Wednesday, March 25

On Wednesday I got the kids fed and ready for school (since Scott had to be at the base at 8am) and walked them to school.  At dropoff I met an English-speaking mom at the boys' dropoff door. She's originally from Holland, had recently lived in Darwin, Australia, and she's now happily in Sevilla. She said that her 4yo daughter picked up speaking Spanish after about 3 months.  We're hoping our kids do the same.  All 5 of us seem to be learning more everyday.  In the meantime, I'm finding the school to be incredibly international with tons of English-speaking people.  It's certainly helping with our adjustment.  I left the school and found this happening at the corner.

This is the corner from which we usually approach the kids' school.  There's a pharmacy there.  We've noticed that a number of pharmacies around the city have the green and/or red fluourescent plus sign showing where they are.  It's a differen green plus than those seen throughout Denver nowadays.
Notice the red armchair with rope tied securely around it.  More to come as you scroll down...

Notice the men with wheelbarrows.  They're working on the street, unrelated to the chair movement.

And here's a view of what's happening with the chair.  Parents - remind you of Amsterdam?  There's someone on the 4th floor (called the 3rd floor here as the main floor is floor 0 or Planta Baja).  He's hanging out of his window and helping to pull the chair up to his apartment.  Meanwhile, the workers with the wheelbarrows do their thing, these ladies are strolling doing their thing, and a parent is pushing a stroller along the street.  And that's all on one tiny street corner.
This city is amazing with all of the activity.

After enjoying this, I headed home, grabbed my gym bag, and headed to the gym for muay thai.  I clocked the walk and the gym is 1.25 miles away from the apartment.  After the workout, I showered at the gym and then walked the 10 or so minutes to the kids' school to meet them for lunch.  It was Devon's day to choose where to go and he chose a new place that's around the corner from the school called Tapa Olé.  We all really enjoyed it there.  It's an all you can eat tapas restaurant, but rather than there being a physical buffet, you keep on ordering food from the waiter and the kitchen prepares it for you fresh.  As we try to learn about the various food options here in Spain, it was a great way to try different foods and order more of the ones we liked (the kids loved the mini hamburgers) and not feel obliged to eat the ones we don't like just to make sure we ate enough.  Plus, the meal came with a drink (the kids all had Fanta soda, probably the 2nd soda they've ever had in their lives), and a token which the kids used on the candy/toy machines at the front of the restaurant.

We've been eating out more this week, and it's been wonderful.  Often I'm out an about in the morning, and I don't pack lunches before leaving for multiple hours before lunch.  With food being inexpensive here and us wanting to try out different restaurants and places, I'm finding this justifiable.  In fact, Scott's a bit jealous as he's busy working while we're trying out new lunch time restaurants.
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So, instead of a typical night of snuggling up on the couch (see Rosa and Scott above), or helping Rosa with her homework, or cycling the kids through showers and ready, we chose to go out to dinner.

On the way, just across the street from the school we saw a travel agent.  They're all over central Sevilla, though I couldn't tell you where a single one was in Denver.  Among other things, this agency advertised that they sold train tickets.

Earlier in the day Scott had unsuccessfully tried buying our train tickets to Barcelona.  We plan to go there at the end of April/early May over the long labor day weekend.  Our plans are to go there by train (a 5-hour ride) and return by plane.  We think that Scott's credit card didn't work online when we tried to buy train tickets since it's an American card.  He'd tried calling to make reservations, but whoever was going to help was charging an exorbitant service charge.  The plan was to stop by the train station and make the reservations in person, but we realized we didn't need to do that with the travel agent so close by.  It took half an hour (slow computers), but we now have our tickets to Barcelona.  We're looking forward to seeing the city and seeing my dear exchange student friend Silvia, meeting her boyfriend, and seeing her parents again.  And we'll return to Sevilla with a day or two to spare before my parents arrive for a visit here.

Scott chose a restaurant (Spala) nearby the school and travel agent.  There are literally a dozen + to choose from in that area.  While it was merienda time (afternoon snack time at 5:30pm) we were your typical American tourists looking for dinner.  Luckily the kitchen was open because we ate a ton.  The menu was in Spanish, English, and French, but even more helpful, the menu had pictures.  Devon chose steak and ate the whole thing.  Rosa and Cody each had pasta dishes, Scott had grilled chicken, and I had a salad.  While there we kept on seeing people getting the same merienda at their tables.  It's what we've seen advertised all around town:  churros and chocolate.

Here's a view of our churros plate with most of them eaten.  In fact, this might have been our second serving.  Our waitress was wonderful and gave us this plate for free, along with a free appetizer. And when she served it, she sprinkled the sugar packet on it to show us the way the locals eat it.  She said that this is a very typical snack in Sevilla.

Cody holding a churro.

Here's Cody enjoying a churro after having dipped it in the thick chocolate (in the mug in front of him).  

Devon's face was so covered in chocolate that the waitress wiped him down.  It was adorable.

I loved being able to eat out.

We got home close to 8 which is when we try to get the kids down for bed.  Even after the large quantities of food consumed all day, the kids still wanted more to eat.