After some back and forth at times tough negotiation, we finally got the lease for the price we wanted and for 2 years. Tomorrow we are going there with Maria, from Nicaragua, who’s our best candidate so far to become our nanny and cleaning/cooking lady. We’re buying cleaning products in order to prepare our moving in… The apartment was recently painted but the painter was not the cleanest person in the world…
We’re exhausted because of the heat, the pressure in getting an apartment soon (our B plan was to move to a Trump Ocean Club furnished apartment… At least no need to buy furniture immediately and it’s a fully serviced option until we find something for the longer term. But we are tired of moving so we wanted to get something nice and long term. I guess it was worth it. For those who are curious about the place we’v found, click here to check it out 😉 It was the tallest Latin American building in 2010 (70 floors). It’s a luxury place but prices here are way more affordable than in Europe 🙂

Today we are enrolling her for good at Ohana Kids, a great nursery school we found in Costa del Este.

Today I had three good news:

1. The offer we made for that great apartment appears to have been accepted. After some some hardball negotiations in which we got the price that we wanted, the landlord will install curtains and paint the apartment, we should be signing the contract in the next few days and moving in next saturday! This IS SO GOOD news!!!! 🙂 More on the apartment on a future post (when we have the keys) and key lessons about real estate agents that I already knew but rediscovered first hand…

2. Leia didn’t cry when leaving nursery school today. We were told she is starting to make friends, having some fun and eating well (she was eating very little lately). She is now sleeping like a rock: there is some sort of celebration with insane fireworks next door, and she did not even move…

3. One of the “local” products I thought I would miss the most from Barcelona is… Vichy Catalan sparkling water! When I have stomach acidity problems, this is my best remedy. Look at what I’ve found at Riba Smith (a “posh” supermarket around here) today (See picture)

We also rented a car temporarily (up to now we were renting a car with a driver, a nice guy called Rodolfo – although it was a little expensive…). Now that we more or less know the city, I feel more confident driving by myself.

Seeing all these expats with their wives and kids reminds me of my school years in São Paulo at the French “Lycée”: most of my friends were either expat kids, jewish or franco/belgo-brazilian kids…

A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parent’s culture.
The TCK frequently builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any.
Although elements from each culture may be assimilated into the TCK’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background.

The following 31 signs you are a TCK are SOOO true 🙂

http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/31-signs-youre-a-third-culture-kid

I wonder how my daughter Leia will be a Multi Third Cultural Kid… Mexican mother, Belgo-Brazilian from polish descendants father, born in Spain, will grow up in Panama. For now she has 4 passports… (BRA, BEL, MEX, ESP)

Today we’ve watched Mexico vs. The Netherlands with our first acquaintances around here. Olivier and Adara are respectively french and mexican. We met them queueing (priority lane for families with children) for our Air France flight to Panama in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. They invited us to join and watch the match with some friends and we have started getting to know the franco-mexican mafia of Panamá (actually a few french engineers working on a bridge over the Panama canal near Colón for Vinci, with latin american wives – actually all but one were mexican). We had a great time if it were not for the penalty that gave The Netherlands a 2-1 victory – that was pretty unfair! 🙁

Delicious Ranchero Style Eggs!

– We are arriving during the worst part of the year: rainy season (they call it winter here but temperatures stick to the 23ºC-33ºC range). We were expecting a torrid and humid sauna. Actually it’s not that bad! And at night it is actually nice.
– When the sun comes out, you’d better have sunscreen…
– When it rains… it can turn into a real shower! Visibility goes to zero and it’s like the clouds fall at once. An umbrella is useless: just run for shelter!
– Mosquitoes: yes, they’re here too, but the mosquito bites I have are actually from Barcelona. We were warned that there’s been dengue problems around so tomorrow I’m going to buy some repellent.
– Most products on supermarket shelves come from the US, so you virtually feel like in the US. So far we only know Super99 and Riba Smith. Following Mrs. Lee’s (from Ohana Kids) recommendations I will get a membership for buying at PriceSmart. We need to see how El Rey is like too.
– Traffic jams here are the rule (even though the city is actually pretty small – it’s due to really bad urban planning: skyscrapers everywhere but not enough avenues and forget about being a pedestrian – the city has not been thought for them: no pedestrian crossings and sometimes no sidewalks). Going to Costa del Este was really the right decision. It’s like a ghetto but it’s a comfortable one.
– People here are very nice, although a litlle bit slooooow sometimes… take your time and take it easy is the philosophy…