The big news first: we made it to Spain! We arrived after a LONG journey (more on that later) on the evening of August 27th. Our sponsor, Bryan, was waiting for us at the AMC terminal on the Rota Naval Station base here in Rota, Spain. We were pretty exhausted, although the girls slept most of the flight from the states to Spain.
Ruby was not in the mood for a picture after all that traveling:
All of our bags piled up as we waited for the dogs to be dropped off:
A bit blurry, but here is Noa and Bryan in good spirits as they gathered our things:
Lucky for us, we were able to say good-bye to our travel buddies before going to our lodging. One of our former Bremerton families, the Bollers and a new friend, Liz, were headed to Sigonella, Italy. The plane that took us to Spain is often referred to as the "Rotator" because it makes several stops. Luckily, we were the first one. Sigonella was next. I'm really glad we had friends to go through the whole ordeal with. My phone didn't really appreciate having to take a picture in such conditions, but you get the idea.
That night, we went to our temporary house (where we are currently residing). Instead of living in the on-base hotel, we opted to live in a sparsely furnished house (it's actually a duplex) in the housing area of the base. Bryan was able to acquire some hospitality kits which have a few dishes, sheets, silverware, etc. He also went shopping so that we'd have some food and new pillows (aw, what a guy!). This was a much better solution for us - a house with several rooms and a fenced in yard versus a single hotel room with two small children and dogs. Yeah, it was a no-brainer. We even have our own washer and dryer, so laundry is not an issue at all.
Here are a few pics of our place that first night. Those are linens from the Wardroom linen closet, which basically means they are borrowed linens (clean) that are used by families coming and going from Rota. Bryan also gave us goodies, like a nice bottle of wine and books and maps of the area.
Bryan thoughtfully did a preliminary shopping trip for us and it was great to have food on hand the next morning. He even bought dog treats for the pups!
Again, all our kitchen utensils, dishes, etc are on loan from a hospitality kit. I don't know what we'd do without this stuff since our own pots, pans, and dishes are on their way here.
Our bedroom for now…too bad Mila has barely slept in the crib. There's only one setting for the mattress and it's all the way down, so she tends to wake up as we are placing her down in it. So, she spends most nights in bed with us. We are both looking forward to getting settled with our own furniture so that Mila can begin to sleep in her own bed.
The next morning, I took this pic of our yard. It's perfect for the dogs and I love that it's fenced! We even have a small playground nearby.
The next day meant check-in for Noa at the hospital here on base. We were all a little bleary-eyed since we woke up early (3:00 AM) and stayed awake the rest of the morning.
The hospital here on base is really nice. It seems like a focal point, even. It's shaped like a square, with an open courtyard in the middle. They do a nice job to keep the gardens well-maintained and it's very clean and easy to navigate.
Temperature-wise, it's pretty warm here. Our first days here involved lots of check-in, so we didn't spend a lot of time outside. We made sure to give the girls a break from all the boring check-in business by going to one of the base playgrounds in the evening. Ruby has now dubbed this playground, "Ruby's Playground."
If you look closely you can see one of the ships (I think it's one of the Spanish ships) in the background. The sun sets right behind them, which makes for a pretty awesome skyline. Unfortunately my iPhone camera couldn't quite capture that awesomeness.
This is our family selfie taken on the playground. I was hoping to get the ships in the background, but it didn't quite work. Maybe next time!
A few interesting tidbits about being here:
- it's a SPANISH base, not American. We are considered guests (so no American flags everywhere, no anthems being played regularly, etc). One of our first orders of business was to get our Spanish ID cards. These cards are super important here; we have to show them to get on and off the base.
- There is not a lot of English spoken here, so learning Spanish is a must. I plan on taking classes and possibly getting a tutor. We hope to enroll the girls in Spanish schools. We also have Rosetta Stone and Duolingo. We'll certainly have lots of opportunities to use our Spanish both on and off base.
- Noa equates this area to southern California in terms of climate and landscape. There are desert-type plants on base, but there are also lots of fields surrounding the area (recently we've noticed crops of cotton). Of course, we also have ocean and beaches and it's pretty warm, although not very humid. We are not in a mountainous area, so it's really flat. It is still hard to adjust to the daylight here: the sun doesn't come up until around 8:30 in the morning and it stays up until 9:00 at night, but it leaves quickly. We joke that it's like a light switch turning off at night.
- Another interesting tidbit is that Rota/Puerto de Santa Maria (neighboring town) are very much like Pensacola, FL….they are vacation destinations and not a typical Spanish town. From June 15 - September 15, the population explodes here. Parking is crazy, the beaches are full, and the towns are booming. However, after the 15th of September, the crowds go home and the towns become sleepy beach towns, especially Rota. This is what Rota's beach looks like during the busy tourist season:
And here's one of Puerto's beaches:
