Plans for Europe

I must apologize for my absence and lack of postings, I've been busy trying to get my old room at my mom's house in order before we leave to Europe. There was an abundance of clothes that needed to be sorted through and either hung up in my closet (which seems to have also become a storage place for our skiing/snowboarding gear that nobody uses and my mom's wedding dress that hasn't seen the light of day since I was 6 years old and played dress-up in it) or put in boxes to give to Goodwill. Also my once lavender and dark purple painted walls had some growing up to do, and the rest of my room was in dire need of some redecorating in order to match my bedroom furniture that will be arriving from our apartment in San Diego once we go there and move everything out. Yayyyy, more packing to do, and we all know how much I loveeee packing. Anyways, my room is now painted a creamy yellow-ish beige-ish color with one contrast wall painted a royal garnet color (garnet also happens to be my birthstone, FYI). My old furniture is out of my room and my mom and I went to Homegoods to purchase some key decorative items, when my new furniture arrives my room will look so much better than it did previously. I haven't the faintest idea what I was thinking when I decided to paint it lavender and dark purple, I was in middle school it was an awkward phase. I'll post a picture when my room is complete!

I've gotten off track and am rambling on as usual.

Okay, so instead of leaving November 1st like previously stated we will actually be leaving October 16th. Why you ask? Well I shall gladly inform you! We plan to land in Amsterdam, or it might be Brussels, I can't remember now. Either way we're landing in one of those places and driving to my dad's apartment in Turnhout. We'll be in Turnhout from the 17th of October until the 29th of October which is when we leave for Girona. During our stay in Turnhout I will have the pleasure of introducing Mike to the rest of my dad's side of the family. I'm actually so excited for this because I didn't know if it would ever happen, but since we're actually going to be living in Europe now is the perfect chance for him to meet everyone. Besides meeting the family, we're going to explore Brussels, Turnhout, Bruge, Antwerp, and Ghent (or at least we plan to, when you're traveling there never seems to be enough time to do everything you want to do) and we'll also be taking a day trip to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and walk along the Champs-Élysées. We'll also be taking a day trip to Germany to eat some real Weinerschnitzel (which BTW is not a hotdog covered in cheese and chili)...oh! And ya know, to see some castles. I'm just super excited for all of it! I think I'm more excited to show Mike all of it than I actually am to see it because I've seen most all of this in my previous trips to Europe with my dad and grandparents. Don't get me wrong, seeing all of it again is something I won't ever take for granted, but there's just something about showing someone a place or thing that they've never seen before that I find to be somewhat magical. It makes me happy to see their amazement. The game changes when we arrive in Girona though. I've never been to Spain, so I will be equally amazed at everything there. Don't worry there will be pictures galore I can assure you!

That's all I've got for our traveling plans so far. I can only assume things will change when we actually arrive, but that's for another blog post!


xx - Amanda

Things to Know Before We Move to Spain

It still hasn't hit me yet that Mike and I are moving to Spain, and it probably won't until we've literally arrived in Spain. Even as I was looking up these 'things to know before moving to Spain' tips I was just kind of like, "I can't believe we're moving to Spain, this isn't happening. I must be dreaming." No need to pinch me though! I'm well aware that I'm awake and it is in fact happening, it's just such a crazy thought. I've always wanted to live in Europe ever since my first trip back in like 2005-ish I just never thought it would actually happen. I'm still bamboozled over the whole thing, I think we both are. Mike's never been to Europe so I know he's super excited as well, but I think he may be a tiny bit nervous too. Europe is different from the USA, and each country inside Europe is different from one another, plus our families are no longer just an hour long plane ride away or a 4 hour drive away from us, they're an entire ocean's length away from us. And I think that's what makes him nervous the most (Don't worry Mama and Papa Zaragoza, I'll take good care of your son!). I don't blame him for it I'm nervous about that as well, but there's always Skype and Facetime!

I've just realized that I've gone completely off track of what I was supposed to talk about here!

Okay, back to the topic at hand. I was looking up some helpful tips to know before we move to Spain because I prefer not to stick out like a sore thumb just because I don't know the ways of the Spanish world. I found some pretty interesting ones and I thought I'd share them with all of you :)

TIPS TO KNOW!

