After spending time with family and friends for 80 days in the States, this transition back into our life in Madrid has been more difficult than the first time.
The first time we left the States to move to Madrid, it was new, exciting and unknown. This time around, it's daunting and a bit depressing. For 80 days we got to hang with people we love and not work! It was wonderful and life giving. Now we sit in our apartment knowing more of what's ahead... 25 hours of work but having to be there for 40 hours, missing out on our community back home.. etc. On the other hand, we are very grateful my sister Brianna is here with us. We've had fun already having her as our roommate!
This isn't to say we aren't looking forward to all this year has in store for us here in Madrid, but to share our feelings at the start of our experience this time around. Here's to this next season in Madrid and all that it will bring!
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
5 things I miss about California
With only 20 days until we fly back to California (and Utah) for the Summer, I thought I'd write about the 5 things I miss, and am therefore looking forward to about being home! Keep in mind, we LOVE that we are here & that we get to come back... It's just the final countdown (doo-doo-doo-doo ... doo-doo-doodoodoo) & this is the only thing I can think about!
5. The weather (wearing sandals everyday)
People in Madrid say they have "9 months of winter and 3 months of hell". Other than a nice day or 2, we definitely skipped Spring and went straight to sweating while we sleep and shower.
4. Good food! (& good beer) (Umami Burger, Daisy Mint, Hulas, In N Out)
There are a couple of things I could say I like to eat here, but other than that, nada! In my opinion, Spain ain't got nada on the food in the States & anywhere else for that matter! Ha! Overall, it is lacking in flavor, especially SPICINESS! There are signs to warn you of spice and hotness, but to the spicy hater... seriously, you would laugh! (Plus, peanut butter is practically non-existent and where they do have it, a 6oz container is about $8!)
Spanish beer is NOT good at all! Our 2.5 days in Germany/Austria back in December was my last taste of great beer, not that that's a bad thing for my waistline, I'm just excited to put my lips to a frosty glass of a delicious micro brewery/brewpub delight.
3. Playing soccer
In a country where soccer is HUGE, excuse me, where futbol is HUGE, you'd think I'd have played by now. Well, soy una mujer ... and they don't really let the girls play with the boys here. Needless to say, we'll see what I can do about that next year!
2. Charger
Our puppy dog! Lucky for us, Brian's parents have blessed us by taking care of him for the time we've been here. They've sent us videos of him almost every week. We are excited to bring him to Madrid with us in September! (yes, you read that right, we're putting him on the plane. You can ask Brian more about this one as he's the one who wants him here with us... guess who's gonna be the pooper scooper?! ha!)
1. Being known, I mean really known. (friends & family)
This could be it's own blog post really, but for now I'll keep it to a minimum.
Our travels and 'Hostel Babb' have hindered our ability to really dig in and find community. We have been going to a great church and I've even been leading worship,
however the ex-pat community is very transient and that can be
challenging. This really has been the hardest part about living abroad these last 7 months (more for me than Brian). I really miss my girl friends and those types of relationships. We have thought about and prayed for our family and friends so much more than before. I am getting teary even writing this, as I think about you all. I value my relationships so much and I'm so thankful God created us to be in community. I am grateful to be on this journey with my husband; He has truly become my best friend. This has been an AMAZING time for us in our marriage and we are so grateful for it!
We have met some great people here and we're excited to go deeper in relationships when we return in September.
Until then, California here we come... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzjKuQa03gU
Friday, May 18, 2012
Honeymoon Part 2
Courtney
and I extensively researched the possibility of going to Greece for our
honeymoon. Ultimately we decided that Greece was beyond our budget and
we ended up going to the Dominican Republic then New York City for our
honeymoon. Our honeymoon was an amazing experience so we do not regret
the decision we made at all. However, now that we live in Europe, Greece
is a much more affordable and realistic place to visit. So we decided
that we would plan a second honeymoon! The wonderful pace of life in
Spain provided Courtney and I with 11 days paid vacation for 'Semana Santa' (Holy Week) which was the perfect opportunity to take a long relaxing
vacation. In total, we spent five nights in Greece, one night in Zurich,
Switzerland, then we returned to Madrid for four nights of relaxation
and recovery. What a second Honeymoon it was!
We arrived in Zurich after a short flight and immediately began shelling out Swiss Francs at every turn. Courtney has vowed to never return to Switzerland, as it really is overpriced. Despite the pain of overpaying for EVERYTHING we had a great little tour of Zurich. Our hotel was right in the midst of a lively nightlife that was reminiscent of the neighborhood called Malasana in Madrid (young, artistic, and loud). We flew out at noon the next day but not before we took a really pleasant stroll around the city. If you are making a living wage in Zurich, then you are sure to have a comfortable and pleasant life. Zurich is beautiful, clean, rich in history, interesting, artistic, and environmentally conscious.
