La Huelga and more

If any of you watch international news, you may have seen footage of massive rioting going on in Barcelona yesterday. Yes, I am alive. September 29th was a general strike day and there was quite a lot going on in Placa Catalunya, which I actually walk through almost daily. Our classes were cancelled that day and we were told to keep mostly inside and away from large, boisterous crowds. In reality, most of the car burning, rock throwing, window breaking, and stealing was done by a group here called "Anti-sistema." You got it, they are an active anarchist group in Spain and apparently protest and cause a ruckus at just about any opportunity. According to my history of Catalunya professor, it is not clear exactly what their political platform is. I suppose it is a bit difficult to be a cohesive organized group when you are fighting against structure and organization itself. Anyway, this was apparently one of the more violent strike days that Barcelona has had in the past few years. What did I do? Tons of homework.

And now a quick note about language barriers. Having a good sense of humor is absolutely essential in living with a host family. A few days ago, we all had a good laugh when I stated "Estoy perdiendo pesetas de caminar," attempting to say "I am losing weight from walking." However, the word for "weight" is actually "peso." "Pesetas" are the former Spanish currency that were replaced by the Euro. So I actually said, "I am losing money from walking."...which makes no sense at all! Once we had all laughed about my mistake, I corrected my statement to be "I am losing weight from walking and money from shopping!"

This evening, my host sister Ana pulled out a tub of Betty Crocker chocolate frosting to eat with some cookies. Ana is allergic to milk, and so she bought the frosting in place of chocolate sauce. However, in typical American fashion, the tub had a line that read "May contain traces of milk products." Ana asked me what this meant. Does it have milk in it or not? Ummm...well. See, sometimes, the same machines may have been used to make different products so it might contain the tiniest bit of milk, but probably not. And companies have to put that on there to protect themselves from being sued. This explanation is really helping right? That is correct, I can't tell you for absolute sure whether or not it has milk in it. And yes, Americans are the slightest bit crazy.

I am happy to report that Ana tried it and that she is perfectly fine.

Oh life...

Besos!

Backtrack - Sept 22

I thought I would post something I wrote from Sept 22:

I went to the Museum of Chocolate this morning. Of course, I got lost going there, but I have just

resigned myself to the fact that I will need to ask about a million people for directions whenever I am going to a new place. At least I can understand what they are telling me. I realize that I am used to the more linear street system in Philly as opposed to the more circular one here. Since it is a very old city, it has sections with tiny, tiny spidery streets and it only takes about 5 seconds to get totally off the beaten path.

Once I made it there, the entrance was only 3.85 euro and the entrance ticket is a bar of dark chocolate. Yum! Most of the information about the history of chocolate, I already knew. What was really cool was the chocolate sculptures/creations that they had on display (as pictured above). They had everything! There were some funny things -- a big Easter egg with the pope's face on it and a re-creation of the Pieta. After I was done the exhibit, I went out into the little courtyard they have which sits in between the Museum and the Chocolate Confectionary School that appends the museum. The school's kitchen has glass walls, so you can look at all the students (aka attractive European boys) scurrying about in their chef hats creating various chocolate things. I then sat at the cafe and had a cup of chocolate (of course).

La Merce Pictures

Note: These pictures will be more interesting if you read my post about La Merce first and then look at the picture posts.

Me and two friends at a concert...the stage is that blue glowing thing to the top right.

El Correfoc...it's coming!

Okay, now is the time to start screaming!

(p.s. - they came closer than this, but i decided that taking pictures might put my hand in danger of being burned, so i didn't)

(p.p.s. - there are plenty of Youtube videos of this event, check it out!)

La Merce Pictures

Castellers - perfectly safe! ;)

Castellers - 5 levels tall!

Castell de Montjuic

On my way up to Montjuic in a cable car (my friend Kelsey is taking the pic)

The Always Drinking Marching Band

La Merce 2010

Hey everyone! It has been quite a crazy week, so I am going to re-cap for you. This weekend was La Merce, Barcelona's largest festival. And I mean BIG! The government sponsors hundreds of free events - concerts, acrobatic performances, parades, fireworks, light shows, you name it!

