Happy Leap Day! Lee and I stupidly decided to throw a party tonight to celebrate and have one last hooray. Obviously we have much more important things to do than make weird punches and buy frog decorations, but it should be a really fun night.

We've sewn together all the fabric for the headboards. We had a nice Sex in the City sewing marathon. I'm getting pretty skilled at sewing straight lines.

We're heading to Ikea today to pick up some side tables, mirrors and other last minute things. Amy and Ivan are staying at the hostel this evening, so we're getting one room set up plus all the common areas.

Lee and I did some serious gringo-sized shopping today at Carrefour,the largest supermarket in town. We bought gigantic glass jars and cans of olives to serve as food to pica-pica (literally, nibble-nibble) in the hostel. We also bought 32-packs of pop, which I don't think have even reached America yet. I have to say though, my favorite was the case of Mahou beer advertised as "buy 23, get one free." Sweet deal.

The hostel is looking pretty fantastic, minus the fact that the ceilings are sinking in 8 out of the 10 rooms. Whoops. The ceiling boards are too heavy for the supports they put in, so they are kind of coming apart at the seams. Hopefully some emergency repair work early next week will fix the problem in time for all of our guests to arrive!

On our end, we have a little more furniture to buy, curtains to sew, and headboards to make. Still lots to do, but I'm not too stressed. Lee's losing enough sleep for the both of us!

To our dismay there was no free cava or massages to be seen at the internet marketing seminar. But, we did learn a lot about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so I fully expect there to be a surge on our web hits once Lauren works her magic.

Busy weekend for us. We got a lot of work done on Saturday so that we could attend yet another calcotada on Sunday. This one was at a friend's family's home in Reus, which is just south of Tarragona (about 1.5 hrs south of BCN by train). We had a fantastic time. No pictures because my camera died, but I think you get the gist from the other photos.

More craziness today. We picked up all of the MDF we had cut to make our headboards. We borrowed a friend's sewing machine to start making curtains and the headboards. The bookings are coming in faster than we can handle them! Literally. We had an overbooking on March 22nd that Lee and I dealt with frantically earlier.

I'm off to a Barcelona Women's Network professional networking event at a nearby spa that a British lady opened last year. Something about marketing your business on the internet. I'm hoping for free massages and cava!

No one needs to see picture of my gross arm bruise.

More chaos at the hostel today. We had the key-card door locks installed. We tested the water pressure. It's seems okay, but we're still waiting to test one more shower and turn on the hot water. So that's still an unknown.

Meanwhile we're running around buying last-minute things like door stoppers and little men and women for the bathroom doors.

While yesterday was certainly a three-ring circus at the hostel, the highlight was definitely our trip to the doctor. As a part of the visa process, we need a sign-off from a medical professional stating that we're mentally and physically stable enough for this project. The mental stability still has yet to be determined but we submitted ourselves to blood tests for the physical.

Now, this is really not a big deal but it happens that Lauren is terrified of needles. When the doctor told us we'd need a blood test, Lauren went temporarily deaf. She turned to me, white as our new sheets with a horrified look on her face, "What did the doctor say, Lee? Did he say something about a needle?!" I had a flash back of our first cholesterol finger-prick test at ages 8 & 9, when two nurse's aides literally had to sit on little Lauren to get the deed done, and I think my complexion turned a bit ashen as well.

We took a few minutes to dry her cold sweat and get her heart rate down and I assured her this is no big deal and something we must do. I think she's really proud that she handled it like a big girl. I'm sure she'll post pictures of her bruised up arm later. Her purple badge of courage.

It's a big day at Somnio. The mattresses, pillows, sheets, towels, shower curtains and comforters are all arriving!

I've been dreaming of the day when our views per day on the blog randomly sky-rocket. As you can see, we were averaging about 10 hits a day from mainly friends and family, which was fine with me. But for some unknown reason, 128 people viewed our blog yesterday.

Does anyone who is looking at this know why?

For anyone following our electricity saga, here's the latest. Our system is now properly grounded. The electrician had to dig 2 meters into the basement floor (miraculously without hitting any pipes or lines) and bury a metal rod. So that was relatively easy (for us).

We also had to move our electricity meter into our beautiful lobby AND hang three extra empty boxes in anticipation of some system update that might be mandated in the next century.

Here's the result. We're hoping to get a pretty cover over it ASAP.

Inquiring blog-readers want to know what a calçotada is. (okay one reader, and it was probably my aunt, but whatever).

