The ultimate comfort food

SO today I was just craving something - I couldn't figure out what, so I assumed it was chocolate. But my chocolate ice cream didn't quite cut it. What could it be? I figured the ice cream was too icey (it was sort of a gelato/ice cream hybrid), and didn't pack enough chocolate punch, so I tried a chocolate croissant and also some nutella and bread. Nothing was doing it. (Also this is a great example of my self-restraint) So I turned to water, which actually often satisfies those weird cravings. Still no answer! Then. Ana was cooking dinner, and what did I smell? Yes. It was broccoli. The same smell that I used to think was cheeseburgers, night after night. For dinner, we had meatballs, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. It was as if Ana has some sort of glandular-telepathy and knew exactly what I was hankering for all day long. The greatest comfort meal of all time. Except that in a perfect world, it would have been turkey meatloaf; but I'll take the Spanish equivalent, which is meatballs. Wow. It was perfect.

Also, I realize everyday how much I love organization. And despise the lack there of. Mom and Dad are probably laughing (quite loudly) together, reading this, because they know the constant state of my bedroom, but I am referring more to structural organization, like in a class. The syllabus is perhaps the greatest thing ever created, and should be required everywhere. I like knowing my homework for next week, and when my tests will be, and when my papers will be. And also, in classes where the professor's words aren't always the clearest, it would be nice to have in writing a schedule which clarifies the modes of evaluation for the class. Will we have pop quizzes? That would be weird, since we don't seem to have reading. Also, my UPF classes all have "suggested" reading. What is that? Are we expected to do that? I guess I have to, but for each one it's like 5 or 6 full books. When exactly am I supposed to do them? The point of this anecdote is that I am not very good at the learn-at-your-own-pace sort of class. I like being given specific assignments - I think this ties in with my love for math, which has questions and answers, not interpretations. Anyway, enough psychobabble for the moment, I have to go read Jorge Luis Borges and also figure out who this "Rafael" character is that apparently changed the world of art. WHATEVER.

Spain and I kick some collective ass.

UM, life is fantastic.
First of all, we have these delicious little sweet bread things (and I mean that like a bread that is sweet, not like animal innards sweet breads) for breakfast which make me warm inside because they remind me of Costco dinner rolls (ohhhh dinner rolls) but with a touch of honey - basically it's magical. I had a REALLY weird weekend, and so I am very glad that Monday is off to such a KICKASS start. My weekend: On Friday night I went over to Stacey & Danielle's to watch the debate (which aired at 3 am). In order to stay awake, we listened to some awesome Spanish band, watched Palin's interview with Katie Couric, and tried but failed to watch the Colbert Report. We went to a nearby bar (I secretly hate them for having cool stuff in their neighborhood - mine is really nice and has good cafes but is very residential so there are very few bars or activity at all after midnight) and had ONE beer before racing back to watch the debate. We had it going on the CNN live feed (on two different computers, because one or the other kept cutting out) and on the tv, but the tv one was dubbed so that wasn't so useful. Stacey made homemade patatas bravas to keep us going until 4:30, at which point I decided it was better to sleep on their couch than try to brave the NitBus with my current state of exhaustion. In the morning (read: 1pm) Danielle made us tofu scramble and potatoes, and I went home to shower and face the day - but ended up just facing the internet as I tried to figure out my mobile phone plan. It took me literally two hours of wading through the Spanish and English versions of their website to figure out my plan, if I wanted to change to a new plan, and what the differences and costs all are. Basically I feel like I'm spending a lot on my phone and want that to change. Aaaanyway that night I went to a concert as part of the Indian Festival (lots of Viva Krishna going on) and then out with Danielle, Stacey, Laura, and her roommate Laila, but went home at a decent hour (3am) in a totally sound state of mind. THEN. The weirdest thing ever. I slept straight through until 6pm. I didn't wake up once in 13 hours of sleeping. WHAT THE HELL. I have no idea what happened but I assume I must have been sleep-deprived or sick, and I don't feel sick at all. Anyway, that was really weird and stupid because I wasted a whole day sleeping. It was lucky I fell asleep at all last night.

ON TO THE KICK ASS DAY THAT WAS TODAY: I got up with my alarm (this is an event in itself), had a delicious sweet roll and some Cinnamon Toast Crunch (viva Espanna), and WALKED to UPF. I knew this was possible, since I have done it on my way home twice already, but I wasn't sure about the timing or the best possible path. Well, it was a beautiful clear morning, sort of crisp but not cold, and the walk took me only 22 minutes, whereas the metro takes 25. Besides, it goes right next to the Parc de la Ciutadella and the Arc de Triomf, so it is a gorgeous walk, and I sort of accidentally met up with a growing group of students on their way there. It was so great. This must be what it's like to go to college in a city. FANTASTIC. Anyway, I had my poetry class which was great, except that apparently I was blind to the number of foreigners in it last time - there are tons. I was literally surrounded on every side with Americans. We're reading Ruben Dario and talking about modernism, and I just love love love it so far. Except it's hard to just listen to the poems - I like to see them as well. But she was reading some aloud that aren't in our reader, so they were harder to follow. On the first day, she read one aloud in French, then said, "Is there anyone who doesn't speak French?" As if that was only a slight possibility. Several people said they didn't, so she read the CATALAN translation. Um... not helpful. Anyway. Back to today. I really like this professor, and wish she would stay with our class at least until the actual prof gets back - she said it'll probably change though.
THEN I went to the dreaded Islam History class, plunked myself down in the front row, drank a coffee from a vending machine (50 cents! And not half bad - ok so I don't really know coffee but I just wanted the caffeine for the sake of my attention span), and readied my pen. As if the first day had been nothing but some horrible nightmare, I understood nearly everything he said! (In case it wasn't clear, that's why I kick ass.) I love the front row. I'm sitting there every day. It was also very interesting, because we were talking about the time when the Sunnis and the Shiites (Sunnitas y Chiitas, if you were wondering) separated, and the European Christian perception of Muslims at the time (and how it has lasted oh... 1400 years). So that was GREAT.
Next I booked it to IES, grabbed my bocadillo de chorizo on the way (2.60, cheaper than last week and more delicious), and went to castellano, where I discovered that the seemingly unending por/para lesson has actually never stuck with me, and my homework was nearly all wrong. Then we planned the interviews we will be doing next week, and talked about what we don't like about Spain (to practice phrases from interviews such as "Odio que..."). I contributed that I hate waiting in lines. It's crazy how I'm so used to lines that are all about speed, where as here the checkers will be talking to their friends, or doing their nails, or just generally being slow, even when there's a line of 20 people. It took me 40 minutes to wait in a line of six people on Friday. Other contributions included the rude people on the subway and the street noise - which personally I feel are just city complaints, not specific to Barcelona complaints. You can't really blame Barcelona for being a city. You could say you don't like cities. Someone also said "How the Spanish students hate Americans" which our professor immediately contested. What? Why do you think that? No, they're just not as hyper outgoing as you're used to. They don't hate Americans. What do you say to them? Do you talk to them? Oh, well see, if you say "Que tal" that doesn't mean you want to talk, that's something you say in passing. No one would stop and talk to you because you said que tal. And so on and so forth - this should give you a good idea of the general flow of our classes.