I have been a busy girl these past few days. So here are some of the highlights:

Fireworks on the beach every night at 10 pm. It was a competition between Canada, France, and Spain. After viewing all 3 shows, I have to say that France took the cake. I was really close to the fireworks, it was like they were falling around us! So beautiful!

On Saturday during the day, my friend Kelsey and I headed up to the Castell de Montjuic. We walked around the whole castle and then sat on the lawn to watch a trapeze artist. We also saw the "Always Drinking Marching Band," who are a comedic marching band group. They were fabulous!

Last night was the Correfoc, the "Fire Run." Ladies and gentleman, we are not in Kansas anymore. The idea here is to pack hundreds of thousands of people into the streets and then these people dressed up as devils parade down the street with sparklers on pitchforks. Lit fireworks. As in, fire sparks are flying everywhere, showering down on everyone! We were recommended to wear cotton pants and long-sleeve shirts and a head covering. I am very glad I did! It was actually pretty frightening, but very fun. And no worries, there are ambulances ready to go and plenty of policemen on the sidelines.

Another cool thing I saw was the lightshow and jugglers at Ciutadella Park. The show was awesome! The jugglers had balls and pins that lit up in different colors, so it looked really neat in the dark.

As far as traditions go, one of the highlights of the event is the Castellers (human tower builders). These troups form awesome tower-like structures by climbing up on each other's shoulders.

This morning, I visited the International Church of Barcelona. The service was in English (a bit refreshing i must say) and the people there are quite wonderful. The members come from all different countries and there are a bunch of students from all over the place. We went to a BBQ afterwards at the pastor's home in Les Planes, right in the mountains. Very beautiful!

So that's what has been happening. Check out my pictures above!

The Weird World of Antoni Tapies

I visited the Fundacio de Antoni Tapies this afternoon in my long 3-hour break between classes. My synopsis: I am not sure if this dude is completely sane. As far as I could see, he is obsessed with the following:

1.crosses (of the square Red-Cross-esque variety)

2. numbers, particularly 1,2,3,4, and fractions

3. dirt

4. wooden doors

The art is extremely modern and abstract, some of it quite disturbing. There were several (clearly influenced by Eastern thought) which I found to be a bit frightening actually. There were two works which I thought were really interesting. One was an armoire with all of these clothes in it. Kinda hard to explain, but you can easily find a picture on Google.

The other I thought was fabulous. At first, it looked like just a splotch of light yellow surrounded by some strokes of white along with a random closed eye. But as you looked at it, you realized that the yellow was actually the shape of a person and the closed eye belongs to the person and the white was a structure of a chair. All of the sudden, you had this image of a rotund old gentleman who had just dozed off in his garden chair. Very abstract, very cool. I have to say it really was the only painting that I enjoyed looking at.

Continuing on the theme of art, I realize I have not yet posted about the painting & drawing class I am taking. The class is actually taking place at a local art studio/school here in Barcelona. Our teacher, Angel, runs the school with his brother and has his own studio in the city. The school is very cute and artsy and peaceful! We had our second class today where he gave a critique of our attempts to draw a bust of a lady and taught us a very methodological way to draw her. My drawing already looks much better even though it is really just the outline. I think that I am really going to enjoy the class!

Thats it for now...besos!

Some things remain the same...

Weather forecast - torrential downpours of rain...am I in Philadelphia? For the second time since I have been here, it has been raining. But today really took the cake. It was overcast this morning and then at about 6:18 pm, the heavens opened. Praise the Lord that I took my umbrella with me this morning!

Tigre and I had a bit of a tiff this morning. He gets shut in the living room/kitchen area at night so that he doesn't wake anyone up by scratching at doors. This morning, when I got up, he wanted to be let out into the rest of house, but my here-sister Ana, was still sleeping. So I wouldn't let him. Well he jumped right up on my sink and gave me a nice little bite on my hand. I still love him though, I can't help it. :)

Since I am assuming you don't want to hear about my homework, here are some pictures.

