The beginning of this new chapter in our adventure bodes well.  We have met a number of new friends and are facing a few new challenges, both of which will keep life interesting over the next few weeks.  Bottom line, however, always boils down to the people rather than the place. 

Wintering in Marina Badalona alongside Zia will be an Australian family on a catamaran with two kids, a Japanese couple on another catamaran, several English monohulls, and a Belgian/Spanish couple on a houseboat.  We have also made friends with a local Spanish couple who stopped by to admire our boat when we first arrived.  Cassie's birthday on the first of the month provided the perfect excuse to bring everyone together for a party.  Of course the kids (there are a total of six of them here) had already gotten together for an evening of trick-or-treat on Halloween, in addition to afternoons spent in the playground together, but the adults have only had passing conversations and brief introductions.

Our first few days here were taken up by chores; laundry, cleaning up the boat and getting her settled into her new home.  We found the local grocery store, stocked up on candy for Halloween and birthday presents for Cassie.  We've been riding our bikes on our errands, and even managed to find a small store that sold costumes.  We wound up with Zoro and a Sorceress.

Of course with all the fresh tuna in our freezer, I had to make sushi for the party.  I was terribly nervous serving it to our Japanese neighbors.  They insisted that it was very good, although I am sure they would never say otherwise.  At least it turned out better than the birthday cake.  For lack of proper cake pans, I made two layers in a casserole dish.  They both came out beautifully, but when I flipped over the second one to place it on top of the first, it split right in two.  Cassie helped frost and decorate it and the cake wound up looking hilarious but it tasted just fine!  There were only two pieces leftover for the girl's breakfast the next morning!

In the end, we had a wonderful time getting to know our neighbors.  It is such a diverse group representing all different ages, nationalities and ambitions.  The language barrier is a bit of a challenge with Hiroshi and Makiko, our Japanese neighbors, but everyone else speaks great English.  Mar is a native of Spain who lives on a houseboat with her Belgian husband, Roland.  She is vivacious and friendly and promises to help me with my Spanish.  They will be here throughout the winter, but most of the other boats will go home through the cold season, returning in early spring. 

The cold weather presents a challenge in terms of getting through the next three weeks on the boat.  We have small plug in heaters but they don't keep us as warm as we are accustomed.  We'll have to find some others that work better so the kids don't rebel too much.  We are also having trouble refilling our propane tanks.  Apparently, every country has a different system and none of them are compatible with our American tanks.  We still have some fuel left in one tank, but we need to get our spare filled before it runs out.  I have to start working on the school situation for the girls, trying to find one that teaches in Spanish rather than Catalan.  It will have to be a private school of some sort, but so far I haven't had any luck finding one online.  I'm steeling myself for a call or a visit to the education ministry to see if they can help me.  Last I tried, no one spoke English.  Once we get that figured out, we'll start trying to find a nearby apartment for the months of January through March.  I don't think that will be too hard, but we shall see.