Anyway, the weather today is STUNNING: 70 degrees, minimal clouds (just enough to be cute and look poofy without blocking the sun), and a crisp, clean feeling in the air - I just love fall. Especially WARM fall! What a concept. I mean, it rained last week, but it isn't raining now! Basically this is just reinforcing my sunshine = Prozac theme of life. Tonight I am going to a cooking class, where we will learn to make paella, tortilla de patata, gazpacho, and crema catalana. And then we eat it all! MY GOD WHAT A DAY! I love Barcelona.

[Update:] Oh, cooking class was a magical experience. The woman was fantastic, and had a few of us do each dish, staggered, so we could also all see what was going on. I helped make the crema catalana, which was basically a lemony creme brulee (amaaazing). We served the gazpacho in double shot glasses with aioli and pesto, and grated cheese on top (to look like a cappuchino - sort of) and it was the best gazpacho I have ever had. No contest. Then the tortilla, which was as good as Ana's, which ranks it as tying with the best tortilla I have ever had. We ate it with pan con tomate, which is just toasted baguette with garlic, tomato, olive oil and salt. The combination? Again. Orgasmic. Then paella with chicken, peppers, beans, tomato, onions, garlic, saffron, all that goodness - incredible. I can't even talk about it. At this point I was so full I thought I might die, and then we had the crema catalana. Which she bruleed. It was the best meal I have had in Spain, and I have all the recipies, along with restuarant recommendations. Hands down, the best 20 euros that have ever been spent on education.

First day all over again

Up until now everything has been so chill and wonderful that I had pretty much forgotten what it was like to have work. Suddenly I want to be back in Cambridge watching Arrested Development in the white chair, not because Cambridge is cooler than Barcelona (quite the contrary! ha), but because I had decidedly less work to do there. But IES classes started last week, UB started this week, and UPF started yesterday, and now I am taking 21 credits (temporarily - I have to drop one) and it turns out that I really don't want to do homework! Weird. I'm usually so dedicated to school.

I'm taking my Spanish class at IES, as well as a lit class - Barcelona and the Latin American Literary Boom. They're both really cool so far, and I like the professors a lot. In my Spanish class we end up just talking about Spain and politics and other random things like birth control and divorce. I LOVE it. Pep is our profe, and he's really... emphatic. And has a lot of opinions. The Boom class is going well so far, but I switched into it this week and missed the first week, so it's starting slowly for me. I like it a lot though, and it seems like we'll be reading lots of great writers - Borges, Fuentes, Varga Llosa, and Cortazar come up practically every day.

At UB I'm signed up for a Modern Spanish history class that is only 2 credits and only half the semester, and is for foreigners only. I've only been to one class, since Wednesday was La Merce, but so far I am not impressed. The professor was nice but tended to ramble and get distracted, and also talked reallllly slowly so we wouldn't get lost. I was initially annoyed by the pace, but at UPF I learned just how important it is.

My first day at UPF should probably be in a movie, because it was so ridiculous. Not really. But in my head, everything was awkward and overblown, even when they were pretty run of the mill. I had almost forgotten how scary it is to show up, alone, on a college campus, and have no idea what to do. And this time I didn't have Grace to get lost with on the way to brunch. First of all, the classroom numbers were not given to me beforehand, so I had to get there early, find my class on a giant wall of schedules, and find my classroom. As I scowered the list, a guy asked me something in Catalan, and I had to awkwardly tell him I didn't understand. I found my classroom for my first class, Literatura Castellana, which is actually a 20th c. poetry class - another thing which was not made clear to me. A female professor showed up (5 minutes late, after I had arrived 15 minutes early, thank you Spain) and wrote Prof. Jose Maria Miro on the board, much to my confusion. Apparently he is gone for a few weeks (all she said was, we hope he can get back to us as soon as possible), and we are going to be given random professors until he gets back. But Begonna was easy to understand and seemed to be very passionate about poetry. Unfortunately, I hardly slept the night before, and kept almost falling asleep. So after class, I made my way to the cafeteria and got cafe con leche and a croissant (for 1.40! cheapest I've seen yet), then straight up walked down the aisles of tables looking for friendly faces (or empty tables). It was like freshman year at SMA, except without Paige to sit with! So I sat with some random girl who then left after I sat down, and awkwardly tried to not gulp down my coffee (because everyone eats so slowly here) but also not linger too long because I was just looking around at everyone who was sitting with their friends and feeling super awkward. GREAT STUFF. Then I had half an hour to kill before Islam history, and spent it sitting on a bench organizing my planner. Yeeeeeeah. I don't know anyone! What am I supposed to do, walk up to random people and introduce myself? Not in the quad. Maybe in class. Then. I went into class feeling confident, having understood everything in my first class, caffeinated, successfully found my second class, saw another IES girl there, talked to her as well as an Austrian guy, and was excited for Islam history. I don't know how to describe the feeling I got in the first minute of class, except with the phrase "my bowels turned to water." I honestly thought he was speaking Catalan. I had no idea what was being said, except that apparently it was funny, because people were laughing. He could have been saying "That American in the front row sure looks like a skanky whore, huh?" and the laughter could have been confirmation of this sentiment. I couldn't follow ANYTHING. He talked very fast, mumbling a lot, and if it hadn't been for the powerpoint I would have absolutely nothing in my notes. As the class went on it got a little better, but when we were given a break, I turned to the IES student and the Austrian guy to make sure that they didn't understand either - and they didn't. So I'm not alone. The Spanish girl behind me asked us where we were from, and said how hard it must be for us since he talked so fast. I think it'll get better, but Spanish professors don't really do a lot of outside help or working with students, so I don't know if he'll be very helpful. It's so hard though! Imagine that whenever you stop pouring 100% of your attention towards the words coming out of someone's mouth, they sound like gibberish. Even when I would write down what was on the board I wouldn't be able to listen to him at the same time. Damn mumblers. Next time I'm sitting in the front row. Then contemporary art history started today, and besides some classroom confusion (it was in a different room, which I only figured out because another girl was lost and we found it together), it was good. The teacher was easy to understand, even though I was sitting in the back due to my late entry in the class, and that will not do in the future. It was really cool though, and I'm excited to take art history, which is something I know absolutely nothing about! She kept asking questions which I felt completely unprepared to answer, but luckily other people answered things like "When was perspective first widely used?"

