Plan B!!!

(Jason writing)
Well, the relocation agent didn't get the information in time... so we spent a lovely morning drinking coffee and reading the paper in our hotel lobby. :-) We have been rushing them this week, so it wasn't a genuine surprise for us that the information was lost between our account manager in London and the office here in Madrid. The fact that Christmas is coming is not helpful. We sense that this place is about to shut down for a couple weeks.

So, we rented a car and went exploring on our own. We had some help from a local (wonderful) missionary couple who recommended people to talk with at The American School of Madrid. We made an appt with the assistant director and got a great tour. We then met (interviewed with??) the Headmaster of the school who was very pleased that I work for IBM and assured me he'd do all he can to admit our Katie. He mentioned that all the Embassy children and the NATO kids attend the school. It's a good one!

After that, we drove our small car (for which IBM paid $125 today) down some small streets to a small restaurant where the prices are BIG. $75 for a lunch that you'd pay $35 for in the US. It was good though!

After lunch, we went "all the way across town" to the IBM Headquarters office. It took an entire 20 minutes! (That doesn't count the 3 times we backtracked after getting what Becca calls "lost" and what Jason calls "too far on a road we know".) This place reminds me a lot of San Diego... except that the ocean is not nearby. The climate is very similar (dry) and the distances are closer than you think. The roadways are great for driving and my little Peugeot 207 was great fun.

Across the street from my office, we found a really nice and new mall. It was essentially the same as the Galleria in Dallas. Very nice. We shopped and explored for a couple hours. The highlight was a BIG grocery store where we spent an hour looking for all the things we'd buy at home. There were surprisingly many things we recognized. The ultimate was finding peanut butter. Yes... we 3 can now live in Espana.

Now we're back in our hotel. It's midnight here and 5pm in Texas. Please don't call our cellphone after 5pm. You know who you are... :-)

Jason and Becca