My trip to Ikea in Murcia

One of my very good friends Marisela, has just bought a new apartment and is starting her new life after losing her husband last year to cancer. She wanted me to go with her today to Ikea in Murcia (about an hour south of Alicante) so she could do a little shopping. Since, I have a little free time now..hahahaa.. I signed up quickly.

We dropped off the kids in school and headed on our adventure. Once there we had breakfast for one euro..and where ready to shop. If you haven't been to an Ikea the experience is a little overwhelming. There is so much to see and everything is laid our systematically.. It was like following the yellow brick road.. We did that, and picked up little nick nacks along the way.

Two carts full and a couple of hours later we were on our way to the check out counter and then to the hardest part of the trip.. How the hell to stick all the things we purchased in to a little European car...We basically had to pull everything out of the boxes, put down some seats, squeeze all we could in to the trunk and hope we would fit in the car...

We had a great time and the trip was a success..We plan to do it again real soon.. But hey Marisela, next time lets skip the elevator part..hahaha..

Photo from flickr by rodelgo

Have you ever googled yourself?

I always google Matt to make sure that all his new projects are being reflected on his web and on the internet and that there is nothing out there that shouldn't be. So the other day I wondered what would happen if I googled myself...and to my surprise many interesting things from my past showed up....

For instance there was interview I did back when I worked for a swim wear store for the Lauderdale Daily News, a credit for a recording a did for Matt's friend Ken Hensley who just came out with his new album called Blood on the Highway, this blog comes up, and some other weirdo things that don't even relate to me..hahah. I also found there is another Nuria Pendas who lives in Mallorca and owns a restaurant, she emailed me a while back to let me know about all our similarites..

So, if you haven't googled yourself lately, go on try it see what comes up...

Photo Flickr by Retro-X

Our 11th Wedding Anniversary

Saturday March 8th we celebrated (well, with the kids, the colds, work etc...not really celebrated) our 11th wedding anniversary. We passed the 10 year mark now we have 9 more years to go to pass the 20 year mark.. Not sure about him as he would have to comment himself but the past 11 years have flown by.

We've had good times and bad times, health and sickness, children and problems, and through it all we are still here. Although marriage is something you need to work at, I'm very happy at the moment and hope that we can continue on this journey together...

We hope to be able to celebrate it later in the year with a mini vacation.. Just the two of us.. We will see..

A rough week

It is only Wednesday, hump day but so far this week has been one of the hardest ever. I can't comment too much about it yet, but as soon as I can I will make many comments on this blog..

If you want to personally email me I will be more than happy to tell you what is going on.. but lets just say that life throws you many surprises and some of them are very unfortunate and very disturbing..

I leave you with that and will continue blogging away with our Spain stories...

photo flickr

In Miami one week from today

I truly almost forgot the date and when my mom called me this weekend to ask me how the packing was going, I said to her, "From Paris? I was only there for a day Mom" and she said, "Not Paris, you idiot for Miami" and that is when it hit me that in about a weeks time I would be off to visit my friends and family..

I have so much to do, and I really have until Friday because we are leaving right after work to spend the weekend in Madrid, since we leave from there on Monday. We are going to take advantage and see the Beauty and the Beast musical while we are there..The kids are very excited.. well , I think I'm more excited than they are.

I hope I will be able to see all of you there. Margie, are you ready for Disney?, Ana Marie, I don't have your phone number I know you have given it to me on numerous occasions, please do so again, Tom and Wanda, you lost souls I hope you re appear, Alberto and Patricia, I know you will make time to come see us, Ana can't wait to see the little new one, Leonor we will need to catch up.

Here are the details we get there Monday February the 4th, we will probalby be exhausted. I think the next day we will go up to WPB to visit Tony and family and also Evelyn will there from LA, Wed afternoon we leave for Disney and will be back on Sat, Sun the 10th is Tristan's Baptism after that we are pretty much free, so please call me to book some time. I will not have a car and will not be able to get around, so I hope you can all pass by my dads house at the beach.

Can't wait to see everyone there..

photo thanks to bridgepix

My day in Paris with Passionata

I'm still trying to recover from my very mini trip to Paris last Thursday. After years of dreaming with Paris, all of a sudden I found myself there. Although it was only for one day it was an experience I will never forget.
My bosses very nice people!!! allowed me to go to an event for the lingerie line called Passionata. I had to wake up at 4:30 am to catch a 6:30 flight that would take me to Madrid then run around the Madrid airport for more that half an hour, trying to figure out where the hell I was going to finally catch the Paris flight. I was very calm, and I'm still not sure why.