1. If it's your birthday don't expect anyone to buy you a drink or shower you with gifts/Happy Birthdays! There will be none of that. They've got the birthday thing completely wrong. When it's your birthday you have to treat your friends and colleagues. And if it's your kid's birthday they have to bring a giant bag of goodies to school to share with everyone. So what if it's my birthday and someone else plans a dinner for me and a few friends at a restaurant, do I have to pay for it? Hmmmm. I'd rather stay home and pay for no one!
2. Don't go to the beach in August because everybody and they're mama is going to be there. If you want to eat at a restaurant on the beach be prepared to wait a very long time to get served, to get your food, and to pay your bill. 
3. Don't go into the bank/post office/mechanic's between 9.30 and 11 in the morning. There will be one over-worked, stressed-out, don't-you-dare-complain employee that will be holding down the fort.
4. Children basically run the town apparently. Children are not only supposed to be heard and seen, but they're also to be picked up and cooed over at any possible chance. They're allowed to stay up as late as their parents during Summer holiday, and thought of as nothing but cute while they run and scream around your table when you're trying to enjoy a quiet drink. 
5. Time is relative in Spain. The morning lasts until 2 pm, the afternoon runs until nightfall, and there's no word for evening. The very early hours have a special name: La madrugada.
6. Don't attempt to buy a house, remodel your kitchen, renew your driver's license, make an insurance claim, see a doctor, give birth, etc. in August. All of Spain is not in, they're all at the beach. 
7. I thought this one was weird. If you're in a gym locker room you say hello and goodbye to people as they enter/exit. It's considered rude if you don't. But it's like I don't even know you. I don't want to say hi to someone when I'm changing in a locker room, changing in a locker room is awkward enough as it is. 
8. Eat lunch at 3 pm and dinner is at 10 pm. 
9. Worry about what you wear to the grocery store. In a bigger city like Madrid wearing work out clothes to go grocery shopping is fine. But when in smaller cities like Girona or Zamora that is not an option. You've got to be properly outfitted. Sweatpants are a no-no. 
10. Keep your guard up with your belongings, because if you don't your things will get stolen. Wonderful, right?

 All very good things to know! And it all seems pretty easy to adjust to. We shall see. 
If you'd like to see other tips, you can check out these websites I've linked down below.

• http://ymuchomas.com/2014/01/21/things-i-didnt-do-before-moving-to-spain/

• http://www.expatica.com/es/essentials_moving_to/essentials/Ten-things-to-know-before-moving-to-Spain-.html (I realized this woman's blog has somewhat the same name as my other blog, hope she doesn't mind)
• http://thoughtcatalog.com/aleksandra-slupinski/2014/08/5-things-you-should-know-before-moving-to-spain/ 

xx - Amanda 

Packing? Please no.

The pile of hangers JUST from my portion of clothes, absolutely ridiculous. I know this.

All of our clothes packed into those bags, it's a miracle actually.

