Our village is surrounded by cats!

Human Highlighter Suit Tally: 6

On Thursday evening we left Barcelona to spend a long weekend in Cadaques, a charming and picturesque fishing village on the Costa Brava in Spain.  After battling rush hour traffic—our first experience trying to leave the city at that time—we arrived in Cadaques at about 9:30.  The town is really, really, old, the streets narrow, steep and winding, and Dolores (our GPS) was completely befuddled.  After trying to allow her to guide us for a half hour—as she instructed us to turn the car into the sea and down dead end streets (we practically burned out the clutch having to back up an incredibly steep hill), we stopped, ordered some pizza, and called the folks from whom we were renting.  Isabel and Joaquin met us at the pizza place and had us follow them up to their house.

They own a few small cottages right below their own house and, as we walked the short distance from our car down a narrow path with overhanging trees and flowering bushes, several cats emerged and began to check us out. You may remember a couple of weeks ago, when we were trying to arrange a home exchange with someone in Provence, France, and received a funny note in which they told us that their house was surrounded by cats.  Well, we are in a completely different place, but the cats are everywhere!  Isabel explained that there is some kind of cat association here.  Everyone seems to leave food and water out for them, and the vets make their rounds on the streets and take them in for treatment if necessary.  It seems that the cats each have their territory, and different people care for different cats.  Isabel and Joaquin take care of Pinky, but Tango also seems to hang around our house.  C.C. and Milo think it’s the coolest.

The town slopes up steeply from the street.  It’s the kind of place that’s packed in summer but is now quite tranquil.  We spent Friday morning eating breakfast by the sea and wandering the streets, ducking into shops and galleries.  The streets are quite safe, and there were always cats for the kids to play with outside, so they were more patient outside. 

The town has been a draw for artists, for obvious reasons.  Picasso spent time here, and Dalí lived here for more than 50 years.  So, after lunching on some delicious fresh fish, we walked the short distance to Dalí’s house.  Starting in 1930, he began to buy fisherman’s houses right on the sea and ultimately strung seven of them together to create a labyrinthine structure filled with the kind of curiosities you would expect Dalí to have in his house—stuffed bears and birds, enormous Japanese parasols, giant pictures of sea urchins.  The kids, who would normally be pretty bored by a house museum, thought it was pretty cool. 

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Tumbet

Human Highlighter Suit Tally: 6

A few evenings ago, I shut myself in the kitchen with a sack full of late harvest vegetables and my iPod playing a podcast of The Splendid Table—perfect to cook to. I had decided to capitalize on the last of summer’s bounty by making a tumbet, a Mallorcan dish of layered summer vegetables—eggplant, zucchini, potatoes—alternated with a thick tomato sauce into which diced, sauteed red and yellow peppers are stirred (Rafa Nadal is from Mallorca, so we know good things come from this Spanish island).  A tumbet is a lot like a ratatouille, at least in terms of its ingredients.  The tumbet is more labor intensive, so I was curious to try it and find out if it´s worth the extra effort.  We ate it the next night, alongside grilled pork chops, and I am here to tell you that it is worth the trouble.  The vegetables are sliced and either roasted or fried.  The tomato sauce is rich and concentrated.  The end result has more vegetable-y flavor than does ratatouille, which is more of a stew.  So if you are short on time, by all means go with the ratatouille.  But if you have the patience, try the tumbet.

Mallorcan Eggplant and Potato Casserole (Tumbet)

(From The New Spanish Table)

2 medium eggplants (about 2 ½ pounds total) trimmed and cut lengthwise into 1/3      inch thick slices

Coarse salt

½ cup fragrant, extra virgin olive oil, or more if needed

2 medium yellow bell peppers, peeled, cored, seeded and diced.

2 medium red bell peppers, peeled, cored, seeded and diced

1 pinch sugar

1 splash vinegar

3 medium Yukon gold potatoes (about 1 ½ pounds), peeled and cut into 1/8 inch thick slices

2 thick, medium zucchini, cut in half crosswise, then cut lengthwise into ¼ inch thick slices

Joan’s Tomato Compote (recipe follows)

1.     Rub the eggplant slices with salt and place in a colander.  Let stand for 30 minutes.  Rinse well and pat dry with paper towels.