Once in Paris I was picked up in a Mercedes and taken to a very chic restaurant which happened to be in walking distance to the Eifel Tower.. I met other bloggers in my field and I was sat in a table with the Italian bloggers because there was no room in the Spanish blogger table.. We had a great lunch and wonderful conversation..hahhahaa.. ok, they had a great conversation among themselves as I just sat there nodding at everything they said.. I still think they thought I understood what they were saying..but I just kept thinking.I'm in Paris, I'm in Paris..

We then walked over to the crazy horse a sort of burlesque type cabaret bar, a famous landmark in Paris. There we sat down to watch the show..I sat very close to the stage and I'm still not sure if this was good or bad. We were all expecting to see the top models of Paris strutting their stuff, showing us all the different types of lingerie Passionata had to offer. But instead we were offered an erotic, sensual show that took my breath away.. I actually saw more than I wanted to see but they sure got the point across. IF you wold like to see part of the show just go to passionata show and register they will send you a login and password and you will see what I'm talking about.

Once the show ended we were free to venture around the streets of Paris for an hour.. I didn't see much but just walking around the streets, was awesome.On the way back home my flight was late and I didn't get home until 1 am.. tired, excited and wanting more..

Fama a bailar! I'm hooked

I hardly have time to watch televison but when I happen to see something that interests me I'm hooked. I'm currently hooked on "Grey's Anatomy", "Desperate Housewives" and now a new TV program from Spain called FAMA. It is a type of American Idol but for dancers.

There were auditions all over the country and 10 girls and 10 guys were chosen to enter a dance school called FAMA (yes, fame), they compete daily with new choreographies in classical, hip hop, funky and other styles. It is on daily from 3:30 to 5:00 pm so when I get home from work, I now have my lunch in front of the TV..I try to get other things done but lately I have just been glued to the tv set..

I hope to outgrow this obsession soon because I have a lot of things to get done..hahaha...

Kids are back in School!!

I know, it sounds mean.. I love my kids, and I love to spend time with them. I have really enjoyed the holiday vacation but Marco and Isabella are two young children with a lot of energy, way too much for me..They were actually looking forward to starting school again. Isabella said "I can't wait to start school, you people here are no fun", Marco said "I want to see my friends again but I have gym class today and I don't really want to go".. hahahaa...

I told my bosses today that my actual vacation started today.. My boss stated if that was so I should pay him instead of him paying me..hahaha.. Ok, so its not actually vacation but I do love going to work, being able to be productive and have converstation with adults..

I hope your beginning of the work week has been eventful..Talk to you all soon..

Studying for the drivers test

Yes, you read the tittle right! After, lets see... driving around for about 20 years with a legal drivers license in the US, I came to find out a little after I got to Spain that my lovely American drivers license was absolutely good for nothing. (but people who come here from Africa, the UK where they drive on the other side of the street and third world countries where a car is probably a horse and buggy are give a license right away, no questions asked)...

Anyway, this wouldn't be such a bad thing if getting a license was as easy as in the U.S, where you can pick up the drivers education book and read it in about 15 minutes, memorize the questions and off you go to take the test..no, not here..first of all, there is so much paperwork and bureaucracy involved it is best to sign up to "autoescuelas" driver education schools, where for about 300 bucks they will facilitate theory and practical driving classes so you can pass the test..

The drivers education book has chapters (yes chapters!!) in mechanics, first aid, road signage (ok that one I understand), laws, etc, etc.. and not only do you need to know the norms of a vehicle but of trucks, public transportation, pretty much everything you would want to know and much, much more...

I had been waiting until the law changed but since I see that is not going to happen and that since I'm driving illegally, I should start my drivers education. And so on the bus to and from work I read my little (not really) manual and in the evenings I do tests online to see if one day soon I will be ready to pass my theory test..

The funniest part of all this is that it is in Spanish and Matt has to do the same thing.. hahahahahahha.. ok, that will totally be another post..

here is the link for the Spanish online tests see if you can pass (in Spanish, sorry all you non Spanish speakers can just guess A, B, or C, you will probably pass before me!!)

picture google

It's My Birthday, a closer goodbye to my 30's

Yes, yes, I have been receiving phone calls all day long reminding me that the inevitable will soon come. This will be my last year as a woman in her 30's and will soon pass to be a woman in her 40's. The other day I was talking with someone ( a much younger person) and they said yes the woman that takes care of my grandmother is an older woman in her 40's.. Older woman.. what are they kidding.???. I fell better much better now than ever, both physically and mentally.

