My 20 euro tent

Going camping! (well.. wait, yes I am! (It’s slightly unconventional camping but it’s still camping) (and yes you may think I’m camping in my apartment, I was tempted but no I will take it outside)

I’m going to explore in a random direction this evening (probably west) and when I get tired, pitch a tent & sleep. Unstructured explore mode 😉

This is my 20 euro tent:

(Did I mention I love Decathlon?)

Pitched in my living room to make sure I got all the bits.

Next up, packing my backpack for later so as to make sure I have NO excuses.

Then a run & maybe an art store for more paint, then maybe painting & a workout & then some sort of visual dance-art-performance & then my explore!

#randomRandimSaturdayInSpain

I’m trying to do as much out of my apartment today as I can. (Ex, I’ll paint/daw outside in public if possible) I find myself hibernating sometimes, doing the things I want to do in my apartment (because I like it & there’s lots I want to do) but that is not the Spanish way & if I spend my free time in my apartment what’s the point of being in Spain?

Kk. Back to packing! Have a good weekend wherever you are! Go take a random adventure 😉

Etching! (In 3min, w/ ~4€)

SUPER cool science experiment (#electrictyIsReallyReallyNeat!)

This is what Teddy & I did this afternoon:

SO easy! Really crazy amazing.

Ingredients:

• Two 9 Volt batteries
• Electrical tape
• Random wire found on the street
• Handful of Q-tips
• Salt & Water (to make salt water)
• Pen
• Knife or other piece of metal to etch
• 15 minutes

Our test knife (because, “is this really going to work??”)

TOTAL SUCCESS! & next?!

Our real knives:

First a stencil,

(I traced our design on a piece of plastic (yogurt container lid), put a piece of electrical tape over the tracing, held the lid up to the window and cut out the pattern with…the knife)

Plug the two 9 Volt batteries together, attach a wire to the + terminal & a wire to the – terminal, add some tape & clip or tape the negative wire to a Q-tip (ours were super useful, hollow inside & the same size as the wire). This is the “etching device”.

(Picture below & for more specifics: http://www.instructables.com/id/Salt-Water-Metal-Etching/)

Make a bowl of salt water (dissolve salt in hot water if possible, easiest anyways) (we used as much salt as the water would take)

Tape the positive wire to the knife blade, dip the Qtip tip in the salt water, squeeze it out a bit so it’s mainly damp (not drrrrripping) and touch the knife blade (inside your stencil) with the Qtip. (& sizzzzzle & you’re etching!)

= Our new knife collection!

Try it! I dare you 😉

ttyl,

-rr

Otters Spanish-Edition

Week of adventure! Here’s some pictures, words & stories on their way.

Wonder of a Whir

FINALLY. Boy, it really is the little things in life. I FIGURED OUT MY WASHING MACHINE! Tho it sounds exactly like a jet engine warming up for takeoff in my kitchen at the moment, it’s working. I’ve spent the last week and a half trying to figure it out. First I got my laundry stuck in it for two days. Then I thought I had the door figured out (false hope) because I proceeded to got my laundry stuck again, this time for three days. And then I figured out how to get the door open & got it to seemingly work (yay!!) but too early for celebration because…turns out I couldn’t figure out how to make it put in water while it washed clothes (or even really how to make it spin (it consistently spun half-heartedly half of the time and with not more than some drips of water so really quite ineffective)) Then I thought I done a load of laundry (yay yay!!) put in a second load & then realized that the first load was significantly soapy. Then my bag of soapy laundry leaked all over the counter while I endeavored (for another day) to wash the other load (quite unsuccessfully). Finally I rinsed the old soapy load in my bathtub (I’m desperately in need of pants) hung up the most necessary pieces and this afternoon, after 10 days of issues ran a successful load of laundry followed by a second! Two data points of success! I think I can publish that I have actually, really truly, finally figured out how to get my Spanish washing machine to join me in my adventure of foreign domesticity.

Sincerely, Robyn and her new friend the washing machine.

