9/26/10 Piromusical

I woke up pretty late again.  I had breakfast and Pepita’s granddaughter had slept over the night before, so we hung out together.  Paola is 6, so we drew pictures together.  Her dad came to pick her up and Pepita and I went with them to their apartment for lunch.  Lunch was to celebrate the birthdays of the two parents—because both birthdays were the week before.  We had the same type of cake and cava (champagne from Spain).  Everyone got a glass except for Paola.  From their house, I met Emily on the beach.  It was kind of cold when the sun went into the clouds, but it was nice to get some vitamin D.  The worst part of the beach is the vendors.  Every two minutes an Asian woman will come up saying “Masaje? Massage?  Masaje?”  They don’t even care if you’re sleeping, they’ll just keep saying it until you wake up.  There are also people trying to sell everything from soda and water to coconut and sunglasses.  It was actually not relaxing to be there, because you always had to ignore them, and I’m not exaggerating when I say every two minutes. 

I went home and was going to write my blog, when Pepita’s son showed up with two of his friends.  He is older and is a Tai Chi teacher.  He is a model Tai Chi teacher… overweight and a chain smoker.  We sat on the patio and talked.  Pepita broke out the picture book of New England again—definitely getting its use.  They stayed until the sun started to go down and it got cold.  Pepita and I ate dinner around eight, so I could get ready for the fireworks show.

I met up with Chris, Dhariana, Kevin and Kelly (all the kids who live near me) and we took the metro to Plaza de España.  Once again it felt like the whole city had come out.  The final show of the weekend was not a let down either.  It took place in front of the palace.  The fountain and the fireworks were both timed with music.  I was surprised with how much American music they used—about 85%.  At one point, a voice came on in Catalan and then all the sudden everyone lit sparklers and a Spanish/Catalan/ English version of “Imagine” by the Beatles came on.  We didn’t even attempt to try to get back on the metro when the show ended.  Instead we decided to walk back and stopped in a café for a snack.  Some people got gelato while everyone else got hot chocolate.  By the way, ice cream doesn’t exist in Spain, except for Ben and Jerry’s it is all gelato.  The hot chocolate I got was delicious, but not as thick as the chocolate “pudding” drink that I had last week.  Overall a good end to the festivities of the weekend.

9/25/10 Los Diablos

A good portion of my Saturday morning was spent sleeping.  After waking up, I went for a nice long run.  When I got back, lunch was practically on the table.  I quickly showered and enjoyed some shrimp that were cooked in a pan.  They were hard to peel open, but were pretty delicious.  After lunch, I napped a little more.  I had tortilla de patata for dinner!  Delicious as always, but I felt like it probably contained a whole cup of olive oil.  I just asked Pepita how much olive oil she uses every week and the answer is 2 liters… demasiado aceite.  I took the metro to Las Ramblas after dinner to meet Emily for the fire parade.

            When I got off the metro, there were tons of people in the plaza.  Emily and I ended up following some sort of procession to the intersection of two large roads.  All the roads were blocked off and their were people every where and a huge archway with a dragon in the middle.  Emily was told that you are supposed to cover all your body parts for this event.  She brought me my scarf that she used the day before, so that I could cover my head.  A majority of the people in the crowd had hats, bandanas or scarves covering their heads.  Some people even had goggles.  I had no idea what to expect.  As it started to get dark, a band started to play.  When they were finished, the street lights went out and everyone started to cheer, then came the chaos of the devils.  People dressed as devils and large devil floats came through the giant archway, carrying pitchforks type things.  On the ends of the pitchforks, there were giant sparkler/ roman candle type things.  The devils would run out through the center of the crowds with these and people’s immediate reaction was to back up.  People were moving in every direction to get away from the fire evoking a sense of fear and excitement within the crowd.  Some people who were in the center of the crowd would get burned.  A few of the people I met up with later in the night had holes in their shirts from the sparks.  I wish I had pictures or videos to show, but it would have been impossible to take pictures of.  Here is a pretty accurate video from youtube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq-5D3EZ_WE

After about an hour of the parade of devils, we left to go to a concert. 

            Lorenzo texted me to let me know everyone else was going to the concert, since we didn’t even try to find each other in the crowds of people.  Emily and I found the concert and it turns out that it was a Belle and Sebastian concert!  The opening act was OK Go, but we missed them unfortunately.  In front of the stage was so crowded, that we didn’t even try to watch from there.  Instead there was a giant TV set up on the street next to the stage, where there was a “less crowded” bunch of people.  We watched the concert comfortabley from there and then called it a night afterwards.

9/24/10 Fiestas!

After my amazing Thursday night, I slept until about 9 a.m.  I probably could have slept later, but I knew the cleaning lady was coming, so I decided to get out of the house and go for a run.  When I came back I stretched on the terrace, ate breakfast and showered.  Going running makes the city seem so small, since I ran by the building where I take my economics classes. 

