Saturday, January 31, 2009

Explanations

1/31/09

            Everything makes sense now… Antonia’s mother passed away on Friday morning so she took off to Sevilla, leaving us each 30 euro to cover our food expenses until Monday when she will come back. She didn’t want to wake me up (and I assume didn’t want to explain everything) so she just creeped on into my room and left the money on my computer.

            As for the mustard and bags… it was a DIFFERENT creeper into my room who left those. Chessie had bought the Dijon and the sandwich bags the previous day and thought I might need them to pack my lunch so she left them on my floor so I would know where they were. It’s all seems clear NOW, yet I was by myself that entire day left to my own speculations as to what had occurred in the morning hours inside my room next to my sleeping face. Chessie and Thea both had a field trip that day and Antonia didn’t leave me a note or anything. When I came home in the afternoon Marta was there, jamming to her tunes and cleaning the kitchen, and she told me what had happened.

            We’ve had a 3 day weekend which means I have put off doing any homework and I have to finish Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia” which means I need to start reading rigggghhhtt…. NOW.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Curious

I woke up this morning to a sound in my room, so I look over my shoulder and Antonia is shuffling out as if she has been caught red handed. I wait a little while and turn on my lights. There is 30 euro on my computer, a box of plastic bags on the ground, and a jar of mustard rolling across my floor.

Hopefully Some of this will be explained but I thought it would be more interesting for everyone if I gave them only this part of the story first...

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Eurotrip

1/28/09

            I booked another flight – to London, the weekend after Rome. World traveler over here. Now I just need to plan spring break (hopefully Greece) and my pipe dreams of travel will be realized.

            I have to keep a journal in 2 of my classes, one for Travel Writing in Spain, where I just have to journal continuously throughout my time abroad, and one for my Barcelona class, where I have to journal about our field trips.

            Needless to say, my blog=my travel writing journal. However, in the spirit of killing 2 birds with one stone, I will also be recording my field trip journal reactions in here, the first one being today. The following will be me imparting my knowledge on you, so read on if you would like to become a little bit smarter today:

El Museu d’Historia de la Ciutat

            I went with my friend Cindy today to go visit a museum for my Barcelona class. We watched a short video about the progression of Barcelona and then walked through some ruins of the original Roman city of Barcino. I actually didn’t know that Barcelona started out as Barcino, I don’t think a lot of people in my class did so I don’t feel so dumb – I DID plan on learning about Barcelona whilst being IN Barcelona so things are going according to plan. 

            When we were at the clothes washing site we were told by our british automated tour guide that there would be places for the citizens to pee outside, and the urine would be used to help bleach and wash the clothes. The laundry place actually paid a tax in order to keep these things out in their street… so that people could pee in them… and their urine could be used… to clean. I guess I know how I can hold myself over on clothes until the senora gets around to putting them in the washing machine.

            Something that I find pretty bizarre is how much the citizens were concerned with personal hygiene and appearance. The women wore makeup and even used tweezers, people brushed their teeth to make them white and chewed mint to make their breath fresh. Women had extensive collections of jewelry and men wore jewelry as well.  Even though it is such a huge part of our society today, it is hard for me to imagine it being so important for them. There were cases that showed some of the tools they used and we read that the women would blend pastes and powders to make the make up that they would wear. In our time, we can go out and buy some blush or lipstick so easily, but it’s a different thing to think about spending the time to make it yourself, not to mention, making the tools that you use to make it yourself.

            It is really amazing how much Barcelona has grown out of  its original walls. What was one merely a stopover city, built for convenience and retired people, is now an enormous busy area that attracts tourists from all over the world. Barcelona grew while the rest of the Roman Empire was going down. While Christianity spread, Romans began to question authority and undermined the empire, becoming one of the major factors in its decline. In Barcino, Santa Eulalia, a 13 year old girl, became one of the first Christian martyrs. Eulalia was tortured and killed for her faith and was supposedly buried in Barcino, making it a place of pilgrimage for crusaders, and bringing in revenue for expansion.

            It was definitely an experience walking through the ruins There were remains from houses, the original Roman city, remains from where they washed clothes, had public baths, made wine, dyed fabrics, dried fish. You could really picture the citizens living a life there and walking through the same passageways we were led. It is surreal being in a place with such a huge history, it makes me realize how young the US actually is. 

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Jazz Si

Chessie having fun with photoshop : Parc Guell
A pathway in Parc Guell
Shane, David, Matt at the top of the Parc

1/25/09

            I have done a few blogable things since my last post so I will blog them all into one. (blog is a word that can replace many words for me, even though the sound of it makes me want to blog.)

            We went to Park Guell last Friday after our class. (I’m going to assume you know by now that “we” = Chessie, David, Matt, Shane and I). The Park was designed by Gaudi, as is almost every other famous building in Spain. We took our lunch there and ate on the benches, then walked around the park for a long time. We went up to the highest part where we climbed this stone structure that has stone crosses on the top, we had a great view but it was really windy that day (the day before the hurricane-strong winds). There were no railings so Chessie and I clung to the benches in the center, but the boys stood on the edge (as seen in the photo).

            After Parc Guell we went to walk around the Gothic Quarter, which is where the original Roman site of Barcelona was. When we were walking out we saw two guys stretching out and they had a speaker with them, so we thought they might be putting on a show in a little while, we decided to wait… So we waited an awkwardly long amount of time and I’m very sure they knew we were waiting for them to start cause we were the only ones standing there. Eventually 2 other guys showed up and they break danced, which was awesome and drew a big crowd. It was cool because when they introduced themselves, one was from South Africa, one from Latin America, one from Spain and one from Britain (who I proceeded to fall in love with).