#07

Robyn in Real Life

Earlier this week, on a mission!

#07(?)

Hola!! It’s surfmer time!

I’m learning to surf!! #northernCoastOfSpain #greatTeammates

Sebastian & Arthur (pronounced french-like, ~Athor) have extra surf gear & are super about encouraging the rest of the team to come join. Marie, Arthur’s girl friend loaned me a surfing wetsuit (like a sailing wetsuit but more flexible & more sealed because you spend (very nearly) all the time in the water). Saturday we all headed to a beach 20min outside of Santander, suited up & headed towards the ocean. (ocean ocean. Standing up on the hill, all that’s to be seen is a flat blue line of horizon & an expanse of water, blue and alive, and surging into white-topped breakers as it meets the orange sand of the beach below)

I struggled my way through the breakers (the difficulty of that bit is probably a bit dependent on the conditions will get easier) and headed out to the staging area where everyone waits for good wave sets, sitting calmly on top of their entire submerged boards (goal, work on ballencing & looking cool on top of a (rather tippy) submerged flotation device without using my hands)

The first wave I caught I was hooked. It’s like surfing a boat down a wave on a downwind except for longer!

Interesting points of learning surfing:

-one gets a LOT of water up one’s nose (excellent for cleaning one’s sinuses)

-surf board leashes are quite well designed (a piece of line is very sub-optimal) (tho line does work quite well for tangling your feet & jerking your ankle & making you fall over)

-waves have a wonderful amount of power & movement. The pull of shallow water towards an approaching wave and then the rise & pull of the wave is a very neat sensation)

-waves come in sets, it’ll be mostly flat for a bit (perfect time to paddle out) & them be a bunch of waves like 3-6 and then flat for a bit again (makes me very curious about wave physics)

Today we went surfing again and it was SUPER windy (~30kts) and the wave tops were blowing aggressively back out to sea as the waves battled the wind to get to the beach. On the water after a wave passed was like being in a torrential rain shower with rainbows as the sun hit the suspended water droplets.

Wind, water & sun! Pretty good weekend!

The coolest bit I’ve found this week is the team is awesome. We hang out (dinners/get-togethers at three people’s apartments in a week & a half) and people are outdoorsy & social & inclusive & friendly! Team members & their significant others together all feel like a big family. We know we’re all here for the next three years so let’s make it awesome!

Its fun to be out with everyone because four languages are spoken, French, Italian, Spanish & English. Dinner can be a swirling combination of all four, not in an exclusionary way at all, just all at once! I’ll pick up bits of all 😉

Oooh, I’ll have to tell you about Decathlon at some point #bestPlaceEver! Next blog post 😉

Goodnight!

#06 (?)

OH MY GOODNESS

SPAIN

AS IN!..(sorry for shouting, I’m excited)…as in really actually, I now live here!!!!

Learning #1, no matter what time your flight to Europe is, SLEEP on the plane. I had a rather funky first day (flashbacks to MIT and all-nighters with… no sleep)

I’m not sure what would be most interesting, a few snapshots of this crazy first week or a play-by-play synopsis. Teddy says random little stories so lets see what happens!!

The office is nice! The office is very crisp and white, we’re waiting on monitors (will be SO much better for work) & Spanish power strips are a challenge. The building is on the street next to the water, looking out on gorgeous bay. (I didn’t see the other side of the bay for the first two days I was here because of misty-rain but morning of March 1st, my first official day, BAM! there was the other side of the bay, way closer than I would have guessed, green, hilly with mountains behind and tall snowy peaks further on. I stood by my hotel window and just looked. First peak at how gorgeous it is here!)

Pincios!!! ERMERSH https://www.google.es/search?pincios Super yummy & ~2.5 euro.

I think I just have to do a bullet-ed list, there’s too much!!

