Más largo...Bueno Suerte

Greetings from Barcelona!

Rewind to Tuesday. Tuesday morning we got up bright and early to go to Franco’s tomb and El Escorial.

Really I am amazed at how such a magnificent tomb has been created in the name of a widely unliked dictator. Then again, he commissioned the building of his tomb while still in power and prisoners made it, so I guess the people didn’t really have such a say in the matter. Then again, Franco did return strength to Spain, but seriously, a tomb this big to him? No thanks. His tomb is situated at the top of a mountain and can be seen from hundreds of kilometers because atop the tomb is placed a very large rock cross. And the inside is just as beautiful on the inside as the great view atop the mountain outside.

Following the trip to see Franco (the falsely-beloved Jew-hating dictator) we went to El Escorial which is a city and a site. The site, which is enormous, was King Philip II’s (yes, no?) summer home. It includes one of the greatest libraries in the world and is considered the “eighth wonder of the world”. It has tombs for all of the royal family, although many remain empty, and up until now, from Philip II’s death, every King of Spain and Queen who was also mother to a King of Spain has been buried there beneath the altar. But, it turns out the current King will not have a spot beneath the altar as it has finally been filled. Beyond these tombs are more for other extended members of the royal family. Many of these remain unfilled, so I guess there’s room for the extended royal family. Wow, I’m just realizing I saw way too many tombs in one day. Seriously, why would you want to do that?

The altar and church at El Escorial is breathtaking and to be honest I can’t explain it and I couldn’t take pictures at El Escorial so google images should be able to help you out.

Following the tour of El Escorial (which took a good 3 hours at least, because, as said, its enormous) we went back to the hotel. Most of the kids on ISA hung out in the hotel that night as Toledo seems pretty dead on the week nights so we all relaxed and hung out for the night in bigger groups.

Bright and early Wednesday morning we awoke to pack the buses will all of our stuff, and magically, this time, all of our luggage fit on the bus. (On the trip from Madrid to Toledo some of the luggage had to be put up top.) We then began the very long ride to Barcelona. We left Toledo around 9:40. Of course, the one time none of us are hungry at what we consider the normal time (around noon) we stop for lunch at a rest stop. (Yum! Not really, actually, pretty gross seems about right. As I’ve said in the past, or so I think, many times you’re not quite sure of what you’re eating. And also, there is egg in everything here. And some of you know my opinion on eggs- they are a breakfast food to be left on their own. Yet here, they’re in EVERYTHING – and by everything I mean I have definitely had noodles with a hard-boiled egg in them. And on the subject of weird food, here’s a tip. If you are in Spain and encounter a food that looks American you should not under any circumstances eat it unless you like the taste of vinegar. For instance, hot dog? No, hot dog boiled in Vinegar. The food is like insta-puke.)

Anyway, after our many rest stops for g-d knows what reasons we arrived in beautiful Barcelona around 7 pm. So in total, a 9 hour and 20 minute bus ride. Fun, right?

Our bus pulled up on Gran Via and dropped us off and we all lined up against a building until our name was called and we all dispersed with our host families. It was weird to suddenly be separated. Anyway, we hauled a cab and went home, which wasn’t quite that easy seeing that my suitcase couldn’t get into the tiny opening to the trunk because it’s so thick. Really, it’s an impressive bag, and I will not blame the fact that it didn’t fit on over-packing, because I would never do that.

We arrived home to meet our host Dad, Ricardo, and their son Ricar, who goes by Ricky (which of course is my brother’s name yet my Ricky is only 2 years older.) Their daughter, Maria was not home yet, as she works at McDonalds until late on Wednesday nights (the father is not so happy about this). We had dinner here and just relaxed with our family for the night.

I really like my host family. We firstly live in a very nice apartment in a great area of the city and Ashley and I share a large room. The mom and dad are nice and Ricar is so cute and really reminds me of Ricky. I don’t know Maria that well, but I will tell you more about her in a second.

On a funnier note, when we were preparing for bed that night, my host mom, Silvia, came to tell Ashley and I something. What Silvia was saying was that Ricardo and her are separated but they have a very good relationship still and he doesn’t live here but he does come around from time to time and still has a key. (Will someone please tell me what separated means? I mean is this the period between marriage and divorce in which you decide whether you should stay together or not so you take a little “time to think?”) I of course, being the dumb ass I am did not quite understand the picture. Seriously, the one time I really had to understand I only half listened and reacted with enthusiastic Sis and Valles. But, you see, a few minutes ago we were talking about packing lunch for school days. I thought my mom was still on this subject and that she was saying that we could come back here for siesta but the family is separated for it and we would be the only ones here because everyone is separated so I, naturally, said that’s fine. In reality it turns out, that I enthusiastically nodded and responded with “si” meaning I understood to the fact that she and Ricardo are separated. Maybe she realized I didn’t get the picture? Ashley certainly did because I was pretty funny. But really, I wonder if my host mom realizes that maybe I didn’t mean to be that happy about her separation. Haha.

