Another long day… I woke up with a sore throat, but I’m hoping it will go away soon. I met the four other kids who live near me and we took the metro to class. For our conversation group we had a tour of the Facultad de Filologia. It is amazing how nice the building is for being so old. After our tour, I walked with my friends Morgan and Emily to the beach. Although it would have been more practical to take the metro to the beach, we decided to walk and Morgan and I bought cellphones. The cell phone was only 19 euro which also includes 12 hours of talking at .09 euros per minute. It is the phone that everyone in our group has, so I’ll pretty much just use it to make plans and meet up with other people. On our way to the beach, which was about an hour long walk, we randomly came across the Picasso museum. I will definitely be going back there. On Sunday afternoons the museums in Barcelona are free, so I will probably go back then.
We finally made it to the beach and we ate our boccadilos. The beach was busier than Castelldefels, but the water was clean and refreshing, which I did not expect for being in the city. After about a half hour on the beach, it started to rain and everyone ducked under and the overhang created by the board walk. We met up with another BCA guy, Michael, but at that point we decided to head back towards the university. We took the metro this time, but got off at a random metro station. It wasn’t too far from the university (about a 10 minute walk) and we took pictures in front of a giant fountain in the middle a park that was near the metro exit. Morgan decide to stay in the park and read her Harry Potter and the Sourcer’s Stone (in Spanish), while Emily, Michael and I killed time by looking in some stores on the way to the university. I am looking to buying a shoulder bag that is big enough to carry my books. Across the shoulder bags are all the rage here for men and women, and I’m not sure if it is a European thing or just a precautionary thing in the city—either way I’m getting one. Backpacks are few and far between and seem to be very American. After strolling the city for a while, we went to the Facultad de Historia and worked on our homework together. In art history, we learned about the Greeks and Romans, and their influence on Spain. It was really cool to be sitting and looking at a picture of the Colosseum on the slide show, knowing that I have the ability to visit it (if I want to).
I took the metro home after class and when we got to our stop it was pouring outside. We all ran home, ducking under overhangs. For dinner, my first plate was some chickpea and tomato dish, while my second plate had a salad and a cut of pig stuffed with cheese. It tasted like chicken cord en bleu (spell check), but did not include the chicken. For dessert I had watermelon. Apparently, the word for seed is pepita, and after I asked Pepita made sure to explain that her name does not mean seed, but rather is a nickname for Josephine. After dinner, I watched some Spanish TV, read some of the newspaper (I did the Sudoku too), and Pepita gave me a word search book. I did the first word search, which is actually called Sopa de Letras (Soup of Letters) and then I looked up all the words I didn’t know in the dictionary. Now I’m headed to bed, hoping to get rid of my sore throat and cough by tomorrow.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
9/6/10 Clase a la Universidad de Barcelona!
Today was a long day, especially after a leisurely Sunday. I woke up early and got ready for my first day of orientation at the University. I took the metro and met up with the rest of the group. Some people are within walking distance, but I unfortunately am not. Luckily, one girl from the program lives in my building and another guy is on the same block. We had our conversation groups and language classes in La Facultad de Filologia (or basically the College of Filology). The university is made up of many facultades. This Facultad was the first building of the university and it is gorgeous. With high cathedral ceilings and gardens, it takes up a few blocks. After our classes, we took the metro as a group to the main part of campus which is not near La Facultad de Filologia in the Old Town of Barcelona. The reason that the campus was built in two parts, was because during the late 60’s, when many young students in the U.S. and all over the world were especially unruly and desiring changes, Franco did not want to expand the school in the center of Barcelona, but rather on the outskirts. The logic was to prevent any turmoil among the young from affecting the main part of the city. We walked around all the Facultades, because all non-program classes are held on this campus. I saw the Faculdad de Economica which has 20,000 students. In all the school has 90,000 students. Unlike in the U.S., students don’t go away for school, but they live at home and attend the university. Also, the students don’t take classes outside of their Facultad; they have a track to follow in each of the Facultades.
