CB Prat wins first home game with Chris!

This weekend was Chris's first home game with his new team. I went to the gym early to take his passport and was met by some of the administrators. They were all very nice and excited for the game. The gym is only a ten minute walk away! It is small, but it was packed and the atmosphere was still exciting! Chris played over 30 minutes and did very well. He even had a few blocked shots and steals! The team won their third game of the season, the second since Chris has been on the team. One of the administrators came up to me after the game and told me how happy the people were that they finally got to see their team win at home. They think that Chris is a great new asset, and are now more excited to see how the season goes. We are happy that we are at a place with such supportive people! Although the team is 3-8 right now, there is still time to improve that as we arent even halfway through the season yet. This weekend the team is playing the number one team in the league just outside of Madrid, so keep your fingers crossed!

Good News

So we finally got all of the contracts worked out and are moving to a new team in Barcelona. We think that everything will be much better there and are very happy to move on. The new team is much more organized, respectful, and professional. The Coach is nice, and the team has some more mature players. Chris had only one practice with them last night and he is already on the road with them in Mallorca for their game tonight. We are moving to a new apartment on Sunday when he returns. The apartment is almost as nice as the one we are in now, and Chris can walk to the gym since we will be so close to it. The team is called CB Prat Joventut and their website is www.cbprat.net. Good luck understanding it though, it´s all written in Catalan! He is number 17 and the colors are still blue and white!

On another good note, I just finished my first full week at my new job. I am working for ACS, Inc. of Spain. http://www.acs-inc.com/index.html It is an American company and they do IT and Business Process outsourcing for companies, but our office is doing only HR and finance outsourcing. I am working as an ISP Database Administrator for a project called GM Europe. We are basically doing all of the HR work for General Motors. They have factories and offices all over Europe, so it is our job to stay in contact with those branches and do all of the HR work for the employees in Europe. My team is responsible for the work involving expatriates and all Executives of GM. Our office has over 300 people and they are from all over the world. My team right now has a girl from Belgium, one from France, Sweden, and a few from Germany. It is really interesting and fun to meet all of these people and make new friends. The only downside is that the office is outside of the city and it takes me 1-2 hours travel time depending on traffic. I am happy to finally have a job, and I think that I can learn a lot from it.

Nights out with Friends

Chris recently met up with his friend Jan Jagla from Germany who he played with on the German National Team. He is actually playing in Barcelona too for an ACB team called DKV Joventut. Jan introduced me to his friend Ivana when I told him that I didnt know a lot of people here. Ivana is really nice and just a year older than me. She and I have actually been hanging out a lot now just going out to dinner or for coffee together. Chris and I have fun going to Jan´s games here with Ivana. The games are pretty fun as their games usually draw at least 2,000 fans and the team is really good this year. We are glad to have two more friends here!

A Visit from the McNaughtons

Park Güell Pictures

We finally got our first visitors in our new apartment! David and Christa flew down to visit us for four days and we got to see a few more cool sites in Barcelona that we hadn´t been to. We went to Montjuic, a big mountain that you take a train and then a ride to the top where you can see an amazing view of the city and the sea. We also went to Parc Güell which is the park by Gaudi that has tons of mosaic work and neat things to see. Along with going to the tourist sites, we were also able to go to one of Chris´s games together. The team lost by one point to one of the best teams in the league. Unfortunately Chris fouled out, and at least two of the fouls were non-existant so we were all pretty angry after that! We had a busy four day visit and were all tired after tons of walking and late nights in the city, but it was definitely fun!

Montjuic Pictures

Port Aventura

Fun on the rapids tube ride...4 times!---------- Jose and me with our new masks

Everyone feeling sick after a ride on the kids swings...ridiculous!

Me, Xavi, and Maureena -------------------------Chris's new favorite ride

We all decided we wanted to do something different and go to the big theme park here. It took about an hour and a half to get there after a wrong turn, but we got to see the wine country and mountains, so it was okay! The park was decorated a lot for Halloween, and we got free masks with our sodas. Chris got attacked by a random man dressed as Frankenstein who kept calling him Papa, it was pretty funny, but Chris was definitely slightly embarassed! We rode the giant roller coaster, which Chris loved. It was the only roller coaster he could ride because of his height! We rode the water tube ride four times as we had fun trying to see who we could get the most wet every time. The only bad part of the day was when Chris's five dollar sunglasses got ran over by a bumper car haha!