• The team is really friendly and inclusive. Some people have significant others who have moved here. SOs come and share lunch with us when we go to eat and come when we hang out after work.
• Designing for the Cup is a lifestyle (multiple people on the team have been with all sorts of different AC teams the last handful of years and relate on many components of team life), but from this week, it is a good one.
• Family is valued, being fit is valued, at least some time for personal sanity is valued.
• The daily schedule is Spain is VERY interesting. There are ~five meals, & weekends go bizarre. (more on this as I figure it out but trying to eat lunch at 1pm is too early, lunch starts at 2. Dinner is late and all shops are closed on Saturday 2-5, because everyone is hanging out/eating/socializing (this may be true of other days as well, I’ll see this week)) The food schedule is: (ties in with social schedule & shop hours) get up, first meal, coffee & light snack, mid morning ~11am, coffee & slightly bigger snack, maybe a tortilla (a Santander-ian tortilla is not what you’re thinking (see next bullet)) or a small sandwich, and then lunch ~2/3 o’clock, then pincios at 7ish, & dinner SOMETIME after that) Going to a drink at 11pm on Friday is to early, everywhere is nearly empty (likely people are at dinner). Walking home from internet-ing home at 2:30am on Saturday, everyone is out. The clubs allegedly OPEN at 4am.

  

  First ever pincho!

• A tortilla in Santander is like a big slice of a big omelette-like thing with potato. Potatos are usually shrugs for me but, a tortilla is darn yummy.

  

  Yummmmy

• Which leads to my 100% evidence-supported conclusion that all food ingredients in northern Spain are DELICIOUS. Even the carrots are stupendous. & tomatoes, mmmmmm. (also 1 euro for 2kg????(4.4lbs))
• I have an apartment!! It is SO cute & has a patio & a yard & I wake up & see all green.
• THERE IS A VEGETABLE MARKET!! (sorry, I really like vegetables & markets) (also the spot for 1euro/2kg tomatoes)

  

  BEST PLACE EVER #veggieMarket

• I can’t seem to find almost anything used, well, I found a micro used tech store & a micro used clothes store (& a wonderful used book store) but… very little else. There’s a couple of hypothetical antique stores, I found today from google maps, to scope out but not super promising so far.
• Having a drink & a snack is seemingly simply socializing and can be at any time of day (& may take 2-3 hours)
• A furnished apartment means you need, sheets, towels, blankets, dish cloths, tea towels, dish drying rack, coat rack,.. #myWeekend
  
  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
• Small pieces of furniture are very expensive. (~60+euro)
  
  

  

  

  
• I almost slept in sheets last night, then I almost got a headache from toooooo patterned and I think I need to return them. Back to my camping style! (sleeping bag on mattress)
  
• It seems the norm is to wash clothes in a washing machine & hang them to dry. Power efficient! (I’m assuming, my apartment only has a washing machine)(stashed in a cabinet!)(same with the water heater)(because it is Europe)
• I have a new favorite food!! It’s a bit like noodles but carrot & delicious.
  
• Walking around Santander for a day my mind starts talking at me in Spanish phrases. The weird bit is I don’t know what they mean but my mind sounds Spanish!
• Everyone truly does hang out outdoors. I studied Spanish indoors this morning then went for a run & realized within twenty seconds that I should have studied outside in the park across the street. EVERYONE was out & about.
• Other pictures of note:

  

  My first grocery shopping, 1.37euro.

  

  Errrrmersh this was so adorable

Today (Sunday) was amazing. Santander is gorgeous. A seven minute jog from my apartment are THREE gorgeous beaches and the coast of northern Spain with rocks jutting out into the gorgeous blue water of the northern Atlantic ocean. Stellar stellar. And the water is not cold & I can go swimming & the sand is sand & hills & path to run on & cute city & good team & excited for this adventure!

I will add pictures tomorrow (added!), right now I need to sleep for work mañana.

Talk to you later friends!

IT IS REAL…or getting there

I keep expecting that it will settle in that I am MOVING to Spain. I literally have a flight! (as of…an hour ago) At some point this will all click. Maybe when I get on the flight. I will be starting a life in a city far away.