2.     Heat 2 Tbsp of the olive oil in a large skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium-high heat.  Add the yellow and red peppers and cook, stirring, until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.Reduce the heat to low, cover the skillet, and cook the peppers until they are very tender, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Taste the peppers; if the flavor is not vibrant enough, add the sugar and vinegar, then season with salt to taste.  Increase the heat to high and cook until the liquid is reduced a little bit, 1 – 2 minutes.  Set aside.

3.     Heat the remaining 6 Tbsp olive oil in another large skillet over medium heat.  Working in two batches, cook the potato slices until light golden and almost soft, about 4 minutes per side.  Don’t overcrowd the skillet.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the fried potatoes to paper towels to drain.  Then, using the same skillet and working in batches, cook the eggplant until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer the fried eggplant to paper towels to drain.   Cook the zucchini slices in the same fashion until light golden, 2 – 3 minutes per side, adding more olive oil if necessary.

4.     When you are ready to assemble the tumbet, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

5.     Place the cooked peppers and the tomato compote in a large bowl and stir to mix. Arrange the potatoes in a layer on the bottom of a 12 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish.  Sprinkle lightly with salt and dab a little of the tomato compote on top.  Arrange the zucchini in a layer over the potatoes, sprinkle it with salt, and dab some sauce on top. Arrange the eggplant in a layer over the zucchini and sprinkle it with salt.  Spread the remaining compote on top and bake until the flavors meld, 15 – 20 minutes.  Serve warm, cold, or at room temp, cut into squares.

NOTE:  I did not peel my peppers—too much work—and it was just fine.  I parboiled my potatoes instead of frying them and that was fine, too.  You can also broil the zucchini and eggplant (brushed w/olive oil) if you want to skip all that frying.

Joan’s Tomato Compote

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2/3 cup finely chopped white onion

1 clove garlic, minced

2 pounds very ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

¼ cup dry white wine

1 pinch sugar

1 splash vinegar

coarse salt

Heat the olive oil in a deep, medium sized skillet over low heat.  Add the onion and cook until soft but not brown, about 5  minutes.  Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds.  Add the tomatoes, increase the heat to medium high, and cook, stirring, until they release their liquid, 3 – 4 minutes.  Add the wine, sugar, and vinegar and season with salt to taste.  Cook the compote until the tomatoes are soft but still hold their shape, about 5 minutes longer.  If the compote is too liquid, increase the heat to high and cook until reduced, 1 – 2 minutes.  Let the compote cool to warm before using.

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Our favorite bakery--we are addicted to the brioche and the kids to the chocolate croissants.  As you can see, Milo has taken to wearing his soccer socks, pulled up over his knees, with everything.  It's quite a look.

Uno, Dos, Tres...

Human Highlighter Suit Tally:  6

The kids’ school has a relationship with a Spanish school for the parents, and one thing I’d really like to do this year is improve my español.  So I did a diagnostic test a week or so ago, which consisted of having a conversation with one of the teachers, and answering a few written questions.  I could tell that it was all about verb tenses, those rascals—“What were you like when you were young?” and “Where would you like to live after you leave Barcelona?”  Verb tenses not being my strong suit, I did my best to sneak around the hard stuff.  So I was irrationally happy to learn that I got placed in the advanced group.  The test was hardly objective, as Alec reminded me: “They’re just comparing you to all of the other gringos who just got off the boat.”  Thanks, Alec. 

Anyway, at least I’m not at the bottom of the heap.  I had my first class today—I’ll go two days each week, two hours each day—and I really liked it.  Given that I have been in the midst of so much change and upheaval, and thinking about what I’ll do next research-wise, it is actually soothing to deal with something as concrete and rule-bound as language.  Conjugation, prepositions, worksheets—there is something familiar and mechanical in a way that I welcome right now.  I do think it’s coming more easily to me on a daily basis. I find myself walking around thinking about how I will say this thing or that thing, translating words and sentences in my head.  I even had a meeting today with a big wig at the university and a real estate developer, and it was all in Spanish.  I threw in an English word here or there, and I did not get 100% of what was said, but basically it went fine.

C.C. skyped her entire class back at PS 10 this afternoon, and they treated her like a rock star, shouting her name and jumping up and down.   There were some technical difficulties with the sound, so she could not be projected on a big screen. Instead the kids came up to the computer one at a time and asked her questions:  “Is Barcelona your favorite soccer team?”  “Do you have swimming at school since it’s so hot there?”  She was pretty blissed out by the whole thing, and I think we’ll try and do it again.