After our tour of the campus, we returned to the Old Town and walked around La Facultad de Historia y Geografia. We had a two hour break from lunch and I went with some girls to Starbucks, where they bought ice coffees (so hot out today!) and we ate our bocadillas. My host mom packed me a bocadilla con jamon (ham) and a bocadilla con salchicha (sausage). I had eaten my apple and pear earlier in the day because I couldn’t wait until two for lunch (which they refer to as comida and not almuerzo, like we have learned in Spanish class every year). After lunch, Carmen, the director talked to us about classes at the university. We had a break and I spent it doing my homework with a few other people. After our break, we had class from 6:30 until 8. We take a mini course on art history, and the professor who will be teaching class for the next few days, will also come on our trip through northern Spain this weekend. We leave on Friday to visit Leon and Castill, and a few other places. Our professor will also teach us on our trip. In our first class, we were lectured on the period of Greek art in Spain, specifically the Classical period and the Neoclassical period. It was our first non-grammar class and I had no trouble following, as the Spanish classes I take at Bowdoin are lectures in Spanish as opposed to learning how to conjugate verbs. For a lot of people in the class, it was a new experience to actually be taught history and not the language in Spanish. I think I am very well prepared to take these classes compared to some other students. After class, I took the metro home and my host mom made a dish with cooked spinach, beans and raisins. The other plate because there are always two, had fried fish (no idea what kind because I am no fish connoisseur) and cut up tomatoes. I had a kiwi for dessert. For the rest of the night, I plan on studying some Spanish, more specifically I want to review the subjunctive tenses and when to use them. I know generally when, but on our homework there were some tricky questions. Hasta manana.
After our tour of the campus, we returned to the Old Town and walked around La Facultad de Historia y Geografia. We had a two hour break from lunch and I went with some girls to Starbucks, where they bought ice coffees (so hot out today!) and we ate our bocadillas. My host mom packed me a bocadilla con jamon (ham) and a bocadilla con salchicha (sausage). I had eaten my apple and pear earlier in the day because I couldn’t wait until two for lunch (which they refer to as comida and not almuerzo, like we have learned in Spanish class every year). After lunch, Carmen, the director talked to us about classes at the university. We had a break and I spent it doing my homework with a few other people. After our break, we had class from 6:30 until 8. We take a mini course on art history, and the professor who will be teaching class for the next few days, will also come on our trip through northern Spain this weekend. We leave on Friday to visit Leon and Castill, and a few other places. Our professor will also teach us on our trip. In our first class, we were lectured on the period of Greek art in Spain, specifically the Classical period and the Neoclassical period. It was our first non-grammar class and I had no trouble following, as the Spanish classes I take at Bowdoin are lectures in Spanish as opposed to learning how to conjugate verbs. For a lot of people in the class, it was a new experience to actually be taught history and not the language in Spanish. I think I am very well prepared to take these classes compared to some other students. After class, I took the metro home and my host mom made a dish with cooked spinach, beans and raisins. The other plate because there are always two, had fried fish (no idea what kind because I am no fish connoisseur) and cut up tomatoes. I had a kiwi for dessert. For the rest of the night, I plan on studying some Spanish, more specifically I want to review the subjunctive tenses and when to use them. I know generally when, but on our homework there were some tricky questions. Hasta manana.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
9/4/10 Primero día en la ciudad
This morning I woke up around 8:30 when my alarm went off. I could hear my host mother up talking on the phone. I took my first shower, which is a little different than in the U.S. At least from my observations here and at the hotel, they don’t use shower curtains. They have doors that swing out, but this shower door thing was an accordion like door that folded and didn’t go higher than my shoulders. For breakfast, I had some pineapple grape juice, premade toast with butter which seems to be a common breakfast. Breakfasts in Spain are typically very light and most people have café con leche (coffee with milk) with their breakfasts. After breakfast, Juan Carlos took me to the Vodafone store where I got internet. I still haven’t gotten a cell phone, because I am planning to get the phone from Orange. Orange and Vodafone are the two biggest cell phone companies here and everyone else in my group has Orange.
