​Finding the perfect school for our kids in Barcelona has been a process of discovery.  

Every day for almost two weeks, we have devoted ourselves to the dogged pursuit of more information.  We've easily walked several miles each day, criss-crossing the city, taking many trains and buses, and stopping frequently to learn the character of neighborhoods block by block.  We've talked to locals and taxistas, timed trains to figure out exactly how long it would take to get from a particular neighborhood to a particular school, and worked with a local realtor to find out what apartments are available in certain areas.  

We tracked down several American families with real local school experience (via email and through admissions officers) to get the inside scoop on the five private schools where we'd applied.  

Together we also attended five official school visit/interviews around 90 minutes each... took tours and talked at length with faculty members... and then deeply contemplated the benefits and drawbacks of each school. This meant getting up very early, taking public transportation for up to 80 minutes across town to arrive on time, and dressing up!  The kids developed a lot of important interview skills this week.  

​We have made pro and con lists together while cooking dinner or filling up on tapas at local cafes.  

Most importantly we talked in person for hours with two different families who currently have children in the final schools we were seriously considering.  These conversations were so helpful, and also really eye-opening.  It turns out there are a lot of expensive private schools in Barcelona that offer a pretty crap education.  (Makes me so proud of the incredible free education that High Tech High is providing to our students at home!) 

From them we learned that the actual academics in a few of the private schools we'd applied to apparently leave a lot to be desired.  There is virtually no Castilian Spanish instruction, as the main language here now is Catalan.  Math and science are weak and the schools lack engineering.  There are only a few electives offered.  Most of the areas these schools will cover at each grade level in the coming year reflect content and skills that our Scientist, Soccer Dude and Little Angel have already mastered.

Some of the schools apparently are also attended by the wealthiest and most privileged Catalans and Spaniards in Barcelona... which is not a problem in and of itself; but as explained by one American mom during a long chat today: 

"The private schools face a really tough problem.  They have to negotiate a balance between meeting the expectations of their wealthy Spanish clients who will stay for the full K12 education, and meeting the needs/hopes of transient foreign families (including Americans) who will stay only a year or two."  The way this plays out is that foreign students sometimes experience bullying by natives and the school's hands are somewhat tied in dealing with it.  

She spoke from personal experience, and we heard that same story again and again from other expat parents.  Family after family told the same tale.  A division between foreign students and Catalans.  Tough adjustments.  Lots of tears at home.

Clearly it didn't feel great to think of spending money for private school only to have our children getting a sub-par education, possibly with some bullying too. 

Thanks to all this info, Señor Aventura and I decided to keep our appointments with some of the "What if?" schools we'd pushed down our list... including that lovely Agora International Sant Cugat I'd written about before.  Its distance from Barcelona had originally seemed a bit far, yet there was also something very special about the campus.  

So we kept that appointment... plus a few others, and in my next post, I'll talk about how that visit to Agora International Sant Cugat changed our plans and gave our process of discovery the truly happy ending we'd been hoping to find.  More on that soon!

Catalans celebrate some quirky holidays, which makes me so happy.  

Señor Aventura's good friend (a native Catalan) recently told him about a barbecue he'd attended - a very special barbecue just for French onions.  "Apparently there are many different kinds - French onions are a pretty big deal here!"

We've also learned (to the intense delight of our little boys - shrieks of delight in fact) that at Christmas here a popular feature of the local nativity scenes is the "Caganer"- literally a peasant who is pooping in the middle of the traditional nativity scene.  This character is literally considered a sacred part of the Catalan nativity - a connection between daily human reality and the idyllic, spiritual perfection of the Holy family.  So, even for the very religious - it's all good.

Today we celebrated another unique Catalan tradition called the Mona de Pascua, part of their Easter Monday celebration.  Mona de Pascua translates to Spanish Easter cake.  For days we'd watched Catalans flooding local bakeries to purchase these colorful monas.  We were intrigued.  The bakeries were packed.  Their windows looked so festive.  Never before had we seen cakes adorned with so many colorful feathers and chocolate eggs.  