            Some of my friends went downtown to see the human statues… professional people that stack themselves up high.  I didn’t go though, because I wouldn’t have had enough time to get there and make it back for dinner.  Instead I helped Pepita cook lunch.  We had muscles and fish with a green salsa.  It was pretty good.  The muscles were the same ones we had a few days ago, she had just stored half in the refrigerator.  They definitely didn’t taste as fresh, but they were still good.  After lunch, I hung out in my room for a while  Then I left to meet Morgan at Las Ramblas.  We met in a Burger King, where a friend of hers was buying some lunch.  She met her friend Sara at a church here.  Sarah is from Guatamala and is studying to get her Masters degree.  When we were outside of Burger King, this old guy came up to us and stared making kissing noises towards me.  We figured if we ignored him, he would go away.  He didn’t go away until a woman next to us told him off.  Lots of crazy people in the city.  We then walked down Las Ramblas, because we heard that the Aquarium was open for free today.  There were all sorts of vendor tents set up along Las Ramblas selling jewelry and crafts.  We finally made it to the end of Las Ramblas amid all the crowds and then walked down the Rambla del Mar, which is a giant boardwalk.  At the end of the boardwalk is a mall and the aquarium.  There was a really pretty view of Montjuic from the boardwalk and it was packed with people walking and sun bathing.  The line for the Aquarium was super long and it also wasn’t free, so we decided not to go.  Instead, we got gelato and sat on the edge of the boardwalk looking out at the water.

            Emily met us at the metro stop at the bottom of Las Ramblas and I had another lovely encounter with some very forward guy.  Morgan and Sara went to sit on a statue to wait for Emily, while I stood about 10 yards away at the metro entrance.  This guy came up to me and asked if I lived here and I said that I didn’t live here, but I was just studying here.  Then he asked what I was studying and where I was from and some how the conversation changed into English.  Then he asked for my number and I said “no” obviously.  He asked why and I told him that I have a boyfriend, which I probably would have told him if I did or didn’t actually have a boyfriend.  He said we should just get coffee sometime, gave me his business card and left.  So annoying.  Finally Emily got there and we walked to the top of Las Ramblas and watched a parade with some of the same figures we saw the night before.  I was pumped to actually see the lion, the figure I was most looking forward (which apparently did its dance routine, while I was passed out).  Before the parade ended, everyone split up to go home for dinner.  I had packed a boccadillo, so I went with Evan, Lorenzo and Emily to Gracia, where Evan lives.  Even though I had a sandwich, I got a slice of pizza at this restaurant we went to.  We then walked around for a while until we decided that it would probably be a good idea to put on warmer clothes.  Emily and I came back to my apartment so I could get some pants.  I lent Emily one of my scarves.

            Half of BCA met at the top of Las Ramblas to attend the festivites.  We watched one concert at Catalunya until we got bored.  Then we hopped on the metro to Espana where there was another concert.  It is insane how many concerts and events there are with thousands of people at every event.  Everyone is just drinking and smoking everywhere… on the metro, in the middle of street, at the concerts.  Plaza de Espanya was fun.  They were playing American music before the band came out.  Nothing like hearing Kesha and Lady Gaga in Spain.  We partied it up at that concert for a while until we went to the Forum which is in the part of the city furthest away from my house.  Lorenzo’s Spanish friend had taken him there the night before and it is the big event for young people.  There were three stages set up with different music and thousands of people at each stage.  The first stage we went to was techno, but people were crammed in like sardines.  Not being able to move doesn’t make it that fun.  The second stage we went to was the best of the three.  We stayed there until the end of the concert.  It was Spanish pop/ rap music and everyone around us knew all the words.  The lead singer had some sweet dance moves.  When that concert ended around 2:30 or 3, we moved on to the third stage, which was music in English.  The music was alternative and there were many more sketchy people there.  We didn’t stay there too long and then it was time for the adventure home. 

It took a while to walk to the metro with everyone.  It was probably a ten minute walk away, but there were so many people out that you had to walk around.  Some people would just sit in circles in the middle of the sidewalk to drink.  We finally made it to the metro station, but we had to wait outside.  There were lots of security guards letting only a certain number of people in at a time.  There were guards at each of the places where you insert your metro pass to make sure people didn’t jump the gate.  Everyone split up to go to their separate metro lines, and I went with Chris home.  We actually ran into Dhariana on our way back.  The metros were crammed with people for being 4 in the morning and most of the people I saw had reached the past being drunk and just being exhausted point in the night.  Most of the people lucky enough to have a seat had their eyes shut.  It took almost an hour to get home and when we were getting off at our stop Chris tapped this random person who was sleeping on the shoulder.  Apparently he wasn’t random, but he was one of Sam’s friends (Sam is a BCA person from Winchester) and his friend who lives near us in the city is with a different program, but apparently he is from Wayland.  I told him I had a lot of family there.  It is funny how small the world is.  By the time I got to sleep it was about 5 a.m.  Also, I didn’t take pictures tonight because I didn’t bring my camera/ purse out with me.  Apparently, Lorenzo’s mom told him that people will just knife open bags this weekend and that you have to be really careful with your things.  I didn’t take my chances, and I wore the waist belt thing that goes under your shirt to put my metro pass and money in.

9/23/10 La Merce!