When I got back I used the internet to start facebook friending (yes that has become a verb) everyone else in the group. I got to facebook chat with Miriam and we decided we would meet in front of the main university building around 4 and explore the old part of the city. Our whole group will be meeting in front of the building Monday morning, so I figured it would be a good idea to see how long the subway ride was and if I could navigate through the city myself. For lunch I had a plate full of pasta, and a plate with a piece of chicken and salad. Unlike the U.S., plates are brought out one at a time. So I was more than satisfied after eating the pasta, but I had to eat the chicken and pasta too. And then… there is always a plate of fruit at the end of each meal, which of course I forgot about. At the hotel, the plates of fruit were filled with all sorts of exotic things. I tried fig at the hotel. For lunch today, there were bananas (platanos), apples (manzanas) and pears (peras).
The metro stop for one of the many green lines was supposed to be about 5 blocks from my building but of course I couldn’t find it. I had to ask two men where to go, and only on my return trip with some other students that live near me, did I realize that it was super easy. I took the green line two stops and transferred to the red line for one stop. In total it took me forty minutes, but with practice I will definitely cut that time back.
The main university building is in the Old Town of Barcelona. This is the original part of the city, that was surrounded by Roman walls. Most of the buildings in this part of the city are from the Gothic period and reflect the medieval period when Catalona was at the height of its power. Miriam and I met and walked down Las Ramblas, a long street that goes through old town. It is a very touristy area with carts full of souvenirs and street performers. I would almost compare it to Quincy Market, but much longer, much more crowded and with prettier architecture surrounding the street. This is where they told us to be aware of pickpockets. Across the street from Las Ramblas, we found a market that sold all the fruits and meats you could imagine. At one of the meat vendors, we saw brains, heads of goats, pigs’ feet and more. The fruit was the most impressive. They had everything you could think of and you could buy a fruit salad for only 2 euros. Miriam and I both got smoothies because it was so hot. Hacia mucho calor. Mine was a pineapple, coconut, raspberry smoothie! We walked through a few more side streets and stumbled upon The Cathedral. The church was built starting in 1298, and inside there are shrines along the walls of the church dedicated to different Saints. You can insert a coin, and there are some electronic candles that light up. The shrine with all the rows of candles lit up had an ornate sculpture of Jesus on the cross and the sign said “para los pobres” or “for the poor”. Each of the shrines was built at a different time, but they all had such elaborate details, whether it was a painting, sculpture or a hybrid scene. Miriam and I walked back to the university and met up with other students in front of the building. I thought we were going to be meeting with only two or three other kids, but apparently the message spread fast between those students with phones and there ended up being a group of about 12 students. Aside from Miriam and I, no one else had explored Old Town, so we walked all the way down Las Ramblas again. At the end, we came to the water. Aqui, fue un monumento a Colom. The statue of Columbus stood in the middle of a traffic circle. We crossed the road and walked out onto a pier. On the right of the pier was a marina full of sailboats, on the left a few cruise ships. Barcelona is the largest port in the Mediterranean. At the end of the port was a mall. After this, I returned home with a few other students and had dinner around nine. We ate tortillas con patatas, which was like a potato onion omelet. Muy deliciosa! We also had salad with some form of fish on it, and of course a plate of fish to finish. It is interesting because they tend to eat their salads after what we could consider to be the entre. I am going to meet with a few students who live near by and venture out to La Sagrada Familia, designed by Goudi in 1882. Nightlife in Barcelona doesn’t get going until after midnight…
When I got back I used the internet to start facebook friending (yes that has become a verb) everyone else in the group. I got to facebook chat with Miriam and we decided we would meet in front of the main university building around 4 and explore the old part of the city. Our whole group will be meeting in front of the building Monday morning, so I figured it would be a good idea to see how long the subway ride was and if I could navigate through the city myself. For lunch I had a plate full of pasta, and a plate with a piece of chicken and salad. Unlike the U.S., plates are brought out one at a time. So I was more than satisfied after eating the pasta, but I had to eat the chicken and pasta too. And then… there is always a plate of fruit at the end of each meal, which of course I forgot about. At the hotel, the plates of fruit were filled with all sorts of exotic things. I tried fig at the hotel. For lunch today, there were bananas (platanos), apples (manzanas) and pears (peras).
