10/21/10 Tibidabo and Fiestas!

I left for Clase de Literatura around 9:30, but when I got there, I found out that we had a substitute.  It turns out that our professor was still sick.  The substitute really didn’t know what to talk about, since we had finished our book Lazarillo de Tormes (a famous “picaresco” Golden Age novel).  She kind of wasted time by reading us the last chapter outloud and trying to connect the themes of the book with the ideas of Erasmus de Rotterdam.  After that class, I killed time by just talking with Diana and Emily.  Emily and I then went to the computer lab.  Guerra Civil was alright.  It is always a struggle to pay attention in that class, because our professor moves painfully slow.  As the last class of the week, it is even more difficult to pay attention.

            I rushed home to eat and actually made it home in good time… 25 minutes!  I scarfed down a plate of pasta, which is always delicious.  My second plate was French fries and fried pork.  As I ate lunch, Pepita and I watched another episode of this ridiculous show.  I’m not exactly sure what it is called, but it is a show where two people argue about something that happened to them and who’s fault it is or who is responsible.  The audience also has a chance to argue who they think is right and in the end a judge decides.  Today’s episode was focused on “balconing”.  I had never heard of this concept until I got here, but it is this new trend where teens and young kids jump from balconies at hotels and into the pool.  Apparently, it is quite popular in Spain and there have been many accidents involving the “sport”.  The two people arguing on the show were a mom who’s 17 year old son broke his leg and arm trying to jump and the hotel pool and the hotel owner.  It was absolutely ridiculous watching the two sides argue and yell at each other.  It is almost hilarious how stupid the show is (almost like a Jerry Springer type show), but I can only listen to Spaniards yell at each other for so long.

            After lunch, I packed up my things really quickly and met Miriam at the metro station.  From there, we met Daven and two of his friends who were visiting from Rome (one goes to Bowdoin) and took a train to a town that is on the mountain.  From that train, we hopped onto the funicular and at the top of the funicular we got on a bus.  The bus took us to the top of Tibidabo.  I was excited that I could get to the top of Tibidabo (the mountain that surrounds Barcelona) without having to pay any extra money.  At the top of the mountain is a giant church and an amusement park.  The amusement park is really small and not worth the money, although there was a ferris wheel that overlooked the entire city.  The view from the top of the mountain was fantastic.  I think that would be the only reason to go up there.  There is a religious legend about Tibidabo.  The people of Barcelona claim that Tibidabo is where the devil tempted Jesus with Barcelona.  I’m not really sure actually what happened, but that is why they built a church on top.  We only stayed up there until the next bus came, because it was kind of cold and windy.

From there we went to Daven’s neighborhood, Gracia, the nicest neighborhood in the city in terms of architecture and an outgoing community.  We hung out in a bar and just talked for a few hours.  Miriam got a tea and I got a café con leche (my first coffee in Spain).  After a few hours of chatting, we went to La Sagrada Familia to meet up with the rest of group and go out to eat for Miriam’s 21^st Birthday.  Larry had decided on a Japanese Buffet that he had been to before, so we all waited for him to show us how to get there.  Dinner was amazing and I ate way too much.  They had all sorts of fresh vegetables that you could pick and they would cook for you, along with different fishes, sushi, and already cooked dishes.  The dessert selection was had all different types of gelato and cake.  My favorite part was a whole table with different bowls of gummies.  I was pretty much in a sugar coma when I left.  A few other people went out after we finished our dinners, but I don’t think that I could have fit anything else in my stomach without exploding.  I headed back with Chris around 10:45.

10/19/10 No clase hoy! Otra vez…

Today I went all the way to the University, a whole half hour by metro, to find out that my literature professor was sick and wasn’t going to be able to teach.  Another day without school, since I only have that class on Tuesdays!  Lorenzo, Emily and I walked around near the University for a little bit.  I found some stamps to mail my postcards and we came across a great market.  We walked around the market looking at all the fresh meat, fish, fruits and vegetables before they had to go to a different class.  On our way back, we did find a bakery that had three donuts for 1.5 euros, so we each got one for 50 cents.  They were delicious.  From there, I took the metro home.

            When I got home, my mom wasn’t home, so I surfed the TV for something to watch.  The disappointing part about watching TV here is that all the programs that I think look interesting are in Catalan.  When Pepita got home, she had a card for me.  It was a very, very late birthday card that got sent to Bowdoin, and which I had my friend forward to me.  I was pumped to get it, and I almost let Pepita think that my birthday was in October, but then I would of felt bad, so I told her the story.  We waited for her daughter to get here and then we had lunch.  After lunch, I wanted to find some sort of jacket, since it is getting kind of cold.  I took the metro two stops towards the Diagonal and went shopping.  I also stopped in a few shoe stores, but didn’t find anything I liked.  I’ll have to continue wearing flip flops and flats.

10/17/10 Montseny!

Today I met a bunch of people at Catalunya Station.  Miriam, Evan, Alex, Emily, Lorenzo, Jack and I all went hiking on Montseny (pronounced Mount Sen).  The train ride took a little over an hour and we stopped in a random little town to get to the trail.  Miriam knew where she was going, since she had gone before with Daven.  It was chilly in the morning, but as soon as we started hiking, everyone started stripping layers.  The hike took about 2.5 hours.  A little ways from the top, there is a parking lot, so there were more people at the top than who we had seen hiking.  At the top of the mountain were the ruins of a church of some sort.  We all ate our bocadillos at the top and enjoyed the beautiful view.  The way down took about 1.5 hours.  We were trying to make it down to catch the train at 4:18 pm, but we missed it by about ten minutes.  We killed the next half hour by strolling around the town.  It looked like most of the homes in the town were vacation homes.  Most of them were shut up and there weren’t many people walking around.  It was nice to spend a day outside of the city and see what life is like in a vacation area.

