Back to France

An exciting aspect of this trip has been leaving things open to possibility. Jacob and I both love that right now, October and November have no set agenda- we could go ANYWHERE (that our Renault contract permits). So it was with that sentiment in mind that we decided we'll leave Barcelona early and head to Correze, France for a couple weeks to house-sit. The family we are house-sitting for has sheep, chickens, ducks, goslings, chicks, a pair of mice and a rabbit so I'm really excited. Living in a rural setting with a hobby farm has been my dream so this lets me try one on for size and hope nothing expires on my watch.

In the meantime, we're going to enjoy the remaining week in Barcelona - be it ever so large and muggy. Last night we hung out and drank a couple pitchers of sangria with a Portland couple that we met back home through Couch Surfing. They are a bit younger than us and their Barcelona goals include finding a place to smoke hookahs and making it out to one of the islands for an all-night rave whereas we hope to finish our hot air balloon puzzle and maybe get a refund from the parking garage for leaving early. But despite our divergent interests, we spoke the universal language of desperately wanting to have a full-length conversation in our mother tongue. And it was a great excuse for us to get out and have a drink in the warm evening air.

Today we met a woman from Belgium and her 9 year old daughter at Cosmo Caixa (the science museum) and tomorrow we'll be camping on some property in the mountains for a couple nights - another Couch Surfing connection. Camping at actual campsites here is expensive (we were looking at about $50 a night) and we couldn't get a good feel on-line for the tolerance and safety around "unofficial" camping so this is perfect situation for us. Plus, our hosts have a pool we are welcome to use. Couch Surfing just continues to pay off for us left and right in ways that we didn't expect or imagine.

The pictures I've posted are from our visit to the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres. The museum is built from the ruins of the Municipal Theatre which was destroyed in the Civil War. Dali oversaw the design and layout of the museum and it contains his drawings, paintings and sculptures from the 1920's all the way through the 1980's. I can't say we were able to see everything as it was very crowded and, in true Mestman fashion, we ignored what has to be the best warning ever to grace a brochure:

"A warning! If we take into account the idiosyncrasy of Salvador Dali, the origin of the Dali Theatre-Museum, then perhaps we ought to recommend you not to follow a preconceived route. However, despite this a one way route has been laid out. This only has the intention of guiding the visitor form the entrance to the exit without his missing any part of the Theatre-Museum. It does not have, nor does it wish to have, any systematic function nor chronological sense."

Barcelona Days - Chapter Two

For the most part, we are settling into life in Barcelona. We know where the nearest basketball hoop is and when it is most likely to be available but for the life of me I cannot get down when stores are open. Some are closed all day on Sunday, some on Monday and most close at some point in the afternoon and maybe they reopen early evening and maybe they don't.

After so many weeks on the road we both have our moments of restlessness and doubt- was five weeks too long to commit to Barcelona? Jacob starts looking into the costs of going to Morocco and I start fantasizing about house sitting for some French folks looking to have someone take care of their sheep and chickens (this is unlikely as they are looking for someone for three full weeks and I don't want to leave Barcelona more than a week early). We're considering a camping trip in the Pyrenees.

About the only one fully settled in is Vaughn who is super happy with our routine of basketball in the morning, beach in the afternoon and maybe a Simpsons episode or two in between. Homeschooling has been a little tough at times. We have had our moments like the morning we broke into two teams (Jacob/Vaughn and me) to research:

• Why thunder happens
• What happened when the Pope was shot
• How Roman aqueducts worked
• Why the North Pole is magnetic
• Information on Dr. J
• The age of the earth

All these topics or questions were generated by Vaughn off of things we read or saw or just whatever popped into his head and neither Jacob nor I had sufficient responses (kudos to you if you do- you are very smart). We each had to come up with at least five facts on our subjects to present to the other group. This is how I had envisioned home schooling- creative, natural and student led. I firmly believe that all children have a natural curiosity and drive to learn that will present itself if coaxed out correctly in a way that works for the child. Sounds pretty idyllic right? The reality is that despite having hours with nothing to do, Vaughn is often resistant to the small, structured assignments we give him. A skilled manipulator, he will point out that it is still technically summer and has even gone so far as to suggest that despite what his teacher, report cards and our own instinct tell us, he is not at the 4th grade level and therefore all the assignments are too hard for him. Like the parent of a picky eater who has to sneak in vegetables, we have to slip leaning activities in a way that does not suggest that he is actually working.