            We went to a bar on Friday night called Dow Jones where the prices of the drinks go up and down depending on who is buying them and sometimes there is a ‘crash’ and all the prices go way down. It was a cool idea, but filled with Americans and we only stayed for a little while. Then Chessie, Kelly and I went to a Discoteca called “Opium” that is right on the Mediterranean. The place was really cool, very lavish and large with a patio right on the beach. We ended up dancing the night away and getting home around 7am.

            Saturday we bummed around all day, but we went out to watch the Futbol game with a bunch of people at an English pub called George and Dragon. The place was cool and it had a big screen for the game, Barca won. We have all been really getting into the games so we love watching them.

            Today Chessie, Matt, Shane, Brett, Meg and I tried to go a “Labyrinth” park that is supposed to be free on Sundays, but we got all the way there only to discover that it had been closed because of the strong winds the day before. Womp womp. So we decided to go to the Beach. We took the metro down and walked along the shore, it was a gorgeous day and we finally got to touch the Mediterranean. Definitely will be going back when it warms up. We were all pretty hungry so we grabbed some comida (not quite lunch but not quite dinner) before we met up with Kelly and Sante to go to a jazz club they had been to.

            This is my favorite spot in Barcelona so far, it’s called “Jazz si” and we heard about it because Sante’s house brother plays the piano there. It’s a very small place and it costs 5.50 euro to get in but you also get a free drink with your ticket. We got there at around 7, which is when the music starts, and it was pretty full already. It’s a small room and it’s got a small stage, but there are also stairs up to an indoor balcony that wraps around the room, about the size of a hallway. People sit on and dangle their legs over and other people stand behind, we managed to find a great spot sitting on the edge upstairs on the side of the stage, even though it was pretty packed. (By the 8:30 it was completely full). The musicians were great, it’s a thing where a bunch of musicians come and bring instruments and sign up to play. Then there are also a few different singers who come sing and the girl had an amazing, powerful voice. It’s not actually Jazz really, a lot of different kinds of music from U2 to country was played, all American songs. It’s the kind of place that has a lot of regulars and all the musicians know each other. It was just a great environment with awesome music and we plan to go back every Sunday that we can.

            In other exciting news, Chessie and I booked a flight to Rome for 4 days from Feb 19th to the 22nd. I. am. Psyched. 

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Views

This is the place Chessie and I found for our picnic, when we were looking for that park. It's about ten minutes from our apartment.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Hielo

1/21/09

Yesterday, Chessie and I stopped in a little bar on the way back from picking up our books, because we noticed that it had a big TV. We asked the bartender if they would be playing the inauguration and he said that they could. So after our class, we walked over with a few friends to watch and they turned it all the way up for us and put it on an English station. How nice.

Yesterday we had picked up a few groceries so that we could start bringing our lunches and we picked up a little combination platter of cheeses so we could find which one we liked the best. (spoiler: we later discover that we are easy to please as far as cheeses go and we liked all of them). So today, Chessie and I came home, grabbed the cheese and bought a baguette at a store a couple doors down from our apartment and went off to try and find a park we kept seeing on the map but could never locate. We twisted up all these roads and steep staircases and finally ended up with this gorgeous view over Barcelona and the Mediterranean. We had our baguette and cheeses (so Euro). Then we walked around the different paths. It is a beautiful day today, cloudless sky, sunny and cool weather.

            Interesting tid bits:

            The other day I got a glass for water and put some ice in it (they like their drinks warm here so the pitcher is always just on the table at room temperature.) And I could kind of see Antonia trying to look at what I was doing, but she was on the phone and didn’t say anything to me. Then Chessie sees my ice and thinks, ‘what a good idea!’ (up until this point we all just drank room temperature water). So she goes and gets a glass and puts ice in it and Antonia puts down the phone and starts loudly saying (all in Spanish of course) “No ice! Chessie, no ice! You’re going to get sick! In the summer, yes you can have ice. But in the winter?! No ice! It’s too cold! You’re all going to get sick!” So, in case you weren’t aware of this hard fact: Do not put ice in your drink in the winter. You WILL get sick. Another little known fact: If you walk in an apartment without slippers on you will ALSO get sick. 

Monday, January 19, 2009

La Red


1/19/09

I finally have wireless.

Skyping success.

We went to mass at La Sagrada Familia yesterday, which was pretty cool. It was kind of a makeshift church in one section of the cathedral, very small and boarded off from construction. But the music was cool, the mass was in Spanish, and I donated 1 euro so now I can say that my money helped build La Sagrada Familia. I also went to go try and light a candle to say a prayer at the end, so I'm waiting in line, I see the candle supply dwindling, I finally get up to the front and see that there's ONE candle left when all of the sudden some chica behind me reaches around and snatches it before I can... This is a church candle woman, have some respect. So I kicked her in the shins and ripped it out of her hands and told her to see who would listen to her prayers now. Actually I just sighed and walked away defeated.

             Today we started our actual IES classes, which are taught in English. I had 'Barcelona: The Cosmopolitan City.' I think it will be pretty cool to be learning about the history of the city so that I will be able to better understand the significance of the places I visit. After that I just had the usual spanish class, then lunch with my friends at a cafe two stores over from my apartment. I ordered a Bocadilla (a sandwich) which is pretty much what we always order from everywhichwhere because it's the cheapest and one of the only things we know how to read (Since most menus are in catalan)... turns out this Bocadilla cost 6 euro... 4 euros more than what we usually pay for the same thing. Preposterous. So... bump that, not going back there.

After lunch, David, Chessie and I climbed most of Mt.Tibidabo, which is the mountain that’s very close to Chessie's and my apartment. We got some nice views, and the weather was really great today, high 50's and very very warm in the sun.

 I think my days may become less and less interesting once we get into the school routine, so I will probably won't be blogging as often. Just occasional updates or when something blogworthy happens...  blog blog blog.

