Yaya's Visit and Guest Blog Appearance

Grandma Jill (aka Yaya) made her appearance in Barcelona just a few days ago. Rob and I had frankly been concerned before we left that we might have too many of our finite sabbatical days filled with out of town visitors. And the fact that we estimated Jill might be spending about 15% of our time away actually visiting us was a wee bit disconcerting - we love Jill more than words, but it seemed like a lot of togetherness when one of our goals was to separate from our regular lives.

That was then. By the time we had been away a month, we all missed Yaya terribly, and the truth is that all of us were eagerly awaiting her arrival. The only thing that compared favorably to our anticipation was actually having her here. The kids were beside themselves and had a very tough time saying goodbye, about the same way her son and son and law felt. Thanks, Yaya, for coming all the way to Barcelona and for being such a loving part of our lives.

Jill will also have an honorary place in the blog as our very first guest writer. I will warn you that she has chosen to be quite comprehensive in her recounting of her trip, so sit down and get ready for a good read - it's worth it and very Yaya. I have combined her and our photos together here.

Yaya's Blog Entry
Here I sit wondering how it can feel like my 10 days in Barcelona started just yesterday and that waiting for the trip to arrive seemed like it took 2 years? It now feels surreal that I actually had this trip….first they are all gone….now I am in Spain and taking the subways with my grandchildren and now I’m at the airport to go home. Barcelona is a wonderful city; Rob and Matt were wonderful hosts; but spending the time with Cory and Addy was the thing I remember the most. Walking to the subway with this little hand in mine and just touching Addy’s curly locks are the memories that come to mind when I think of the trip. I feel really blessed to be their Yaya.

My trip started on Thursday night, June 12th and I arrived in Barcelona on Friday morning fairly rested, greeted by excited shrieks from Cory and Addy (although Addy seemed overwhelmed at first and was even a bit shy) and a great big sign. It was grand. We then took the subway straight to the apartment - crowded but civilized! The apartment is quintessentially Matt and Rob – beautiful, huge, and in their practical tradition, absolutely everything is white…white sofas, white chair covers, white bedding. Unusual for a rental, let alone one with two toddler occupants. I spent my first hour unpacking treasures for Cory and Addy…..did I mention how adorable they are? The rest of the afternoon is a blur but I do remember going to their market; baking Robert’s Birthday cake and going to a wonderful playground and watching Cory and Addy be Cory and Addy. The kiddos have an umbrella stroller with a “buggy board” attached to the back so that one can sit and the other stand and the guys maneuver all over the place with it. Cory and Addy are quite adept at using it and I can’t imagine trying to get around Barcelona without it. Had a wonderful dinner and then bath time and reading, and am proud to say that despite a lot of tossing and turning on the plane, Cory and Addy fell asleep before I did!

Saturday morning we had pancakes – something I made for them every morning I was there in Yaya tradition - and then went to the airport to pick up my friend Ginny, who had agreed to come be a critical helper with the kids while Matt took Rob on his four day surprise 40th birthday voyage (see below). She arrived at 10:00 and then Rob and Matt left at 1:00 – I’ll attribute that to their being efficient with time, but gosh it seemed like they just about screamed with joy as they ran out the door for a few kid-free days!

Ginny and I planned to take the kids on the double decker bus tour of Barcelona, which seemed like a great idea, but the kids melted down as soon as their dads left, so we all took a quick nap. Then we were off. And the bus tour…well, as anyone who has raised children will tell you, things never seem to go quite as planned. Our tour fell a bit flat because the kids entertained themselves by plugging and unplugging our earphones. But the resulting disjointed tour went downhill when Cory warned us that “my tummy doesn’t feel good”….and then promptly vomited all over Yaya as well as an entire row of bus seats. I am proud to say that my clean up operation was so discreet that other passengers were confused about why they needed to use their shirts and hankies to protect their noses from a powerful odor of unclear origin. After finishing the day with dinner, bath, etc., we all feel into bed exhausted!

