Gaudi extravaganza

My senora couldn't be cuter. I found out on Thursday that she rides a bike to work everyday (she's like, really tiny -several inches shorted than me - and in her 6os - SO cute!). She loves to chat and makes fabulous dinners all the time - salmon and potatotes, salad with avocado, fried sardine-type fish, fish stew, baked ravioli, etc. Sometimes she even gives me wine with dinner! I'm completely spoiled and so, so happy I changed. She always offers me lunch if I happen to be around even though she technically doesn't have to, and is right now planning a little overnight trip to her aunt's house by the Pyrenees for an upcoming weekend! I also feel like my Spanish has been improving more steadily with her since we spend so much time talking at dinner. Hurray :)


I should technically be backtracking and writing about the things I mentioned in my last post, but backtracking requires more effort/memory and I'm too tired to do that... so instead, we'll talk about this weekend!

Thursday was a very good day overall. For my "Barcelona - Past & Present" class, we went to Casa Mila or La Padrera, an apartment building built by Gaudi. It is actually the first Gaudi building I've been into, I'm ashamed to say (it inspired me to devote much of this weekend to Gaudi, though - Friday I went to the Sagrada Familia at long last, and Saturday I returned to Parc Guell and went into Gaudi's home). I actually wasn't terribly impressed with the Casa Mila - the outside is very cool (the waviness of the walls is amazing) but the inside isn't particularly spectacular. The roof was also a little disappointing too - I liked it but there is so much fencing that it kind of ruins the effect.


Thursday night I usually have my "Intercultural Communications" class from 530-730... It's my favorite class, despite the annoying timeframe. There are only four of us in it, plus our Spanish professor, so we can really get into the nitty gritty of things. This Thursday, though, two girls were gone on to Prague, incidentally, so my professor took the remaining two of us on a fieldtrip! We walked around El Raval, the area with the highest percentage of immigrants, to observe the different cultures interacting - the different stores, languages, etc. It was really interesting. Afterwards she took us to a little cafe that her father used to go to for a speciality drink called a "suizo" - a mix between hot chocolate and pudding with homemade whip cream, usually accompanied by churros - sweet, fried pastry strips. It was delicious and so cool to be in such a quintessentially Spanish cafe that I'm not sure I would have found otherwise - it was completely packed with Spanairds of all ages, everyone eating the exact same thing - suizos and churros.


That same night I went out with my Spanish intercambio partner, Laura, and her friend, Ana. It was pretty fun - a little weird because they're both a couple years younger than I am, and the places we went were all of a younger crowd... But I enjoyed hanging out with actual Spanish girls for once - they often lapsed into speaking Catalan with one another which I couldn't understand any of, of course, and when they met up with other students they would also usually speak Catalan - until they found out I was American and all wanted to practice their English on me. Haha. It was fun.

Friday I went to Pueblo Espanol - this slightly horrific but at the same time somewhat cool Disney-worldish microcosm of Spanish architecture they built several years back. It's very touristy. It has all the different types of buildings, with a couple random art museums mixed in - but the main attraction is the number of wonderful little artesan shops they have.... everything's very expensive but it's almost all "hecho por mano" - handmade ceramics, scarves, woodwork, glass sculptures, etc. I plan to return to do a little Christmas shopping in Dcember, if I even have any money left by then.... haha :-/


After that, I finally went to Sagrada Familia. This building of Gaudi's completely blew my mind. It's been under construction for over 100 years (he died before its completion), and it still has a long way to go. But what is there is stunning - it's so unlike anything you'll ever see. It has the typical striking-detail-everywhere-you-look characteristic that most beautiful churches have, but the details are done in such an interesting and abstract way... it's hard to explain! The building itself looks like it's melting, somehow - all of his work is so organic, it's incredible. There are never any hard edges or lines. It reminds me of what Howard Roarke's (sp?) work would have been like - the fictional architect of The Fountainhead... mixed with Dr. Seuss.










