The Fall in Barcelona

Final Fireworks at La Merce

My friend Jordi recently told me that for him, the major sign of the beginning of the Fall is the last firework rocket that explodes at the final event of La Merce, the major festival in Barcelona that ended this year last Wednesday, Sept 24.  I was able to see these fireworks from the rooftop of a friend who hosted a party at his house.

Last week we had a few days of rain and after that the weather definitely changed. Although it's still very mild here, it's definitely not as hot or as humid. It's quite beautiful and the air feels fresh and clean. Everytime I walk outside I feel grateful having this amazing opportunity to live here.

Classes started

My Spanish class actually started on Thursday. I think the teacher is very good. However the class is

Barcelona Official Language School Entrance

large and although I only have one day to go on, I feel my speaking skills are a little more advanced than most in the class. Tuesday is my teacher's office day (a half hour). I'm going to set up an appointment to find out if there is an opportunity to move someone if they feel he or she is more advanced than the placement test determined. We'll see.  I know I'll still learn a lot in this class, regardless.

Shambhala Activities

A few weeks ago I was asked by the Shambhala group here to lead a particular practice which I have done in the US. It involves reading a 14 page text. However, here this text is in Spanish rather than in English, which makes sense, but for me involves a lot more concentration and effort. So I practiced with the text for about a week and led the session, which I believe turned out well.

This Sunday I went to Penedés, a town southwest of Barcelona and famous for its vineyards and wines, to participate in a program that began on Friday evening. There is a Shambhala group in Penedés so I had the opportunity to meet many of them for the first time.  I received a very warm welcome and became acquainted with some of the member of the Penedés group.

Second housewarming party

On Tuesday I host my second housewarming party. This time it's only 9 of us so we can all sit around the table. It will be more relaxed andI will be serving more appropriate portions of food (I had way too much food the last time). This group is my Tuesday night dinner group which we meet every Tuesday at 9:30 pm for dinner.

Language Learning - Bueno, Bonito y Barato

Last week I found out that I was accepted into the Official School of Languages of Barcelona (EOI -  Escoles Oficials d’Idiomes) to improve my Spanish speaking skills.  I start on Sept 29, four days a week, 2.5 hours a day through late January.  I'll explain later why I am doing this, but first I'd like to give you a background of my Spanish language learning experience.

My Prior Spanish Language Experience

Everyone who learns a second language (or third, etc) has a different experience in how they acquired that skill set.  In my case, it was through total immersion.

The Valladolid University students that I was with from 78-81

When I was 25 years old, I had the opportunity to live in Spain for three years as an evangelical missionary with an interdenominational organization called The Navigators.  I virtually had no prior second language learning experience.  I was thrown into the city of Valladolid, supposedly one of the best places in Spain to learn pure Castillian Spanish, and I had to either sink or swim.

I quickly discovered that I do not have a gift of learning languages.  The first year was very difficult.  I felt useless because I couldn't communicate, nor could I understand others.  I was being tutored multiple times a week and I put time aside to study on my own.  But it was very slow. My listening skills were especially lacking. At the end of the first year, during the summer, I took a month long intensive course in Madrid, which helped a great deal.  Then with some American friends, I took a two week trip to Italy and the former Yugoslavia, and got away from the Spanish language all together.  When I re-entered Spain by train

Trip to Yugoslovia - 1979

and as I began to listen to people talking on the train, I was amazed at how I was easily comprehending what others were saying.  It seemed that my break from Spanish after the first year helped to rewire my brain and things started to make more sense to me.

The following two years I continued to improve my Spanish through study and through day-to-day interactions with Spaniards.  In all three years, I lived with Spaniards in the flats that we rented.  By the end of the third year I would say I was a strong intermediate Spanish speaker.

Thirty+ years in the U.S.

I returned to the U.S., came out as a gay man, and initially wanted to return back to Spain ASAP.  I got my Masters degree in teaching English as a second language to help me do that.  But I also got into a 14 year relationship and my life remained in the U.S.  Initially my first partner Joe and I would travel to Spain on occasion and those were great opportunities to practice my Spanish.  But over time my Spanish skills faded with lack of use.

