Adventures with Linda and Richard

I spend last weekend with Linda and Richard on the last four days of their two and a half week tour of Spain. I got to hear all of their stories about the cities and sites they had seen in Portugal and the south of Spain. It made me super jealous and made me feel a little bad that I'm not going to get there this semester. It just gives me an excuse to come back and see them later. All my weekends for the rest of the trip are full so  I won't even make it to Madrid. Oops.

From the top of their hotel

Since we've all been to Barcelona before, the visit was very relaxed and we took our time checking out some of the sites they missed when we were all here last. Two of our main adventures were Tibidabu and Mont Juic. I've been to both a ton before but they are definitely two of my favorite parts of the city. Tibidabu is my favorite view of the entire city. The top of the mountain is really high up and you have almost a 360 degree view of the surrounding area.  You can see the mountains, ocean and city without moving. It's beautiful. There is a huge church up there and a small amusement park. The amusement park looks like a ton of fun but for about 23 euros for 5 rides, I don't think that is going to happen.

This is the view of the church on the top of the hill from about 5 minutes from the top

We spent the previous day on Mont Juic. Three years ago, we walked to the mountain but didn't have time to walk up it. This time we made it all the way to the top to see the old fort. We also went to the Joan Miro museum which I really loved. I didn't know anything about Miro before so I was very impressed by his unique art style.

RGut at the top of Mont Juic

 Finally, we stopped at Poble Espanol, a small collection of buildings built for one of the World's Fairs held in Barcelona.  There are a bunch of typical building from different architectural styles from different regions of Spain. Since the architecture is one of my favorite aspects of Barcelona and something I really feel like I'm missing out on by not traveling more around Spain, I was really impressed with the buildings we saw. The buildings are now used as restaurants or store fronts for artisans. 

 

Some of the buildings from Poble Espanol

We also got to explore some of the city by the water and the Born neighborhood. We had a ton of incredibly amazing food and I definitely enjoyed the chance to go out to restaurants. Overall, I really like all the meals I get at home but I feel like I'm missing out on all the local restaurants. My favorite one we went to was a restaurant called Les Quinze Nits. A friend of mine told me about this restaurant where the chefs are gourmets chefs in training so they don't get paid a ton but make amazing food. The entrees are super cheap and delicious. I ended up going back this past weekend since I was so in love and I will be back for sure with the Tufts crowd at the end of the month. It was so good to see the parents so I was definitely sad when they left. The whole visit made me kinda home sick and excited for December.

During the week, we had midterms and I did some of the first work I've actually done all semester. This semester has proven to be much much easier than a semester at Tufts. No comparison. While I'm a little lost in my history of Spain class, the others are all pretty easy to follow. I studied a ton compared to what I've done the rest of the semester so I didn't think any of the tests were too hard. It's definitely an experience taking tests in spanish though. 

This weekend, had some adventures showing Tim around. We ate some delicious food again in typical Barcelona fashion. I've definitely discovered my two favorite restaurants in the city. Rome in two days! I've been in the city for so long without leaving that I'm definitely ready to explore somewhere else. This starts off a ton of traveling for me until the end which I am very excited about. I'm hoping for a ton of adventures and I'm sure Europe will come through for me.

21

So in typical Barcelona fashion, I had a great birthday. I went out with my friends both nights and spent the day checking out some amazing views at Tibidabo.

Definitely 24 hours to remember. I missed being at home with all of my friends but it was still a great day. The rest of last week and this week have also been great. I've been making sure to get done everything else in the city I haven't had a chance to yet. I've been super productive and done a ton so here are a few highlights. 

Evan and I went to the chocolate museum yesterday which was tiny but pretty cool. Also got to check out the aquarium. It was a little expensive but also very interesting.

Alex and I also got a chance to go rowing! Unfortunately, it will probably be the only time that happens this semester. Everyone at the rowing club was so nice and very welcoming but it was a little too expensive for what we were getting. Alex and I would have unlimited use of the gym but would only get to go out on the water on the weekends. Since I'm spending all the rest of my weekends traveling or with friends, we figured it wasn't worth 50 euros a month. Rowing in the ocean was an experience. In Spain, they don't have the same water traffic rules so Alex and I definitely almost got run over my cruise boats and huge sail boats several times. We didn't row out to the open ocean and only stayed near the dock so we didn't have to deal with huge waves but the wake from the boats and salt water was something new.