This weekend was basically a Gaudi extravaganza - I went back to Park Guell today. I was there in the first week of September, but that's it - it's a pretty big hike to get there. It's such a cool place - although I hateee how crowded it is. You can hardly move two feet without getting in the way of someone's photo op. But I do love the musicians that are there - there are a lot of cave-like areas with great acoustics that Spanish guitarist will come play in - it's lovely to listen to.







Tonight is one of my friend's senora's birthdays, and she invited me over to their little party. I'm really happy about this weekend, overall - I feel like it's been one of the most interactive with actual Spanish people, which is so cool - I'm so lucky to be able to do it.

Tomorrow I hope to either go to the Aquarium, or to the Laberinto park .... it's funny how there are so many things I still have to do here - I kept feeling like I had so much time, but it's gone by so quickly, and now I'm scrambling to get to it all, especially with the upcoming weekend trips I'm planning. I will do it though, I'm determined! I'll probably need to sleep for like 3 days when I return in December, but that's okay.


And this coming Wednesday I go to Prague! Man oh man. Going from all this to New England winter (it was 65* today), graduation, The Real World... is going to be difficult.

one month later, one month left

Yikes, it's been exactly a month since I last wrote in here! I've just been very busy, and a little stressed recently - and the more time passed, the more ground I had to cover - which made me want to write an entry even less. But it's a rainy day and I don't have much to do at the moment - there's really no good excuse not to update. So here I am! I probably won't get to it all but I'll try to cover the important things.

One of the major happenings has been my change of homestay, for sure. The old one went from bad to worse after that last entry. The two major catlyst events, to make a long, unhappy story short were 1) Noa, the daughter, biting me on the face and then my getting reprimanded by my senora for holding her wrist too tightly while I was telling her not to do it again, and 2) a night where the parents were fighting/Noa was crying until the wee hours of the morning with the senora at the door threatening to leave and all kinds of nonsense, God help me if I knew what they were fighting about - I think it had something to do with Noa never sleeping in her own bed, but if it's difficult to understand Spanairds as is, it's even moreso when they're angry.

These two things along with the parents general and constant fighting, plus Noa stealing something from my room literally every day (and lying about it, until the parents and would find it hidden somewhere in her room - most evil four-year old ever, I'm telling you!), hitting me, kicking me, et cetera - basically just made it not a very pleasant environment. They've had students before, apparently, but I felt that they were going through a rough spot, and I was an added stress - not to mention that they were seriously stressing me out. I never looked forward to being home, and once I was there, ended up staying in my room with the door shut so that Noa wouldn't cause problems.

I wasn't even sure I should move but after talking to friends, family, and then my advisor, I realized that I shouldn't have to look back at my experience here and think "Well, it was great! But my homestay.......(fill in the blank)"


So, I switched - last Tuesday, actually. Having to tell my family that I was leaving and then packing up all my stuff was probably one of the most awkward experiences of my life (and I can be pretty awkward, so that says a lot), but it has been totally worth it. My new homestay is completely the opposite of my old one. I adore my new family - it's much more like I had originally hoped it would be.

I now live with Victoria, a high school math teacher in her sixties, who is one of the sweetest women ever! I practically wept tears of joy at her feet when I first arrived because I could just tell she was going to be so much nicer than my past senora... She lives in a very pretty little apartment in a much nicer area than before, just two blocks from Passeig de Gracia, one of the most emblematic streets of Barcelona (two of Gaudi's most famous houses are located there). She is a fabulous cook and loves to chat - I feel like we've talked more here in one week than I would have in at least two weeks at the other house. She has a daughter my age and a son my brother's age. The son lives in France now, and the daughter lives in Barcelona but mostly lives with her dad (my senora is divorced). I'm pretty sure the daughter primarily lives with her dad simply because he lives closer to the center of town and she has a little difficulty moving around because she was in a motorcycle accident several years ago. But she comes over frequently during the week to eat with us, and is also super nice.

My only regret now is that I didn't move earlier... oh well. We'll call it a learning experience.

I have to go to class soon, but I'll update later tonight or tomorrow with details on and pictures of my trips to Ireland and Madrid during October, and some other random stuff. I have trips to Prague and Rome planned for the upcoming month. I can't believe it's almost over....!!! And that I'll be graduating. Sheesh.


