From Formula to Film...A Few Things I Miss

I know I am spoiled.  I get it.  I am American and I’ll never totally understand all the ways in which this privilege plays its way out everyday of my life.  But I really miss some of the things I took for granted in everyday life back in Chicago – what I considered little things are apparently luxuries.

• Instant baby formula.  Who knew that only in the U.S. could you get baby formula that doesn’t require you to boil the water?  Our search in Spain has come up empty so far so yesterday Dorothy transitioned to her new Spanish formula and we are now starting the kettle several times a day.  D grew well on the instant mix! 
• Movies and TV. If I were consuming Spanish language films and TV, I’d be in heaven, but sadly I am nowhere near that state. And apparently every popular website for content viewing in the U.S. is protected so only certain IP addresses can access – screening you out if coming from outside the U.S.  IT is advancing, as this wasn’t the case when we lived in HK only 5 years ago.
• Dry cleaners. Definitely wouldn’t have predicted how hard it’s been to find a dry cleaner.  Madridians are crazy fashionable and everything is pressed.  I think they must iron at home all the time.  It’s insane.  And the dry cleaners we’ve found are insanely expense – more than $5/shirt.  

It goes without saying…friends, family, and all our loved ones back home – we miss you the most!  These are all minor material things or conveniences, which makes it funny.

On Holiday?

It was Labor Day in the U.S. which means absolutely nothing here in Spain.  It is the first of many disconnected holidays that will without a doubt leave us somewhat mismatched with downtime in comparison to our American friends.  But when you are already 7 hours away, a missing holiday or an extra holiday is hardly noticed.  Lucky for us, most of the holidays appear to favor Spain.  Eric has a calendar for work that has many fun surprises for two Americans who aren’t expecting a four-day weekend in October – it’s like Dorothy is already in school and we’ll be having a parent-teacher conference.

Over the weekend we took our first day trip of what I hope will be many.  To Segovia we went, an hour away by drive.  Through the mountains we went, Dorothy napping away in route and waking cheerfully on arrival. Segovia is known for its spectacular stretch of Roman aqueducts and they did not disappoint.  Hard to believe their incredible practicality at the time they were built, and I am sure the Romans could never have imagined the scene that would unfold around the aqueducts over the years.  In addition to the architecture, we saw several impressive cathedrals and a palace – the example from which Walt Disney drew inspiration for his California Kingdom many years ago.  The food was not that impressive except for a few sweet treats that did not disappoint.  Specifically, my favorites were the macaroons (French version).  We had a strawberry-flavored one that was the most amazing macaroons I have ever tasted, gushing with soft flavorful frosting.

ID Card Material

I've been incredibly neglectful of photos but we are truly still getting settled and I have no idea where the camera's computer connection cord is.  So I thought I'd share one of Dorothy's ID photos, taken on Thursday (9 and 1/2 months).  Pretty soon she will have two forms of picture ID - her passport and a Spanish NEI card (identity card).  This shot was for the NEI.  It turned out really cute but will forever enshrine one of our temporary attempts at new hairdos, some of which are more evenly spaced than this one!  I actually kind of like the differently sized poofs.

This is the second time we have taken Dorothy in for a passport-like photo where the technician has delivered the photos to us and voluntarily printed out a bigger photo for us to take home.  It's very been very sweet!  But the technician in Chicago did freak me out when I went (without Dorothy) several weeks after Dorothy got her passport photo to Walgreens to pick up some other photos and she had printed out this free copy.  The fact that she had seen enough of our printed photos to remember D was my daughter and knew where her passport photo was stored in Walgreens's big computer system was enough to stir some privacy concerns for me.  If she hadn't been handing me photos of our cutie, I would have been creeped out.

Gaga for Real Madrid

We are interviewing nannies for Dorothy.  It’s been one of the three continuing stresses in our relocation – 1) finding a good nanny for D, 2) finding a good place to live, and 3) making sure we had all our money in the right country at the right time to allow for #1 and #2.  Our new nanny will actually live with us, which adds a new level of pressure to an already guilt-laden decision.  After some networking with people from Eric’s work and reading up on the subject we decided we had to use a nanny service and were pleased to interview our first two candidates last night.


I wish we had a nanny cam installed in our apartment as the interviews themselves I suspect would have been highly entertaining YouTube material.  While productive, let’s just say I don’t think Eric or I felt exactly the most professional in our interviews.  Both candidates had some professed level of English language capability, but their abilities were much closer to my current level of Spanish ability than any actual dialogue proficiency.  Thus, daughter in tow, we proceeded down the windy question and answer path trying to gather details on perspectives, plans, and logistics while not being offensive in our attempted translations of big picture topics and constant jumping back and forth from English to Spanish, Eric to E.J. (Eric to translate for E.J.), and so on.

As an example, consider what I think was a fairly typical question from when we interviewed for nannies in Chicago.  “Please describe your ideal family or situation.”  Well, it became quite clear than in translation this question was coming across as what type of family they would like to have in an ideal world.  Needless to say, both candidates interviewed had large eyes and somewhat puzzled looks until we hastily added “por su trabaje”, our probably incorrect attempt at saying “in your job.”