The metro stop for one of the many green lines was supposed to be about 5 blocks from my building but of course I couldn’t find it. I had to ask two men where to go, and only on my return trip with some other students that live near me, did I realize that it was super easy. I took the green line two stops and transferred to the red line for one stop. In total it took me forty minutes, but with practice I will definitely cut that time back.
The main university building is in the Old Town of Barcelona. This is the original part of the city, that was surrounded by Roman walls. Most of the buildings in this part of the city are from the Gothic period and reflect the medieval period when Catalona was at the height of its power. Miriam and I met and walked down Las Ramblas, a long street that goes through old town. It is a very touristy area with carts full of souvenirs and street performers. I would almost compare it to Quincy Market, but much longer, much more crowded and with prettier architecture surrounding the street. This is where they told us to be aware of pickpockets. Across the street from Las Ramblas, we found a market that sold all the fruits and meats you could imagine. At one of the meat vendors, we saw brains, heads of goats, pigs’ feet and more. The fruit was the most impressive. They had everything you could think of and you could buy a fruit salad for only 2 euros. Miriam and I both got smoothies because it was so hot. Hacia mucho calor. Mine was a pineapple, coconut, raspberry smoothie! We walked through a few more side streets and stumbled upon The Cathedral. The church was built starting in 1298, and inside there are shrines along the walls of the church dedicated to different Saints. You can insert a coin, and there are some electronic candles that light up. The shrine with all the rows of candles lit up had an ornate sculpture of Jesus on the cross and the sign said “para los pobres” or “for the poor”. Each of the shrines was built at a different time, but they all had such elaborate details, whether it was a painting, sculpture or a hybrid scene. Miriam and I walked back to the university and met up with other students in front of the building. I thought we were going to be meeting with only two or three other kids, but apparently the message spread fast between those students with phones and there ended up being a group of about 12 students. Aside from Miriam and I, no one else had explored Old Town, so we walked all the way down Las Ramblas again. At the end, we came to the water. Aqui, fue un monumento a Colom. The statue of Columbus stood in the middle of a traffic circle. We crossed the road and walked out onto a pier. On the right of the pier was a marina full of sailboats, on the left a few cruise ships. Barcelona is the largest port in the Mediterranean. At the end of the port was a mall. After this, I returned home with a few other students and had dinner around nine. We ate tortillas con patatas, which was like a potato onion omelet. Muy deliciosa! We also had salad with some form of fish on it, and of course a plate of fish to finish. It is interesting because they tend to eat their salads after what we could consider to be the entre. I am going to meet with a few students who live near by and venture out to La Sagrada Familia, designed by Goudi in 1882. Nightlife in Barcelona doesn’t get going until after midnight…
9/3/10 A la casa de Pepita
This morning everyone woke up in time for breakfast at nine and we moved all of our luggage out of the rooms so that the hotel could start cleaning them. The hotel we have been staying in is owned by a family and there are three generations that work there. The couple who owns it are always watching tv in the lobby and their daughter who looks around 50 is usually at the front desk during the day. Their grandson who looks about my age helps out the two other waiters for dinner and breakfast. Class went by quickly today. We reviewed commands and the subjunctive. In discussion group, we discussed an article about the droughts in that occurred in Spain a few years ago. After class a group of us decided to do one last walk down la playa and walked along the boardwalk one way and on the way back along the water. It is interesting how many women actually go topless. I didn’t think it could be that popular, but it is especially well-liked by the older women, which isn’t so pleasant. No me gusta. After lunch at the hotel, we loaded all of our luggage into the bus, which was like a giant game of Tetris. The bus took us to a hotel in Barcelona where we had a few hours to wait for our host parents to pick us up. Morgan, Emily, Alex, Miriam and I went for a walk through Barcelona and we walked alongside the road that cuts directly across the city. Se llama el diagonal. There was also a mall along this road which was worth checking out. Many of the stores were like H&M and it was fairly busy. We walked around a bit more and then returned to the hotel where we waited in the lobby for our hosts to show up. Every host had a specific time to come and mine arrived at 19:20 or 7:20 pm. Pepito and her grandson Juan Carlos came to pick me up and I talked to them for a little while at the hotel before we went to her apartment.
