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!
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