Tarragona

I spent the past few days in Tarragona and the surrounding region on a field trip through school.  Here is a map so you can see where Tarragona is located in comparison to Barcelona (look in the northeast corner).

Tarragona was a major Roman city (called Tarraco back then) so there was an ampitheatre, forum, and aqueducts.  There are still a lot of Roman remains and most of the buildings in the original part of the city are built on top of Roman ruins.

The city is right on the coast and the ampitheatre is almost directly on the beach.  Animal fights (with tigers, elephants, wolves, every animal the Romans could find) were held in the ampitheatre and since many of the animals were imported from North Africa, the ampitheatre's location made bringing in the animals easier.  Aside from having animal fights, there were also gladiator fights and executions (of criminals and of Christians).  So when the Visigoths, who were Christians, conquered Tarraco, they built a church inside the ampitheatre.

This is the view of the ampitheatre from the top of the hill.  Our hotel was located around where I took this picture from.  There was a possibility of having a really gorgeous view overlooking the beach and the ampitheatre.  My room looked out over some rooftops though which I thought was still cool because we were looking into a residential neighborhood.  [Note: the hotel was surprisingly nice, especially for a school trip.  The only bad thing was that our room smelled like sewage.  We called room service and they sprayed half a can of toothpaste-scented disinfectant in our room.  Did not work.]

To the right you can see the church that was built inside the ampitheatre.  Most of the buildings built by the people who conquered the Romans were made out of Roman building materials.  They just deconstructed what the Romans had built and made their own buildings on top of Roman foundations.  Many of the stones in these buildings have symbols marked into them.  When the stones were quarried, the laborers would put their symbol on the blocks so the foremen would know how much to pay each person at the end of the day.  The quarry we saw was amazing.  Really, really deep.  Stone was removed from the quarry with hand tools which must have been so difficult.  They would make holes in the stone and then crack them apart.   Or, in the winter, they would make holes and then pour water into them, let the water freeze and the blocks would break off.

You can still see the lines where the blocks were quarried.  Now, the quarry has trees and other plants growing inside it.   The Romans left a column of stone standing in the middle of the quarry to keep track of the depth of the quarry. 

This was the view of the city from the top of the Roman castle.  Very Mediterranean.  One really cool thing about the terrain here is that you have the ocean and then you have a city and then you have mountains and it's all so close.  The cities were designed like that for military purposes but it's nice to look at too.

I decided to take an artsy picture here (or so I thought).  See the old man towards the left?  I figured it was poetic in some way.  Can't really figure out how though... the photo is open to interpretation.  Really, I just like the blue rowboat.

We visited a monastery in Poblet.  About 30 Cistercian monks still live there.  It was really windy and freezing there.  I cannot imagine being a monk.  The ceilings in the all the rooms are vaulted and at least 30 feet high to intentionally make the rooms difficult to heat and it was quite chilly to say the least.  The monastery had a wonderful library though.  It was huge and had old, dark wooden bookcases.  The monastery used to be the center of culture (instead of an urban area serving this purpose).  After the Moors (Arabs) conquered Spain (711 AD), they translated all of the books into Arabic from ancient languages which the Spanish monks were later able to translate into Spanish so that the books could be read.

Just a note on ancient languages: we went to this Roman villa (interesting but ridiculous since we had to wear tunics-- see our guide to the right) and the whole tour was in Latin.  I took Latin for three years and never heard it spoken since it is a dead language so it was crazy to hear it aloud.  I was actually able to understand a lot of it probably because it's so similar to Spanish.  Since I mentioned the villa, here is a picture of some artwork on one of the remaining walls.  

The trip was from Thursday morning until Saturday night and we were touring from 9 until 5 or 6 every day.  I learned a lot and saw cool things but I am SO GLAD to be back in Barcelona!!!  (Only because I have missed updating this blog.)

Just for U.G. (Class synopsis)

Classes in Barcelona, as requested by my Uncle Gil.

I attend classes every day here, Monday through Friday.  My subject classes are held Monday through Thursday and Spanish is my only class on Friday.  My two most interesting classes are Catalan Cultural Perspective and Politics and Regionalism.  They're both helping me understand how Catalan culture works.



I am really enjoying my Spanish class.  It's long (three hours, three times a week) but in each class I feel like I'm learning things that are useful.  My vocabulary is getting bigger and I am learning a lot of language rules that I hadn't known.

