We awoke to the sound of the wind hitting the awnings.  Quite the blustery day and being October, well, we assumed it would be chilly outside.  Not at all.  Just a warm, balmy day - probably in the high 70s.  I hung the wash out to dry and it was dry in 30 minutes. 

We took the bus to Malvarrosa around 4:30.  The neighborhoods look completely closed until 5pm or so.  Then slowly, the streets and the parks begin to fill with people.   Ben played on the beach with his papa while I went down to feel the water.  It was still warm.  Next time, we'll bring our suits and take a dip.  It looked very inviting. 

Our thought of the day is that we should try and buy an apartment.  If you know us, you know that we've had these thoughts before (DC, West Virginia, Silver Spring) so we may or may not execute on the idea.  But sometimes looking and speculating is fun.

The idea of owning something near the beach is pretty nice.  These are family neighborhoods within a 20 minute busride of downtown Valencia.  Blocks from the beach.  Real Estate has gone up fourfold here in the last 8 years.  Nobody thinks it can last.  Perhaps not.  However, there aren't that many places in the world where you can live in a nice, modern and relatively safe city near the beach for an affordable amount of money.  We'll keep thinking and researching.  My bet is that the closer we are to the beach, the more visits we'll get :)

The month before moving to Valencia was a tough one.  What were we doing?  Renting our house, giving up our jobs, imposing on our families to store all of our junk.  With the exception of one mini trip by me more than 20 years ago during one night of Las Fallas, we had never been to Valencia and knew only what we had read.  However, something made us take the leap.

The result.  We love it.  We're glad we came.  The feeling we seem to have is a cross between a vacation, a new beginning, an escape, a sabbatical experience.  We're really not sure.  We're just certain that we made the right choice to live here for the moment. 

Our apartment is spacious enough and full of light.  We face a pedestrian square and for the most part, it's fairly quiet.  However, Valencianos use fireworks to celebrate everything and it does seem like 5 nights a week, we hear fireworks of some sort.

Please come visit.  We would love to share this experience with our friends and family.

Cleaning up after your dog is NOT the national Spanish past time.  I have seen some individuals clean up (and I applaud them) and today I saw a woman gently place a tissue (and lightly step on it so it stuck) a top her German Shepherd's poo poo.  How gentile of her.  Hmm.

Ben's first new Spanish word was ca-ca.  We taught him right away to look for the land mines.  Now, we walk down the street with a three year old that yells, Ca-ca, Ca-ca, Ca-ca.  I really don't mind that people look at us.  It is a general warning. 

Our concern is that when we bring our blind jack Russell terrier here, she will be stepping in it right and left.  We will need to have one of those disinfectant baths outside our door just like they have on farms!

Maybe someday the Spaniards will begin to clean up after their dogs.  There isn't any more smoking that I can notice in public places - even some restaurants so change does come.  Gosh, I remember in 1985 during my first trip here, everyone smoked on the buses.  Come to think of it, when I was younger, didn't people smoke in movie theaters in the U.S.?

The laundry has become an almost daily chore here.  We have a washer but no dryer so we hang our wash out to dry.  It is typically sunny, around 82 degrees and slightly breezy.  The clothes dry really fast and smell great.  A bit hard - I think I need to iron them to soften them.  I have ironed a bit....but not as much as I'm sure I should. 

Our socks are getting dirty and the bottoms are not getting that clean.  I'm sure you can guess, as have I, that I need to either clean my floors more often or scrub the socks a bit before throwing them into the machine.  Whoa there.  This is my first foray into becoming a domestic goddess.  I'm working on it :)

This morning Mitch took Ben to school and I hopped on the bus that took me downtown via Blasco Ibanez.  I just wanted to take a walk around and perhaps take a few pictures.  It's great sitting on a bus and observing when you have time.   The contrasts in this country our amazing.  Everyone hangs their laundry out to dry and even young women use fans to cool themselves.  Everyone also seems to have an ipod or similar in their ears.  The folks mopping the floors, cleaning the streets and even the old lady next to me on the bus. 

The bus drove by a Starbucks.  I had to laugh as this morning Mitch and I were commenting on our dissatisfaction with the coffee selection in the supermarket.  I love Spanish coffee, cafe con leche or cafe cortado or solo that we can order in the bar.  I dislike however the coffee that we make at home in the morning.  So, I had to jump off the bus and buy a few bags of extra bold French Roast.