A Whirlwind

We are not even a week into being back, and I believe we have solved no less than 100 various problems already. I need to wake up thinking, “What solutions will we find today?!” instead of “What disappointments lie ahead of me today?”.  I can’t change circumstances, I can’t change Spanish bureaucracy, but I can change my attitude. 

Without going into too much detail, we thought Will’s spot on a top soccer team was a sure thing, and it turns out they forgot about him or assumed we wouldn’t show up with our visas on time. So we are scrambling to get him on a decent team, and it’s really difficult and complicated. Chris somehow already has multiple contacts here, so he is using all resources available. Once he is on a team he probably can’t play in games for a while because of the “paperwork processing”. 

We also thought Chris would have a valid drivers license for one year, but it turns out it’s only 6 months. He needs to sign up for a driving school asap, because the driving tests are already full for up to six months (?!).

We thought we had enough time to get Colin to his swim team, but school pick up is INSANE and there’s no parking spots so we feel like we’re running late to everything. In our previous life, we arrived to sports practices 30 minutes early, because of the beauty of homeschool scheduling. Their international school runs until 5:00 and I guess local/public Spanish schools get out at 4:30, so we are later than everyone. 

Overall, I feel very stressed… but less so than over the summer with the uncertainty about the visas. There have been some wins, and I should celebrate them more. One win: we got the kids to school for the first day!!! I didn’t think that was going to happen. They both seem to enjoy it. There are some funny differences- apparently kids eat bananas and apples with a FORK AND KNIFE?! They have 1.5 hours of recess. They’re each being pulled from some classes to get 9 hours of small group Spanish instruction per week in the hopes of them learning Spanish sooner. Colin also learns French and Mandarin, and Will learns French. 

Chris and I successfully communicated at the mall with the school uniform people, and we’ve gotten them the necessities. We’re so lucky to have neighbors that let us borrow some that were the same sizes! The uniforms aren’t terrible- comfortable pants, polos, and they get to wear all black athletic sneakers. 

Other wins of the week: we got the remaining two IKEA chairs for our kitchen table, nothing was broken when we returned to the house after it being empty for two months, and we LOVE LOVE LOVE how much walking we get to do daily. We walk the boys 25 minutes to school, and it’s a great start to the day. 

What else do you want to know about?