living the high life

I tried leaving a post last night about how we just hired a nanny/cook/housekeeper. Blogger pooped out on me just as a tried to post it and the message was lost. That will teach me not to do my posting in the Blogger window.

Anyway, Daisy joins us from Bolivia. She’s only been here for one month, and unfortunately for her, she’s already been hired and fired by two different families. But not because she isn’t a good worker, but because she didn’t know how to make Spanish food. We’re not so picky – we just want her to keep our kids from killing themselves and each other.

So we’re feeling pretty guilty living the high life and taking advantage of cheap immigrant labor – well we shouldn’t feel too bad, because we’re actually helping her get some permanence in the country by registering her with social security and paying into the fund so she can get health and welfare benefits on top of what we pay her.

And today, I was able to assuage my guilt when Eryka told me it had been really nice this morning having Daisy around because she was able to spend more time playing with the kids. So I guess we can justify it to ourselves if we’re using her to help us with our kids rather than using her to raise our kids. Oh well, I’m not entirely sure how to justify it, but I think it works out well for Daisy and for us. And Eryka is definitely excited about school.

So is Isaac. We took care of the last of the paperwork today, but the school board for our district doesn’t meet until mid-October (maybe even November) so we can’t get official approval until then, but the Headmistress at the school has already approved us, and from what I understand, that is what really matters, so hopefully Isaac can start school on Monday.

We’re going to a fancy dinner tonight with all the lawyers in the office and their significant others. It’s my welcome dinner – 4 weeks after starting. We had to wait this long because it really just wouldn’t have worked while we were still in the hotel.

the boring blog

If you were hoping to see picture of our new apartment any time soon, you're out of luck. In fact, you might not see any pictures of us for awhile since we don't have an internet connection in our apartment and we can't say with any certainty when we will get it. All our posting will be coming from me, so if you wanted to hear from Eryka (who is clearly much more interesting than me), you are also out of luck.

Here's the deal: in Spain, one company, Telefonica, controls installation of phone lines in all apartments. They will install the line, and the basic monthly fee to have a phone line is between 13-17 euros a month. But just because you have a phone line doesn't mean you can make calls. You have to pay for a calling plan on top of the phone line. Well, conveniently, you can buy a calling plan from Telefonica. You can also get cable TV and internet in one package. The final price after exchange rates is comparable to what we would pay in the states. So that sounds great.

BUT you can choose to get just the phone line for 13-17 euros a month, but you still can't make any calls, so you get a calling plan, internet, and cable TV from a different provider - it is MUCH cheaper to go with another provider. But there's a problem, we can't order installation of TV and Internet from the other provider until our phone line is installed - and we have to wait about 20 days before our line can be installed.

Guess who will be going to school in Spain?

If you guessed Isaac, you're right.

If you guessed Eryka, you're also right.

We're getting Isaac enrolled in a public school about a 20 minute walk north of us where his little friend Nico from Connecticut attends (they'll be in the same class). It's very exciting to think he'll be going to classes and learning Spanish (and getting out of Mom's hair for a few hours during the day). Yes, he is only 3 years old, but they start them early here in Spain, and it's best to blend in with the natives, right?

Eryka has discovered a design school: Il Instituto Europeo di Design which has a campus here in Madrid where she can earn the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree in design in three years. So yes, if she does the course, we'll have a few issues since we'll only be here for two years, not three. She visited the campus (which is about a 15 minute walk west of our apartment) and absolutely loved the campus and the program that is offered. We're going to have to work out several details with scheduling and lifestyle if we're going to make it work, but the cost and the program are so appealing that it seems like too great of an opportunity to pass by.

Moving Day!

A couple of quick things, then we're off to our new apartment.

If Eryka thought that by not speaking Spanish she would avoid any serious callings at church, she was wrong. The Bishop visited with us last night in our new apartment (picture a big empty apartment with one small Ikea sofa-bed "Welcome to our home, Bishop") and made it clear he'll be putting us both to work. In fact, we're scheduled to speak in church in a couple weeks, and they'll simply provide a translator for Eryka to give her talk.

And he wants to put me to work in more than one way. Our bishop is American, and he runs the Madrid campus of the University of St. Louis (a private Jesuit university based in St. Louis, Missouri). He needs someone to teach a business law course, and the only requirements are that the teacher have a JD and practice business/corporate law. So I might start teaching college courses next semester - that is, if I can convince the partner here to let me go for a few hours a week to go teach.