Okay, so today was amazing and packed with adventures.  In the morning, I had class.  First, my literature class and then my Spanish Civil War class.  For half of our Spanish Civil War class, the professor told us about different cafes in Barcelona that we should visit.  These are just cafes known for their food or drinks, but cafes made famous by either writers or artists who made it a place of culture.  After class I went home for lunch, which was basically like two lunches… a whole plate of sausage stuffed ravoli in a cheese sauce, in addition to a chicken breast and mushrooms.  I stuffed myself, so that I could eat a later dinner, since the festivities of Dia de la Mercedi.  After lunch, I took a nap… I am feeling like Ann Mann with my regular siestas now.  I left to meet Morgan and Emily in front of the University around 6:20.  We decided to meet by the University and walk to the Plaza de San Jaume for the opening ceremonies.

            On the way to the University, I ran into Michael on the metro.  I convinced him to come with us for the night.  We met at the University and walked down towards La Plaza de Catalunya and Las Ramblas until we found the Plaza de San Jaume.  The plaza is situated between two, old government buildings.  I think that one is the Parliament of Catalunya and I’m not sure what the other is.  In the square, a screen was set up on one side, where some guy was giving a speech.  He was inside one of the government buildings, but it was projected outside.  The only problem with the speech was that it was in Catalan.  On the other side of the square was a stage with chairs and instruments set up.  In the center of the plaza was a square stage.  All the people in the square surrounded this stage.  I was excited to see what would happen after the speech.  Between 7:30 and 8 pm, the square filled with more and more people.  When the speech ended, the band members took their seats on the side stage, and then these huge figures began to come out of the government building.  The parade of figures was amazing and set to the sound of the music made it even more exciting.  There were 3 couples of figures, that appeared to be kings and queens, and there was also a lion, dragon, huge turtle thing and much, much more.  They all filed out of the building and into the crowds of people surround the square on three sides.  Then one by one, the figures would come up to the center stage and do a performance to the music.  The first couple came up and did a dance together.  Each of the figures had one person inside of it, to hold it up and move it.  It is hard to describe, so check out the pictures.  Anyways, so one by one the figures came up and did their routines.  The dragons had sparklers coming out of their mouths to simulate fire breathing.

            So towards the end of the show, I started not to feel well.  I almost felt like I was going to throw up, and then I asked Emily if she had some water.  Then I got really lightheaded and from there I vaguely remember what happened.  I was leaning on Emily and then Michael, trying to get out of the plaza to get some water.  At that point, I couldn’t see anything.  So basically I fainted in the middle of the crowd.  I remember people telling me to lay on the ground and then someone lifted my legs up, so the blood would go to my head.  Then I felt better and this Indian woman was talking to me in English and telling me she was a physician and asking me if I had eaten enough today and if I had any other medical problems.  I was surrounded by people who were all looking at me and I felt so bad for passing out.  Then I stood up and went with Michael, Emily and Morgan to a restaurant (kind of like a Spanish version of Panera), and I sat down and had some water that Michael bought for me.  I also ate the apple I had brought with me.  I felt so bad that they had to take care of me in the crowd, but after drinking the water I felt so much better and we laughed about it.  Emily and Michael said that when they were trying to get me out of the crowd and I was really pale, that people were yelling at them in every language to put me on the ground.  And then they were asking if I was diabetic or if I had this issue a lot (which clearly Michael or Emily wouldn’t know if I did).  Anyways, so we stayed in the restaurant for a little while.  The parade ended outside and we went back out to see this wicked sick projection show on the building.  I have never seen anything like it.  I took some videos, so hopefully I can upload them onto the blog.

The fireworks show on the beach started at 10 p.m. so we walked for about 25 min to get there and sat down on the sand.  The fireworks were alright.  It is hard not to compare fireworks shows to the one in Jaffrey, NH.  I enjoyed watching this dog wander around the beach.  The owners had just let it roam around and I was really hoping it would come over to us.  It didn’t, but the dog was still really amusing to watch.  We then stopped in a grocery store to buy pan and jamon para nuestros bocadillos.  We got a call from some other people who were in the Plaza de Catalunya, so we started to walk back in that direction.  We walked for a while and then we came across this random parade.  The parade had some more of those large figures in it and lots of bands.  It was going down this narrow street and people were everywhere!  People were watching from their balconies and from the sidewalks.  The whole night it seemed as if the entire city was out partying.  People were walking around with open containers of alcohol everywhere and people were just wandering the streets.  It was truly a city wide fiesta!  So… we came across this parade and there was one drum squad that had people following it, so we hoped in the parade and followed them.  The group had so much energy and just kept going and going.  Occasionally they would stop in a plaza and just play for a while.  Morgan, Emily, Michael and I followed them for over an hour, just dancing and following them through the streets.  As we passed through the streets, more and more people would join the crowd and just follow the drummers, because they were so good.  I can’t even describe how fun it was and this is only the first night!  About an hour and a half later, the band finally needed to rest.  I was so impressed by how long they played for.  I was sweaty from just dancing, and they were drumming and dancing the whole time.  I took one video of it!  I wish I had taken more, but this one captures the excitement and involvement of the crowd.

            After the drumming, we went to a different plaza where there was a huge stage set up and hundreds of people.  They were having a concert with flamenco music and we all got some sangria before watching it.  After a few minutes at this concert, we decided to call it a night.  We took the metro from Las Ramblas and I made it home by about 1:30 am.  The metro will be open all night for the whole weekend.  I am so excited for Friday!  There will be events all day to go to!  

9/22/10 Miercoles...

