Hola!

October 28 –31

Just got back from a four day trip to Barcelona! It has been excellent timing for us to be in Europe as we were able to attend the wedding of Maria Teresa Forcada Castell (I have always loved saying Teresa's full name!), one of my exchange buddies from Rotterdam. Teresa married Tony on October 29th at the Basilica Sta. Maria del Lledo, a beautiful church in her hometown of Castellon. It was a fun wedding and man did we do some eating (yum) and a little bit of dancing too!



Before the wedding we spent some very intense hours shopping! Spain has some good (and cheaper than London) shopping : ) – we needed work clothes so we had a good excuse to get our credit card going. During our shopping excursion, Steve and I were also re-united with Pans and Company, our most favorite Spanish fast food, jamon and tomatoe, mmmmm, I'm still dreaming about it. Last, but most definitely not least, we spent some quality time with my other Barcelona buds. Since we last met, Sonsoles and Llorenc have had THREE children, Ana, Llorenc Petit and Christina – all under the age of 4!! And Joan and Marta have had one son (Joan petit, 2) and have another one on the way! Wow, I felt so “childless”! (Note: don’t take that as a hint that I’ll be having a kid any time soon!) The kids chatted away in Catalan – they thought our English was quite strange. Apparently whenever Ana spoke to us she switched from Catalan to Spanish. Too funny! They were all super cute, highly energetic and quite friendly. They did not seem weirded out by us strange looking, sounding foreigners! I especially enjoyed the way Ana said "Ana Banana" and "okie mokie" (yeah we taught her that, some proper English!) and Llorenc petit and Joan petit's happy singing. It was wonderful to see Barcelona, catch up with friends and to meet all the new additions to their lives! How life can change in just a few short years! (I’m sure all you new parents back at home would agree!)