 But I will always try and remember some Interesting Tid Bits::

 Remember those scary, somewhat hairy pig legs that hang in our kitchen? We thought...she must not eat these, they're two years old and look like they haven't been touched.We sit down at dinner and she starts telling us about this particular kind of meat. How it's very rare and expensive (400 euro) because these pigs only eat this certain kind of fruit and it somehow makes the pig taste good, i don't know but she went on for a good 10 minutes. So she walks over, and thats when I notice that one of the legs has a little towel on it. She unwraps the towel, and lo and behold... Has definitely carved into that carcass. So she cuts me and Thea off a piece. What can I do? Refuse to eat this thing after she has told us how much it cost her and how rare it is and how good the meat is? Just because I feel uncomfortable looking at the hoof and hair of the animal I am about to eat? We couldn't turn her down. It tasted... moist.

Mullets

Mullets seem to still be in style here.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Bob Loblaw Law Blog

1/17/09

Chessie and I got up at like 1:00 today, but I justify it by how tiring our week was. (Thea had gotten up early to walk around Barcelona with Miquel, her Spanish chico). We had planned to meet for lunch at 2:30 so we just got ready and left. We met up with Thea, Kelly and Meg at ‘La Rosa Negra,’ a Mexican place we had heard about. We had some good burritos and a leisurely Spanish lunch. Everything is much slower here. When you go out to eat, most people stay for a long time just sitting at the table. And also you always have to ask for the check to be brought to you, it’s not put down right at the end of the meal. Everything just seems a lot more calm, as opposed to the rush you usually see in Chicago, or any other big city in the U.S. Something else that is weird is that juice, pop and water are all the same price, and a beer is only like 10 cents more. Which is also bad news because how am I ‘sposed to drink water when I can get some nice jugo for the same price?! They don’t give you a glass of water, only bottles. There was a drought here a while back and they had restrictions on how much water they could use… but they DO hose down all the sidewalks downtown at night. Personally I’d rather walk on a little grime and be able to get a glass o’ water or take a leisurely shower, but that’s just me.  Also the tap water doesn’t taste very good in most parts. In our house it’s ok, but we still use a Brita pitcher.

After lunch the girls wanted to go to the chocolate museum, but I came home so that I could try to Skype with my family… which only half worked because they could see and hear me but I couldn’t see or hear them. Technical difficulties, they will be worked out.

We have discovered that Antonia’s cooking, while good, has two main ingredients that are: salt and oil. Tonight we had salty chicken and oily French fries. However, she DOES understand that Chessie is a vegetarian so Chessie had an omelet that I wished was mine.

 After dinner Antonia wanted to see pictures of our families and cities, so one by one we sat and talked with her. I went last and ended up talking to her, and her son who had stopped by, for quite a long time. I told them about my weaknesses in Spanish but Antonia told me she thinks that I am better than I think I am at the language. She said that I understand a lot more than her other students. I told her I could understand very well, but I can’t speak very well. Her son reassured me that little by little, being here would help me improve a lot. We talked about the importance of experiencing new places and cultures, about cities and countries I want to see, about the students she has had in the past; overall it was really nice being able to get to know her a little better. Oh, and I also showed her a picture of Andre because he looks SO MUCH like her son. They both agreed, and her son now calls Andre his Brazilian brother. Har har, I now have an inside joke with the Garcias.
It was Matt’s birthday so we decided to go out and celebrate with him, Shane, Brett, Meg, Kelly and 2 of Chessie’s college friend’s Chris and Justin. We tried going a couple different places we had heard about, but they were all crowded with Americans. Finally we ended up going to this little place we found that was mostly Spaniards, and we got a table for all of us and shared some Sangria. Justin and Chris were hilarious telling us about they’re living situation. Their senora is not the best, she cooks herself a nice dinner and feeds them boxed meals. I think we’re pretty lucky with our homestay sitch

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Photo Album of Besalu and Vic

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015783&l=1a910&id=1149720713

Photo Album of Barca

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015859&l=298fd&id=1149720713

Ay Carumba

My senora said something today that I have only heard out of the mouth of Bart Simpson.

1/16/09

Today David, Shane, Chessie, Matt and I wanted to go see Montjuic and we ended up putting together a sizeable crew of 11 people to go. We took the bus that took us to the funicular to go up the mountain, but we ended up deciding to walk instead. It was a hike, but it really wasn’t too long. The views from the top were amazing; we looked out over all of Barcelona and the Mediterranean. We got to the top at about 4:30 and stayed until the sun set.

After that we wanted to go see the fountain light show outside the Museum of Catalonian art, so we walked down there. The show was starting at 7 and we got there around 6:15ish to get a spot and wait. So wait we did… until 6:58… when we were told by a passerby that they don’t start the fountain shows until February… fools.

When we got home we discovered that our rooms had been legit cleaned. I’ m talking organzing, folding, washing, bed making. It’s a pretty nice situation I’ve got going on here.

After our dinner of fried calamari and tuna empanadas (healthy.), Chessie and I went to meet up with some people from our class at a little bar downtown. We had a little trouble finding the place since the door looks like a little window right at street level. We had to duck to get through the door and climb downstairs to the basement. The name of it was in French but it meant “The people I like”. It was a cool place, very small (as every place seems to be), dim lighting, red velvet couches. Swank. We only stayed for a little while because we had to catch the metro back before it closed so we left and got to the metro right at 2am (closing time) and made it home.

Fun fact of my day: Saw a woman pop a squat whilst waiting for the metro. Right at rush hour. Right in the metro station. Right in front of about 30 people. I got the rear end view.

Friday, January 16, 2009

La Sagrada Familia

1/15/09

            Forgot to mention last time, and I know my thousands of faithful readers are dying to know: we lost the Gymkhana by a HALF A POINT. Rigged.

