Palau de Musica

Last night, I went to the Palau de Musica with Sarah, her mom, and two of their family friends, Holly and Brittany. This is a really gorgeous building from the outside and the inside is beautiful too. There are 2,140 roses in the ceiling (you'll see a picture in a minute) and there are also 2,140 seats in the building (thank you, Sarah, for the excellent information!). The outside of the building is also decorated with roses. You may be wondering why I am talking about the outside but don't have a picture for you.... the angle is really difficult to get because the street out front is so narrow. But, then, that's what Google is for.

There are mosaics throughout both the inside and the outside of the building. You may remember pictures of Gaudi's Serpentine Bench, which was also covered in mosaics. Mosaics are a very Catalan thing so you can see them throughout Barcelona and also in the rest of Catalunya.

The Palau is a very Catalan place. The show we saw was a small orchestra and then a choral group and then they played together. They were both quite good. There was a strong flute presence in the orchestra gave the music a prevailing sonorous tone.  Well, don't I just sound like the little cultured-gal?

Playing in the Band

I am working on my final presentation for Spanish class and I have to speak about a great moment in my life.  While I've had many, I cannot resist telling a story every now and then so I decided to write about the time I played guitar with the Boss-- Mr. Bruce Springsteen.

For your viewing pleasure:

Some Photos

Since this week went by in a flurry of schoolwork and I didn't get to do anything new, here are some photos (mostly from spring break).

Singing in the rain.

At dinner with friends.  

On our bikes.

Thanks to Sarah's bravery, we have an action shot!

Back home.  Note our clenched fists-- ready for a fight!

Spring has Sprung

I think I started this blog about two weeks before coming to Barcelona and now it's about two weeks until I go home.  Two and a half weeks, really.  The time has gone really quickly but slowly at the same time.  January feels like AGES ago.  Well, it's not the time for a reflection on the past semester (though I have already started compiling a "Lessons I've Learned" list!) so moving on!

My mom and grandma were here this past week.  We did a LOT.  So much that I am completely exhausted now and I didn't even do everything with them!

We had planned on going to Montserrat but it was a rainy day so we went into the Cathedral of Barcelona courtyard.  There are a bunch of swans there too.

And we had a dinner party at our apartment.  My host mom made paella (this is an all-day endeavor because you have to get fresh seafood and she makes each ingredient separately so it's perfect).  We ate our meal and drank our cava and wine and liquor and got to dancing.  Then my host dad put on Afroman's "Because I Got High" and I had to get some photos of that (did you know that that song was nominated for a Grammy?!?!).

(We each had four glasses for dinner-- water, wine, cava, and liquor)

We also went to the Sagrada Familia.

The inside is a construction site!!!  I knew that going in but I was amazed because the workers are just going about their work with hundreds of people looking on.  But they act like I do at work and do what they have to do without even looking at the people watching them.

Saturday was gorgeous... a real beach day.

Unfortunately today was rainy and cold and tomorrow is supposed to be the same but I cannot wait to spend lovely days at the beach.

The big Barca-Madrid football game was on Saturday night.  I got home from dinner with my mom and grandma and my host family had some friends over to watch the game.  Dana, Amelia and I watched the game with them which was really fun.  They all got VERY into the game, jumping up and yelling and everything.  I wound up laughing at myself when I yelled at the tv.  I cannot take myself seriously sometimes.

Anecdote from Sarah P.

(This occurred in Pisa.)

Funny story – So Sarah G and I are in Italy sitting outside at this little restaurant (they only had outdoor seating) shooting the breeze and having some wine because it was around 7:00 and we had time to kill before dinner. So we’re sitting there and all of these guys trying to sell trinkets keep coming up to us and going “Si? Yes? You like.” but mostly mumbling because they never know what language to speak, and we just go “no, no, NO” (universal word - No). Well by the time the third or so guy comes up I’m like oh my gosh no! in fact I DO NOT want to buy dirty old socks and light up airplanes! So I don’t say anything and just pretend to fiddle with my sunglasses but he is a persistent one and says “ you speak English?, you like this? (while shoving plastic bracelets in my face), Italiano? Si?” When we still don’t respond he just looks at us and he goes “you don’t understand ‘how are you’ in English?” we just stare. So he asks, “what language you speak? French?” And Sarah quite boldly looks at him and  says, “Deutche.” He stares at us for like 30 seconds…..(thinking)…..and says “German?!?” We both nod and he walks away. Cue the hysterical laughter! On the train a similar vendor came and sat next to me, and this time I had the brilliant idea that when he tried to pawn off his merchandise I would just start using sign language (which I don’t know so it would more look like me just flailing my hands around) ….but then I realized I had my earphones in, probably wouldn't be very convincing...

Under the Tuscan Sun

Prepare yourself for a long blog entry!

I just returned from spring break.  Sarah and I arrived in Florence on Tuesday and got back to Barcelona a few hours ago. 

