Sandra's Barcelona Apartment

As promised, here are a few pics of Sandra's living arrangements in Barcelona...


The fabulous doors leading to the fabulous Barcelona apartment.
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The tiny bed and computer workstation. You have to be an extremely tolerant and peaceful sleeper to share this bed. Note that one pillow nearly spans the entire width.
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The view down from the head of her bed. You can often hear what goes on in the other apartments.
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The internet "Locutorio" place across the street. You can use the internet or make phone calls here with the help of the almost friendly Pakistani guy. How do they survive as a business when the most they can make off all their computers combined is 7 euro per hour? Who knows?
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Her balcony/clothes line. Note the toilet bowl used as a planter. The view from the balcony is other nearby apartments and rooftops. I'm pretty sure you can't see the ocean.
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A very handsome young man draws on the couch which sometimes doubles as an alternative torture-device bed. See that shelf next to the couch? I would stick my feet into it when I tried to sleep on the couch.
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The whimsical shower. You eyes do not deceive you. It was like stepping into a frying pan. You'd close the blue curtain, and it would immediately cling to your body. If you slipped and fell in the shower, you'd end up in the living room.

ALBERT IS BACK or "Hey, Isn't This Sandra's Blog?"

After re-conquering my forefathers' homeland of Spain, I have returned to the greatful City of the Angels. I'd like to thank the whole city for turning out at the airport to welcome me back. You didn't have to.

I left Barcelona yesterday morning after taking one last long look down Avenida Mistral, which is the street that Sandra's apartment is on. It was a great street because it was turned into a big walking path rather than a traffic street. As I said before, there were always plenty of people walking a parade of dogs down Mistral. Anyway, I felt a little said to look down the length of Mistral one last time...to take in, my friends, one last big breath of normal Spanish life (at least for this trip).

During the taxi trip to the airport (about 17 minutes) and the plane rides (BARCELONA>ATALANTA>LA) I was able to reflect on my trip to Spain, and you know what? It was pretty dang cool. I had fun. Sandra is really comfy there and will be spending 4 more weeks in Barcelona (even though I treid to convince her to go to Sevilla, which was my favorite), then going to the UK on the way to India with possibly a stop in Connecticut after that to see our friends Nicole and Bertram. Anyway, that's her current plan. Look for her triumphant return to Los Angeles maybe around Christmas. As she posts here practically everyday, I'm sure she'll keep us updated.

Having gotten a little headsick just prior to leaving Barcelona, the plane's pressure was playing tricks with my ears. The inside of my head hasn't popped back to normal yet. My stalwart friend Anton was there at LAX to bring me home to Max and Oliver, whom he had been taking care of. It was strange to come back to the house just as I left it. The only noticeable difference was that Anton had taken up a war on a rat which has decided to invade the house. He had all kinds of stuff piled up along the edge of a cabinet to keep the rat from using its favorite route. I will have to get a human rat trap that will snap the rat's spine in half.

I will now attempt to reconstruct my life. There's a million pieces of letters, unpacking, clothes washing, bill-paying and emailing to do. Why did AT&T take over our long-distance calling while I was gone? I don't know. I just don't know. Who will be my new assistant director when I get back to work? I don't know.

Oh yeah, I had to pick up the "puppies" Chuy and Scout from Jimbo Feeley today. I called him after I woke up (I was hoping to still be sleep for many hours to come, but since I got really crappy sleep in Spain and very little on the plane, plus the time change, I'm all screwed up. You know what? I'm gonna start my own blog, so no one can read that too. This is ridiculous posting all over Sandra's blog. Anyway...I still seem to have a head cold but it doesan't feel bad and I don't know if I will crash hard into sleep sometime soon or if I will just get right back into the flow of California time or what.

Anyway...I called Jim about picking up the pups and he told me that Chuy had visited the doggy hospital. I was a little arlarmed, but it turned out to be that she had scratched-up ears from all the rough playing she was doing with Chuy and Wriggley (Jim and Stacey's dog if you don't know). Her ears wouldn't heal because Scout would keep licking them and Chuy would keep scratching them. Jim said that the doctor basicly told him that he was over-reacting by taking Chuy into the hospital, but then proceeded to put a cone on her, plus prescribe ointment and antibiotic pills. Poor Chuy...she looks sad and can't really play or be outside too much (flies and sun and dirt). I expect that we'll get her out of her cone in about three days, then she can be happy ol' Chuy again. Chuy seemed very happy to see me, but Scout practically didn't notice. Max and Ollie were of course very happy. So we're all home and I'm going to wash some clothes. Later.

Oh yeah...I will do some last posting here of some pics from the trip.

-Albert

[Chuy in her new outfit]