With each step I am more certain

SO. Rodgers & Hammerstein are pretty much my personal heroes.
This seemingly random factoid comes to you as a way of introducing my London trip this weekend! On Saturday night, Charlotte and I (on a complete whim) bought tickets to see The Sound of Music in the London Palladium, which I SWEAR is famous somehow. I know it is the first place that the Beatles performed live on TV, but I thought maybe there was more? Anyway, it was magical (except that Captain von Trapp sort of was awful), and completely rekindled my love of all things musical theatre-related.

London!
I left Barcelona on Thursday night, immediately after my Latin Am Lit class. Unfortunately, we went on a field trip to the middle of nowhere, and I only got back to Placa Catalunya in time to catch my bus because I ran ahead of the group on the way home. I also ran across the airport to the check-in gate, where I found that the exceedingly slippery marble floors combined with my exceedingly slick black flats make for a very precarious running situation. And, just like last time I had to run to the airport, my flight was delayed. I sat next to a wonderful woman who is American but has lived in Spain on and off for the last 16 years. She lives with her daughter in a little pueblo on the beach just outside of Barcelona, and works in the city. Her mother, who is still in the states, sends them "love boxes" every month packed with US goodies that they can't get here - so we met when she turned to me and asked if I wanted anything from her giant bag of Halloween candy. Three Snickers, two Mars bars, and one Milky Way later, we were pretty much best friends. I lent her my copy of the Economist (I caved and bought it this past week because it not only had Obama, it also had a special report on Spain), we bonded over how difficult the Catalans are to befriend, and we shared the bond that only two stressed women eating chocolate together can really share.
I got to London about 40 minutes later than expected, and took a train into town from the airport, arriving just minutes after the tube closed. Weird side note: while on the train I was listening to my iPod and it froze at about a minute into "Tiny Dancer." This crushed me. I restarted my iPod, but I was desperate to hear the rest, so I went back to "Tiny Dancer," only to have it freeze again at the exact same moment! So basically I was very depressed because I had a taste of Elton but was DENIED. Anyway, I arrived at Liverpool St, David and Charlotte were there to greet me, and we began the very long and painful experience of finding our hostel. After no less than three buses, at least 40 minutes of waiting for buses, and a good 20 minutes of walking, we arrived at about 2:45 am. Char had already checked us in, and we went to bed - only to be woken again every hour by either someone coming back late or the EPIC snoring man in the bunk across from me.

The next day, David carted us around to all the touristy things, after having a delicious English breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, and tea (oh eggs!). We saw Big Ben & Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, a bunch of parks, St. Paul's cathedral, Millennium bridge, the Globe theatre, London bridge, Harrods (where we had afternoon tea), and then we absolutely died and had to have a nap post-tea. It was all cool, but both Char and I had been to London before with our families so neither of us really FREAKED OUT at seeing Big Ben or Buckingham Palace. That night, we made a delicious salad and pasta dinner in David's building (ps I miss chopping things. Weird?), and headed home so we could hopefully fall asleep before snoring man. Unfortunately, snoring man was gone and replaced by NEW snoring man, who snored less frequently but with similar intensity. I fell asleep to the dulcet tones of Amos Lee, and dreamt of Whitman in the spring.

Saturday, we went to Notting Hill, to the Portobello St market. Although I had a mission (candlesticks for Mom!), I was cut short by the impressive price tag on all of the good ones. Antiques are expensive, it seems. The market was incredible though, with basically anything old you could ever want. At the end there were some non-antique stores and food stands, and the entire thing was absolutely amazing. I would venture to say it was the best outdoor market I have ever been to. Definitely the best antique one, because I haven't been to many outdoor antique markets. I bought a gorgeous green & black pashmina, but didn't find the ideal chunky candlesticks I had in mind. I did bullshit my way through a discussion of 1870s style candlesticks, though, with a man asking 400 pounds for the candlesticks I was pretending to still be interested in after seeing the price.
From there we went to SoHo, which is DEFINTELY where I would want to live if I were to have billions of pounds. We wandered a little and had curry for lunch (so good), before discussing where exactly all our money had gone. We walked to Carnaby St, which was apparently THE place for mod people in the 60s (can people be mod? I don't really know how to use that), but now is just obscenely crowded and posh. Or yuppie. However you like. At one end though, is the Palladium, where we were enticed by the Sound of Music, and we bought tickets immediately. We asked about prices and availability, said we'd come back, and turned around before even leaving the building and decided we HAD to go. We killed some time pre-show by heading to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, where we had a bit of difficulty getting on the very large and slippery lions. Next we had a beer at a bar where Allison could watch the rugby game, and headed to the theatre, where Allison decided she had to see it as well. The Sound of Music just has a magical power like that. The Mother Superior was SO good, and Maria was good as well, but Georg just failed in line delivery and with his extremely nasal singing. It was the only time I have ever disliked Edelweiss. YEAH. Also, the couple next to us and their very chatty toddler had Chinese takeout and were eating it during the show! So inappropriate! It filled the entire area with the undeniable stench of noodles. After the show, we had Cornish pasties in Covent Gardens and took the tube back to West Kensington before it closed.
Another wonderful night... new snoring man - who by the way when we left that morning had been reading the paper in his bed, surrounded by sleeping people, even though there's a huge, nice lounge that was EMPTY - woke up at 4 am and started getting ready to leave, which involved turning the overhead light on and leaving it on, shaving in the room even though there is a bathroom next door, and generally making altogether too much noise. RUDE.

Sunday, we went to the British Museum, where literally the first thing we saw was the Rosetta stone. Everything else (minus Cleopatra's mummy) was kind of a let down after that. It was amazing but so so huge and we didn't have time to see everything I wanted to see, and we never got to go to the National Gallery, which is similarly huge and amazing. So basically I just want to go back to London. Museums are free there too! What is up with charging for museums? It shouldn't happen. Donations, yes. Admission, no.
We had lunch in Covent Gardens, went back to the hostel for our stuff, and headed back into town where I was told by my cab driver that trains weren't running to Stansted airport because of a breakdown! This turned out to be untrue, but certainly didn't help my Pepto Bismol-levels of stress at the time. Then I was kicked out of security for my contact solution because I didn't have a note from my doctor (airports I have declared and carried it through so far: Amsterdam, Milan, Barcelona), and I bought two little bottles which I was informed were not sterile and not appropriate for contact solution, and went back through. I got to my gate in time for final call, and made it back to Barcelona exhausted and shocked at how cold it was (55 degrees!).

My entire host family is extremely sick, and I have only three weeks until finals and only five weeks left in Spain. All of the Christmas decorations are up in the city but they aren't lit yet, so I am feeling very teased with the prospect of the holidays. Also, I went to Flash-Flash today, a bar/tortilleria where Boom writers like Garcia Marquez used to hang out when they were in Barcelona. It was all white and super mod. I think.
I'm at a weird place, because I am feeling not at all ready to leave Barcelona, but I want it to be Christmas RIGHT NOW. Going to London felt like going half-way home, since everyone spoke English and I had access to a lot more American things I can't get here, and it made me miss home, but I'm so happy to be back in Barcelona. Every time I walk to class I just die of happiness from the beauty of the city and the intense fabulousness of my life.

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!