Also I have to book it from UPF back to IES on Mondays and Fridays, from my class which gets out at 1:30 to my class which starts at 2:00. They're about a 10 minute metro ride apart, which coupled with walking time makes it nearly a half hour with just enough time to grab a bocadillo and wolf it down outside IES. It's great. AND of course I have no desire to do homework EVER. So, that's great.

Vine a La Festa!

MERCE.
What can even be said. I have no idea how to explain it, and will probably need to use several pictures and videos just to make clear what happened. If I have any idea what actually happened at all. Let's start at the beginning.
La Merce is a holiday celebrating Barcelona's patron saint, La Virgen de la Merced (Our Lady of Mercy). It is celebrated on September 24th. But the festivities begin the Friday before (note: that makes for SIX days of action). Barcelona Accio Musical is one of the many parts, and it consists of six days of free concerts. And not just a concert a night, we're talking about nine or ten venues a night, each with three artists (or so). Also, there is some sort of book festival worked in, so several major streets are lined with tents where bookshops set up makeshift stores, filled with old books and rare books and sale books and new books - it's all very overwhelming. AND all of the little markets around town, the crafts and antiques and ceramics and funky clothes, they all come out for the entire week, whereas they're usually out on the first weekend of the month (or something like that). On top of all of this is the traditional Merce events - the correfoc, the castells, the giant parade, the dragon parade... more stuff I can't even think of... so basically the last six days have been MADNESS.

Friday I saw the giant parade which opened the ceremonies - and when I say "giant" parade, I mean there were giant puppets. Puppets isn't the right word though. Giant... costumes? Basically they were ten or twelve foot tall people, and turtles, and dragons, and they paraded through town before ending in the plaza where the government buildings are, and there a band played while they each took their turn dancing on stage. My videos are not so hot, so I'm turning to youtube for help on this one. Pictured is a dragon with fireworks coming out of his mouth. After they all did their little dances, fireworks were shot off the roof of the building you see in the background of the picture. It was pretty cool. Next I went to Placa Reial to see Facto Delafe y Los Flores Azules, and on the way there walked by three other concerts. It was packed by the time they came on (we also saw the first act, Raydibaum, for a while), and Cara, Andrea & I were surrounded by Spaniards. From there we had dinner in the placa and wandered around a bit, walking by a few more concerts (and a random man singing Ave Maria on the street) and eventually ran into our friends who had been in the dragon parade. They were covered in confetti and worn out from dancing along with a bunch of drummers, who we had seen on the way over. They were playing crazy rhythms and and a crowd had gathered and was just dancing around, under this random bridge, taking cover from the rain, in the middle of the city. It was amazing. It was like a flash mob, except it was a flash dance party. We ran into even more friends, and ended up going to this great little bar by the cathedral, where we had some delicious mojitos before heading back out to Placa Catalunya where we saw yet another band, then headed over to Raval for some beer and falafel. It was three am, but the streets were absolutely PACKED. Actually, the entire night, the city was just swarming with people. It was insane. That's all I can say.

SATURDAY was the correfoc. Via Laietana, a big five-lane road in the midde of the old city, was completely shut down and filled with people. At 8:30, about thirty people dressed as devils started their way down the street with what were essentially giant spinning sparklers. We were warned to come in long pants, long-sleeved shirts, and with our face and hair covered, but even completely decked out it was SO SCARY! And amazing. My head covering was a scarf I later realized was probably very flammable, so I tried to avoid being engulfed in flames. The correfoc has a bunch of devils, interspersed with dragons and drummers (I think you can see examples of all of them in the video?). We walked and danced in front of the drummers and behind the devils, with some particularly crazy people running into the sparks without any sort of face/head/arm covering. I held back a bit, still very much a part of the parade but not directly under the sparks for any significant amount of time. It was absolutely crazy, and we remarked about nine thousand times how this would never happen in the US. They even point the fireworks directly at the crowd. I mean, they're just sparks, but one of my friends did get burnt. After the correfoc we tried to find a flamenco concert but instead found a random Latin American band of some sort, who thrusted at the crowd and humped their microphone stands before the next act came up - which was three guys singing over a recording. Even the back-up vocals were recorded, and when they sang along they were rarely in key. I wanted to go see some more free concerts, but instead we went to a god awful bar (and I went home early).

SUNDAY we saw the castellers, which are teams that build human pyramids, competing to see who can make a whole one in the fastest time (or something like that). There can be up to ten stories of people standing on each others shoulders, and the top one is two little kids who climb to the top, one climbs over the other and raises his/her hand to signal that it is complete. Then everybody climbs down. It is very nerve-racking, and I saw several which stopped after making three or four stories, as you could see everyone's legs shaking, and another which actually fell! And mind you, they're just standing on a crowd of people. So it was very exciting slash frightening. I didn't go to any concerts, since I ate something weird at lunch and was sick the rest of the day, but I'm sure there were some great ones. I could hear the fireworks from my bed, too.

MONDAY I went to a funk/soul/jazz concert at a club that usually has a 15 euro entrance fee, and although I missed Funking Chaos and Jamie Woon because I was eating with my family, Annie and I caught Jose James (who is from the US), and he was SO AMAZING. I can't even describe. The entire band was amazing, and there were some epic keyboard solos, and his voice was just incredible. So that was cool.

TUESDAY I went to a flamenco concert at the end of Las Ramblas, where "thing that would never happen in the US" #2 happened. We saw people with little cups, so we thought we'd see what it was everyone was drinking. It looked and smelled like cider, and there wasn't any exchange of money as far as we could tell, so we got in line and got our cups of a hot, dark liquid that had mulling spices in the big containers. It was rum. Straight rum (with spices). Being handed out for free on the street. Yeah. Anyway the concert started and it was INCREDIBLE, they're called Meztuca, and they play a sort of flamenco/rumba hybrid. It was packed with Spaniards who knew all the words and danced the entire time. Again, incredible. I don't even know. They aren't on iTunes, but they are on myspace. It was just SO GREAT. I think I love flamenco/rumba. We walked by more concerts on our way to meet up with other IES kids. I wish that Merce was all the time, everywhere. All I want from life is to wander around a big city going from free outdoor concert to free outdoor concert. Unrelated to La Merce, I went to el Museu Picasso that afternoon and saw tons of paintings, lithographs, prints, and ceramics(?) by Picasso. It was amazing!