Today I went to the post office and was able to communicate easily with the post office worker.  This was pretty cool.  Even though going to the post office at home is no big deal, here I have to figure out how to say what I want to say and on top of that, there are all kinds of little rules in Barcelona that I just don't know about.  For example, when I walked into the post office, there were a lot of people standing and sitting around but there was no line.  I stood there figuring it was just a kind of makeshift thing until a woman came in and took a ticket from a machine.  It turns out that the post office is run like a deli and you have to pick a number to get service.  One thing about the post office here and in the U.S. is the same though: the line takes a very long time to get through!!

Ireland

Little jet-setters that we are, Sarah and I took off for Ireland for the weekend.  We stayed with Dawn, Lee, Kristin, Konrad and Jamie which was so nice-- like home away from home for me.  It was sunny all three days that we were there (strange for Ireland.  Strange, as well, that the weather in Ireland was nicer than it's been in Barcelona recently).  We went into Dublin on Saturday.  We had some delicious Lebanese food and then went to a couple pubs.  It was a really fun weekend!  Here are some selected pictures (I didn't take many...).

In the airport, we had a camper-sport.

And then we had a trooper looking for signs of humanity in the empty terminal.

We were the only ones in the airport for the longest time.  Then we realized that we had to check in in that area and walk through the airport to our gate. 

Once we found our gate, we went to the bathroom where I discovered this:

They don't have these in American bathrooms.


Our flight was really easy.  We were boarded in 15 minutes and we left 5 minutes early!  Our flight arrived half an hour early and it was sunny in Ireland.

We had lunch in town.  After that, we walked around down by the river.   

On Saturday, we played basketball and wandered around the countryside for a bit.  Then we went into Dublin and got dinner and went to a couple pubs.

Pictured to the left: nuts, normal, normal.  ;)

Best job ever! (?)

The past two days, I have seen something so amazing.  This past summer, I decided that one of my life goals is to go up on a skyscraper as a window-washer.  You know those platform things that they stand on 80 storeys in the air?  Well, I want to do that.  After what I have seen these past few days, my goal is now revised.

I want to be one of them!!!  They are cleaning windows with only harnesses. 

This one is like where's Waldo.  I think he's changing lights, not cleaning windows.


Hint: look up by the letters...

This is a gas station here.  I've seen Vespas filling up but I think it'd be pretty difficult to park your car in the middle of the street where this is located.

This is just a better picture than the other one I put up here.

And it's finally sunny again!!  The cat decided Sarah's bed would be a good place for a rest.  She was not too happy about this one.

We went for a run to take advantage of this beautiful day.  My first run outside in years!  Very enjoyable until the tops of my feet started hurting...

Then we came back to our apartment and went up to the roof deck to look around.  AMAZING!  I will take pictures someday soon.  But you can see the ocean and Montjuic (mountain outside the city, translates to Mountain of the Jews or something like that because of an old Jewish cemetery located there).  It's an amazing view.  Plus there's a pool and there are some lounge chairs too.  We ate lunch out on our balcony in the sunshine.  So nice!

We leave for Ireland tomorrow morning!!

Americana in disguise

Sitting at lunch today, a guy about my age came up to me and Sarah.  He said "hello" very hesitantly so I could tell that he wasn't completely sure whether or not we were English or Spanish speakers.  I was so pleased that he thought that I was possibly Spanish that I attempted to say the absolute minimum so that he would continue to believe that I was Spanish. 

"Hello."
"Hola."
"Photo?" holding out his camera.
"Si." taking the camera.  I took the picture and then.
"Gracias."
"Si!"  Okay this was probably a bit more like a grunt.  I really wanted him to keep thinking that maybe I speak Spanish.  How pathetic!!!

En el ascensor

After class today, Sarah and I headed back to our apartment.  (We have a seven hour break in the middle of the day.)  We stepped in the elevator and pressed the button for the floor.  Nothing happened.  We pressed it again.  Nothing.  So then we pressed the buttons for all the floors and still nothing happened.  We were stuck on the first floor and the doors would not open!!

We began to consider our options: there were two buttons that had bells on them, a red buttons with a Spanish word neither of us recognized, and a speaker with a button.  We had no idea how to say that we were stuck in the elevator if we used the speaker so we pressed the bells.  We knocked on the door.  We called our other roommate hoping she was home to rescue us (she wasn't).  We thought about calling our señora but had the same language issue.  So we pounded on the door some more.