I made my first tortilla on my own this evening, and called it dinner.  I wanted to lock in my lesson from last week.  I think it was pretty good for a first attempt, if I do say so myself.   It’s kind of incredible how much oil you use, but it’s the good kind.  You know, the Mediterranean diet and all.  Actually, Spain seems to be paying a price for not sticking to the Med diet.  A recent article showed evidence that Spain ranks third in obese and overweight kids.  The US, of course, is first.

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A day in the life

Human Highlighter Suit Tally: 6

Lots of disconnected things to report…

Orlando, our porter rang our bell during the morning rush and chaos.  He told us that there was a big squash outside our door, that it had been there for several days and he wondered if we had forgotten it.  It was one of our pumpkin festival treasures and, as is our American custom, we had put it out there as a decoration, to signal fall, the harvest, Halloween, Thanksgiving…  I guess it’s not done here.  It is a lovely, green, lumpy variety.   See photo below.  The pumpkin stays.

Milo ate breakfast under the pig leg this morning—we are working our way through it slowly but surely.  It’s just become part of the landscape.

C.C.’s class invited parents to come in this morning for their Reader’s Workshop.  C.C. beamed as she showed us the books she’s been reading and told us how she know how to pick out a “just right” book.  She also read us a composition she had written about summer in New York City, which featured our creation of Hoover’s tombstone and early morning dino fights, as well as saying goodbye to Blanca.  A proud moment.

Then Alec and I went to pick up the kids’ and my official NIE identity cards—the equivalent of a green card here.  It looks very official. It says “extranjero” in big letters at the top, which means “foreigner.”  As if it wasn’t obvious the moment I open my mouth.  And our fingerprints are printed on the backs.  C.C.’s “signature” on hers is precious.  That part of Milo’s card is blank.

Short spell at the office, then a long walk above the city on the Carretera de les Aigues with Julie, a new friend who I connected with through an old student.  Then soccer practice and home.

C.C. did a skype test call to her teacher in Brooklyn—she’s skyping the whole class tomorrow and is really excited about it.  Minor grumbling over homework, reading and bed.  Good night!

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Sitges

Human Highlighter Suit Tally:  6

Last weekend Milo announced to us all that he could not believe we had been in Barcelona for so long and that we had not been to the beach.  He’s right.  Given how much I love the beach, especially, and how beautiful the Mediterranean is, it is crazy that we have not spent any time there.  Last weekend was not an option, what with all the giants and human castles and fire runs, so we agreed that, if we got good weather this weekend, we would go.  And today, which dawned sunnily enough, was the day.

Many locals disparage the Barcelona beaches, although they look perfectly lovely to me.  But we had also heard a lot of good things about Sitges, which is only a half hour up the coast from here, so we decided to expand our horizons and go there. 

September and October have always been my favorite months at the Jersey shore—the light is a bit softer, the air sharper, the shadows longer.  And there are fewer people.  It felt a lot like that today in Sitges,  We parked right at the beach and rented chairs and an umbrella.  The kids ran straight into the sea, which was lovely and calm, perfect for them.  They could walk and walk and walk without the water getting much deeper.  C.C. found a cuttlefish bone for her collection, and Milo dove and dove and dove over the small waves. 

The sound of the water and the warmth of the sun lulled me into a deep relaxation.  Finally I roused myself to go into the water with the kids.  A bit chilly at first, but it felt good once I submerged myself and floated around on my back for awhile.

After a few hours we rinsed off in the showers and headed home, driving first through the little town, which looks like fun to explore on another visit.  We have skype dates this evening with Blanca and Lois, and then C.C. will skype her friend Maddie in Brooklyn.  Sunday seems to be our day to try and stay in touch.

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Human Highlighter Suit Tally:  6

Turning towards autumn

Human Highlighter Suit Tally:  6

After our little rainy spell a couple of weeks ago the weather shifted.  In the middle of the day, it can be hot—you know those days when you keep switching sides of the street to be either in the sun, if you are too cool, or in the shade, if you are too warm.  You see people on the streets in t-shirts and shorts, and others in jackets and boots, depending on when they left the house.  In order to be truly comfortable for a large chunk of the day, you need to start out in a sweater or sweatshirt and then be able to peel down to something lighter.