            After class today I went with Shane, David, Chessie and Brett to go see La Sagrada Familia. We got on the metro near our center and it only took us like 15 minutes to get there. The church is beautiful, although of course it is still not finished. They have been building it for over 200 years and it’s still under construction because when it was first being built it was decided that all the money would come from donations; so big cranes and everything were at work when we were there. It is really large already and what we were looking at are only the lateral facades and the smaller spires, I can’t imagine how huge it is going to be whenever it is completed. We didn’t go inside because it costs 11 euros, but we plan to go back for a mass this Sunday. You can go to masses without paying, you just don’t get access into the spires, or the museum.

            After we did that, we walked out of the touristy area in search of a cheaper lunch. We ended up finding a place where the cleanliness was questionable but the price was right. There were 6 of us, and for 5.98 each we got 2 bottles of wine, bread (which generally doesn’t come free with a meal here), 2 courses each (Cuban rice and tenderloin and potatoes) and dessert (flan). Of course, at these prices, this was not a high quality cuisine... in fact quite low quality cuisine, but it was cheap and a lot of food.

            When we got back to the center, Chessie and I decided to sign up for a walking tour of the city (because we really needed more walking…) that was at 5:00. So we show up at 5 with no idea what this tour is. Guess where we go. La Sagrada Familia. At first I was all, been there done that, bought the T shirt (that’s a saying… I didn’t actually buy a Sagrada Familia T shirt) – but it was good because we were able to learn more about the history of the building. We also walked up la avenida de Gaudi, which was a nice walk, and went to see a beautiful hospital that was built (at the same time Gaudi was working on La Sagrada Familia) by the number 2 top ranked architect of the time. It was dark by this time so we couldn’t see all the colors of the tiles so we plan to go back.

            Tonight Antonia made us tortilla de patatas… which I think you can translate but j.i.c. – “Potato Tortilla”. It was reallll good. Ironically has nothing to do with tortillas except maybe the shape, but she said it has eggs, potatoes and onions mainly. It tasted kind of like cheesy potatoes, kind of like potato pancake, whatever it was good. We also had pan con tomate, which is bread with tomato guts and olive oil, a pretty popular dish here, and a salad. Best dinner yet. Still she doesn’t eat with us, but she talked to us the entire time telling us about her family and herself. Apparently all the paintings hanging in the living room were painted by her, she is an amazing artist but she says she doesn’t paint anymore since she started having students live with her because she doesn’t have time… womp womp, sorry senora. Antonia is.a.talker. she speaks fairly fast and she speaks a LOT. I love it though because 1) I feel cool understanding everything she says and 2) She has pretty interesting things to say.  

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Shin Splints

1/14/09

            We met our senora today, finally! Chessie and I bought her some potted carnations from La Rambla and brought them home because we thought she would be back this morning. She didn’t arrive before we had to go to the welcome ceremony so we left her a note and left the flowers on the table.

            The welcome ceremony was short and sweet. Refreshments, chatting with other IES students and the like. It is only my first week and today was the first time I said something in Spanish that I had meant to say in English. Weeiiird, coooool. Chessie is a good friend to have because we both want to practice so we try and speak Spanish to each other a lot of the time.

            After the ceremony we came home and, not only was our senora there, but her son, daughter, and nieces were there as well. (Her nieces are preciousness in human form, and one of them is taking English classes.) Antonia so far issss hawesome. She was very excited to see us and was just really nice and enthusiastic. We were worried originally because we figured, her mother is in the hospital, things aren’t looking good, is she really going to want to come home to three chicas with broken spanglish, asking her when dinner will be ready? Problamente no. The thing is, it is harder to be my usual charming self in Spanish. Being polite is harder, making jokes is harder. I’m sure  sometimes we come off like “Want food, can you put me dinner now?” But Antonia has had a lot of students before so I think she knows the drill. Anyway, we really didn’t get to visit with her very long before Chessie and I had to leave to get to el partido de Futbol!!

            Side note: on the way to the stadium Chessie and I befriended un Rastafarian hombre in the metro station who we always see playing the guitar and singing. His name is Jimmy and he once played with Bob Marley and the wailers. He is my new BFF.

            Talk about excitement. That futbol game was really cool to watch. Both halves are 45 minutes, but the time really flies by because it’s not so stop and go every 20 seconds like American football. And we won. Barca beat Atletico Madrid 2-1. The place we had was in them nosebleed seats and it was reallll cold because the wind was so strong up there, but the excitement overpowered the cold and it was a very good time.

            Thea said that while we were gone, Antonia took care of her and made some special concoction for her throat made with fruits and honey, cleaned up her room and took her temperature. Thea thinks it’s a little weird. I think Thea is a little weird.

            Only problem is she ALSO moved the internet hub (I don’t know if that’s what you actually call that thing…) into Thea and Chessie’s room so that she could use her computer in bed. So I suppose I will have to post this tomorrow as I will need to go in their room from now on to use the internet at home. Wireless should hopefully be working around the 19th. I heard of a website today that my friend, Meg, uses called callingamerica.com or something similar, that allows you to call landlines in America for free. Which is essentially what Skype should be able to do but people have had problems with it on landlines, so I think I’ll try the other one out some time.

            Oh, yes, we also met our RA yesterday. Her name is Natalia, she was really cool. She showed Chessie and I (Thea was sleeping) around the barrio a little bit and we found some super markets close to our house. She said that after her exams she will be able to show us around and hang out more.  

We walk around the city so much here.

I got shin splints.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Gymkhana Dos

1/13/09

            I hate the word blog. It doesn’t sound fun, or funny, or exciting, which is clearly all the things my blog is. It sounds like something you cough up when you’re sick. Speaking of sick, Thea has been ‘blogging’ all over the place cause she has the flu, apparently. Really nothing is going well for that girl. She still doesn’t have her luggage, she was put into the wrong Spanish class, she skipped both Gymkhana’s… womp womp. She actually went shopping at H&M to buy some clothes in the meantime. She comes home and the first thing she pulls out that she bought… 4 inch heels. She.Would.

