More about Spain.

We went to Arenas de Iguña, Cantabria to meet with all the others. We stayed at a country house just outside the town.

Nicolas was having the time of his life. There was a total of 8 kids between the ages of 2 and 16 at the house; the common language used was Spanish, but 2 of the kids came from France, and Nick and his cousins spoke in English sometimes. All of the older children (9+), would go to the town's square every night, and meet the local kids there. They would either play soccer (visitors invariably lost) or hide and go seek. They had a curfew and they always came back on time. Nicolas felt so independent and grown up that I thought he had grown 3 years in a week.

We were 8 adults for a grand total of 16 people and ONE bathroom. It all worked out without a problem. Kids would usually take their showers at night, and we would do it in the morning.
You might be wondering how and what did everyone eat? Adriana (Pilar's friend and the youngest of the sisters) was in charge of cooking, and what a great job she did! She likes to cook and it shows! We were treated to great food all the time, from simple fried chicken to delicious seafood dishes. My son (the self-proclaimed vegetarian) had to eat everything on his plate under the vigilant eye of Ana Lucia (Adriana's sister), and everything was a form of "chicken", or so he thought! Well, playing all day outside, running around, swimming at the beach, and helping around the house, sure opens your appetite! Nicolas is now a more savvy eater, for sure!

On my second day there, I got a call from the delivery service contracted by Vueling to deliver my suitcase. The man was calling to get instructions in how to find the house, Adriana told him how to get there, and sure enough, ten minutes later I was reunited with my bag!!!! See how happy I looked! Even the delivery man was happy! What a great service Vueling!!!
Truth is: I had a great excuse to go shopping in Spain, since I had no clothes for TWO WHOLE DAYS! What a treat.

My week in Cantabria was great. Weather permitted we would get ready in the morning and head out to a nearby beach, which there are many. Some days were sunny and hot, others were overcast. The children did not mind, and Even though I wanted to get tan, I did not care either. The views were gorgeous and we were relaxed and happy.

España!

We are back from Spain and we had a great time. I am now a firm believer in the "law of equilibrium" (I have to call it something and equilibrium seems appropriate). The law goes something like this: "In order to have a great trip, one has to go through some kind of trouble before hand, nothing major, just some kind of inconvenience. Once one pays his/her dues then everything else will be great".

I left as scheduled, there were no delays, and I arrived to Madrid on time, then... my bag did not show up!!! I waited, and waited, and my little red suitcase was nowhere to be seen. (see picture of carousel with no red bags whatsoever). I had three hours between my arrival at Barajas and the bus departure for Santander-Cantabria. I went to the lost luggage window (there is someone there 24/7, I wonder why!) and made my claim. When the attendant asked for the place where I would be staying so that they could send my suitcase over, I had to laugh! I was heading first to Santander, and then to a little town called Arenas de Iguña, population 1,927. Well, he wrote down all my information and sent me on my way with his assurance that I would get my bag "soon".

By the way the amazingly beautiful terminal 4 at Barajas airport was designed by Antonio Lamela and Richard Rogers (winning them the 2006 Stirling Prize).

I took the city bus to the bus terminal and made it there with 5 minutes to spare. When I got to the window all the tickets for the 7:00 pm bus were sold out. Next bus: midnight! I bought my ticket and called my friends to let them know of all my misadventures. I took the metro and went to Nuevos Ministerios, where there is a Corte Ingles (a large department store found all over Spain). I sat down at a cafe and ordered a beer and a pincho de tortilla (a slice of Spanish tortilla-see recipe on link list), and people watched for most of the evening. I went window shopping and then I took the metro back to the station.

I took the midnight luxury bus to Santander and arrived at 6:00 am. My friends picked me up at the station, we went to their apartment and we slept for about three hours. Then we headed out to the country house. To be continued...

Buying a car and other headaches!

We had a wonderful weekend, mostly because Fernando did not have to work, and we had time to enjoy each other and our new surroundings. I haven't mentioned that since his arrival, Fernando has been working non-stop, trying to fix a major problem with a client in Milan. They finally found a solution for the problem, and everybody is happy. My husband is an Electronical Engineer working with industrial control software at a company called Wonderware -not Wonderbra, not Wonder bread- their mascot is a cow, and every employee is a little nuts; this is all I know about his work (well, not really, but who wants to know more about it?)