This cool street is in the hip neighborhood of Gracia

Casa Vicens by Gaudi - a lot of tourists don't see this one; it is one of his earliest works

I took this pic while waiting for the rain to slow down a bit, only about 3 doors down from my house. I gave up eventually and just made a run for it!

"Puding" from the restaurant Allenda - it tasted like flan, but better. :)

Yom Kippur

As you may know, yesterday was Yom Kippur. I found a synagogue group here called "Atid" and attended their services on Friday night, Sat morning, and Sat night. The group is technically Reformed, but is actually fairly mixed. As Pamela, one of the girls I met, explained to me, the Jewish community here is so small, they cannot afford the separations that we have in the U.S. In my Catalunya culture class, we learned that only 1/33,000 people in Spain are Jewish! This is so different for me coming from Philadelphia, where the Jewish population is quite large. The community here is really struggling to uphold the Jewish tradition in Spain. I knew that the Inquisition had a significant impact, but I did not realize how much it really destroyed the Jewish life here even to this day. But anyway, I met a lot of really nice people and they kindly invited me out to their college/career age break fast. It was a bit tough to be surrounded by so much Spanish for so many hours, but I managed okay. Typical to Spaniard style, the dinner went til 1:00 am and then we all moved to a bar. I came home at about 2:30 (everyone asked me why I was leaving so early!).

I have a MOUNTAIN of homework to do today, so that will occupy the rest of my day.

Besos!

Running all over creation

Today, I had two classes and I ran around a bunch to get supplies. I bought some books for class and folders and such. Oh, for lunch, we went to this place Antella and got their plat del dia. I had fish with salad and rice, a bottle of water, and pudding for dessert. All for 7 euro, which is pretty good. It was excellent and the waiter was fabulous! He was quite charismatic and friendly (very unusual for waiters here in Spain).

I also had to go to the art supply store to get some things for class. Of course, I got lost. (So what else is new!) I ended up walking about 5 blocks more than necessary which seems to be par for the course around here, at least for someone as directionally challenged as me! But, I am excited about this art class. It is actually taking place at a local artist's school owned by a man named Angel and his brother. So, its a legit painting/drawing studio class. How awesome!!!

Alrighty, I got a lot to do - recording all my purchases from today and doing a little bit of homework.

Besos!

The other half of the schedule

(Picture to the left - University of Barcelona, Main Building)

My Tuesday/Thursday schedule is quite busier than my Monday/Wednesday schedule. I have three classes in the earlier part of the day - from 9:30 am to 2:45 pm. Then I have a long break until my last class from 6-7:30 pm. It's quite a long day, but I am sure I will soon have enough homework to fill that long break. So I am not complaining.

I suppose these posts will get quite a bit more boring as I become more involved with actual schoolwork. Hopefully, I will continue to notice differences and do interesting things, at least on the weekend!

Now, remember how I told you that this past Sunday I took a walk around my neighborhood? I thought I would share some of those pictures with you. I am also going to throw in some of the Univ of Barcelona. Warning for my Drexel peeps - Look at these pictures at your own risk of extreme dissatisfaction of the lack of beauty on our campus.

Besos!

Cute little park nearby my metro stop

View of my street at dusk

University of Barcelona Center for Hispanic Studies - this courtyard is actually inside the building. Meaning that I can study here!

This is a similar courtyard that is inside the UB main building

Entrance to Center for Hispanic Studies

Pictures!

Avinguda Diagonal at sunset

Beautiful bridge in the Barri Gotic

La Boqueria - one of the world's largest marketplaces

Placa Catalunya - very close to the Arcadia Center.

Here is me in the Parliament Building!

First day of Class

I placed into the B-level for UB, so my schedule is finally set. I had my first two classes today, which were good. My language teacher at Arcadia is very nice. We read a fun story today. As far as History of Spanish Art, the professor is a trip!!! He is hilarious and reminds me of Doc McFarland a bit. He kind of lectures in a confusing style, but is definitely passionate about his subject matter. He speaks almost no English, so he absolutely destroyed everyone's names in the roll call. Especially since there are kids from the US, Japan, China, Brazil, Canada, and Norway in our class. It was hilarious to listen to his pronunciation attempts. I was literally laughing out loud. For some reason, there are students with very minimal Spanish in my class. He just lectures away in Spanish, which I can mostly understand and take notes. Some of the people looked so lost though, I don't know how they will survive!