            Before the Gymkhana, we stopped at a café called Farggi that is right on the corner of the block that our center is on. Chessie, Shane and I got some hot chocolate, which I think should more properly be called: the nectar of the Gods. It was like a straight up melted chocolate bar. It was so thick we ate it (yeah ATE it) with a spoon. Delicioso.

            The second Gymkhana was totes more fun than the first one because we knew what to expect. We went into this Catalan-gothic style church, Santa Maria del Mar, for one of the clues and it was really beautiful. We got to spend some time there and I said a prayer for my Nana, it was very cool. I love my Spanish class, we are the only ones who are really gung-ho about these scavenger hunts so who knows, we may actually win that free trip after all, though we don’t know exactly where we go if we win, it was rumored it’s Montserrat, but we’re not sure.

            Today I went with Chessie, David, Shane and Matt over to the Futbol stadium and we bought tickets for a game tomorrow night. It was only 10 Euros because it’s the B team, and it aint like we know any of the A team players anyway so we figure it will be just as exciting. The game doesn’t start until 10pm so we’re going to go after we go to the welcome ceremony that we have tomorrow night at some hotel. I’m excited, it should be a good time.

            When we came back from the Gymkhana, Chessie and I decided to take the bus home so that we were familiar with that way home as well. When we sat down, this couple got on and they started talking to us a little bit and we told them we were students. They chatted us up the whole way back, all in Spanish, it was so fun, I love being able to figure stuff out like that. They mostly spoke Catalan, and no English, so we were all trying to use our Spanish. They were probably in their 70’s… and I love me some old folks, so that was just the cake topper. They were super cute.

            We are finally going to meet our RA tonight I believe, we were supposed to have met her a few days ago but we had some failure to communicate so she just got a hold of us now. Our signora should be back tomorrow because her mother is doing better. If Antonia is anything like her friend Conchita, things are lookin good. Although, Sandra told us today that Marta will probably still cook for us, which is fine, except for the fact that Chessie is a vegetarian and has told Marta repeatedly that she doesn’t eat beef or chicken or anything… we have had a meat dish almost every night. Chessie is a good sport about it, but her meals have mostly consisted of the same vegetables and bread, so for her sake I hope things get figured out. (There are plenty of vegetarians in Spain so we aren’t really sure what else to tell this woman). That being said… tonight’s dinner was mashed potatoes, vegetables annnnnnnnd chicken.

Monday, January 12, 2009

La Boqueria, that heavenly market




Gymkhana

1/12/09

            I must have walked thirty miles today.

            We had our first Spanish class, which went fairly well. Apparently Fabrizio was just our teacher for orientation, our actual teacher is named Laura Vazquez. I really like her and I understood everything that she said.

            After class, David, Shane, Chessie and I decided to go to the market (which is actually called La Boqueria) for lunch. I got a piece of pizza bread type thing for 2 euro, Shane got another baguette sandwich, and Chessie and David hit up the vegetarian stand for vegetarian tacos picantes. We walked down to la plaza real to eat outside because it was a gorgeous day today.  It was very sunny and warm enough to just wear a light sweatshirt. La plaza real is pretty, it has palm trees and a lot of little shops and cafes around the border and a fountain in the middle. It also doesn’t have quite as many birds as plaza catalunya, where if you fall over it’s like genocide to the pigeons.

After lunch, Chessie and I decided we wanted to try walking home. So far we had only used the metro so we really didn’t know where we lived in relation to plaza catalunya and we figured we better know in case we were ever out after the metros had closed. So we consulted our map and thought we would have enough time to walk home and take the metro back for our Gymkhana (scavenger hunt) that was at 3:30. So a little after 1:00 we left David and Shane and started heading home… 2 hours later… we finally arrived only to turn directly around and rush to meet our group for the Gymkhana.

The Gymkhana was another 3 full hours of walking around Barcelona. We had different destinations we had to go to with different tasks to complete at each one. It was supposed to help us learn more about the city, but we really only had 3 leaders of the group and the rest of us were just kind of along for the ride. We have to answer questions with a certain number of points attached to each of them and if we win then we get a free field trip (one of the optional field trips that they offer) to Montserrat. There are 36 groups though so I aint about to get my hopes up for that one, really not banking on it.

Finally after the Gymkhana we took the metro back home, my legs and feet are really tired because we were walking for at least 6 hours today. When we got back we had another dinner waiting – this time it was a soup with rice, lentils, chicken and some type of sausage, bread with tomato and oil, and a really good kind of light colored melon. 

I'm real tired, I think I'll go to bed early tonight cause we got a whole 'nother Gymkhana tomorrow. 

Sunday, January 11, 2009

My evil side can be smart smart

That was what was written in English on a T shirt that Chessie and I saw today.

1/11/09

            Last night was my first time exploring the Barcelona night life, which, to this point, had been hyped up. I have to say, everything I had heard was true – the citizens of Barcelona are pretty crazy and it was definitely an experience.  We didn’t leave the house until around 11, which is around the typical time people start to head out, if not earlier than most people. Chessie, Thea and I met up with Megan, Shane and two of Chessie’s friends from school, Meg and Kelly and also one of Kelly’s friends, a guy named Sante. The first place we went to was a bar named Chupitos that we had heard about from other IES students. When we got there it was too full so we had to start a line outside, we only waited for about 5 minutes before a pretty large group left so we could go in.

            They should have made us wait longer. There had to be a million fire hazards in that place, people were packed shoulder to shoulder. Not to mention almost every drink was set on fire. There was also a black light in there so I was feeling pretty cool about my glowing teeth and pretty regretful of my black shirt. You never really know what kind of crap is on your black clothing until you go in a black light. Almost everyone had worn black too so at least I wasn’t the only one who looked like I didn’t know how to wash my clothes.