Sunday we walked Las Ramblas (a famous strolling and shopping avenue inhabited mainly by Tourists and pickpockets) and then proceeded to take a subway, tram, and funicular up to Tibidabo, a fantastic mountain top amusement park. The kids had been once before, and the kids were beyond excited to go again, spending most of the morning singing Tibidabo to the tune of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang theme song. Unlike their first trip, the place was absolutely mobbed, and we had to stand in line for about 45 minutes to take what I thought was a pretty dull ride on a vintage 20s little red airplane but which Cory and Addy were positively thrilled to go on again. After a ride in the tea cups (which raised fears of a repeat performance from the bus) we went home, took a late nap, and hit the playground right before dinner. We had expected to do a little grocery shopping on the way home, but discovered that unlike Costco, all of Spain is closed on Sundays and we had to improvise by attending an outdoor tapas bar. While waiting for a multitude of tapas to arrive, Yaya managed to amuse the children and a large range of passers by with games of red light/green light and Simon Says. Kiddos were really good and we even stopped at a McDonalds for helado (Spanish for ice cream and perhaps the first foreign word Cory and Addy learned).

Monday, Santa Eryn, took over for the day and gave us a much needed break. Ginny and I had a bike tour scheduled for 11 o’clock and left the house around 10am. The kiddos really like Eryn and are used to her taking over, so there were no issues with that transition. The bike tour was a marvelous way to see the city. If I lived in Barcelona I would definitely have a bike. There are lots of bike lanes on many of the streets and there were only a few times where we actually rode along with the cars and scooters. (Note: Lots of scooters all over the place with often more than one person on a single scooter. They also have bikes available on locked bike stands throughout the city for residents. You use a code and can get off and on whenever you want. ) Barcelona is just beautiful…it has so many incredibly beautiful buildings with quite the mix of old and new. It also seems to have a real appreciation of art & architecture and real pride in the city. The 1929 exposition and then the 1992 Olympics were both instrumental in adding incredible buildings and tourist attractions to Barcelona and the artist Gaudi has imprinted his art throughout the city. I’m no expert, but he was absolutely a master …even if his art is a bit modern for my taste, his ingenuity and structural genius are remarkable. Had tapas after the tour with the 2 German women (mom and daughter) who comprised our group and after that experience we had about had our fill of tapas. They are really wonderful but they remind me a bit of sushi….fun to taste but not very filling and expensive for what you get. Did a lot of walking around and a bit of shopping and just cruised Barcelona at our own pace. There is a rather tourist oriented street called Las Rambles where we fit right in….lots of strange street performers who act like statues and then suddenly move..some rather weird.

I am famous for my ambition (Rob and Matt might even say over-ambition), but I must confess I had miscalculated how challenging it would be to take care of the kids in a strange country and city, and I could not have managed the kiddos without Ginny’s help. Luckily, the apartment was just a block from the subway line and we got really good at using them and figuring out the stairs and elevators. Cory and Addy are quite used to using public transportation now, and were real troopers. It seemed as a general rule that they did very well when we were out and about and fell apart when we got back to the apartment. Hard to tell all the different aspects of this phenomenon….but it made for lots of time out and about! Cory became quite the map reader helping us whenever we appeared lost. He really loves to help.

Tuesday – June 17th. Took the kids over to Las Ramblas because I wanted to have their picture made into an etching by one of the many street artists there. Cory was particularly afraid of the many living statues lining the street, except for one soccer player….he even had his picture taken with him. Then the kiddos went off to school with Eryn and we went back to explore more of Barcelona. There was a great market where we eventually had lunch after much gawking at fish we could not identify and even some fruit we weren’t sure of. Some of the displays were beautiful and hard to imagine picking off a fig or apple for fear of messing up the arrangement. We spent a good part of the day at the special Gaudi church, Sagrada Familia. It is famously still very much a work in progress, with many of Gaudi’s original plans having been destroyed during the civil war here. They say they are actually ahead of schedule because of technological advancements, but being done by 2028 hardly seems fast to me.