I had an amazing time at the Barca vs. Copenhagen game to start off my birthday celebrations. I don't know too much about soccer but was really entertained and got really into the game since the crowd was so great. 

The stadium is so incredibly huge. It seats 100,000 people. They only sold 75,000 tickets for this game but it still looked packed to me. Everyone was so into the game that it was hard not to share in the excitement. I was also really impressed by the fans from Copenhagen. They had their own little section at the very top of the stadium but there were tons of them and they were all dressed in white. They also had many more chants and synchronized dances than any of the Barca fans. Even though they lost and Barca dominated them in possession of the ball, they were still very proud of their team. It was a very different game than anything that would happen in the US but was tons of fun.

Wooo so excited for Barca adventures with Richard and Linda next weekend! Too bad I need to actually do my first homework of the semester this week and start studying for midterms. Barca spoils me.

London!

So for my first trip of the semester, I headed to London this past weekend. I've wanted to go to London for years so it was a natural first choice to make. I was really excited for the trip before it even started and it definitely lived up to expectations.

I was a little worried about everything working out before I left since I've never really traveled by myself before, but it was all very easy and I didn't have to worry about anything. On the day of my flight, I got to airport wayyyy too early. I think I need to learn from that. I sat at the gate playing pokemon on my gameboy for two and a half hours. Time well spent. Easy Jet is great. The plane left on time and everything was much simpler to figure out that I thought it would be. I lucked out once I got to London and just barley got onto the Tube before it closed. 


The whole weekend was a ton of fun and I got to do a lot. I loved the neighborhood Tim is living in. He is staying in the middle of Notting Hill, very close to Hyde Park. All the buildings are incredible. I'm a big architecture fan in general and was very impressed by how classy and up scale the whole neighborhood seemed to be. London in general was also much more diverse than I expected it to be. There were tons of ethnic restaurants and people from all different backgrounds. Also, British accents are one of my favorite things in the world, so I couldn't stop smiling whenever anyone said anything.

Some highlights:

The British Museum

Maybe the biggest museum I've ever been in. It was huge. I was there for a little less than four hours and I didn't even get to see everything. The museum was full of artifacts from all over the world and from a ton of different time periods. One of my favorite rooms was the one in the picture above. It had a ton of artifacts from the Enlightenment. I also really liked all the Mummies and info on ancient Egypt along with parts of the Parthenon that the museum owns. Apparently, Greece wants the pieces of the wall back and the museum was handing out little pamphlets defending their right to keep the parts they have.

National Gallery/ National Portrait Gallery

Also two wonderful museums. The National Gallery is close to as big as the British Museum. They have tons of art from places around the world. The Degas were my favorite, as always. It was pretty crowded when I went but not too bad. The Portrait Gallery was maybe more interesting. It was no where near as big but was filled with portraits of important people from England. Some of the art was incredible. I can't even imagine how some people are so talented. My favorite was a temporary instillation about British citizens living in New York. 

Oxford

So two of my friends from school are up at Oxford for the year and Tim hadn't been there yet so Saturday we decided to take the bus up to see them. Conveniently, there is a bus that runs from the end of Tim's block to Oxford every 15 minutes. Oxford is about an hour and a half outside of central London. I loved the city. The old buildings make the city look incredible. Some scenes from Harry Potter where shot in some of the buildings we saw. Oxford is a little different than I imagined since it is not actually one school, but 30 smaller ones with around 300 kids each. I loved the campus my friends are living on. The buildings were gorgeous and all the plants were so green and perfectly manicured. My also snuck into another college, Trinity. It looked very different but also beautiful. I also loved how important crew is at Oxford. As we were walking on the streets, we passed a ton of people wearing crew apparel. Both of my friends from school are also rowing for the first time up there. I was so happy to hear that. 