This is my longest day of classes all week.  I start with Guerra Civil at 9:30 am and I finish with International Economic Organizations at 8 pm.  I always bring a bocadillo along on these days.  Today I changed my schedule a little bit though.  After European Union ended at 3:30 p.m. Daven convinced me to go to a Game Theory class at the other University.  The Game Theory class was so much better than the other economics class, that I decided to drop the other class altogether.  I can do this because there is a two week period to try/add/ drop classes.  The Game Theory professor was way more clear in what he was saying and the subject of the class is easier to follow.  Math and numbers are their own language, so it is hard to get confused despite being taught in Spanish.  Because I didn’t go to the Economic Organizations class, I got home a little after 6:30.

            Later that night, I met up with Emily, Lorenzo, Daven and Alex at La Sagrada Familia.  We just hung out in the park and chatted for a while.  We all had to leave before midnight though, because that is when the subway closes.

9/21/10

A pretty uneventful day.  The weather was really crummy.  I had class until 11:30, but I stayed at the University until 1 to wait for Emily to get out of class.  After class, we booked plane tickets to Rome.  We will be going October 7 after class and coming home on Sunday, October 10^th.  We will either being staying in a hostel or with some of Emily’s family’s friends when we go.  I took the metro back for lunch and had to sprint 4 blocks in the pouring rain, ducking under ledges and trying to stay as dry as possible.

            For lunch, Pepita’s daughter was also there.  They had already eaten, because her daughter had to go back to work.  I had pasta and chicken.  After lunch I took a nap and woke up to go to my economics class at the other university.  It was my second time attending the International Economic Organizations class and it wasn’t as good as the first class.  I sat near the front, but I still couldn’t understand the professor between his mumbling and random tangents.  He rarely wrote notes on the board and it was hard to focus for two hours.  I think I have decided that I will probably audit that class.

            I returned home for dinner and tonight Pepita talked my ear off.  Sometimes she just doesn’t stop. After we finished eating dinner, she talked to me for about an hour all about immigration in Spain.  I learned that she had lived in this apartment building for more than 40 years.  She used to live on the 8^th floor, but then she moved to the top floor.  Then in the middle of our conversation, her Russian maid called and they set up a time for her to come.  I then asked if there are a lot of Russian immigrants here.  She said that in recent years there have been a lot of immigrants from China and India.  In her neighborhood, there never used to be any stores owned by Asians, but now they have all sorts of stores.  She said that she doesn’t like to shop in them though and that she shops to get her fruit, meat and groceries all at Spanish owned stores.  She also talked about the growing number of Muslim immigrants, and I was surprised about how openly against them she was.  She talked about how she can tolerate the Chinese immigrants, but avoids all interactions with Muslim immigrants.  She said that they didn’t adapt to the Spanish culture when they came and that they were just dirty people in general.  I wonder if this antipathy stems from the Spanish history with the Muslims (the Moros occupied Spain from about siglo VIII until 1492- when the last Muslim king was expelled from Grenada) or if her hatred came from more recent world events and terrorist attacks.  After cleaning up, I played some Minesweeper and went to bed.

9/20/10 First Full Week of Class

This week is our first full week of classes, but my first class today wasn’t until 12:30.   In the morning, I went for a run in a park near my house.  The park runs between two streets for a few blocks, but isn’t big enough to run without doing laps.  The road that I live on (Ave. Madrid) crosses this park in the middle, so I ran down one side and then back up to the top, and then around a hospital and near Camp Nou.  This was my first run in a city.  I finally got over my cold and worked up the courage to run in the city.  City running has its pro and cons though.  Pros: you can run a new route every day and see new things every day.  Cons: weaving between people and traffic lights.  I’m sure I’ll get used to it and find some roads that are less busy than others.  It is a nice way to explore the city around my apartment.

            I had History of Spain and European Union today.  In History of Spain, we learned about the marriage of Isabel and Ferdinand and the expulsion of the moors from Spain.  In European Union, we started to discuss the concepts of states and nations in relation to the European Union.  My professor reminds me of my professor at St. Paul’s—because they both love to talk about Machiavelli and they kind of look the same.  I really need to read The Prince when I get home.  After class, Emily and I researched some flights to Rome.

            I got home early, so Pepita’s grandkids were still at her house.  Neuz (6) and Sergi (4) both go to school down the street.  Pepita picks them up and takes care of them until their mom gets out of work.  They watch dibujos (cartoons) and have a snack.  Pepita was teaching Neuz how to cross stitch today.  After they left we had dinner.  It was cold and rainy, so Pepita made soup.  It was like chicken noodle soup without the chicken.  We also had pork and peas cooked with bacon.  I am still working on finishing the cake that we had the other day for her grandson’s birthday.  After dinner, Pepita talked to me about Social Security in Spain for at least a half hour.  I couldn’t get a word in edgewise.  She showed me a few different cards that she has to carry around in her wallet.  She also told me what she has to pay for and what she doesn’t have to pay for in regards to health care.    

We then watched CSI: Miami.  I think I have seen more American crime shows here than at home.  I like watching them though, because I can follow along pretty well.  At the same time it makes me realize how much influence American culture has on the world.  On the newscast earlier that night, Julia Roberts was in Spain to receive an award for Eat, Pray, Love (In Spanish: Come, Reza, Ama).  I told Pepita that Julia Roberts is a famous American actress.  It is weird though, because I don’t think Pepita realizes how many movies and shows she watches are U.S. shows unless it says it in the title (Walker Texas Ranger, CSI: Miama/ NY etc.).  Just an observation that they don’t realize how much of what they watch or do is affected by our country…globalization at work.   