Weds. The morning we found another playground and watched the kids climb all over the place and then off they went to school and we did a few more touristy things. Somehow we didn’t really see a lot of the “hot spots” but thoroughly enjoyed just walking. We to the main Cathedral in the city’s very old Gothic quarter and was once again amazed at the detail and architecture. The guys returned that afternoon and the kiddos were SO glad to see them. I think they have been a bit discombobulated with me being here, then Ginny and then daddies leaving. ….but they are the sweetest little things and can be so loving that the rough times are greatly diminished with a sweet touch or a happy face. It was great to see Rob and Matt again and we had a very nice dinner together of steaks and salad from their local market.

Thursday. Had the morning with the family and then off with Rob and Matt to explore more of Barcelona while the kids took their naps (under much protest) Took the cable car up to Montjuic and had a wonderful view of the city from above and then walked through a lovely park and went to Poble Espanol, and old reproduction village built for the 1929 worlds fair. As we headed home, we got a call from Eryn that the school was having a special music program and parents were invited. So instead of going home we met the kiddos at the school. This was a real highlight of the trip for me. Cory and Addy were really excited about us being there and it was really grand to see them singing and dancing around. Cory, in particular, has been having some difficulties with school. I suspect he thought it might be like his “school” in South Orange where he had some great friends, but here he is the oldest in the class (most three year olds go to the government schools here) and really can’t communicate with the other kids because of the language barrier. Also, he is ready to do more than the parallel play that the younger kids are still doing so I think he gets a bit frustrated. But this night he was all smiles and excitement….which he can do in spades!!! Addy was having fun too…she just goes with the flow most of the time……except when she doesn’t….then watch out!!! The kids were definitely having a blast and continually looked at us almost to see if we liked what they were doing. We all danced and smiled a lot that evening. After slipping out of the “party” before the dessert was served (now about 8:00 and no dinner yet) we put them down happy and excited about the fiesta. Went out to dinner with Rob and Matt that night at a very nice place near their house. The interesting thing about their meals is that there are few vegetables (if any) served with entrees and you have to specially order salad as an appetizer if you want any leafy greens. Seems they have missed that level in the food pyramid.

Friday – Off to the beach town of Sitges for the day. After a 45 minute train ride, you step off into a lovely resort town where there are miles of lovely beaches. Cory and Addy were in heaven….actually I think Addy should now be referred to as the ” Sand Goddess”…that child just rolls in the sand and is covered and you would think she was swimming in chocolate instead of grains of fine glass! Cory loves the water and would throw his ball in the water and then yell…”COME BACK HERE” and be thrilled every time the waves returned the ball to him. We rented umbrellas and very nice chaise lounges and then just baked in the Mediterranean Sun. The kids are slathered in sun screen (Addy calls it sun screamer) and are happy little clams for hours. I got quite a bit of sun and even though I know the truth, I think I look healthier with a tan!!! All I can remember from the moment we left on the train is that it took Rob and Matt about an hour to get the send out of the kids’ hair in the bath. Sat – Ginny said goodbye, went to catch her plane, and we went to a marvelous public (!) swimming pool overlooking the beach area right near downtown Barcelona. It was a nice to have the cool water without the sand this time. Both kids just love the water and Cory was quite proud to show me how he can no go totally under water. It’s interesting to watch the kids and think about what they show interest in now and whether those interests will continue as they get older. Cory is SO enthusiastic about singing and dancing and swimming and playing ball and climbing on anything that resembles a jungle gym. Addy is also very musically inclined but much more restrained with her enthusiasm and looks like she is always sizing up the situation. She’s a real contemplator and remembers words and songs much better than most other children I know. It was grand to be with them in this day to day way and see them just being themselves. That night, after getting the kiddos down we went to a fancy restaurant that Robert found to celebrate Matt’s birthday.