"Mom, can we please get one?" became the daily refrain, every single time we passed a sweet shoppe.  Well, what's a traveling mom to do?

In my best broken Spanish I boldly entered a local shop and requested to buy our very own Mona... with the understanding that we would wait to eat it today.  Families in Catalunya typically get together to eat the Mona together on Easter Monday.  We decided to follow their lead.  The woman at the counter showed us how to place the feathers in the pastry around a hollow in the top where one would then set the large, hollow chocolate egg.  When fully constructed (as you will see) it looks a bit like an egg sitting in a feathered nest.  

Breakfast today brought such excitement!  Our children were eager to wake up and sink their teeth in to the Mona. I made sure to cut the cake/nest into equal pieces, saving one full quarter for Señor Aventura.

Their pronouncement?  

"Hmmmm... it tastes like a whole wheat sweet bread with a frosting."
"It's good!"
"My favorite part was the chocolate egg."

(Really, who couldn't love a flamboyant, feathery chocolate egg?)  

Felices Lunes de Pascua!

These last two days have been our best and most productive yet.  The weather has been cool enough to make walking a great experience - around 59 to 61 degrees F - wearing a sweater and walking rapidly has been a real pleasure.  We've walked so much, in fact, that yesterday I purchased some Compeed ampullas, which are like moleskin for blisters. A little massage for tender toes!

What I've loved so much about the flow of our days has been their spontaneity.  We've all awoken late (between 10 and 12pm, even Señor Aventura) and have enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and coffee before strolling our new city for hours on end to get to know neighborhoods in a way that one can only do by foot.  

Day by day the character of each neighborhood has revealed itself, showing us clearly where we belong.  Sarria turns out to be very beautiful but so sleepy, so quiet. The entire city like a ghost town.  Only a few elderly folk here and there, walking slowly up the streets.  Sometimes staring at us, as though keenly aware that we do not belong.  This was later reinforced by our new friend from the international school, who confirmed that Sarria is filled mainly with the elderly and families - all of whom leave for their beach houses or the mountains on weekends.  

Bonanova was a bit more full of life, a bit less tranquila, but not a place I could truly see myself walking along with kids late at night.  It is just too quiet.  Last night we caught "Kung Fu Panda 3" in Spanish and even the walk home from luxurious Parc Turo was a bit spooky - hardly a soul on the streets.

Señor Aventura and I discussed this at length and affirmed that we want our time in Barcelona to be full of youthful spirit and life, we are excited about the grit and hipster scene in the barrio we know best - Gracia.  Interestingly, Gracia turns out also to have the lowest crime rate of all the barrios we are looking at... at least as reported by police incidents in 2015.  What we love about it is the vibrant, authentic energy - something we assumed was common to Barcelona but turns out to be unique to Gracia.  

Today we visited the grounds of a school that had accepted our children - and it had been our top choice just two weeks ago! We saw in person how far away it is from city center... requiring two buses and an hour of patient travel... basically in the boonies.  One could not attend that school unless living there; one could not live there without una coche (a car).  Nunca.  This is not possible.

So here it is... in just four days of boots on the ground we have gathered plenty of information to make a clear decision.  We have our school of choice, we have our neighborhood of choice.  We will begin looking at apartments after Lunes de Pascua.  And although our main work will be done, it is nice to have seven days in which to make new discoveries!

Tonight we dined at the most amazing Brasilian restaurant, right here in the heart of Gracia.  I ordered a chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese, spinach and chorizo which came on a bed of mashed squash... we shared patatas bravas so incredible, like I've never tasted before.  Señor Aventura enjoyed three juicy cuts of pork while the children feasted on a Brasilian type shrimp curry and two plates of beef with flat noodles.  It was like a little slice of heaven.  We will eat very well this year.  

Each day we are here brings a sense that, despite the many ways in which being here still seems a bit unexpected or loco at times, we are following a good path that will bring us much growth and we believe/we hope also much joy!

Apparently the terror threat in Spain, specifically Barcelona and the Costa del Sol, is at a level 4 of 5.  High threat.  This is specifically aimed at foreigners, especially those going to tourist areas.  

