One month down!

I am jumping the gun by a couple of days, but I have declared one month in the books for my travel!  With only three weeks on the calendar until Jessica comes to visit for the first time, I feel like I've conquered a fairly significant hurdle in being away from home and now have many things to look forward to in the coming weeks and months!

Here in Spain, things continue to go well at work.  I am starting to contribute (at least I think I am, maybe others don't!) on the projects I've been assigned, and feel I actually make a difference by being here.  It is interesting to see the interface between the two sites and I very much enjoy seeing the engineering process in Spain after learning the same in Clayton over the past few years.  My Spanish is still a BIG work in progress, but after four classes, I feel I've taken in a lot of information and remember a fair amount.  I am really anticipating large gains in the next month or so once I can hammer on the basics for a while.

During the past week, I found a great wood-fired pizza place in Granollers and ate dinner there.  The pizza matches the style of a place like Brixx, with the blistered crispy crust and thin middle, but exceeded any effort I've had in the States with delicious, fresh toppings and LOADS of topping choices.  Ever adventurous, I went with the simple pizza margherita (even if they used sauce instead of tomato slices) and loved it.  Excluding the exquisite greasy, New York style pies that are my favorite (Randy's in North Carolina, for instance), this was probably as good a pizza as I've had.  As an added bonus, I met a guy from Australia and discussed sports and American politics (which I know NOTHING about) with him for a while.  Sometimes it is just nice to be able to carry a normal conversation in English here!

Our work team had another basketball game on Friday, which we inexplicably lost.  Our team has two players, both of whom missed the first game I played, that are REALLY good.  They are both about my height, can dunk, and have great shooting form.  While the one went cold in the second half, I have no doubt that they would have been the best players at my high school and maybe even could have snuck into a smaller college to try to play.  Again, how we lost the game is a mystery to me... I really believe the score may have been wrong because play was so one-sided.

Yesterday, I traveled with the other American here to Sabadell (another Spanish city outside of Barcelona) for lunch and walking with a friend from work and her son.  The lunch was unbelievably good (pictures, of course, on Instagram), as I had beef carpaccio and pig trotter with potatoes.  I have really enjoyed Spain's use of non-standard food and try my best to taste these options when they exist.  The pig trotter (pig foot) was braised to amazing tenderness and coated in a rich, flavorful sauce that was perfectly executed in taste and consistency.  It had one of the deepest flavors I've ever tried in a sauce; its color made me think of the pressed duck sauce I saw on Food Channel once, although the flavor was obviously pork and not duck here.  The meat itself had a slightly odd consistency (I loved it but my wife would NOT), with meat and fat mixed throughout in a non-uniform manner.  Overall though, this dish will be one I always remember and hope to find again!

The town of Sabadell was very nice; it is a city on its own but small enough to feel manageable while still having plenty of activity.  I felt it was a bit "nicer" than Granollers, where I live, as the streets were wider and had more trees along them.  It is similar though, and continues the trend I've seen here where there are several true cities acting as the suburbs to Barcelona.  In North Carolina, the areas surrounding Raleigh (Cary, Clayton, Wake Forest, etc.) aren't nearly (or at all) as urban as the "suburbs" here so the feel is quite different.  I see benefits to both but comparing directly is far too hard with the age difference (decades in America versus centuries here!).

This week, I have off on Tuesday for Spanish Labor Day (I'll give it back on America's Labor Day when you all are at home and I am at work) and will continue training for the half-marathon in Raleigh when I return in October (the race is in November I believe).  My ankle has started to feel better with more range of motion, although it still is sore after working out.  Most importantly, Jessica will be here in three weeks and I cannot wait to show her Barcelona and all of the surrounding areas!

Spanish Rec League Basketball

Last night, I had the chance to play in my first work league basketball game.  As you can see above, I am still recovering somewhat from my ankle injury so I wrapped it up and went to work.  Surprisingly, or maybe not so, there weren't a whole lot of differences between US and Spanish work basketball leagues that I could see!