I hate packing. I don't think I emphasized that enough, let me say it again. I. HATE. PACKING. Packing is pretty much the worst part of moving, it's just a huge pain in the gluteus maximus. So when we went to San Diego this past weekend to pack the contents of our closet you can only imagine how much I enjoyed myself *said with heavy sarcasm*. We arrived in San Diego Saturday morning after staying the night at Aunt Lita's who, might I add, is all too wonderful! When we arrived we stopped and waited in the ridiculously long drive thru line of McDonald's all because sooommmeeebody had a major hankering for a Big Mac, not going to mention any names *cough Mike cough*, so healthy right? But hey, he works his butt off every day he can enjoy a Big Mac from time to time if he wants. I just wish I had his metabolism it's like faster than the speed of light, the man never gains a pound! It's of extreme unfairness. Annyyyways, after McDonald's we stopped at Walmart (I forget now, is it Walmart or Wal-mart? Oh well......I'm trippin it's definitely Walmart.) to pick up those Ziploc bags that you can put a bunch of clothes in and then vacuum all the air out - I'll probably use 2 of them when we fly to Spain that way I can bring more clothes than I originally thought. YAAASS! - but, Mike actually suggested we get them and it was definitely a good idea. Granted the bags (and a couple of suitcases) took up basically all of the space in my car, we actually saved a lot of space. If we didn't buy those things we wouldn't have been able to bring all our clothes back to Vegas like we did. We fit all of our clothes from our closet and dresser in those 11 bags, and trust me when I say we had A LOT of clothes to bring! Money well spent on those space bags. I highly recommend buying 1 or 2 if you're traveling and want to bring a lot of options but don't have enough space in your suitcase, but buy the ones you can roll the air out of the bag instead of having to worry if the place you're staying at has a vacuum you can use to suck the air out. It took us about a day and a half to pack everything. We would have been done so much earlier if we didn't stop to watch the Mayweather fight (#TBE #TMT #MaidanaDidn'tWantIt) and if we didn't have to wait for the laundry to finish up. But after everything was packed and loaded up in the car we drove back to Aunt Lita's on Sunday afternoon and spent another night there (Aunt Lita tell Deena I said Hi!). As the night went on we all grew pretty hungry and decided to go to Norm's (pretty much the best place ever for late night eats). Let me just say our eyes are definitely bigger than our stomachs. At least mine are anyway, I had a serious food coma. We drove back to Aunt Lita's and spent some time talking and playing with Deena, both of which I love doing and sooner or later it was time to go to sleep. Apparently, Mike's fool proof plan to catch his Uncle Mitch wasn't so fool proof after all because he fell asleep/didn't wake up early enough (maybe next time babe). It was a pretty good weekend, besides all the packing -__-, and now we're back in Vegas, until I head to Disneyland this weekend with some friends. Definitely expect a blog allllllll about that.

xx - Amanda

Some Grand News!

I'm rather new at this. I had always thought of making a blog but I never had anything to write about. I mean does anyone even blog anymore? I feel like blogging was so 90's/early 2000's....Oh well. 

Anyways, as of like 3-4 days ago my life became rather exciting when Mike and I broke the news to our families that we would be moving to Spain because he's going to play pro-basketball there. Because of all this hoopla I feel as if my life is worthy of a blog now. So this is basically meant for anyone who wants to be nosy (I always thought nosy was spelled 'nosey'? Apparently not. I must have missed that day in English class.) and read about our journey to Spain. Just kidding guys, I really just thought it'd be cool to share most any and everything having to do with us moving to Spain.

In case anybody wants the deets, you can get them here hot off the press!

So Mike received an email about a week ago *insert lyrics by Bobby Shmurda and Shmoney dance here* from a scout in Spain (Is it just me or is scout a funny word?). The scout - I apologize for not knowing his name, I've seen it in the email but it's some overly difficult name that I'm not even going to try to remember - had emailed Mike saying that they've actually been trying to get a hold of him for the past 6 months, but they couldn't get through by phone so that's why he was receiving an email (Which they could have tried earlier, maybe like 2 months earlier that way we would have never moved back to San Diego after the summer and went straight to Spain in the first place! I'm not complaining, I'm just sayin). Right when Mike received the email he realized he had an international call block on his cell phone, so he got that removed and then called the scout. In lesser words the scout told him that he and the team he represents has had their eye on Mike ever since he was at Impact Academy they just wanted him to get some college education and basketball experience under his belt first before they made a move. They told him that they want him to come to Spain, go through a 9 month program that will teach him all the European basketball rules, and at the end of those 9 months he gets his contract. One thing that Mike had made sure to ask was if I was allowed to come with him because he wasn't going to go if I wasn't allowed to be there (Awwwhhh, I know he's so sweet). They said "Of course! There are plenty of other players there with their girlfriends/fiances/wives/families." Obviously when Mike got off the phone we were both extremely excited. We wanted to tell everyone, but decided to hold it in and surprise everyone at Mike's dad's birthday party this past Sunday. We actually wanted to fool everyone into thinking we were either getting married or I was pregnant just to throw them off, and I think it worked for the most part until we finally told the truth at the end of the announcement.

So for now we're just posted in Vegas until November 1st, which is when we leave. I mean we do need to go back to San Diego and pack up all of our stuff in our apartment, but that probably won't happen for another week or so.

I'll post again soon with more updates!
xx - Amanda!