A Birthday Abroad

I did not sleep well last night.  You know all that philosophical junk that runs through your head when your birthday rolls around?  What have I done with my life so far?  Am I happy with what I am doing now?  What are my goals for the next year? 

Compound that with the doubts of someone who moved nearly 6,000 miles across the globe.  Will my friends forget me?  Will I be able to go with the (new) flow?  Or will I fight it and insist on old ways of doing things just because it’s more comfortable?  Will I find a hairdresser that I can communicate with?  Will I find an English-speaking vet?  Do I need to buy towels?  Can I get to the IKEA by Metro?

I knew the adjustment to a new culture, a new language, a new way of life would be a challenge.  But I had no idea how exhausting it would be—it’s like everything becomes a production.

This morning, Eddie woke up before me.  He took Maddy for her walk, and then stopped at Starbucks (sometimes you need easy).  He told the barista, “It’s my girlfriend’s birthday,” and then he attempted to ask for their best pastry.  Instead, he asked for their best cake, and came back with a slice of carrot cake and dense chocolate cake with marshmallows on top.

We enjoyed our celebration nonetheless, and afterward we set off to find the closest pet store.  First, we got a little lost.  Then, we found it.  But, it was closed…or rather, had moved down the street.  Ok, walk a little further.  Now we’re here!  Do they have what we need?  Another conversation Eddie has to have.  After 4-5 models, we come up with a bag that Maddy will fit in, to allow her onto the Metro.  Problem is we have to put her in butt first and then shove the rest of her in and zip it closed quickly (see the video here).  Next up, what food do they have?  And treats?

Purchases complete, we walk back to the hotel.  We eat lunch, hang for an hour or so, and then test out the Metro with our new bag.  It works!  But Maddy freaks!  She keeps scratching madly at the mesh siding.  I have the bag on the floor, between my feet, but other passengers stare as I keep putting my hand up to the side and reassuring her, “it’s ok, good girl!”  We reach our stop and, just like at the airport, she emerges with her tail high, and readily accepts a treat.  She may be more adaptable than Eddie and me.

We look at our final apartment and this is actually THE ONE.  It may be slightly smaller, lacking in old-world character (to the eye*), and isn’t right in the heart of the city, but it is half the distance to school and two blocks from a dog park, there is a Pharmacy and Fruit Store right around the corner, and there are about 10 bars within walking distance.  This is an area where we could build our own little community.

To prove we are right, the agent (who also happens to live in the building) takes us to the bar around the corner and introduces us to some regulars.  The owner isn’t in, which our agent tells us, “means he’s asleep downstairs.”

After some paperwork, and setting up a shuttle to transport our luggage, we head back to the hotel.  We grab some bocadillos (small sandwiches with Jamon on crunchy bread), a couple bottles of red wine, and settle in for the night.

Another day down in which we can feel accomplished.  Tomorrow’s to-dos include setting up a bank account, “moving in,” and celebrating my birthday at El Club Allard, a two-Michelin-star restaurant!

*On a side note, our landlord owns several apartments in the same building; additionally, his family used to own the two buildings next door, including one which his grandfather built himself.  With beautiful yellow edifices, balconies, and gargoyles, it looks like it belongs in Paris.  However, during the Spanish Civil War, the Communists took these other buildings for community property.  Finding it hard to see the fairness in that...

House Hunters in Madrid

We staged our own little version of House Hunters International yesterday, and saw three different apartments in the city.  The last one may be the winner—a quaint, little one-bedroom in the Plaza Mayor building, which dates back to the 1600-1700s.  It would be so amazing to live in such an old building with so much history!  But, we have two more places to see before we make a decision.

We topped off the day with pizza, which we ate while sitting on the curb in Puerta del Sol.  Eddie bought a can of beer from the guy that walks around the plaza and sells them out of a plastic grocery bag.  And then, apparently because I looked homeless, some guy walked over and put a 20 cent Euro on my pizza box.  I love the weird randomness of Madrid.