My hotel was adorable too and had a free tea and coffee room all day. I probably could have stayed somewhere a little cheaper but it was a good deal and was super close to Tim. I also got to see another friend from school, Frank, which I was very happy about. He is studying on the other side of London but seems to be having a great time too.


I also got a chance to see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the London Eye, a huge ferris wheel, but there was so much more I wanted to do. I'm definitely going to need to go back to explore some more very soon.

6 Day Weekend?

This week has been excellent. On Tuesday, Alex, Daven and I went hiking to Montserrat. After our hiking adventure last week, Daven and I were a little disappointed, but we all still had a great time. Montserrat is famous for a huge church that they built on top of a mountain, about an hour outside of Barcelona.

It really is beautiful but was very crowded while we were there. Daven has complained so much about hiking with other people I've started to share his view. There is something to be said about an incredible hike where you see no one for four hours. The church itself was beautiful and the hike was very different that the one we had done previously. I also really liked the cable car ride from the train station to the church. Maybe not worth all the money I spent on that trip but a good day.

Wednesday, there was a national general strike. When I first heard about the strike, I thought the entire city would be shut down. Our university classes got cancelled since the university was going to be closed and there would be no public transportation. I was very surprised at how aware every Spaniard seemed to be. The whole nation seemed to know what was coming. However, when I first left the house on Wednesday, I noticed more than half of the restaurants near my street where open along with a couple  stores. I saw two demonstrations during the day but nothing that seemed out of hand. I did see a lot of new spray paint on banks blaming them for the current economic conditions. While a bunch of us where on a friend's roof, we also saw black smoke in the sky which we later learned came from burning tires. I also found out later about the rioting. Turns out some of these demonstrations got a little violent.

Check it:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575521034043471518.html#project%3DSLIDESHOW08%26s%3DSB10001424052748704116004575521493516554702%26articleTabs%3Dslideshow

I found the whole strike really interesting. I feel like talking to my home stay brother about the current state of Spanish politics. Things here right now aren't going too well and seeing how Spaniards and the politicians try to deal with it is teaching me a lot about the culture how and how another government works.

Thursday, Daven and I went hiking again. I'm officially hooked. I never thought of myself as a big hiker before but now I'm in love. We went back to Montseny, the mountain from the week before and took a different trail. It's so beautiful up there. The view is hard to beat.

I will definitely be back again. 

Today we went to the beach at Sitges. I loved it. It reminded me a lot of Tossa de Mar, where I went with the fam three years ago. It's a old beach town that has a lot of charm because of the old buildings and small streets that line the beach. It's only 35 minutes from my house so also super easy to get to. The weather was great and I even got a little tan. A win win.

Merce 2010

This weekend was incredible. As the website says, "The traditional Mercè is a compendium of Catalan popular culture, from the sardana, from Girona, to castells (towers) from Tarragona, or cercaviles (music-led street marches) that are the modern version of ancient processions. With the restoration of democracy, La Mercè was modernised and new celebrations were invented, such as the Correfoc (Fire Run)". I didn't get a chance to go to every event I was interested in but everyone I went to proved to me much more incredible than my expectations. 


My three favorite:


1. Correfoc

One of the most insane things I've ever been part of. There is a parade of people dressed up in various costumes including devils and dragons holding long poles with fireworks attached to the ends. My friends and I could have chosen to stand on the sides and watch the parade and that would have been enough. But decided to make it more exciting. There is no one stopping you from running in the streets right next to the people in the parade. We ran back and forth in the middle of all the fire. It was incredible. I did not know what I was getting myself into so I was not properly dressed but everyone else I was with made sure to completely cover their bodies since we were having fire thrown at us. Oops. I should have thought that one out. Lucky, I was unburned although the shirt I was wearing may have a few burn holes. I did see one woman whose head scarf caught on fire and my friend Sam helped to put it out. Close call. I can't believe they can do things like that.


2. Belle and Sebastian

I didn't really know Belle and Sebastian that well before but they put on an amazing show. I loved it. I had such a great time. Not too many of the Spaniards there seemed to be dancing or that into the concert but I still had a great time with my friends.

