¡Barcelona!

Oh Barcelona. The most sleep-deprived I have ever been in my life, but so much fun. Erica and I made a pact the second day we were there that if our post-college lives are mundane and unfulfilling we’d move to Barcelona. It’s that fantastic.

Our adventure started off with a 10 our overnight bus ride from Valladolid. It would’ve been absolutely miserable if half the bus wasn’t kids from Cal Poly. We arrived in Barcelona at 7 something in the morning, totally disoriented, a pretty bad state to be in in the pickpocket capital of the world. Within 10 minutes of getting off the bus one of our friends almost had a purse stolen, a scary, but probably much needed wake-up call for our group. The rest of the morning I walked around with my backpack locked shut and carried it on my stomach… I was so paranoid. We nagivated our way through the metro system and found our hostel, which was so cool. Free breakfast (!!!), a rooftop terrace/bar, cheap drinks and food on Saturdays, access to an indoor pool and spa next door… it was just rad.

Day one was packed full of Anthoni Gaudí, and I have no clue how I was awake enough to enjoy it, but I was, and I did. After a much needed shower, we strolled through the streets of Barcelona until we were face-to-face with La Sagrada Familia: scaffolding everywhere, weird façades, Tim Burton/Disneyland looking architecture and all. I got so excited, and even more so when the girls agreed to stand in the ridiculously long line and pay to tour the inside of the cathedral. I had seen La Sagrada Familia when I went to Barcelona after high school, we got off the bus and took pictures in front of it, but I had no idea what it was about, and didn’t get to see inside either. Now, with a few art history classes under my belt and a much greater appreciation for Gaudí’s life and work, I finally got to see his masterpiece… or at least what’s been built so far. It’s scheduled to be finished in 2030, and I plan on coming back when it’s completed.

The first thing I saw walking through the doors underneath the cubist Jesus (check out pictures, I’m not kidding) were the doors themselves. Big, bulky wood doors covered in carved letters: Jesus Christ and God in different languages, what stuck out most to me, was the phrase “que es verdad?” (what is truth?) - pretty progressive and modern for a cathedral. Next thing I know, I’m completely overwhelmed by an entire cathedral wall of stained glass in an array of colors and designs lighting up the whole interior. It was absolutely stunning. The completed portions of pillars and ceilings were incredible. The whole time I was trying to picture Gaudí the person, his thoughts and inspirations… what could possible provoke a person to think up this place and the style he developed for it. Some call it neo-Gothic. I’d like to think Gaudí can’t really be classified.

After the tour we went out for lunch. Awesome sangria, terrible cheeseburger. Never again in España. My poor digestive system is taking such a beating in this country. More Gaudí architecture followed that afternoon with a hike (even with the escalators it was still a hike) up to Parque Güell and an incredible view of the entire city, all the way out to the Mediterranean Sea. We got to see Gaudí’s house and enjoy all the Dr. Suess-esque scenery. I love all the spires, mosaic-looking artwork and trippy-wavy designs. It’s totally unique and something Barcelona prides itself in.

After a pasta dinner provided by the boys and transferred from their hostel to ours via Special K box (sketchy), we went out on a mission to find a discotec, since they are severely lacking in our Spanish hometown of Valladolid. Turned out to be a bummer of a night, none of us heard about or could find a place to go, but we had a good time (semi-drunkenly… don’t judge, mom, I’m in Europe and it’s perfectly acceptable… I love you) exploring the port area called Barceloneta (love it) at night. Shenanigans included:
purchasing COLD BEER (!!!) from some guy off the street (even sketchier than my dinner)
running around outside the Barcelona aquarium we stumbled upon trying to find somewhere to go to the bathroom….
the best McDonalds I’ve ever eaten (probably because I washed it down with previously mentioned cold beer)
wandering back to our hostel for the only sleep I’d get that weekend

By day two of Barcelona, I was in love with this city. We started the morning with free breakfast on our rooftop terrace overlooking the city (so cool!) and walked through the Arc de Triumph (who knew) and a gorgeous park with a guy playing “What a Wonderful World” on trumpet. It was almost too picturesque. We went to the Chocolate Museum, entry ticket is a bar of chocolate, of course, strolled through a really cool shopping district with lots of Moroccan stuff (Layne there are cool earrings coming your way in December), and we stumbled upon a Catalán concert in front of the cathedral. Our friend Helena did a little dancing with the locals (it was too cute) and then we were off to find the beach. And we did. And dipping my feet in the Mediterranean was just as wonderful as it sounds.

