Dear family and friends,
We hope this find you peaceful and joyous. Welcome to our first-ever attempt to enter the blogosphere. Enough of you pushed long and hard for this entrance, and hooray (!), we have finally succumbed to the pressure. Despite feeling a bit off-balance, we are delighted by the ease of such a central check-point and glad to be able to update you en masse on our sabbatical year.
Yes, we are fully established in Barcelona, Spain, for the academic year. We live in the Borne neighborhood of the old city in a tiny one-bedroom, nearly too cozy for four. After weathering the many trials of relocating, we find ourselves utterly pleased with this urban choice, which offers a tapas bar in practically each storefront, loads of art and cultural activity, a glorious beach, and mountains all around. Too, we have a perfect launch pad for travel, and we jet as often as we can. Malia and Thea attend a bilingual German-Catalan school, and move freely between the languages in their play: counting in German, arguing in a Catalan/Spanish hybrid! Of course, their young brains are more facile with language than ours. (Once in a while, we adults are able to hold our own in Spanish!) In the afternoons, we homeschool them in math and reading/writing, and they spend many evenings at the local cultural center, in Catalan cooking or art classes. The girls have proven themselves resilient to change and wide-eyed to new experiences, and we love to watch their global education, the goal of which inspired this year abroad from the start.
Already, our travel log is long, and we feel grateful to be able to journey as much as we do and to have found such rich international companionship. We’ve toured the Basque country of northern Spain; hiked in the Pyrenees; jumped to eastern Europe via Austria: to Simona, Alex and Alex in Bratislava, and to Peter in Budapest; and we’ve walked the coastline of Nice, with Michael, Beril, Kenan and Lucy. Happily, we’ve hosted, too. Vincent was here, still in time for beer at the beach. And we enjoyed a full week with the lovely Berger family for Thanksgiving; hey, grilled rabbit and wine with old friends beats turkey any year! Our new friends, the Lardners, who also know Wayne and Suzanne, have been superb hosts to us here, and we feel lucky to have landed within their reach. Lisa’s parents arrive soon, much to the utter glee of Malia and Thea, and with them, we will head to London for the pre-Christmas celebrations. Then, to Lugano for Christmas with the Ulku-Steiners; then, skiing in Austria with the Raines, before we head back to Barcelona for the spring. Apparently, Barcelona’s best months are March, April and May. Anyone interested?!
The pictures below highlight some of our experiences here. We have found the quieter pace of life and the days together as a family truly restorative. Too, we often feel the long distance from home and crave the familiarity of routine, of work, and of daily friendships. We felt this most profoundly around election time, when such thrilling and historic national change begged celebration with our close compatriots! Already, the year away has yielded a clearer vision of all the riches of home, the perpetual benefit of perspective.
May we all have health and friendship in 2009.
Besos,
Lisa and Tarim
Barcelona's zoo, our favorite!
And walking distance from our apartment
The aquarium
Loving the lions near Port Vell
Cafe homeschooling -- gotta love it!
Birthday flamenco dresses!
Botero's cat
The elephant in Parc Citadella
La Merce, BCN's grand festival
Here, intense street fireworks recreate hell!
Malia hanging our laundry
No dryers in BCN, but the sun shines daily!
The girls on neighborhood errands
Thea and "THE GIANTS" in Placa Jaume, during La Merce
Cheering Barca, BCN's famed soccer team, at the legendary stadium Camp Nou.
Tarim's 40th birthday present!
Walking the streets of Vienna
Ah, sweet San Sebastian!
Our cangaru (literally, kangaroo) babysitter Leticia.
At the local market for Vino!
Pumpkins for Halloween?
Try roasted chestnuts!
Bratislava's old town
Fun with Alex on the Danube
Peter, the world's best guide of Budapest, bless his soul
Gaudi's Park Guell and a sunny view of BCN
Sunset on the girls' favorite beach attraction with Anna and James
The Bergers for Thanksgiving!
We're just the parents.
Malia, Anna, Thea and James
Go OBAMA! We skyped battleground
states to get out the vote -- and fully publicized
our candidate around Barcelona!
Can't get enough of beach play...still swimming in November!
7 comments:
Great to see your European exploits, T&L (a.k.a. Travel & Leisure). Keep the posts coming - I loved getting this one.
Mark
Fabulous to observe some new life in the BakerChungs. There are actually some blessedly new winds blowing in America, at long last -- an unprecedented excitement in things political, a new sense of reckoning as this land of excess begins to feel the pinch. But I would trade my spot here hoping for the best, for one day of your Barcelona dream existence. It's not fair that you two look 22 again, while our skin is furrowed from the cold wind's bite. We do miss you over here! And love you from afar...
Baci, Bill
Still swimming in November? That sounds like our life in Santa Barbara/Ventura. You have better food though. Thanks for telling me about your blog-- I love the pictures. Have fun in BCN.
You can check out Micah's blog at micahforest.blogspot.com.
By the way, my word verification was "asinga," which reminds me of a certain sweet black hound. Is she still kicking around?
Zack G in SB
SO great to hear from you guys! I've left several messages on your cell as well as milton emails but haven't been able to connect. I haven't been able to figure out the skype thing, but pass along the info and I'll give it a try. Happy belated 40th to Tarim. I though of you on the day - and may have left you a vms - not sure. Life with the Browns is hectic but good. We spent T-Day back in OK with sister Melanie and Brown family. Kim has gotten an permanent / tenure-track offer from Univ of Baltimore Law School, so that's great news. I'm slaying the beast every chance I get. Girls are growing like weeds - Isabel turns 10 in a few days - ouch! Your travels sound absolutely amazing - so proud of you guys for doing this. we may take you up on the offer to visit Spain - haven't discussed with Kim, but it's a great idea for the spring. Hope all's well, and please send me active email and skype info: tbrown@brtrc.com. Hugs! TB
Aha. the intelligent alternative to Facebook. Well done, Banker-Chungs! Love finally getting some shots of you all in situ. I love the shot of Lisa and the girls in the coffee shot. I can smell the roasted java wafting through the parlor (perhaps intermingled with a bit of clove cigarettes from the natives...?). We miss you all back here. Looking forward to seeing you sometime soon. What is the best spring weekend (April/May) for a lightning shot to BCN?
By the way, check out my mangy beard...looks like a squirrel stuck to my face. Scratchy, as Theo says.
I love it. I mistyped "Banker" instead of "Baker". Must be something deeply Freudian on my part...
Hey Baker-Chungs...wonderful to see shots of you all. Kids are all kinds of grown-up. Malia's face in front of Juliet's house in Verona was something to see...she's lit up like a candle. Excited to see you when you get back. I am not prepared to do Tom's bike trip, but we'll find something fun to do over the summer.
Lots of love,
Mark
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