I have made an unofficial friend though. The first day that we went to the park so that Vaughn and Jacob could play basketball I sat on one of the benches to read. Lost in thought, I was startled to find an elderly woman shuffling my backpack off to the side of the bench to make room for herself. Smiling at me with her three little remaining teeth, she began chattering away in Spanish. As my brain worked furiously to decipher what she was saying I casually scanned the park to try and figure out why she had not sat on any of the other 12 remaining benches. I explained to her that I was sorry but that I only spoke a little Spanish (This is really my only full phrase but I think I say it with enough confidence that it somehow suggests I speak more than I do. I need to learn a follow-up phrase like, "No really - I don't speak Spanish" and maybe a back up, "Please stop thinking I speak Spanish because I have no idea what you are saying"). She slowed down and we made it through a few phrases before other octogenarians showed up in what was clearly a daily ritually of gathering at the park for gossip and chit-chat and she moved over to a bench where she could say more than, "It is hot" and "Yes, is hot." Older folks are out and about here in a way that I've not witnessed back at home. They're always dressed up and cruising around with their canes and walkers and it's nice to see.

So I've seen her a few times and she really helped me out in a pinch by lending me her cane when Vaughn's ball got stuck in the net (repeatedly) one day but I'm always thankful when others are there to chat with her because, as mentioned, I really don't speak Spanish. Today she got sort of frustrated with me when I couldn't understand her and actually started poking me in the chest with her bony finger after each word, like maybe my translator was broken or something. A few of her friends were gathered around it made an already awkward situation more awkward and kinda painful. Finally she left me in peace and I decided at that point to reclaim my anonymity and start sitting on the other side of the park.

Hallo from the Fertilizer People - Amsterdam Pt. 2

Yesterday Todd took his whole day off to accompany us back into the central part of Amsterdam. We wanted to see more of the city but we were also on the important mission of trying to find out why Vaughn's Nintendo DS had stopped working and to see if we could perhaps pick up a cheap phone.

The area Todd took us to was nicer than where we'd been the day before and we window shopped in antique stores and along the block-long flower market where there were hundreds of boxes containing different tulip varietals. The indoor mall used to be one of Amsterdam's two prisons and there is a fantastic statute still above the entrance of a couple guys in chains. Todd patiently escorted us from electronic to game store explaining our situation until we were able to get a 220 power appropriate charger and save the DS. There was a DVD of an episode of Little House on the Prairie in Dutch and I squealed with delight when Todd told me that in this magical land they still play Little House on TV.

After the shopping we returned home to meet Reinhold and drove out to a sweet little area where a half-dozen windmills lined the water. At the first windmill there was a painting of a serious looking skeleton sitting upon a stone. Todd translated the inscription which basically said that if you were ready to commit to yourself wholly to him, your reward would be that they would never run out of work for you. It didn't seem like the best proposition.

Like the day before, we spent the early part of the evening chatting and looking out over the grasses and water with Todd identifying local birds for me and all of us trying unsuccessfully to keep Joey from going swimming. Todd asked where the name Mestman was from and he explained that in Dutch, it meant "Fertilizer People" or "People of the Fertilizer" or something that made Jacob's complete lack of interest in gardening funny.

We took Todd and Reinhold out to dinner as a thank you for letting us stay with them and then went back home and stayed up until 1:30 drinking wine and talking. Sadly, at 4:30 am Jacob and I discovered that we both had terrible insomnia and hadn't slept at all. It is extra unfortunate since today we leave and travel to our next home, a woman named Monique and her husband and three children just south of Utrict that we met on Couchsurfing.

I'm sad to leave Todd and Reinhold not only because I will miss them both terribly but also because they've pretty much kept us afloat these first few days. Out of the nest we go.