Calçots are a kind of scallion/green onion that are continually buried as they are growing so that there isn't any of that inedible green part. Instead the whole onion remains white and when cooked has a very creamy flavor. In Catalunya (the region Barcelona is in), it is typical to have big feasts during calçot season, which is winter to early spring. They grill the calçots so the casings get burnt and blackened. You eat them with your hands by scraping the burnt part off, dipping the calçot in romesco sauce (almonds, red peppers, garlic, olive oil), and lowering them into your mouth from high above. Generally, calçots are the appetizer and a traditional calçotada will be followed by plenty of grilled meats (lamb, locally made sausages, etc), vegetables, typical desserts like crema catalana, and plenty of wine and cava (spanish champagne).

All together, it makes for a highly enjoyable afternoon of messy eating and fun. Calçotadas are usually held in old Catalan country houses called masias. The first one we went to was in a plaza in the center of Barcelona. Then we went to one near Tarragona in a beautiful house with great outdoor spaces. The most recent was in a restaurant in the hills near Barcelona.

Hope that explains it! I'd highly recommend a Calçotada to anyone visiting Barcelona between December and March.

Here's me demonstrating the proper calçot eating technique at an urban calçotada (complete with Romesco sauce dripping down my chin)...

We got the signs put up late last week. Here are a few pics.

This is the lobby sign...



This is the sign right outside our door (wall to be painted)...

In an effort to eek out every last moment of potential fun before we're chained to a reception desk, we went to another great calcotada this weekend. Plus we can chalk is up a research. It was much more tame than previous experiences - bibs AND gloves? But it was a great time.

We are now capable of charging people's credit cards! I don't know why, but all along I felt like if we could figure that part out well before opening, we were doing okay. A lot of new establishments (be it hotels, restaurants, whatever) usually can't take credit cards the first few days that they're open. I've run into that problem a lot. Not a Somnio. We will happily take your plastic. Even AmEx.

For those of you keeping track at home, we are on jamon leg number 2. I think you get a Spanish passport after number 5.

Lots getting done at the hostel today. We had people in to install our security camera. A guy came to finish up our fire alarms system and mount some fire extinguishers. And another guy was in to install the wood paneling in our lobby. Here are the before and after pics...

Another option in case the hostel's a flop - Psychic Hotline. Lee and I have both recently had premonitions in dreams that have come true. Lee had a vivid dream that we sanded and stained the floors only to discover all kind of beautiful colors in the wood, and it looked great. Check these suckers out...



As for me, I dreamed about a conversation with our electrician that I then had with him almost verbatim the next day. It was creepy.

We just got the following email from a lady with her photo and resume attached.

Dear Human Resource Department, I hereby would like to apply for any administrative positions at Somniohostels.

I'll protect her privacy, but she looked approximately like this:


Maybe I'm just up working too late, but I found the whole thing hilarious.

We've spent a lot of our time here doing some serious networking. We are now proud (paying) members of both The American Society and The Barcelona Women's Network. Both are pretty tight-knit groups that organize social events, networking gatherings, etc for people to get to know each and get to know the city. The American Society is a little more social and open to literally anyone who wants to join. Obviously, the women's network is slightly more exclusive (no men) and definitely has an older average age. I'd highly recommend both to anyone moving to Barcelona or looking to make some english-speaking friends/connections.

We're trying to decide on a duvet cover, so Lee's making me sleep with all the testers to see how they hold up. Mainly we're looking for something that can stand up to wrinkles and lint. I think we found a winner at ZaraHome (authentic Spanish brand for our super Spanish hostel). I tried to take some pictures of it, but each different flash setting made it look like a different color of brown than it really is. It also made me realize that we are DEFINITELY hiring a professional photographer to take photos of the hostel once it's done (and ironing these suckers).

Ash Wednesday. In Barcelona that means 40 days of donut holes up ahead. Every Catalan holiday is tied to a food. Awesome. Lent is fried and sugared donut hole season (aka bunyols). Inexplicably, these are only available at bakeries on certain days (I think Wed and Fri if memory serves). Lee and I are a little afraid that there's some kind of secret, highly religious ceremony you're supposed to perform with bunyols, because we get strange looks every time we dive into our package of bunyols before we even leave the bakery. Then again, maybe they're just not used to American levels of gluttony. Why wait until you get home to enjoy the doughy fried goodness?

If these folks can get a license, surely we can.

Gross.

The view from our newly accessed roof deck is pretty fantastic (at the apt, not the hostel). The guy who gave me the keys warned that we couldn't have parties, because the neighbors below would be upset. It took me until today to realize that we're the neighbors below.

It's a beautiful day in Barcelona.

We should send out a newsletter every day. Check out the website hits...

We sent out this newsletter to everyone we could think of today to get the word out about opening and our inauguration party. I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of sending an email to about 700 people in one day. About 100 people were out of office and another 100 had changed jobs (and therefore, email addresses). We've gotten a lot of really kind responses from everyone. It's nice to know how much support we have. The general theme was definitely more of a surprised "wow, can't believe this actually happened." But I guess that's better than nothing!