On Tuesday, we got to Florence and set off to find our hostel.  We were looking at the directions, fairly lost, when a woman came up to us and asked if we needed help.  We did.  And she walked us to about a block away from our hostel!  After dropping our bags off, we went to meet some of our friends from Barcelona for dinner (they were in Florence for the day).  We got gelato and then it started pouring...

We took shelter under an arcade and saw a rainbow.

We had a nice dinner and a friend of one of their friends was studying in Florence and took us to see a Beatles cover band.

Clearly they don't look like the Beatles and Paul wasn't able to make the show but they were good.  We had to leave after about 45 minutes so we could get up early for our bike tour of the Tuscan countryside.

We biked fifteen miles throughout the day and we stopped at the Corsini's vineyard where they make wine and olive oil for a tour and lunch.

The Corsinis have been royalty (dukes or something along those lines) for hundreds of years.  They used to have a vineyard but when it became too dangerous to live in the countryside, they moved into Florence.  A few generations later (about 20 years ago), some of the family members moved back into the country villa to restart the family business.  When they were clearing out, they found the bottles above.

On Thursday, we walked all around Florence.  It is a beautiful city. Plus, the people are very friendly and went out of their way to help us.  When we would look at a map, chances were that someone would come up to us to offer directions.

Il Duomo.

 Around the outside of the city.

An art class by Ponte Vecchio.  Almost all the stores on the bridge were ritzy jewelry stores.

 

We walked about 12 miles (according to our calculations) on Thursday.  This was extremely rough on our feet but we did get some really nice pictures. 

On Friday, we went to Pisa where we took the requisite tourist pictures...

I've been eating my Wheaties!

Then, on Saturday, we went to Cinque Terre.  It's a region of five villages along the coast of Italy.  We went to two.  One of them was very touristy and the other was splendid!

The food in Tuscany is not what I think when I think "Italian."  Yes, I had gelato every day and I had my fair share of pizza but there was hardly any pasta!  And there was very little tomato sauce.  The pasta was mostly in meat sauces which was good but not what I had expected.  The pasta was always cooked al dente which was delicious (not like al dente pasta I make when I'm impatient).  

We had a typical Tuscan dinner in Florence one night.  Our appetizer was a plate of salami (I think), ham, and pieces of bread with chicken liver on top.  Which I ate, of course, because I am trying everything that is put in front of me (I even tried the salami which I do not normally eat.  To clarify, I normally try everything except meat with casing-- sausage, salami things, hot dogs, etc.)  I had a Tuscan bean soup as my main course and I really enjoyed it.  The food was good, all in all but if we're going to compare the food in Tuscany to that in Sardinia, I'd pick the Sardinian food in a second (YUM!).

The people in Florence were particularly wonderful.  They were very friendly.  At the Beatles cover show, our friend's friend's friend (wow) reserved a table for us and bought us drinks.  People helped us with directions and the people at the restaurants were really nice.  I would not be nice if there were as many tourists in my town as there are in Florence.  It seemed like half the people there were Americans.

I bought myself some new sunglasses in Florence and a blue scarf (I'm wearing it in the picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa but I know it's not the best picture.  I'll take another.)...  they were each only five euro!!

I know this entry is short on pictures of people.  Sarah has most of those so I will post them tomorrow.  Look forward to some very sporty bicycling pictures!

Magic Fountain

Every Friday and Saturday evening, there are shows here at the Magic Fountain.  This fountain was constructed for the 1929 World Exposition.  During the shows, the fountain is coordinated with lights and music, so it dances around.

The fountain is located at the base of Montjuic and there were a lot of people there to see the show.  At first, the show was a little disappointing.  There was music and water but there weren't any lights.  After the music stopped, we decided to leave but as we were walking down the stairs, closer to the fountain, the music started again, the water began dancing and there were lights!  So we stayed and watched for a little while longer.

This is it?

A little better...

Whoa!

One more picture for the road until next Sunday or Monday when I get back from Italy:

Those are EMU eggs!  

Have a great week everyone (including a good Passover and/or Easter!).

Futbol

Last night, I went to my first Barcelona futbol (soccer) game.  They were playing Osasuna and won 2-0.

Walking  to the stadium reminded me a little bit of Penn State because there was a huge mass of people walking in the same direction (the stadium here holds about 90,000 compared to Penn State's 108,000 which is a lot of people either way).  Except that 1) here you have to look out for pickpockets and 2) it wasn't a sea of blue and white clothed people.

Futbol is a huge thing here.  My host parents watch every game and they cheer very loudly for Barca.  They have Barca plates, bowls, and a water pitcher (this is just that I know of).  So it's a big deal. 

I'd never been to a professional soccer game before so it was a cool experience.  I'm not really good at watching sports, besides tennis, so I really just wound up watching people.  Still very interesting.

Walking to the stadium (L-R, my friend Katrina, me, Sarah)