Tomorrow, I have four classes, so I need to head off to bed soon. However, I wanted to post some pictures because I promised them!

Heels

Just one more quick thought. Fashion, again. Okay, so the ladies here do not wear heels to go out. They only wear flats or sandals or even flip-flops. Why? Because the metro is ridiculous. Once you get underground, you often have to walk for over 5 minutes to get to the correct track. Transferring lines is even worse. You can easily spend 10 minutes of your 20 minute trip just walking underground. So no heels! Women here see no reason to torture their feet, so they don't.

Walking all over creation

Hello friends!

On Saturday, I (along with Jake) met up with a couple who are Christian leaders here in Barcelona. Saturday was the National Day of Catalunya, so we met in the Parc Ciutadella. It was absolutely teeming with people and there was an extensive program with music, poetry, performances, speeches, etc. After spending a good bit of time trying to locate the group, I finally met up with everyone. After the official ceremony was over, we walked over to sit on the grass to pray for Spain and Catalunya. After that, we had a picnic lunch and then went to see the Parliament building. The building was absolutely amazing! It was extremely lavish, and mixed modern and historic architecture and design.

After this, Jake and I decided to stick with our new acquaintances to see if we could locate some more of the festivities. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked! All the way through Barri Gotic and out onto Placa Catalunya. We went through the old Jewish Quarter and got to peek into a window of a tiny synagogue that was just recently re-discovered. There was also a stone inscription in Hebrew on one of the walls! Cool stuff! After walking for so long, it was time for a little merienda - nothing like a cone of ice cream for 1 euro.

Jumping forward to today, I was going to get up early and visit a church, but I slept until 12:30. I have done so much this week, it all finally caught up to me. So today, my main goal was to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I succeeded. I lounged around until about 5 pm, hanging out with my host family. At that point, I decided I needed to get out in the sunshine and have some fresh air. So, my senora told me about a nearby park and I went over there to read. It was very pleasant outside, and the park was filled with families and people walking their dogs. It felt very communal. I sat on a bench and read for a few hours. I was feeling a bit down earlier today, but I pushed through and this evening was lovely. I just hung out at home with my senora, and my sister Ana and her boyfriend Christian. Que tranquilo! How relaxing!

Before I sign off, here are a few more things to add to my growing list of differences that I have seen:

1) Party time - The normal time here to go out to a bar is 11:00 pm. Although people pretty much socially drink all the time here. Bars are open until between 1-3 am. Clubs do not open until 1:00 am and stay open until 4-6 am! But no worries, there is also no such thing as an 8:00 am class. 9:30 is an early time to have class.

2) Strollers - The guys are the ones who push the strollers. I have maybe seen 1 woman pushing a stroller in the time that I have been here. All of the other times, it was the dude. And I have walked around a LOT, so I have seen a lot of stroller-pushing.

3) Dog Walking - Sitting in the park today, I noticed that the people were letting their dogs go up and play with other dogs or sniff them. However, the dog owners did not seem to exchange some chit chat while their dogs were communing. In the U.S., it is pretty common to exchange a few words with someone if your dogs are playing together in the dog park. Here, people are very affectionate with people they know, but don't really greet people they don't know who are passing by.

That's it for now ladies and gents. My first class is tomorrow at 12:30 pm.

Besos!

Dear avid readers,

I will write a post tomorrow for y'all. With pictures even!
Besos!

Universitat de Barcelona

Today I took the UB exam In the morning. UB is beautiful. It’s in this huge historic building, with stone archways and courtyards with benches. Its unreal. The exam was not too bad. I think I will probably place in level B, but I am not completely sure. Anyway, it doesn’t matter much since both of the classes I would like to take have both levels. But seriously, I dont know how I am going to deal with Drexel after this.

