The moment is so clear to me still.  Out walking the dogs just a few months ago, Andrew and I were commiserating that while we absolutely LOVE our dear friends who we have spent the winter break with for the last couple of years, we really didn’t think that another week or so in Indio (Palm Springs adjacent) would be the optimal way to spend what little precious time we have with all three kids this year.  With Ari about to graduate from Michigan and Ruth racing through her freshman year at UNC Charlotte, we are spread across the US most of the time.  We want that “quality time” we get so rarely these days together…a family adventure is in order, for sure.  What to do?  Cancun…Mexico…gang wars and drug lord…nah.  The Caribbean….mmm…too expensive.  We ran through a few options that didn’t make it through the filters. Wait a second.  What was the commitment we made this past summer to each other? The one about fulfilling some wild hair dream of living overseas for a bit.  Yes, and we REALLY need to visit where we think we want to live when we do this…hmmm.  Hey, let’s take the kids!  Are we crazy????

I  know there’s a little back story missing here.  Andrew and I have talked about this living overseas thing before – many times.  And the timing just wasn’t right.  Business reasons. Health reasons. Where the kids are in school reasons.  Finally, we put the stake in the ground while at family camp (without the family, no less)…we are moving overseas – destination TBD…timeline sooner than later.  Not for good, for an adventure together.  And after some research, we targeted Spain – and likely Barcelona.  So,  this was to be our “are we crazy” trip! I have no doubt that there is never a perfect time to uproot and move halfway across the globe to do anything.  And, there are some folks (though honestly I haven’t talked to many) who think we ARE nuts to do this at all.  Oddly enough,   when we have been sharing this proposed plan with our circle of friends and acquaintances, most of them say – somewhat wistfully – wow, that’s so awesome…wish we could do it.  I’m a bit unclear why more people don’t just do “it” but heck, I may find out at the back end of all this.   Meantime,  I have this need to journal how this all unfolds.  Voila!  A blog in the making.

Andrew became the logistics captain on both the basic trip details and some longer-range planning items – I have been the research guru.  While he made the plane reservations, connected the dots on possible schools for Eitan in Barcelona, and made sure we locked in a rental car big enough for the five of us and bags, and arranged for us to stay with a wonderful ex-au pair and her family, I trolled the web and found us the apartment to stay in for the first week through a sabbatical homes site in a great neighborhood;  set up Skype dates with a new network of acquaintances in country who are giving us guidance and a bit of start-up confidence to move forward;  joined online forums and discussions among expats to get the inside track on visa hoops we will need to jump through (oh, dreading that one), and got a good feel for the geography, demographics, and sites not to miss on this exploratory mission.  What a team! We are a strange pair.  We argue like every other long-married couple, love our kids fiercely and probably give them more than they need but rationalize that it’s all well-deserved, have nearly polar opposite approaches to problem-solving and parenting, and neither of us does well with other people dictating what work we do and how we do it.  And we are both always looking for the next chapter of “how can we stir up the pot of daily living?”.  Routine = anathema.  And that’s the glue that seems to bind our longevity overall.

We gathered the Schorr troops – Eitan wrapped a day or two early at his high school, Ruthie finished her first semester finals (whoop!) and flew home for a friends-fix and we flew to BCN with Ari on our tail in a little less than a week when his finals ended.  And we are in explore mode.  Tapas and Sangria mode. Gaudi and Barca football mode.  Will we be lost with broken Spanish in the midst of Catalonia?  Will downsizing to an urban apartment for a week have us at each other’s throats (I doubt it but this builds dramatic tension…)?  Will we find the quintessential shots bar (and what to do with Eitan if we do?). And most of all – will Espana capture our collective hearts? Stay tuned.