Arriving at the gym, I felt pretty comfortable with the surroundings.  They had several courts divided by those heavy plastic temporary "walls" that are very common and games were going on several.  All ages, skill levels, and even genders were playing, and the court was the same, save for a) the trapezoidal lane that cause me to earn a 3 second violation (or at least I think, I couldn't understand the ref) later in the night and b) the fact that there was maybe 12 inches of space between out of bounds and the wall.  It was a bit cramped, but nothing too major.

The biggest difference I saw was the set-up of the locker rooms.  Each team had a key to a smaller locker room (there were probably 8-10 of these little areas) that had two benches, a communal shower area (which was used more than I expected after the game), a few toilets, and a sink.  This was a pretty cool set-up to me, even if I didn't really use it.  I suppose for real games, it gives good privacy and a place to discuss strategy!

As far as the game goes, it was the same as any other league I've played in.  The teams have a few players who are strong with the ball and there are times when play gets a bit fast and out of control.  Our team had a nice mix of selfless, positive players, which is a pleasant change from many teams (including our opponent).  While the ref could have been better, for instance by not calling fouls on EVERY play, I thought the other team complained way too much, which is another staple of league basketball!  Honestly, though, there were some bad calls, including our team benefiting from a continuation three-point play that probably took five minutes to develop.

As for me, I did okay... mostly rebounding and passing, I tried to contribute in the non-shooting ways (I think I was 2-6 from the field, which needs to improve).  My teammates did a nice job speaking to me in English, but I clearly couldn't understand the ref (I found out the hard way the bonus in each quarter is two shots instead of 1-and-1), the score keeper / timer (I was confused when anything was heard from her direction), or the other team when they complained. 

All in all though, it was great!  It is cool to see that basketball really doesn't need everyone speaking the same language.  After the first two minutes where I got my legs under me and figured out we played a 2-3 zone, I felt completely at home on the court.

The next game is on Friday and I plan to improve my offensive showing.  Let's hope my ankle doesn't have other ideas.

A Day in Barcelona

A group of co-workers met for a day in Barcelona and invited me along, so I was able to experience the city with qualified tour guides (as well as friends who could translate menus and help me order lunch!).  Before making it to the city, though, we stopped at what I'd characterize as a MEGA Dick's Sporting Goods called Decathlon.  The store was at least twice as large as sporting store I've ever seen, and had two floors packed with every single imaginable item you could need for ANY sport invented.  It was very interesting to see and extremely crowded, but certainly a good resource to have for anything I may need (except fro Pro V1 golf balls, which were 54 euro, which is something like $70!).

After our quick stop at Decathlon, we headed into Barcelona.  For the first time on my trip, I saw the beach and the sea... it was gorgeous.  It appears that beach volleyball is quite popular, as are running, roller blading, and biking at the shoreline on paved paths.  Because it was such a nice day, there were people everywhere!  We spent a few minutes walking along the shore before heading into the city for lunch in an area called "Born", which has been described to me as trendy and a good place to go out at night.

Our lunch starters were typical Spanish food (that I've come to love while here)... octopus with potatoes, high-quality ham, bread with tomato spread, and croquettes.  All were delicious although the octopus needed more salt for my taste, and that of most at the table.  For lunch, I tried my first paella (excluding the version I had in the cafeteria at work).  There are pictures on my Instagram showing all of the different seafood in the dish, including whole shrimp, mussels, clams, and calamari.  I thought the rice was good although also a bit under seasoned, and the shrimp were GREAT. 

Because it is common in Spain, I decided to try my first shrimp head as well.  For those that watch food shows, they know that you basically suck out whatever is in the head of the shrimp.  The verdict... DELICIOUS although a bit odd to obtain.  The flavor reminded me most of lobster and was definitely stronger than what I'd say is your typical mild shrimp-y taste.  A few people had the squid ink rice (rice cooked in black squid ink) which I also tried and liked.  I couldn't tell a lot of difference between it and my rice, except maybe it was a bit saltier.  I'd recommend people try both shrimp heads and black rice as the flavors are good; both though, are a bit visually tough!