Suddenly the door was being pried open.  It opened about four inches and we saw a man's face and he said "¡hola!" and we said "¡gracias!" and suddenly the elevator was going up. 

At least we weren't like this woman: stuck in an elevator for eight days.

FYI: to say you're stuck in an elevator in Spanish, just say "atascarse en el ascensor."  The grammar may be a bit off here but the gist of the phrase is clear.

the sky's on fire

Today was the first day of class.  I really wasn't prepared to have classes and had a notepad, no notebooks, and one pen.  I was planning on getting notebooks yesterday but everything was closed so I went today after class.  I decided to go española and get the notebooks that are regular here.  They are legal-sized and graph paper!  Plus they're a cool bright orange.

I woke up this morning and the sky was this amazing color red.  Which immediately got James Taylor stuck in my head (hey babe, the sky's on fire) but I didn't take a picture.  [Just a note here: this is the second time I've mentioned James Taylor in this blog which is strange because I don't even listen to him that often.  His music just fits my life well, I guess.] 

I started my Catalan Cultural Studies and Politics and Regionalism classes today.  Catalan studies focuses on the culture here in Catalunya.  This should be really insightful because people here identify with Catalunya not Spain and I want to understand all that that entails.  The other class, Politics and Regionalism, deals a lot with nationalism and state-building.  This will provide a different insight into nationalist movements and the different social factors which are addressed (or aren't addressed) in the creation of states.

Oh, here's a cool thing that they have here.  There aren't real gas stations in the center of the city.  Instead, there are Vespa filling stations:

Ain't no stopping us now (we're on a roll!)

As of tonight, I have become a full-fledged meat eater!  I had meat that I really, really enjoyed and I figure that makes me a real meat eater now.

It may be difficult to go back to being a vegetarian after this.  I had forgotten how delicious drumsticks could be!

Today we wandered around Barri Gotic which is the old Gothic quarter of the city.  This is a cool part of the city because there are Roman remains alongside Gothic architecture.  The streets are very narrow (to deal with the hot Mediterranean climate) and there are a lot of small restaurants and shops.  Most of the shops were closed today though because it's Sunday.  (Everything closes on Sundays.  Sarah and I just spent 45 minutes wandering around our neighborhood in search an open place selling chocolate.  We were unsuccessful.  Even the grocery store is closed!!)

Anyway though, here is what Barri Gotic looks like:

I'll put a story in here to go around the pictures so it isn't just empty space.  When we were getting on the bus to go back to our apartment this afternoon, there were about fifteen kids and two adults waiting at the bus stop.  The kids were about six years old and were there for a birthday party.  They were speaking Spanish and German (we think) and we were amazed by how many languages they could speak. 

We all got onto the same bus and we were going along when the mom went up to the bus driver and talked to him for a minute.  Suddenly, the bus was pulling over and the mom picked up the youngest kid who was about three years old and ran off the bus carrying her.  We were watching, wondering what was going on because the rest of their entourage was still on the bus and the bus driver was clearly waiting for them to get back on the bus. 

 We looked out the window and the mother was holding the girl over a tree and the girl was peeing on the tree!  The mother pulled up the little girl's pants and ran back onto the bus where the duo was greeted with hysterical laughter and applause (Sarah).

That's about it for out day.  We start classes tomorrow and the days will start to feel really long and busy.  I go from 9:00 until 5:30 (with a two hour break) on Mondays and Wednesdays and Sarah has class from 10:45 until 7:30. 

 

The king of shrimp

Today was a beautiful day for the beach so that's where we went.  The beach is about a 35 minute walk from our school which is completely amazing.  I have always wanted to leave near the beach and being here for the next three and a half months fulfills that.  I am only a 15 minute bus ride and then a 35 minute walk from not just any beach but from the Mediterranean Sea!!

Okay so maybe this beach looks like just about any other beach on a sunny day.  There is sand and water and like a lot of other beaches, there are palm trees.  But it is SO CLOSE!!!  And most beaches are gorgeous, as is this one.  So here are pictures of this beautiful place:

And here is another amazing thing about this beach.  I went to the beach in January.  January!!!!  And I wasn't freezing cold.  No.  It's not warm enough to go swimming but it was about 60 degrees and so warm in the sunshine.  And look how blue the water is!