On the topic of siesta and those who think I have it and all of Spain partakes in it (echem, Smitty and probably all of the rest of you as well): here’s a news flash. Siesta died out long ago. Shops still close down but it’s no longer a “rest time”. Now it’s just lunch time instead. Really, mention it to someone and they’ll laugh. It’s an eating and coming back time, not a rest time. They think it’s pretty funny that we think they’re that laid back and that it exists. I’ve now heard this from 2 people. So say goodbye to the idea of siesta.

The next morning after arriving we had to meet near the University at 9:30 am to take our language placement exams. So, Ashley and I got up at 7:30 because we needed to find our way to the university as well. So 7:30 rolls around and our host sister Maria is in the bathroom that we share with her. 7:45, still in there. 7:55 the same. We’ve got to be out of here by 8:30. 8 comes around, and she’s still locked in there. Finally, at 8:15 she comes out, meets me (because we hadn’t met the night before because she came in, got on the phone, and went to bed) and grabbed her sandwich and left the apartment. So, we figure this naturally can’t continue seeing that we were up for 45 minutes before we were able to use the bathroom and Ashley wasn’t able to shower. But, we also figured that we’ll wait to get our schedules before we bring anything up.

We took our test, which consisted of a 80 question MC grammar section, an essay, and an interview with a teacher to see whether we would be placed in beginning, intermediate, advanced, or superior language classes. (Superior is for those who are fluent and they don’t have to take a Spanish class like the rest of us.) The test wasn’t too bad, but my interview was very weird. Really it wasn’t an interview it was just time for us to talk and for them to assess our skills. So, most people just had a conversation with the teacher. I didn’t though because for some reason the guy that interviewed me said something like this to me. “Say something to me in the past.” “About what?” “Anything, just tell me about the past in past tense.” So I did. Then he said “Valle, say something to me in the future.” “About what?” “Anything.” And then he asked me to do the same with subjunctive. Basically he asked me to rattle off sentences in different tenses.

Following the test Ash and I came home to grab lunch and then we went to the ISA center for a meeting. Following our meeting we had a walking tour of the Barrí Gotic. The Catedral de Barcelona is really quite possibly the prettiest church I have ever entered. And I tend to think I’ve been in many churches (especially this trip), but really, this one is amazing. Lining the walls of the inside are different altars to all of the saints, which then continues outside to even more. It’s really an amazing place. Again, a place to use google images for because my camera was dying at this point.

We then came back here for dinner and then me, Ashley, and our friends Jeff, Courtney, and Kerri went out. And really, Barcelona is supposed to be a city that starts to go to sleep around 4 am but I think that’s only a weekend thing. That night seemed dead, but we also don’t know where to go just yet so maybe it’s not so dead.

Friday morning we returned to school for orientation which really was just some big meeting where the told us that our classes are in different rooms every day. This is really quite stupid. My school, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, houses international students and is an international as well as a Spanish school. Somewhere along the way though, UPF started to overbook and now has more classes than it does rooms depending on the day, so each day your room changes. For instance, in my Spanish class, Mondays and Tuesdays are in room 191, whereas Wednesdays they’re in 53, and Thursdays and Fridays they’re in 175. Stupid I know. The school is also configured stupidly in that the buildings all run into each other but you can’t walk from one to the other without walking outside. Really, it’s quite dumb. We also got the results of our language placement and I placed into advanced which is higher than expected but perfectly fine by me. It’s slightly challenging right now, but nothing I can’t handle. It’s supposed to be hard, I’m sure. I’ll only get better.

After orientation we walked down to the beach (we’re only about 5 minutes away) and had lunch there which was nice. Even in January, the beach is nice. (Well, it’s nice to me, not to the people that actually live here throughout the year.) In the afternoon we had another meeting followed by a bus tour of the city. The bus tour was nice but its impossible to get a glimpse of everything on a bus tour, so I will be back to all of the places.

That night some friends and I went bar hopping around the Barrí Gotic. We’re still trying to find all of the good local places and we’re still learning where the best and cheapest places are. (I live in an affluent neighborhood so at night it can be hard to stay around here because it really does seem dead.)