            We stayed compacted into Chupitos for quite some time before we decided we kind of felt like being able to move our limbs and breathe a little bit. Sante started directing us to a discoteca he had heard about called ‘Moog’. We must have walked for like 20 minutes down Las Ramblas before finding it. Let me tell you, Las Ramblas during the day = fun, pretty, colorful, cool Las Ramblas at night = scary, ugly, prostitutes, diseases. We were waiting to get into Moog when this mullet/rat tail/fauxhawk came bursting out of the doors calling out some other chico for a fight. This is when I began to reconsider choosing ‘Moog’. Not to mention it costs 10 Euros to get inside and I’m not some kind of Rockefeller over here. Meg, Megan and I decided to head back – leaving Thea, Chessie and Sante to ‘Moog’ (Shane had left after Chupitos). We walked back down Las Ramblas, dodging the groping hands of men trying to sell us beer on the street, and eventually made it home safe and sound around 3:30am. Chessie and Thea didn’t get back until 6am, which is a typical Barcelona night out time to get home.  Thea met a Spanish chico at the discoteca that they ended up at. His English is quite poor and her Spanish is worse. They talk in broken Spanglish, which is the language of love after all.

            We all woke up at the crack of 2pm today and lazed around for the most part, went to Plaza Catalunya to window shop for a while before coming back. Sandra must have the weekend off because she left and hasn’t been back in 2 days. Thought she never told us where she was going. We are pretty much on our own in the apartment for most of the day, except for the fact that our rooms get cleaned and our food is cooked and waiting for us when we get home. Our Signora should be coming home this week and then things will be different. I don’t think Marta will be cooking for us anymore because Antonia (our signora) will do it. Tonight when we got back and the dinner was set on the table, there was pizza, salad, and pasta with parmesan and a fried egg. Curious. 

Laze

It takes much too long to upload all of the pictures that I want to share. I have an album on facebook and sent the link to my mom if anyone would like to see more. Besalu was particularly beautiful but this uploading business on this website... I'm not havin it.

Pictures

    L'Snack, the place we stopped for lunch in Vic
Vic
        L to R: Matt, Shane, Cindy, some gorgeous girl, Chessie (David took the photo)
in front of the Roman Temple

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Vic and Besalu

1/11/09

            You know how when you go to college everyone is always like – “oh you’ll make a lot of friends, everyone is in the same boat!” and then you get there and you realize you are the only one who didn’t come to school with a group of established friends? That may have just been my experience, but what Im getting at is that it is actually true here. Everyone is so thirsty for friendships because a lot of people have come here on their own, and everyone is at least here for a new experience and is willing to branch out. It is really cool discovering a new place with people.

            Today we went to Vic and Besalu for our orientation field trip.  Both of them were very gorgeous. We went to Vic first and we had an on foot tour of the city (both Vic and Besalu are very small). We saw some beautiful cathedrals and a roman temple in Vic. After the tour we had three hours of free time so I explored with Chessie, David and Shane and two other people we just met that day – Matt and Cindy. Both Vic and Besalu were very very cold because they are up in the mountains and unfortunately it also started to rain. We went inside the Roman temple and talked to a guy in there who told us a little bit about the history of it (all in really fast Spanish so we got most, but not all of it). And then we walked back to the Cathedral so David could take pictures because he has a really nice camera (for the rest of us it was pretty dark and the pictures weren’t coming out very well, but I have some). The entire cathedral was painted in these dark gothic scenes and it was really pretty, we spent a lot of time in there.

            We were all really hungry so we started looking for a place to eat, walking through the narrow twisting streets of the city. We were really struggling to find somewhere because when we did happen to stumble on a food place it was either really expensive, or closed for siesta. Finally we found some IES people who had already eaten and they pointed us in the direction of a little bar and restaurant called L’taste. We rarely know what we are ordering here but we have not been disappointed yet. Today we had another baguette sandwich with ham and cheese and a spicy sauce. We ended up staying in the restaurant for a long time because no one wanted to go back out into the cold and we had already seen all there was to see in Vic. Our Spanish teacher, Fabrizio, was in the restaurant with a group of other teachers and we talked to him for a while, which was pretty entertaining. The restaurants here, I have discovered, are all very tiny and crammed. Whenever we go in somewhere we have to squeeze our group of 5 or 6 around two very small café tables. When we finally left we still had about a half hour so we just took shelter under an awning around the marketplace that was being closed down for siesta. I felt bad for the other orientation groups coming in after us because all of the shops were closing for siesta as well and there wasn’t really anywhere to go for shelter.

            After Vic we had an hour and a half bus ride to Besalu. I was planning on sleeping during it, but the views were so gorgeous I just had my eyes out the window the whole time; we drove through forested mountains with snow, it was really beautiful. Besalu was a very cool city. It was even smaller than Vic and had the same small pedestrian roads. We went into a Cathedral there as well, that was all thick stone and was even colder than the outside air. We didn’t have as much time to explore Besalu (15 minutes compared to Vic’s three hours) So we just wandered the streets until it was time to head back to the buses. On the way back I talked with Chessie a lot, which was nice, we are getting to know each other pretty well. When we finally got home, Sandra and Marta had dinner waiting for us – chicken and peppers with rice and bread. Chessie and I ate together because Thea wasn’t back yet. I think we are going to go out tonight, for the first time. My friend from home, Megan, who has been studying in Barcelona for the year, just got back from her 2 week winter break vacation so some of us are going to meet up at her apartment so she can show us some spots she likes to go, so I better start getting ready.

Friday, January 9, 2009

I'm not a total loser.