WEDNESDAY Stacey and I went to Parc de la Ciutadella, where there was an Asian festival going on, and saw some random stuff, including an Indian woman beatboxing in Hindi? I don't even know. Then we wandered El Born, got some gelato, went in the Catedral (where we discussed the incredible show business of the Catholic church), wandered up to Placa Catalunya, took the metro (and the funicular!) to Montjuic, saw the Olympic stadium, and met up with Danielle to grab tapas before the PIROMUSICAL! I can safely say it was the best fireworks show I have ever seen, and it was choreographed along with a bunch of great music and the giant fountain by Placa Espanya was also lit up and choreographed. Channel 3 sponsors it slash shows it on tv, and it was their 25th anniversary, so it was particularly amazing to celebrate that. You can see in the video a huge street in front of the fountain - it's completely full of people. There were thousands - at one point everyone around us started walking forward, so we pretty much had no choice but to walk forward. Anyway, that was incredible. ALSO! Jo Leader was here visiting a friend, who lives with Danielle and Stacey, so we got to see each other slash hang out in Barcelona, if only for a short time. It was so cool!

Incidental to all of this, the Thursday before Merce, Alicia (my RA) took us to a flamenco show in Placa Reial, and it was SO AMAZING. Toque, the guitar-playing, pretty much blows my mind. I don't even have words to describe, except that he was the best guitarist I have ever seen. The dancer was really intense too, and amazing, she was moving her feet so fast I couldn't even fathom how she was stomping as much as I could hear her stomping. The singers too were... let's say, emoting a lot. When they were singing really passionate parts, it looked like someone was killing a loved one before their very eyes, they looked so heartbroken. Also they're really into the wild vibrato, it seems.

Classes actually started this week, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow to write about them, since by then I will have been to all of them - art history starts tomorrow. I put more pictures on Photobucket, so check them out!

COMIDA or, My love affair with neverending eating

Having just finished an outstandingly large almuerzo, I feel it is appropriate that today's post center around food and eating. Jesus Christ, they eat so much. I am in all honesty lying down rubbing my belly between typing right now, and concentrating on belly breathing. Our Spanish teacher laid out the eating schedule for us like this:
8-10 Breakfast
10-12 Second breakfast (usually coffee and/or pastries, or a little sandwich)
2-4 Lunch
5-7 Meriendas (afternoon snacking - she said she usually has a bit of cake or other pastries, but obviously tapas apply as well - but tapas continue into the night, until 9 or 10)
8:30-11 Dinner
So as you can see, it is a five-to-six meal day. And these are not small meals. Lunch is the main meal of the day, and at a lot of restaurants you can order from the menu del dia, which has a couple options and comes with bread, a drink, and dessert, for about 8-12 euros. The menu del dia comes with two courses, both of which are the size of a typical American entree.

Today I had gazpacho (about three cups worth) and baked chicken (an entire half of a chicken, plus about the same volume of potatoes), with a beer, yogurt for dessert, and bread. I ate and ate and ate, only had one little piece of bread and very little to drink, and still could only make it through about 2/3rds of the chicken and maybe half of the potatoes. The waiter asked me if there was a problem with the food. I tried to explain that it was so delicious that I was in danger of vomiting it up on his shoes, but he didn't appear to be convinced. It really was fantastic - the gazpacho in particular was really good, and the chicken was greasy and falling off the bone and amazing. But no, the fact that I can only eat about three cups of gazpacho and a third of a chicken is not good enough. I was studying for my ser/estar quiz during lunch today so I stayed at the restaurant for a while and watched the guy next to me eat an entire plate of paella, four pieces of bread, three glasses of wine, the entire half-chicken, and all of his potatoes, and then order a piece of cake which he was gleefully digging into as I left. I have no idea how they do it. This was no overweight guy, either, he was actually in good shape.
Lunch isn't included in our "meal plan" in homestays, so I have to eat it out or buy groceries with which to make myself lunch. I think Ana would probably make me lunch anyway, but I would feel bad since I'm not paying for it. I like eating out though, because up until today I had thought that there wasn't anyone to offend if I didn't emphatically lick my plate clean. Turns out the waiters think you're anorexic, though. Also, I can't eat out that much because even at the cheaper places, 5-8 euros a day for lunch adds up.

Mind you, even though lunch is the main meal of the day, dinner isn't exactly a light snack. It is also two big courses, with lots of little side things to be snacking on (and if I don't snack on them, Ana thinks I either hate the food or her). A typical dinner at the Huerga household:
Green beans sauteed with potatoes and covered in olive oil
Bread
Tomatoes in olive oil
Two hamburger patties served with fried potatoes
Lays potato chips
A piece of fruit
Yogurt and/or a little chocolate bar
And again, each of these portions pretty much fills your plate, or else you will be accused of lying about liking the food. We have also eaten lots of tortilla espanola, which is amaaazing, and lots of salad that is again, always dripping in olive oil. As someone who doesn't like salad dressing, it's kind of hard to get used to, but I'm adjusting. And inflating. Paula also said that Ana makes really good chocolate (a really thick hot chocolate), and that one morning we will have homemade chocolate con churros. I'm excited, but it seems like a pretty heavy breakfast food if you ask me.

On to tapas, my favorite topic ever. I don't know who decided that snack food isn't restaurant food, but they were so wrong. This is a concept that needs to spread to the US, and I mean immediately. To be able to duck into a cafe, bar, or restaurant in the late afternoon and order a few shrimp, or a slice of tortilla, or olives, or croquetas is without a doubt the best idea ever. Think how much more restaurants would make if they were able to serve little munchies all throughout the day. And I don't mean a gross bowl of nuts at the bar, I mean GOOD food. Ha ha, sorry, I'm really into wikipedia. As always. I introduced David to the joy of patatas bravas - fried potatoes with a spicy red sauce and aioli, and to tortilla espanola, which we found at one restaurant with chorizo in it too! Basically, I just spend all of my money on little delicious tapas. You can even go healthy and order vegetables like asparagus or a salad. All I'm saying is that everyone loves to snack, and putting it in restaurants would mean tons of profit for the restaurants and way more delicious gourmet ways to eat. So... I love tapas. Also, since tapas really go best with sangria, we should probably make that more widespread in the states too.

For breakfast, I usually have some sort of cereal (my options thus far have been Corn Flakes, Special K (red berry or chocolate), and Cinnamon Toast Crunch) and a glass of juice or water. Then after class I find myself starving and end up having coffee and a croissant. What I'm trying to say here is that I eat all the time. Special K Chocolate is the grossest thing I have ever eaten for breakfast, as chocolate is really not a morning food (any other time of day though, it's alright by me), and the combination of whole milk, chocolate curls, and crunchy flakes just doesn't do it for me. It's very overwhelming for the morning.

The other fabulous thing is that people really take their time with meals. I don't know about breakfast, because I usually eat it alone and in under three minutes, but all the other times the meals never take less than an hour - even when it's a cup of coffee or a soda in the afternoon, I see Catalonians lingering over their six ounce beverage for much longer than I am usually sitting there, which is rarely more than half an hour, and that includes the time I spend waiting for the waiter to take my order, bring my food, and bring me the check. All this time there are people sitting and talking with (for instance) a half-drunk Coke in front of them.