It's just after 8:00 am here, and the movers should be getting to our place around 10:00 am. Oh the relief after nearly two months of living out of luggage! We moved all of our bags and other junk over to the apartment yesterday, so this morning we just have to shower, and then we can ditch this joint.

One unfortunate side-effect of moving is that we will not have Internet access at our new apartment for the next few weeks (it could be quite an extended period of time, as we've heard the telephone and internet access companies are notorious for months-long delays in installing the connections). But not to worry, I'll do my best to post from work and keep everyone updated on the fun times we're having in Madrid.

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

I turned 28 yesterday. With each new birthday, I seem to anticipate it less and less, and then when it comes, it doesn't fail to disappoint. That is, since I don't realize it's coming up, when it turns out just like any other day, it seems only natural. Also, I figure I'm saving up for 30, cause that one's supposed to be pretty big, right?

I have to admit, I bought myself my own birthday present this year in the form of an on-line subscription to ESPN's Gameplan Package (a wide array of college football games in streaming video every week, and any-time access to the archived videos after the live games).


I also got a nice present yesterday in the form of boatloads of furniture delivered from Ikea to our new apartment. Of course, this being Spain, that didn't come without its own hassles.

Here was the bind in which we found ourselves this week: our stuff was stuck in customs and we couldn't get it released until they received a letter from my firm that indicated I was employed and had an address in Spain. Well, the partner here didn't want to sign the letter until I had signed the contract for our apartment because the experience of several attorneys in the housing market here has been that housing options often fall through at the last minute. So, I had to sign the contract and start paying rent before we could even move in. Well, turns out, the owners of the apartment weren't really ready to sign either, because they wanted to do some repairs on the wood flooring. There are some gaps between slats in a few rooms due to slip-shod work. So basically, they asked me to refrain from moving in our furniture until after Wednesday or Thursday because that's when they were planning on doing the construction. Well, that was fine with me, because we didn't have stuff anyway, but I was suspicious they didn't actually have the work scheduled yet, and I have been well-informed that Spanish construction companies are notorious for not showing up on time, if ever.

As a matter of fact, my suspicions were correct, and when the Ikea movers showed up yesterday, the building concierge came and got in Eryka's face and told her she couldn't have the movers put our stuff in until the construction was done, and the workers wouldn't be coming until Monday. He said we could just put it all in another apartment until the movers were done. Now this was particularly frustrating for a couple of reasons: first, we were already paying rent, and felt we had every right to enjoy the use of our apartment; second, we had paid extra to have our Ikea stuff delivered AND assembled - now if you've ever assembled ONE Ikea chest of drawers, you know how frustrating that can be - imagine assembling 15-20 different items, without a power drill or any other tools whatsoever.

So I called Eryka just as the exchange with the concierge was taking place, and argued with the guy on the phone for ten minutes before recruiting my secretary to help me go give a talking to the crazy man. By the time we showed up (it's really only a 2 minute walk from my office), Eryka had ignored the guy and just told the Ikea movers to get to work, he wasn't around, and when he finally came by, he was slightly more subdued than he had been on the phone and admitted that we could move our stuff in and the workers would just have to work around us. But can you imagine how frustrating it was ? Especially for Eryka with 2 kids, no Spanish, and boxes and boxes of furniture piling up outside the door. Oh, and don't let me forget that she had run out of minutes on her cell phone (cell phone plans here are a discussion for another time), and she couldn't make outgoing calls, only receive incoming.

This is the couch we're going to get if our landlords ever let us move in. It's not IKEA, which means we get to pick the fabrics (Eryka has some nice colors in mind) and we don't have to put it together!


There's good news at the end of the day - our things from the states cleared customs, are on their way to Madrid, and are scheduled for delivery on Monday. So, the workers might finally show up to fix the floors that day, but I'm not counting on it. Either way, we're moving our stuff in, and I don't care if there are gaps in the floor.

Ikea - I wish I had a picture of us

Wow. Today was a long day. I decided we needed some furniture for our apartment so I took both kids to Ikea for the day. This might sound like a nice fun outing but it was more like a really, really long trek.


I knew I was in for quite a day after getting into the taxi and asking the driver to take me to Ikea in Alcorcon. He looked at me totally confused and said "?Como?" I forgot they call Ikea, Eekaya. Once we cleared that up we were on our way.

