HeatherA Writes Stuff

Okay, it really is May 30 or whatever date the blog tells you (me!) that it is. We, in Barcelona, are in lockdown de-escalation phase 1, which means that many shops have re-opened, but with limited capacity. Restaurant terraces have re-opened, also with limited capacity. City parks have reopened, which is wonderful. We were sprung into the great outdoors almost a month ago, at the end of April. Since then we have been allowed outside once a day, and only during an assigned time slot. According to the rules, adults can take one 1-hour walk per day either in the morning (between 6-10) or in the evening (8-11). We are supposed to stay within 1 km of our homes. In reality, I doubt anyone is sticking to the time or distance limitations. We sure aren't. But we have been good about sticking to the time slots. There are other approved times for taking kids out (noon-7) and for elderly people and people who need assistance (11-12 and 7-8). I think it is important to let those vulnerable pop...

I started this post many weeks ago and didn't post it so I've lost the original date, but it was from the relatively early days of lockdown. Maybe a few weeks in? Here goes: -------------- Probably none of this is interesting, but these are the things I've noticed during lockdown in Spain... I am fine for a while but then I need an open window, thirsty for signs of life. The mornings are quiet. I sleep late most mornings, in part thanks to nightly Benadryl but mostly because I can, so I do. I check my email, Instagram, and Twitter. I'm not much into social media, so none of this takes long. But I will check Twitter continuously during the morning waiting for some piece of information to take away some of the uncertainty, or to distract me for a while. My Twitter feed is slow until early afternoon, when the east coast starts to wake up and activate. Before then it is mostly European updates, sometimes news and sometimes pictures or funny videos or articles. It...

In my last post I mentioned that the fall was tough to get through. I didn't go into a lot of detail, but it was the most difficult semester I remember, both at work and at home. A lot of the stress, at least during part of the fall, had to do with preparing for our trip to Barcelona. Getting a visa for Spain is a ridiculous and opaque process that ate up enormous chunks of Matt's time and a lot of mine as well. It wasn't just the time, it was also anxiety, uncertainty, and a lot of money (certified copies of original documents needing then to be certified translated into Spanish, etc.). By the time we got on that plane from JFK to BCN, we were ready to start the party! The good days lasted for over a month. Barcelona is a beautiful, vibrant city. I love our apartment and where it is located. There are little shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars everywhere. We could eat at a different place every day for a month without going more than two blocks from our apartment. (Okay,...