I could post photos from day 3 in Barcelona that showed us having a super fun time!! All the time!! Isaac did get to pose with a living statue on Las Ramblas that was truly impressive, we stood next to the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, and we ate some amazing gelato. BUT we also experienced a series of minor irritations. We just missed out train- twice. Not one but three of places we tried to go to were closed early for the holidays of August, while the tourist spots we visited were either packed to the point of not being fun or closed for renovations. It rained. The kids complained we were walking too much. The cork of the wine I was opening disintegrated into pieces and while getting out the sieve to pour the wine through I broke our only wine glass (taking us down from 5 to 4 total glasses in the apartment). None of us are sleeping well, our eating habits are all over the place, and despite all the walking (its too far Mommy!) I wasn’t getting much exercise. There are days, I think there are even many of them, where I could roll with all of this and still have a good time. But this day was not one of them. By the middle of the day, I was decidedly grumpy.
Luckily the day did not end with a prized possession going down the drain, no soap got in my eyes and I was perfectly happy with the pajamas I wore to bed.* And things looked better the next morning. I also know that all of this is part of getting used to our new life here, and that at one point or another each one of us will go through our own funk as we adjust. Hopefully we can all help each other roll with it.
*If you don’t get my “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” references, go read this book now. It should be a staple in every household. We have it in English and Spanish! Perhaps we will find a version in Catalan.