So that wooden block thing is a sculpture on the sand.  There's another sculpture a little further down the beach which is a giant fish.

There were a lot of people walking around on the sand.  There were people making elaborate sand creations (one was a house that had an actual fire burning in it and another had a fountain).  I took a picture of one of these though it wasn't the most impressive one.  There are also a lot of restaurants, a boardwalk and many sailboats.

We were very hungry and decided to have a nice lunch.  The restaurants along the beach are supposed to be really good.  My professor had told us about this thing called the Menu del Dia.  It's a prix fixe thing where you get to have bread (you have to pay for bread at restaurants here), a drink, a first course, second course, and dessert.  It's a good deal even though it's obviously more expensive than going into a restaurant and just getting one thing.  We decided that our easy transition into Barcelona life (how could it not be easy?  Wonderful weather, beaches, gorgeous buildings, fun people, etc... but still!) was worth celebrating. 

So we restaurant shopped and found a place whose name translates to The King of Shrimp.  And oh did we eat!!!!

This was my first course... about twenty mussels!!  Mussels are one of my absolute favorite things to eat and these were delicious-- perfectly cooked and there were SO MANY!!!  Sarah got the most delicious vegetable lasagna ever and that was basically a main course in itself.  Oh!  Then we got a Catalan specialty for our main meal: hake.  We were not expecting as much food as we got since the hake came with a salad and french fries.  They gave us ketchup which wasn't Heinz but was disguised in a Heinz bottle.


This was really good and then we had such good desserts... ice cream and chocolate mousse.

We were quite content except that the temperature had dropped a lot so we were freezing and our feet hurt from walking so much.  When we arrived at the bus stop, I removed my shoe and found two burst, bloody blisters (disgusting!!!).  I will not be wearing those particular shoes for exploring anymore!

Regardless, we were very content!

brains in your head, feet in your shoes.

I know you must have been terribly disappointed that I missed a day blogging yesterday!  Don't worry, I am not abandoning the blog already.

Today was such a gorgeous day-- in the 50s and sunny.  It's hard to believe that it's the middle of January and this is the weather!  We went back to the port this afternoon for lunch.  Then we decided to wander around for a bit.  First we were going to walk towards the beach but when we realized that it would probably be a really long walk, we turned around and walked in another direction.

First some pictures from the walk in the direction of the beach: 

The water looks so gorgeous and there are SO MANY boats!  I am really envious and want to go sailing.  I was just looking into sailing lessons but they are kind of hard to come by.  But I will probably have to figure out some way to get on a sailboat!! 

This picture of me is pretty dark, I know but I haven't put many people pictures up so this'll have to do for now.

After we realized how far we were from the beach, we decided to walk around somewhere else.  We wandered down a side street and found ourselves in a Turkish neighborhood which was pretty cool.  There were some Russian restaurants too.

Then we turned onto another street.  There were some guys talking outside a restaurant and a girl standing watching them from the other side.  I looked across the street.  Another girl.  And on the corner, another one.  It dawned on me that we had wandered onto prostitute lane.  Sure enough, I looked further down the street and saw about 20 scantily dressed girls (okay, they were probably all around my age) standing around.  I picked up the pace and turned the corner with Sarah asking "what are you doing?? Why are you walking so quickly??"  I muttered under my breath "Didn't you look around?!?!?!?"

This has become the story of our explorations.  We wander around and if an area seems sketchy, I pick up the pace with Sarah obliviously saying "WHY ARE YOU SPEEDWALKING????"   As we are learning, Sarah has an eye for architecture over humanity.  We're working on balancing that out.

Bienvenido a Barcelona!

We had our official welcome party here in Barcelona last night.  My roommates and I went with our senora and a senora and three girls from our program who live around the corner.  I think we were supposed to have dinner there but there was definitely not enough food.  Every time a new plate of food would come out, there would be a stampede to grab whatever was on the plate and it was all gone in seconds.  Our senora was really cute though and kept on taking food for us and bringing it over to make sure that we had enough to eat.  Here is a picture of me, Sarah and our other roommate Dana.

After the welcome party, we went to a sangria bar with some other people from school called L'Ovella Negra (The Black Sheep).  It was this cool dungeon kind of place.  It looked really old and there was a wooden-beam ceiling.  Plus the sangria was muy bien!!