During
our walk (which was bordering on recklessly close to missing our flight, we stumbled upon some really interesting shops
including a shop/factory that we had read about and wanted to see. They
make bags out of reused materials and their storefront is likewise made
from old shipping containers. The building is stunning. It is inspiring
to see repurposed materials become artistic and functional. I really
wish that we could have explored the building inside but we had just
enough time to catch the nearby train to the airport (we did arrive at
our gate the moment boarding began).
Courtney
and I often joke about the only true value in Switzerland, Swiss Air. I
have heard from locals that Swiss Air is usually quite expensive but we
have found their prices to be among the best recently. Even if we have
to pay a few more Euros to avoid Easy Jet or Ryan Air, we will. Swiss
Air actually provides you with a meal, even if your flight is only an
hour long! They also graciously provide you with unlimited beverages AND
Swiss chocolate! Another small nicety is their online ticketing system
which will automatically check you in 24hours before the flight and
email the boarding passes to you, or text you a smartphone boarding
pass! This has been very helpful in these situations where we are
hopping around so frequently.
Yea
|
City population
|
Urban population
|
Metro population
|
1833
|
4,000[58]
|
–
|
–
|
1870
|
44,500[58]
|
–
|
–
|
1896
|
123,000[58]
|
–
|
–
|
1921 (Pre-Population exchange)
|
473,000[19]
|
–
|
–
|
1921 (Post-Population exchange)
|
718,000[58]
|
–
|
–
|
1971
|
867,023[59]
|
–
|
–
|
1981
|
885,737
|
–
|
–
|
1991
|
772,072
|
–
|
3,444,358[60]
|
2001
|
745,514[61]
|
3,165,823[61]
|
3,761,810[61]
|
2011
|
655,780
|
3,074,160
|
3,737,550[12]
|
In
the mid eighteen hundreds Athens had a population of about eight
thousand and over the past century and a half it has exploded to over
three million inhabitants. Speaking to some of the locals, we
learned that many of these inhabitants still have family ties to
villages in Greece and are returning to a more time-tested way of life.
While other locals I talked to mentioned their hope to get out of the country as soon
as possible. Wage reductions and elimination of
paid holidays have become regular while living expenses are still somehow climbing. The gap between the
rich and the poor seems to be widening in Athens as a result of the
bailout.
Yet, proving ourselves to be posh western tourists, we whisked ourselves away to the idyllic Greek islands by high-speed ferry. We saw three beautiful Greek islands before arriving to our final destination, Ī£Ī±Ī½ĻĪæĻĪÆĪ½Ī· - Santorini. A man with a sign that said “Bryan Babb” was waiting for us on the dock who recklessly drove us to our traditional cave villa on the other side of the small island. We stayed just north of the capital of Santorrini (Ī¦Ī·ĻĪ¬ - Fira) in the picturesque town of ĪĪÆĪ± - Oia (pernounced “EE-a”). This town really seems to embody the spirit of the Greek Islands with its romantic, singular architectural style. The architecture harkens back to a simpler time. It comes from the period of Venetian rule. There are cave houses, large Venetian villas, tons of Catholic Churches, charming windmills, and fortifications to defend the island from pirates. All of the traditional styled buildings have common colorful features that are iconic to the Greek islands. Santorini is literally alive with volcanic activity. In fact you can purchase maps on the island dating back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that do not have islands that currently exist due to recent volcanic activity! Also due to modern eruptions, a large portion of Santorini is ruins that have yet to be restored.
Courtney’s # 1 on her Europe bucket list, complete!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Brian´s Bucket List Birthday: The Matterhorn
Klein Matterhorn Glacier Paradise from Brian Babb on Vimeo.
Courtney and I had an amazing time in Switzerland celebrating my 28th birthday. Seeing the Matterhorn was on my Europe bucket list, so we wasted little time getting to the small town of Zermatt. We took a series of trains from Geneva that took us more than half way across the country. The mountainous terrain reminded me of home and the architecture reminded me of fairy-tales from my youth. Locals and travelers alike swear that this is area has the best terrain in Europe. I was salivating at the sight of such tremendous terrain, but I was unable to snowboard this time. We did not have time or equipment. More problematic, we could barely function at the extreme altitude. Since we are living at 2000 ft. the shift to 12,000 ft. over one day was drastic. I was gripping the hand rails for dear life! After returning to Zermatt from the slopes, we finally began to acclimate. However, the food in Zermatt was just as epic as the views. We enjoyed goulash, bratwurst, and killer fondue. We really enjoyed being Swiss for a few days, which was all we could afford (Switzerland is expensive)!
