Spain's National Strike

Today I'm embarrassed to be living in Spain.
Today the entire country of Spain went on strike. A pre-planned national strike which was planned 5 months ago. I am not quite sure all of the reasons for the strike but the basic gist is: people are mad at the government.
When they first announced the strike I asked how affective is this strike going to be if its pre-planned months in advance? Then after today I am still asking -what did you strikers accomplish today?
I'll tell you what you accomplished today:

• You terrorized your own city streets
• spray painted businesses and buildings
• threw trash everywhere and knocked over garbage and recycling bins
• burned police cars and caused riots
• threw rocks at cars that passed trying to go to work
• threw rocks at businesses that opened today
• You took away peoples rights by preventing your neighbors from going to work because they couldn't lose a days pay by striking
• You paralized your cities transportation networks so your neighbors couldn't get to work and make the much needed money
• You probably cost millions of euros in damages that I, the tax payer will have to pay for
• You probably spent millions in flyers, posters and propaganda promoting your strike that I, as a tax payer will have to pay for. 

Strikers: you are so mad at the government for the "crisis, no jobs, no money".
Well today you made it worse by:
- preventing people from working and putting their jobs at risk
- people in much of need of money lost a days pay
- and these same people will now have to pay more taxes to cover the millions of euros in damages you caused and for the promotion of your attacks and rioting.
Does this really make sense to anyone?

It's embarrassing.

Making some money!

After nearly two years of not working, I've finally started to make some money! Not much but, hey, you have to start somewhere, right?
Since I moved to a country where they don't speak english and I do, finding a job where I wouldn't struggle with Spanish on a daily basis is hard to come by. So we thought of the grand idea of tutoring english. I took an online class to get an idea of how to teach it because even though I can speak it, it doesn't mean I know the answer to some really random grammar question or even a basic one like what is an adverb? (Yes, I am a journalism major) I've learned this through Pablo as he always asks me, why do you say it that way? I'm like, I don't know, it is just the way it is. I figured this wasn't a good response to someone who is paying me, so I took the class.
The class ended in January and here we are in September and I don't remember anything. But I put a flyer up on our neighborhood forum to see if I'd get any response. After posting it just one time 3 weeks ago I'm still getting emails asking about it. Learning english is very popular, it almost seems trendy. Right now I have 3 clients and a new one starting next week. I have 4 adults and one, 4 year old boy. The adults are easy because they can already speak Spanish and just want to talk with me for an hour once or twice a week. I feel really bad because they pay me to talk and I don't really do anything else.
Yesterday, I had my first class with the 4 year old and let me tell you that will be a challenge. I had his attention for maybe 15 minutes and then he began to show me everything in his house and didn't want to listen to me. Semi-failure. Hopefully I can improve on that one or it may not last long!
I still don't know all the answers to the grammar questions and make them up sometimes. Oops! But it has been very positive so far. I've met more people in the last two weeks than I have living here on and off for 2 years. It is nice that everyone lives in my neighborhood and I can walk to all their houses and maybe I'll make some friends out it.
I figure it will be an interesting ride as students come and go and I'll have good days and bad, so I'll keep you posted!

Grandma's 87th Birthday Fiesta

I almost forgot to share the part when we went to my grandma's birthday party during our trip to Seattle. Me and all the Spanish left downtown and headed up to Mill Creek to my mom's watering hole- Azul. We all enjoyed Happy Hour with my mom, aunt and grandma to celebrate the big 87. I think my grandma enjoyed having an international party but most of all I think she just liked having Pablo there!

The Birthday Crew

Granny Goose with her first grandson....and oh yeah, Kelly

Granny and the Spanish

The Kellogg Girls

The family

I'm 30..... and a new Mom!