A Brave New World for Maddy

Last night, we each took one Excedrin PM.  We took half a dose, so we wouldn’t oversleep our ride to pick up Madigan from the airport.  The good news was it put us to sleep; the bad news was it only put us to sleep for 4 hours.  So at 4:45 AM, we found ourselves wide-awake.  At first, I thought it was actually the right time to get up.  My cell clock said 7:45.  But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why the drunks were still singing in the streets outside.  Unfortunately, the phone was still on California time—where it was 7:45 PM.

At 8 AM (because this was the only available time), the shuttle arrived.  We made it to the airport in about 30 minutes and then spent another 15 minutes driving around the Cargo area trying to find out where we had to pick Maddy up.  No one knew.

So we ended up back at the regular terminal.  We found the Continental desk and got “specific” instructions on where to go.  Then we went looking for the shuttle desk to schedule a ride.  Happily, the desk was staffed by the same girl whom we had worked with the night before, and she spoke beautiful English!!  She helped us call the Cargo terminal.  It was 9:50 AM by this point, and Maddy’s flight had just arrived.  But they told us to call back in an hour!

We sat around the airport and killed time people-watching.  At 11, we called back and were told where to go: WFS Cargo.  The shuttle couldn’t take us (they wouldn’t be able to wait more than 10 minutes), and the taxi cab drivers told us we could walk (they didn’t want to waste a fare).  So we found ourselves walking 2.5 kilometers…I don’t know what the conversion is, but it took us about 30 minutes.

The WFS office produced a little pile of paperwork, asked us to pay their fee and then, in Spanish, told us the next steps.  What would I do without Eddie to translate?!  So we take the paperwork to the next office, Spain’s official veterinarian.  First, we have to sign in, provide our passports and get visitor’s cards just to get into the building!  They have more paperwork for us to fill out, and there’s another fee.  But get this, we have to go out of their office to the onsite bank to pay.  Then we have to re-register as visitors to get back up the vet’s office.  After a short wait, we are called in to sign more paperwork.  It is only at this point that I get any confirmation that Maddy is alive and well.  But, to be honest, the ladies in this office were super sweet and tried to chat with us in English.  One of them was even nice enough to walk us to the next office, where we presented all the paperwork to the Customs office and had it stamped.  By the time we returned to the first building with all our paperwork in hand, it was 2 PM.  They handed us a receipt and told us to walk into the warehouse and present it.  And, after all of that, Maddy’s crate came rolling toward us on a forklift.

She started whining when she recognized us, but I couldn’t get her out because there were zip ties locking the gate in place!  I made a scissor motion to one of the guys working there and when we finally got it open, she came running out, tail wagging, happy to see us!

We made it back to the hotel and decided to take a nap.  More than four hours later, after missing our apartment-hunting appointment, we woke up.  Whoops.  Oh well.

While Maddy seems a little out of sorts, and a little aloof with Eddie (does she think it’s his fault?), she is clearly going to be just fine.  My guess is that she has been awake for more than 24 hours and just needs to get back on schedule.  We took her for a walk through the Puerto del Sol this evening and had dinner at an outdoor restaurant with white, fur-covered chairs.  She is more interested in the other dogs than anything else…it’s a whole new world for her to discover and we are sooo happy to have her here with us!

Fun with Planes

You know what I love about Expedia.com? Absolutely nothing.

I'm not going to make this a long story, but suffice it to say that our flight was cancelled and there was NO indication of this from either Expedia (with whom we booked) or Iberia Airlines. However, since Iberia is a mess and I can't yell at people in Spanish, Expedia "got the rose."

Just to assure people that we covered all of our bases with Expedia...

1. Multiple uses of the f-word on my part - check.
2. Asking to speak with everyone's supervisor - check.
3. Screaming in a common area at SFO, while people gawked - check.
4. Telling the Expedia supervisor that Expedia is a joke and she sucks - check.

Let the good karma begin!

American Airlines makes it all better

We have put so much preparation into this trip.  All the details had to be carefully organized.  The visa could only be issued 90 days in advance.  But it was dependant on a background check, physical examination, and other paperwork that could be no less than 30 days old.  Madigan had to be examined by a veterinarian and then that paperwork had to be approved by the USDA office; all of which had to be done less than 10 days before she traveled.  My car had to be sold, but only after we could get away with having only one method of transportation.  The apartment had to be emptied and cleaned, keys turned in…but only after four days of cleaning and the selling of several pieces of furniture.