Two hours later, after touring the top level, and writing down exactly where to find everything. I finally let Isaac go to the playland. He was really excited about this. I was too. I thought this was going to be a great way to quickly load everything up, go pay and then pick Isaac up promptly at my one hour time limit. But I forgot that at Ikea you still have a second level to manuever through before getting to the loading zone. So needless to say I was a little late picking Isaac up and still had to load a few thing and pay. This sounds like the easy part but another thing about Ikea is they don't always have everything in stock that you want. So I had to change my plans a few times and settle for what they had. I also forgot to mention - I still speak only "un poquito" of spanish. So trying to ask for help was a little hard.

Finally with everything loaded, all 4 carts, one stroller with a very mad Stella and a wandering Isaac all I had to do was pay. After 5 minutes of standing in line Isaac looks over and tells me he needs to go potty and couldn't hold it. So we took a little potty break and then back in line. I was doing ok until about now and both kids are tired and hungry (it was 2:30pm and we hadn't had anything to eat since 9am) and I had to try and explain to the lady that I needed everything delivered and assembled. (Fortunatly, this is a service they have for some extra $$ in Spain) It all worked out after 20 minutes of torture. The poor girl. She kept asking for directions and I kept trying to give her directions when all she wanted was my address.

We quickly left and made a few more stops. Toys'R'Us for a friend's birthday present, McDonald's for some food and then a few appliance stores. That was another fun adventure. But for all I put the kids through they were great and we survived and tomorrow I'll have some furniture. Even if it's only Ikea. (They have some nice stuff)

I hope everyone had a great day! Tomorrow's Drew's birthday!! Good night.

Our stuff is stuck in Customs...

So the good news is we sign our lease tomorrow. Almost two weeks after finding the apartment, we finally get to sign the lease. It's so much harder to rent an apartment in Spain.

The bad news is our stuff is stuck in Customs. They have to have a copy of our lease before they'll release it. So hopefully after tomorrow it can make its way to Madrid.

Either way we're excited to move in to our new place and finally after a month of homelessness we'll have a home. That will feel so good!!

Today we found a cute park a few blocks from our new house. I'm so excited. The kids had a lot of fun and I tried to speak spanish and make a new friend. The spanish turned out pretty bad so she started to speak English to me. That works. So now I have another english speaking friend. Don't worry at church I have to speak spanish. So I'll eventually learn. jk. I've also been doing some furniture shopping. I'm so excited. I love furniture. Anyways, we're so excited about our new apartment. We'll let you know more soon!

Something Familiar

In anticipation of the move to our new apartment next week, Eryka decided to take a walk through Ikea to plan her purchases for furnishing the place. The closest Ikea is about 10 miles from where we're staying, so it was a 20 euro taxi ride, but that didn't bother us because right now, the firm is covering food and travel expenses (that's one of the perks of international relocation - meals and travel on the firm for the first 21 days in the country).

So getting out there wasn't a problem, but once we arrived, I noticing the lack of taxis and thought we might have a problem getting home. Not to worry, there is a Metro line down near the shopping district we were at, so we rode that home later.

The Ikea trip was fun enough, and it was nice to see something familiar. Even if it is European. And then there was McDonalds. And Burger King. And thank goodness for ToysRUs. Isaac lost one of his red power rangers about a week ago, and we hadn't seen any decent toy stores around our neighborhoods. Well, guess who has a new red power ranger?

But imagine our surprise when we ducked into a grocery store for an emergency purchase, and what did we discover? Aldi! Now for those of you unfamiliar with Aldi, it is the most simple, bare-bones grocery store in the world, and as a result, has the cheapest prices you'll ever see. I can't really explain it, but you see, Eryka absolutely loves Aldi. The thing is, it actually took us awhile to realize we were in an Aldi, because the name is different in Spain, but the spartan layout, and the shockingly low prices, along with having to purchase the plastic sacks to bag your groceries and the blue and yellow color scheme all clued us in.

So all in one spot we had Ikea, ToysRUs, Burger King, Aldi, and a few fancy furniture stores. In sum, today Eryka found her shopping mecca in Spain.

What are we doing in Spain?

So the news of our trip to Madrid came as a surprise to many of our friends, especially those of you who haven't seen us for awhile. The simple explanation for the unexpected news is that it was a fairly spontaneous decision on our part to relocate our family here. Given that we sprung this blog on our friends with little explanation of our reasons for being in Madrid, I figured an explanation was due for why we are here and how long we will be staying.