This is very weird to say- 30. How did I get to be 30 anyway? When someone says that happened in the 90s I still think that it wasn't that long ago- but really......it was, like 10+ years ago. Crazy!
My 30th birthday was also the first time Pablo and I have spent my birthday together. Looks like in 9 years September wasn't one of our meeting months!
I wasn't really sure he remembered or if we would do anything so I reminded him the day before that it would be nice to do something!
My birthday was on a Saturday and he set his alarm to wake us up...on a Saturday. I was like, what are you doing? He said I had to get up because we were leaving. I had no idea where we were going so I started coming up with ideas in my head. For some reason I thought we were going to the Warner Brothers Amusement Park because a week before he asked if I wanted to go--I said no. But I was still afraid we were going there. We got in the car and luckily drove in the opposite direction so I was happy about that. We headed north of Madrid and I then thought we were going to a little town up in the mountains or something to have lunch and drink beers. As we were driving along a country road we suddenly slowed and turned onto a dirt road. I thought I saw horses and ask are, we riding horses? I don't like riding horses and he knows that! Then I figure it out, we are at an animal shelter. He said surprise, we are going to adopt a cat. I was kind of in shock that we were really doing this. We have talked about it for a long time, getting a cat. But we have had the wedding, the trips, no money so I thought we'd wait awhile.
We walked up to the main office and Pablo writes down our names on a list. There are a lot of people there waiting because Saturday is open adoption day. We sit down on the bench and wait and the realization that we are getting a cat gets me. My cat Luna died in July, about two weeks before I came home. We knew she was old but it was still very hard and I was sad I didn't say goodbye. And getting a new cat so soon all I thought about was Luna and how I miss her and I don't want her to be mad. So I sat there on the bench and cried.
We waited about a half hour and then a woman came to greet us and take us to the cat area. There are two  cat areas where they are all free to roam around inside and outside. It is actually a very nice place because they have a lot of space and toys. We checked out both rooms and met all the cats, well the ones that weren't scared. We were originally looking for a female, adult cat. Pablo said it was my decision on the cat. That was stressful because I wanted to make it together and I was hoping I'd pick the right cat. In the first area Pablo really liked this all black cat. It was so cute and very loving so we kept it on the mental list. We went to the second area and liked one of the male cats but we kind of passed him by because we planned on a female. Then we went back to the first area to look at the black cat but this time it wasn't nice and chasing all the other cats away. I didn't like this. But there were two cats there who were very affectionate and not shy and followed me around. (They knew how to work the game). I ended up liking these two the best. One was black and white and the other was a tabby color and white. I told Pablo I liked between these two and they ended up both being males. Finally after much debate I picked the black and white one named Allen.

Our boy

We went back to the office and did all the paperwork, had the vet check him and we off. We had a cat!
The story of Allen is pretty interesting. They found him in May in a manhole pretty banged up and they believe he is 4 years old. The name for manhole in spanish is Alcantaria and so at first the shelter named him Alcant, a girl name short for Alcantaria. Well when someone wrote the name Alcant on a card or something they ended up writing the c, more like an L, and the next person to read the card thought it said Allan. After all this they took him in to get spay and realized she was really a he. So the mess up in names really worked out because apparently Alcantaria is a girl name.

His favorite toy- the string

He is the cutest when he is sleeping

But he sleeps in some really weird positions

Alkie and his daddy

When we got home we liked the manhole story because Pablo fell in one last year so we thought it was fitting, even if it is a girl name. At first I had a hard time saying Alcant or Alcan so I named him Alkie for short. After spending two weeks with him, he has ended up with a variety of names- Alkie, Foofi (friends cat), Alcan, Alcant, Dalki, Walki Talki, crazy-freak, boogie-man (he has a lot of boogers), ect. He is a very affectionate cat but also turns into a wacko and runs all around the house. He loves to play with his string and attacks our feet when we sleep. He isn't learning very well that he can't scratch the couch or our bed even though he has two scratching posts but I have hope that one day he'll figure it out.

Alcant written on the manhole

To round out my birthday Pablo took me to dinner at an Italian restaurant in our neighborhood. It was a surprise, which Pablo really likes. He likes it when I don't know things and he does because usually I know everything! We had a great dinner with lots of wine and lemoncello. Then we went to a couple bars to cap off the eveing with a couple vodka tonics. It was fun to get dressed up and have a nice romantic evening with my husband! But we had to go home early and check on new addition! :)

Drinking some vodka tonics

NIE Update

I finally had my appointment to turn in my NIE paperwork in Oviedo. We had to wait 3 months for it! A NIE is the Foreigners Identification Number. I need this number to legally stay in the country and it gives me the right to legally work as well. I call it a social security number for my American followers.
We made the appointment in May with the help of one of Pablo's police friends. I think she was bored and just made it for us. She was also the one who told us (the day after we bought our tickets to Seattle) that I couldn't leave the country because it was illegal. But she was wrong since I passed customs in a record 8.7 seconds! ha ha!
Anyway, this lady took us to the office and a man wrote down all the paperwork we needed. This was great, to finally have a very specific list of all we needed. So we gathered all the paperwork, which was surprisingly very easy after all the back and forth we did when doing the wedding paperwork. We were a little shocked.
We needed:
1) copy of all pages of my passport
2) copy of Pablo's ID card
3) Formal copy of our marriage certificate from city hall
4) Fill out the form that they provide us
5) Form that says I'm citizen of Mieres