Another girl is coming to live with us for four weeks.  She arrives today, I think.  Our homestay family hosts girls from China who are coming to study here.  They stay in a homestay for four weeks while looking for an independent apartment and taking classes at a local university.  It seems like a cool idea!

My intensive Spanish class was really good today.  The three hours didn't seem too long and it gave me more confidence to speak Spanish.  This hasn't been much of an issue because I want to improve my Spanish but it was an extra push.  Instead of wandering around the bookstore today looking for my Spanish book, I asked someone where it was. 

Afterward, Sarah and I went to get lunch.  Here is a picture of the market:

There are so many stalls, as I mentioned yesterday.  Today I saw whole chickens and sheep-heads (with the eyes!!).  We were talking about Spanish food in my class today (my stomach was growling pretty loudly since it had been... about two and a half hours since I'd eaten) and our teacher told us that a traditional dish here is chuletas de cordero.  We don't speak a lot of English in class here so she started "bahhh-ing" to tell us what it was and then pointed to her ribs.  Things started clicking in my mind and I realized that I had eaten sheep's ribs over the weekend for dinner.

This is going to sound really bad but I got a tiny bit excited because even though the idea of eating a cute little sheep may not be that pleasant, I am glad that I have been eating the local food.  I don't know what half the meat I've eaten is (and maybe I don't really want to) but I will say that I enjoy being able to eat whatever food is given to me.  I don't love the taste of meat but it is nice not to have to ask if there's meat in a dish....

This afternoon, Sarah and I went down to the port.  Okay.  The water is a 15 minute walk from school!!  It's not a beach but I don't even mind (the beach is a bit further and I haven't been there yet).  I LOVE being on the water and it is so cool to be able to sit on a dock in the sun and look out at sea gulls and boats and get whiffs of the salt air and hear strains of music coming from some of the boats. 

Mamma Mia! Here we go again

As I was sitting on my bed looking into some places I'd like to visit while in Spain, I heard strains of ABBA coming from the window.  Yes!  Dancing Queen!  I was listening to James Taylor but I immediately switched it off and ran over to the window to try and figure out who was blasting the Mamma Mia soundtrack.  [Just a note here: I am really not one for musicals or ABBA but I love the movie Mamma Mia and especially singing along with Morina!]  Anyway, I couldn't figure it out but I'm assuming it was being played at the school next door.  Then they played the actual song Mamma Mia!  It is surprising to me how English music is played all over the place here... even in grocery stores where it's basically only locals.

We got lunch today from La Boqueria.  It's this market off La Rambla (a pretty touristy street where there are apparently a lot of pickpockets but there is also an opera house there.  The street runs from Placa Catalunya to the port).  I had my hands full today but will take pictures tomorrow and put them up here.  This market is AMAZING.  There are these huge candy stands with gourmet-looking (and pricey-- as we discovered) chocolates, stalls with hams hanging from them (these are popular here), lots of fresh and salted fish, fresh bread and so many fresh fruits and vegetables.  They sell two pineapples for two euros, raspberries and blackberries for one euro for about 1/2 a pint each.  It is delicious! 

After that, I had my first Spanish class.  I was enrolled in beginner but the teacher said that it was really for people who had never taken any Spanish before in their lives so I switched into a different class.  It's an intensive class and meets for 7.5 hours a week.  This should improve my Spanish so much! 

A slight misunderstanding

Our homestay mother came into our room this afternoon to tell us about going out around 8:30.  We thought she was saying this: tomorrow, we will be going to the welcome party with the other girls in the neighborhood around 8:30.

Around 9:00, we heard a group of people come in.  Sarah and I were anxiously awaiting dinner and thought "oh!  We have company!" so we started preparing for dinner.  Then three people came into our room and one introduced herself as our RA (we have a resident assistant even though we don't live in a dorm).  We realized that our madre meant that someone was coming over tonight to take us for a tour of the neighborhood!

We were very disappointed because our eating got delayed but we got to meet five other girls who live in the neighborhood which was really nice.  And, we felt like pros because we knew all of the information already (where the gym is, what bus to take, the metro, etc.)... cheers!

Accidental tourism

Walking aimlessly through Barcelona makes it all the more amazing when I look up and see these beautiful buildings.  Today my Spanish class (we are just in orientation now-- Spanish starts tomorrow) went on a scavenger hunt to do some bonding.  We were walking around the Born neighborhood but we didn't know what, exactly, we would find.