1/10/09

            I actually made some friends today, believe it or not. Chessie and I are in the same Spanish class and that is whom we have our orientation with. We left at about 8:30 this morning and got to the center like right at 9 o’clock. The orientation was just a lot of information, most of which we already had, so it was not too exciting. Though our teacher speaks even faster Spanish than Sandra and Marta so it’s a little harder to keep up, but we did all right. We also had to do these “case study” things, which I think are mainly designed to scare the shit out of us, and definitely succeeded. They were all based on real things that have happened to IES students and some of them were quite horrifying… though a lot of them were the consequence of stupidity on the students part… like getting into a cab alone with a Spanish man after the clubs close sooo I think I’ll be a little more cautious than that. But Fabrizio (our teacher who is Italian but only speaks Spanish) assured us that Barcelona is an incredibly safe city aside from the rampant, rampant pick pocketing. Everyone has pretty much guaranteed us that we WILL be pick pocketed if we are not extremely careful, so I have been zipping everything important into the side of my purse and carrying it under my arm, and definitely won’t bring it when I go out at night.

            Anyway, so Chessie and I met Shane and David in our Spanish class and Shane suggested we all go to find the hard rock café together after class because we are supposed to meet there tomorrow morning for our orientation trip to Besalu and Vic. So after class we met up with Beth, a girl Chessie had met on the plane, and we all walked over together. Turns out it was like a half block away so we decided to go find a place to eat. We walked down the street for a while and ate in this café, we all had little baguette sandwiches and the boys had some pasta as well, everything was good.

            We had told Shane and David about the market that we had found yesterday and they wanted to check it out, so we all walked over there again. This time we explored deeper into it and it is hugenormous.. Aside from all of the produce (and there is TONS of it) and candy, there are rows of meat and fish stands. Everything is incredibly fresh, the fish looks like it could practically still be swimming, and the huge prawns and everything were still moving their little tentacles around. The meat stands were disturbing, skinned rabbits with bulging eyes and full pig heads and the like. Also huge dried pig legs, which is actually what is hanging in our kitchen right now.

            We walked around the market for a long time – Beth and I bought mango juice for one Euro and Chessie bought Strawberry juice, it was really just the pure fruit so it was pretty good. Then we decided to keep walking down Las Ramblas to get to the water. We walked for a long time until we got to a harbor with a huge HUGE statue of Columbus, because Barcelona is where he landed. (David knows a lot about Barcelona and actually told us that the market we were at is pretty famous as well – I think it was called St. Josep)  We walked across a pedestrian bridge and had a really pretty view of the mountains and palm trees and saw that you could take a Gondola ride up to one of the mountains, which I would like to do some time but also looks terrifying. At the end of the bridge there was a mall that is clearly geared toward Americans – there was a Claire’s and a Ben and Jerry’s and an H&M (which are actually everywhere here). So we got out of there, really not interesting.

            After that we decided to head back because we had been walking for so long and our feet were hurting at this point. On the way back we veered off into one of the many very small pedestrian streets that are lined with shops and we really twisted ourselves in to the point where we got pretty turned around. Then it started to rain. I had my handy umbrella that my mother slipped into my suitcase before I left though, so it was all right. I only felt bad for Shane because he was the only one without an umbrella and also happened to be the only one whose bags were lost, so the only clothes he had were the ones currently getting soaked on his back. He declined umbrella sharing from everyone though so, bettah him than me.

 Eventually David navigated us back to Plaza Catalunya and the IES center using a pocket map he had. It was about 4pm and Chessie was supposed to meet a college friend at 6pm so she wanted to hang around and Beth stayed with her – I think they ended up going to a café with some other IES people Chessie had seen outside the center. Chessie is a real go-getter in the friend - making department. She is a chatty gal and can pretty much strike up a conversation with anyone. David, Shane and I broke off and started heading back to our respective homestays, we exchanged numbers and planned to meet in the morning for our orientation bus before we parted ways. I managed to find my way back to the metro with little difficulty and came home and had a little siesta. And by little I mean 3 hours. Thea woke me up when they got back because dinner was ready – Marta made us some potato ravioli type dish with pesto, along with a ton of boiled vegetables again, it was real tasty. Dinner was over at about 9:00pm and we have just been hanging out around the apartment, both Chessie and Thea are very easy to talk to so nothing had been too uncomf. yet. Thea JUST got Facebook for the first time though and she is fairly obsessed with it. Tomorrow should be eventful with the orientation trip. Apparently I can ramble a lot more easily on a computer than on paper.

My Address in Barcelona:  Balmes, 448, (floor 8 apartment 3)

                                            08022 Barcelona

Thursday, January 8, 2009

They've got some really great juice here.

Top notch.

Choky Bok

1/9/09

            I feel like I got a lot accomplished today… even though I did wake up at like 12:30pm. When I got up I went into the kitchen to get some cereal and toast with nutella. I was getting out the cereal and Sandra asked me if I wanted milk, so I said yes, assuming she meant with my Choky Bok cereal that was in hand. So she gets out this carton of milk and starts pouring it into this coffee mug… but not really a coffee mug, more like one of those huge bowls with a handle on it. And she didn’t stop pouring, I kept telling her ‘esta bien, esta bien,” but she paid me no attention and filled this thing up to.the.brim. The milk carton is pretty small too so I’m pretty sure it was like half the carton. So then she puts the huge bowl in the microwave and starts heating it up (I gave up on trying to eat my Choky Bok at this point)… so she hands me this huge warm bowl of milk and puts sugar next to it and I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing with it because no human consumes this much milk in one sitting. Thea and I just looked at each other like ummm… so we waited until Sandra left the room, and I put my Choky Bok in the cup and ate it. The rest of the milk went to waste… which I felt bad about but I didn’t really know what to do with it. So that was the story of my breakfast… (Choky Bok by the way – looks like Cocoa Krispies – is not Cocoa Krispies – is pretty bad.)