So in general I am loving the food, although I feel like olive oil is going to start seeping out my pores (if it hasn't already). It's really good and although it can be humongous, every time I feel like I am going to explode slash never eat again (like right now), I find myself inexplicably hungry again three hours later. Maybe it's all the walking? Or maybe I just can't say no to more delicious Spanish food.
To do: Go to Andalucia, the home of tapas, and snack the night away.
I should've had some paella while in Valencia, where it was created, but all I had was the weird hotel paella. Maybe I will just have to go back! Or maybe I will go down to Barceloneta and get some good paella here in Barca.

Now to go sleep off this food coma - I suddenly understand why they schedule a siesta into the day, because I can hardly move after lunch.

Pictures

I'm working on getting pictures up, but for now you can see them on Photobucket. The problem is I can't find any good gadgets that work with my Photobucket pictures, but I only uploaded a couple on Flickr to test it out (that's the slick-er looking black box there). If anyone has suggestions, let me know! Otherwise, check out the link for pictures.

David y Barca

My goodness it has been quite some time. A whole... what, three days? Well don't even worry, I have plenty to say. When last we left, David was on his way to Barcelona and I was out enjoying La Diada (which it turns out, had a PARADE that I missed! Sad! I'm always game for a parade).

After a very confusing series of events involving misleading text message "received" times, I waited at the train station for about an hour and a half, convinced I had arrived too late and David had decided to brave the city alone and find a cab to his hostel. Luckily this was not the case, and he got in right at midnight (after a mini-storm, complete with torrential rain for approximately 10 minutes and thunder and lightning for about 45). Unfortunately that's when the Metro closes, and we decided to brave it and walk. We walked what Google maps tells me is about 3 km, probably freaking David out just a little by the random streets and the fact that it was after midnight. Once he was all checked into his hostel though, the real scaring of David began.

We went to find a bar in the Barrio Gotico, but I didn't have any particular one in mind and thought it would be more fun to just wander and see what we could find. Well, we wandered around the Barrio Gotico, which is all tiny little medieval streets which aren't super well-lit, and since all the stores were closed as it was 1:30, David probably thought we were about to get stabbed or something. But there were always people around, and the chance of getting stabbed or anything more than pickpocketed in Barcelona is extremely small (just so you know, mom & dad - no worrying now). We ended up getting tired of wandering and just stopped in a random place and chatting for a while, but I think that David was pretty sketched out by his initial impression of Spain.

The next day was probably the busiest day I have had in Barcelona. We got some breakfast (coffee and pastries is a big difference from the British breakfasts David was getting) and then wandered down Las Ramblas, towards the ocean. We saw all of the funky street performers, and the pet shops, and went in La Boqueria, which is a big covered market. David got to see some whole skinned animals, and bought some weird pink juice that was coconut and something. Next we wandered around more of the Barrio Gotico, and slowly made our way down to the harbor, then to the beach. We walked down the beach (it turned out to be a gorgeous day, even though it began kind of cloudy), which wasn't busy or dirty or anything - so apparently Paula has been lying to me. Or she has very high standards for beaches. There are tons of little cafes and restaurants right there on the sand and on the street, and we wandered down to the Port Olimpic, and then around la Barceloneta. It was all so pretty and we had the perfect day to do it, with sun and a breeze and no plans! We had some sandwiches and sangria on the sand, then wandered back up through El Born. I think (or hope) that David really liked seeing all of the tiny medieval streets and the little plazas that pop out from nowhere. After that, we took the bus up to Parc Guell (where I could probably go everyday), and saw all of Gaudi's weird ass stone bridges and mosaic benches. We stopped for tapas in the Barrio Gotico (it's just too cool to not keep exploring) and then went to Danielle's apartment for dinner - we had 11 people (David being the lone man) for dinner, and it was FANTASTIC. Danielle made a bunch of tapas that were amazing, and then we had pasta with cheese and cinnamon! Sounds crazy, and it is, but it's delicious. After that we went out to a couple bars, and in general tried to show David a good Barcelona night.

The next day, we went to La Sagrada Familia and wandered around some more, and then spent the better part of the afternoon trying to get David's phone fixed or buy him an alarm clock so that he could get up and make his flight in the morning. It was a much less exciting day, but we ended it with dinner with my host family, which was really cool. David followed the Spanish as best as he could (and it seemed he did very well!) and Paula and Ana and I talked more than we usually do, which was great. The twins were at their dad's this weekend, so it was really nice to have a relaxed dinner, without any sibling craziness going on between the three. Also they talk really fast, so it was easier to follow conversation between just Paula and Ana.

Today classes started, but only IES classes - I have to wait another week for my UPF and UB classes to begin. So I had one class at 9 am and that's all - it was good though. It's for my Spanish class, and I like the teacher and it seems like it will be really helpful in ironing out the stupid mistakes I make on a day-to-day basis. After that, Cara and I planned our trip to Scotland over fall break(!!!) which was fun but a little stressful when I tried to figure out transportation from Berlin to Glasgow and then back to Barcelona. Speaking of which, I am SO SO excited to go to Berlin with my parents when they come. It will be so cool! I hope. Cara had been craving a bagel, so we found a bagel shop online and went to find it. It was good, but really weird to be eating bagels. It's weird that I have absolutely no desire to find the things I love from home here - other than nectarines. There's a Chicago-style pizza place, and this bagel shop, and other places that serve food atypical of the region, but I really don't want to go to them. I doubt I'll go back to the bagel place, unless I'm really craving it, but I guess it was cool to go once. I planned to go to the beach, as it was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day, about 75 with a nice breeze and not a cloud in the sky - but no one else could go with me at the time so instead I went to La Pedrera, another Gaudi building, and then wandered down Diagonal (a main street) until I found a cool-looking neighborhood, which I explored for a few hours. I found a park, out of nowhere, and sat and enjoyed the shade for a while, then went out to get tapas with Leslie. We wandered around El Raval after that, which was really cool, and now I'm just resting my feet after a solid 6 hours of walking. I mean, there was some intermittent sitting, but still. I came home to find out that Ana fell in the street today and maybe broke her knee! It's very stressful and I hate seeing her like this. Also I have no idea what we will do, as she is the backbone and the brain and the ruler and anything else which gives structure in the house.

Next post will actually be interesting, I plan on making some real observations about Barcelona rather than just cataloging the events of the day, but for now - this is what you get. I also took lots more pictures, so get excited!