On Saturday we went to a nearby town to meet with a fellow expat; she is moving to the US and she is selling her car and all her appliances, and we need a car and appliances!!!! Linda and her husband are originally from South Africa and they are wonderful people. We went to drive a Peugeot 206 (four doors, with low millage), and hopefully to buy it. You have to understand that this is an ideal situation: the car fits my needs, the people selling it speak English, they will take a payment in the US, and best of all, they want to help us. All was good, we drove, we talked and then they asked us if we had the permesso de soggiorno yet. Well the permesso is basically a permit to stay, and you apply for it as soon as you arrive in Italy. In Fernando's case he had to show his nulla osta (the original permit to work in Italy, the little piece of paper for which we waited almost a year) to get the permesso. Now he has sent his application to Rome, and all we have is the mail receipt. Just to simplify this a little for you, NO, WE DON'T HAVE A PERMESSO DE SOGGIORNO YET!

In Italy you need to be a resident to buy a car, so it goes a little bit like this: to be a resident you have to have a signed lease to take to the commune; the commune then sends a police officer to your address to check if you really live there. He doesn't make an appointment, he just shows up, and if you are not there he might come back. If all goes well he reports back to the commune and then, they issue you a resident permit. But wait, it is not so easy! Foreigners need to have the PERMESSO to apply for residency.

How long does the permesso take? Well, we don't know! The lawyers say it can be a couple of weeks, or it can be longer....

Where does this leave us? Well... it seems we won't be able to buy Linda's car, and we will have to wait a while before we can buy anything at all.

Our rental car is due back in a week, and we are still trying to figure out a way to get another car. Fernando's company is providing him with a leased car, but they have to wait for the one we want. I guess they might be able to find us a rental while the other one comes.

I am leaving for Spain this afternoon, and all worries are going to stay at the hotel, in a little box under the bed. I am going to have a blast with our friends, and I am really happy to see Nicolas again, I have missed him so much!

Ciao for now!

Dove siamo?

Where are we? As I mentioned before we are staying at a hotel, in a special room (what they call "il residence.") This room functions like a little apartment, it has two bedrooms, a spacious bathroom, a dining room area, and a sofa and two chairs in a sitting area; behind foldable doors you can find a kitchenette, with a sink, a stove top, and a mini refrigerator. You can actually see pictures of it at: http://www.yeshotel.it/home.asp

We lucked out with this hotel, since it is the only one in Varese that allows dogs! Mocha seems to like the place, and she loves our daily walks to get gelato (I am glad the gelateria is not too close, so I can pretend that I am burning the calories on my way there!)

I have taken Mocha for runs around the area since I am trying to keep up with my running. I have tried several routes, and they are all equally dangerous. I go on the road (tiny, little, small, road), and if I want to run for a while I have to stick to the main roads (all others are always dead ends); so I run facing traffic, and I am careful, and usually drivers are careful too. One good thing is that people do not drive fast on this small roads. There is a gym at the hotel, and they have a treadmill, but the weather is so beautiful, and my poor dog needs the exercise, so I will keep being careful and fit!

There is a beautiful trail around lake Varese and this is the ultimate running heaven. But it is not close to the hotel, and since Fernando takes the only car we have to work, I am kind of forced to run near the hotel.

The hotel has a few bikes for the guests, and you can see me riding a bike to the store to buy the daily bread and fruit. Yes, I ride wearing skirts and dress shoes and no helmet! Tutto va bene!

If I need to go to town, then I can take the bus (a 5 minute ride) and I can go look at all the saldi (sales). Just look, because even though some items are 50% off, they are prohibitive for a regular human like me. Believe me, I miss a good deal! Where is a Macy's when you need it? Obviously everything is really beautiful, modern and fashionable. Tonight (and all Friday nights in July) the stores in town will be open until midnight. They need to make up for closing from 12:30 to 3:30... We are planning on going to people watch, and to enjoy a beautiful summer night while listening to music (free concerts almost every night).

Finding a house.