Sandra took us on the metro to Plaza Catalunya so we could buy Spanish cell phones – we all got the same one (the cheapest one) for 19 Euros. Then she went back home and we walked to find the IES center where we will have all of our classes. We got a little turned around and called the center to help us find our way… turned out we had walked right past it. Dumb. But it is not very obvious, it is in a really busy area – the streets all split off into different streets and the road signs are all like browned and faded and placed on random buildings at the corners. I think everyone must pretty much just knows what the streets are. We got our class schedules out of our mailboxes… which we probably weren’t supposed to pick up until tomorrow at orientation but oh well, we’ll just be one step ahead of everyone else, I’m used to it. We asked about Thea’s bags, which got lost on the way to Spain but they still hadn’t arrived. Then we were getting hungry so we walked down to a tapas restaurant that was a few doors over and ate lunch there. Mmm mm it was good. We split chicken croquettes, a small spinach omelet and a sirloin skewer.

After lunch we decided to walk over to the other IES center to use the computer lab because we still don’t have wireless here. After that we wanted to walk around because we didn’t have to be back for dinner until 8:30pm. I AM glad I brought my winter jacket by the way, mother, because it’s only in the 30’s here, which Sandra says is unusual and it should get warmer soon. We walked down a pedestrian only walkway with tons of shops and tons of people. Eventually we happened upon Las Ramblas, which is a famous street here and decided to walk down it. We saw a lot of lights and colors coming from one section off Las Ramblas so we went to go check out and found the most amazing market I have ever seen. It really looked like something out of a fairytale – there were tons of colors because of the fresh fruits and vegetables that were piled everywhere. On one side of the walkway near the gate there were mounds of produce and on the other side there were mounds of chocolate covered everything and at the end of that section, piles and piles of gummy, fruity candy. It was like some sort of food utopia – really – the candy part is like what little kids (and regular type people who love candy) dream about. I will have to go back and take pictures because it was pretty amazing.

So then we made our way back home and Marta, who I have now discovered is our cook (awesome.) had dinner waiting for us. She made us some seasoned chicken and some baguette and a ton of cooked vegetables, it was pretty tasty (though Chessie is a vegetarian and only got to eat the veggies and bread. Poor.).

We talked for a little while and it turns out my roommates and I all share a love for the TV show Arrested Development. Bonding.

After dinner I decided to finish unpacking my room and getting organized. This is when I got a littttle homesick. I hung up a bunch of my pictures of my friends and family, it brightened up my room and my room looks pretty much great now. I also found two notes that my parents had stuck into my luggage before I left, they usually do that if I’m going away for a long time (or for a week to horse camp so…) I guess when they know I’m nervous. I was hoping I would get some. They sent me little notes of encouragement saying they were proud of me and would miss me, which were really sweet. I hung them up above my desk along with Scotty and her little sister’s letters. So I have a little wall of love going on. It’s almost 1am here so I really shouldn’t even be awake right now even though I am really not that tired, I have to be at the center at 9am tomorrow for my language orientation… eeshk.

Welp… see ya later.

FINALLY

1/8/09

My god I am finally in Barcelona. The entire time I have been planning for this trip, all I was waiting for was right now, when I’m settled into my room and ready to start the actual fun part of studying abroad. I think I hit every range of emotion since I left the airport, but I think I’m finally past my anxiety and stress and onto excitement. On the plane ride there I sat next to a girl who was also studying abroad, but in Ireland, and we were both glad to have someone with us as freaked out as we were… but then she got a little too chatty chatty and really started freaking out even more than me and it was like woah, relax, stop talking to me I’m just a stranger. I watched a dumb movie – The Women, read a dumb note from Scotty that was actually not dumb at all and is now hanging above my desk, and slept a couple dumb hours before I woke up and basically had mental breakdowns the rest of the way to London.  The London airport was confusing like I remembered, but I had no problems getting to my next flight (side note: I think the chatty, freak out girl ended up getting lost because we got separated and I’m pretty sure she went to the wrong terminal. Womp womp.) Once on that plane I calmed down a lot, and joined up with more IES people to find our way around the Barcelona Airport to get our orientation info. I met up with one of my roommates at the orientation pickup and we split a cab back to the apartment.

I’m living in a homestay – an apartment with a signora and 2 other roommates (both from the D.C. area). I feel like I’ll get along with Chessie – she’s a vegetarian who wears sweet kicks and says things like “can I slice you a sweatshirt” instead of, “can I give you a sweatshirt”. Thea is a competitive horseback rider… not so sure how I feel about her yet, shes been nice enough, but has mentioned that she hates having roommates (like that was one of the first pieces of information she shared with me… her new roommate. What a gem.) and she keeps saying how she is “laid back”. I have found on more than one occasion that when someone stresses how laid back and easygoing they are, they are usually the opposite… I’ve got my eye on that one.

 Our apartment is your typical 64 year old’s apartment, lots of lace and trinkets and florals - gorg. It’s on a pretty busy street, so that’s cool, and we have a balcony with a nice view, I’ll have to assess it more in the daytime. So far I have met Sandra, who works for our signora’s mother. We haven’t met our signora yet because her mother is sick and she is in Seville with her. She probably won’t be back until next week. A friend of hers did stop by to welcome us though, Conchita, neither she nor Sandra (nor our signora we are told) speak a word of English. Awesome.

We are all on a pretty elementary understanding of Spanish so we have to translate for each other. We also met Marta… not totally sure what she does yet. But they are all really bubbly and fun and excited. They speak rapid Spanish, even though they know we can only half understand them. They are all really curious about us and I feel like we’ll learn a lot from them.

I have my own room for the first 2 months and then we will rotate and I’ll live with Chessie for the last two. It’s small but its got plenty of closet and shelf space and a nice little desk. I’ve got a little TV in here also, for all my Spanish channel needs. We don’t have our wireless password yet, but I did bring an Ethernet cord because I think of everything and am always prepared with the right equipment, so we’ve been taking turns on it. I’m writing this on MWord, I’ll slap it on into my blog when we get our wireless up and runnin. I’m actually falling asleep now because I have gotten only 3 hours of sleep since 8am yesterday morning (it is now 3:28pm Chicago time). So Ima go pass out for hours.