Lleida is for Yay-da and Pumpkins galore

View of Lleida outside our balcony

Just so everyone knows how to pronounce the new town, Lleida we are living in... the double LL makes a Y sound in Spanish. I have been here a week now and I do like the new city. It is not too big, but not too small either-- I would say comparable to Appleton or Green Bay. It has a really nice city center that is completely blocked off from the cars and some really nice shops for shopping!! The great thing is that you technically can walk everywhere which makes it nice getting around. I, personally, prefer to walk; Javi on the other hand drives to the gym for practice and no joke--it is probably 2 blocks away. It is just as quick to walk there by the time he gets to the car, parks and walks into the gym, but I am not surprised. It is handy that the gym is so close, because I won't have to worry about parking and I am there in 5 minutes. Eveyone here speaks Catalan so maybe I will learn more Catalan this year. Everyone can speak Spanish too, but the spoken language is Catalan. The high speed train goes right through the city which makes it easy access for us to get to Barcelona or Madrid if we don't want to drive. There is a river 'Rio Segre' that runs through the city and there is a nice trail that runs along the river. There is also a pretty park nearby where I have been running the past week. I love it because it is wooded and big. Our apartment is very spacious and nice as well. 2 bedrooms and 2 baths so there is always room for visitors. I figured we can technically sleep 8 here because we have 2 double beds, a blow up air mattress, a single bed made day bed by me, and a couch. We were without gas for a few days which meant me using the cold water but that is working now. Kind of a funny story--the guy who came to fix the gas took the whole machine apart basically and couldn't find anything wrong. Well, there was a lever on the patio that just needed to be flipped on and voila it worked! He was telling me how he was going crazy because he couldn't figure it out and it was the switch the whole time. The gas stove is working too, but I think the pots and pans we have may be the cheapest ones on Earth. I am afraid of burning everything I make with those! Javi allowed me to break down and buy a 8 euro garbage can too... he told me I wasn't allowed to buy one 'because we aren't buying anything for the apartment!' When I got here, his garbage can was a little plastic bucket, which may have needed to be taken out every 2 hours. I have met a few Spanish friends and one American girl, Stephanie, who is from Oregon City. Her hubby plays on the team and we get along well. We have been exploring Lleida, went to the fair this past weekend here, and have gone running together a few times too.

I had to feed the little pigs at the market

Our Bathroom



This one and below are our bedroom

View from bedroom--they don't like soccer much in Spain.


Guest Bathroom

Whatever guests sleep in the guest bedroom might freeze since they didn't give us any blankets! Only sheets! Those two fleece blankets you see are about as heavy as sheets too.

Our balcony..drying clothes

Kitchen--the 8 euro garbage can is in the picture too--bottom right, black

Dining area

One view of livingroom-kitchen

Living room

Weather has been nice so far...they say it gets cold in the winter and there is a lot of fog, but not much snow. I like the weather because it isn't as humid and seems more fall-ish right now.

Speaking of fall... with fall comes pumpkins and I am a pumpkin face for those of you who don't know. I made pumpkin carrot soup today... pumpkin chocolate chip bread... and some pumpkin fluff last night! So I am taking full advantage of the pumpkins. YUM!

I also did get a teaching job on Tuesday night so that was exciting. I will be teaching English again to students/adults through the English Academy in Lleida so I was happy about that. I was starting to get bored already so I need something to do. Right now, I don't have a ton of hours, but they said more willl be available. Had I been here a month ago, sounds like I would have had a lot of options but the student classes started already and the adults started on Wednesday. I start out at 7 hours per week and hopefully I will get more. I also posted my own ad to see if anyone wants private lessons.