Much love! Miss you all.

The second best thing to thinking (/acting) positively...

is whining in my blog.

One of the things I was most looking forward to was living with a host family. I had imagined that I would be staying with very warm, friendly people, who would take me under their wing and help me get to know Barcelona, get to know the culture, etc. I anticipated some awkward spots at times, but I imagined that after a while I'd feel like part of the family...

unfortunately, it hasn't been very much like that at all. I have been trying very, very hard to stay positive about it but today I'm not doing such a good job, and I'm going to indulge myself and complain because I've about had it and I'd like to vent.

Today wasn't even really their fault, I guess. They had some family/friends over for lunch (the main meal here). Usually I go out during the day but today I didn't feel like it, and was just hanging out in my room. But it was so awkward to just be in here by myself - they didn't even bother to introduce me or anything. And while I know it's not their obligation, for the number of times that I'm not here for dinner or away for the weekend, and the few times that I do happen to be in the house for lunch time (I'm usually not)... I feel like they maybe could have offered me lunch? I don't know. I do know that I felt kind of like the ugly stepchild all day, sitting in my room while they ate and chatted in the living room. It wasn't a great feeling.... and it made me miss my friends and family a lot :( ....

I mean they're basically very nice but just haven't been exactly "warm" - and I can be on the sensitive side, so when someone isn't "warm" to me, it might as well be cold... Meh!

I think a huge part of the problem is the little girl. She honestly is one of the most ill-behaved children I have ever met. For example, a couple weeks ago, we were watching a movie together with her Grandma (Dad was away on a business trip, Mom was at work)...everything was totally fine. Grandma then gets up to go into the kitchen.... as soon as she does, Noa gets up and bites my arm, and I mean, BITES - I had a bruise of her dental records for about two weeks. What four year old is evil enough to wait until no one's in the room to bite someone 5 times their age??? I keep thinking it's because I don't spend enough time with her, when when I do try to play with her or whatever, she's completely unbearable, kicking, biting, screaming, stealing my things, etc. It's ridiculous. The Spanish I'm learning mostly involves the indicative: "Don't pull my hair"/ "Don't touch my computer" / "Don't bite me" etc. Fun stuff, right?

I can understand why she acts the way she does, to some degree - for one, her parents let her act that way (she is an only child, with two giant rooms full of toys, sleeps with the parents still even though she's four, etc.!), for two, her mom works nights and her dad goes away on business trips every week for a few days, and it seems like they're not often together for family time (so she's acting out as a result of a lack of attention or something - and the parents themselves happen to fight often as well), and for three, me not being able to speak Spanish very well makes her think I'm an idiot and that she can get away with anything.

Her parents do yell at her when she's bad (which is 24/7, which also makes things awkward) but it's without any consistency, and I think she hears it so much that it just doesn't register. I would also say that she cries for at least 4 hours a day. And by cries, I mean wails and screams.

I really wish that they had a Spanish version of Supernanny :(

Noa's behavior and my general weariness of her in turn make things kind of awkward with her parents.... viscious cycle style. I don't know. To be fair, the dad is really quite nice to me, always asking me how my day was, etc. It's more the mother that's a little less than friendly at times... I think she's kind of stressed out (I would be too if I had such a devil of a kid.......)

Add to all this the fact that A) They don't believe in eating vegetables B) We live in the not-so-nice area of town (to be fair, so do 1/2 of the other students in my group, although I happen to be the furthest out) and C) She's only finally doing my laundry for the second time since I've been hereafter I specifically asked her to... makes me a little frustrated at times.

Yikes.

Blah. I can certainly handle it all but I honestly think I'm going to feel obligated to advise our program director to not situate another student in this house - or maybe at least someone who can speak Spanish better and can therefore potentially handle the little girl with more ease than I can. I don't know. We'll see. I'm going to continue to try to play with Noa once in a while (I'll just dress in layers to protect myself from the inevitable abuse) .... and I'm going to start trying harder to improve my Spanish so that I can communicate more with the parents, and with her. I'm sure part of the problem is simply the things that get lost in translation.