Thinking back on this trip now….(I’ve continued to write after being home for a day to this blog entry…) I’m really amazed at how wonderful it is to share this time with this, my wonderful family. The guys are fantastic dads and Cory and Addy are just the most loving and joyful children (although at times very normal and cranky). They may not remember anything about this trip but I feel that these children will definitely carry the love and caring that surrounds them every day around in the psyches.

Sun – Up and at em…In the morning, Matt took Addy and Cory to the beach on his own while Robert and I went to a Gaudi Museum. It was pretty spectacular - only one place in the whole house had straight lines. Then Matt came back with the kiddos and we went to “Paint the Town Red”….which Robert kept saying and the kiddos didn’t’ quite get but began to repeat. We walked all over the water front and saw a good bit of the celebration for Saint Juan Day…which actually was being celebrated the next day. Didn’t really know what it was all about but saw a little parade and booths of all sorts and generally took in the festive atmosphere. Kids got to paint some masks and dance a bit with a street band and enjoy just being with their dads. Had a tough time at the end trying to find Pizza for dinner and when we finally did find a Pizza Place they only had 2 kinds of pizza, both unacceptably laden with meats and vegetables, so we settled for chicken nuggets and fries and balloons for the kiddos at a McDonald’s-esque restaurant and then walked home for the end of a very full day. I have to say….I was really exhausted this night….we walked ALL over the place. I wanted to have a buggy board ride. We put the darlings to bed and then ate Russian pierogies that Matt and Rob found at a local Russian market for dinner that were delicious…and I wasn’t even hungry!

Monday after a morning of chocolate chip pancakes and a trip to the local coffee place to get “American coffee” –very mild in comparison to Castilian coffee) we all took the train to the airport. It was really hard to say goodbye to the kiddos but we made a point of saying that I would see them in Paris. I had a very easy ride home started this blog until my battery went dead and then and watched 3 movies and read a book. Linus, their dog, was beside himself when I walked in the house and didn’t stop going in circles until I went to bed……then he barked a few times during the night to check on whether I was still there…..threw my pillow at him the 3rd time! Now it is back to work and looking forward to seeing them all again in Paris at the end of August. Sure wish the 2 months would fly by as fast as my 10 days in Barcelona did!

Cory and Addy's School Party

During Yaya's lovely, wonderful, fantastic, moving visit to Barcelona (she has promised she will provide her own blog entry about it soon), we received last minute notice that Cory and Addy's school was having a big party. Last minute notice meant that as Eryn (our au pair) was picking them up, one of the teachers said "oh yeah, we're having a party today, will Rob and Matt be coming?"

One phone call and a frenetic subway ride later, Rob, Matt, Jill and Jill's friend Ginny showed up at the school's entrance, proudly on time (6pm, when else?). 6pm, as we should have known, actually meant about 7pm, which wouldn't have been a big deal, except that we passed the time crammed together with a screaming group of toddlers on the sweltering second floor of the school. Besides a great deal of perspiration (Rob hates the heat, by the way, so he was whimpering even more than I was), it facilitated some quality time with some other parents as well as the teacher.

The program, when it finally began, consisted of essentially re-enacting for us (and of course asking us to participate in) many of the songs and dances that the kids regularly engage in when we're not there. All in Spanish. This included, among other things, slithering like snakes on the floor, acting out the role of a deflating baloon, and hopping around like wild monkeys. Most unusually for non-Spanish readers, part of the program involved one of the teachers dressing up as what I believe was a snake (sorry, my language skills failed me as she explained her character at about 80 words a second - another quintessentially Spanish thing) and serving the kids small portions of very strong coffee. Call me just a silly gringo, but I just can't get my head around serving kids strong coffee at, oh, 8pm, no matter how culturally open minded I try to be. The kids loved it of course. The party was supposed to end with a performance of a saxophone player (one of the dads) outside on the patio at about 8:30 or 9pm, something we reluctantly forewent given our commitment to keeping our kids on a non-Spain (read: bedtime before 10:30pm) schedule.