Well, our visitors have left, and they have taken Nicolas to Spain. He is going to spend two whole weeks at a summer house. Obviously, they will stay with some COLOMBIAN friends! (see previous note!) They are four sisters (all grown up) and their mom, and they are all meeting there with their families for a summer of fun. We talked to Nicolas today (via skype http://www.skype.com/) and he is having the time of his life. First thing I noticed: HE TALKED TO ME IN SPANISH! THE WHOLE TIME! HE TALKED TO ME IN SPANISH! It is interesting that children that learn a first language different that the language of the country in which they are born, will learn the prevalent language as their first and their parent's will be their second... see English is my second language and I already made a mess of my thoughts. What I mean is that my kid should speak Spanish fluently and he feels more comfortable speaking in English, or he used to, anyway, until his parents decided to make a mixed salad of his brain by trowing a third language in the mix, and now we will be lucky if he talks to us at all........

Now that we are on our own, we can focus on the task of finding a house. The premise of this task is that we need at least 3 bedrooms (refer to previous note and the Colombian connection) and we need some green space for dog and kid. We are looking for a rental, since this is suppose to be a 3 year deal. We started looking in the town of Varese, where Nicolas is going to attend school. We saw some great houses that were near the top of our budget. Then hubby (always the one with some sense) said we should look for a less expensive place and use the money we save on trips all over Europe (sounds like a good plan, doesn't it?)

Well, once you see the really nice places, you do not want to settle for anything less than nice, right? I gave it a chance, and we went looking south of town: quiet small villas with gardens. Well, I think we might have found our house on a little hill, near the town of Azzate. We almost didn't make it to the house though, because our relocation agent and her navigator took us to a field, behind the actual street where we needed to be. Funny thing is that she followed the instructions of the navigator, down a dirt road, up and down holes, until there was nowhere else to go. I guess the lower budget houses have lower standards as far as roads go...

More on the house as soon as we know if they will let us have the dog there.

We have visitors!

One thing you should know about Colombians is that we stick together. We will go to the end of the earth to visit a friend, and there are some unwritten rules about it:

• The visitor will have no problem sleeping on the floor if necessary.
• The visitee will provide shelter and company.
• The visitor will always help around the house.
• The visitee will surely be a visitor in the near future.

I have been all over the US and Europe lodging at friend's homes, so it is only natural than on our first week in Italy we had visitors. Our dear cousin Pilar and her two children arrived on Friday the 29th at night. We were really happy to see them, but Nicolas was the one that really benefited from having kids his age to hang out with.

We play tourist for a while and we visited Sacro Monte di Varese, Lugano in Switzerland, Stressa on Lago Maggiore, Lake Como (Do you know George Clooney owns a house here?), Venezia, and of course Milano. We had good days and bad days, like when we chose to drive to Venice instead of taking the train. We were stuck in traffic for hours at a time, even at midnight! My back still hurts from all the stress of driving.

When driving on the Italian highways one should avoid driving on the left lane unless one is driving a Ferrari! You will be tailgated so close, by the powerful machines on the road, that you will have to get out of their way or risk being pushed out of the road! I was forced out of that lane a couple times, but that is a couple times too many! Safe driving everyone!

First day

We had managed to fit the last bits of our Californian life into SIX suitcases, and no matter how many wheels each of them had, the two of us could not manage them all. So off I went to get a cart, with euros in hand... well I had no coins, just bills. Kid is left keeping an eye on suitcases, mom goes looking for a change machine. Mom finds the one and only machine which is being maintained at that precise moment. Mom waits, and waits, and finally gets the attention of the man in charge of all things coin related. He is nice enough to give me change, and we can finally get all our luggage in one place.


Fernando (hubby and dad) had come to pick us up at the airport which made things a little easier on Nicolas. He doesn't want to be here, and he is reluctantly following us into this new life.


We are now faced with our first real taste of Italian life: how to fit six suitcases into a Renault (that is a small french car for those of you who might not know). We managed to do it without leaving the kid behind! And we are on our way to the hotel to take a shower, eat a delicious meal and take a nap. Then, we get in the car again to go to another airport in the south of Milan, to pick up our dog, Mocha. I know that some people would think us crazy for bringing the dog to such an adventure, but she won't let us go!!!!

We go from one office to another, to get seals on our documents for the dog. We pay a little here and a little there, and at the end we are reunited with a very tired dog. Nicolas is happier now, he does not mention going "back home" anymore. I guess home is where your dog is!

We made it!

After many hours of travel, Nicolas and I arrived to ITALY! We were tired but happy to be in the land of art and pasta.