9/19/10

I woke up and had some breakfast before heading to the beach to meet Emily.  The last two days have been rainy/ overcast, so I was excited for the nice weather.  The beach is about 40 minutes away between walking and the metro.  Once I got off the metro, I had to walk down Port Ville.  It was a nice Sunday morning stroll and it wasn’t too busy at that point.  I stopped in a supermarket and bought some peanut butter!  Finally, my search came to an end, and I no longer have to eat toast and butter.  I met Emily near a sculpture of 4 boxes stacked on top of one another at the beach.  We ended up seeing a few other people from our program there, but did not sit near them.  The beach was definitely a people watching place with a pretty good mixture of young and old people there.  There was one woman a few towels away who would not stop talking.  She was one of the few overweight people in Spain, she was entirely too tan and she didn’t pause for a minute.  She was talking in Spanish, so I could understand what she was saying, but I tried to block her out because after five minutes of hearing her, I was ready to bury my head in the sand.  Emily and I had a nice time at the beach though.  Emily went swimming with Lorenzo and Jack, and I stayed with our stuff.  You always have to go to the beach with two people, because you can’t leave your things alone.  In fact, a woman came up to us asking if we spoke Spanish, and then continued to tell us that her bag had just been stolen from right next to her.  She then continued down the beach to warn other people.  I left after a few hours to make it home in time for lunch. 

Today for lunch, Pepita had been cooking all day.  Her daughter and her daughter’s family was coming over to celebrate her grandson’s birthday.  When I got back to the apartment, her granddaughter and granddaughter’s boyfriend (17 years old) were already there, watching soccer on the couch.  Like in the U.S. Sundays are the days when all the teams in the Spain soccer league play one another.  I sat down on the couch with them, but it was kind of awkward, because they weren’t really interested in me.  Not to sound conceited, but I would have expected them to at least be friendly and try to talk to me.  I was the one trying to start all the conversations, but they weren’t too responsive.  After a few minutes with them, Pepita’s daughter, grandson (15) and granddaughter (6) arrived.  The daughter helped Pepita set the table for the meal, while all the grandkids and I sat on the couch watching soccer.  A few minutes later their dad came and then we all sat down to eat.  The dad was really nice and spoke pretty good English.  He spoke in Spanish to me, but a few times he would say things in English.

When we first sat down, Pepita’s granddaughters were speaking in Catalan, but their dad told them and everyone else to speak in Castellano (Spanish) for me.  Then he said something in English to me, and his daughter joked “Castellano!” because no one else knew English.  For our first course, we had rice with rabbit or pasta.  All the kids chose pasta, but I thought the rice and rabbit looked really good, which is was.  Our second course was some sort of beef dish.  Also, I thought it was really funny because they put out a dish of potato chips.  I never think of potato chips as something to put out for a meal, but they did.  They all drank Coke too.  For dessert, we had cake from a pastry shop which was vanilla, with vanilla and chocolate cream in the center.  I spent a while after lunch at the table with the adults, showing them the picture book of New England that I had given Pepita and drawing a map of the east coast to show the different states and how far away New York, D.C. and Canada are.

I left a little while later to meet Lorenzo, Emily and his Spanish neighbor.  Her name was Eva and she is studying English to be a translator between Catalan and English.  It was nice to have someone our own age take us around the city and she also brought one of her friends, Juan.  The deal was that we had to talk in Spanish and she would talk in English or Spanish.  We walked the Gothic quarters and into Old Town.  Even though I had already been there, it was nice to see it again.  She took us to this random little snack shop that she really likes and we got hot chocolate, churros and a few other pastries.  The hot chocolate was not like hot chocolate in the U.S., but more like hot chocolate pudding.  It was so thick that I could have put a churro on the top and it would have been suspended there.  We walked back through las Ramblas and I took the metro home for dinner.

After dinner, I took my laptop and sat on the couch.  I was planning on writing more for my blog, but I ended up showing pictures to Pepita for like an hour and a half.  It is nice talking to her and explaining things in Spanish.  Then it was time for bed and despite all the chocolate and cake that I had that day, the sugar could not keep me up.

9/18/10 Day at the Museum

I enjoyed getting to sleep in today (which for me means 8:30 am)!   For breakfast, I finally didn’t have to eat the mini toasts with butter.  I am starting to get tired of premade toast and butter, but Emily is going to buy me some peanut butter soon to put on the toast.  I looked in a few supermarkets near my apartment, but I could only find nutella.  Emily has peanut butter at the supermarket near her house, so she is going to bring me some on Monday!  After breakfast, I just organized my desk and wrote out a calendar for the semester, so I can start planning some things.  It was a pretty relaxing morning, plus it was raining all night and morning, so I didn’t want to go outside.  When it rains here, it usually rains pretty hard.  I need to buy a cheap paraguas (umbrella), because September and October are the rainiest months according to Wikipedia.  Very few people wear raincoats here, so umbrellas are the way to go.  Anyways, so I chilled in my room for the morning, watched some American shows dubbed in Spanish and then had a pretty early lunch around 1.  For lunch I had some sort of dish that was like a white lasagna—or that’s the best way to describe it.  For my second plate, I had calamari and asparagus.  It was my first time trying calamari and I didn’t mind it.  It was kind of chewy, but it doesn’t have that fishy taste like other types of seafoods.