In short, the whole thing was fabulous and we were really happy to be there. You can see more pics here. I am likewise proud to report (without bias, of course) that our kids - who speak nary a word of the Castellano that is the sole language of their instruction - were among the best and most enthusiastic at following the teachers' instructions. More importantly, they seemed to see our attendance at the party, and participation in all the activities as a sort of welcome endorsement of what they do every afternoon. They watched us constantly and laughed hysterically when they saw us doing the sorts of things they have become accustomed to doing without us.

So You've Run Out of Things to Do...

Say it's raining outside, and you've done the same puzzles and train games and I Spy books and play-dough activities with the kids about 3,000 times so that even they have figured out it's not new and fun. What do you do?

Well, if you happen to have dads who groove on fashion and who are hell bent on not imposing gender roles, it's time to play DRESS UP!!!! In this case, we stuck with the Galician Prince and Andalucian Falamenco Dancer. After hearing Cory complain bitterly that the dress was rightfully his (maybe he and I will go handbag shopping together some day - Linda, you can come if you're nice) and why was Addy wearing it, we decided to force a change of attire. You can see the results below, and yes, you can also see that Cory was much happier with the change than poor Addy. Never fear, they were both given ample time as the dancer.

A Birthday Vacation away from Our Vacation

I am pleased to announce to the world that Rob Gregson is now 40. I am likewise pleased to announce that this important milestone was passed with what I will say myself was an appropriate amount of pomp and circumstance given our thousands of miles of separation from those we love. This is to say that I would normally have thought to throw Rob some kind of enormously complex and convoluted surprise party, one that even the Gregsons themselves - known for surprises as they are (ask Jill about the old cellophane over the toilet trick on April Fool's) - could be proud of. Alas, poor us, we are in Europe enduring our six months off. So what to do?

The answer, if you know Rob Gregson at all, was clear - a surprise journey on the Orient Express from London to Venice. Sorry Cory and Addy, but you will have to fund your own college educations, Daddies have expensive tastes.

I used as a decoy in this case a "simple trip" to Venice made possible by Jill's arrival here for a 10 day visit with the children (she barely noticed Barcelona, as you might imagine - more on that in a coming blog entry). I explained to him in advance that our living in Europe would make an elaborate 40th party simply too complicated, and would he please accept something so low key as a trip to Italy and a stay in a fancy hotel? He seemed to accept this, and so likewise seemed surprised (though he himself told me that morning he would be vigilant in trying to spot birthday surprises) when at the ticket counter in the airport the agent mentioned London rather than Venice as our destination. Beyond that, I refused to share more details until I was unexpectedly forced to by an unusually nosy immigration officer at Heathrow. I had hoped to see the look on his face when, upon departing our London hotel the next morning, I said to the cab driver "Victoria Station please." Oh well, that line will have to remain in the Agatha Christie novels where it probably belongs.

Surprise details aside, our 24 hour trip on the train (followed by 48 hours in Venice) was really fantastic - I think one of the best vacation things we've ever done. The Carlson Wagonlit folks have done a really remarkable job salvaging the old carriages of this grand train and restoring the exprience to what feels like its former glory, and without seeming cheesy or disney-esque. The trip starts with lunch while riding through the English countryside, followed by about 24 hours on the train from Calais to Venice after crossing through the Chunnel on a Motorcoach carried on a train. The train has a bar car (with piano), ornate dining cars, and of course sleepers, all of which have beautiful old wood paneling, deco/nuveau detail, and generally a very comfortable and stylish feel. No doubt what the Queen Mary II was supposed to be like but was simply too much of a factory to be. And by far the best mobile food either of us has has - really great and sophisticated.

The downside was that Rob, who's dream trip I really thought this would be - was a little motion sick (even though he has sea legs from years of sailing as a kid), and so enjoyed the whole thing less than I. To me, it really was a great way to vacation - sitting reading for hours on end while looking out the window at mountains and castles zipping by, interrupted only by an announcement that dinner is being served. I'd recommend it to anyone who can imagine sitting for 24 hours (that rules out Jill and most of my family) and a touch of formality/ stuffiness (shorts and jeans are not allowed, for example).