3. PiroMusical

Most incredible fireworks I've ever seen in my life. These were the closing ceremony and were definitely an amazing way to end the festival. All the fireworks were set to music. The music was almost all classic American rock which I found entertaining. I was surprised they wouldn't use traditional Catalan music for a festival like this. But there was tons of Queen, Beatles and AC/DC so I loved it. There was also a water show going on from the fountain under the fireworks. It was incredible. It reminded me of the water fireworks show Haley, Dan and I saw at Jordan's in MA. The whole show was just mesmerizing. 


I wish I had seem more of the traditional dances but I still got a great impression of the festival. I was kinda surprised that no one in my home stay family went to any of the events but I guess if they have been going every year of their life, it may not be as exciting. I know I would still be going. I'm so glad I came in the fall. 


Check it out: http://www.bcn.cat/merce/docs/en/program.pdf

Hiking tomorrow to Montserrat. Can't waitttt.

I Love 4 Day Weekends

My schedule here is going to spoil me. I only have class Monday-Wednesday and only have one class on Tuesday. My only homework other than studying for midterms and finals and writing my final papers is just a review of the movie we see each week in my movie class. I think I'll be able to handle this. So I want to make sure I take advantage of all this extra time. There is so much I want to do while I'm here and I want to make sure I use my time wisely. Today, to celebrate our 4 day weekends, my friend Daven and I traveled to Parc National del Montseny. It's a huge national park that is only about an hour outside of downtown Barcelona by train. We paid 6 euros for the round trip. Daven had picked this town yesterday after we decided we wanted to go hiking. He had picked it kinda randomly and we weren't really sure how to find the trails but we decided to go with it as an adventure. When the train pulled into one of the towns at the bottom of the park, I was already impressed.

This picture doesn't do it justice at all but I promise it was adorable. We didn't see a lot of people out all day but the houses are almost all built into the mountain and are beautiful. Then we found a map of the park and managed to make our way to one of the trails that left from the town.

                                      

It was one of the best hikes I've ever been on. Daven gets so much credit for finding such a hidden gem. It took us two hours of uphill walking to get to one of the peaks of the mountain. The hike up was great. It was a little hard because of the incline and how narrow the path was but I loved it. When we finally got to the top, the view was incredible. My pictures don't capture it well at all. Daven got some amazing pictures from his IPhone but we'll have to stick with this for now.

                                   

It was amazing. There was fog covering the top of all the mountains but you could still see valleys and nearby towns. I also saw a man herding sheep not too far away. At the top, there was also an old, deserted church. It seemed to be in great shape for how old it appeared to be. We had no idea it was going to be there so it was such a great find. We walked all around it, trying to find a way to get in, but just settled with our view of the outside.

                               

We sat and ate lunch there. Then we headed down the mountain. He didn't see a single person in the entire  three and a half hours we spent on the mountain. That has never happened to me but it was incredible. We sent about another hour walking around the town until we found the other trail. We're saving that for next week. Good work team. Today also starts a big festival here in Barcelona (http://www.bcn.cat/merce/docs/en/program.pdf) so I have high hopes for this weekend.

So I have quickly discovered that my favorite hobby while in Barca is walking around different neighborhoods and taking in all the architecture and food. Every single building in every neighborhood is different and beautiful. I am a huge fan of balconies and love that almost every single window all over the city has a balcony. Some are much more ornate or decorative than others but I love them all. Some buildings are much older or detailed than others, but they all have their own charm.

I am also addicted to stopping at each restaurant I pass and reading the menu. I'm even more in love with going into random grocery stores and looking at all the different spanish foods. I shouldn't be surprised based on my overall obsession with food. I love all the different brands and types of food you can find in any grocery store. I've found too many restaurants that I want to try out. There are a lot of advantages to having all three of my meals every day provided by my home stay family but I kinda wish we were given a stipend for one meal a day so we could explore a little more. Food is such an important part of any culture and of understanding any country. Or I'll just use that as my excuse for why I love food so much. I'll have to get some pictures of some of the crazy brands and food combinations. I'll add it to my too do list.

