Archive - Apr 6, 2008

Well, we've arrived in Marbella and things have been good so far! We're not too jetlagged (though I didn't get to bed until 2am last night and slept until noon today, but you can be the judge of whether that's normal or not).

We don't yet have internet at the apartment, plus we're not sure if we will at all for the time we're here, so right now we're at an internet café around the corner.

First off, the location! We're in a really great spot. A huge thanks to my friend Matt for helping us land a place and being an enormous help in our transition to Marbella! The apartment turned out to be at least as good as the photos we saw of it, plus it's located just south of the city center and directly on the central beach, Playa de la Venus. We have a sofa bed, so by all means, come visit! We're on the third floor, facing west, so we can see the sea and some more developments down the beach. We're only a couple minutes walk from old town (our taxi from the bus station in the north of town actually took us past the old Islamic city walls) and we've walked all through the old town and about 10-15 minutes east and west along the beaches to explore -- down to a hospital on the east and a supermarket/cinema/small mall on the west.

And speaking of supermarket, we decided to eat in last night (we had brunch at a tapas place in old town), so we stocked up on some basic groceries with two small trips to the store. The store was interesting in that we had to do a bit of translation to figure out what things were. (Aside: just for anyone who hasn't heard, both Michelle and I took French in school, not Spanish like every other kid in the US, so Spanish is still pretty new to us.) After struggling through "washing up liquid" (dish soap) and the like, we managed to grab mostly normal things, except for our pasta sauce which struck us as kind of odd, but ended up being quite tasty, if very plain.

On the topic of language, we've been trying to use our limited Spanish skills and at least make an effort. I'm very much looking forward to getting better and eager to learn another language, even if only on a limited basis. Two things to look out for, though, if you're ever getting a place in another country -- the actual contract and, if you have a furnished place, the inventory. It's not that I didn't think that they would be in Spanish, but it just did not cross my mind that we would run into them, I guess. The contract was easy enough -- simple terms, plus our realtor knew limited English and could explain simple things like "no sublet" in words we could understand. For the inventory, though, we had to sign on the spot when we got into the apartment, and unfortunately the list was only in Spanish. We went through the major items -- TV, couch, fridge, oven, microwave, range, coffee pot, etc., but I'm hoping to go through the rest like cups, plates, etc. before tomorrow so we can raise an issue if anything is missing. Our travel Spanish guide was not too much help in this regard ("One plastic fountain"... We have a fountain? Oh, must mean this water pitcher.) Of course, our book has all kinds of useful words that we'll run into, most of which did not help us with the inventory, like moat (foso), sexy (sexy), guilty (culpable), and rectum (recto). What kind of trip are you on when those words are useful to you?

Well, that's about all for now. I've embedded some photos above, but if you want to check out the sets we've uploaded so far, we have:

Moving out of DC
Arrival in Marbella
First day in Marbella

Now that I have a chance to get to working on the blog... I have lots to catch everyone up on.

Moving to Spain meant leaving Georgetown... and though I may not miss getting up super early every morning, I will most definitely miss all my coworkers. And speaking about them, before leaving the city, we had an excellent happy hour at Vapianos. Justin even mentioned it was as good as a GUH holiday party. Thanks everyone for coming out to it. And I mean it, if any of you want to visit... turns out the couch is a pullout bed with views of the sea!

Before leaving for Spain, our first task was moving out of DC. It didn't make any sense to have an apartment while we were away, so the plan was to pack everything and keep it in storage near my parents in CT. Over the past year or so I have been working hard at getting rid of things (Freecycle) we don't use/need but it still seems like we had a ton of stuff. On the actual moving weekend, Nate was a huge help by coming down and helping us with the loading, driving, and unloading of the truck. Thank you Nate!

By Sunday, everything with the truck was settled and unpacked into storage, and then we had a fun week hanging out with my parents and introducing Macy to Toby. One of my patients had lent me a dvd on how to introduce cats and dogs so we tried to follow the guidelines, and I think it is working well. First night we kept Macy to herself, my parents have given her a room off the side of the house which will be a cat only 'safe space'. Its great, lots of windows and light, and a gas stove that Macy can spend hours watching. Around the second day, we allowed Macy and Toby to meet thru a cracked door. Toby was very interested, and Macy had some interest but typically turned around and walked the other way from him. By the third day, they both got a chance to meet, and they were well behaved. By the time we left them, Macy had the ability to move in and out of the safe room and would rest on the chair in the living room as long as someone was nearby to keep an eye on the dog.

I liked having the chance to chill at home before flying out, we had dinner family dinner with Lena, Jimmy, KC and Marc, and Justin set up our Wii for my dad and we had some good games of bowling and golf. One evening Justin and I went over to visit my grandma and make her a fabulous (if I do say so myself) dinner of chicken saltimbocca, orzo, and fresh berries with marscapone. Spent a day with my mom, and managed to get a lunch at Shady Glen. And even before flying out of JFK, met up with Gwen and had dinner at the Bayou.

Oh and for the record... I did excellent with the flights. :)