Tarragona

This past Saturday, I took a day trip with a small group from my program to the city of Tarragona. It's a short train ride away, and boasts a rich Roman and medieval history. It used to be called Tarraco, and was the capital of the Roman province of Tarraconense, the largest province on the Iberian peninsula at the time. It even served as the capital of the entire Roman empire for a short time during Caesar Augustus' reign.

After a quick cafe con leche at the train station, we set off to go see the amphitheater ruins. It was built right off the sea, so from inside we had a beautiful view of the Mediterranean. We were treated to an impromptu showing of a group of castelleros (human tower), who were filming inside the amphitheater, so that was a nice surprise.

              Castelleros in the amphitheater

We then went to an old Roman government building that was also used as a prison during Franco's time. We climbed up a super small, narrow staircase to get to the roof, where we had a great view of the entire city. 

                        Tarragona

After that, we headed over to the Roman circus, which had a lot of the tunnels (that would have led to the track) preserved. It was impressionable to picture how big this thing was--our tour guide said it usually took 10 minutes per lap! Also, he said that the chariot races were actually more dangerous and had more fatalities than the gladiator fights in the amphitheater. We then made our way to see the medieval cathedral (it's almost a shame that no cathedral can compare, so far, to the one in Toledo). After that, we walked around the old Roman muralla (wall) that used to surround the city. There's a great little path going around there, and it was amazing to see a structure that has been around for thousands of years (it was built around the same time as the Great Wall of China!). 

                            Roman Muralla 

Overall, a good day trip with a lot of interesting history. Also cool because I had learned a lot of the information in my Barcelona: The City & its History class, so it was good to get a visual to go with the information I've been learning. 

Upcoming trips: AMSTERDAM this coming weekend, DUBLIN the weekend after that, and then ATHENS, SANTORINI, ROMA & either NAPLES or FLORENCE (any suggestions between going north or south of Roma?) for SB'10. Really looking forward to these trips :)

Ciao!

Lesson 1: Set more than one alarm when hopping an early flight.

So, if you hadn't heard, I missed my flight to Paris last weekend. Yes. My flight was at 10:05am, so I set my alarm for 6:30am in order to have time to shower, have some breakfast, etc. Wellllll, I woke up at 11am. This was clearly my fault, and if you don't know this about me, I am a chronic snooze presser. I often set my alarm one, even two hours earlier than I need to wake up and just continuously press snooze. I'm not really sure why I do this, or when I started doing this, but the fact is, I just do. Therein lied my problem: my watch alarm has no snooze option, so I can imagine 6:30am rolled around, I hit one button to turn it off, and that was the end of it. So after freaking out and calling my parents at 4am their time (Sorry, mom and dad) to see what I should do, I decided that I should just defer my Parisian adventure to May, when I have three weeks to travel. I think it will work out pretty well. My hope is that everyone gets a quota of one travel mess up, and then it can't happen again!

Other then that, I just finished up the week from hell: midterms. It really started the week before this one, with a paper due and a poetry exam. This week, I had a grammar quiz, a history exam, a culture/communication exam, and a literature exam. Oh, and three of those were on the same day. Generally speaking, I think they went well.

Tomorrow, I'm taking a day trip with my program to Tarragona. Fun fact: In Roman times, the city was named Tarraco, and at one point, was the capital of the entire Roman empire. Score one for Catalunya.

Also, I JUST booked a flight for Amsterdam for next weekend (March 12-14). I PROMISE that I will be able to post a successful weekend journey where I actually made it the country this time.

Rumination: WHY do the older Spanish women here think it's ok/attractive/flattering/appropriate to dye their hair bright, unnatural colors? I'm talking bubblegum pink, fire engine red, and Mardi Gras purple.

Funny story: Last night, I needed to borrow a hair straightener from the girls down the hall. I told my roommate Beata that I would be right back and that I had to go molest the girls for their hair straightener. Clearly I can't speak English anymore, and what I wanted to say was I was going to go bother them for their straightener. Molestar=to bother.

That's all folks, have a great weekend!