They say study abroad is character-building....

--------------------

Edit: After writing this Tony came to tell me it was time for dinner - apparently Noemi and Noa had already gone to bed because they weren't hungry. But he was very nice, and I really am grateful for it - even though he wasn't eating, he sat with me while I did (dinner was, coincidentally, delicious, as it was leftovers from lunch)... and when I said he didn't have to sit with me in my terrible Spanish, he said that I shouldn't eat by myself. Now I feel better. Somebody cares! Hurray! Haha.

Anyway.... just wanted to add that. Goodnight. <3

Emily in Barcelona.. and Paris!

Wednesday was the main day of the La Mercé (I can easily type accent marks on the computers at school, so for once I'll use them...). Although I had been up late the night before, I made sure to drag myself out of bed to go to see the uniquely Catalán ¨castells¨ - essentially, human towers. About 20 or so people, using a variety of specific climbing techniques, endurance, strength and pure craziness, climb up one another to form a typically 5-8 level-high pyramid. The lowest levels are comprised of older men, the uppermost, of young children, with teenagers and such in between. It took place in one of Barcelona's many main squares, Jaume I, between the two most important buildings of Catalán government, El Palau e la Generalitat and la Casa de la Ciutat.

The Catalonian president and his family were actually on the balcony of the Casa de la Ciutat watching the event - the plaza itself was packed with people. There were all different teams of castellers from various regions of Catalonia - while the crowd held its breath (and their pocketbooks - being in such a large crowd made me a little nervous) each team would build their tower, one at a time, until the littlest casteller (who is usually about 5 years old), would climb to the top, blow a kiss, and then all would commence to come back down... which was about as scary as when they are going up.

That was probably the most exciting part of the day. My friend and I also happened to wander back to the square later that day when it was less sardine-can-like, and saw that one of the two government buildings, El Palau e la Generalitat, had free public entrance for the day. It was quite pretty. We went to a parade later that was a little on the ridiculous side - mostly just creepy figures dancing around awkwardly. The fireworks that night were spectacular, set to music at the plaza de España.

Inside the Palau:

The next morning it was off to France with my friends Anjali, Max, and Marcelo. It was a a bit of a project getting to Paris, I must say. We took a bus from Barcelona to Girona (Spain), a plane from Girona to Beavauis (France) and a bus from Beauvais to Paris. Ah, the joys of being too poor to afford direct flights...

Anyway, overall, Paris was more wonderful than I could have expected. I suppose I knew I would like it; being a romantic and all - but at the same time, I was a little weary of the French themselves, and how they would treat us in light of our limited language skills (¨bonjour, ¨parlez-vous l'anglais¨, and ¨baguette¨just about summarize the extent of my vocabulary). I was pleasantly surprised by how much I truly did love it, and how nice most people were. Of course we did spend most of our time in touristy areas, with Parisians that are likely used to people like us.

We didn´t do much on Thursday night, being tired from travelling and wanting to be able to wake up early Friday for a full day of exploring - so we walked around a bit and had dinner at a local restaurant (nothing too extravagant - we decided to eat cheaply for most of the trip and then have a nice sit-down meal on Saturday). We then went to the oldest bar in Paris, which was rather disappointing, honestly. It was more Irish pub than antiquated French tavern. Far more exciting was the scrum-diddly-umptious crepé we had on the side of the road, made with nutella (a type of chocolate/hazelnut spread) and banana. Mmm.

