The only thing that has lifted us higher than the impending arrival of our first child is the overwhelming response to our “Good News” from all of our beautiful friends and family. We have been sent more comments and emails than we ever imagined! We’ve received congratulations, words of wisdom, a deluge of questions, and countless remarks on how disturbing the “JoshJan” looks. I’m in the process of writing back to each and every one of you lovely people, but it’s a busy week! Let me explain:

I spent most of Saturday with my volleyball team out in Torrefarrera, near Lleida (about an hour and a half away from Barcelona). We’ve only got three matches left in this regular season and one more win would guarantee us first place and a spot in a higher division for next year’s season. The strangest thing happened while we were warming up before the game: everything appeared to be happening in slow motion. The ball appeared to be moving slower than usual, allowing me to get into position to pass and spike the ball faster than ever while remaining completely calm and relaxed. I was even jumping higher than usual. It was an incredibly cosmic experience! I can’t explain it. In any case, I played one of my best games of the year and we went on to easily beat the other team 3-0. Hello first place.

After the game, we raced back to Barcelona so some of the guys could attend a Carnival party and I could make it to Razzmatazz for the Kaiser Chief’s concert. I met up with Jan, AmJan, Juls, Anna Spanna, and Dave right before the second opening band, We Are Scientists, began (who totally rocked, by the way). Then the Kaiser Chiefs came out. It was a hard rocking, pogo jumping, mild moshing, seizure inducing, crowd surfing adventure! They only have the one album at the moment so their part of the concert wasn’t technically all that long, but it was a show unto itself. Highlights of the gig must have been Oh My God, I Predict A Riot, and when the lead singer jumped off of the stage, climbed up the rafters to the balcony where he ran around the room through the audience, and then crowd surfed back to the stage, singing all the while. Jan even got to touch him! These boys know how to party.

Today wasn’t quite as exciting as Saturday, but it was event-filled all the same. Jan and I saw Brokeback Mountain (the fourth of five Oscar nominated films we have to see), cleaned the flat, cooked a couscous feast, and spent a couple hours researching and working on the rewrites for the next pay I am slated to direct here in Barcelona – Beyond Therapy by Christopher Durang. I’ll tell you more about the play very soon.

Looking towards the future, I already have my day planner filled with interesting jobs for the upcoming week. I will be acting on stage, working a trade fair, voicing two films and a cartoon, and playing trumpet for loose change in front of the Sagrada Familia. Details to come…