Operation Anne Frank was a complete and utter failure.

So I have officially been here for almost 2 months. I can't believe how the time has flown by, but I feel like I've really been able to do a lot and I finally feel completely comfortable with the city. Although it has rained more days than I would like to admit, we're starting to get more sunshine and warmer days, and all Beata and I can think about is how we want it to be beach weather! If it's a nice day, we try to eat lunch out on the residence hall patio, and it's a nice change to sitting inside, moping about how it could possibly be raining again. Classes are going fine, we're starting to get into more exams and papers, so I'm staying busy with that.

As far as trips go, the only place I've been outside of Barcelona since Poblet was Sitges. It's a small beach down a 30-minute train ride from Barcelona, and is known for having the biggest and best Carnaval party around. So naturally, I decided to go on Fat Tuesday, which is the final night of the Carnaval celebration. Beata, myself and our friend Olivia showed up at the train station around 10pm, and the place was packed with people headed to Sitges. Beata and I figured we would be fine not dressing up (Carnaval is kind of like Europe's version of Halloween), but we immediately felt a little out of place in our normal looking clothes- everyone was wearing outrageous costumes, complete with face makeup and the like. Either way, we hopped on the train, which was not an easy process. The platform was packed, and the minute the train pulled up, people were pushing and shoving to get on, but luckily we pushed through and found a seat. The train was packed and you could feel the excitement- people were blowing whistles, singing songs and drinking their 40s. I felt bad for the few people who were on their way to somewhere besides Sitges and had to deal with the rowdy crowd of Carnaval seekers, but before we knew it, the train had pulled up to the station, and everyone piled out. We started walking through the streets, and stopped a small shop that had some costume items. I bought some mouse ears and decided that my red dress and ears could pass as a weak Minnie Mouse costume. We headed through the streets looking for a place to post up, and we found a spot where the parade had just started. This parade was no ordinary parade; first off, it was the longest parade I have ever experienced. Secondly, it was filled with drag queens galore, lots of dancers in skimpy outfits, and ridiculous costumes. But I kid you not, I had the best time watching this parade go by! We called people over and took pictures with some of our favorites, and the atmosphere made it impossible to not have a good time. We spotted a man in full geisha garb across the way from us, and after the parade had gone by, he became our new friend (ok "friend" might be a stretch, but we took some good pics with him). After the parade ended, the party continued on down to the beach. Everyone was just dancing and having a good time, and we danced the night away until the wee hours of the morning. I can definitely say that this night was one of my favorites of the whole trip, and something I won't soon forget.

Last weekend, Kat Sheffield, one of my Theta sisters who is studying in Alicante, came to visit Barcelona! The weekend was filled with lots of sight-seeing and a whole lot of kiting pictures :) We started off with a visit to La Sagrada Familia, and then did a Gaudi walking tour, seeing his architecture and designs on Passeig de Gracia, kind of like the 5th Avenue of Barcelona. We saw Casa Battlo and La Pedrera, two of his famous designs, and then headed down to Plaza Catalunya, and finally Las Ramblas. We stopped at La Boqueria, the famous open market, got some delicious ice cream and walked around a little. On Saturday, we had a gorgeous, sunny day, so took the opportunity to visit Parc Guell. It was crowded, but we were able to find a spot on the windy Gaudi bench and soak up some sun while listening to a band. We then explored more of the park, and of course went up to the highest point where there is a great view of the city. We also saw the Arc de Triomph, one of my faves, and had lunch in Parc de la Ciutadella. That evening, Kat and I decided on a whim to catch the Barca futbol game! We got great seats, and watched Barca shutout the other team 4-0. That night, some of the Spanish students in the dorm joined us and we went to Razzmatazz, a club with 6 different rooms that play different kinds of music. It was a really great weekend, and I enjoyed being able to show off Barcelona and revisit all the touristy sights.

This weekend = PARIS! Beata already left, and I'm leaving tomorrow morning to meet up with her and her friends that live there. I'm excited for my first weekend trip outside of Spain, and looking forward to what will surely be a good time.

