Day 79 - Water Balloons, Motorcycles and Salad

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Waterballoons

The park near our apartment has a small water fountain that has two primary purposes: washing hands and filling up water balloons :)  Kids gather around the fountain and wait for their turn to fill up water balloons.  Of course our kids had taken notice as well, so today we joined in the fun.

We even had a few kids try to talk to us, but we had to tell them we didn't speak Spanish or Catalan.  Though when you deal with kids, language can sometimes be irrelevant :)

The Motorcycle Culture

Since we spent the rest of the day just hanging out in our neighborhood, I thought I'd take a minute to tell you all about the motorcycle culture in Barcelona.  We saw quite a few motorcycles in France too, but there was nothing all that unusual about it aside from how many there were.  Here in Barcelona, it seems anyone who is brave enough and wants to have an independent and fast mode of transportation rides a motorcycle.  Asides from the riders we are used to seeing, the ones in shorts and t-shirt, here is a short list of the types of riders that have caught our attention.

  • Young kids riding in the back (We have not seen anyone younger than 6 or 7 years old)
  • Women in summer dresses and mini leather skirts (quite a few have pink helmets)
  • Pregnant Women (my jaw almost dropped)
  • Men in full business suits (shown in picture)

The good news is that, without exception, every single rider wears a helmet (hurray for safety).  We have seen a few motorcycle accidents (and a few almost accidents), but thankfully the riders were able to get up and walk off the scene in the ones we witnessed, although I definitely had a heart in the mouth moment when I saw this one lady get hit by a car and fall off her bike.

Future Salad Makers

I love that our preschoolers, and preschoolers in general, are almost always interested in helping with household chores like hanging laundry (yes we have to hang our laundry to dry...dryers are really not very popular outside of the US), sweeping, washing dishes (no dishwashers either), and making food.  When I'm trying to get something done quickly I have to shut down their enthusiasm, but when we are not in a rush, I like letting them experiment. Tonight, they actually helped make salad for the family while I cooked dinner.  Well... Kian did most of the making and Hannah did a combination of making and eating :)

Perhaps next we should encourage them to make us coffee in the morning... though knowing Hannah she would probably just drink it too :)