Happy Labor Day, dear friends!

As a last hurrah before school starts, and at the impetus to visit Duane's colleague, we rented a car for the weekend.

First we drove along the Costa Brava, the eastern coast of Spain. The winding mountain road allowed beautiful views of rugged cliffs above the Mediterranean Sea. Hoping to find a beach cove, we parked the car on the side of the highway and looked for a path down to the sea. However, this particular road down was cordoned off to all but "peotones." Thinking, by the look of things, this word must mean something like "patrons," we hopped back in the car and planned to look for another way down. Since there's no better way to learn vocabulary than through life experiences, just before we drove off we looked up the new word. How happy we were to learn the road was closed off to everyone but PEDESTRIANS! We quickly packed up the beach bags and set off on a walk.

What we found exceeded our expectations and created memories that will last a lifetime. Daniel said it like this, "This is my favorite beach I've been to in my WHOLE life." The beach was small and protected by large rock outcroppings. One could see schools of fish and rocks far below the surface of the crystal clear, green water. There were also rocks sticking up out of the water that one could climb on and jump off. What incredible fun and beauty!

On Monday we left the coast and headed to a small town called Berga to meet Duane's Spanish colleague from the University of Minnesota. She took us to an even smaller town in the Pyrenees, just south of France, for lunch (at which we ate wild pig meat, lamb's head, pig's feet, and blood sausages) and a hike to see the headwaters of the Llobregat River.



Traveling home we were caught in a mountain hailstorm. However, by 9:30pm we were safe and sound in Barcelona again, getting the kids ready for bed and for their first day of school.

After today, I highly recommend that people NOT go school supply shopping in a completely foreign language. As is probably typical (though I have no idea, since we're HOME SCHOOLERS), we received very specific lists from the school, of course in Catalan, of all the items needed for 1st and 3rd grades. We were told go to a particular store for the supplies and that they'd help us find all the items. That was true. And the store, though outrageously expensive, did help me a lot.

Trying to be well-prepared for this shopping experience, I'd translated the lists in google. The "box of scarves" turned out to be a box of facial tissues. The "colors of wood" turned out to be colored pencils. In retrospect they seem obvious. However, when one was at the store, amidst the pre school-year chaos, NOTHING was obvious. How to use one of Charles' folders is still a mystery to me! Why I paid over $20 for one pencil case is another mystery.

I'm just grateful there was someone to help. Who knows what the kids would have pulled out of their backpacks at school if there hadn't been! And now that those backpacks are prepared for Tuesday morning, I sit back, relax...and take joy in cross-cultural living.

A lot got accomplished today! Charles and Daniel are now registered to attend Escola Augusta. It's a small, partly private school very near our apartment. Their website (in Catalan) is

www.escola-augusta.com

The choice of schools came down to two. We finally decided on Augusta because of it's size and proximity. There is one class per grade, with a total of 300 students, preschool through high school.



We also purchased the necessary textbooks and uniforms. We were glad to see that the math and music textbooks are quite basic. We are hoping this will aid language learning as the material is already well understood.

The kids felt super about getting uniforms, even dancing in the dressing rooms! In addition to the typical gray pants, white polos, and gray sweaters, "robes" are required. These are similar to art smocks in the US and are worn during lunch and other messy activities.

The search for a school made for an interesting and long day. Primarily we were looking for a school that put an emphasis on Castillian Spanish.

The first two schools we visited were the two that, based on our research, seemed to use the most Castillian textbooks. Unfortunately they weren't what we were looking for. We didn't know this until we arrived, but they were both in an extremely ritzy area of Barcelona. The stately lobby of one school was decorated with ornately carved wooden banisters, beautiful wrought iron, huge crystal chandeliers and a marble front desk. Not quite what we had in mind.

The next school turned out to be for girls! Oops.

After going to a few more schools that didn't have any space left, we found two that had space and seemed OK. Though not private, they aren't exactly public either. They are both Catholic schools near Duane's work. After taking a tour and looking through the materials we were given, the kids are excited about this opportunity. Whoo! That's a relief.

Tomorrow we hope to visit a few more schools, including some public ones.

We've been in Spain two weeks tomorrow. While we still feel very unaccustomed to life here, we are getting more settled. Duane has been going to work and is meeting new people. Daily he goes out to lunch with a group. He also frequently skypes in the evening with people from the US with whom he is still working.

Our current concern is school for the boys. The whole idea of getting them enrolled in school is a bit daunting as the system is completely different. We've already registered them at the Dept of Ed (or equivalent) but were told to return to that office two weeks after school starts, presumably to receive the name of the school to which they've been assigned. That didn't sound very good to us, so this Wednesday we're going to visit schools directly to ask if they have space. Apparently this is another way to find a school for them.

Our hope is to find openings at a school that teaches at least one subject in Castillian Spanish. Most schools here are solely in Catalan, the language of Catalonia, an area in Spain of which Barcelona is the capitol. While this is what we're hoping for, it is unlikely given the late date. We tried contacting schools months ago from the US, but had no luck getting responses. We hope showing up in person will get better results.

Either way, once school starts, so will a routine.

We've had a few days of running all over Barcelona to get government paperwork completed. Finally today we have accomplished what is required, at least for now.

We also obtained public library cards.

One interesting event we attended was people, called castellers, making human towers. It was pretty neat to see little kids climbing so high. They'd climb right up the backs of the people on the lower levels, all the way to the top, six levels high. We didn't have a camera with us at the time, so to see a picture of what this looks like, check out

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castell

We have told the kids that to be city slickers one must walk a lot. The past couple of days we have put them to the test and they are doing extraordinarily well.

Charles is excited that all this walking will give him a strong body. After a summer of developing soccer skills, he highly values speed and desires to be an even faster runner.

When Daniel gets tired we simply spur him on with a math problem. His mind gets going so fast he forgets about the walking. I wonder where this trait came from....

The other night we walked home to save a few dollars on the subway fare. It was about 10pm (Mom and Dad, don't worry, it was safe.) and we had been out all day. That is to say, we were exhausted. Daniel kept asking, "How many miles left?" Since miles aren't used in Spain, this led to a discussion on the conversion between miles and kilometers. Daniel was told there are approximately one and a half kilometers per mile. With amazing speed, he would say things like, "Well, that means 1/6 of a mile is a quarter of a kilometer." and "3/4 of a kilometer is half a mile." After a few moments (he was tired after all) Duane would say, "Yes, Daniel, that's correct." Nearing home, Daniel declared, "Math is my favorite topic to talk about."