Also, we finally booked spring break! Flying into Athens, then spending 4 days in Santorini, flying back to Athens, and then on to Rome!! We are considering training it to Naples from there, but that's still up in the air. I am SO excited :)

That's all for now, Paris update after this weekend!

Madrid! Toledo! Poblet! Oh my!

So it's been a while since I have updated. Sorry for that. For the record, I haven't been doing anything too terribly exciting during the week-- all my classes are going fine, I like my language and grammar class (despite the 9am start time) and surprisingly, I am enjoying my Hispanic poetry class. I'm kind of enjoying analyzing poems, looking for metaphors and underlying themes... it's definitely a challenge, seeing as I was never that great at analyzing poems in English, but it's keeping me engaged. We were supposed to have our first fieldtrip this afternoon in my Barcelona: The City and it's History class, but it started pouring down rain about 15 minutes in so it was called off. It has definitely been a transition to go from studying physics and anatomy for countless hours in the library, to having a lot more reading and analyzing and discussion about literature and history. I can't decide if I like this change or not... it's a bit drastic, so I feel a little bit out of my element, but regardless, I think I'll definitely learn a lot.

The past couple weekends have been a lot of fun! January 28-30, the whole Advanced Spanish Studies group (all 30 or so of us) took a "study tour" to Madrid. We met bright and early on Thursday morning at the train station, had some breakfast (the fresh squeezed orange juice here is AMAZING!) and boarded. I started watching Twilight in Spanish, but at some point dozed off. It was pretty entertaining while it lasted though. We arrived late morning, and right away checked into our hotel. The hotel was really nice, and I stayed in a room with two other girls from my program on the 8th floor. Seeing as this will definitely be the nicest accommodations I will be staying at for the remainder of my time in Europe (hellooo hostels), I savored it. Right away, we headed over to la Casa de la Villa/Ayuntamiento, which is the equivalent of the town hall building. We had a guided tour, and got to see the room where the city officials still hold their meetings. (**Disclaimer: My head was overwhelmed with historical facts this weekend, so I'll try to throw them in whenever I remember, which may not be very often). After the tour, we all headed over to a little restaurant on a side street for a traditional Spanish comida of tapas. Everything was delicious, excluding the tripa (pig intestines) that I tried. Oh well, check that one off the list. We then went on a guided walking tour of the city, with special emphasis placed on what Madrid was like before the Bourbons were in control. After that, we headed over to the Prado museum, and were able to see the most famous paintings housed there. My favorite was Las Meninas by Velazquez, probably because I had seen Picasso's interpretation of this painting at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona.  But we also saw some great works by Goya and El Greco, too. That ended our first day, and later that evening, a bunch of us went to Kapital, the biggest club in Madrid; it has 7 stories, and each floor has a different type of music playing, so that was a lot of fun.

The following day was probably my favorite of the weekend. We took a charter bus to Toledo, which is about an hour outside of Madrid. It's a beautiful old town, with narrow cobblestone streets and a lot of character. We went to a small church that houses one of El Greco's most famous works called "El Entierro del Conde Orgaz," and then headed over to an old synagogue. At one point in time, Toledo used to have a large population of not only Catholics, but Muslims and Jews as well, which was very uncommon for a Spanish town in the 14th century. After the synagogue, we went to el Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, which was built in the 15th century. It had a great center courtyard with orange trees and an old well where the Franciscan monks used to grow their own food. Finally, we had a guided tour of the Catedral de Toledo. It took 250 years to build, and it shows-- jaws were dropping at how intricate everything was! I have never seen a more beautiful church, with so many different artistic styles represented. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but I was able to snap one of a depiction of the heaven's opening up in the ceiling. No way my picture does it any sort of justice, but I will always remember how beautiful this cathedral was. That concluded our day trip to Toledo, and we were able to get out of the bus and snap some panoramic views before heading back to Madrid.