In mid-June while I was studying for the Bar, we were simultaneously in the process of trying to buy a house in Westchester County near where we were currently living. A wonderful family in our ward was moving back to Utah and they were going to great lengths to make a deal possible so that we could rent to own, as necessitated by my lack of work experience (i.e. a paycheck). Unfortunately, due to unexpected circumstances on both sides, the house didn't work out. Fortunately that relieved some significant stress for me right in the midst of my Bar studies.

At this point however, we were in limbo, given that we were already packing up for our move and had made arrangements to get out of our lease. It turns out around this same time, the law firm for which I would be working beginning in the Fall sent out an e-mail requesting starting associates to consider working in one of the foreign offices, Madrid being one of the options. I contacted the recruiting department, and spoke with the Partner who runs the Madrid office and in short order I was offered the chance to join the small, and very busy corporate legal team in Spain. After a weekend of fasting and prayer, Eryka and I decided to displace our family, drag our little kids halfway around the world, and expose all of us to a new language and new culture (I do speak some Spanish, but since I served my mission in Brazil and have never lived in a Spanish speaking country, I'm still developing my ear for the language - Eryka is having a similar experience, except in reverse - she can understand a lot, but doesn't quite know what to say). Anyway, the fact is, our decision was well-thought and meticulously planned, but only over the space of a couple of days.

Well, shortly after telling our landlord we wanted to break our lease, and then renew our lease, we told him again we wanted to break our lease. Thankfully, we were able to find renters, and the firm came and packed up our stuff, and we took a three day drive across the country to visit with family in Utah and Las Vegas before making the journey to Spain.

The plan, according to me, and to the firm, is to have me work here for two years, after which time we'll be going back to New York where I will rejoin the office there. My experience here should certainly be different from what I would be getting in New York, since there are only four attorneys here as compared to 400 in Manhattan. But I'm looking forward to it, as I should get good exposure to clients and have the opportunity for increased responsibility aka gruntwork.

As far as living in Madrid is concerned, we're really excited for all of the opportunities. While certain costs of living seem to be much higher here, like food and basic necessities such as diapers and clothes, the cost of housing is much lower than in New York. That means we get to live in a posh place just one block away from my office. That is, we get to live there if the contract works out - hopefully everything is in order so that we can sign on Monday.

We really like being back in city-style living. We like not having to rely on a car, and we really enjoy all the parks and cultural opportunities that are close by. We're also very excited to begin exploring Europe once we get settled in. This is the first we've ever been to Europe, and we're glad we have two years to be here, because with kids, we'll need that much time to be able to visit the places we want to on a timetable that works for everyone.

Anyway, I hope that explains the unexpected news of our arrival in Spain, and some of our plans for while we're here. But as you can tell, our plans are constantly changing, so remember to check back often to see the new flavor of the week.

I'm loving Madrid...

So I'm totally loving Madrid!! If they spoke English here instead of Spanish or if I spoke Spanish this would be the perfect place to live. I'm really loving it. Luckily, I'm going to start taking Spanish lessons soon.

The family we met that just moved here from the states is so cool. Angola, the mom, is so awesome. She's got so much energy and she loves to play all day. We go nonstop. It's great! I'm so excited that we've met such a great family and so fast. It's great for the kids too. Isaac and Niko have a ton of fun together and Stella and Eloise are only 10 days apart and have all the same mannerisms. I think they'll grow up to be great friends. And for now they have fun playing with their baby dolls.

We went to an expat play group today. It was fun. We were able to meet a lot of different people. I can't believe how many people move all over the world. It will be fun to see all the different traditions and holidays they celebrate. You know me any holiday is a good holiday!! They meet together every Wednesday and Friday. So that should help us stay busy.

One last comment. Drew got his blackberry today. So I now have an official lawyer husband. So if you need to get a hold of us you can always email Drew and he'll get a little buzz immediately.

Drew started work!!

It's amazing! Drew had his first day of work yesterday. We're excited. After a month of having him around and a summer of mostly having him around and the past 3 years of law school - so we've had him around a lot, which has been great, we're finally going to live like most people and have a routine. Yuck! just kidding. It's been a good past two days. We get a few hours with him in the morning, then we go to the park and around 2 we head home and make lunch, our big meal is now lunch thanks to the weird eating schedule in Spain, then Dad comes home for Seista Time - my favorite part about Spain- and after a few hours Dad goes back to the office and we are on our way back to the park!! It's a great life.