Last night, a few friends and I wondered around a neighborhood called Gracia. We found so many different adorable restaurants with the perfect atmosphere. We stopped at a busy bar for a couple hours and sat out on their patio. It was a great night and left me super excited for the semester to come.

First Day of Classes

I need to be much better about this blog. I'll work on it. There is just always so much going on that unfortunately the blog doesn't take priority. But I'll see what I can do.

Today was the first day of classes. I had Political Psychology, European Union and History of Spain. These are my three classes that I am taking through my program. The classes are taught by professors of the University at the University but the only kids in the class are kids from my program. All three seems great so far. The professors are all very different but already seem like great teachers. We have been told by our program that college students in Spain don't typically participate in class so I was a little surprised when all 3 teachers stressed how much they wanted their class to be interactive. Apparently the Spanish education system has just evolved to work that way. My 4th class, Photography, is with Spanish students and starts Monday. I'm counting on there being a little less talking than some other classes so I'm more likely to know what's going on.

We also just got back from a five day trip to the north of Spain. The trip was a lot of fun but a little painful with a 9 hour drive to Leon. In Spain, they have a law that the driver needs to stop every few hours for a break. The breaks are pretty long, usually around 45 minutes or an hour, but I guess the law makes a lot of sense in terms of safety. It just added quite a bit on to our trip. We went to Leon, Astorga and Burgos. The towns were all beautiful. Everywhere we have been in Spain so far has just been incredible. The trip was part of our orientation class on art history so we learned a lot about the different art periods and went to cathedrals to see examples. We had a lot of free time so my friends and I got to walk around a lot and explore the cities. I loved wondering up and down the small streets and walking in and out of the stores to see what there was. I absolutely adore walking into grocery stores and looking at all the different food. I think that just goes with my food obsessions. Here is one of the best pictures of one of the cathedrals:

I can't believe it has already been 2 and a half weeks. When I think back to the flight over, it seems like so long ago but not much time has gone by. I'm having an amazing time and so many aspects have turned out better than I though. Now that I've started buying my plane tickets for a few trips, its gotten me even more excited. I wish I could have time to go even more places but I think keeping it simple is the way to go for now. Tomorrow I don't have class so I think I'll go up to join the gym at the University and work on studying for our first test on Friday. Not excited but I don't think it should be too bad. And I'll promise I'll write more!

xoxo

Mi primera semana

So tomorrow will mark the first week since I left home. So much has happened in the last 6 days. Last night I moved in with the family I will be living with for the next three and a half months. The family consists of a single mother who works as a nurse in a near-by hospital, her two children and their adorable dog. She has a 24 year old son and an 18 year old daughter.

I talked with the son for awhile yesterday because he was the one who picked me up. He is studying law and history so we had a ton to talk about. He also spent a summer in Pennsylvania taking english classes so I assume he knows english pretty well. Last night at dinner, his mom asked me to speak some English with him so I can practice. Its very comforting knowing that someone would understand me if I needed it. So far though, Spanish has worked out much better than I thought it would. Much much better. I can understand almost anything any one says to me and only have problems when I'm trying to communicate what I want to say. For the most part, I haven't had too much trouble. I've been able to say almost everything I want without too much trouble. Thats definitely been the most surprising part of the trip. It has helped me to make me feel a lot more relaxed. I'm starting to think I'll make it through this semester.

The dog is adorable. I'll post a picture of him in the next post. He is a little black mutt named Blacky. He is super sweet and almost never barks. He is pretty old and well tempered.

The food has also been so amazing. I should make foods its own post. I should probably make a blog just for my food experiences.  I tried ham for the first time yesterday at dinner. I wasn't sure if I wanted to try it but decided to not to be rude. So. Good. I was surprised. I actually liked it. The mother just asked me if I wanted a different type of meat for lunch. I asked her to explain what kind of meat it was and have no idea what she said so I'm just going to go for it. Woooo adventures. I think my favorite meal so far was Paella we had two nights ago at the Hotel the whole group was staying at on the beach in a suburb outside of the city.

So much more has happened so I think I'll have to cover it little by little. I'm going for a run after lunch to explore and then hopefully meet up with some people from my group. The city is so wonderful and I think everything is going to work out very well.