After lunch, we went through Santa Maria del Mar (pictured above).  It is a huge cathedral that best shows Catalan architecture from what I was told.  There are beautiful stained glass windows and the whole building is an imposing presence because of its size.  I will be taking Jessica here when she comes to visit and I know she'll love it!  We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the streets near the cathedral.  Barcelona is a beautiful city with so many little streets, shops, and restaurants to see.  It was an enjoyable afternoon with perfect weather.

To cap the day, I watched "El Clasico" back here in Granollers.  After searching for a bar with seats open, I ended up at a bar / deli almost empty and took my seat.  Not ten minutes later, the whole place was PACKED but I had my seat and was ready to watch my first big match!  Unfortunately for the home crowd, Barcelona lost 2-1 (with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the decisive goal), a shocking result with the recent dominance by Barcelona over Real Madrid.  Overall, I think the fans in the bar, and on the street on my walk home, took everything pretty well.  Now, Barcelona must focus on their match against Chelsea this week to at least have a chance at the Champions League trophy!

This morning, I tested my ankle with a 25 minute jog and everything felt reasonable so I plan to suit up for our first work basketball game tomorrow night.  I will let you know how it goes!

Living in Granollers

After two weeks, I finally had to face the reality this past week of doing laundry and getting my hair cut.  While these tasks are simple for me in Clayton (we own a nice washer and dryer at home and I can get a haircut four minutes from my house with people who speak English!), they are much more troublesome for a non-Spanish speaker in Granollers.

Around town, there are a couple of laundry places that will take your clothes, clean them, and have them ready for you to pick up in a few days (similar, I think, to the types of places in New York City).  The cost here, and the uncertain fate that my clothes could face in the hands of strangers, made this is a somewhat questionable route to take.  Jessica can tell you just how picky I am about how my clothes are washed and folded, so I typically prefer to keep the laundry under my control!

Eventually, with the help of people at work, I found a self-service laundromat one town away.  After driving in circles in this small town for 25-30 minutes, I finally arrived at the proper place.  The laundromat was exactly like those in college dorms or found throughout America; each machine requires a certain amount of money (in this case, 4.5 euro for wash and 1 euro per ten minutes of drying) and then you just click a button.  Doing my laundry made me feel oddly at home, except for the man there who didn't seem to grasp that I cannot speak Spanish nor Catalan yet!  The only issue I had was a slight misappropriation of funds so that I went home with a few items a little damp.  All told though, not bad (although I will explore the drop-off option next time since it's not much more expensive and I imagine FAR more convenient!).

After laundry, I was able to finally try a non-US McDonalds!  After hearing much about the merits of "American" chains in other countries (and also craving their fries), I wanted to see just how different things were.  The food was the EXACT same... I had chicken nuggets with fries and I could have had the same meal (called McMeals here) in North Carolina.  The decor, however, was extremely modern and looked more like a club than a fast food chain (pictures on Instagram).  The menu had a few extra items (chicken wings and onion rings, for two examples) but nothing too unusual that I noticed.  Overall, it was great and I will probably have to go back occasionally to get back thoughts of home!

For my haircut, I was much more nervous.  While I am not typically worried about what my hair looks like for a few weeks at a time, I certainly want to look professional at work and I feared that I wouldn't properly convey to the hair dresser what I needed or wanted done.  After much debate, I ventured to a local shop and walked in.  After greeting everyone with "Hola" I took my seat and waited for another gentleman to finish in the chair.  Fortunately for me, he had a cut (fairly standard, slight faux hawk which is common here) that I'd gladly accept, so I tried to explain that I would take what he had.  Somehow, this was harder to translate than I expected, but I was saved by a second customer who knew a bit of English.  She was able then to let my hair dresser know what I said and it all worked out fine.  I even then became a practice tool for those in the shop to try their English!  The only "odd" part of the trip was me being asked two or three times if I wanted my eye brows trimmed... either that is common here or mine are unruly but I passed!

At work, things are continuing to go well.  I finally started my Spanish lessons (every Martes and Jueves for an hour or so) and I so far have learned colors, a few office items like "table", "paper", "door", etc, and the alphabet.  For only having two classes, I feel pretty good and am excited to learn more.  I still need to tackle verbs and obviously build up my vocabulary significantly, but at least my early studies in Latin will help with some of the grammar!