So far, I’m chipping away, buying a backpack, sorting an “international driving permit”, finding an apartment (!) (with Celia (from the team)’s wonderful assistance), starting to sort-of-kinda packing (desperately need to do laundry soon) and now I have a flight!! (thank you Barbra from the team!) I’m flying on a jet plane. Sometime (Labor Day) I’ll be back again (for a bit). It seems to be really actually coming together!

I’ve learned to write down everything that pops into my head. My overwhelming to do list would previously swirl all around my head in a distressing “can’t forget”, don’t have enough head-space to remember,  “so much to doo!”, “ak!” whirlwind. Even if it was writing on a scrap of paper (see picture below, it was the only piece of paper I had at the time..) writing down all my swirling to-dos let me pause, breath, smile & start chipping away. One To-Do at a time!

Spain To Do list. One day of many..

Wellp, on to my to-do list! (note-the “Blog Post” item on my to-do list was write my late blog post from last week! (shun on me) This post is bonus for my I-have-a-flight excitement. 😉 )

#02b (I’m inventing a code, personal cryptography!) (it’s pretty simple, this just means week 2, second post. #selfMotivation!)

“Mentoring” Folder

Oh my! I didn’t blog last night or last week! Oops. Well, things are only a mistake if one does not learn from them. So! I have learned that to successfully accomplish my goal/commitment of blogging at least once a week before Sunday night for 30 weeks….. I need to set a google reminder (at least here in the beginning!) #02 (& setting said reminder!)

On a more general topic and what I wanted to write about last week but only got so far as a draft before immediate life things distracted me (immediate life things like finding an apartment in Santander, getting an engineering laptop (thanks Terry & BMQR & Dell!), figuring out exactly when (what date) I can relocate to Spain & receiving the last few visa-prep-documents):

I learned last week at the Sailing Leadership Forum that I have three personal purposes for designing for the America’s Cup.

• Learn, a huge amount because this is going to be and exceptional opportunity
• Excellence, design an amazing boat for the team, our sponsors and the USA
• Share & Mentor, provide a porthole into what it is like as a designer in an America’s Cup team & be an accessible mentor to young sailors, girls & boys.

It’s amazing how simply saying things to people solidifies them as being true to myself. I would talk about what my next step is, (starting with BMQR) & at a pertinent point in the conversation hold up three fingers point at the first one for learn, second for excellence & third for share & mentor. As I spoke to more and more people I grew confidence & assurance of the truth of my “personal purpose”.

On my drive back north to New York state from Florida I listened to the book Grit on tape. I don’t 100% agree with the absolute dogged commitment component of Grit but there were many great take-aways from the book overall. One of my take-aways was the concept of a personal goal, a goal which all your actions work towards and which gives you purpose in life. My first draft jotted down on a sheet of paper on the console while driving is to be “a positive influence on people to enhance collaboration, teamwork & cohesiveness.” And this is where my personal goal to share & be a mentor comes from. Sharing to be a positive cohesive voice, to share what I’ve figured out and to be of help to other people!

Oh! Back to the mentoring topic (and the title of this blog, “Mentoring Folder”, my newest addition to my gmail folder email-sorting setup). After the Sailing World article two kids reached out to me, Cedric from WA & Athena from RI. It was wonderful talking to both of them, answer their questions and speak as a human link IN the sailing world. Reach out to me if you (or any (other) kids (young or old)) want to talk about experiences in the sailing world or what life is like! robynlesh (a) gmail.com (My math professor in hs/college used to use (a) instead of @ on his website to prevent phishing. No idea if it works but might as well try?)

I should probably wrap up, no one (including me if I were you) would like to read a crazy long blog post about really almost anything. #Our short focus society! I’m excited to write more about what I learned at the leadership forum but that will be later. So for now:

Too-doo-loo, until next time & exciting exciting! Lots to share in the soon to be AC world. Talk to you later!

 

Visa Info Gathered

Paperwork from the consulate!