Barcelona, Spain – AgaBloggin

Hello my name is Jennifer and I am a total whore for Whole Foods

I hate admitting this out load but I feel that this last stretch without having confidence in what I am eating has really made me appreciate the days when I would roll into WF and walk the isles looking for something yummy, knowing that 9 out of 10 chances that I was selecting is natural/organic. I don’t usually care as much about these things but since getting knocked up there was a sense of peace about not having to wonder. It was so easy and I could almost always leave an expedition with something unusual, cool with no harmful chemicals. Ah, the days of Kashi Blueberry cereal, or wasabi rice chips or even something simple like 3 minute organic mac and cheese (white cheddar is the BOMB). I know I totally sound like a hungry pregnant chick but what I am focusing on is the challenge of not having my super easy fix of food that I know will be good for my nino/a. Plus I can read and understand most of the ingredients. The last time I came out of the closet with something as condemning as this it was when I finally accepted that yes, I like Justin Timberlake’s music and fuck it, I am going to admit it in public! Here I am and I really miss WF. Dima, I am sorry. I know you will not approve of this post and with time I hope you come to accept me with this new information.

At least the upside is I am eating more fruits and veggies and food that I can make out the ingredients. Plus, I did recently find something really neat…at least to me. In many stores they have tons of milk that is not refrigerated. It kind of freaked me out but then Dima and I researched it and it turns out if they vacuum seal it in a specific container it does not have to be put into the refrigerator until you open it. I am down with this and they have one that says all natural and gives the location of the cows that the milk came from with a map of Spain (too funny!). So hopefully “natural” in Spain means the equivalent of organic, or close to it.

In other news Dima is almost done being on call and we are going to Valencia this weekend for the conclusion of the Las Fallas Festival. I am excited, especially because Dima has been before, except he was not there for the last day where they burn stuff (he-he…fire fire!!!) which I think may be the best part. That is the part that we are going to get to see this Saturday. I will tell you after the weekend how it goes and hopefully we can get some cool pics to show the scene! I am excited but the neurotic in me is a little concerned about 1. The fumes from the fire and 2. The 4.5 hour bus ride…will there be a bathroom? If anyone who has been preggers reads this please let me know if you have any suggestions. Right now I am just going to reduce water intake for this day. My bump is getting a little bigger and I think is at the point where I have to go more frequently and urgently – sorry if this is TMI for some of you. Hopefully in my recap of the festival there is not a section of me peeing in a bottle on a crowded bus while Dima dies from embarrassment. LOL!

We are working on posting some pics from super pretty beach towns as well as from the Carnival celebration that we went to 2 weeks ago. There were 100’s of people in costumes so of course we took like 1000 pics. Hopefully we post before the weekend!

Much love and we will be in touch again soon!

PS: The Fallas pic is not ours, just an example of what we are going to see…The pregger pic is just me and my phone in the bathroom. Keepin’ it real at 19 weeks. Budda belly!

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!!!

Well Hello There!

Yes, we are here and yes, I actually am trying to “blog” whatever that means. It has been 10 days since we have arrived and we have really gotten a lot accomplished. I have to say I am surprised that we are as settled in as we are.

When we first got here we were staying in a shared apartment where Dima’s friend Sergio (formally known as Sergey in Rusia) lives. The woman who owns it is called Tatianna and is somewhat off the wall. Some nights she would sleep behind a curtain in the kitchen and jump out to say hello if you crossed her path while she was awake. The kitchen was across the hall from the shared bathroom (yes, this sucked horribly) and I had a mini-freak out every time I had to pee. Plus our door-knob that led to the main hall was broken so it would about 3-10 spind to get the door open. This process was noisy and it was not uncommon for a stranger who was staying down the hall to open the door from the outside to assist us from being stuck. Ugh, so uncomfortable. I do have to say the experience of living in this shared apartment in a foreign country was so crazy that it was like a sit-com. We were highly disturbed most of the time but laughed a lot every step of the way…except in the middle of the night when I had to go to the bathroom. We have since moved out of our shared apartment into our temporary-permanent digs. Thank God! LOL!

Our new place is located in the Born neighborhood of Barcelona.

Google map of our location in Barcelona. You have to hit the search button for some reason after you click the link, but it will work then… 🙂

We are a 10-15 minute walk to the water and about a 5-10 minute walk to Plaza Catalunya, which is the center of town. I post some pics once I take some. Our place is small but I have to be honest, I don’t really mind it. For the past few months we were living at Dima’s parents so this is actually a bigger space than I am accustomed to. It is funny what you get used to and how your needs change based on that. I think at least that is the case now, when our addition comes I am not so sure our needs will be so flexible…

Any0-hoo I am going to jet and write more in a new post once we get going with this living in another country thing.

Much love!

Jen (and a little splash of Dima)