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.