Except for the half-naked old ladies. Of which there are many. If Erica and I ever moved there, we’d probably get into it, but it takes a while to get used to the concept, not to mention the sight. It’s funny to me that I’m in the best shape I’ll probably ever be in, I’m 22 years of and far too self-conscious to even consider going topless on a beach where dozens of 70-something year-old ladies don’t give a crap and go about their business sun-bathing, reading, and chatting it up with their half-naked old lady friends. The cultural differences I notice never cease to amaze me.

After a fantastic lunch on the promanade next to the beach (my first feta cheese and salad not drenched in vinegar and olive oil in WEEKS) we went back to our hostel for a much needed siesta (locals don’t actually siesta, by the way, us extranjeros made that up…) and get ready for attempting a night out once again. Our hostel organizes trips out to certain bars where we can get deals on drinks or not pay a cover charge so we decided our best bet was to tag along. Good call, whoever’s idea it was. Us, along with a bunch of random other college kids and foreigners our age were taken to a club called Roxy. And cheers, it was a good night.

The dj was awesome, and played a lot of American music. It was wonderfully refreshing to recognize every song (and good stuff too – Jackson 5 and old school R&B and 90s music). I realized later how incredible it was to be in a club packed to the brim with so many kids my age from all over the world who spoke different languages, ate different food, listened to different music, but there we were, all in the same place, dancing to the same music and singing it all together. I love it.

The group of us that went all had a blast, Erica and I had so much fun that we were at the club when it closed down.

At 6:30 in the morning.

At least we didn’t have to find our way back to the hostel in the dark, right mom?

The next day, err, a few hours later, we checked out of our hostel and spent an afternoon sitting on our butts on the beach. I swam a little in the Mediterranean, mostly just to say I did it, cuz it was pretty cold. That night we got to enjoy yet another sleepless overnight bus back to Valladolid, and straight to class. Eww. I was pretty out of it, and I think I looked even more haggard and disoriented than I felt. Needless to say, I got a wonderful nights’ sleep that night, concluding a wonderful weekend in Barcelona. I hope it’s not the last time I see that city.

Random facts.

1. Spaniards can't say Kelsey... I will be answering to Casey or Hessy for the next three months.

2.I've never eaten more deep-fried foods in my life. Also, cold milk... no existe.

3. I'm writing a paper on King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who were the monarchs that commissioned Christopher Columbus, and turned out they were married in Valladolid. They were also cousins.

4. I watch Spanish judge judy with my padres after comida.

5. Comida means lunch, and it's the biggest meal of the day, usually comprised of one course of cooked or fried veggies drenched in olive oil (as most food is) and a second of meat, often fish, always fried.

6. I haven't had cold cereal in almost a month. If you know me well, you know how big of a deal this is.

7. I don't know why most of these are about food.

8.Spaniards aren't big on deoderant, and I just ran out of my personal supply... I went to three markets in town before finding more. And it's only a travel size.

9. People identify themselves here as Castillians before Spaniards. Regional pride is a big deal. Personally, I'd be Catalunian if I could.

10. EVERYONE owns little tiny dogs and walks them everywhere. Not a single chiuawawa (sp?) though, it's been refreshing.

more later, friends and I are going out for vino. cuz you can do that any time of day and it's perfectly acceptable.

Settling in and my germaphobe mother...