Venice was likewise lovely, but we obviously had too little time to really appreciate it. The city is gorgeous, of course, but I would say it feels a bit frozen in time (given its famous island portion is now inhabited almost exclusively by tourists), not alive like London or Paris. We would both like to return, but not without first becoming something better than embarrassingly uninformed about renaissance art and architecture.

I have posted some pics of our trip on the train and two days in Venice here.

A Couple of Fun Activities for Kids

What, you might wonder, does one do with kids when it rains in Barcelona? Especially when you have an apartment that doubles as an echo chamber (blame the antique tile floors) and a fear that the frighteningly quiet neighbors might try to have you evicted because of the shrieks from within your four walls? Thank god it doesn't rain much in Barcelona (the drought here is terrfying, actually, and some of Spain is now being compared to the Sahara not far to our south - good article on this link).

The answer, in our case, was a trip to one of the many private indoor playgrounds on offer throughout the area. And anyone who knows Rob will not be surprised to discover that we not only sought out such a facility, but sought out the most unusual and far flung location we could come up with - in a strange mall in a town/suburb to the South called Casteldefells. The facility in question was a bit surreal, but we had a blast, in no small part because there was a wonderful clown there who helped entertain the kids. See the album for more color - it's worth a look. You should also know, as a closing point, that I (Matt) was the only father of many in attendance who volunteered to help said clown in a kid-team competition with a mom leading the opposing team. The whole competition took place in Catalan, so I just muddled my way through, and earned not a few adoring mom admirers as a result. Who says I'm shy?

The second gallery on offer is from our trip today (applause, please, for prompt blogging) to Tibidabo (or, as the kids liked to call it, Tippy Tapo). This is nothing less than an amazing place - an amusement park perched atop the tallest hill in Barcelona with shockingly beautiful views. One has to take a train to a tram to a funicular to get there, but gosh is it worth the trip. And today, I am pleased to say, despite it being the beginning of the tourist season, we basically had the run of the place. You get bracelets, not individual ride tickets, so Cory and Addy just went on as many rides and many times as they wanted. We capped the day off with a visit to a lovely playground with our friend Emily and a friend of hers, Alicia, who has a two year old daughter. It was simply a lovely, lovely day. The kids were thrilled to be spending time with us after their first full week in the school program (absence does, in fact, make the heart grow fonder, even for toddlers), and that they got to go to an amusement park (using so many forms of transport to get there, no less) was icing on the cake. Yay Barcelona.

Welcome Jim/Cecelia and Catalonian Customer Service

Let it not be said that I am naive about why friends and family visit this site. Yes, I know that all you really care about are the photos, and especially those of our adorable kids. Indeed, Grandma Jill's recent complaint about one of the photos of Cory and Addy in a playground in front of the iconic, beautiful La Sagrada Familia was "why do you need those weird spires in the picture behind them - just focus on the kids' faces for god's sake!"

So in the interest of catering to the lowest common denominator, which I suspect is how all internet traffic is driven anyway, I provide below some new pictures:

- Jim and Cecelia have arrived for our first official visit from out of towners. We have retraced our steps to some of our favorite spots in the city - Parque Guell, Mont Juic, Tapas 24, Olympic Park, and lots of overall wandering around. Jim and Cecelia are currently roaming around Northern Spain somewhere on a 4 day road trip - they left with no specific plans, no reservations, and only a general map of Spain to guide them. Impressive, and even more so when we heard from Jim yesterday via cellphone that they had found a fabulous hotel in Rioja and had managed to make friends with the owners of a local bar. We've had a blast with them so far - it's really been fun to be able to play tour guide - and eagerly await their return so we can follow up with a trip to Sitges and do some fine dining.