            I made it home by about 8 pm.  The train took more stops on the way back than on the way there, so it was a long trip.  I enjoyed a nice dinner with Pepita and did a little reading after dinner.  I found a book called Historia de España, so I decided to start reading it just for fun.

10/16/10 Poble Español & Xocolate

            I chilled around the apartment for the first part of the morning, and then in the afternoon I met Emily at Poble Espanol.  Poble Español means Spanish town and where we went was a replica of all different types of buildings in the different areas of Spain.  All the different buildings are connected together and artisans have little shops in each building.  The shops had hand crafted goods including leather, pottery, jewelry and everything in between.  We looked around admiring all the goods and the different architectural styles of the buildings.  The weather was really nice too.  It got a little chilly, but my sweater kept me warm.

            From Poble Espanol, we walked down the main road from Plaza Espana.  We weren’t really sure where we were headed, but we ended up near the Christopher Columbus statue at the end of Las Ramblas.  We decided since it was getting colder, we would find a place to have hot chocolate.  Emily pulled out her Barcelona book which recommended a place right off Las Ramblas.  It is the oldest Xocolata shop in the city and we found it on a tiny side street.  It was so busy that there was a line to get inside.  We only had to wait a few minutes outside and then we sat down at our table.  I felt really rushed while we were there though.  In most Spanish restaurants, as soon as you have eaten, you stay there as long as you want and then you have to ask them for the bill.  At this place it was a little different since they were trying to turn over the tables as quickly as possible.  Emily got a chocolate mousse and I got a hot chocolate with whipped cream.  I headed home for dinner after that.

10/15/10 Tour of Barcelona

Friday morning the entire BCA program had a field trip with my favorite History of Spain professor.  They really could pick a more understandable professor to give a tour of the old part of Barcelona.  We walked around the old part of the city all morning and he took us to the Cathedral and a few other buildings, pointing out old Roman ruins.  The two most interesting parts of the tour were seeing a few pillars of the old Roman forum and going into the Parliament building.  There were only a few pillars still standing from the forum, but I thought it was interesting because there are buildings all around them.  The Parliament building was beautiful inside.  This was the building where they had the projection show on the building for Dia de la Merce.  Our professor kept getting mad at us for walking too slow, but honestly it is hard to bring thirty kids through narrow streets that are bustling with other people, mopeds and tourists.  I was excited when he let us leave a half hour early.  I went home for lunch and rested for the afternoon.

            

Our professor is so happy with our group...

Inside the Parliament Building

That night, Pepita was supposed to go her grandkids’ swim lessons, but she still hadn’t recovered from her cold, so she stayed home.  We had tortilla de patatas and some interesting cold pepper dish.  After dinner, I got ready to go out and met Evan, Miriam and Emily on Las Ramblas.  We sat and chatted on a bench for a while, before we went to this forest bar.  The bar had a nice atmosphere with trees and forest things inside.  Like a Rainforest Café for adults.  A few more people met up with us there, and we left before 2 to catch the last metro home. 

El Bosque

Emily, Evan and Jack waiting for the metro after going out

10/13/10 -10/14/10 Another School Week Done...

My two days of class this week.  Wednesday was long and dragged on.  I was happy that my nose was still running for Guerra Civil.  My professor just assumed that I had missed class because I was sick on Thursday.  I left it at that, even though it was only half the truth.  I swear I’m not an awful person for letting him think I am sick.  I have never missed a class a Bowdoin and Guerra Civil doesn’t cover much in one class period, so I felt kind of justified skipping.  I could have slept through History of Spain talking about Felipe II and his marriages.  European Union was kind of interesting… we learned about the difference between being integration and cooperation.  The EU is a mixture of the two systems.  Daven and I took the metro to our only Game Theory class of the week and we did three problems about simultaneous games with three agents.  I took the metro home instead of walking, because it was kind of cold outside.  Chilled in my house the rest of Wednesday night and read Lazarillo de Tormes for literature class.

            Thursday-  I had two classes.  Literature and Guerra Civil.  I found it hard to pay attention in both classes.  It is painful for me to have to hear the same thing 3 or 4 times, just reworded a little differently everytime.  I guess they try to make sure some of the students with weaker Spanish skills understand, but it just bores me.  Honestly, I did a Sudoku in literature.  There are a few different free news papers that get handed out in the city every morning.  I am not sure where they are handed out, but usually I can find one in the metro or one that someone left behind on a bench in the University buildings.  The Sudokus keep me entertained and my brain is a little more stimulated in class when I work on a Sudoku and take notes simultaneously.  After class I went home for lunch, then I met Miriam, Alex and Emily back at the University around 4:30.  We ended up just going to a café for a few hours and swapped stories about our weekends.  Miriam got to go to London to visit one of her good friends from home that happens to go to Bowdoin with me.  Her friend Tim has actually been in a few of my economics classes and we did Booz Crew together for Reunion Weekend, so I actually know him.  After dinner, I skyped my dad for a little while and then headed out for GNO (girls’ night out).  Probably about 10 girls from the program met at BCA and went to a bar for drinks.  I went home with Kelly and Dhariana afterwards.  We had to take the night bus home, since the metro closes at midnight on Thursday nights.  They always use the night bus, but it was my first time.  It stops right outside my building though, which is great! 

10/12/10 Rainy Holiday

Today was the actual holiday, but it was raining so I didn’t even leave the house.  A few people were planning to go to Montserrat, but I didn’t want to waste my money paying for the train when the mountain was going to be rainy.  My other reason for not going was because I wanted to get over my cold.  I am glad I decided not to wake up early to go, because it turns out there was a strike, so the trains to Montserrat weren’t even working.  I chilled around the house, which was kind of boring, but at least I had the internet.