Update on Living Life in Barcelona :)

Wow, time has really been flying this past month. Things are going very well for us in Barcelona. We have both settled in to a good routine with our jobs and we are both very comfortable here. It has taken a little while to get settled, but it feels good to be at this point. We love the lifestyle here and are certainty absorbing as much of the culture as we can. We have been making traditional Spanish and Catalan tapas almost nightly. We are working "full time," Spanish full time that is, which is about 25 hours a week. Love that work week. Much more manageable. We are a starting to fear being able to go home and transition to real 40+ hour work weeks. Rob really loves teaching English! He has 5 classes that he teaches and 3 private lessons with students. So he is very busy Monday-Thursday. Erin currently has 4 classes. English classes are created monthly and our schedules slowly keep adding on another class. Erin likes teaching English, but misses the English classroom in the states a lot. She also got a full time nannying job Monday-Friday babysitting a 3 and a half year old Catalan/Spanish boy and is teaching him English. She is also learning more Spanish. Our goal for this summer is to take Spanish lessons so we can become more fluent in the language.

Over the last month we have also been able to explore more of Barcelona! We went to Montjuic, which is a hill/mountain located on the south end of Barcelona that over looks the entire city along with the Mediterranean Sea. Erin's best friend's sister from home came out to Barcelona during her spring break and we got to have our first visitor stay with us for a couple days! It was quite a hike up the hill but it was a beautiful, sunny day which made for a nice walk. The view at the very top is very beautiful and definitely worth the energy. There is a cable car that can take you up there as well and we plan on doing that this summer. At the top, there is the Castel of Montjuic built around the 17th century. This is also where the main Olympic Stadium is when the Olympics were held in Barcelona in 1992. We did not see it when we visited it the first time, but this past Sunday, we ran a 10K race that went up Montjuic and much to our surprise, the route went through the Olympic Stadium! The race started at one of Barcelona's main plazas, called  Plaza Catalunya. Then, it wrapped up the mountain and up to the Olympic track and field stadium. There were over 72,000 runners in this race, which was absolutely crazy! We almost missed going into the stadium because there were so many people. Being competitive runners, it was a very cool experience for us to run a lap on a track where Olympic runners have. Despite the crazy amount of people running the race, it was a really fun run. Here are some pictures below of Montjuic and the race!

                                 Cable car going up to Montjuic

                                  Rachel and I down in Barceloneta

                                             Castell de Montjuic

                             top of the castle that overlooks the city

                                            top of the castle that overlooks the sea

                   
                     Here are some pictures from the race

      went through Placa Espanya before heading up Montjuic

 

Erin attempting to run between mass crowds of people

 

Olympic stadium entrance - Beate and Erin walking in

 

Erin running her lap around the Olympic track stadium

Rob running his lap around the stadium

The crazy finish! Everyone is walking through it.

 we did it!

 


Rob has been able to see the area of Sant Cugat on a regular basis since that is where his school is located. Sant Cugat is a little town just west of Barcelona that takes about an hour to get to from Barceloneta. It is located just on the other side of Parc de Collserola which is the largest natural metropolitan park in the world and is also on our list of things to see while we are here. The train to get to Sant Cugat cuts through this park so the view is amazing. Last weekend, he took Erin there to see the area. It is such a cute, beautiful, Catalan town. We did not go to the park so that is still on our list to see, but we went to one of the churches in town and saw a very elaborate, expensive, traditional Catalan wedding party congregating before the ceremony. It was all very beautiful until it started to rain! 


Easter weekend was also a nice weekend! In the morning, we went to Easter mass at a beautiful church called La Iglesia Maria del Mar. It was a very old and beautiful cathedral. The mass was in Catalan, which was difficult to understand, but a very nice mass. Then, we went to our friend Beate's house for Easter brunch/dinner. We both were a little sad we could not be home with our families, but happy to have good friends to spend it with here. Erin was determined to cook a traditional "American" style ham. It was very hard to find a jamon americano in spain to say the least, but she finally managed to find one at a supermarket! She cooked all day. We had traditional pan con tomate y aceite for an appetizer that our friend Katie made along with a super delicious salad that our friend Beate made. Then, Erin made a ham with a chipotle orange glaze, cheesy hash brown potatoes, brussel sprouts with blue cheese and walnuts, and a chicken broccoli casserole. We had way too much food (and wine) but it was a really nice Easter spent with friends.

Traditional Catalan appetizer- pan con tomate y aceite

Erin's Easter brunch that she made :)








                              the front of La Iglesia Maria del Mar
                                 

                                  Side of Maria del Mar church


                                                  
                                          inside of the church

The weather here is starting to be beach weather. It's been consistently in the upper 60s, hitting 70. The sun is always shining and is so much warmer than the sun at home in Chicago. We are getting really excited for Erin's parents and sister to come visit in less than a month! We are all taking a cruise to Cannes France, and Pisa, Florence, and Rome in Italy. Then, when we get back to Barcelona from the cruise, we are renting a car to take a road trip to Madrid for the weekend and to see FC Barcelona play Atletico Madrid!! Then, back to Barcelona for a week :) Should be a crazy busy and tiring two weeks, but hopefully an amazing one! We are so lucky and grateful to be able to travel with them and have them visit, as well as when Rob's parents visit in July! It is perfect timing for our families to come out - not only because of Barcelona's beautiful summer but because we miss them and can't wait to spend time with them!