Extras

A random assortment of photos.

 Yesterday I saw *both* of the sidewalk tiles I had been missing!

I am on my second set of insoles.  I am not sure why I am wearing out my right one faster
on both this and the previous set.  Maybe I should be looking at some new Spanish shoes?

Such a cute European car with an American car across the street.

I like the different tiles outside of apartment buildings.

Car stickers

When I started seeing a lot of bull and donkey stickers on cars I figured it had to be a political thing. Right!

The Osborne bull, a symbol of Spain, started off as an advertisement, but became so popular that when they tried to ban roadside ads people claimed it was part of the landscape.  I have not seen more the car sticker, but in other places there are t-shirts, key rings, etc.

A little over ten years ago people in Catalonia decided they needed a counterpart and chose an animal that is hard-working, stubborn, and able to endure hardship.  Not everyone agrees with those characteristics and think of the donkey as stupid, but it is still the sticker I see a lot of around here. 

This one seems to be an ad for Catalonian brand of cow.

All sorts of other animals are on cars including cats, butterflies, and lizards.

This is the name of the town because cu is the sound
for the letter q and gat is the word for cat in Catalan.

This is my favorite and I promise to write a post about wild boars soon.

Preparations

I know it is worth it, but making the move is not without challenges even before we leave.  There are so many decisions to make!

Should we sell the car that is almost twenty years old?  Logically the answer is yes, but I will miss the windows that roll down manually, the odometer that rolls over mechanically instead of digitally, and I might even miss the tape player.

original sticker from September 1996

Should we try a peer-to-peer foreign currency exchange?  In 2010-11 our landlords were living in the US and we paid them in US currency.  It is a different story this year, plus the financial options have changed in the last five years.

What should we hold onto?  What should we leave out for the tenants?

I think some tears may be shed as this room is packed up.

How many bicycles should we take with us?  Where should we store the bicycles we aren't taking?

Maybe it helps to work with a deadline since we know the plane won't wait for us.