I’m so excited that we are finally HERE! It has been an insane past 3 weeks, but we are finally feeling a bit more settled in Barcelona. We packed up our suitcases (to the brim!), cleaned our house in Grinnell, said our goodbyes to friends and family, and on July 4th we made our way to the airport to say goodbye to the US for a year and head across the Atlantic to Spain! For an entire year. I still kind of can’t believe it. 🙂
There are so so SO many things I could write about and share about, and we haven’t even been here two full weeks yet. Everything from how to pack enough clothes and toys to keep two small children happy (and dressed) for a year, to my favorite new foods and wines. What it’s like to endure the worst jet lag ever because you pretty much held a sleeping or exhausted baby for most of your red-eye flight. Or the experience of trying to adjust to life in a bustling city of 1.6 million when you’re used to living in a town of around ten thousand. New language. New food. New transportation methods. New customs. New everything. It’s been a lot of adjusting. And I’m sure the adjusting will continue for quite some time. At the moment, I’m trying my best to be flexible and just try to adapt as best as I can. As a mom of two little boys who thrives on schedules and patterns, this is definitely a BIG challenge for me. But, I’m learning to go with the flow. Otherwise, this next year probably won’t be very enjoyable for any of us – we’d be stuck in our apartment being slaves to naps and schedules, and we’d never get to see and explore this great city!
We’ve already been to the beach once and explored some of Passeig de Gracia and some Modernisme Architecture in Example. (For those less familiar with Barcelona, Example is the “newer” part of Barcelona that was built in the late 19th century when Barcelona was finally freed from it’s medieval walls and expanded out to the surrounding small towns of Sant Andreu, Gracia, and Sants. Now, all of these areas are part of Barcelona as one big city.) My husband and I are greatly enjoying the tasty foods and wines, plus the huge selection of fresh seafood. Not to mention all the delicious baked goods at the local patisserie. We are in foodie heaven 🙂
I’m sure you all want to see some of my beautiful photos. Truth be told, I’ve mostly been using my phone to capture everything. It’s easy and portable! The best place to find photos on a regular basis is on my Instagram feed – http://instagram.com/jenweinman or you can find ones that are more about daily life with my two boys here – https://www.instagram.com/snuggleupagus/ Or if you want to see everything easily, you can use our hashtag #WeinmansWorldwideAdventure on Facebook or Instagram 🙂 I do plan to take plenty of photos while I’m here using my “real” camera. However, most of my time these past two weeks has been spent either procuring things we need for our apartment, grocery shopping (we do this a LOT), or trying to survive the daily antics of my two kids. Just keeping it real!
And with that, I need to go grab little baby dude who just woke from a nap 🙂
Because no post is good without photos, a few from the adventures so far, starting with our last day in Grinnell when we said bye to our house. I am kind of laughing at all of our expressions.
Big brother Gus spent his first night in a big kid bed at the hotel. It took him about 3x as long to fall asleep and he woke about an hour earlier. We weren’t too impressed.
Flying into Barcelona after a LONG day of travel. We were all pretty tired.
Settling into our apartment. Things have changed already since I took this photo.
Me and my youngest son, Soren. He just turned 7 months old! And due to lack of sleep, I probably have aged 7 years. Lol
Our sweet landlord got Gus this rug from Ikea – he loves it!
First trip to the beach – caps off our first week in BCN. We could get used to this!
