Hola amigos!
I have now been in Barcelona for 48 hours, and boy has the time flown by. I already feel like I live in the city for weeks. I arrived Thursday morning at 9 am (3am home time) and have been enjoying myself every minute since.
When I began my journey to get here I kind of “forgot” where I was actually going …until I boarded the airplane to Barcelona. There it hit me, as I was completely surrounded by native Spanish speaking people. From there on out I knew it was going to be a crazy and confusing journey. Luckily the airplane ride wasn’t bad, and I was surprisingly impressed by the amount and quality of food that the airline provided ( 2 meals, a snack, and multiple beverage services). Overall it was a good flight, and easy journey navigating through the BCN airport, customs, baggage claims, finding the IES room, and catching a taxi. It was also fortunate that Angelina and I were the first students (despite the large number of students that arrived in Barcelona at the same time) to get to the IES room, therefore the first students to get all our information and leave the airport. We had about a 20 minute taxi to our home, well apartment. (No one has homes inside the city, everyone lives in apartments.) We live on Avinguida Gran Via de led Corts . It is one of the main roads through town, so we have access to a wide variety places. (via walking, the metro , or the bus)
After arriving at the apartment complex’s door, we were very confused by the calling system used to message people on various floors. We finally figured out what we were doing and got in touch with our host Senor Joseph (pronounced “Yo”seph). This was a surprise considering IES only told us of our host Senora, Ana. Jose is so nice, but only speaks Spanish. Talk about immersion. We chated with him for a short while, and he showed us to our rooms. Angelina and I share a small but very cheerful room, with bright colors and artsy decorations. Later on I found out that Ana came to Barcelona from Venezuela, and there she owned an art studio, so her apartment here is filled with wonderful art in cool colors. She has done such a great job decorating,, and it really makes me feel at home. Back to our room, in addition to being cute and tiny, it has a door to a great patio that is about the size of the room. It is so wonderful, and will be nice to sit outside and do homework. We also have access to the roof, but have yet to explore it, given the cold weather.
After settling in we took a long siesta, and woke up just in time for dinner (la cena) at 8:30p.m. Late, I know! This time is early for the Spanish too. Typically dinner is between 9-11p.m.. This really blew my mind. At any rate, we had a nice first dinner, and got to meet and chat with Ana. She is wonderful, and speaks nearly perfect English. (She studied in London for 4 years ). In addition to Ana and Joseph they also have two small dogs. (Kika and Kotifa) Kotifa is the Venezuelan word for popcorn. They are very cute. Yippy, but nice to have around. In addition to meeting Ana, me met our third roommate, Tina. She had a room to herself, and us three girls share one bathroom which works out perfectly.
After a long nights sleep, we woke up to a very nice breakfast. One thing about Spain that I’ve come to realize is that everything is small (size, quantities, etc.) but so fantastic! Everything! The people, the houses, the cars, the pets, the food…small, but awesome. Despite being small, they make everything count. For example, everytime we eat (Ana serves us breakfast and dinner) she sets the table so nicely, and we pour water from a pitcher. Everything just seems so fancy, which created the illusion of things being bigger than they really are. Maybe I’m just used to America and the way we stuff our faces as quick as possible. Everything just seems slower, more laid back, and they make even the small things matter.
After drinking some Spanish café con leche and taking a nice warm shower, I was feeling much better. What a fix for jet lag! After breakfast and getting ready we went out to explore the town. It has been quite cold in Spain. (not snowy or below freezing like the States, but freezing for the Catalonians.) The temperatures are averaging around the mid 40’s. We explored what seemed like much of the town, although in actuality it was only a very small portion. We found where our university is, tried to find help for my phone (trying to get technical help with a phone while attempting to speak another language is not fun! It is not fun in English, but exceptionally difficult in Spanish. ) We walked around Placa de Catalunya (the “center” of town) and down Las Ramblas. The Ramblas (a street only meant for walking) is full of strange and fun things. From spray painted statues to kiosks full of birds for sale, Las Ramblas was very unique. We ventured off the main street, and found a small café to eat lunch. After exploring the city for about 5 hours, we headed back to our apartment, where the jet lag started to hit again. We all took a small siesta, and woke up just in time for dinner with Jose.
Despite not speaking much English, Jose is so sweet and funny. He tries so hard, and that just makes it so cute and special. He made us a Spanish tortilla. (Which is like an omlet with potatoes and ham in it) SO good! Also, he made an awesome salad full of random but delicious things. (raisins, mandrins, etc.) It tasted so gourmet. He calls us girls Angelina Jolie, Grace Kelly, and Christina Aguilera. It makes us chuckle. After dinner, Ana came home (she got off work at 9 p.m.) and we gave them our presents, which they really liked. Afterwards, Jose found all our house on google earth. He was so surprised to see how rural it was where I lived. He was postive it would show up on google earth, but like always, it was still blurry. They ain’t got them kinda high technology our there in Jeff Twp.
After that, we ventured “out on the town.” Haha. We didn’t even leave our apartment till 12:30. I mean,if you know me, you know how bad I stink at staying up, so this whole time thing is such a change for me, but I want to see and experience everything I can. So if that means staying up all night, then I’m in! After wondering for a long time (our area of town is very residential, so there are few hip night places, we found a small bar that was just the chill sort of atmosphere we were looking for). Angelina and I spoke Spanish thei whole time (broken up by interjections of English words we were unfamiliar in spanish). I’m sure any Spanish onlooker got quite a kick out of our broken Spanish. We decided that the last night of the semester we would return to the bar and try it over again. (hopefully our Spanish will be so much better by that point!) It was a really fun time though, and we eventually went to bed around 4 a.m. Icarumba!
Woke up this morning having barely gotten any sleep(for my standards), but I didn’t want to be rude and miss breakfast, so I dragged myself out of bed. The spanish coffee really helps! It is strong but in a not overpowering way. (ie, i feel super awake without getting the jitters, like sometimes I do at home)
Well, I have class in a few hours and need to go figure out my phone situation beforehand. Sorry for writing so much. I have just learned and seen so much…it is so exciting, I just want to share it all! I wish you were all here so you could experience this wonderful place with me. I promise to write shorter and less windy epics in the future!
Hasta Luego!
No comments:
Post a Comment