La Diada

Today is La Diada Nacional de Catalunya, a day commemorating Catalunya's loss to the Spanish troops in 1714, and their subsequent demoted status as part of Spain. The entire city of Barcelona shuts down - every store is closed, the streets are taken over by people wearing the flag of Catalunya, and there are demonstrations and markets and a lot lot lot of red and yellow stripes. Cara, Andrea and I explored the city, finding cool antiques, people dancing the sardana, a ton of separatist stuff (including shirts saying: "Make no mistake: I am Catalan, and I am NOT Spanish"), and in general just tons of people all over, swarming the city. It was really cool to see. There were maps of Europe that had Catalunya marked as an independent nation, and shirts that said "Donkey Attitude" with a picture of a donkey wearing red and yellow striped sunglasses (for their notoriously stubborn demeanor), and lots of pamphlets and petitions and books, all in Catalan. We saw a lot of the city, too, including the cathedral, the park de la Ciutadella, the Arc de Triomf (how many of these are there in the world?), the harbor and the Ramblas (which are getting less and less entertaining everytime I go). It was really fun but BLAZING hot. Ok, it was like 87, but still. That's hot. Especially when it's humid. I woke up super late today and was sneaking out of the house (not really sneaking, but making a quick exit) when Ana caught me and asked if I had showered yet? And I said No, I showered last night. But had I eaten breakfast yet? No, because I had slept in so late. So then I was dragged into the kitchen and fed a croissant she had bought especially for me that morning and then some weird juice and stuff before I made yet another excuse about not showering and ducked out to find Cara and Andrea.

I slept in so late because last night I went out with Annie and Christanna and Leslie and some other random people, and when I went home early, it was 4 am. Yeah. And walking the four blocks home was like walking home at four in the afternoon - siesta time - because the stores were closed but there were still people everywhere. Leslie and I went to this random restaurant where she had met the owner/manager person a few days ago, and were served quite a bit of stuff on the house, even though they probably needed the money because it wasn't exactly crowded. Leslie's host mother has a friend who also hosts international students, and had introduced Leslie to Aubrey, her student, that night at dinner. So Aubrey and her friend Chrissie (sp?) met up with us there, and we had a total of 4 beers, a bottle of water, four shots of Apple Schnapps which the owner/manager person insisted we take, and a plate of almonds, and paid about 4 euros for the whole shebang. It was one of the weirdest experiences I have ever had. Ben (said owner/manager person) stands outside of the restaurant pretty much all day and coaxes people inside, giving them free stuff and telling them to come back with all of their friends. Business appears to be less than great. He sat with us a couple times and chatted in English, until Javier, a waiter, came over and asked why he was speaking English to us, and then we started a GREAT conversation with Javi about Spanish and Catalan and other stuff, all in Spanish. Which was sooooo much better. I kind of hate it when people speak English to me, actually. It feels demeaning that they would assume I don't speak Spanish, even though of course they would assume that! I'm blonde and clearly American and in a big, touristy city. Anyway, we met up with Annie and Christanna and Hillary after that, and we all went out to La Oveja Negra which is a really cool bar in the Gothic quarter. We met some hilarious Swedes, a bunch of really hot Mexicans, two annoying Californians, and a couple actual Barcelona residents who we hung out with for most of the night. After La Oveja Negra closed, we went to some random and AWFUL bar/club thing that didn't have a cover charge, where fun times were not to be had as the tiny space was filled with techno music but not with people.

Earlier that day I went to La Sagrada Familia with a bunch of IES people (I have the unfortunate combination of only having American friends but not wanting to hang out with Americans and speak English all day), and it was pretty cool but having been there before, I wasn't quite as impressed by the other girls, who practically swooned when we got off the Metro to have it right in front of us. We did go to the museum in the bottom though, where I hadn't been before, and one of the girls read to us from her guide book about how Gaudi ended up moving into it and becoming a hobo (or at least looking like one) when funding was cut. We didn't wait in the epic elevator line to see the top or the view, but it was still really cool. Pictures to come, I guess, since I haven't uploaded them from my camera yet. After that we got pizza at a random cafe and had a smoking hot Italian waiter. I signed up for a cooking class at IES, which will be in a few weeks. I'm really pumped because we learn to make paella, tortilla espanola, gazpacho, and some random dessert thing I haven't heard of. ALSO excited to learn that IES has a little tiny library, and we can check out books and movies, and they have Almodovar's entire collection! So I can see the ones we didn't watch last semester. David told me the other day that I write a lot in my blog - but just so everyone knows I have no intention of changing that because I love chronicling my life for whoever feels like reading about it. So prepare yourself, this blog is going to continue in much the same long, rambling manner until things get less interesting.

El dia de los parques

Today I intended to do some serious museum visits, but instead I spent hours and hours in Parc Guell, because as I was on my way to Gaudi's Casa Batllo my camera died. So I wandered around and read my book in the shade and climbed up to the top of some hill for a great view of the city. All of this without my camera, which was unfortunate because it was lovely. On the bus ride home, I was so dead that I almost fell asleep - which would've been bad, since I had no idea where it was going or where I intended to get off. Afterward I wandered around the Gothic Quarter for a while, exploring little alleyways and just generally moseying along. I went to El Born, and then down to the ocean, and then over to another park, el Parc de la Ciutadella, which is nearby UPF. It was really pretty and full of hippies (I kid you not, juggling and slacklining everywhere I looked. It was like a tiny piece of Whitman. The part I don't like) and there was this pond that was seriously electric green. I was worried about the ducks. There's also a zoo, which I found myself circling for the better part of an hour, wondering why it had been smelling like poop for so long. I finally ended up, as I had hoped I would (but hadn't actually made an effort to make sure I was going the right direction) at UPF, and I walked home from there to see how long it takes. It's a gorgeous walk, even though it took me about 25 minutes.

Ana's niece Bea came over for dinner tonight to practice her English with me, and to help me with my Spanish. I really liked it, and I hope we can do it more often because I feel self-conscious making errors in front of the family, but with Bea she just encouraged me and corrected me. Whereas Gonzalo and Pablo usually just laugh. It seems like she really wants to get better at English too, so it's the perfect combination! I'm pretty pumped.

Tomorrow night, the fiestas begin, since Thursday is the anniversary of the day Catalonia lost their fight against Spain and became part of the nation. Also, David comes on Thursday, so it'll pretty much be nonstop good times. Assuming he gets here alive.

Valencia!

So this weekend we were in Valencia for orientation, but before I detail that I have to include an anecdote just for my mother: on Thursday afternoon I went out to get tapas and found a bar that was showing the US Open! So I got to watch Murray and Del Potro play! I missed the downfall of Rafa, though. Too bad.