So I started classes three weeks ago, and I'm finally feeling settled in here. Which, to be honest, kinda sucks. I don't want to have a sense of normalcy, I want to be in awe every day, to notice that I take classes in a centuries-old building, that I live somewhere where I barely speak the language, that beer for breakfast is completely acceptable. I don't want to miss anything, or not appreciate where I am and what I'm so lucky to be able to do.
Classes haven't been as rough as I thought they'd be, even though we spend way more hours a day in class than we do in California. Our first week the university had us take a placement test for which Spanish class they put us in. The test was tough, I knew I wasn’t going to place very high in Spanish, and I didn’t and that’s fine. I’m going to learn a ton either way and still get credit for my Poly classes. Our Spanish classes are broken down in three parts: grammar, oral communication, and culture. The main focus is grammar, but I really enjoy the other two and have great profesores so far. I’m speaking Spanish A LOT – at meals with our parents, in our Spanish classes (profesores don’t speak much English and can’t usually translate with words very much) and hanging out in town or at bars. My pronunciation is better from being around the language so much, and my vocabulary is getting better literally by the day. It’s pretty exciting, but it’s exhausting to constantly be thinking about what you want to say and how you want to say it. It’s testing my patience just as much as my knowledge of the language.

Once in a while I get to have some-what American food for dinner! It cracks me up. French fries and hot dogs and a fried egg. The food here has been kinda weird, and cold milk just does not exist. They all drink really pasteurized milk that doesn’t need to be refrigerated until you open the box (yea, it comes in a box) and everyone drinks it warm with coffee or hot chocolate mix in it. Needless to say, I’m struggling. I haven’t seen anything remotely close to cereal in WEEKS… I’ll probably demand that my mom bring Honey Bunches of Oats to SFO when they pick me up. There’s been a lot of seafood, they’re also big on jamon (ham), but it’s weird and lunch-meaty which isn’t my fave, a loaf of bread at every meal, salad of just sliced tomatoes and lettuce drenched in olive oil… actually, just about everything is drenched in olive oil… but I’m getting used to that, as well as the eating/sleeping schedule here, which is NUTS. So bars in California have last call around 1:30 – 2... yeah, bars are just getting going at that time. I came home at 4 Friday night and the bar was absolutely packed when we left.

We’re all really amused by the fact that every club we’ve gone to blasts American dance music. I can now brag about the fact that I have danced to Michael Jackson in an Irish Pub in Spain. American music and culture is everywhere - on peoples clothing, in restaurants, stores, bars, in commercials... absolutely everywhere. But I never get the vibe that people here think they're getting a "second-hand" musical culture.

A really good drink I’ve discovered is wine and coke, called calimocho (sp?). You won’t believe me til you try it, but it tastes good, and they serve it at most bars. Also, the words bar and café are interchangeable here… people will sit down with a beer and read the morning paper, or have a coffee, or both. Crazyness. And lunch is the biggest meal of the day, served around 2, and then dinner is smaller and we eat around 9:30. I’m doing a lot of walking, our flat is 15+ minute walk to everywhere, which makes me feel better about all the food and beer I’ve been eating…

And my mother is a crazy is a germaphobe… Kristen (my roommate) and I have to spray down the shower with Spanish Simple Green and rinse it off every morning. No joke. And she straight up smacked my wrist when I grabbed a handrail in one of the university buildings when she walked us to school on the first day.

All in all, life is good here. Hopefully I can update again soon and write about our trips to Barcelona, Burgos, Segovia, and plans for Granada and Sevilla in a couple weeks! adios dear friends

hola!

I'm beginning to write three weeks into my trip to Spain. Better late than never, eh? Just for starters, here's a brief run-down of what I'm doing here: I'm living in Valladolid, Spain (2 hours north of Madrid, the capital of the Castille-León region), studying at the university with 45 other students from Cal Poly. We're taking Spanish language courses from Castillian Spanish profesors as well as courses from Cal Poly taught by Dr. Hiltpold, the coolest prof on record, in my opinion. I'm taking his Humanities class on the Culture of Spain, as well as doing an independant study project (that I have yet to begin research for... oops). We have Spanish families and a roommate from Poly, my roommate Kristen is wonderful and a great friend, and are parents are incredibly hospitable and really funny, but details later. We spent the first week of our trip touring Madrid and Toledo, and have three day trips throughout the quarter to Burgos, Segovia and Salamanca. Aside from that, we have weekends and some holidays from school to travel on our own. So far I've gone to Barcelona, and in the process of planning trips to Paris and England.
More detailed posts to come soon, I'm off to have dinner with my family. At 9 pm. Because Spaniards are crazy and that's what they do here.