To me, this is perfect weather.  I like it to be a bit chilly in the mornings and evenings, and to feel the heat of the sun penetrate my shirt in the afternoons.  The only trouble is that our clothing options do not offer us the flexibility the climate currently calls for.

We have met families here who came only with the 2 suitcases per person the airline allows you—and you have to pay for the second one, although somehow Alec got the baggage guy at the airport to waive the fee.  For the whole year.  They seem to be doing fine with whatever they brought in those suitcases. I’m trying to think…. Do these families consist of abnormally small people who can get double the amount of clothing items into a suitcase that I can?  Not really.  I wish I could give them a medal, or a certificate to hang on the wall.  I would not be eligible for such an award, and I am just fine with that.  (I should also mention that we met a family who shipped ALL of their furniture here—and they are only here for a year.  It always helps to know that there is someone more extreme than you are).

The fact that we did not fit everything we would need into eight suitcases meant that we had to figure out a way to get our other necessaries here.  We enlisted our friend Ann Sullivan, professional organizer extraordinaire, who has helped some of her clients with international moves, to give us some advice.  She gave us the names of two firms, and we got them both to come to our place in Brooklyn and give us estimates.  As per Ann’s instructions, we had put color coded stickers on everything—blue for things we definitely needed, and green for those we would take if it didn’t cost too much more to do so.  Note to self:  you almost definitely will not need the green sticker items next time you do this.  We had to choose whether to ship by air or by sea—an air shipment would arrive in one week but cost about double the sea shipment, which would take 4 to 6 weeks, or so we were told.   Our space would also be much more limited by the air option, which seemed like a negative at the time.  If we chose the sea option, we could bring all of the blue AND green stickered items.

We chose the sea option.  The shipment went out on July 21^st, and with a 4 – 6 week window, we figured the worst case scenario would get our boxes here sometime around the second week of September.  We could definitely survive on 8 suitcases worth of stuff until then. 

In the end, we shipped 21 boxes. That’s right—21 boxes.  I’m almost too embarrassed to write it, and even if I tell you that the packing guys put loads of padding around everything and that it surely all could have fit in 15 boxes, this is still something that I am not proud of.  It seemed so minimal at the time.

It was not long after we were here that I started to wonder what the hell was in those boxes anyway and what we would do with it once it got here.  I was not walking around wishing I had this thing or that thing.  We filled in a few gaps here and there—some kitchen items, art supplies for the kids.  But not much.  Certainly not 21 boxes worth of filling in.

Until now.  For the last several weeks I have felt like one of those people the New York Times profiled a couple of months ago who committed to wearing only 6 items from their closets for 30 days.  Clearly, I have more than 6 items here, but the weather has begun to pose a challenge.  I have one medium weight sweater/jacket, and it’s bright yellow, so people notice when I wear it.  I wear it one day to one office and another day to the other.  My black cotton cardigan is constantly in rotation.  I wear the same pair of jeans three or four times a week.  A couple of days ago, Alec told me I would be seeing a lot of Norman the Lumpfish over the next few weeks.  Norman the Lumpfish is a drawing featured on one of Alec’s two long-sleeved t-shirts that are here.  And let me tell you, there’s not much sexier than Alec in his Norman the Lumpfish shirt.

It has been 11 weeks since the shipment and still no boxes.  We were alerted when they made it through customs in the UK at the end of August, and assumed that their arrival would be imminent.  Wrong.  Of course at that point the responsibility for the goods shifted from the US company we had dealt with in NY to the UK company that would get our things from the UK to Spain.  As I’m sure you know well from your own experiences dealing with far-away customer service types, when you get to this point in a transaction, there is a lot of finger pointing.  The US folks told us they no longer had any control over what happened.  But when we reminded them that we were paying them, and that they had created the relationship with the UK folks, they realized that perhaps they should get involved.  Not that it really helped.  The UK folks first went AWOL and did not respond to our messages. Then they acted shocked when we told them we’d been assured our things would be here within 6 weeks: “I have no idea who could have told you that!  Impossible!”

On Thursday, one day before October 1, we received word that our boxes will be here on October 13.  The kids are eager for their toys, and I will be grateful to have a few more weather-appropriate clothing items.  As for the remaining 19 boxes?  I’ll let you know what I find when I open them.

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