This afternoon, I am heading into Barcelona with a few work friends to have some authentic paella, to learn the city for Jessica's visit (less than a month away!), and to take in my first El Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona (only by watching at a bar but still).  It should be a fun day and I'll write back on anything good tomorrow.

Week Two in the Books

Reminder: My instagram (DKMiller327) has all of the pictures I am taking on my trip so go there to see many more than I've included in the blog.  Also, I think you can subscribe to the blog if you're interested so that you are updated when I post a new link.

I am now through week two here in Spain and starting to feel a bit more comfortable with things.  Fortunately, my Spanish lessons will begin on Tuesday and I think that will help a lot as I gain confidence in speaking to others at stores and restaurants (not to mention being able to read signs, menus, and instructions!).  Other quick items:

- My ankle is improving but still sore; I think I'll miss the first few work basketball games but I hope to be jogging by next week sometime. 
- My goal to attend El Clasico (Barcelona - Real Madrid on Saturday night) took a serious hit when I saw ticket prices at 500 euro!  Barring a miracle, I'll be watching with others either in Granollers or in the city. 

The best news of the past week is that we scheduled Jessica's first visit to Barcelona!  She will come in the middle of May for our anniversary and we plan to see the tourist spots in Barcelona, the small city I live in (Granollers), and even some mountain time north of this area.  This is a huge deal because it gives both of us a target day to mark on our calendars, and it's only a month away!

Work continues to go well as I am becoming more familiar with the engineering approach and the projects that to which I've been assigned.  Both projects actually will finish in Clayton, so it is nice to work with people from North Carolina that I know.  Hopefully I am contributing for the benefit of these projects; I am still learning the differences between my site and Barcelona so I try to add anything I can that will make the implementation of the designs here more effective when they arrive in Clayton.  I feel I'm starting to make friends in the office also, and even went to lunch and bowling with a few of them yesterday. 

Our lunch was at a restaurant called El Pla which must have originally been a farmhouse (or just a large house in a rural area) just outside of Granollers.  The inside seemed very "Spanish" to me, for lack of a better description, and was quite beautiful.  For 15 euro, we each got a three-course lunch as well as wine to share and bread for the table.  I started with pasta in an arrabiata sauce (spicy light tomato base) that was very good.  The sauce was just enough to coat the pasta but almost more of a vinaigrette consistency, and I liked that for a first course.  My second course (pictured above) was duck confit with rice in an orange sauce.  This was incredible; the duck skin was crispy and perfect and the meat was extremely tender and meaty in flavor.  I have had many versions of this dish (always good to me) and this certainly compared well with others (Blue Ribbon in NYC still has the best though).  My dessert was basically creme brulee (they call it Catalan Creme here), and it too was delicious.  For 15 euro, this was a great meal; had it been dinner, it still would have been more than enough food, and the quality was very high!

After lunch, we went to a local bowling alley.  If ever I need to feel like I'm back in the States, this is where I'll go from now on!  The inside looks EXACTLY like any typical bowling alley I've been in; there are lanes, arcade games, ticket games, and a little bar, and most everything is even written in English!  Even the bowling ball weights are given in pounds rather than kilograms.  Anyway, I bowled alright (my ankle was a hindrance) but my big performance was in Pop-a-Shot basketball.  A few of you know my love for this game and my relatively high skill level.  I took to the Spanish set-up (which was again the same as the US and had various NBA team logos on it) and set the record for both machines, the standard and the side-to-side moving.  On my second record-setting performance, I even had a small gathering of Spaniards watching as I surpassed the high score with ten seconds to spare!

Day-to-day living here is becoming more "routine" for me with each day.  My colleague and I found a local restaurant / bar (Bar Londen, not a typo) just a block away that has solid food so we go there as one of our main dinner spots (their chicken croquettes, which are basically chicken soup made into paste form and then deep-friend, are my favorite item on the menu).  I continue to buy plenty of fresh meats, cheeses, and bread for cooking at my room, and am sure it'll be a bad adjustment back to the US when I don't have such items so easily available!  My hotel has breakfast each morning consisting of some pastries, doughnuts, breads, meats, and even bacon, so I am covered every day to start.  It is also unique that olive oil is on the table as a "condiment" everywhere I've been so far.