It’s hard to know what experiences to count the most.  On the job training, formal education, a high level of shown organization, or ability to be creative and flexible. One of the candidate’s most recent experience was working for a player on the Real Madrid (pronounced royal) soccer team.  This wasn’t something which was of particular interest for us other than the experience gained but we have a feeling she will be hired quickly as the team and its players are so loved in the city.

In reality, it was probably a pretty good interview as someone working with you in your home often sees you in your less polished times.  We were left with very good impressions of both candidates and continue to debate our next steps.  Language is no doubt going to be an early issue, but we will both be taking some form of intensive Spanish training and we want Dorothy to learn both English and Spanish over the next few years.  So we'll see after the weekend how our decisions go.  It's a relief to finally meet some candidates if nothing else and hopefully with any luck we'll find someone who fits well.

All of Madrid has Returned

I was a little bit of a sceptic on this notion that Europe takes August off but after our first few weeks here I can confirm August is vacation month.  On our arrival we found at least half of the stores on the street with signs of temporary closure.  Eric has been trying to contact people with advertisements to rent an apartment and to date only one agency has actually responded (out of more than 10).  Everywhere we have gone things are tempered with the fact that it's August...so...you know...no one is here to do that.  Even the Starbucks I have started to frequent which is close to our current rental was near empty at all times of day...

...until now.  Last night, the last night of August, everyone seemed to come back.  Our street became packed and our avenue which seemed like such a quiet change from Chicago shared the many sounds of its people well into the night.  The return of normalcy and business should be good for us and allow the completion of important tasks like setting up a bank account, getting a permanent rental, and finding a new nanny.  So now, we have no more excuse of it being August - it's time to get fully settled.

Digital Phone Amazement and Entertainment

Digital phones are among the most amazing inventions and truly changing the nature of how place is perceived.  Wherever we are at in the world, as long as there is an internet connection, the way people reach me by phone remains the same thanks to my digital phone.  In Hong Kong and now in Madrid we maintain a local Kansas City phone number which means that it's possible for us to call anyone in the U.S. directly and for the same to happen in reverse.  While I could go on about how life changing this has been for me personally and professionally, I think it'd be more fun to focus on one new digital phone feature which wasn't around when we were in HK but is now more common - digital voicemail transcription.  

I love the concept of not having to actually listen to voicemail and of having some written way of keeping track of them.  That's what digital voicemail does, it transcribes a voicemail and puts it into an email form so you get it wherever you are and have email access.  The thing I didn't expect with this service was just how entertaining I it could be.  

Case 1: The poorly transcribed voicemail

Date	: Aug 16 2010 09:33:24 PM
From	: OMAHA NE (1402XXXXXXX)
To	: E Reedy (1XXXXXXXXXX)

"Hey Jay, it's me it's ish cheese pizza finished not really sure. Just thought I'd figured during the night. I'll be up for a while. If you wanna give me a call otherwise I will hopefully catch you tomorrow before before you and I also well, hope turkey went down got a bus and I talk to you soon. Bye "

This message was from my brother and while I know he loves food the digital transcription had him seemingly food obsessed...cheese pizza and turkey.


Case 2: Some things are funnier written than when heard

Date	: Aug 27 2010 12:53:40 PM
From	: TOLL FREE CALL (1866XXXXXXX)
To	: E Reedy (1XXXXXXXXXX)

"Hi I'm calling for Eric 3-D this is Nancy with RCN. Just following up on it. Looks like someone else may be moving into the apartment not exactly sure. Unless we have the apart all. I'm sorry. We do have the information here. I I apologize. You have a great day. bye bye "

This was an apparent phone call from our former cable and internet provider looking into why someone was trying to sign up new service at our house.  What I love in this transcription is how you can see the stream of consciousness.  It's maybe not that funny, but I've reread and reread this one over the last week for some reason.  

The Crawlers

It's been a good weekend in Madrid.  Feeling our way around town, we were able to explore new possible neighborhoods and some areas which are starting to seem familiar.  I should be accurate - Eric was able to explore.  I would be lost right now if it weren't for him and his insane abilities at navigation and visual memory.  He's taken all the driving thus far and thus most of the real stress in navigating the streets.

Today, Dorothy decided to crawl.  This afternoon and actually more precisely about 4pm.  She's had the abilities for a number of months but always shown more interest in walking than crawling but something clicked in the living room of our rented apartment.  Lucky for us, Eric and I were both there to see it so that made it all official.  These things really are like the Olympics - until witnessed by someone else in addition to yourself it's not going to make it into the record books.  I can't say that there was anything surprisingly appealing at the end of Dorothy's gaze that appeared to drive her desire to crawl and close space quickly but it was obvious the rest of the night that she's a woman with new freedom and we're going to have out hands full.

Three crawlers in Madrid sounds a little disgusting and creepy but its a good sign we are all gaining some confidence.