Our little slice of torta

We have carved out a nice little niche for ourselves here in this corner of Barcelona.  We are getting used to the lack of central heat in our apartment (we consistently wear sweaters and socks in our apartment all the time.)  You may smirk and think that we have it easy since we're living in 53 degree winter weather (while you're freezing your little tushes off in temps of single digits); however, when it NEVER gets warmer than 53...even in your own apartment...it starts wearing thin little by little.  Also, where we live, in the old part of Barcelona, we never get any sunshine due to the height of the buildings.  So we could walk around for an entire day and not feel the sweet warmth of the sun on our shoulders.  Too bad we aren't going to be here to fully enjoy spring/summer.  I hear it's the best.  

We've also grown accustomed to doing our food shopping on a 2-3 times-a-week basis because 1) I can't carry the equivalent of a Costco shopping trip in one go from our supermarket (Carrefour) to our apartment, 2) Des is usually with me when we go food shopping which, as we all know and can appreciate, is a freaking nightmare (candy?  Mami, candy?  Pees?  Pees, Mami, candy?  Candy! Candy!! Candyyyyyy!!!!!) so our trips are relatively short, and 3) everything is teeny tiny compared to the stuff in the States.  

What I used to view as "problems" here have actually been blessings in disguise.  I used to lament the small size of our refrigerator (shown in the background in the picture below.  The top half is the fridge and the bottom half is the freezer) and how it could only hold so much.  And I would lament about how fast we would go through our 1L of milk (and by we I mean Billy and Des because I rarely drink milk.  Smells like udders.)  So, what does this all amount to now?  We buy a lot of fresh fruits and veggies from the Boqueria market close to our house which we have to eat relatively quickly because of lack of space in fridge and lack of storage space in kitchen in general.  I also tend to cook more vegan/vegetarian dishes because meat is more expensive here than in the states (especially beef) and although there is an abundance of fish here, I'm not sure I'd know how to skillfully cook it and I would hate to waste my money on over- or undercooked fish.  Worst thing ever.

We have been making about 3-4 meals a week and eating lots of yummy leftovers.  We have limited our dining out to mostly during lunch or to having tapas at dinner so that we could cut back on our spending.  This past week, we have been living off of about 30 euros a day (doesn't include rent or bills, but does include all food, transportation, and sightseeing costs...mostly just food :))  Our goal is to try to see if every week we could beat our last week in how cheaply we live.  This will only happen for the next month or so because once people start visiting us, we're going to want to start spending more money on delicious food.

Crappy picture...but I am enamored with the amount of mandarin oranges that is sold here.   And I love that they keep the leaves on them.  We eat about 3-4 oranges each per day.

 Our apartment is roughly 100 square meters, which is much larger than most of the apartments we looked at in the old part of Barcelona.  It has 2 bedrooms, a dressing area, a living room, bathroom with separate toilet, and kitchen.  There is a "portero," a doorman, named Jose who is the nicest guy we have met in Barcelona so far.  He is so sweet with Des and delivers our mail to us personally (by the way, did y'all know that if you live abroad, the great American postal service will forward your mail temporarily for free?  We are doing it for a year).

Yes, he's about to pick his nose.  Des has his own bedroom and he actually loves spending time in it.  We put the small amount of toys that we brought from St. Louis in there and Maribel, the owner of the apartment, showed us these cute little planet balls that we hung because gosh darn it...my son's room will have SOME science in it.

Our little space heater.  Every morning, I would take an orange and split it up into the little pieces and then place them on top of newspaper or magazine paper that sat on top of the heater.  I would go about my day as usual and then after an hour or two, would come back and stick them in the freezer for a few minutes.  The heat from the space heater would dry the outer skin out so that when you bit into one, it would crack/crunch and then release the cold juice from the inside.  

At the Boqueria Market, looking for cumin.

 We have a cozy little balcony where we sometimes sit and eat croissants (with chocolate in them) and drink the (pretty crappy) coffee (crappy because I make it and I'm still a novice coffee drinker so I'm not sure how to make a good cup of coffee) and just sightsee.  It looks out over our little street, Carrer de Gravina.  It also is one of the few places in the apartment where we could get some sunshine for just a few glorious hours.

Unfortunately, there are like 5 pastry shops within a 4 minute walk from my front door.    Des and I have very tiny amounts of willpower when it comes to sweets, but I will report that, as with any situation where you are constantly bombarded with something, you kind of get used to it and the sights and smells of all the pastry shops don't hit me beautifully in the heart/gut/soul as they used to.  This picture is of the best of the bunch: La Mistral.

Eating a meringue half the size of his head.

 As I've mentioned before, I've looked at a lot of the family- and kid-centered websites from Barcelona and through one, I found mention of a little place sort of close to us (a 15-minute brisk walk) called La Marelle.  It is so cute...it's run by this French woman named Alex and she holds kid-centered art and craft classes there during the week.  The space is also open at other times as a place for parents to sit and have coffee and eat some treats while their kids play with the multitude of toys strewn all over the place.  Des loves it there and even though it is chaotic, I love that he's surrounded by children and parents speaking a multitude of different languages.

Des on his favorite bouncy horse toy at La Marelle.

In an arts and crafts class at La Marelle.  Do you wanna know what he says to little girls (and women...especially the women who work at the corner markets and give him pops)?  Hola Guapa (it comes out sounding like "Oa Gapa," which means, Hi Beautiful.)

 We are lucky to live just a 6-minute walk to a humble little park near our favorite bookstore (La Central del Raval) and from 3 cafes with outdoor seating that surround it.  Although we are lucky to live so near a park, it isn't close to anything like the parks we used to have in our little town of Maplewood, MO.  Maybe it's the American penchant for bigger is better, but these little parks are so...little.  There isn't much equipment and each one we've seen just has dirt covering it.  I guess it's back to the basics and the realization that kids don't need a lot to have a great old time.  Picture below proves it.

Go ahead and click it and enlarge it.  Des's smile will brighten up your face for at least a few seconds.  You deserve it.

 Another few minutes walk in the opposite direction and you have what looks like a quintessential European cities...complete with large fountains in large plazas surrounded by beautiful large buildings.

Plaza Catalunya.

Plaza Catalunya.

 Depending on how far we plan to walk that day, I sometimes will wear Des on my back while sightseeing.  Since I haven't done an ounce of exercise besides walking, it makes me feel that I'm accomplishing some cardiovascular activity while going about my day.  But I tell you what, it is hard work carrying around a 30 pounder.  Makes me long for the days when I would just wear him in the maya wrap all snuggled up against my chest.  Ladies, take my advice.  Planning to be a mom and worried that you will never travel?  Do as much of it as you can with your little baby because the little babies grow up to be kicky, whiny, growly, amazing little beings with a will of their own and it becomes very difficult to just pick them up and go anywhere.  So do it now!

Oh, what?  This little old building?  It's nothing...Just the Petit Palau, an architectural gem, just down the street from me.  No biggie.

 So pretty much, we live in a cool neighborhood and are slowly assimilating and acclimating to our lives here.  We are even starting to incorporate "Vale" (an almost ubiquitous word that means the same as OK) into our lexicon.  Even Des is starting to say it, although it sounds like "bolly bolly."

Thanks for reading my silly posts!