So, to all you women out there approaching middle age..don't worry, they say life starts here and the best part of it is yet to come I'm sure..

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Eye Doctor appointment for next year

For those of you who don't know about the medical system here in Spain, here is a little rundown.. There are good things and bad things..

The good things: ITS FREE.. yes, 100% free.. all doctors visits (very short waits, most of the time) hospital stay, operations and medicine is about 90% off even very expensive cancer medicine.

The bad things for specialty medicine, you need a referral and if they feel that it is not urgent the wait could be long..(if they see its urgent the time of wait is almost immediate).

Overall, the medicine system works well here in Spain. You can opt to pay for private health insurance about a couple hundred euros a month for an entire family and pay a small co payment and percentage of hospital stay and medicine just like in the states.. Many people here have private insurance but use both systems depending on what answer they are looking for.. In the end if there is a real emergency the socialized hospitals are the ones with the most advanced technological equipment and experienced personnel.. put it this way if you were in a horrible accident and needed urgent care they would send you to a free hospital..

Having said all that, I went in today to my doctor because for sometime now I have been having a lot of eye infections and I haven't been able to wear my contacts for about a year now due to allergies and infections. My doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotic eye drops (as well as prescriptions for my allergy medicine, that way it costs me almost nothing) and gave me a referral to the eye doctor. When I went to the counter to make an appointment the lovely lady at the reception area told me.."ufff, there is a long wait" and I said "ok "she then said "how about January 30th , 2008 at about 10 am" and I said "ok" then she said "in the mean time you can leave your eyeballs here and pick them up then" at to which I said "ok" .... and so now I have the option of waiting until next year or paying 115 euros to go to the vissum center in Alicante Friday morning at 11 am. where they will look at my eyeballs right away.. not sure what to do...

photo google

The bus ride to work

As many of you know I'm working for a communication PR firm as a translator/everything else that needs to be done assistant. It is a small company owned by a young couple who are great to work with. We are a small group but have a great time. Anyway, that is not the purpose of this post, I will talk more about my job later. The reason for this post is that for some time now I have been wanting to write about my experience on my way to work, which happens to be on a bus. I could drive to work but Alicante city has no parking and the available parking is very expensive. The public transportation here in Spain works great and everyone uses it. The bus stop is a few steps from my house and it drops me off literally on the front door to my work.

Ok, having had explained all that I will get to what I really want to talk about which is the actual bus ride. I must say there are a lot of different types of people out there and when you have to share a limited space with them and have time to just sit there observing, you see and hear a lot of things.

In the morning there are certain people who are there the same time as I'm so you kind of get to know everyone. There is one girl in particular who is just plain ODD (Misty if you are reading this you know what I'm talking about) anyway, she doesn't like to stand in the actual bus stop she kind of peaks her face through a little crack behind the frame of the bus stop and just stares at all of us...we can't figure it out, then there is the woman who dresses as if she was going to the 5 o'clock cocktail hour, heels, make-up, glitter, the works...way too much, at the same time, she actually wears pantyhose (I thought those things were long dead), we also have the typical old lady who likes to chat with everyone she sees and tells us all the same story everyday, there is the overweight smelly man who always falls asleep and we need to poke him to let him know the bus has arrived and then hope someone wakes him up when its his time to get off the bus, and these are just the people at the morning bus stop, imagine the things I see and hear each day on the way to work and back..

I have been actually taking the opportunity to study for the drivers test (yes I need to take a drivers test here because they wont accept my American drivers license, that's another post)while on the bus so it has kept me busy..

If you would like to hear more about my bus stories, please comment and let me know.

photo google

Thank God for good neighbors

Matt is in Italy with Andrea Bocelli and I'm home with a cold with the kids..I don't have time to rest because there is always something to do..like write this post..so when good neighbors like my friend Elena offers a helping hand I take it willingly. She watched Isabella today (she is about the only one that is not afraid to stay with her) while I took Marco to piano class and ran around doing errands.. It is a great relief having someone like her who loves Isabella and Marco and is always there to help me..her daughter Emma is Marco's little girlfriend, so who knows we may even be in laws one day...

Thank you Elena, she doesn't speak English so I will have to translate this post to her..