            For the afternoon, I took the metro to Montjuic and met up with Emily, Morgan and Michael.  I had organized a trip to the Palace that was built for the World’s Exposition in 1929.  Now it is home to the National Museum of Art of Catalunya.  The museum is well know for its Romanesque art, one of the types that we learned about on our art history trip.  You have to buy a ticket to get into the museum, but it is good for two visits.  I had never heard of that before, but it makes sense because there is so much to see in the museum.  We started off going to the Romanesque art wing which was filled with paintings peeled from tiny churches in Spain, especially in the Pyrenees mountains.  They put these paintings back up on the wall or they built domes to replicate the space they had been peeled from.  Even though a lot of parts of the paintings were missing, because they hadn’t survived since the 12^th century, it was cool that they displayed what was left, in a space that replicated the cathedrals they were taken from.  All the painting from this time period were religious and the pancrato was the painting the reoccurred the most.  The pancrato is Jesus sitting with his hands out giving a peace sign like gesture with his right hand.  This reoccurring painting of Jesus is meant to symbolize his dominance over the world and was extremely popular during this time period.  The image of Christ suffering on the cross did not exist until the Gothic period.  So basically we saw lots of pancratos which are usually surrounded by smaller angels or disciple figures. 

Pancrato- sorry about the bad picture quality... most museums don't allow a flash.

            After this section, we went on to the Gothic and Renaissance sections, which included paintings of Christ suffering on the cross and other Biblical scenes.  I found myself thinking a lot about history and the importance of religion throughout history in this part of the museum.  It is crazy to think that during the Romanesque period, twelve centuries after the death of Christ, how far his image or Christianity in general had spread.  Not only had it spread into people’s lives, but their whole culture centered around their religion and the churches.  The churches were the only places where art could be displayed and it was all done to please God.  Even all the art in Gothic period was based on religion.  All that happened within 15 centuries after the death of Christ, and today 5 centuries beyond that, the human race is in a totally different place.  Art is no longer a done for the purpose of some higher being, but for self pleasure.  Churches are no longer centers of art and quite honestly some of the churches I’ve been to in the U.S. (mine included) are the ugliest buildings I’ve ever been to.  The pancrato image was used in churches for a few centuries, yet today there is no one image or type of art that unites people.  Long story short, I am just fascinated by how quickly lifestyles and culture can change, and I wonder what the next 500 years will bring for human culture, because right now it doesn’t seem like the buildings we construct or our technology culture will be as enduring as the art I saw at the museum today.

            Our final wing of art for the day was Romanticism.  The paintings were not meant to be religious and this is the wing where we saw landscapes, portraits and still lifes.  I enjoyed looking at pictures of Barcelona done in the 18^th century.  I saw one painting by Velazquez, and there was supposed to be stuff by El Greco and Goya but I didn’t see that.  I think it is kind of ironic that I have seen more paintings by El Greco and Velazquez at the MFA in Boston than in Spain, but I’ll have to search a little harder on my next visit.  The museum closed at 7, so we sat outside overlooking the fountain.  The fountain wasn’t on, but at night they do a light/ water show with the fountain.  I had to go home for dinner, so I left around 8:45, but Morgan and Emily stayed to watch the light show.  Just before I started writing, I heard fireworks outside, so I went on the balcony to watch them.  Then I realized, that I can see the fountain from by balcony.  The light show isn’t quite the same from this distance, but I’ll plenty of other chances in the next few months to catch the show up close.

Inside the Palace- the part that isn't the art musuem

9/15/10 First Day of Class

Today was the first day of classes.  My first class of the day was La Guerra Civil en España (Spanish Civil War).  The professor was really nice, and he spent the class learning our names and letting us ask questions about him.  I had no trouble understanding his accent.  The class was pretty small, probably because it starts at 9:30.  After that class, I had a break before I went to the Historia de España (History of Spain).  The professor was hilarious, and I would have to call him the Spanish version of Mr. O’Reilly—but a little older and a little less fit.  He also spent the class learning everyone’s names and where we are all from.  I was surprised by how much he knew about the different states in the U.S.  My next class was La Union Europea, which is taught by a professor from the law department.  He was younger and spoke a lot faster than the other two, but I still had no trouble understanding him.  My listening skills have been increasing exponentially.  This class was short and he explained what we would do this semester and how the grading system works.  All of the classes that I had taken up to that point are with other BCA students and taught by professors at the University. 