Monday, April 9, 2012
Slackers, packers & travel-spectaculars
First off, we would like to apologize for the lack of posts since "The China Scare" back in... January?! Is it April already? Wow, what slackers! I can assure you that we have been busy working (thankfully), moving, traveling and running Hostel Babb.
Chloe and Dmytryk, former students of mine, came for a 2 week stay-cation. They explored what they wanted of Madrid while Brian and I worked and in the evenings we showed them around.
One of the weekends they were here, we went to Barcelona! Definitely one of our favorite cities thus far! We rented bicycles and of course 5 minutes into the ride, it began to rain, pour actually. We had no choice but to make the most of it since we only had 1 & ½ days there. We were cold and soaked but when we turned the corner and saw La Sagrada Familia, the ride was well worth it! La Sagrada Familia is the work of the late Antoni Gaudi. Construction began in 1882 and continues to this day! It truly is an amazing piece of work! WE loved walking Las Ramblas and being at the beach! If you ever get the chance to travel in Europe, Barcelona is a must!
Chloe and Dmytryk left on Thursday Feb 2nd and on Fri Feb 3 our next guests arrived! Our great friends Matt and Sara came for a week and Brian’s mom (mi suegra) came for 2 & ½ weeks!
And boy did we do a lot...
We spent the weekend showing them Madrid. We also went to Segovia (a quaint, walled-city just outside of Madrid with a Roman aqueduct made of 25,000 granite blocks and no mortar, that stands about 100 feet tall and 2,683 feet long).
Monday evening we left for Romania (we didn't arrive until 4am) to visit our friends Cristian & Bella and their adorable son Avi. Brian, Matt & Cristian were roommates while going to Fuller Seminary. They love each other a lot and it was beautiful to see the boys back together. We had a great time freezing our butts off (it was way below zero!), seeing Timisoara and the towns where Cristian and Bella grew up, eating, laughing, reminiscing, praying together and adoring little Avi. Time well spent and treasured.
On our journey home, we had a little layover in Rome. Matt, Sara and Sue had never been before, so we did what anyone would do and hire a taxi for the 2 hours we had to drive us around to every monument he could. This guy was no joke! He got us to the Colosseum, Pantheon, the best gelato place in the world, and to Vatican City where Brian and Matt w/only minutes left before we had to head to the airport, ran up 300+ steps to the top of St. Peter's Cathedral. Phew! I'm tired just typing all of that! It was exhilarating and an incredible way to see a city!
After Matt and Sara went back to the States, we spent about a week recovering. It was so nice to have Brian's mom here for what seemed like normal life! We played cards, Ticket to Ride and she even did our laundry while we were at work! The next weekend we went to Granada, Spain. Granada is home to the Alhambra, a city of royal palaces, churches, gardens and mosques. We had a great time exploring the Alhambra and walking through the Albayzin (known as the city in white pictured below).
We were sad to say good-bye to Sue and so thankful for our time with her as it felt like we were home for a couple weeks.
Our next guests weren't arriving for another month, so why not move into a new apartment?! We moved into our new and final destination (ironically enough at Avenida de America) the 1st week of March. We now have 2 bedrooms (which makes for a more comfortable stay for our guests) and 76 steps to walk up and down multiple times a day. Ya, really.... 76! The only thing that makes the long hike up the mountain to our apartment worth it, is the sweet terrace we get to enjoy (and of course the fact that my butt is gonna look gooooood in a few months!).
Brian's birthday was the next weekend (March 12th) and we went to his number 1 on our Europe Bucket list - The Matterhorn, in Zermatt, Switzerland! I'll let Brian share in a separate blog post about that trip, but I will say that it was incredibly beautiful and we almost fainted....
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
The China Scare
Many times the big decisions in our lives are not truly felt until further down the line, when we have time to reflect or when the decision comes back to bite you in the ass. Courtney and I made a risky decision to sell everything and move to Spain without a job offer, without a place to live, without fluency in the language, without friends, and without a plan. It is hard to believe that we have already been here for nearly two months. It’s even harder to stomach that we have only been paid about 40 bucks total in that time. This has been a scary season of life. I often mention in conversation to close friends that Courtney has cried more in our second year (all three months of it) than in our first year. Fear drove us to the point of giving up. As of last week I was looking at jobs all over the world. We considered going home, but which home? We considered sticking it out, but how? And that’s right, we considered China!
This is…. the dreadfully wonderful, China scare.
For all of you back at home wondering, yes you can make a good living in Spain, especially if you like losing hair. Spain has 20% unemployment, they don’t like hiring people without an EU passport, and if you do not have proper documentation they like to exploit you and screw you over when you are in need. A few friends of mine were brought to Spain by a company who claimed to provide papers, which meant that they handed them applications for a work permit when they got here and said, “Good luck! If you don’t get accepted be careful, if you get fined and deported we will find someone else to take your spot.” Luckily my Friend just found out that he was accepted. Praise the Lord!
