Slappy Toad

11/18/2024

My boy going up to order us dinner. My life is complete for the next 4 weeks. 💕

11/18/2024

I love airport people watching. A man was waiting for his woman with a bunch of hand-crocheted flowers. When she got here, he started crying out of happiness. Sweetest thing ever. Now they are just standing there holding each other. When it works, it’s beautiful. 💕

11/18/2024

Party of 3. Mom and older daughter and the apparent boyfriend that met them here at the airport.

Mom: Did you miss her?
Man: I missed her when there was no dinner and I missed her when I had to take the dogs.
Daughter: *nervous laughter
Me: 😳

Maybe being single ain’t so bad after all…

11/18/2024

Waiting impatiently… any minute now!!

11/18/2024

So it turns out I’m just single because I’ve been living on the wrong continent my entire life.

I’m a large person. 6’ tall and bigger than a good majority of men out there. Can’t miss me anywhere I go. But today in London, I walked into a small cafe to grab something for dinner and nearly ran into two officers that are probably two of the biggest men I’ve seen in my life!

It was cramped quarters in this tiny cafe, so when they turned around to leave, they were nearly on top of me looking down. And now I understand why all you shorties want the tall guys.

I always wanted a tall guy just so I could at least have my guy be eye level. But to have a guy look down at me the way these two did… I get it now, ladies. I understand you.

I have NEVER felt small before in my life. But tonight I felt like the shrimpiest of shrimps and I was not mad about it! 😳

11/17/2024

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11/17/2024

Made it to London!!

11/17/2024

The gate agent just said to me, “Thank you! Have nice fly!” And I think that is the cutest way I’ve ever been told to enjoy my flight.

11/17/2024

Images from Alicante from yesterday.

11/16/2024

Tomorrow I’ll be taking you guys to London with me to explore a couple of the markets there!

11/16/2024

So before I got here, I joined a social group for this area. Since arriving, I started a Saturday morning coffee meetup every week. Today, everyone wanted to meet at a chocolate cafe. No complaints here! Check it out!

11/15/2024

So I started to second guess myself on the photos I posted and did a little research. Apparently, it’s a big no no to post photos like that here. So they are gone. Hope you enjoyed them while you could! Instead, please accept a photo of the full moon taken from my balcony. It’s every bit as beautiful.

11/15/2024

I'm happy to say that I am finally able to start blogging on the Slappy Toad website again! So stay tuned for coming articles.

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11/12/2024

JOURNAL ENTRY

So today is the first day that feels like "everyday living" here. I had no appointments, and just putzed around on the computer most of the day. Mostly, just trying to figure out how to get my son here and back. I did a few dishes, made a yummy dense bean salad, and now I have a sink full of dishes that are going to wait until the morning to get washed. One load was enough for today. Ha!

I'm trying to prepare for his visit. Yesterday I bought a blanket for his room, and a new pillow for myself because the one that was here kept giving me a crick in the neck.

The mosquitos have eaten me alive here. My arms and legs are covered in bites and the itch is driving me insane. I've heard that you can make a tea out of ground cinnamon and spray it on yourself to keep them at bay, but then I risk staining my clothes. I've heard the same about vanilla extract, but haven't located any here yet. So my battle with Spanish mosquitos wages on. Thankfully, the evenings are getting cooler, so they aren't quite as prolific.

I'm truly ready to start an everyday life here. Find my routines, and enjoy everything Spain has to offer. I still can't quite believe I'm here, to be honest. My brain is still functioning like I'm back in the States. I think it will take a while to come around to the fact that I actually live here now.

Life is definitely different here in the smallest of ways. I remember before I left, asking in a Facebook expat group if I could get ground turkey here. They ridiculed me so badly calling me ridiculous for even asking, that I left the group. And guess what? I can't find a single package of ground turkey anywhere!

I also cannot seem to locate canned pumpkin, so now I'm on the hunt for fresh pumpkins. I'm hoping to get an early start on Thursday so I can go to the market one town over before I head to another chocolate factory for a history class of some sort that I was invited to by another expat. So if I can get to the market before that, I may just be able to find a pumpkin!

My son and I will be having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with an expat friend here. She's actually German/Canadian, but is quite happy to celebrate the day with us at the end of the month. We are going half and half on the meal and I expect it to be quite tasty! Thankfully, one store here was able to order a fresh turkey for me. So at least we'll have that! Don't even get me started on fresh cranberries. We may have to skip that one altogether. But that's okay. You don't move to another country and expect everything to be the same. We'll simply do the best we can and enjoy a good meal together.

Outside of that, I really want to start exploring the area more and hope to do some of that with my son. I want to take him up to Santa Barbara castle. I haven't been up there yet and I'm very much looking forward to it. If he's up for it, I might even drag him down to Seville. But I don't want to wear him out too much because he's coming here for a break and to destress from certain events back home. So outside of the Christmas markets, I think we'll just play it by ear.

I'm now turning my sites to buying a house. It seems to make the most sense and will actually save my monthly budget quite a bit. I'm still considering moving up north for the cooler weather, but I need to actually get up there to see how the area feels. At the end of the day, I just want to be someplace that feels like home. Whatever home will feel like in a new country.

So that's it! My "mundane" life here in Spain has now begun and I'm really curious to see where it leads me.

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11/11/2024

WHEEEEEEE!!!! My son is flying out next week to stay with me for a month!!! I can’t even tell you how happy I am right now!