For the citizen part it was a little funny because we went to the city hall and went to the office and said I want to be a citizen of Mieres. They asked for my passport and then it was done. We got the form and left. That was it! So any of you people out there want to be a citizen of Mieres its no problem. You just come on over and we'll sign you right up! I think I might be able to vote for city positions or maybe go to the city council meetings and bitch or something!
We basically had all the paperwork ready to go after we got married and just waited until the day, 3 months later. The appointment was at 9:25 am and we didn't know what to expect...government agency...you never know. We showed up early, at 9, and there was a line out the door. We are like, why is there a line? We have an appointment. So we get in line and listen to the people to figure it out. Inside the door was a woman at a desk and she looked pissed and they've only been open 5 minutes. She is either telling people they are wrong and to leave or she gives them a number. The number is for one of the 4 people who help the people. When its your turn they call the number, like the DMV. When we finally get to the front we say we have an appointment and the lady is very nice to us, weird because she hated everyone else before us. This could be because: 1) Pablo is cute, 2) we aren't Latino, 3) we are the only people with an appointment.
We wait about 5 minutes and we are called to the desk of the old man. He says nothing except give me your paperwork. I take it all out, very organized and give it to him. He says nothing the whole time and barely looks at the papers. He takes my passport, puts the information in the computer and writes down a number on the form I had to fill out and gives it back to me. He says this is your NIE number and you have to wait 3 months for the card. It will come in the mail. Pablo asked him if I can legally work now since I have the number but no card. He said it depends on the employer. Then we say thanks and leave. We walk out and we're like that is it? That is weird.
Now I have to wait for the card to come in the mail. It won't be the official card since they need a picture of me. We believe it will be an official document with instructions for the next step which is probably go to the Police Station and they will make my card and I'll officially because a legal resident alien! It has a ring to it, doesn't it?!

Hiking with Cows and Visiting the Santina

The day after our bathroom disaster we drove to Mieres. I had an appointment at the office of foreigners to turn in my paperwork so I can get my identification number so I can legally stay here and work. While we were up there we suffered from some severe jet lag. I have never had it that bad before and it probably was a combination of jet lag and the emotional drain of the trip and the end to planning two weddings, two family trips and realizing I really moved to Spain. So to deal with all of that I slept, slept and slept some more. I have never slept that long in my life. I felt like someone was slipping me sleeping pills everyday. We would wake up in the morning early around 7 and by 1pm I was dying. We'd eat lunch and then I would take a siesta until 8 pm, eat dinner and then go back to bed. I did this for quite a few days.
To keep us awake and be somewhat productive, we went hiking two days while we were in Asturias. We first went to the Riosa Angliru. We drove up a very steep road to the top of the mountain. This road use to be part of the Tour of Spain bike race and it is famous for being steep. Going up I kept thinking, why would anyone ride their bike up this? It is so steep and it goes forever! It was scary driving up it! And it is filled with cows and horses. Ranchers leave their cows and horses here over the summer to graze freely on top of the mountain. Then in the fall the ranchers come back and try and find all of their cows. This is why the cows where bells so they are easier to identify and find. When we arrived at the top there were cows everywhere and as we continued up the mountain they were all around us. I learned that they are very agile and have no problem hiking up very steep mountains in rough terrains. Very surprising!

the views

At the viewpoint

On the mountain

The rocky mountains

On top of the world!

The view from the top of our hike

Me and the cows

The second hike we did we did was from Santa Cruz, where Pablo grew up, up the mountain to the Santina (statue of a lady saint or something). On the way up we passed this cute town called Carabanzo. It was a really hot day so I sported Pablo's hat that he always keeps in his car but never wears. I found my walking stick and we headed up, up and up further. It was a pretty good hike up hill but by the time we got to the top I was so glad we didn't have to go up anymore. 

At the top we enjoyed the view of the valley below, the little towns in the hills and lush, green mountains all around us. It was very beautiful.

Walking to the top...almost there

At the top with the santina

View of Santa Cruz and the valleys

close up of Miss Santina

Pablo giving a sermon

Big, fat, orange spider

After many random pictures we headed back down the mountin to the town because I was promised a beer and tapa for going up. The town was really cute. It looked like it had been completely redone. All the houses were freshly painted, with flowers everywhere and it all looked clean and really well maintained. We went to a new restaurant that was super cute as well made of stones- my personal favorite. We enjoyed a couple beers on the terrace and some cute tapas in little paella pans.

the cute little pueblo

my tapa

hiking down

Hitting apples with my walking stick as we hike down

Back to Madrid and back to the S*&$#%

We survived our, what ended up to be, 2 very short flights back to Madrid. We were doing the math and this might have been the fastest we have ever traveled between Seattle and Madrid. It was a 4 and half hour flight to Philadelphia, 2 hour layover, 6 and a half hours to Madrid. Grand total: 13 hours with layover. Crazy! And we went cross country, which they say is longer.
Anyway, we aren't complaining.
Now to preface this story we have to go back to before we left for Seattle and talk about our bathroom issues. To make a gross story more readable, basically the sewer pipe from our bathroom connects to the main pipe of the building and carries all of our neighbors waste, together to the sewer. Two times this main pipe has gotten clogged and backed up into our bathroom. Then while its backed up, every time a neighbor above us uses the toilet or showers all the waste and water comes up our 2 pipes in our bathroom. One under the toilet and one on the floor. So just imagine what we have to clean up.....everything people put in the toilet......everything..... and it ain't pretty!
The first time it happened I wasn't here because it was in February. The second time I spent 2 days in sewer water in the bathroom waiting for some lovely Spaniard to come fix it. But I found out quickly that if someone in Spain needs help, no one cares, they only care about themselves. Basically for 2 and half days we were alone cleaning sewer off our bathroom floor and the landlord, the community we live in, the 2 plumbers that came to the house or the house insurance that the owner has, did NOT help us. It is unbelievable. The two plumbers arrive, looked at the toilet and told us, oh that is not what I do, I can't help you. No one offers a suggestion of what to do, who to call, who can help. We have two insurance companies for this apartment and to get a hold of them and to have something happen right away because folks this is an emergency, no one can help. Unbelievable.
Hey, Landlord lady, don't you want to see how your bathroom is destroyed? The walls are wet, your floor is warped, the toilet doesn't stick to the floor and you're lucky you have a renter because after we leave you won't be able to rent this place.
AHHHH! Its amazing!
Anyway, this is the state we left it in- temporarily fixed but no one figuring out a solution.
We joked about it during our time in Seattle but when we finally arrived home it was time to face the truth. We arrived to the apartment at 9 am on Friday morning from Seattle. We had just flown 13 hours. When we arrived to our apartment, checked out the bathroom we saw......nothing..... too horrible..... but yes, it happened again and it was dried on the floor.
Well, Pablo flips out and starts sticking the mop in the pipe--- why? Probably to start the process all over again and he was successful, our bathroom filled with waste. Pablo's family was here and after Pablo's flip out they decided to leave and drive to Mieres- another 4 hours after flying 13. It was a mess! Luckily we knew exactly who to call and didn't have to go through the bureaucracy of who's insurance to call, who was going to help us, we'd done this twice before and figured out the routine. We directly called the good plumbers, the ones that have experience unclogging toilets. The other plumbers don't have this experience. How do they even become plumbers for real?
Pablo called the owner and she called her insurance but no one answered. They only had an answering machine because they were on vacation and said if it was an emergency leave a message. HOW DOES INSURANCE GO ON VACATION AND LEAVE NO ONE IN THE OFFICE. Usually, if you are calling your insurance IT IS AN EMERGENCY! IDIOTS! But its ok because in August everyone in Spain goes on vacation, no pasa nada. Yeah, no big deal until you have a problem and no one will help you. Pablo flipped out at the owner too. She was on the beach on vacation and her husband was taking a nap so she'd get back to us. Oh please, we are standing in shit, in YOUR apartment and you can't wake up your husband from siesta???
Anyway, the plumbers came and fixed the problem. At this point we were exhausted and once they left we didn't clean, we went straight to bed and took a 4 hour nap. But we woke up to the fact we still had to clean the bathroom so we did. We ordered pizza and managed to put our house back together again.
We are now just waiting for the next time it will happen.....more updates to follow.