In my relationship with Tom, after about 8 years, we took a trip to Spain and in that trip got to know

Spanish class in Madrid - 2006

Barcelona.  Tom was enthralled with Spain and we soon talked about the idea of moving to Spain together after I retired.  We soon got into the rhythm of going to Spain every one or two years, and I was able to practice my Spanish during those trips.  In 2006 we actually spent two weeks in a Spanish academy in Madrid, each of us taking Spanish at our appropriate levels.  Tom and I went to other Spanish speaking countries including Argentina, Costa Rica and Peru.  I also took a couple of Spanish courses at USDA to help me at least maintain my Spanish.

At work, I met my friend Carol, who was also an avid Spanish speaker.  She also wanted to improve her Spanish.  So we took some classes together in the DC area, traveled to Buenos Aires together, we only spoke to each other in Spanish when we would see each other, and finally found a great Sevillian Spanish teacher who tutored us in Spanish for the last few years that I was in the U.S.

I would say that all of this helped me to maintain my Spanish and just slightly improve it.  But I don't think I was able to make any significant leaps forward in my Spanish.

The Last Six Months in Barcelona

I've been here for over 6 months and I'm definitely immersed.  Since the people of Barcelona speak both Spanish and Catalan, I don't get the constant reinforcement in Spanish that I would get if I were living in a city such as Madrid.  But I have no problem conversing with people here in Spanish once they know that I do not know Catalan.

I believe my fluency has improved and my vocabulary has expanded.  However, it seems like I am hitting a road block and need to be pushed to deepen and improve my Spanish.  My friend Xavi suggested that I apply to the Official Language School of Barcelona, a very good, and very inexpensive school, as a means to improve my Spanish speaking, listening, reading and writing skills.

EOI -  Escoles Oficials d’Idiomes: Bueno, Bonito y Barato

There is a saying in Spanish that is often used here in Barcelona that when it comes to products or food, it is best but rare to find something to be "Bueno, Bonito, y Barato" or "Good, Nice, and Inexpensive" (it sounds better in Spanish).  It seems like EOI is one of those things that fit this description.

Because of that, it can be difficult to get into the school if you're a new student.  They have a lottery after you take the language placement test and it's simply the luck of the draw if you're selected to be in a class.  Luckily I was selected.  The placement test was pretty tough.  I was placed in level 3 (intermediate - there are 5 levels).  Although I was happy to be selected, I was at first disappointed that I didn't get into a higher level.  I've gotten over that and I am very much looking forward to being in these classes.

Future Language Goals

Depending on my experience with this semester, I may continue with Spanish in the Spring.  I am also thinking about focusing on Catalan in the Fall.  We'll see how things unfold.

Building Maintenance Drudgeries & Bear Week in Sitges

My friend Carol left on Tuesday, leaving my cat Sunset and me together to get reacquainted.  Sunset has quickly adjusted to her new digs with all its sights and sounds.  She really started to enjoy walking out on the balcony, watching the birds flying by and the people on the streets 5 stories down.  But that didn't last too long, I'm sad to say.

Facade Work

When I  bought my place, I knew that they were going to do work on the facade and on the front door and that the work had already been paid for by all the property owners, including the previous owners of my flat.  What I didn't know, however, was how invasive this work was going to be.  Before the weekend of my house warming party they constructed the scaffold, which covers my balcony and my view.

The very day Carol left they started drilling and removing the current facade.  I was talking with Chris on the phone in the other room.  He could hear the drilling over the phone and suggested that I may need to close my windows to prevent dust from coming in the living room.  Why I didn't listen to him I'll never know but after I hung up and walked back into the living room/dining room/loft area, I could see billows of concrete dust entering through the shutter slots.  I quickly shut the slots and the windows.  But as I turned around, I could see a thin layer of dust throughout the front part of the apartment.  I spent the rest of the morning cleaning it as best I could.  With the window doors shut, it's like living in a semi-dark cave.  It will continue like this for about 3 months, unfortunately.  For the cat's sake and my own, I open the windows and the shutter slots after 4:30 pm, to get some air and some light in.  Of course that also allows some of the dust on the scaffold and balcony to enter, but the fresh air is worth the inconvenience.

The other thing that I need to be vigilant about is to make sure that both the windows and the interior wooden panels that fold over the windows are securely shut, especially in the evenings when I am out of the house or if I am away for a few days.  It is common that burglars will use the scaffolding to climb into apartments that do not have their windows secured.

