All you need is less.

I have been thinking about that quote a lot lately… given my reality at the current period of time, less is the name of the game. Doing more with less, having MUCH less of an autumn wardrobe from which to choose, and making less of a deal about Halloween costumes. Speaking of, HAPPY HALLOWEEN blog world! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday filled with family and friends. In terms of my Halloween plans, this afternoon I’m going to do a Halloween-themed English lesson with Abril, Marc, y Laura. After that Cass and I are having dinner at Damian’s with his lovely family. Tonight, I plan to throw on a pirate hat that I found already at the apartment and call myself a pirate as we head to the Halloween party at Shoko with the Sant Cugat crew. So it should be a good day/night!

Disappointingly, I didn’t manage to get my hands on a pumpkin in October, but the latter half of this month was on the whole entirely delightful. It warmed back up for the last few weeks, thankfully, so Cass and I have been enjoying that. So Cass’ friend, Brenden, and his two friends, Kyle and Marc, stayed with us for a week in mid October. They are traveling around Europe and it was fun for us to host guests again. Plus, they were great houseguests, even making their beds/ futon each morning. One night when they were visiting, we bar-hopped around after stuffing our faces at Rosa Negra; we then hit up Oveja Negra off la Rambla, Bar Marsella (“the absinthe bar”), and finally Dow Jones on the walk home. The horrid staff at Bar Marsella were as rude and unfriendly as two years before when we had gone there with Marta.

Later that week, I hung out with Mar all of Friday – I went with her and Sergio to check out the new locale, which will also be their new apartment; it is just of the Rambla de Poblenou so that is nice. It was a good Friday- we got cafés con leche a few times, had a menu lunch at Nacho’s restaurant, I tried to take a siesta but ended up watching the news, and then we picked up Abril from school. Later Friday night I went with Sergio to Damian’s practice in Sant Cugat with them and then we got dinner there. Saturday the 19^th, I went with Damian’s family to his game against Junior Sant Cugat. We took Abril to a park and had lunch out then went to watch his game. It was awesome to get to see him play; sadly he got a red card shortly before the game ended so that was less than ideal. I didn’t realize that not only does a red card merit an automatic end to that game (for you), but also a suspension from 1-3 future matches as well. Later Saturday night, I went out with Cass and a good group of friends, as we were celebrating her visiting friends and our 4-month of being in Europe anniversary. We started out at our apartment, then made our way to the Oveja Negra in Marina, from there walked to the beach clubs and we met Damian at Vila. Fun night!

For the first Sunday in a while that I hadn’t worked at Betty Ford’s, Damian and I went to the movies and saw El mayordomo (The Butler); it was the first time I had been to the movies in Spain since I saw Twilight with Nina in Bilbao in 2010. I highly recommend that movie! And we were pleasantly surprised to find a huge theatre within 6 minutes walking distance from my apartment. So that brings us up to last week… I continued to meet for individual English lessons with Martín and Abril’s group. Last Monday Cass and I went to Damian’s house for dinner; Sergio made milanesa con patatas fritas – It was delicious. Plus there are few things Cass and I appreciate more than going home with leftovers!

Cass’ temporary nannying gig ended last week, so last weekend we went to their apartment and they gifted us a few boxes worth of goodies. Last Saturday Cass and I went head to head against Damian and Rodrigo in some pick-up basketball. Although I embarrassingly only made one basket in our game to 30, we still managed to beat them thanks to Cass. Lol. We treated ourselves to Bo da B afterwards and then later met back up with the guys to watch the El Clasico match between FCB y Real Madrid. This Monday Cass and I took the train to Sitges for a nice day trip! We got in some quality beach time and watched a beautiful sunset before coming back to the city that night.

Cass and I switched rooms on Tuesday of this week- the actual switching process was more of a labor than I think either of us had thought beforehand, but now in hindsight we’re both happy with the cambio. Tomorrow is Día de todos los Santos, el cumple de Paula, and we’re going to our very first Flamenco show! I am pumped for a great weekend ahead!