We left for Valencia on Friday morning, stopping first in Peñíscola, which is a little coastal town where the anti-Pope Benedict XIII lived. We had some lunch, enjoyed the beach (a little), and had a tour of the castle and the old city. Look! It's me in the Mediterranean!
The group was divided into 3 groups with different schedules and hotels according to language level and each group had 2 buses. We went on tours with our bus group, which meant it was a group of about 50. It was really cool, the old part is very small and... old. Obviously. We saw where Benedict locked himself away and read the Bible (or something), and saw lots of cool things around the city, including a sign saying not to bring your horse and cart down one particular street. Our tour was supposed to be in Spanish, since we're the advanced group, but it ended up being mostly in English for some reason. The weather was really nice, although when there wasn't a breeze it was really hot. Luckily it was pretty windy. We also saw where their running of the bulls happens. If I understood the woman right, it goes on for 12 days. And... that was Peñíscola. We loaded back up onto the bus and drove to Valencia.

My roommate in Valencia, Rachel, is a math major too! We couldn't figure out how to work the lights in our room, so we talked in increasing darkness until it was time for dinner, and then figured out that you had to put your card in a little slot. Dinner was good, lots of courses again, followed by weiiiiird tiramisu. I went out to grab some drinks with a couple people and had a lot of fun, even though it was a totally random group. We ended up quoting Mitch Hedberg back and forth and talking about the Clintons various gestures - so random. And fantastic. The next day we had a guided tour of Valencia, where we saw the lonja, an old market; a fresh market that is the largest covered market in Spain; a couple important buildings (obviously the tour really stuck with me); and the AQUARIUM! The aquarium is in a part of town with a lot of architecture by Santiago Calatrava, and it is designed by him as well. The picture is of the Hemisfero, which is an Imax theatre/planetarium, and behind it you can see the Opera house. In the other direction is the science museum, a park of sorts with lots of palm trees, and the aquarium. The aquarium was really cool - my favorite part was the belugas, seals, and walruses, especially the walruses, because they were just so big and snorty. Also, it taught me that Finding Nemo is SO REAL. Whatever fish Dory is - there were a lot of those. And eels that legitimately look evil. We also saw these giant spider crabs that were humongous and would lurk in the dark in the back... so creepy. And in one of the underwater tunnels there were tons of sharks going back and forth above and around me! Anyway, the point is, I was a big fan. I went back later with Annie to look at the other parts of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, and took some pictures of the architecture before my camera crapped out on me. So all of the events of Sunday missed photo documentation. For dinner, we had paella, which was - mass prepared for 100 people. But still good. I want to get some REAL paella though. The next day we did more touring, and went inside the cathedral in the city, where I saw the HOLY GRAIL. Or so they say. Still, a pretender to the grail is just about as important to me as the real cup could be, so it was pretty cool. More touring, and a brief glimpse down into the ruins of the Roman level of the city. They have a part which is preserved and you can look down at it from the street through a big glass window(?) in a square in the city. Unfortunately, it had rained the night before, and the glass was dirty, so we looked through little areas we cleaned of grime. It was weird.

After that we went down to the beach and had a mini tour of the place where the America's cup is held. Apparently it's some sort of sailing competition? And apparently I should know about it. We also saw (and walked on) a Formula 1 track, before ending our tour of Valencia and breaking for lunch. I got a big sunburn at lunch, which we ate at an Italian restaurant, and then we went down to the beach. The water is so nice - it's really shallow and has next to no waves at all, but the temperature! My god! We bussed back to Barcelona, and my host mother asked at dinner if I had been speaking a lot of English that weekend, because she noticed my Spanish was worse. Um, sí? Thanks. So I need to not hang out with Americans and speak English is basically the moral of that story. But I don't really foresee that happening anytime soon.

Today I had my first day of Spanish class, with my kind of weird yet also awesome teacher Ari. We analyzed our personalities by the words we could make from our names. I had "sed" and "ley" - thirst and law. Ok... And that's all I have for you for now. I'm sure it's plenty.

orientation etc.

Yesterday, orientation officially started. I was in the group that started at 11, not at 9, so that was great. I had told Ana (mistakenly, obviously) that I had class at 9:30, so at 10 Paula timidly knocked on my door to see if I had overslept. Showering is a bit of a fiasco, since I can never remember which way is hot, I'm constantly worrying about taking too long or too much water or too much energy, and I'm usually really out of it. Anyway. I had my extremely Spanish breakfast of Corn Flakes and then went to orientation. We just talked about Barcelona, classes, and adjusting to living abroad. Pretty uneventful. Then I had about 45 minutes before I had to meet with the academic adviser about my UPF classes, so I ran out and ate the greasiest chocolate croissant I have ever seen, and a cup of coffee which I awkwardly drank alone at the bar in a cafe. There were some other old men at the bar, but they were chatting with the server, so I mostly just admired their vast wine collection that was all over the wall. Also, they serve FERNET(!) which I didn't think existed outside Argentina.

It turns out my classes aren't really cancelled, they're just sort of renamed, and might have different schedules, but we don't know yet. But I can continue to take both Islam History and Spanish Lit, so that's fantastic. Jane gave me a new list of the available UPF courses, and they have a Latin Am. Lit class too, so maybe I won't take classes at UB, just at UPF, since the UB classes are Estudios Hispanicos, meaning they are designed for study abroad students. There would probably be students from a lot of different countries, not just America, but I don't know if I would prefer taking more regular UPF courses or Estudios Hispanicos at UB.

That afternoon we had an opening ceremony, which was beyond scary because half of the program is from Santa Clara, and the other half is from Wake Forest. So it was just crowds of people (literally crowds, since there are 300 students in the program) hanging out with their friends from home, and me wandering trying to find someone else who didn't know anyone. The problem is, most people have roommates, so they know at least one other person, whereas I am all alone. I found a couple cool people, including one who is in my language class AND on the same bus to Valencia, which was beyond reassuring, and we hung out for a while before leaving early to roam the streets. They were shocked to hear I had been wandering the city alone and going out to tapas on my own, and told me how dangerous it was (but Ana has told me that I can go pretty much everywhere in the city without trouble, I just have to hold on to my purse). During the course of the event, I turned off my phone because it was frozen, only to discover I needed a PIN to turn it back on - and only vaguely remembered the saleswoman showing me the PIN. So I had to go home and find my PIN, so that I could turn my phone back on and find my RA for our neighborhood visit. Once I got ahold of Alicia, they were at La Sagrada Familia, so I booked it over there and the 9 of us had tapas. Mind you, 5 of these students were friends from Santa Clara, 2 were roommates, and then there was me and Alicia. Thank god for the other girls, because I ended up having a nice time, until they left and I got to spend the rest of the night listening to stories about parties at Santa Clara, the drunken mishaps they have already found themselves in since arriving the day before, and their plans for the night. They invited me to go out to a club with them; apparently most of our program was going, because all of the Santa Clara kids were going, but instead I ate dinner with my host family, iced my foot, and went to bed early (really living it up here in Spain) because this morning I had my placement exam at UPF.