We walked from school to the neighborhood and as we were attempting to find the next spot on the scavenger hunt, we looked up and saw... La Sagrada Familia.

This is a church designed by Gaudi and has been under construction since 1882.  Its expected date of completion is 2026 (the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death).  Gaudi was in no rush because, as he put it, his client wasn't in a hurry.

Eighteen spires have been planned for the church one for each of the Twelve Apostles, four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus.

This picture is of the back or side of the building, I'm not really sure.  There are pictures of the front which you may recognize if you google it.  I am planning on going back and going around the front and inside.  And I would LOVE to climb up the scaffolding that runs up that really big tower but I don't think that's a possibility...
(ATTENTION!  This post is a huge mistake.  I got my buildings confused but there's good info about the Sagrada Familia so I'll keep it.)


After that, we mostly quit the scavenger hunt and just walked around.  We saw the Arc de Triomf which was built in 1888 for the Universal Exhibition.

And there was this amazing train station across the street.  The metalwork in it is really cool but the picture doesn't do it justice.  This was built around the same time as the Arc de Triomf but it being renovated right now.

We also passed through Barcelona's first park.  Now there is also a zoo but it used to be a fortress.  I will have to go back to this park because it looks really nice.

I have always loved wandering around both new and familiar places and seeing different buildings.  Even if it's just a porch or cornice I've never seen before in a neighborhood I know well, I get really excited about it.  It's different here because there are huge buildings tucked away into neighborhoods.  It's as if I were walking around at home and looked up and saw the Statue of Liberty.  Most of the big buildings in the U.S. have this kind of roped-off presence-- you know you're approaching something great.  But here, these churches are hidden in neighborhoods, only feet from apartments. 

Still, some things, like the Arc de Triomf definitely have a prelude.  The Arc de Triomf has its own pedestrian pathway dedicated to it.

En el barrio (in the neighborhood)

We took a stroll through our neighborhood today with our other roommate, Dana.  Dana was here last semester so she knows all about the neighborhood and everything.  This is really helpful because things here are not labeled like at home.  At home, you'll be walking down the street and see a grocery store in plain view.  Here, grocery stores are hidden deep in buildings.

There is this semi-mall across the street from our apartment.  Sarah and I had walked in yesterday and seen a cafe and a lot of stores but today we learned that there is a grocery store underneath it and all these crazy food places where you can get tea and candy and pasta and udon noodles and meat and everything like that.  And some gelato that looks really good!  But we never would have known about all this!  There is also a nightclub in this mall!  It is crazy!

Our neighborhood is mostly locals which is really nice.  There are a lot of homes (all apartment buildings), stores, and places to eat.  There is even a Starbucks and a Burger King which is strange.  There is a school right next door to us and a busy street about a block away.  That street has a path where people can run or ride bikes.

So here are some pictures of the neighborhood:

 At first we thought this was a parking garage but that was only the reflection of the cars from the street in the windows.  I will chalk this delusion up to jet lag since that excuse can probably be used for a couple more days.








Roses outside in January!!












Orange trees












And then it looked like winter...

Brief vignettes of a day in Spain

First of all... even after dining on lunch for an hour and a half, our stomachs are growling.  Sarah P.'s sandwich was not quite what she desired and Sarah G. ordered a salad which was definitely a bad idea and from now on, she will stick to jamon o pollo (ham or chicken or some other type of meat).

So, that being said, we will each share our best story of the day.

Sarah P.: Once again, didn’t quite want to wake up this morning –what is up with that? I never sleep in! blame it on the jet lag. Nevertheless, after my school orientation, I braved up and decided to stroll the streets of Barcelona like a true Catalan. I found a quaint bookstore where I greeted the attendant with a cheery “HOLA!” and proceeded to scour the books as if I didn’t know that they were all in Spanish. Realizing I would not soon find reading material to occupy my time, I made a budget for traveling and excursions. Sad to say, on my way back to the school building to meet Sarah I did get a little lost but soon enough found my way thanks to my landmark of a woman sitting on the street outside of a store called “Orange”…how clever.