Our last day in Madrid, we were able to tour the Palacio Real, where the Kings and Queens used to live, but don't anymore. The rooms were really extravagant, filled with ornate ceiling paintings and huge wall-to-wall rugs. We concluded our visit by going to el Reina Sofia, a contemporary art museum that was built from a huge old hospital. The main event was definitely seeing Picasso's Guernika, which was very cool. Seeing as it was a contemporary art museum, there were some interesting, shall we say, "paintings" of seemingly blank canvases, along with some other strange pieces. There was some confusion as to how certain things were considered art, but that's neither here nor there.

Off to class, I'll add the Poblet day trip stuff later!

//Poblet\\
Ok, so like promised, I will add my Poblet day trip on here. Better late than never, right? Anyway, a few weekends back, IES took us on a day trip to this small little town about an hour and a half outside of Barcelona. We showed up outside of the Hard Rock Cafe in Plaza Catalunya for our 8am departure, a bit sleep-deprived and more than anything, looking forward to being able to nap on the bus. We arrived and immediately went to the monastery that houses 30 or so monks who live there and take care of the place. We got to see where their old living quarters were, the dining hall, library, etc. Overall, pretty cool with a long history, but nothing that really wowed me. After the monastery tour, we loaded back on the bus and took the quick drive to a nearby town called Montblanc. They took us to a restaurant called El Call de Montblanc, where we ate a traditional Catalan meal called calçotado. Basically, they give you a bib, and for good reason! There is a contraption that I like to call the "wine bong," where you grab the handle of the jar and directly pour the wine into your mouth. No wine glasses, nothing. As you may be able to imagine, it can get a little messy, but fun nonetheless! Then they bring out an appetizer of spring onions. Basically, you peel the charred outer shell, dip them in this AMAZING sauce (tomato, almond, etc.) and then just eat them whole. Normally, I wouldn't find an onion appetizer very... appetizing, but these were really good, and it was a fun and messy experience! Then they bring out a gigantic plate of more appetizers like baked potatoes and artichoke, and then comes out the meat. All types you could imagine, including blood sausage, which I finally decided I should probably try to see if I was missing out on something. No. Not a fan. Then they bring out dessert, which was a typical Catalan favorite called crema catalana. It reminds me of flan with caramelized sugar on top, and was really delicious. After stuffing our faces with this delicious meal, we had some free time to explore Montblanc. A group of us basically just blindly walked around, and found a great little lookout hill where we could see the whole town. It was a super windy day, but we were able to enjoy the sunshine and have a nice photo shoot atop this hill. That pretty much concluded the day trip, and I can say that I ended up really enjoying it.

Rain, Rain, Go away...

It's raining here for the third day in a row. Apparently this is rare for Barcelona, so it's a little irritating. Also, since my unfortunate run-in with an umbrella thief a couple weeks ago, I have yet to purchase a replacement. I think an IKEA run is in order...

It's ok though, the rain here is more like a drizzle, so I don't mind walking around in it. On one of my walks the other day, I discovered a cute little Mexican restaurant called "Las Mañanitas," right by our dorm! We're going to check it out soon, and I'm hoping it will become a regular treat where I can find tacos con carne asada, and maybe a good marg every now and again :)

Started one of my new classes yesterday, and another one today (in about an hour... class from 5:30-7pm will take some getting used to). So far, so good, seems like as long as I keep up with the readings and participate in discussion, a good grade will follow.

Plan for this evening is to lay low, do some homework, and maybe do some laundry, seeing as I'm quickly running out of clothes. I FINALLY had a Skype convo yesterday that lasted more than 30 seconds before the internet connection crapping out. Hooray! It was great to see my roomies, I miss them, but we'll survive a few months apart :)

Happy first day back at school for everyone back in the States, I'm thinking about you all (and Facebook creeping) lots!

Sandy

Settling in.

So, my room is a pit.

I'm looking around and a little amazed that in less than a week, my roommate and I have created this sort of explosion involving clothes, shoes, chips and salsa, pringles, and toiletries. Let's be honest though, when I say "my roommate and I," what I really mean is 90% belongs to me, and the other 10% is just on her side, but could still be my stuff. So. I'm done with class for the day, and this will be my project. All of my past roommates know that when I'm in the mood to clean, I do it, and I do it well.