The next day was quite productive: our first stop was Notre Dame, which was completely gorgeous. (Mildly funny story: we only knew which metro stop to get off of to go to Notre Dame, but lacked specific directions - we assumed to first church we saw was it - commence excitement, picture-taking, etc... got in line to go in - and promptly realized it was a completely different cathedral). Here are some pictures, not that they do it justice (by the way, this trip has really made me wish I had a better camera... if anyone´s feeling generous???):

I was just amazed at how beautifu the whole city was. We picked a perfect time to go, too - the weather was like a perfect fall day, every day - the leaves were just starting to change, and it was cold at night and in the evenings - but warm and sunny throughout the afternoon. After Notre Dame we went to meet at Luxembourg Garden with my friend Peter, a fellow English major from Northeastern, who is studying abroad in Paris (and luckily for us, happens to speak French very well). Chessie, this one´s for you!:


The park was one of the loveliest I have ever seen. There were so many people out, chatting, reading, sunbathing. The gelato we had afterwards was coincidentally some of the best I've ever tasted.. I love parks and ice cream in general, but combined = magical. Haha.



After the park we wandered through the city towards the Louvre, which is free (hurray!) for people under 26 after 6 pm. The building was magnificent - and enormous (it holds over 35,000 pieces of art).

The Louvre closes at 9 - three hours is hardly enough time to see everything (try three days) - but we picked out a few highlights and set off running to get to them - the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the Code of Hammurabi, Liberty Leading the People, to name a few. It was so exhausting that we ended up not even being able to stay for the full three hours... Here I am with Liberty Leading the People:

The following day we went to see the Arc de Triomphe, which was pretty impressive. From there we walked down the Champs d´Elysee, a famous street that runs from the Arc to the Louvre. We stopped along the way to eat our aforementioned ¨nice¨meal, which included escargot, paté, french onion soup, etc. It was quite delicious.

The latter half of the Champs d´Elysee was completely gorgeous, again, running through a beautiful little park which we took our time exploring...

After that Anjali and I went to take a little boat cruise along the Seine - it was a pleasant change to be able to sit and have the scenes and sites of Paris pass by us instead of vice versa. Our final stop of the day (and of the trip) was to the one and only Eiffel Tower. We had hoped to be able to get up to the top in time for sunset, but of course, everyone and their mother had the same idea, apparently - the lines were huge (and it was a Saturday, after all). It was about an hour and a half before we were able to get into the lift. Either way, it was pretty spectacular to be able to see the ¨City of Lights¨ at night from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

After the Eiffel tower, we wandered around and ate more crepés and delicious baguettes, and met up with Peter to do as the French youth apparently do - drink in front of national monuments. Our national monument of choice was the Pantheon. It was interesting, to say the least.

The following morning we had to be up at 5:30 AM to catch our 9 AM flight - we anticipated that being a disaster, and were right... to make a long story short there was mass confusion at the bus terminal to Beauvais, and Anjali actually ended up missing her flight :( thankfully, the three of us made it, though it was a pretty close call.

A few more pictures (PS - you can click on the pictures to make them larger):



We started our ¨real¨classes here on Monday - apparently the reason I´m here is to learn or something....? (Ha) I will try to write about those and some other various topics in the next couple days - I´ve been slacking and end up having to write novels when I do get around to posting in order to cover all that´s happened, and even then, I´m leaving out a lot.

Until then! Abrazos y besos (hugs and kisses)!

Cava, crime, and the correfroc!

(This was actually written last night but I accidentally deleted the second portion and had to retype it this morning - sorry if there are typos but I was running out of patience!)

Hola! So of course I'm finding the time to update this now, with my first Spanish test tomorrow morning. Oh well. I have studied for most of the day so I think this is a well-deserved break.

Anyway, last week I mentioned going on a daytrip outside of Barcelona to Penedes and Sitges -it was probably one of the greater daytrips I've taken in my life - we started the day at a champagne-only vineyeard, spent the middle of the day at the beach in Sitges, and ended the trip at a champagne and wine vineyeard. I don't think it gets much better! The exclusively champagne vineyard was Codorniu vineyards - as you can imagine they were quite serious about their cava.

They took us on a lovely tour of their museum and storage facilities, all which were designed by a semi-famous architect, whom I can't remember the name of, of course. The storage area was basically like a giant batcave for cava ("cava" spanish for champagne, literally means "cave") - you couldn't even possibly wrap your head around how many bottles of champagne this place held. We had to ride a little train to get from one end to the other! The decor was exquisite too - they incorporated wine bottles into everything - they had chandeliers made of wine bottles, tables made of wine bottles, etc. They also had one of the must beautiful sculptures I've ever seen, in a little shrine-like area in the heart of the storage facilities - it was a metalesque tree coming out of a table with little circular balls of different color and light (meant to sympolize grape vines; the various colors, the various stages of the grape). I couldn't get a great picture of it but hopefully I can find one from someone else...