Ride the Duck & Paella Farewell

We ended our last day in Seattle with a ride on the famous Ride the Ducks followed by lunch at the Treehouse. After all the hot weather, this day was actually overcast in the morning so it was a little chilly riding around in an open vehicle. But we had a nice tour of things Natalia hadn't seen yet and a nice put-put around the lake. I made my mom come with me since she had never done it before- you have to do it at least once even if you aren't a tourist. This was my third time. I think that is pretty much good enough! Pablo did really well understanding the facts and joke and translated for his parents.

The Spanish and their Duck

All aboard

Me and my mommy.....she had fun but she'll deny it

Lake Union

After we enjoyed a nice lunch at the Treehouse. I had, as always, the Capitola burger and as always, it was delicious. The spanish also indulged in their favorite american food- big burgers.

Treehouse Burger.....I'm hungry

For dinner, our last dinner, Mari Carmen made her famous paella. She wanted to cook us something Spanish as a thank you to the family. She was bummed that she had problems finding good seafood and told us how horrible the paella would be but of course it was wonderful. We enjoyed one last dinner, good wine and good company, outside with my dad and mom. After 18 days of go, go, go, we were exhausted and headed to bed for our 8am flight back.....dare I say it....home.

Mari Carmen in her huge kitchen

Starting the paella

Final masterpiece

Our trip was defiently a whirlwind; with ups and downs, stress and joy, panic and adventure, bud light and wine, food and more food, friends and family, more bud light and more wine, spanish and english, seattleites and asturians, Amerians and Españoles.
We had a second wedding to celebrate and share our love story. A trip where all our families could be together and where I got to reunite with my dear friends that I had not seen in a very long time but miss terribly.
It was bitter sweet. I got emotional at almost every Seattle landmark we went to, thinking it will be a really long time until I see it again. I thought- I don't really want to leave, I love this city. Being so close to the water, the mountains and so many green trees, the thought of going back to dry, dusty Madrid was not appealing.
At the airport my mom was flying to California so she saw us to our gate. When we started boarding she started crying, so I started crying and it was a mess. When we finally rolled out on to the runway and took off I was sobbing. When the flight attendent came around serving drinks she asked me if I was scared of flying.... she sat two rows in front of us. I told her I was moving to Madrid and leaving my family. She said that was exciting. Yes, but emotional as well.
Now that I've officially married....twice.....to the same person.......I now have to start this new chapter in my life. Nothing is set in stone and things will always change so I guess we'll see where this chapter takes us. I still mention the option of moving to Seattle whenever Pablo gets pissy about Madrid....so you never know! In the mean time I'll thoroughly stuff my face with as many tapas and drink as much cheap but good wine as I can. I did realize that compared to Seattle, you can eat and drink way cheaper in Madrid. I like that. So I'll continue to do a lot of it!

Space Needle & Pike Place

Today was the big day- lunch at the Space Needle. We walked through the Seattle Center on our way to the needle to check out the fountain, a personal favorite of Pablo. It was going to be another hot day so there were already kids running around it. We had early reservations at 11:30 for lunch and lucky we got that because it was busy. We had a nice table right by the window and enjoyed great views, good company and a very expensive lunch. After we stuffed ourselves we then headed up the observation deck to enjoy the sunny day. The last time we went up with Pablo and his parents it was foggy and drizzly so it was nice to get such a nice sunny day. 

Seattle Center Fountain

Our table

Pepo and his salmon

Natalia and her hamburger

Cheers to the spanish at the space needle

The Orbiter

Our views of the great city of Seattle from the top of the Needle!

I miss you Seattle

After some time in the gift shop we headed to the monorail to head downtown and see Pike Place Market. Natalia was very excited to ride the monorail because apparently the people on Grey's Anatomy ride it to work and she and her friends are big fans of the show so she had to right it. I think she was a little disappointed that it was only a 1 minute ride thought. 

We are ready to ride the Monorail

Downtown!

We headed to Pike Place and walked around the market enjoying the beautiful flowers and great looking seafood. We stopped to watch them throw a couple fish and took pictures with Rachel the pig. It was another very hot day so we stopped at Kell's to cool off with a couple of pints to cap off our day downtown. 

Pretty flowers at the Pike Place

Pepo and his pig (note the girl in the blue)

Natalia and McDreamy