Sarah G.: As I was strolling through Plaza Catalunya today, attempting to avoid the swarm of pigeons flying towards me, I noticed a man moving closer towards me with each step.  I tightened my grip on my bag and picked up the pace, sure that this man was going to enact some pickpocketing ploy.  He asked me in Spanish for directions to find the train which I didn't know how to get to.  I was amazed to be asked for directions because that meant that it must have looked like I had some idea of what I was doing.  To make sure that this was really the case, and that it hadn't been an averted pickpocket attempt, I watched the man looking very confused.  So, yes, I was mistaken for a Spaniard!!

Out and about

This is the first of many joint entries by myself and Sarah (for those of you who missed my earlier blog entries, I am traveling with my friend Sarah). 

Today, after sleeping for about 13 hours (or some of us anyway) to rid ourselves of jetlag, we decided to venture out into the city we call home for the next three and a half months.  Our homestay mother helped us get our bus tickets.  Our homestay father was going to take us but after the repairman came and we couldn't understand what he was saying and somebody blew a fuse, we think he gave up on us.  So our homestay mom took control.  As Sarah P. puts it, she loved us and left us.

Sarah P. learned a lesson from Sarah G. after G. followed the CATA (State College) bus rules and tried to shove her bus pass onto the driver.  Oops.  He so kindly pointed her to the machines behind him.  Then we fell into our seats facing backwards and attempted to construct the following question in Spanish "Where and when do we arrive at Plaza Catalunya?"  After craning our necks for ten minutes, we asked the woman in front of us for directions.  She gave a very detailed answer and another woman chimed in as well.  We understood something about two stops away and smiled like idiots.  But we found the stop!

We were looking for our school and, after getting directions from some empty store or cultural space (who knows?), we stumbled past and back into our school away from school where, without our even uttering a word, knew that we were Americans (this is such a mystery since we were saying sentences like "I so can totally not believe that there are THREE Zaras here!!!) and directed us upstairs. 

We left the school to wander around some more and stumbled upon this:

Our first Gaudi!  We crossed the street and sat on a bench for about five minutes in complete appreciative silence.

Then the real adventure began as we got lost since we were using the million Zaras and H&Ms as our landmarks and got distracted by the Obama bar across the street.  But we found our way again.

We arrived at the bus stop and knew what bus to get on but did not know what stop to get off at.  (Again, we had used stores as our guides.  Now we know better!)  But with a stroke of luck, we picked the right stop and made it back into our apartment building.

Now, our keys are those old keys that look like antiques.  They are very charming but we had some real difficulty opening the door to our apartment.  Ah, well, home sweet home! 

Tomorrow we are off to our first day of orientation!

Estoy en Espana!

After traveling for EVER (four hour delay with my flight from London to Barcelona on top of the idiotic almost five hour layover I scheduled for us... overly cautious to say the least), I am in Barcelona!  I do not have a real grasp for the neighborhood except that there is an H&M around the corner (trouble) and a gym across the street (good news) and a pool on the rooftop of the building!!! (excellent news for April). 

We got into the Barcelona airport after the people from our program were supposed to have left so we were kind of panicked, as was another girl we met on our flight.  But the people were still there and there was even a cell phone company in the room.  I know I probably got ripped off buying a phone there but I feel better now that I have one.

Our host family is so nice.  I think.  I don't really know because I understood about half of what they said.... but that half was nice! 

They have a cat and there is another exchange student living here who has been here since September.  She's home now for vacation but will be back tomorrow.  I ate chicken soup and chicken for dinner.  Real servings of each!  And then my host-father got me all set up with internet and everything. 

I am probably pretty incoherent right now.  I got a lot of sleep on the plane but it was that weird jerky sleep where you wake up with your head violently lurching forward and then feel sick because of jet lag.  I think I am going to go to bed now... (it's ten thirty here, by the way, not four in the afternoon).

Pre-trip!

Up until two days ago, I was entirely excited and not nervous at all.

And then I started getting the shakes.  I would start to exclaim "I AM SO EXCITED!" and suddenly start shaking.  I kid you not.  I looked like I was hypoglycemic. 

Luckily, the shakes were replaced by complete giddiness when I went onto my blog and saw I have FOUR followers!  I know, it is so pathetic that I got that excited about it but... thanks for following me guys!

I would also like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to my roommate and adopted sis, Rene (aka Champ)... life in Spain will not be the same without you!

That's it for posts from the US for the next three and a half months.  My next post will be from SPAIN!