I have 2 cute and quick stories and then I need to go to bed. Good night or buenas noches.


#1 - Yesterday at the park Isaac was playing with some spanish kids. After a few minutes of silence he decided to try out his spanish and started to follow them around saying "Rojo, Verde, Rojo, Verde." It was really cute because the first day we were here the spanish kids followed him around saying "one, two, three."


#2 - Isaac was playing on the swings at the park when a cute little spanish girl came up to the swing next to him and started to swing her doll and talking to Isaac in spanish. Isaac wanted to play with her but didn't know quite what to do so he went and grabbed Stella's doll and started to swing it next to the little girl. I'm not sure if she ever figured out that he doesn't speak spanish because Isaac kept shaking his head when she asked questions. It was really cute!

Living out of Suitcases

So there were a few hiccups in getting to Spain, but things have been going really well since our arrival, with the exception of trying to figure out the Spanish dietary schedule. It seems every time we want to sit down for a meal, the restaurant is not open. We finally figured out that lunch starts at 2:00 pm and most restaurants will not seat you before that. Then the doors are shut promptly at 4:00. Yet oddly enough, even some restaurants take this time for siesta and it is impossible to order more than a coke and pastries during the lunch period. We still need to figure out which restaurants are which.


As for dinner, it doesn't start until 8:30. And as during lunch, it is impossible to be seated before then. Just when we got our kids on a schedule reasonably approximating what they were used to in the states (bedtime between 8:00 and 9:00), we realized we couldn't get a decent meal for dinner.

Luckily, we have found a few chain restaurants that will seat and serve at any time: the Hard Rock Cafe, a few blocks away from our hotel, and "VIPS", which can be found all over the city. Basically, it's like eating at Denny's or TGI Friday's for every meal. Needless to say, after a few days of greasy restaurant food, it began to wear, so today we bought as much as we could carry home from the grocery store to prepare meals at the hotel in the mini-kitchen. We don't really have the appliances or the tools to create many fabulous meals, but our first dinner in the hotel that wasn't room service, or cereal, was extremely satisfying.



Hopefully, we should be in our apartment within a week or two. We found a nice place just about 100 yards from my office. It's newly renovated, squeezing 4 bedrooms, a living room and a dining room into 1600 square feet. The rooms are all very small (especially the kitchen), but the apartment building has a bright red door, and the kitchen is a very modern, shiny red, making Isaac very happy because red is his favorite color (after all, he is the red power ranger).


We met a nice family today at the park. They moved here from Connecticut three weeks ago, so they are in a situation similar to ours, except that the mother is actually a European citizen (her father British, mother Peruvian), the father is Brazilian, and they used to live in Madrid and decided to leave Connecticut both for professional and personal reasons. Even though they're newly arrived, they are seasoned veterans at living in Madrid, and they were very helpful in providing information. Eryka already has plans for playgroups and outings in the park. She may also have a lead on a Brazilian nanny (did I just suggest we might hire a nanny?! - I never thought that would happen).

Tomorrow we'll attend church for the first time in Madrid. There is an English-speaking branch that meets in the afternoon at the chapel by the Temple. We may ultimately decide to attend a Spanish ward that meets closer to where we'll be living, but the English branch will surely be a great resource for helping us get acclimated.

The first few days...

Getting to Spain was an adventure. From missing flights to first class seating we had it all but thankfully we made it safely to Madrid.

One of the first things Isaac asked for after stepping off the plane was a park. So after checking into our hotel we ventured out. A few blocks away we found El Parque del Retiro. It was really cute to see the little spanish kids running after Isaac saying "One, two, three." He was a little confused but they just wanted to try out their English. After that he adjusted well and just played like any other kid.

Here are a few pictures of Isaac and Stella getting their first taste of Spanish Ice Cream. They loved it. It's like an otter pop with an extra cup of sugar! And we wonder why they won't sleep at night?

Hola!!

Hey Everyone,

We just wanted a place to keep everyone, who wants to know, informed on our trip to Europe!! I'll try to post everyday. I did say try. Enjoy!!


Love,

Drew, Eryka, Isaac & Stella