A Month Has Passed…

And No, I do not miss eating at Uzbekistan… but I do miss my friends, and my original baby Roxanne.  Spain is cool and we have really settled in to our room…oh, I mean apartment… and have gotten on with what we have planned to get on with while we are here.

I started school in the end of February and am learning Spanish.  It is coming slowly but it is coming.  I think by some time in 2015 I will be fluent.  LOL, I kid, I kid.  Every day I am find myself using more and more words so that is pretty cool.  Dima does not take classes but he is dong the Rosetta Stone Program and seems to be learning a lot from that, as well as on social occasions.  It is a little annoying that he hears a word once and seems to remember it forever, but I am happy that he is getting it.  I was planning to take evening courses while Dima is working but my skill level didn’t fit in with the group so I had to take intensive day classes to catch up so I can eventuallly take the night classes as planned.  The day class starts at 10am, which is not bad.  I can get up at 8:30am and get there on time.  It is just a little sucky because Dima and I go to sleep super late – Dima works until about 11pm every night because he is still on US time  – so it will be cool when I am in the night class so I can sleep in or go explore with Dima in the morning.  Next week I am supposed to try a class in the evening so we will see…fingers crossed.

Dima has been working on US time which ends up being from around noon or 2 until 11pm.  The plan is for him to work

these hours to make the transition as seamless as possible and then perhaps change to a more favorable schedule  down the road.  Since he is at home at night we cook a lot during the week…oh wait, I mean I cook  a lot :-), and Dima has become quite a connoisseur of Spanish wines.  Nothing fancy, we actually like the game of finding the best bottle of cheap red wine that was made locally.  So far he has not had the same bottle twice, and we spend on average 2-5 EU each.  I am worried about weaning him off the wine when we come back to the states, but for now it is fun to rock it like a Spaniard.  I am a little jealous…okay a lot jealous…but not to be corny, I am happy enough to live vicariously through him…at least for now.  From time to time I take a mini sip to taste if he has a

good pick and that is getting me by.

Sooo, one of the main reasons we liked the idea of coming to Barceona is because we though Spain was pretty rad, as well as its proximity to other cool places.  We wanted to take advantage of our location and the totally cheap local flights and we finally are in about 2 weeks.  I am so excited!  This airline called Ryanair is so affordable we are going to fly to Paris for a long weekend for under 50EU roundtrip for 2 tickets!  So far we have been taking local trips with Sergey and his girlfriend to beaches about an hour up and down the coast and a monastery that is located on top of a mountain (I still think Greece blows away the competition).  This has been cool but I am really excited to go a little farther.  So far we have plans to go to Valencia and Seville, Spain and then Paris, France and Porto, Portugal.  That uses up all free time until  mid April and then in the beginning of May Marina may come to visit and Kristy and her hubby Chris have booked tickets for the middle of May…and by the end of May we need to decide if we are coming back to the states.  I am not supposed to fly after the 32 week so if we are coming home, then it needs to be by June 13^th.

It is funny how time flies.  It is also funny how a certain clarity comes with constant sobriety (Dima wouldn’t know about this – LOL!).  I think my pregnancy brain is battling with my clarity but in the end I find myself at a an even place and am really happy that Dima and I are taking this adventure together.  Stuck together in this little apartment there was really the potential for us to be at each other’s throats but it has been the opposite.  This upcoming week Dima is on call and may be stuck inside all day which I know will make him bonkers.  But we have a good game-plan to go to the local restaurants – there are literally  at least 10 small, unique places within 5 minutes of our home so we will try and get out and enjoy our neighborhood.

This is just the beginning of this whole new blog experience and we don’t even really have a name that both of us like.  So if you can think of anything fun to call the blog pretty please share it with me.  Seriously.

PS: Check out the view from across the street from my food store!  Nutzo – loves it!  

Much love!!!