A blog for our dog

There is a rottweiler puppy on the way into our lives, which soon will arrive to it´s new home, so I opened a blog to keep track of the dog´s life and for it to work as a link between us and the breeder of the dog, she being finnish and therefore unable to follow up on the dog "hands-on". The blog will be written in finnish to make it easier to explain more complicated matters if such arise, but I am considering of writing an english translation on the side. In any case for those unable to read finnish but still interested, there will be photos and possibly videos to see. The link to the blog can always be found in the "Links" sidebar on the right. So far there´s not much content in the blog - except some links of interest - as the puppy isn´t with us yet, but soon enough that will change :)

Barcelona and Andorra

In the beginning of October I spent a week in Barcelona, also including a daytrip to Andorra. Rocío was with me for the first two days, while we visited the family of his uncle Antonio (you can see him in the earlier posts). Due to a job interview, she had to return to Ciudad Real earlier than planned, but it sure was worth it as she got the job :)

However, I remained in Barcelona for the week, as my friend Jose (a spaniard living in Finland) had come to visit his family and friends for the week as well. The time spent there was packed with new sights and experiences, too numerous to start explaining here, so instead I´ll let the photos do the talking. Behind the following link you´ll find about a hundred to see:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ville.pulkkanen/BarcelonaAndAndorra

On another topic, during my stay here in Spain I´ve met many people from the internet forum of Audisport Iberica in various meets and get-togethers. Besides being fantastically nice and helpful people, after my visit to Barcelona and one more of these meets (usually held in a bar, getting to know the various brews available in Spain;) it seems that now this folk might be planning a visit to Finland some day to try the local brews and rent some reindeers as a means of transportation!!! You never know about these things, maybe it´ll come true after all...

I´ve put some photos online from the first meet in Madrid, held at the same time I went there to buy the car, and from another one combining people from Castilla La Mancha, Madrid and Valencia, held here in La Mancha. There´s also some photos from the Barcelona-meet, but those aren´t online yet. See the links:

http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n172/Mezzapics/Misc%20Audi/

http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n172/Mezzapics/Blogger/

That´s all for now, see you soon!

Our new home

Hello again! It´s been a while since I last got to update the blog, as I haven´t had an internet connection at my disposal, but now I can use the computer room at the university of Castilla La Mancha to do at least some online stuff. A couple of weeks back we found our new home and moved in - the easiest move I´ve ever had, as I didn´t bring too much stuff to Spain. Because of some limitations of the network here I can´t put the photos of the flat directly to the blog for now, but here´s a link that will take you to the folder in Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ville.pulkkanen/TheApartment

A few comments on the photos and the flat... The first ones are from the yard of the building, showing the building itself and the recreational areas: the pools and the sporting grounds. The swimming pools ain´t really for swimming as they´re a little bit small for that, but it sure must be refreshing to dip in on a hot summer day (about 40 degrees celsius in the hottest period of the summer). This year we didn´t get to enjoy that, as we moved in at the end of September.

The photo with Rocío peeking from the terrace shows our windows. The white things outside them are called "persiana" and are there to block the sunlight and it´s heat in the summer. More or less every house in Spain is equipped with those. Moreover, they also provide an excellent function of darkening the room completely if needed and man, I´ll tell you I´ve never slept as good as here with the persiana down :) The picture shows on the left the terrace, next to it the kitchen window, next to the right the living room and finally the bedroom. The flat has a lot of light as every room has a window.

The next photos show the parking garage and the door to our storage in front of the car, the hallway of our stairway with the mailboxes and our front door.

Inside the apartment, when moving it looks like moving no matter how little things you bring with you ;) In short time we were settled though and this is how the flat looks now. First you see the entrance "hall" and then the kitchen, which I like a lot as it has lots of space and is well equipped. A few pics from the toilet also, and as you can see on the second one, there´s something extra in the spanish version compared to the finnish one. The next photos are from the living room, which also has the dining table. The sofa opens up to be a two-person bed, so visitors are welcome :) The second last photo is the bedroom, or well, the bed mostly, as it was difficult to fit the whole room to the picture (Heta and Äiti, here´s where I sleep ;).

The last photo shows our first visitors, Esther and her boyfriend David, who study English Philology in the university like Rocío.