We then went to Sitges for the beach - very beautiful but slightly on the chilly side. After that we headed to another nearby vineyard, which was a combined tour and tasting class. We tried 4 different wines and 2 different cavas, learning how to properly taste (not chug! haha) each one, and learning about the different aromas, flavors, etc. The entire thing was mostly in Spanish and I was very pleased to be able to understand a good deal of it, with much thanks due to the owner's incredibly slow pace of talking and emphatic hand gestures. That was all Friday. Now for the burgularly I mentioned in my last post... :(

On Sunday my friend Anjali and I were walking through Barri Gotic, something we do quite often, as the area is so pretty. About 30 seconds after passing by a narrow alleyway with some people in it, we heard some indecipherable yelling. At first we thought nothing of it - but when it suddenly became oddly quiet, we decided to go back and investiage. Sure enough, there was no longer the group of about four people - only one poor woman standing surrounded by tons of luggage but sans her purse. I was completely shocked/appalled, etc. I mean, it´s one thing to be robbed late at night (I have friends who have had this happen to them in Boston) - but on a SUNDAY - in the middle of the day? Completely unbelievable. It more or less ruined my day, as I had until then felt pretty safe walking around by myself. Of course, she was a relatively target because of all the luggage - but still.

I´m pretty frustrated with the petty crime here, actually. I can´t believe that the police don´t do more to stop it - whether by enacting harsher punishments, going undercover as tourists - whatever. A study abroad group that was here last semester said that 25/40 students had something stolen from them at some time during their four months. The attitude here seems to be that A) all big cities are like this, B) if you take the right precautions you´ll be fine and C) you´ll get used to it after a while. I, however, have never felt as afraid for my personal belongings as I do here, and I am not appreciative of the idea that I am supposed to just get used to it. Theft shouldn´t be an accepted norm, for chrissakes. I know that Spain has less violent crime than the US, etc., etc., but stealing from/mugging someone is a pretty serious, malicious crime. I´m a little disappointed with Barcelona on this one. It´s only been two weeks and I´m already so in the habit of keeping a hawk-like eye on my things and the people around me. I think it´s going to be difficult for me to relax my heightened sense of security when I´m back in Boston... everyone will think I´m crazy when I´m hugging my bag to my chest or putting my chair legs through its straps when I´m at a restaurant.... haha.

Oh well. I guess you have to take the good with the bad. Thankfully Barcelona´s awesomeoness is outweighing its problems (talk to me after I´ve been robbed and I might feel differently, but until then...)

Onto that awesomeness... on Friday we went to the Picasso museum. Picasso trained in Barcelona before living in Paris. The museum had a ton of work from his younger years - being able to see that work really makes you appreciate his abilities. It's tempting, sometimes, to look at his paintings and think, "I could've made that squiggly blob too!" But seeing what he was doing when he was nine (amazing work) really makes you admire what he did later - he was so good at the traditional it's no wonder he became so experimental. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This weekend/week/next weekend is actually a wonderful time to be in Barcelona - it is La Merce, a 7-day long celebration of the city´s patron saint, Our Lady of Mercy. There is an astounding amount of events and activities each and every day. For example, on Saturday night, we went to the "Correfroc". The Correfroc is a parade of demon and devil-like floats and figures that shoot sparks at the crowds - literally translated, it means ¨"fire run" - and that´s exactly what you have to do. They hold it on a pretty wide street so it´s relatively easy to avoid, but a lot of people go right up and dance in the sparks. Everyone wears long sleeves, jeans, hats, scarves, sunglasses, etc. It was pretty wild.