- We finished our glorious trip to Rota to visit the Casey- Minchin crowd, and I've added a new Rota gallery. Rob and I mentioned in the past our belief that the ultimate act of kindness toward our family is to invite us over to one's personal residence, enduring all the panic and destruction this usually entails. On this count Jean, David and especially Sean (their wonderful 8 year old son) deserve special mention. Not only did they let us ransack their house, Sean resisted any territorial instincts and actually invited Cory and Addy to play in his room on more than one occasion. I will leave it to your imagination to picture Cory's reaction to being in the bedroom of a real, live eight year old, let alone one with as many cool toys as Sean. Jean and company also went on a special shopping trip to the military base's commissary, providing us with such essential rations as 10 boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese, 3 bags of real Doritos corn chips (every Spanish supermaket offers no fewer than 80 varieties of potato chips and no varieties involving corn), and a copy of the Golden Compass, which Rob and I have wanted to see for some time. Thanks Jean and David for your generosity and your warm welcome, and thanks Sean for letting us crimp your style. Hope to see you all in Paris!

-Finally, for those with more time to burn than they could possible admit, I have greatly expanded our gallery of cool architecture and doors/knockers. I'll understand if you choose to look at Cory and Addy instead. Oh yeah, and I'm sure few will be surprised to hear that my dad was the first to make the inevitable "I didn't think you were interested in knockers, Matt" joke. Love ya dad!


OK, having dispensed with the main attraction, I am hoping perhaps one in 20 of you will humor some funny stories about interacting with Spanish bureaucracy and "customer service" values. These are of course from the vantage point of us uptight Anglosaxons, but I suspect they would be universally understood.

- Trying to get into the Catalonian Museum of Art. This fabulous museum (which is apparently best known for its impressive collection of Gothic art) is perched above Barcelona on Mont Juic, and is inside a beautiful old structure composed of several old churches relocated from other parts of the province. Walking up to the front door, which is a simple glass structure, wholly unimpressive in comparison to the building itself, we were temporarily blocked by a crowd of Chinese-Spaniards taking wedding photos. They were using a revolving door and easily visible metal detector inside as background instead of the gorgeous museum grounds. I'm not sure I'll ever understand why.

That, of course, was just the start of our adventure. We walked into the cavernous lobby of the building, the most noticeable aspect of which (other than the beautiful Gothic architecture) is a collection of large signs pointing to about a dozen different hallways leading to separate exhibits and parts of the museum. There was no ticket stand in sight, so Rob and I looked at each other with some confusion, wondering if it could possibly be true that we would be seeing this museum for free, commenting that such a free institution would be unheard of in the US. We proceeded directly to the hallway labeled as leading to the Gothic art, and walked a couple of minutes to get to the entrance of the exhibit itself. We were greeted at said entrance by a nice, but serious young man who asked us for our tickets. Upon telling him we had seen no place to buy them, he simply pointed us back to the lobby from whence we came, telling us we needed tickets to get into each exhibit. Other than being frustrated that there was no obvious place to buy tickets when we came in, we realized that his presence likely meant that each and every exhibit had to have its own ticket taker. And this kind of mass employment, we thought, was likely even rarer than free admission in our home country.

Upon re-entering the lobby, we found the small ticket counter tucked in a corner of the lobby, and approached the rather dour looking agent staffing it. The ticket desk was littered with cardboard signs advertising different types of ticket packages available, the largest of which promoted a daily ticket for 12 Euros. We started to buy the daily ticket, only to notice in much finer print a mention of an "annual pass" further below. We interreptued the ticket agent's process to ask about the annual pass, which she grimly informed us was available for 20 Euros. We happily informed her that we were tourists in Barcelona for a full three months, and that we were more than likely to attend this lovely museum more than once, so we would therefore like the annual pass. She sort of sighed and said, in Spanish, this is more "complicado" and proceeded to pull out two forms that each of us had to fill out for the pleasure of becoming annual members. This was all happening, of course, to the dismay of the line beginning to collect behind us. About midway through filling out my form - she had only one pen - Rob noticed a smaller sign advertising, in Spanish, what appeared to be a three month tourist pass (what a coincidence - three months!). Rob proceeded to ask the not so nice lady about this other offer, to which she replied without noting the fact that we had just told her we would be in town for three months, "oh, this is a good pass, it is 20 Euros also, but you can get into 15 different museums for free for three months." We both chuckled nervously, handed her back our forms, and asked for the special three month passes. These, it turns out, required no forms at all, and she handed us our nifty plastic cards and told us to keep the receipt from this lengthy transaction "somewhere very safe." Like the Chinese wedding photos, I'm likewise sure I'll never know why.