I finished those 3 classes and then hoped on the metro to go to the bigger campus.  (I also bought my 90 day metro pass!)  The big campus is about a half hour away by metro.  At the bigger campus, I’ll be taking an economics class.  Daven, the other BCA student from Bowdoin and Jack from Bates will also be taking the class—Organizaciones Economicas Internacionales (International Economic Organizations).  The class had about 40 people in it and they appeared to be of various ages.  Some young guys came in wearing suits, making me think that they were taking the class for some sort of higher degree, and others were just regular students.  The class was pretty interesting, and I understood most of it.  I definitely can’t lose focus or else I’ll stop following what’s going on.  It was also easiest to follow when the professor was writing notes on the board.  The classroom had stadium seating, but it is hard to hear the professor unless you’re sitting in the first few rows, so I’ll have to move up next time.  After class, Daven, Jack and I went to see if we would be able to take the final exam early.  The University students take their final exams after their winter break.  Since we won’t be in Spain until mid January, we have to take exams for University classes early.  The professor was understanding, and there was a German girl who also asked if she could miss class the following week—she had to return to Germany for an exam.  He asked her to bring back a snowball from Germany and I got really confused as to what he was talking about.  Then he took us to his office which was covered with snow globes from all different places.  I might have to get him one from New Hampshire or Maine (since he doesn’t have either).  By the time class ended and we left his office, it was 8 o’clock and I was exhausted.  Luckily, my apartment is only 2 metro stops from the main campus.  I pretty much relaxed for the rest of the night.

9/14/10 Barca!!

Brief Synopsis of Tuesday:

Bus ride back to Barcelona.  Slept for a while, studied art history with Michael for a little bit, stopped in Tarragoza for lunch… I got a bocadillo with tortilla de patata, which was a safe choice because Diana wanted rice, but ended up ordering blood sausage stuffed with rice (it looks even less appealing than it sounds), and David got some sort of pig intestine.  It tasted fine in the beginning, but the after taste left something to be desired.  We got back to Barcelona around 7:00 pm which was when the exciting part of my day began….

            Daven, Emily and I had tickets to a futbol game.  FC Barcelona vs. Panathinaikos.  Panathinaikos is a team from Greece that is also in the Champions League.  Daven, Emily and I took the metro to my apartment and dropped off our bags.  They live on the other side of town so it was the easiest way to make it to the game on time.  We then walked a few blocks to the stadium, pretty much just following the crowds of people.  Getting into the stadium was so easy, and they don’t check bags at all.  I didn’t have a bag, but you could bring as much food/ drinks into the stadium as you wanted.  Daven had a bottle of water and they only made him take off the cap.  All our tickets were in the same section, but not next to each other.  My ticket row 19, seat 25 didn’t exist.  The seats only went to 23, but it didn’t matter because we met some kids from Luxemburg who told us we could sit wherever we wanted until someone kicked us out.  We all sat together and watched the first half from the top of the stadium.  Camp Nou is the biggest stadium I’ve ever been in, seating close to 100,000 people.  FC Barcelona dominated the game.

A few observations from a foreign soccer game: 

The opposing team had its own section and each side of it was line with security guards in orange jackets.  They were all on the other side of the stadium from us.  The crowd we were in was not as rowdy, as I expected it to be, but the Panathinaikos fans were chanting and singing the whole time.  During the whole first half, everyone stayed in their seats and no one was eating/ drinking much.  Unlike U.S. sporting events, the crowd was pretty sober and intent on watching every play.  I left 3 minutes before the 1^st half ended to get a bocadillo since I hadn’t eaten since lunch and it was about 10 p.m.  Unfortunately, I missed Barca’s 3^rd goal, but I did get a reasonably priced sandwich and the line for food and beverages was tiny.  Even once the half ended, the lines did not grow that much.  All the food was reasonably price.  I paid 4 euros for a bocadillo… much better that $4 for a water at Fenway.  Beer and soda were between 2 and 3 euro, which I thought seemed way more reasonable than in the U.S.  Despite the amazing prices, no eats or drinks at the game.  

            Second half, we moved down to see better, just finding some empty seats.  It was nice being able to see more than just the numbers.  It was fine that I didn’t bring a roster with me to tell who is who, because people in the crowd had all the jerseys.  All I did was look at the people in front of me to see which name matched which number.  The team ended up winning 5 to 1 and then we walked back to the apartment.  There were people and mopeds everywhere.  I was happy that I didn’t then have to get on the metro like Daven and Emily.

9/13/10 Last Day of Our Trip

Ok so… we started off with a breakfast that was a little disappointing compared to our breakfast at the last hotel.  Our first stop of the day was Cartuja de Miraflores, which is a monastery that combines the art style of the gothic and Renaissance periods.  The altar at the front of the monastery was so detailed with carvings of Jesus on the cross, many important Saints, carvings of Ferdinand and Isabella, and many biblical scenes.  I think this was my favorite piece of art on the trip.  I talked with Maica, the director of the program, about the different details and history of the altar.  She pointed out things that distinguished the different saints, like St. Peter holding the keys, St. Lucia holding a candle and many more fascinating details.  We returned to Burgos for lunch and a bunch of us got bread and meat from the market and made sandwiches in the market.

Monastery

Park for Lunch

            After lunch, we toured the Cathedral de Burgos, which also consisted of many different artistic styles.  This was by far the largest cathedral we visited.  I wasn’t feeling too well during the tour, so I didn’t take good notes, but it is fine because they repeated everything we learned on the trip about 20 times.  For dinner, a group of us went out for tapas.  I got tortilla Espanola (like a egg/potato/ onion pie) which was so filling for being the cheapest thing on the menu.  Lorenzo also ordered 7 stuffed muscles by accident, so I had two of those.  I also tried patatas bravas, which were like getting home fries with a spicy sauce.  The sangria was also really good.  Emily and I walked around for a few minutes after until we met some other people at another tapas restaurant.  I hung out with Emily, Diana and Jenna when we got back to the hotel and Emily regaled us with stories of life in rural Pennsylvania—including hunting with her dad, making wine and raising bees.  I went to bed around midnight in attempt to finally get rid of this cold. 

