El Corte Ingles

El Corté Ingles is the biggest department store in Barcelona.  Based in Madrid, it has several branches here, the main one sitting right at Plaza Catalunya.  The Corté Ingles is where you go for anything you cannot find anywhere else.  It has been my store of last resort for:  good sheets at a reasonable price (during the summer sales); a connector to hook my laptop to the printer; thermoses for the kids’ lunchboxes; cocoa powder; horseradish; crème fraiche; and pretzels.  I find myself there at least once weekly to search out or stock up on some elusive product.  What brought me there today?  Ginger ale—the good stuff, made with real ginger.  C.C. woke up at 2 am with a stomach virus, probably the same one Milo had last week.  Alec stayed up with her until 4 am, at which point he asked me to switch.  She was up all night vomiting.  We thought some real ginger ale might help.  She kept down most of a bottle—thank you, Corte Ingles.

I had Spanish today, and my parenting class, and Alec had only one meeting on the books, so he stayed home.  Four hours of Spanish on four hours’s sleep was excruciating; I felt like the walking dead.  I still do, which is why I am headed for a hot bath and then straight to bed.  Keep your fingers crossed for us—we could use an uneventful night.