That is mostly it... I have just under five weeks to get ready for Jessica's visit by learning Spanish, better knowing my way around Barcelona so I can be a good host, and preparing a special day for our anniversary!

My First Week in Spain

Disclaimer: I am having trouble loading pictures but you can see everything I've loaded by going on Instagram and finding my profile of DKMiller327.

I am officially one week into my Spanish experience!  So far, it is mostly what I expected although at work, I thought the communication would be more difficult (all of the engineers here speak English quite well so we can all work together easily).  I am living in a small city north of Barcelona called Granollers that shows me what I imagine is a very "normal" way of Catalan life.  Because the city is smaller and far less "international" than Barcelona, I have encountered more problems here communicating at restaurants and stores as they seem less used to Americans.  Complicating matters further, they actually speak Catalan here rather than Spanish, so even the words that I do know aren't always used!

My apartment is ~ 400 square feet with a nice sized bathroom (equipped with a bidet that I'll never use), a little kitchenette area with burners and a sink, a small living room, and a fair sized bedroom with two twin beds combining to form a "king" bed for me.  It's a very comfortable place to live with a basketball goal outside and plenty of markets, shops, restaurants, and bars  in walking distance.  It is also only about ten minutes from work, which is a great benefit for my commute.  Barcelona is probably 30 kilometers from my apartment; I've driven into the city once but can also take a local train if needed.  The area I live in is also great for running; I've done three miles several days already as there is a nice river area that always seems active.

Getting adjusted to my new surroundings has been the greatest challenge over the first week.  Things that we all take for granted (being able to find whatever you'd like on television, knowing what stores exist where, being able to read ingredients and items on a menu) are some of the things I struggle with most!  At the grocery store, for instance, I was unable to find simple table salt, failing on not one but TWO occasions.  I did, however, find that soda here is not as expensive as I expected, so I can continue to feed that habit which I honestly hoped to break when I came here (even my work vending machine sells Coke Light for less than I can find it at the office in Clayton!). 

Shopping at grocery stores has been helpful for standard items but I am really enjoying all of the specialty meat, cheese, and bread shops around.  Never before have I had such access to quality hams, chorizo, manchego cheese, and fresh baguettes.  My lunch or dinner each day is normally just a homemade sandwich of these fine ingredients (plenty of pictures are on Instagram) and I'm always hungry for more!  I hope this won't come back to bite me in the weight department, but so far so good I think.

Restaurants have been another issue as I've been forced to either let the waiter select what he thinks I'd want or guess items based on knowing a word or two.  In some cases, this has worked just great (I have taken advantage of knowing the word "croquette" and experienced them with ham, chicken, and fish to great results, as well as having the waiter choose a great octopus dish one night) and in others, it's been rough (highlighted by the squid head that I received on Thursday night).  I already have a running list of places to try in my little city that I scoped out during my walks through the streets.  Once I can conquer the language barrier, or at least mitigate it slightly, I am ready to take full advantage of the great cuisine of Spain!

Onto television... no surprise that my options are extremely limited.  I actually get MTV and can watch it in English, which probably is a good clue as to why Europeans have the opinion of Americans that they sometimes do!  Luckily for me, there is a golf channel that I was able to watch the Masters on (although it was in Spanish) and also there are soccer matches on almost non-stop.  I've taken much more to reading and walking around the city rather than watching television, but on the rainy or boring day (or in the case of today when my ankle is busted up), it suffices.  As a side note, it's incredible how many different soccer levels there are... I watched elementary school kids playing for Barcelona and AC Milan a few days ago!

I've made my way into Barcelona once and walked around, but I haven't done much sight-seeing yet.  I expect that I'll chip away at that before Jessica visits and then we'll really get the full treatment together.  The city is very pretty and has great architecture, even for random buildings.  At least for the part I was in, it seemed fairly similar to other big cities I've seen but I am looking very forward to knowing the different neighborhoods better and experiencing the culture and food of Catalonia.

I don't have much else to say now but I'll keep updating as I get more used to life on this side of the Atlantic!