Feeling very proud that we had just navigated a Kafkaesue Barcelonan mini-bureaucracy, Rob and I walked proudly down the long Gothic exhibit hall to hand the stern ticket agent our new passes. We were greeted by the same young man, who pretended he had never seen us before and proceeded to tell us that we could not walk into the exhibit with the same small gray backpack we had been carrying during our first interaction. Rob and I both laughed audibly at this point and asked where we should put the offending backpack. Back in the lobby was of course his reply. Five or so minutes later, we were back again and were finally allowed, with what I swear was a bit of a smirk, into the Exhibit. I will close by saying that this single exhibit of Gothic art was so beautiful and impressive that it would have been worth many times the trouble to see. And we will therefore no doubt be using our nifty three months passes to enjoy the museum at least several more times in the future.

A second cute story comes from my experience at El Corte Ingles (which you will recall is THE high end department store in Spain), where it required no fewer than three sales agents to purchase a new camera. I walked into the nicely appointed camera department, noticing four or five idle sales attendants standing there, only to be greeted by the phrase "Que quieres?" when I walked up to one of them. Now I am certainly no expert in Spanish, but to my untrained ears, that sounds a lot like "Whaddaya want?" Given the less than enthusiastic welcome, I was glad I had done my research and walked the gentleman over to the display window and pointed to exactly the model I wanted. I asked in Spanish if they still had this model, which I had seen on their internet was on sale, and he said he thought they did, but he would have to "go look" and could I wait "a moment" for him to return. I of course said I would, and watched him disappear behind two swinging doors in another department.

After about five minutes, another salesperson - this time a woman who had definitely been there not five feet away when i first walked in - approached me and said, as if we had not both been standing there awkwardly for five minutes and as if she had not seen my first interaction, "Is there something I can help you with?" I replied in my awkward Spanish that the other gentleman had been helping me and had gone to look for the camera. Some sort of revelation seemed to cross her face and she said "Oh, I see, let me see if I can find the camera you want." I suspect you can now guess that she, too, disappeared through the same doors, and, after another interval of 5-10 minutes, I was greeted in a similar manner by a third sales person who had been there all along. This one, I am glad to say, disappeared behind a different set of doors for no more then three seconds, re-emerged with my camera, and quickly closed the deal. I was dying to ask what happened to the other two salespeople, but concluded that if I acted like there was anything even slightly strange about the whole transaction, I would come across as an even more awkward tourist than I already had. When in Rome...

Those are but two of the many customer service stories we have accumulated, but I suspect that after two paragraphs without photos, I have already lost all but a very few of you, so I'll wrap up with one unrelated story about the difficulties of transitioning with toddlers. Cory, as I have written before, is having more angst around our temporary move, and very frequently mentions that he "wants to go back to South Orange." In the bath the other night, he asked for what may have been the 30th time, and not in a negative way, "Dada, why are we staying in Barcelona for a long time." I provided the same reply has has received many times: "Because it is nice here and we want to have an adventure." And I of course always add "But don't worry, we will go home afterwards." He then grinned innocently, appeared satisfied, and went back to playing with his bath crayons, only to ask innocently over his shoulder "Dada, what home?" Ouch. The truth is, the kids seem happy most of the time, are settling into their new school very nicely (they come come home with new Spanish every day - yesterday they walked in the door asking for "besos"), and we are glad to be here.