UPF has some really cool buildings (and by some I mean two) - it's only 18 years old, so everything is really new. The test was relatively manageable, 80 mulitple choice questions ("Madrid ____ en el centro del país. A: es B: está C: esta D: ese), a short essay, and a 5 minute oral examination, in which the woman and I talked about Pedro Almodóvar and learning catalan. I felt bad though, because some of the people from IES are only taking classes at UPF in English, didn't speak more than a few words of Spanish, and were handed an 80-question test. Except I didn't feel all that bad, because there are so many people who it seems are only here because Barcelona is a great party city, and don't seem to care much about immersing themselves in the culture. I mean, I'm being a big snob, but... I call it like I see it. I met another girl who is in my language class and on my bus to Valencia, which means I now know TWO other people in my class. Great news. I'm the only IES student taking either of my UPF courses though, so I guess I'll be on my own there. Also, the guy who gave us our orientation talk said, "If you go to a class that was listed to be in Spanish and it is taught in Catalan, please talk to the teacher and let us know as soon as possible." Does that mean there is a chance that I will show up and the professor will have decided to teach in another language? That scares me a little.

Well, tomorrow we're off to Valencia, and in the mean time I am going to go find myself some food, since I looked up from my book to find I had taken another siesta this afternooon, and now I'm starving.

MARTES!

It's funny how many little things there are that you do without even thinking about but here I think about them 9 times, and then end up asking what I should do. Like, do I wear my pajamas to the breakfast table? The answer is, depending on when in the morning I have breakfast. Last night, everyone wore their pajamas to dinner, except me, because I missed that memo, but tonight everyone was in casual clothes that weren't their pajamas - again, except me, because I was in the same clothes I wore all day, which apparently isn't normal. When can I take a shower? The answer is (as I might have guessed), whenever I want. We wear slippers in the house, because it is rude to be barefoot (or so I am told), but do I need to wear them when walking the five feet between the bathroom and my bedroom after a shower? What do I do with my dishes after I eat breakfast? Should I be friendly with the cleaning lady? These remain unanswered. How do I eat my evening pear? The answer is with a knife and fork.

Speaking of which, I am really enjoying the fruit course of every meal. In fact, I am just really enjoying my meals. Today, Paula started her new job, and was out for both lunch and dinner. She usually sits between Gonzalo and Pablo, but today they were next to each other and were hilarious. Gonzalo is SO sassy. And Pablo does anything he can to please his mother, always saying "Claro que si, mami." Gonzalo, meanwhile, asks for a fourth helping of pasta and is refused, and when he demands why and Ana answers that there is none, he (jokingly) cries, "EXCUSAS!" Paula is also very sassy and is always scrunching her nose at Ana, saying "Mami! Por favor!" She came home with some really nice Ray Ban's yesterday, and let everyone try them on except Gonzalo, who threatened something I couldn't understand but apparently would lead to the sunglasses' demise. It seems that Pablo and Paula have some sort of secret alliance that Gonzalo is not in on, because they always take each others' sides, especially against Gonzalo. But when Paula was out the two of them were adorable - they were casually arguing, but when Ana told me that they can't survive apart from each other, Pablo got very embarrassed and Gonzalo made a huge effort to give him a bear hug, which clearly only embarrassed him more. This is all at the dinner table, by the way.

Today I explored a lot - in the morning I wandered around L'Eixample a lot, and in the afternoon I kind of made it to Montjuic. I was almost lost but not really, because I had my map. I found lots of cool cafes and markets, and I bought new sunglasses, an adapter for my Mac, shampoo and conditioner, and what I thought was an ice pack but turned out to be a one-time use instant cold pack. My right foot is liable to turn black and just drop off my leg, the way my neuroma is going. The weird thing is it's better when I'm walking a lot, like around town, than when I am walking a little, like to the dinner table. I'm going to need to load up on ice and ibuprofen when we go to Valencia this weekend as part of orientation! I'm very excited - mostly because if I don't meet people soon I will have to drink an entire liter of sangria by myself at tapas. And that's probably not a good idea. I don't understand why they don't serve it in single glasses as well! Also all of this wandering and eating would be much more fun with some other people. So that is the plan for tomorrow: make friends. And good choices.

I was told that one of my classes at UPF has been canceled, which is bad news bears because the classes I'm taking there are Islam History and Spanish Literature, both of which I really want to take. And of course I have no idea which one is canceled - I'll have to wait for my academic advising meeting tomorrow for that good news. Other than that I have been pleased with my interactions with the IES staff so far - the woman I met today at the other IES building (there are two) was so nice and told me that I speak Spanish very well, so of course I liked her a lot. There are so many nitpicky vocabulary words I don't know. Like "prongs." When I was trying to explain that I didn't need a whole adapter, just something to change the prongs so it would work in the outlets. Or "ice pack." I keep making these horribly put-together sentences, like "It's that I need to put ice in my feet." Or my favorite, when asked if I play any sports, "Juice tennis sometimes", coming from my misconjugation of jugar (because apparently I just learned my verbs) to jugo instead of juego. But people seem to understand, so life goes on.

host family!

Oh my god. I could not have asked for a more perfect living situation. Granted, it has only been 3 hours, but already I am in LOVE with them. Ana is the mother, and she has three children, Gonzalo and Pablo (or is it Paulo?) are 13 year old twins, and Paula is 18. My room is GREAT, their apartment is not only amazing but also in a fantastic location - I'm less than two blocks from the metro and the bus, and in a great neighborhood. And everyone is so nice! Paula, Pablo and Gonzalo all took me to get a new phone (my Argentine one didn't work, even with a new SIM card), and now Ana is cooking lunch (which is good because I'm starving), and she is so wonderful and welcoming. I understand them really well so far, except when they talk really quickly to each other. They are also doing everything they can to help me learn about Barcelona, including Gonzalo telling me that I can't cross the street when the light is red, and making me practice using the keys, and showing me around the neighborhood. I'm just so happy to be here, and to have a great host family!

I went to the IES center this morning to find out who my host family was, and I got my orientation schedule and all of that. We're going to Valencia this weekend, and I have orientation things starting on Wednesday - including placement tests - we'll see how that goes, since I am definitely still in mental summer. Ok well that's it for right now - I'm sure I will be back for more later.

So far the meals have been humongous and delicious, but mostly humongous. For lunch we had green beans and potatoes, hamburgers, and bread, followed by fruit, yogurt, and chocolate. Dinner was tortilla de pata (potato omelets, sort of), spaghetti, bread, ham, cheese, and the smoked salmon I brought, followed by more fruit, chocolate, and gelatin. Also, I completely passed out after lunch and ended up sleeping for FIVE hours. Oops. I am still adjusting to the schedule, I guess - it was impossible to get up this morning at 9:30. Impossible. I barely made it out of the hostel in time.