Hanging out with my new friends Antoni (Gaudí) and Earnest (Hemingway)

In my entire time at Wellesley, I've only had class canceled once. This past week alone, I had two classes canceled. Study abroad is awesome. Since my only Friday class was canceled, on Thursday night Nikki, Grace, and I decided to go to La Oveja Negra, an old Barcelona tavern that Nene, my host mom, used to frequent when she was in college. It was really laid back, had a great ambiance, and was fully of a mix of foreigners and locals. One CIEE girl was celebrating her birthday and a friend of Nikki's from Boston joined us, so we had a good size group with us. After being in Barcelona for about a month, it's now starting to feel like less of a vacation (with homework?) and more like our current reality. And really, what could be better right now?
Since my Friday class was canceled, I took advantage of my three day weekend to do some exploring. I got up early, ran, did some errands, then met up w/ Grace to wander around Barri Gottica and explore a bit. Later, we met up with Nikki and her friend from high school for drinks in a funky cafe between Las Rambla and the water. After we had enough of wandering around and chatting, we all parted ways for dinner with our host families. The plan for the evening was a low key night that would have us in bed fairly early. This didn't end up happening. For the past few weeks, we've been searching for a bar in El Raval, one of Barcelona's barrios, called Bar Marsella. We were particularly motivated to spend an evening at Marsella because it's probably one of Barcelona's most historic and authentic bars. When Hemingway would visit Barcelona, he would frequent Marsella to enjoy their famous house beverage: absinthe. When we arrived at Marsella, we were blown away by the interior of the bar. In its hay day, Marsella was probably a very fashionable and posh place to go. However, the bar clearly hasn't been renovated (or probably even cleaned) long before Hemingway's time. Despite the peeling paint, cobwebs on the ceiling, and limited menu (absinthe and beer), we loved it. It felt authentic and like old Barcelona. As it got later, more and more locals began trickling in, giving the bar a lively and warm feel. Our waiter and one patron helped us prepare our absinthe properly; using the sugar, fork, and water. It was quite the scene watching three American girls have multiple Spaniards help them figure out how to drink absinthe, then struggle through the ROUGH taste. Good work team.
After Marsella, we decided that our ultimate plan to make it an early night wasn't going to happen, so we went back to La Oveja Negra, the tavern from the night before, to mingle with the locals and enjoy some Sangria.
The next morning, Nikki, Grace, Nikki's friend Paige, and I met up to wander through Gracia, another one of Barcelona's barrios. Gracia is quieter and a little more upscale than Barri Gottica, so we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon of wandering, window shopping, normal shopping (remind me to show you my adorable black booties!), and eating lunch in Plaza del Sol. It was a nice day, so we sat outside in the Plaza and watched some young kids play soccer and listen to guitar music. I love this city.
On Sunday morning, I got up and decided to go for a loooong walk around Barcelona while I waited for Nikki and Caroline, a CIEE student from Vanderbilt, to meet up w/ me in Old Town. It was a beautiful day, so I decided to stroll around and take pictures around El Born, another old barrio in the city I hadn't explored much yet. As I was walking through Plaza Sant Jaume, where the Parliament of Catalunya and Barcelona City Hall buildings are, I came across a celebration of some kind. There was a stage set up, a huge crowd, and a human pyramid in the middle of the Plaza. When I say "human pyramid" I don't mean a bunch of cheerleaders kneeling on each other's backs. I mean this: (http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_14725.shtml). What a surprise to come across on my leisurely Sunday morning walk! After meeting up with Nikki and Caroline, we sat in a nearby plaza and had some tea and watched the festivities of the day. As we were leaving we ran into a parade of drummers, ranging in ages between around 4 to 65 or so, that lasted about 20 or 30 minutes. I asked my homestay family tonight what the celebration was about and they said they didn't know. The research continues.
After we grabbed a bite to eat, Nikki, Caroline, and I met up with Nikki's friend Juan and his friend at a nearby bar to listen to live music. It ended up being an open mike night so locals got up on stage and performed a mix of Spanish and American rock songs. We were CLEARLY the only non-natives there, but everyone was nice and welcoming. Rumor has it that Wednesday night is Flamenco night. You can bet to see me there!
Today was a usual Monday: class, nap, class, Skype with Sooz, dinner, work.
This weekend made me appreciate Barcelona so much. Between wandering around and finding Gaudí buildings and sculptures, like the light posts in Plaza Reail, his first commission in the city, to coming across beautiful and exciting cultural events, like the parade and the human pyramids, I've gained such an appreciation for the life, color, and vibrance of this city.
Up next: My first paper, getting back into running after being sick for the past few days, and MOROCCO.

Current obsessions: napping, mint tea, hanging out with my boy Antoni (Gaudí), counting the days until MARI'S VISIT TO BARCELONAAAA!!!

Hasta.

Te Quiero, Barcelona

So clearly I’ve gotten in a bad pattern of not updating my blog for about a week at a time and then writing one looooong entry. Oops!