Bear Week in Sitges

Bears, bears, bears.  Someone told me that there were about 12,000 of them (I think it was more like 5,000) in Sitges during last week's bear gathering, which ended on Sunday evening.  For those of you who are not familiar with bear culture, according to wikipedia, the bear community movement started in the late 80's for gay men who exhibited more rugged masculine characteristics and was a reaction to the mainstream gay culture of the 60's and 70's which tended to be less so.  Spain seems to have a very large bear community presence and Sitges, a beach resort just south of Barcelona, holds one of the largest bear gathering in the world each September.

Since I now live close to Sitges, I decided to come to the last 4 days of the gathering.  I stayed with two friends, Cristian and Alfonso, and we rented an apartment in Sitges.  Since our apartment was outside of the town's center, we brought our bikes on the train and traveled to the town and to the beach easily (unfortunately, one of my friends had his bike stolen midway through our stay).  The typical schedule was to get up mid morning, pack the backpack with towel and beach accessories, make our way to the restaurant Mont Roig, which is in the center of town to have breakfast and meet and greet friends there, make our way to the clothing optional beach nearby, spend time in the water and on the beach with hundreds of other bears until around 5:30 pm, go back to the center of town for a drink and appetizer,

return to the apartment to take a nap, get up and go out to dinner (typical time - 10 pm), and then spend the rest of the evening in many of the outdoor festivities on the beach walkway or on the narrow streets of Sitges.  Three and a half days was about all I could do, but it was enjoyable, talked a lot in both Spanish and English (there are many visitors that come from all over the world), and spent time with old friends as well as met a few new ones.  My mind continued to return to Chris, wishing he were here and how it would be for the both of us to do this together.  Of course we talked every day throughout my stay.

One of the highlights of my time here was running into an old chorus friend who I hadn't seen in about 30 years.  It was truly just by chance. Jim is a very much of an extrovert and one evening, as I was sitting with friends in the "Bear Village" he and his friend came by and started up a conversation in English.  As we were talking, he seemed familiar, and I finally asked him his name.  We were both delighted to see each other again and quickly caught up on our lives.  Jim now lives in Long Beach, CA with his partner.  He has dramatically changed physically, exhibiting a large, muscular body, as compared to the rather thin blond man that I knew in the early 80's.  But his outgoing personality, gorgeous blue eyes and great smile were still the same and it was great to spend a little bit of time with him.

Barcelona Hosting and House Warming Party

My friend Carol, who brought my cat Sunset to me, has been staying with me as my first guest.  We've taken in parts of the city that she had not seen in her last visit here to Barcelona a year ago last September.  As many of you know, Carol was a work colleague of mine and when I was working there she was considered my "work wife".  One of the things we would do at work was to almost always speak to each other in Spanish whenever we saw each other, unless we were in a group with non-Spanish-speaking colleagues.

Of course we continued this custom here in Barcelona. I find that this constant practice of speaking Spanish at all times has been very helpful.  Even though I live here, during the day I may spend many hours on my own in the house or out and about.  With Carol here the quantity of time speaking Spanish has increased greatly and I find that my fluency and ease of speaking Spanish (at least with Carol) is better.

La Costa Brava

The region in Catalunya north of Barcelona is called La Costa Brava.  Carol and I decided to rent a car and visit this beautiful area, focusing on the city of Figueres, where the Salvador Dali museum is.  When we

went to the car rental office, we were given the opportunity to drive up there (about 150 kilometers) in a Smart Car.  It is quite small and we had our doubts, but we took the leap.  It turns out to be a very comfortable car (which happened to be licensed in the principality of Andorra) and it saved us a lot of gas miles.

On the way up we took the secondary roads and got to see a little of the coast and interior countryside of La Costa Brava.  We visited two stunning towns, Roses and Cadaqués and later visited the ancient monastery of St. Pere de Rodes, overlooking the Port de la Selva, thanks to the suggestions of my friend Jordi.  Roses is where the famous chef Ferran Andria had his restaurant, El Bulli, rated the world's best restaurant for four straight years before it closed in 2011.