A word about fashion: Thank goodness that I am from the U.S. If I lived here, I would probably be an outcast from lack of fashion ingenuity. When I first got here, everyone seemed to dress very similarly to the U.S. Now I am starting to see that what I read before coming here is true. The women dress very nicely, with well-cut clothing in neutral colors. But there is definitely an element of whimsy and creativity. They all wear those pants which are cut loosely and then cuff at the bottom and any variations on this. It looks like I will be getting myself a pair or two very shortly.

I realize that I did not really bring enough clothes here, which is fine. I can buy some. I would love to buy some. But I need to find some good places. I did get a shirt at ZARA today. It was only 3.99€!!! I showed it to Ana (my "sister") when I got home and she thought it was really cute. Which is good, because she dresses really cute! And she asked if I was going to wear it to go out, which confirmed my idea that I could wear it to go out.

And these European guys. Seriously. They know how to dress. I mean, the average guy here knows how to dress himself better than the average girl. Which is weird and awesome. And that is pretty much all I have to say about that.

Bus Turistic

What a day! At 10:00 this morning, we got on the Bus Turistic to go to Park Guell, created by Antoni Gaudi. This is one of the places that I have wanted to visit for a very long time. Although it was beautiful, it was hot and very crowded. Gaudi really was an amazing man. He had such an unusual mind and crazy ideas! After visitng Park Guell, we were free to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day. Isn't it funny how sometimes its hard to decide what to do, especially when there are so many possibilities? We decided to ride the rest of the Bus Turistic route to get back to Placa Catalunya (near our Center) to eat some lunch. We passed through a lot of different areas of Barcelona. I especially want to go back to visit the Ceramic museum in the north and some other things. After lunch, I decided to visit one of the houses of Gaudi. It was pretty cool.

Now, I am going to take a rest before going out for a little shopping. I need shampoo, an alarm clock, a water bottle, and some other small things. I will probably also stop for a bocadillo or a cafe.

I do have one entertaining story to share from last night. After our day was over, I decided to go for my second attempt at getting a SIM card. Hay caramba! It was such a pain. We waited for a whole hour in the phone shop and the poor guy at the counter was dealing with the worst. First this lady comes in and tries to butt in line. She goes straight up to the counter and starts talking to the guy, saying that she wants to buy this and that. He told her she had to wait her turn and she started protesting until this other Catalan woman gave her a few sharp words to set her straight. It was very interesting to watch all of this take place and understand what was going on. Then later, these two Italian women came in and started talking to the guy. Of course, they were speaking Italian, like he would understand. So the poor man got very annoyed Of course, they too claimed they weren't butting in line, they were just "getting some information." Anyway, despite all of these this nonsense, I managed to purchase my SIM card. Success!!!

Orientation Week

So, I am finally in a place with Internet, so I can actually post.

This week so far has been an orientation to the Arcadia program. There are about 35 students total and this first week we have pretty much been doing everything together as a group. The orientation has been very extensive! We have gone over local customs, such as eating times and mannerisms, learned about how to protect ourselves from pickpocketers from two police officers, learned about culture shock from a clinical psychologist, taken our placement exam for our courses here, toured all over the place, thats not even half of it!

The staff here are really really nice. They have been wonderful in every aspect and I am confident that I will be able to approach them with any problems.

So, what are some huge difference so far?

1) Meal times - Spaniards eat 4-5 times a day. Desayuno, breakfast, is usually very small. Just a coffee or hot chocolate with some "pa amb tomaquet" (Bread drizzled with olive oil with a tomato spread on it). This is normally around 10:30/11:00 am. La comida, lunch, is the largest meal of the day. It lasts from 2-3 pm and consists of a meat & pasta dish. Then comes la Merienda, which is coffee and a small sandwich (called a bocadillo). This snack is absolutely essential because la cena, dinner, is not until 9-10 pm. Dinners are lighter, usually an omelet with beans or salad on the side, or something similar. Today was the first day that I ate like a proper Barcelonian!