Places with low terror threats right now include Mexico and Iceland.  The USA and Italy are actually rated at a 3, lower than Spain. 

Why is real life so complicated?  Do we make the bold move, knowing full well that we are heading into harm's way?  If something happens to my children here I could never forgive myself.  

Do we stay home, give up the dream, and lose the opportunity to give our kids this amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience?  What are the actual chances that something will not only happen in Barcelona but also affect them?

I read online tonight that there was an active shooter situation in San Diego at the Naval Hospital today.  Again, anything can happen.  Anywhere.  

This article gave me a lot to think about.

Spent our first full day in Barcelona walking through several neighborhoods... Gracia, Galvany, Parc Turo and Sarria.  Beautiful!  The sun was shining and as always, it felt very safe.  We walked the entire day and there was not one moment when I didn't feel completely at ease walking through the city - even late at night.

Highlights - we saw what we believe may be our children's school for the first time!  We fell in love instantly with the location and the campus, even though it doesn't have incredible fields or facilities.  We get a good vibe from this school - both from the place itself and also due to the many kind words and recommendations of other American families who we have contacted.  It feels to be a good place for our kids, small and welcoming.

My terrible Spanish is improving.  I learned the word for comb (peine) and people are very patient with me when they realize that I am a foreigner trying to speak the language.  The children have surprised us by remembering some of their Spanish from last year, and by understanding some of the things we say.  This is a good surprise.

We made plans to meet with Mr. C, a former soccer player turned personal assistant here in Barcelona who makes his living helping American families get set up with housing, residence visas and schools.  He will even set up your IKEA furniture for you, and pick you up at the airport.  What a great niche he has found.

Lastly we ended our day with sushi.  It was delicious.  

This is my first post in many months.  Since I last wrote, we've traveled through Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and made a concrete decision to move to Barcelona.

We applied to, and were accepted at, a few schools in Barcelona for the children.  March is the month when it is necessary to decide which school they will attend - so we decided to come to Spain over our Spring Break from school in California, to look at schools, neighborhoods and apartments.   

What a big decision!  So exciting, and a little scary too.  Finally the day of our flight to Spain - March 21st - arrived.  The kids and I flew separately from their dad, as he was able to get a free ticket on a different airline using his mileage points.  The rest of us also got a great deal (but not free) flying British Airways out of Los Angeles.  The tickets from LA were significantly cheaper than leaving from San Diego.  

The kids and I flew on the new Airbus 380, a giant of a plane (two levels!) and it was easily the best flight I have ever taken.  (High praise, since I hate flying.)  The plane was more like a massive tank pushing through turbulent air masses as though they were nothing more than whispers.  My boys were elated to discover that there were gaming consoles at each seat, and all three kids spent the majority of their flight playing games - ping pong, robots, asteroids, etc.  They had a great time!

Despite white knuckling it the entire way, completely focused on the 3D world map that tracked our flight progress (flight arrived early in less than 10 hours!) we landed without event.  None of us had slept much, and I'd not slept at all.  Still, we were full of joy to have safely crossed the Atlantic.  

We arrived at Heathrow around 10:30am local time Tuesday, just after three terrible suicide bombing attacks took place in Brussels, Belgium.  We were blissfully unaware of this, and felt surprised when we had to go through a more intense TSA scan at the airport than we've ever had before.  Little P was asked to go into the full body scanning machine because the zippers in her Doc Martens set off the alarm. She is six.)

People from Britain's TSA were yelling at passengers and everyone seemed on edge, the security lines went on forever. We had no idea about the airport attacks until we were in the international terminal eating some carry-out from Pret a Manger, and it was surreal to be learning about airport attacks while seated in another European airport waiting for a flight. The urgency definitely felt different in Britain than it does at home... and everyone in the packed international terminal seemed quite on edge.

Thankfully we made it safely to Barcelona on a much shorter (less elegant) flight. Barcelona feels like home as always and so far we have loved our time back in our favorite Placa.  More soon!