we did.  (After the first hot, humid, and itchy night there, I started researching our next destination.)

However, we did have some nice moments and here are photos of them.

Fresh oysters shucked in front of you on Rua da Pescaderia

Cafe con leche with a side of tortilla in an old Spanish cafe

El Sireno by Galician artist Francisco Leiro (left) / Jared near Puerta del Sol (right)

We've been traveling so long that it's time for a haircut.
This barber shop has probably been around for half a century.

Freezing cold water and warm sand at Samil Beach

Hasta Luego Barcelona

On our first trip to Barcelona in December 2013, we stayed on the wrong side of the tracks.  Jared and I wanted to be in the old part of the city and booked kind of late during peak Christmas season, so we ended up in El Raval.  We didn't know it was the rough part of town until we arrived on Christmas Eve and saw, what I'm pretty sure were working ladies, as we got out of our cab.  Once I got over my initial shock and engaged Kim-scrappy-travel-mode, I actually found some real foodie gems that I think the nicer parts of Barcelona don't offer.  Such as, this Middle Eastern bakery on Carrer de l'Hospital just past the Sikh temple.  We went back this summer and the owner is the same.  What this man can do with phyllo dough, frangipane, pistachios, cashews, and food coloring is a treat for your eyes and taste buds.

Another place we stumbled upon last time (because it was one of the few places open on Christmas Day) was a Pakistani restaurant generically named Asian Restaurant.  This tiny place serves delicious vegetable curry and the kids loved their chicken tikka.  After a mediocre tapas dinner, this was our first real food stop during this visit.

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Lions at the base of the Christopher Columbus Monument

Rocky wanted this lion all to herself, but big brother wouldn't budge.

So long and hasta luego - at Port Vell, Barcelona

Barcelona is one of those cities that I want to like so much, but haven't found that certain something that completely draws me in.  It has amazing architecture, beach and mountains, diversity, shopping, museums, mild winters, and I could learn some serious Spanish (and I guess, Catalan), but it still doesn't do it for me.  I guess that's why Jared and I crossed it off our list when we were scouting out places to live.  With that said, Barcelona is growing on me and here are a few reasons why:

1.  Vale.  Two years ago, when we were in Barcelona, I heard this word all the time.  I was taking Spanish then and had never, ever heard "vale" (pronounced:  vah-lay).  So, I asked a local and was told it meant something like, "OK or I see or all right".  A store clerk was on the phone and I think her entire contribution to the conversation consisted of the word "vale".  I thought this was only used in Catalonia, but I've heard it throughout Spain.  I'm going to try and see if I can have a whole conversation only saying "vale" as we make our way through Spain this summer.

2.  Son Hao Restaurant.  I must go here next time I'm in Barcelona because it's highly recommended by my foodie Taiwanese girlfriend, Cassandra.  Her parents, like mine, can only eat so much Western food (equating to probably 2-3 meals total) before the desperate search for Asian food becomes code red.  They walked by this Taiwanese place and had to try it ... and I'm so glad they did.  Cassandra brought me a sampling of the rice with pork and it was g-o-o-d!  

3.  Dreta de l'Eixample.  This summer, we upgraded from El Raval to an apartment in Dreta de l'Eixample.  More neighborhoody, quieter, and closer to many of the places we like to go.

4.  Casa Batllo.  Rocky is a bit young and impatient for us to elbow our way through the crowds to really enjoy a visit to Gaudi's Casa Batllo, but I'm sure next time we're in Barcelona, we'll be ready to book ahead and see this artistic masterpiece.  I'm drawn to this particular house because I want to try the augmented and virtual reality videoguide that my friend recommended.

Hasta pronto, Barcelona.

A Day at Tibidabo Amusement Park

Tibidabo Amusement Park in Barcelona

We were here in December 2013, and not much has changed.

The biggest difference is we came here with Cassandra and her fun family who are visiting from Austin, TX.  Seeing this family was definitely was one of the best parts of our summer vacation.

The kids had a great time being together on the Viking ship, which, unbeknownst to me, shoots water!  This was the tamest ride the big kids went on.

The dads and kids waiting in line for the elevated train ride.

Elevated train.  The entire park is built on the side of a mountain.

Caught red handed with churros!  Jared does eat junk food.

This girl can't pass up a carousel ride.

She probably rode this ride about 10 times.  It was her favorite in 2013 as well.

Up and down she goes.

Cutest Vikings I've ever met.

This was the big kids' favorite ride.  The adults were nauseated just watching them on it. 

Hola Barcelona, Los Slosbergs Have Arrived

Plaça de Catalunya - August 2016

Plaça de Catalunya - Peanut age 8 and Rocky age 5

Funky old tree on Montjuïc hill.

Steps leading to Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Popsicles = Summer 

These all natural fruit pops really hit the spot on this hot afternoon.

Muchas gracias to our wonderful friend, Cassandra, and her family for spoiling us in Barcelona
with these treats from the U.S.  Pirate Booty, oh, how we've missed you.