After having lunch in Roses we drove to Caduequés, an amazing port town. Walking around the town and taking in incredible views of the sea, the port and the white-washed town, we found some comfortable chairs.at a beach bar and sipped on ice-cold water and beer.  Before arriving to Figueres, we finished the trip by visiting the monastery of St. Pere de Rodes in the sunset hours.  A beautiful setting nestled in the mountains overlooking the coastline.


Around 7:30 pm we arrived in Figueres, checked into our hotel and then took a walk around the center of the city near the museum and city hall.  It was such a pleasant evening.  The next

day we got to the Dali museum a few minutes before 9 am, when it would open, in order to buy our tickets and see the museum.  We weren't disappointed!  Dali was an artist who used many different forms of media to express himself through his art, including jewelry.

After a couple of hours, we walked back to our hotel, checked out, and drove over to Castelló d'Empúries, 9 kilometers east of Figueres.  It's a wonderful small town that was the capital of the region in the 11th century and today has preserved many of the buildings and
architecture through the centuries.

House Warming Party

Since I bought my house in June, I had planned to have a house warming party (it's called an Inauguration of the House here).  I talked with my friend Jordi about it and after counting about 35-40 people, I realized I couldn't have it all at the same time.  Jordi suggested that I break it into smaller groups.  So, last Saturday I had my first house warming party.  I invited about 20 people, a little too many for my house, but it worked.  Although a house warming party can be anything you want it to be, generally it is a dinner with lots of food, drink and cava (champagne).  This group was mostly composed of friends that I met during my many hiking outings during the Spring.  It also included some other friends including my longer-time friends Frederic, Carlos and Cesar.

I was so glad that Carol was here. She knew that I was going to host a house warming party, although at the time of her arrival, I still didn't know who I would be inviting for this first round and what kind of food we would serve.  Carol was a real help in firming up those plans and in helping me prepare the food and the house for the event.  In general, for events like these, you only invite people about a week beforehand.  The smart phone app, WhatsApp, is the usual way to communicate with friends and replaces text messaging that is used in the States.  What was amazing about this event is that every person that I invited accepted the invitation and everyone came.

The house was decked out with flowers and candles and lots of food and drink.  People started arriving

around 9 pm and about 10 of us were still here at 1:30 am.  It turned out very well.  It seemed that people really enjoyed themselves, although it was a little taxing on the air conditioning system for this many people with the warm and humid weather.  We had way too much food, but I'm a little more savvy for the next group (which I'm still not sure when that will happen).  I envision two more groups, each of which will only have around 10-12 guests.

We ended the party by going to the gay bar XXL, about 7 blocks from my house.  Carol and I didn't get home until 3:30 am!!  We had a blast but Sunday was a day of recuperation!

Holy Cat Crap!!

The BIG NEWS is that my cat Sunset is now with her daddy!!!  Thanks to the teamwork of both my ex-partner Tom and my friend Carol, last Wednesday Sunset became a trans-Atlantic and international cat.

You may be wondering how this came about.

Background

When Tom and I decided that we should separate for good we started talking about how to divide our assets, including the two cats that we owned.  Although Sunset and Sienna are sisters, they never got along.  Sunset is the smaller one, but she dominated Sienna.  They were always fighting and hissing.  It didn't make for a happy household.  So it was a no-brainer that they should be separated.  Sienna definitely had more of an affinity with Tom and Sunset seemed to gravitate toward me, so that decision also was pretty simple - I would get Sunset and Sienna would stay with Tom.

Delay

Of course, when I came to Spain in March, I had no permanent location.  The first 20+ days was in an

AirB&B apartment and then 2 months in a rented room.  I definitely couldn't have a cat with me during that time.  Tom had to keep Sunset with him during the last five and a half months.  Tom told me various times that the fighting between the two cats only seemed to get worse over this course of time.  None of them (including Tom) were happy campers.

Process

So what does it take to bring a cat to Spain from the U.S.?  Luckily the person who translated my original documents into Spanish also worked for the Agriculture Department for the Embassy of Spain in Washington D.C.  She directed me to webpage with the steps I needed to take to transport Sunset here.  Spain does not require a quarantine for house pets.  What it does require is that the pet be microchipped.  Sunset already had an imbedded microchip.  Then the pet needs to be checked by a USDA certified veterinarian a maximum of 10 days before the cat arrives to Spain.  The Vet fills out the official document and signs it.  Then that document has to be sent to a USDA office to certify the document.  Since one only has 10 days or less to do this, it usually has to be shipped overnight, in this case to Richmond, to get it back in time before the pet flies to Spain.