After that we walked to the harbor to watch some fireworks (with a bottle of wine) - and then roamed around to the more than 5 free concerts taking place in various parts of the city. It was basically an amazing night. And the main day of the festival isn't even until Wednesday! I can't wait.

Oh yeah, and on Thursday I go to Paris for the weekend .... :) tough life, huh?

Now for photo time:

Flamenco dancing (from my last post):

Codorniu cava vineyard:

El correfroc:

Love and miss you all - adios!

Mi Puente

An update! The past week has gone relatively well. Last Tuesday we went to a Flamenco show. It was only a half hour show but it was so cool (and very sexy!). There was only one dancer, and it was actually a guy – I had imagined that it would be a woman. I don’t have any good pictures because I was too busy being in awe of his dance moves, haha...

We only had class from Monday through Wednesday last week, because Thursday was National Catalonian Day. Friday we had no class either because in Spain, whenever a holiday falls on a Thursday, everyone takes “un puente” (I think that's what it is) - a.k.a, the whole weekend off. All day Thursday were concerts, speeches, demonstrations, etc. Most of my friends went to a free concert in the main park here, but my family invited me to go out with them for a tour of the city, and I obviously couldn’t pass that up.

They enlisted a guy Tony works with, who knows a lot of English, a lot of history, and was extremely nice (unfortunately I can’t even remember his name right now, which is pretty embarrassing). I essentially had a personal tour guide for the evening! We mostly walked around Barri Gotic and Las Ramblas, visiting different churches, plazas, etc., stopping for ice cream, for churros (delicious, delicious crispy fried pastries…de-licious), etc. We went to a few places that I had gone to before in CIEE’s tours, but also some new ones. Hopefully I can relocate the new places and play tourguide for some of my friends in the future. It’s so easy to get lost in the Barri Gotic – it’s an absolute labyrinth of streets. Anyway, it was nice to have someone to talk to in English, and someone who could translate fully to Noemi and Tony (luckily, devil-child passed out in her stroller about halfway through the trip...).

We went out afterwards for dinner – Noemi had wanted to go out for traditional Catalan food but a lot of places were closed for the holiday, so we ended up getting pizza… It was a lovely evening in itself, but it was also nice because it made me feel like my family here actually wants me to be here, and that I’m not just a source of extra income. It’s been hard to feel comfortable yet because of the language barrier, but even so, I feel that it is difficult to be suddenly living so closely with complete strangers – getting used to one another’s habits, rules, etc. – regardless of language.

It’s so funny how I can go into a restaurant or café and order something in Spanish, be proud of my pronunciation, and then have them answer me back in English. Is it that obvious? Haha. My goal is, by the end of the semester, to be able to trick someone (store clerk or otherwise) into thinking I might actually be Spanish. I’m not sure if that’s even possible, but I can hope! It’s so difficult to get the pronunciation exactly right, especially here with the mix of Catalan and Castellano. I’ve considered trying to learn a little Catalan, because from what I gather, they tend to appreciate bad Catalan better than good Castellano – but it is SO confusing. Many words are the same, even more are very similar but slightly different, and then most are just completely different. It’s impossible. I was chatting with a guy at a café, actually, and he was saying that it was nice that I could at least speak some Spanish, and then asked if I knew any Catalan – too which I responded meekly, “bon dia?” and received a giant hug and smile for my efforts. I think I will try to learn some standard sayings and some food-related words... (food is one of my top priorities in life, if you weren't aware!).

I can feel myself getting slightly better. But it’s tiring – I feel like my brain is functioning at 150% all day every day because I’m trying so hard to pick up on what people are saying, to translate it, to say something back (and say it correctly)… sometimes I wonder if smoke is coming out my ears when I have to say an especially complicated sentence.

The realization of how immersed I am in the language definitely came the other night when I started to count sheep in Spanish…

Anyway. I would like to write more but I have homework to do! Stay tuned to hear about our daytrip to Penedes and Sitges on Friday, and a burglary I witnessed yesterday :( .... !

<3

Una semana!

I have successfully surived a week abroad! Haven't been deported, haven't had my purse stolen... (I hope I'm not jinxing myself) - go me!