It’s been quite the week here. Last week was mostly finalizing classes, doing more at work, and being incredibly sore from the half. Here’s my final class list:

1. Human Rights (really really interesting but TOUGH)

2. Terrorism or terrorisms? (stupid title, but AWESOME class)

3. Contemporary Spanish Literature (for you Harry Potter fans out there, my professor is essentially a Spanish version of Madam Trelawney)

4. Linguistics (I just added this class this morning, but it seems like it’ll be awesome)

In addition to classes, I’m also doing my internship which is panning out to be really cool. Right now, I’m working on translating documents from Spanish to English so they can be used in presentations to other countries’ governments who are considering adopting a similar sustainable model to the one Barcelona has. I’m excited that the duties I’m performing are not only important, but also that what I create will actually be used and valued by other people.

The BCN half was a lot of fun and I have no regrets about running it, however throughout most of last week, I was pretty sore. As any runner can tell you, after a particularly long and hard run, stairs are torture (particularly going down). I have to walk down a set of stairs to get to the metro and the day after the race I STRUGGLED to get down the stairs. Once I finally made it to the track, someone asked me “did you run the marathon yesterday?” Considering how I was walking, that seemed like a pretty stupid question, so I decided to answer, “No. I always walk like this.”

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful (aside from a visit to the doctor’s office for an ear infection). However, last weekend CIEE took the whole liberal arts program to Madrid and Toledo. We woke up pretty early on Friday morning and met at Estacio Sants to take the AVE, Spain’s high speed train, to Madrid. After arriving in Madrid, we checked into our hotel then went for a walking tour of the city. We saw the Plaza Ocidental, the Royal Palace, the Cathedral, the Plaza Mayor, Plaza del Sol, Plaza Espana and finally ended our tour at Museo del Prado, Spain’s most famous museum that is full of works by El Greco and Goya (among other important artists). The museum was amazing and full of pieces of art I had learned about since middle school. After we had had enough of El Prado, our group headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit before dinner. The rest of the night was uneventful; dinner and then most of us went back to the hotel to go to bed.

The following day, we took a trip to Toledo, a beautiful, old city about an hour outside of Madrid. Toledo is famous for its religious history. The city acted as a center for the three major religious groups in Spain at one point or another and the history is evident in the culture and architecture of the city. We took a walking tour of the city to see the Synagogue (heavily influenced by the Arab architects and builders) and the Cathedral. After our tour, we had lunch, wandered around, then headed back to Madrid.

After a little nap and shopping, Grace, Nikki, and I decided to head to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner where we ran into Shun and Katie. After our delicious dinner, we stopped in a candy shop to get a little dessert then wandered over to the Plaza Mayor, one of the major plazas in Madrid. The five of us were standing in the Plaza, people watching and chatting when we were approached by two guys who asked us in broken English to take a picture with them. After taking an awkward picture, Nikki handed one of the guys back his camera and said something to him in Spanish. He looked at her in shock and said “¿HABLAIS ESPANOL!?” We continued to speak to them for about a half hour or so. The content of the conversation wasn’t terribly interesting, however we had a strange experience. Typically whenever I’m speaking with foreigners, I’m always the one who speaks the fewest number of languages and the foreigners can speak to each other in their own language in front of me and I’ll have no idea what they’re saying (even sometimes with Spanish). However, this was the first time I had been on the other side of it. When we were talking to the Spanish guys, occasionally we’d switch over to English (often unintentionally) and they’d have to ask us “en español por favor”. Often times when we’d lapse into English they would think we were making fun of them (which was sometimes true). It was interesting being on the side with the upper hand.

The following day in Madrid, we got up early to go to the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid’s modern art museum. I’m not a huge fan of modern art, but I wanted to be sure to make it to Reina Sofia to see Picasso’s famous “Guernica”, which has arguably been one of the most important and controversial (remember when UN officials covered its reproduction when Colin Powell presented the US’s case for the war in Iraq to the UN Security Council?) pieces of art in the last 100 years (maybe even longer). The painting is absolutely enormous and is in a room with no other pieces of art. It’s only in black and white, which for me, made it more powerful.

After Reina Sofia, a big group of us went to El Rastro, Madrid’s open air market. It was incredibly crowded and hectic, but still a lot of fun. After a little shopping, Nikki, Grace, and I headed back to the hotel where we had lunch, then shortly after went back to Barcelona.

After spending time in Madrid, I felt so pleased with my choice to study in Barcelona. True, Madrid is BEAUTIFUL and certainly more “Spanish” than Barcelona (you’ll only see and hear Spanish as opposed to Barcelona’s Catalan), however Barcelona is truly vibrant. Madrid felt bustle-y and cold (figuratively) like New York , whereas Barcelona is much more relaxed, while still having the excitement and vibrance of a big city. Many people have described Barcelona as a “bohemian” city, probably because it’s hard to describe it in any other way. The city is very liberal and very forward-thinking. Moreover, Barcelona puts a major emphasis on public space including public works of art tucked into residential neighborhoods (I came across a Joan Miró sculpture on my run yesterday through my neighborhood!!). I love love love it here.

Since being back from Madrid, I’ve spent a lot of time with Nene, my host mom. Juan Antonio is in Switzerland visiting friends, so it’s just been “nosostras solitas” (“us alone”). Nene is so fantastic and caring. I feel so fortunate to have been placed with such wonderful people.

Well…that’s all for now. Judee Utoh and Nirali Shah (two Wellesley ladies) will be in Barcelona the next few days with their study abroad program. Andale as they say.

Hasta!

New obsessions: Nene´s croquetas, Sooz’s phenomenal emails, looking at flights on Ryan Air