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.

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!