Juan Carlos was much easier to understand than Pepito. He is 20 and is studying law and has studied English. Pepito talks muy muy rapido and it is kind of hard to understand half the stuff she is saying. It is really frustrating not being able to understand half of what she is saying because I am afraid I am going to ask her questions that she has already explained to me. She gave me a tour of the apartment and my room is so big. The directors told me I had one of the biggest rooms of anyone in the program, and this room is about double the size of my room at home with my own balcony that is the same size. We are on the tenth and highest floor of the building, so the view is spectacular. I unpacked all my clothes and organized some of my things. We sat down for dinner a little after nine thirty and Pepito made potatoes and some sort of green vegetable. It was very plain, but you put olive oil on it. In Spain, they use olive oil for everything, which makes sense because it is so delicious. I learned at the hotel that there is usually two plates, the first being vegetables or a salad of some sort and the second being a meat dish. For our second plate we had chicken that was flattened with mushrooms on the side. Normally I don’t eat mushrooms, but this particular kind was really good! She was telling me about her family at dinner (but I only understood about half of it). After dinner I tried to get internet, but they don’t have any here. In order to get internet, you have to pay sixty euros each month and you can use a flash drive that acts as a hot spot for wireless. The student that Pepito had in the spring left me this flash drive, but I’m not sure if I am going to use it. My conversation with Pepito about the internet was especially hard because she doesn’t know a thing about computers. We called Juan Carlos and he is planning on coming in the morning to help me, but I don’t think he can be much help if I don’t plan on paying 60 euros per month. It appears as though Pepito spends a lot of time on the phone talking to her family and watching TV, much of which is in Catalan. She asked me if I was planning on going out tonight, which makes me think that the student she had last year was a huge partier. Anyways, that is it for now…
Juan Carlos was much easier to understand than Pepito. He is 20 and is studying law and has studied English. Pepito talks muy muy rapido and it is kind of hard to understand half the stuff she is saying. It is really frustrating not being able to understand half of what she is saying because I am afraid I am going to ask her questions that she has already explained to me. She gave me a tour of the apartment and my room is so big. The directors told me I had one of the biggest rooms of anyone in the program, and this room is about double the size of my room at home with my own balcony that is the same size. We are on the tenth and highest floor of the building, so the view is spectacular. I unpacked all my clothes and organized some of my things. We sat down for dinner a little after nine thirty and Pepito made potatoes and some sort of green vegetable. It was very plain, but you put olive oil on it. In Spain, they use olive oil for everything, which makes sense because it is so delicious. I learned at the hotel that there is usually two plates, the first being vegetables or a salad of some sort and the second being a meat dish. For our second plate we had chicken that was flattened with mushrooms on the side. Normally I don’t eat mushrooms, but this particular kind was really good! She was telling me about her family at dinner (but I only understood about half of it). After dinner I tried to get internet, but they don’t have any here. In order to get internet, you have to pay sixty euros each month and you can use a flash drive that acts as a hot spot for wireless. The student that Pepito had in the spring left me this flash drive, but I’m not sure if I am going to use it. My conversation with Pepito about the internet was especially hard because she doesn’t know a thing about computers. We called Juan Carlos and he is planning on coming in the morning to help me, but I don’t think he can be much help if I don’t plan on paying 60 euros per month. It appears as though Pepito spends a lot of time on the phone talking to her family and watching TV, much of which is in Catalan. She asked me if I was planning on going out tonight, which makes me think that the student she had last year was a huge partier. Anyways, that is it for now…
Friday, September 3, 2010
9/2/10 Last Full Day in Casteldefells