Saturday we met some friends on Passeig de Gràcia to explore more of our area. We went into one of Gaudi’s works, La Pedrera or Casa Batalló. Normally the roof is open and you can see over the city but there is currently an exhibit about Venice so it was closed. So we saw the exhibit, which was great because I love Venice and then we went back out to Gràcia. Again, google images Casa Batallo. You won’t be sorry. Then you can be really jealous of what I can see in person. If you’re that jealous you’re all welcome to visit.

That night we went to our friends apartment and I cooked for about 7 people. I would like to give myself credit for making a mean tomato soup from scratch. I will give most of the credit though to my dad, because I guess it is his expertise that makes me an even okay cook, and by cook, I mean concoctor because I make everything up. We then went out to more bars along Las Ramblas which was a lot of fun. (Pictures of our experiences to be added soon.)

Saturday morning Ash and I got up and went to look at the Sagrada Familia. Really, I cannot figure out how Gaudi fathomed his artwork prior to creating it. Everything I’ve seen that is created by him leaves me in speechless awe and almost brings tears to my eyes. His precision with detail and the meticulous ways of his work are incredible and I could seriously live in the park outside of the Sagrada Familia and never be happier. Pictures of this to be added too, but seriously, google images this and you may want to move into the park and be a homeless bum with me. No joke. Afterwards we strolled back to where we live which was about 35 minutes which isn’t bad. I love that I live so close to such beautiful works. That night we stayed in as Sunday is a pretty relaxed day in Spain.

Monday was our first day of class. Firstly, let me say that for the first two weeks we have intensive language classes which are 2.5 hours a day. This therefore is the equivalent of 1 semester worth a classes at Pitt and will in and of itself count as another class which is really nice. It’s one big downfall is that it’s from 10-12:30 every day which means I have to leave my house by 9:15 am. The classes will then be pushed back from 9:30-11 when the regular classes start. The advanced is difficult because I’m a little behind because I have not learned some of the things being covered yet and everything is in Spanish so it’s pretty difficult. My teacher also jumps from one topic to the other like a crazy person, which is difficult enough to follow in English let alone Spanish. I find myself very frustrated at times because I hate to feel stupid, but I have to let it sink in that I will be able to comprehend it if I speak to the teacher after class. (The reason I find myself so confused is because I miss the fact that the teacher has randomly moved onto another random subject and I’m trying to connect the dots between the grammar before and the grammar when she’s moved on and I’m totally lost. Turns out, she’s really just teaching like a scatter-brain.) The class is moving pretty fast, which again, is difficult but is okay because it really will push me to become more fluent and will make me more comfortable with speaking.

After class I had lunch with some friends and then relaxed for a while. Ash and I went out that afternoon to explore more of our area which at times can seem almost boring, but I think that’s just because we can’t afford it.

Tuesday consisted of about the same type of thing except it also included a meeting with ISA which was totally useless but just told us of some upcoming events. That night was the Sevilla v. Barcelona game which is one of the biggest games of the year. About 10 of us went out to find this bar which ended up being closed for the night so we found another bar near las Ramblas and watched the game together there. Unfortunately the game was uneventful but its fun to get involved in the spirit of it and we had a good time. Also, although we tied Sevilla is out and we will move up since we tied them on their home turf as well. (I’m still a little confused about that rule because we’ve now tied them twice, on both of our fields. Any boys out there get it? Dad?)

Wednesday I had class and then my friend Laura and I explored Las Ramblas and the area around it during the day. We found great shopping around the area for cheap prices. (The Christmas sales here last until the beginning of March so even though its early on, you have to shop now, or you pay double later. I promise I haven’t bought anything I haven’t needed.) It’s been really fun exploring the city thus far and I love how accessible everything is to us. I’ve found a lot of things that I’d love to do when I have more time (little museums and such) and when I’m not wandering aimlessly. I then met up with a couple of friends throughout the afternoon/night for some drinks and to catch up which has been nice. Living in a city allows for millions of meeting places in the middle so we are all taking advantage of finding new places to call our own.

Today I had class again and then I came home and attempted siesta which failed miserably as they are doing construction on my building which lasts from 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon every day so the idea of siesta is killed due to the constant hammering and drilling. We then met to go to the Picasso museum which was again amazing and I had a great time. A good part of the exhibit was dedicated to Picasso’s study of one of Valezquez’s greatest works which we had seen in El Prado in Madrid and I loved Picasso’s interpretation as he recreated the painting in his own style. (Again, if I had internet I’d tell you the name of the painting.) The museum had a large collection of his earlier works but not his later works which was odd because there was very little of the abstract Picasso artwork that we all expected. Paris stole it.

That’s all for now…all 9 pages. If any of you read this, you’re crazy.

Miss you all! ¡Hasta luego!