Travel Mode

When I first started talking about having Sunset follow me a few months after I would arrive in Barcelona, I was pleasantly surprised when my friend and then-colleague Carol offered to bring Sunset with her to Barcelona.  Carol already had plans to visit me.  The icing on the cake was her offer to take the cat with her.  I would buy a carry-on cage that could fit under the seat in front of her and she would carry the cat with her in the cabin.  Sunset is only 6 pounds so that would not be an issue.  After hearing a number of horror stories of pets that were stored with luggage in the storage compartment of a jet, I really did not want to subject Sunset to that difficult experience.  I was so happy that Carol would bring the cat personally to Barcelona.  Bringing a pet on-board limited Carol's options of airline carriers that permit international travel with pets in the cabin, but she found that United allowed for this kind of travel.  I had to pay for Sunset's ticket, which was $125 - not bad for a 4,000 mile flight.

Arrival

On Wednesday, August 28, Carol and Sunset arrived safely at El Prat airport in Barcelona.  There were no issues.  Sunset can be a little chatty, especially when she is in a cage.  So Carol gave her a half of a tranquilizer pill to calm her down.  There were no issues on either leg of the trip nor in the airports.  No one seemed concerned about Carol carrying a cat with her on-board.  In fact, when she arrived at the Barcelona airport, she had to get the attention of a customs agent to let her know that she was arriving with a cat.  The agent seemed to be more interested in the make of Carol's handbag than in the cat, but she finally did review the paperwork that cost over $300 in vet bills and document shipping costs and gave her the official stamp of approval.  It was wonderful to see Carol walk through the doors and it was a very happy reunion to be able to touch and hold Sunset again.

Adjustment Period

I always felt that of the two, Sunset would be able to adjust  better to the stress of travel and be in a new environment.  She was pretty fearless compared to Sienna, who was more skittish.  But I started to have my doubts during the first couple of days.  Sunset immediately hid herself behind the washing machine or under the bed.  It was difficult to coax her out.  She wasn't eating hardly any of the dry food that she was used to in the beginning (although she did chow down some wet food that I gave her) and the litter box and the litter itself was very different and I didn't know if she would have problems with that.

She did start to use the litter box, and finally she had her first poop.  Success!!!  Slowly but surely she began to explore more of the house.  The amount of noise that she was hearing from the streets seemed to freak her out.  But in a few days she seemed okay with that.  She was spending more time out on the balcony, something she had never experienced before (being outside on her own, that is).

Furniture and Scratching

I bought a number of cat products for Sunset, including a scratching post.  Up until now she has not used the post.  But having purchased some leather furniture, I wanted to be sure that she would not use the leather sofa as a scratching post.  So, before Chris came this summer, I purchased a product called Soft Paws and Chris brought it with him.  They are soft rubber claw coverings which you use glue to attach to the cat's front paws.  A friend of mine used it for his cat a few years ago and I thought I would give it a try here.

By now Sunset seemed to be pretty comfortable with her surroundings.  So with Carol's help, I decided  to put on the soft paws.  She was not very happy and afterwards she immediately ripped off one of them.  But I quickly put on another one and then spent some time playing with her and distracting her so that she would get used to the feel.  So far so good!  And they look great on her - gold sparkle nails!!!




Other News

Carol is my first house guest.  She broke in the guest bed and the guest bedroom.  I think she is pretty comfortable in the apartment. She is a fluent Spanish speaker and she is meeting some of my friends here and seems to be enjoying herself with the language, culture and food.

Coincidentally, an ex-colleague of mine, Doug, who had retired 10 years before me, has been staying here in Barcelona for the month of August.  He previously was living in Florence, Italy for a number of months.  We met a few times earlier this month and one last time with Carol, who also knew Doug when he worked at the OCC.  He is seriously considering relocating to Barcelona come April.  It was great to spend some time with both him and Carol together.

Carol, Doug and me at Restaurante Mirador in Montjuic