Today was a struggle to wake up as I had stayed up until 2:30 in the morning talking at the hotel with a few girls from my program. We ate another breakfast of croissants and the one i picked this morning had nutella in the middle! Then we had our language and conversation classes and after lunch we learned how to read the map... which basically meant that we went over different places in Barcelona that are worth visiting. The place where we take our classes with BCA is in Barcelona between the Gothic section of the city and the Gracia section which is more modern. We also went over the subway system and now that I now where my family lives I will have to decide what type of subway pass to buy. We had another lunch and today's sandwich was a tortilla which is kind of like an omelete on a baguette with a tomato paste. After lunch I went to the beach with my friend Emily and the weather was alot nicer than yesterday. We did our homework on the beach and went swimming. Alot of people were out on the beach until around 5. It seemed to clear our as siesta ended. Then we walked to the smoke shop where they make copies. We all needed to make copies of our passports which get sent to the spanish consulate from the program. Then I found out about my family It is actually a single women in her late 50's who lives near Camp Nou! They said that her kids and grandkids visit often and that I have the biggest bedroom of all the homestays. It even has a balcony. I am also living on the 10th floor. For our last dinner at the hotel, they made a really good paella with muscles and shrimp and mini lobster looking things (all of which I tried). Everyone was stuffed after dinner and a group of us decide to take a walk down the beach. We walked all the way down one side with our shoes off along the water and then we turned around and walked really far in the other direction. Now I am taking advantage of the Wifi. A group of kids went downtown (two blocks away) to try a drink called panther's milk. Tomorrow is the day I move in! Adios!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
9/1/10 La Playa
Today I woke up around 8:45 am to get to breakfast around 9 am. We have been staying at the Hotel Luna since we arrived, which is in the coastal town Castelldefels, south of Barcelona. In the morning, the hotel serves us breakfast which includes croissants and pastries and fruit. Then we have a language class and conversation group. Our group of about 30 students was divided into two sections and I am in the A section (so I guess Bowdoin has taught me well). There is a range of Spanish abilities here, including some native speakers and people who haven't taken a spanish class since freshman year of college. After two hours of class, which has been our routine for the last few days, we have a talk about something pertaining to studying abroad. Today we went over how our home stay will work and the concept of culture shock. We get to meet our families on Friday! The reason that they don't tell us our families right away is that they like to get to know us in person while they make adjustments with which family we get matched with. After our lecture we had lunch. The hotel has a garden, and we get to chose from a list of sandwhiches. I've had the ham sandwich, and the sandwhich with eggs on it. All the sandwiches are served on delicious baguettes and have a yummy tomato spread on them. After lunch we have all afternoon until dinner which is served at 8:15 p.m. (early for Spain). I went to the beach which is about two blocks from our hotel! The weather was kind of cloudy, but that did not detract from the gorgeous Mediterrean. I went swimming with a few of my friends from the program and the laid out on the beach and chatted. Some people brought their homework to the beach, but I did my homework before lunch. The water is so warm and it is very wavey. A few people were surfing. After the beach, we headed back to the hotel to rinse off in the pool. The reason we have so much free time is because each of us has an individual appointment with the directors of the program about classes. I had my appointment yesterday and I'm planning to take three classes with the program and 1 class at the university. My appointment was at 7 p.m. and during my free time in the afternoon my friend Morgan and I walked to the train stations and took it to a town, Sitgan, further south down the coast. We walked around the town which was a bit more touristy than Castelldefels. It has been nice going out with Morgan because we make it a point to speak in Spanish on our outings rather than just falling into the trap of speaking English with all of our fellow American students. Sitgan was an older city with gorgeous architecture and even though most of the stores were closed for the afternoon (for siesta), we found an gelato shop and I got hazelzut gelato on a stick dipped in chocolate. Yesterday evening after dinner a bunch of us went to the beach and roamed the town, which isn't too busy on Tuesday nights. Now everyone is just hanging out and taking advantage of our limited wireless internet (one of the kids on the trip figured out how to turn his computer into a wireless hot spot)! Well I don't know what else to say... living in the hotel isn't too much of a culture shock but I'm sure once I am living with my family and taking classes at the university things will be a bit different. I can sure get used to living two blocks away from the beach.
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