Fun at the Zoo

Chris and his friend the Giraffe -----------male Gorilla...huge!

Chris and I decided to go to the zoo on his day off after the team's third win, which makes them 3-0 right now. The zoo didn't seem that big at first, but we were there for a long time. They have all of the animals we wanted to see: giraffes, Gorillas, elephants, tigers, lions, bears, rhinos, and we even saw a cool dolphin show. It wasn't very crowded, because it looked like it was going to rain that day so it was perfect! The last time we were at the zoo was in Nurnberg, when I visited Chris at his house two summers ago. It's still fun no matter how old you are!

The parrot that followed us when we walked around his cage & the cutest, tiny monkey I've ever seen!

Don't forget to watch the Dolphin video!

La Sagrada Familia

The amazing ceiling that they tried to make look like a forest roof.


We finally got to go see La Sagrada Familia. It's a huge unfinished temple that has been being built since 1882. It was worked on for many years by Gaudi and since he died, new architects keep changing it and adding things. They think it will not be finished for at least another 50-80 years because of the hard work and tons of money needed.




The more modern side of the temple with different fruits at the tips.

La Rambla Market

We took Martina to La Rambla and found this giant produce and meat market. This street is always crazy with different types of stands to buy things and people painting themselves and posing for money. You could find any type of fruit, vegetable, or even dried fruit and nut you wanted! And on the street that leads to the market there were tons of stands where people were selling animals. They had tons of cute little rabbits, turtles, birds, parrots, hamsters, ducks, and the greatest of all...chipmunks! We could not believe they were actually selling chipmunks as a pet, (for $18 a piece too). They were even running around in those mouse wheels. Clearly we are not in the US! I had to take a picture just so you could see.

A visit from a friend

My friend Martina, who I actually just met last summer at Chris's basketball training, came to Barcelona to stay with us this week. We had lots of fun and took her to see lots of different things. One thing we have definitely learned about Barcelona is that it has one of the best nightlifes of any city. There are so many fun clubs, restaurants, and things to see late in to the night (or morning). When you go in to the city at midnight, the streets are still filled with people! Here are a few pictures of us at a club called the Pacha that the team goes to a lot. http://www.clubpachabcn.com/flash/index.html

Jose, a teammate, with Martina and me -Xavi, another teammate and his girlfriend

The Season Finally Begins

So we finally had our first season game, Chris wearing his new lucky number 13! The team won after a very close second half. It was a fairly good game to watch. After the game this weekend, I will be sure to have Chris write a little for you. We have kept very busy the past two weeks, Chris with practice, and me with going to interviews. I still havent found a job, but I found out that i can not work here until I have this special number sort of like a SSN. That's why some of the companies didn't want to talk to me yet. I have to go wait in like tomorrow morning at 6 am so that i can be sure to get a time slot ticket for tomorrow when the doors open at 8. I heard it takes several hours of waiting, but after tomorrow I will be able to work here and call back some of the people I had interviews with.

Parc de la Ciutadella

The Arc de Triumf outside of the park. They built it for the world fair that Spain hosted a long time ago.
The Museum of Zoology in the park.
The really pretty Gaudi Fountain/Statue that everyone goes here to see. Definitely worth going to. There are also tons of really pretty trees and flowers and fountains all throughout the park.
The pretty lake in the middle of the park that you can rent rowboats for

Placa Espana and the Magic Fountain

This is Placa Espana (Plaza Spain), it has the big museum of art which you can see behind us. We went this past weekend with our friends Nichy (Dionisio) and his wife, Morgan who are leaving this week. The museum, fountains, landscaping, and architecture are really beautiful.


At night, we went to the magic fountain in this plaza. it has performances every half an hour where it does a routine of water and lights to classical music. Click on the video below to see it in action. It was soo crowded, the people were lined up all the way up the steps to the museum. You can see a picture below of other fountains leading from the museum down this big stairway to the main fountain.