Our First Guests

Our good friends from France, Mike and Nicci came down to visit us and see our new place for a few days.  It's their first time down to this area, they have never been to Girona or Barcelona.  They stayed 4 days and we had a great time.

The first day was beautiful (well actually all the days were beautiful).  We took the dogs to the beach for a long run.  Mike and Nicci brought their dog Skipi, who gets along really well with all our dogs. It was so great to be running on the beach in December/January.

We then headed to the ruins of Empúries.  Empúries, formerly known by its Spanish name Ampurias, was a town on the Mediterranean coast of the Catalan comarca of Alt Empordà in Catalonia, Spain. It was founded in 575 BC by Greek colonists from Phocaea with the name of Ἐμπόριον (Emporion, meaning "trading place", cf. emporion). It was later occupied by the Romans (Latin: Emporiæ), but in the Early Middle Ages, when its exposed coastal position left it open to marauders, the town was abandoned.

It's hard to get excited about an excavated site, but the location was beautiful and we tried to imagine what the buildings looked like and how they lived their lives.

Then we came back and took a long siesta as we were going into Girona to celebrate New Years Eve. We had a great dinner of fresh llobado (a spanish white fish), grilled calamari, potatoes and asparagus.  We have decided to start eating more fish since moving here, it's so fresh.

Our night in Girona was so much fun.  We arrived about 10:30 and went to an Irish pub (there weren't many things open).  The pub was packed and really fun.  Then at 11:45 we headed over to the steps of the church to await the stroke of midnight.  Catalan tradition is that each time the bell rings you must eat a grape - 12 grapes total.  You have to finish the first grape before the 2nd bell rings and so on.  If you can do it, you get good luck all year.  We all did it!

Nicci and I

Heading up the steps

Mike and I - Happy New Year

A bit dark....but celebrating the New Year

  There were so many people there and a band with live music.  Everyone was singing and dancing.  We had a fantastic time.  Actually our best New Years ever...normally we stay home and are in bed before the clock strikes midnight.

The memory jar

For the past 3 years we have had a memory jar.  We start it January 1 and during the year we add little "memories" to it.  We opened it this year a bit late, since we had guests, but it was great to remember some of the fun and exciting things that happened in 2014.

The first one I pulled out was this one.  Back in the spring when we we were thinking about moving to Spain.

We also had some of the teens who came to visit over the summer for an art retreat write some of their memories too.  We loved reading things that they remember of the time with us.

Yes in 2 weeks 12 girls went through 10 jars of Nutella.

This wasn't just a little note...it was a letter and so lovely.

We have 2 cars, mine only holds 4 girls.  I had the same group each time in my car.  We would sing songs (most from the movie Frozen) and laughed a lot.

Bibi is from Russia, this was her 2nd time come to us during the summer.  We love her.

Sunny but the winds!

Yesterday we lost power.  It was about 5:30 pm and everything went black.  Right now our house is on the same electricity as the castle.  Yes, the castle.  We are part of a 1,000 year old castle, we are only connected by a small terrace, other than that we are separate.  But we are still on their electricity until our new meter box comes, which should be next week.  Because of that we have to be careful not to load it too much.  I forgot yesterday and had the dryer on and then I turned on the electric oven to start dinner. That's all it took.  Our landlords who live in the castle are so lovely, they tried to get it working, but couldn't. The electrician couldn't come until today, so we decided to jump in the car and go into Girona to our favorite pintxos restaurant.  We came home to a very dark house.

This morning still no power and it was starting to get a bit cold.  Our landlords told us the electrician couldn't come until 4:00 pm.  We wanted to go climbing, but it has been very windy the last 2 days, so not ideal for climbing outside.  So, we jumped in the car and went into Girona to pick up our NIE card, which is basically our residency card and then we headed to the inside climbing gym just outside of Girona.  For 5,00 euros we could climb from 11-5 pm.  What a deal.  We spent about 3 hours there, climbing and getting a great workout.

We came back around 4:00 and still no electrician.  But at 4:30 as we were sitting in the house with coats and hats on, the electricity came back on.  YAY.  The house doesn't take long to heat up, so we'll be good in a few hours.  I just need to remember that if I'm going to use the dryer, nothing else can be running.  Once we get our meter, everything will be fine.

Little things like this can either be a huge hassle or a "oh well".  We choose "oh well", such is life. It's not a big deal.  You've got to learn to just let things roll off and not stress.