China on the other hand seems to be the land of opportunity. While labor is cheap (meaning you don’t get paid much) so is everything else! Recruiters will get on their knees and beg you to sign a contract… they will throw in affection, flattery, and haiku poetry. They will pay for your flight. They will give you four weeks vacation. They will give you all of your meals for free. They will supply your visa. They will provide language classes.
So here we are, broke and desperate. Feeling like a couple of jerks. It certainly wasn’t all bad but we just wanted the assurance of knowing that we would be able to pay our bills (and ideally save money). We wanted the security of knowing that we could walk down the street without fearing that a police officer would want to see our justification of residence. Being an Illegal Immigrant is a humbling reality to live out. In the midst of this trouble Courtney actually turned down a great job offer with a program that is granted by the Spanish Government. Like it or not, we were preparing for China.
We spoke to many recruiters, and to one guy who is about to start his own English Academy in China. The offers each had their perks and all of them offered us the security that Spain had not. Late one night last weekend I began to print out the contract we were leaning toward, reading it, and filling it out. I was also doing some last minute research on the school in China that we would spend our next year investing in. It was about 4 o'clock in the morning when my wife said, "can we please just wait until the morning". Hesitantly, I agreed.
The next morning we awoke to a glimmer of Spanish hope. The same great company that Courtney had turned down because they did not have a position for me, was 80% sure that they could offer both of us a position at the same school. We just needed to wait until Monday morning to confirm that the school wanted to replace two teachers who did not show up to work after Christmas break. In the mean time I also scheduled a number of interviews with various employers that I was not as excited about. None of them payed well nor were they willing to help me with my papers. I was still considering China, we were both praying for Spain. Monday came and went with no news of whether the school wanted to hire us, but another curve ball was thrown. I was offered another job in Spain for more work, less pay, and no papers. They wanted me to sign a contract at 10am this morning (Tuesday). Needless to say, we were confused. So we prayed some more and decided that I would go sign the contract, while Courtney would pressure Jose Manuel of UCETAM (our prospective employer) for a decision by 10am Tuesday at the latest.
I left our house at 9am this morning still not knowing what I would do. At about 9:15am I realized that I had forgotten my Spanish phone and was unable to get in touch with Courtney before my 10am meeting. At 9:20 I missed a stop on the Metro for my transfer. I was pissed, no phone and now I am late for my meeting. I started praying more. At 9:30 once I was back on track with the Metro I happened to see someone I recognized from my job interview. He is a really nice Canadian guy that I had not really spoken to much. It dawned on me that if I struck up a conversation with him then he might let me use his phone to call Courtney! At 9:50am I asked him if I could use my phone, he said yes but there was no service because the metro is underground. I would have to wait until right before my 10am meeting. At 9:58am Courtney was called by Jose Manuel who had called in sick from work but still pressured the school for a decision on our behalf, it was not easy, but he made it happen! Jose delivered the news to Courtney at 9:58am that we would both have jobs, insurance, and visas! At 9:59am Courtney was jumping up and down on our bed and screaming... yes, she was alone in our apartment! Then finally, at 10am, just before I walked into my meeting to sign a contract for an inferior job, I called Courtney and she gave me the news. With a huge smile on my face, and much thanksgiving in my heart, I gave George (other potential employer) the news that I was offered another job. I then turned right around to meet up with Courtney and sign on with UCETAM. We start at our new school tomorrow. This was truly a miracle for us, thankfully we have found a generous measure of security here in Spain.
In these two months we have found a church, made friends and have become part of a community. We have already had many people in that community help us along the way. We are so excited to continue to get to know our new friends and build deeper relationships, explore more of Madrid and Spain and finally to enroll in Spanish classes! Our dreams are coming true and we can thank our Spain friends, our friends back home, our parentals :) and most importantly, our Faithful God! Here’s to 2012 … in Madrid!! Dream big friends, God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or even imagine (Eph 3:20).
Saturday, December 31, 2011
12 Uvas de la suerte
This link describes what we will be doing this evening when the clock strikes midnight! We'd love to have any of you join us! ... and if you do, please send pictures!
http://www.foodrepublic.com/2011/12/29/how-eat-12-grapes-12-seconds
Details and pictures of this crazy evening shall be posted in the next couple days!
We are grateful for another year of life and all of our friends and family! Happy new year! Feliz ano!
Con amor,
Court & Brian
http://www.foodrepublic.com/2011/12/29/how-eat-12-grapes-12-seconds
Details and pictures of this crazy evening shall be posted in the next couple days!
We are grateful for another year of life and all of our friends and family! Happy new year! Feliz ano!
Con amor,
Court & Brian
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