9/12/10 Leon, Astorga, Leon, Burgos

Another great breakfast at the hotel before heading on the bus to Astorga.  Astorga was about 45 minutes away and it followed El Camino de Santiago.  From the bus window, I could see lots of backpackers.  We were told that most of them had left from Leon that morning and were headed for Astorgas.  The symbol of the walk is a shell, so the people who are walking the path tie a shell to their backpack.  The two main buildings in Astorga were the Cathedral and el Palacio de Gaudi.  Gaudi designed the building, which includes architectural styles from all periods of history.  We went in the Palacio, which is now a museum.  Then we walked around the Cathedral.  Morgan and I went into the cathedral.   In the front part of the cathedral which was roped off, they were holding the Sunday morning service.  Although the building was quite old, they were pretty up to date and had flat screen TVs to watch the service from the back half of the building.  Tourists were allowed to walk around the back half of the building despite the service.

Palacio de Gaudi behind Roman walls

Cathedral

 

Another interesting event was occurring in Astorga when we were there.  There was a huge parade with groups of people dressed in matching shirts.  Each group had a really tall flag that they carried with a holster on a special belt.  The person who held the flag often swaggered back and forth, because it was so difficult to balance the tall, heavy flag.  Every so often, they would pass off the flag to another person in the group and sometimes it would fall because they couldn’t balance it.  Bagpipe music was played during the march.

            We left Astorga and returned to Leon for lunch.  Astorga was much smaller than Leon, so it would have been difficult to find a place to eat there, especially on a Sunday when everything closes.  We found a sketchy place for lunch, which was fairly cheap, but it took forever to get our meals.  I ordered a bocadillo con jamon.  Emily and I got gelado just before getting back on the bus!  There are gelato stores on every corner and it is so hard to resist the temptation of eating it.  It was a hot day though and was a nice and refreshing.  The bus left for Buros around 4:30.

            We got to Burgos and I went with a bunch of people to a park near a stream to play Frisbee.  I didn’t end up playing, because it was really windy, and I would have thrown it into the raging stream if I had tried.  Instead I sat with Anuche and Ruchee on the side of the park watching everyone else.  A couple was also sitting near us and they had a dog.  Ruchee started talking to them and ended up taking the leash from them to walk the dog.  The kids playing Frisbee played keep away from the dog for a while, but then Ruchee just sat near us with the dog.  As it got darker, we decided to try and find a place for dinner that was inexpensive.  We ended up walking to a pizza place Telepizza, which was gross.  I’d compare it to Domino’s Pizza.  I went to bed early after that (midnight), trying to make up for my lost sleep the night before.

9/11/10 Leon

Today we woke up and had an amazing continental breakfast at the hotel.  We left as a group for our tour of Leon.  Our art history professor came along with us on the trip, so he did all of our tours for us.  We started out in front of the original walls of the city, built by the Romans in siglo I B.C. (First century B.C.).  The Romans built their cities in very practical ways, with roads in a grid system, aqueducts and a sewer system. 

         We then went on to tour San Isidoro.  A church built in the 12^th century (A.D.), during the Romanesque period.  We learned about the architecture of the building and what aspects of it made it Romanesque, including the archways, the paintings on the ceilings without much perspective and columns with large capitals.  It is hard to summarized everything we learned, but those are the basic points.

We then looked around the Palacio de los Guzmanes, a palace built by the Guzmanes family during the Renaissance.  Built in a different time period, it had architecture unique to the time period, including family crests built into the building, an open courtyard and columns with small and simple capitals.  After these tours, we had a lunch break and I went with a few other people to a Turkish restaurant to buy a Donor Kebab. Morgan, Naoto and I walked to a park that we had seen earlier and hung out there for a while.  All the stores were closed for siesta, so the park was a perfect place to visit.

After siesta, the group met up again to tour the cathedral!  It was amazing to go inside.  The cathedral is from the pure gothic period or thirteenth century.  Architectural characteristics of this period include that everything is built upwards (towards the sky/ heaven) and the floor plan of the building is in the shape of a cross.  The stained glass in the church is a new feature for the time period as well. 

After our tour of the church, some people went to the Saturday afternoon mass.  I chose to go back to the hotel and I played cards.  I went to dinner with a small group of kids at an Italian resteraunt that overlooked San Isidoro, where we had visited before.  The food was pretty good and after dinner we went to different tapas places and hung out.  At the tapas places, there is no place to sit down usually.  A different atmosphere than the U.S., you walk in and order your drink/ tapas and then stand along the wall inside or outside.  There are small counters on the wall that you can put your plates and glasses on. 

Returning a little before midnight, 5 of us ended up staying up until 3 a.m., just talking on the 3^rd floor terrace of the hotel.  I have really enjoyed getting to know everyone in the group and it was fun to stay up and talk about pretty much everything from does life exist on other planets to the work of FBI agents.