Tue - April 22, 2008

Wohelo! Just around the corner.

Last year at Wohelo, Emma didn't show up in many pictures. Lots of time we saw the back of her head or the "Girls just wanna have fun" effect that Brook experienced dancing in the Cyndi Lauper music video.

We gave her a few pointers to help this year.

The block - just get that other girl out of the way!




The smother - no one else in this picture, only me!




The goose - no explanation required!

Posted at 12:57 PM     Read More  

Tue - April 1, 2008

Windy days and time change

Today was really windy. I took this picture of the highest peak in Andorra, Pic de Coma Pedrosa (2942m). I have been looking at the snow blowing over the ridge most of the day.

Yesterday it snowed again. When we woke up, all the trees had snow on them. They looked really lovely. As usual, I left the house without my camera! We took the kids to school in the morning only to find the school yard empty. We went in only to find that the time had changed due to Daylight Savings time. So an hour behind schedule, the kids went to school.

Since a foot of snow had fallen (and was still falling) we headed up to Pal to ski. There was hardly anyone there and the snow was great! We skied for a few hours and went about doing all the things that we had put off to ski.

Posted at 02:56 PM     Read More  

Sun - March 30, 2008

Mon - March 24, 2008

Finding friends in Andorra

On March 12^th while driving around, we started to notice Andorran flags appearing on lamp posts and in shop windows. We thought nothing of it, except we did notice people buying a lot more than usual in the supermarket.

The next day, we drove down to Valle to take care of our daily shopping only to find the store closed. Not just that store, but every store. The only exceptions where the ski rental places and gas stations. With very little to eat in the house, no bread, and no wine we switched into panic mode. We headed for a gas station that we knew sold bread and wine and such, only to find that that part of the station was closed. We could buy gas but nothing else. The idea of leaving Andorra and heading to Spain or France crossed our mind, because we have never been in a place where Constitution day precludes the purchase of almost anything except for gas, ski gear and lift tickets.

We ended up eating dinner out at El Moli, where we go often and is in our town of Arinsal. Our waitress politely asked where we are from. Half joking I answered Uruguay! It was true that we had last lived in Uruguay and I took out my Cedula (residency permit) to prove the point. She took it and examined it then handed it back, and went about her business. A few minutes later she appeared again, and held up her cedula! Turns out she was from Salto an area in the North of Uruguay. She told us it was nice to meet someone from home. Her name was Anna and she had spent a month in Punta del Este a few years before.

As is the Uruguayan tradition, everyone gave her kisses on the cheek as we left the restaurant.

Posted at 02:08 PM     Read More  

Let it snow!

This is Friday


This is Sunday


This is Monday morning

We just had a foot of snow fall overnight. Our kids went out to play on the patio. Unlike other places that we have lived, there is no such thing as a snow day here. Nothing closes because of snow. The roads get plowed as soon as the snow starts to stick.

Posted at 08:50 AM     Read More  

Tue - February 12, 2008

Did I say Mallorca?

Quick change of plan, we decided we would be better served living in Andorra, a small principality on the Spanish French border in the Pirañas. We leave in one week.

We where having coffee while sitting in bed one morning. We had our tickets to fly to Mallorca on February 19^th, Brook took out her handy dandy calendar that she had bought, that was in Brazilian. Brook has always liked having calendars so she can keep track of things. In the back where maps of Brazil, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. We flipped through to the map of Europe and stared at Mallorca. We wanted to figure out where the ferries went, and how far they had to travel to go to the mainland.

We saw a place marked on the map that I had never seen before. Andorra. It had the circle with yellow inside that marks a capital. What the heck is that?

It was the11th of February, we would fly out to Mallorca in 8 days. We started to look into Andorra, a small tax haven located on the boarder of Spain and France. It was established as a co principality between the countries in the 13^th Century. It was a partial member of the European community. Compared to the beaches of Mallorca it was much different, but the tax relief and the free (Spanish) education would make day to day living much more doable.

The table started to turn on Mallorca. After only 2 days of research we elected to change our destination. QED – we move to Andorra!

Getting to Andorra was not so difficult, because we had booked tickets to New York for June of 2008 from Uruguay, we changed those tickets and flew to Santiago Chile, then to Madrid. We stayed in Madrid for one night, and left for Barcelona the next morning. We had gone to bed really early and woke up in the middle of the night because of the jetlag. When we eventually woke up, we only had 30 minutes to get to our bus to the Airport. We had to skip breakfast.

In Barcelona, we had booked on the bus that goes directly to Andorra from Barcelona airport. It took 3 hours to get to our hotel. I had turned on my GPS at the beginning of the bus ride and watched the direction and altitude as we headed to Valle, the capital of Andorra.

Posted at 02:08 PM     Read More