This weekend was fun. On Friday we went to the Barri Gotic, a very old (and beautiful) part of Barcelona - a couple of the pictures from my last post were taken there. The night started at an Irish pub (yes, yes I know, I'm supposed to be experiencing Barcelonian culture, but it was nice to be in a familiar environment!), continued at a favorite haunt of Hemingway by Las Ramblas (the oldest bar in Barcelona, I have heard - with enough dust to prove it), and ended at the Catalan Plaza, where we waited for the metro to start back up again (cerca 5 AM.... apparently that's what they do here, and "when in Rome," no?)

On Saturday, as a result of the late night, we all slept in very late, woke up....... and then slept some more at the beach. So productive. The beaches here are beautiful - and I've heard that Barceloneta, the beach we frequent (as it is only 10 minutes from the university) isn't even that nice of a beach. We had lunch, or more of dessert (crepes and coffee) at a crazy little cafe that had its kitchen in a bus (indoors) and bathrooms that were made out of bus doors. See below.

Saturday night we went to a local bar for some sangria, and then a bar by the beach that played ridiculous 50s music - and then to a "disco"... the disco cost EIGHTEEN euros to get in (and that was with a special ticket), but it did include a drink. I was still mildly horrified. But again, when in Rome... because my mother is reading this, I won't tell you how late we were awake until!

Sunday was another late morning (....afternoon....), cafe (coffee) y bocadillos (sandwiches) at a cafe, and a long walk to the city center and El Parc de la Ciutadella - a gorgeous park full of statues, fountains (sans water, of course, because of the drought), and so many people! We walked through the park back to Barri Gotic (it's currently my favorite place) and people-watched, and also stopped to listen to a street performer singing English songs (Bob Marley, the Fugees, a crazy mix -) to a Spanish crowd (so interesting). The guy was very talented and drew a huge crowd - it was so funny to see a bunch of Spainairds singing "Don't worry, be happy" etc.

Today we had our first day of class (we have two weeks of intensive Spanish classes, and then in October we start regular classes plus a Spanish class), and it was a little on the terrible side. I can hardly understand what the teacher is saying - it was the first day and we were already doing irreglar past tense verbs and past participles and all kinds of other horrific stuff that I never actually learned except by studying on my own time. I talked to the teacher and I'm going to try it again tomorrow but I might switch into a class that a lot of the people in my program are in - it's still intermediate but "3" instead of "5". We'll see how it goes. To make up for the terribleness, after class, 6 or so students in my program went to this amazing little hole-in-the-wall place that was super crowded, dirty, without seats - and had .60 - .90 cent glasses of champagne! I paid about 3.5 Euros for 2 glasses of cava (champagne) and a ham bocadillo. Marvelous.

Also - while it may sound like my major activity here is drinking, I will have you know that it is not getting drunk - in Spain, quite contrary to the customs of most American youth, drinking is in moderation, and for enjoyment only - NOT to wake up not remembering what you did the night before. I really appreciate that. Drinking is a part of your night, not the focus.

Anyway! Things with the family here are good - we struggle through conversations with dictionaries, pictures, hand motions, etc - it's like an extended game of charades. The little girl is a little bit of un diablo, unfortunately. Her favorite game is to take something from my room, hide it, and then come back empty-handed saying "No se!" - her second favorite game is launching herself at me when I walk past the couch - with a close tie for a third game of hitting me in the head when her parents leave the room. I am better off than the rabbit, however - she thoroughly enjoys carrying it around by one of its legs and sticking it in places it can't get itself out of. Ay carumba. I'm just trying to be patient and learn enough Spanish to be able to scold her convincingly.... and also trying to spend some time with her during the day because I think part of the problem is that she just wants attention, and I'm not here very often - when I am, I'm talking with her parents, fixing up my room, etc.

So this was supposed to be a short post and it turned into a massive one - lo siento. Time for bed! Buenas noches, les extrano (Goodnight, I miss you!) <3

the bus-bathroom

el parc (o el parque)

the beach

a cathedral and an alleyway in el Barri Gotic