2) Tips are unnecessary. Because of this, the waiters here are quite rude. They earn a normal salary and don't have to earn your tip. On the plus side though, they will NEVER rush you. You can buy one coffee and then sit in the cafe for 3 or more hours. This is normal actually.

3) Most of the large streets are split in half, with a large walkway in the middle. These "paseos" are filled with tables and chairs, so you can always eat outside!

There are lots of other things, but those are the first that come to mind.

Now, about academics. I am happy to report that after an extremely taxing language placement test on Tuesday, I placed into the Advanced B level, which means that I will almost certainly be able to take classes at the University of Barcelona proper, and not just the Arcadia Center. I am so excited!!!

Today, I moved in with my host family. My senora, Ana, is very kind and caring. I have my own room with a desk and a wardrobe and everything. I am so thankful to the Lord that he placed me here and I know that I will have a wonderful time with Ana and her daughter (and the cat "Tigre" (which means tiger)). To add to it, Ana is a wonderful cook!

Tomorrow, we will be taking a bus tour and visiting Parque Guell. Then, we will have pass all day for Bus Turistic, which means that we can go around to lots of different places tomorrow.

Well, its 11:30 pm here, so I am going to head off to bed.

Saludos!

Finally Here

So, I'm finally here! I honestly was wondering if I was ever going to make it. Here is a recap of my airport travels: The flight from PHL to Heathrow went well. It left on time and arrived a bit early. I did manage to sleep for a few hours on the plane (for maybe the first time in my life?). I guess this past week really took it out of me! That flight was not all roses though. It was packed with babies and kids under 5. Whoever thought that I would wake up to hearing a little girl singing "The Wheels on the Bus?" Of course, this particular cover of the song was more pleasant to listen to since the girl had an English accent.

The most remarkable thing about Heathrow was a) the amount of buses I had to take to get from place to place and b) the wholly unorganized and confusing layout of Terminal 3. I managed to grab a plate of eggs and some toast for breakfast (paid in Euros, got change in Pounds), before looking at the screen which listed my flight as "boarding." So there is me running pell-mell through the airport to Gate 24. I had already taken a bus from the tarmac to Terminal 5 and another from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3, so I should not have been surprised when they bused us out to the tarmac again. The flight to BCN was only 1 hr 45 min, so I just read my book and stared out the window for that flight.

Then BARCELONA!!! After quite a trying time locating Eva, who I stayed with this past night, I was finally settled into my first night location. Eva and her husband live in a cute flat on the Avenida Diagonal, which is one of the main streets that runs through Barcelona. Out of my window, I can see la Sagrada Familia (if you don't know what that is, go look it up!) on my right and the beach on my left. I took a dip in their pool before getting a shower and going out. One other funny note: When Eva and I took the elevator from the basement to the first floor with my luggage, she wanted to stop out and introduce me to the front desk man. "Just leave your suitcase here," she says, "we'll come back and get it." Leave my suitcase unattended? Right outside this elevator? And no one will take it? No one did.

In the evenings here, everyone goes out for a walk. If you're old, you go as far as you can and then you sit on one of the benches. If you're in the middle, you either jog, walk, or ride a bike. If you are under 15, the preferred mode of transportation is roller blades. Certainly, people here have a more active lifestyle. As far as personality, Spaniards so far seem to be sort of aloof and a bit closed off. I haven't quite come up with the right adjective yet. Not haughty, just unconcerned. But, companionship is definitely important here. I saw barely anyone walking around by themselves, even though it is completely safe to do so. So I get the feeling that once you get to know someone, they are the kind of people that stick by each other.

For dinner, most restaurants don't open until 8. I got pretty hungry by 7 pm, considering that I hadn't actually eaten any lunch. So I found a cafe place and had a crepe with tuna, tomatoes, and melted cheese. It sounds gross, but it was really good.

I turned in about 9:30 pm (local time) and woke up about 9:00 am (also local time). I am now about to go out and explore some more before Eva takes me to the Gruphotel Gravina to meet up with the rest of the Arcadia group. On the docket for today? The mall to get a SIM chip for my phone and the beach!

Saludos!