You’d think that after we managed to negotiate all those obstacles, the actual traveling would be the easy part.  We never expected to show up at SFO and find our flights cancelled.

We got a little bit of a late start in the morning, but we had left ourselves plenty of time.  First stop, Marina Cove Apartments to turn in the keys (I won’t even go into what a pain-in-the-ass they have been).  Next, up to Fremont to drop off Madigan with Con & Judy.  THANK YOU to my big brother for taking my baby for the night and waking up at the crack of dawn to get her to the airport at 5:45am!!

Everyone was home at Con’s.  Connor woke up from his nap and was all smiles.  Leila and Jackson say my name…for the first time…ever.  When we see them again, Conner will be learning to talk, and the twins will be speaking in complete sentences.

Next, we’re off to Eddie’s Grandpa’s house to drop off the car and get a ride to the airport from Uncle Tony.  As we try to check in curbside, the guy looks confused.  “We don’t have a 3:05 flight,” he says.  We go inside.  The woman at the counter can’t find it either.  Apparently, the flight from LA to Madrid has been cancelled and we were never notified (check Eddie’s side of the blog to read about that hell).  When we get to LA we learn that Iberia airlines crew was on strike in LA.  We just got lucky!

The woman, whose name we never learned, saved our day.  She re-arranged everything and put us on a flight from SF to LA to London to Madrid.  And didn’t charge us extra (except the bag fee which we had to pay anyway).  THANK YOU to that stranger for putting the last piece of our puzzle together!!

Finally on the plane and the drink service starts.  I order a Bloody Mary, my standard plane drink J  The attendant gives me two little bottles of vodka as I hand over my credit card.  “Two for the price of one today,” she says, smiling.

I thank her by saying, “I gotta tell you, our travel day started off horribly, and American Airlines has made it 100% better.”

When she asked why, I explained—the cancelled international flight, the dog already in transit, the woman who fixed it all.  And then, she handed back my credit card.  “Then I’m buying this one.”  THANK YOU to our flight attendant for a free double!

And now we sit in the “sports bar” in the international terminal at LAX, waiting for our overnight to London.  Futbol is on one TV, in Spanish.  Dog the Bounty Hunter is on A&E, in English, on the other TV.  Here we are in Limbo.

Maddy is Moving to Spain

Eddie and I have spent the last four days moving everything out of the apartment and cleaning it.  Other than some furniture that we need to sell, we are done.  You ever see that George Carlin bit on Stuff?  I am so sick of my stuff.  There is too much of it, and so much of it is crap!  Packing a year's worth of stuff into three suitcases is an eye-opening lesson in "what I really need in life."  The real answer?  Eddie and Maddy...and my yoga pants.

Today's big achievement was Madigan's vet appointment--she was deemed "in good health" by our vet and her first set of paperwork was signed!  The second and last step is to take the paperwork to the USDA office in South SF and get it verified.  She is halfway to being a Perro Espanola...and I can't wait to enjoy an evening paseo in Palacio with her.

We are less than a week away from leaving.  We have had so many "to dos" lately, but they are all concrete.  Have Maddy examined.  Move out of the apartment.  Sell the cars.  But, I have no idea what my life will look like in two weeks.  Where will we be living?  What will our schedule be?  Soon, the adventure really begins...

The popularity of the blog has gotten out of hand, and the demand for pictures has overwhelmed us. Please find, then, pictures of our going away party from last week. 

We had well over 60 people attend, and everyone seemed to have a good time...we ran out of beer, so that's a good sign. The theme was an American potluck, so guests brought dishes reminiscent of the U.S.: pizza, Chinese dumplings, and Taco Bell. 

Really, it was so fun and so touching. And, watching The Catch II with a big group was a blast. I stopped taking pictures about 20 minutes in, I think, but the whole night was a blur of awesomeness. 

 Melissa and Laurie cooking.

Katie and Darren smiling.

Katherine and Francine chatting.

Jeff drinking.

Pack o' Maloneys sitting.

Francine talking and Clare listening.