But before I take on this massive project, here's what's up: Orientation week has officially come to a close, and starting next week, the process of stairstepping our way into the semester will continue. My language class began this week, and I will add two more classes to the mix on Monday: "Barcelona and the Latin American Literary Boom," and "Language, Culture, and Communication." The Monday after that, I'll start my two university courses at Universitat Pompeu Fabra: "Barcelona: The City and its History," and "Hispanic Poetry, Poets, and Songwriters." It's been nice having a lot of downtime, but I'm ready to get into the swing of things and have a schedule. Basically, I'm craving being busy again :)

As far as the orientation activities, I've really enjoyed this week. Just as a preface, Barcelona is made up of several barrios, or neighborhoods, that are each unique in their own way and known for different things. They say it's almost like having several little cities within the greater city of Barcelona, so this week has involved a lot of getting to know and experience the different flavors of each barrio. On Monday, we took a tour of the Barri Gòtic, or the Gothic quarter. This is the oldest part of the city, and has a lot of Roman history. The streets are narrow, and there are a lot of beautiful, old churches and some interesting museums as well. Something that I love about Barcelona and just Europe in general is how they have integrated modern businesses into these old areas of town- you still feel like you're surrounded by history, and the integrity of the buildings hasn't been destroyed, but you can find great little shops and restaurants everywhere. Later on in the day, each language class was assigned a neighborhood to explore and participate in a gymkhana, or scavenger hunt. My group was assigned to the Gràcia district, a posh neighborhood on the upper part of town (which just means it's closer to the mountains than the beach). It's an alternative, young, and trendy area with theaters that show independent films, little cafes, and restaurants with lots of international flavors. My group had a rough start to the scavenger hunt, and wasted a lot of time on the first few questions. We thought about quitting, but we finally got the hang of it, and I think we all really ended up enjoying it. Not all the questions were obvious, so that gave us a chance to ask locals questions about the history of a church or clocktower, etc.  So two and a half hours after starting, we finally finished the scavenger hunt with a newfound knowledge of the area. On Wednesday, we took a tour of Barcelona's Modernist architecture, which basically took us down one of the major streets, Passeig de Gràcia. This is one of the streets I take to get to the IES center and my classes, so it was cool to look at it with a more detailed eye. We saw La Pedrera and Casa Battló, the houses designed by Gaudí, and several other interesting buildings along the way. It's easy to become complacent and forget to look around and notice the details around you, so it was a good experience to hear the history behind the lampposts or sidewalk tiles (all designed, of course, by Gaudí). By Thursday, I think people were getting a little annoyed with all these excursions, so a smaller group of us actually went to El Museo de Xocolat, or the Chocolate Museum. Bad call, people. It was like a wine tasting, but with chocolate. We learned all about how chocolate is made, and how the flavor variations come about. For example, if a cacao tree is planted in the same soil as a farm that grows coffee beans, even if that farm is not that close by, the chocolate will absorb some of those flavors and will have a hint of coffee. We also learned why dark chocolate is healthier, and why some people in the know don't believe that white chocolate is actually chocolate (ask me about it!). Of course the best part was getting to taste test, yummmmm. So basically, I'm really glad I decided to go.

I love how easy it is to get around the city, so I have been walking places every chance I get. I'm starting to get my bearings, and it feels good. Walking through the Arc de Triomph last night to get home was satisfying, and something I could only get in Europe! I'm looking forward to familiarizing myself even more with Barcelona, discovering other places in Spain, and visiting other countries. Paris? Definitely. London? Sure. Rome? Why not?! The possibilities are endless, and that's an exciting prospect.

Sandy

On my own.

So mom and dad left on the 3rd, and I was staying at my cousin's place for a while, and now I'm living in the dorm! I can't believe I've been here for two weeks...  But for an update:

Palma de Mallorca was great! We got there on the 31st, and I was tooo tired for the first round of sightseeing, so I took a nice nap. Watched a movie with the cousins while my aunt and uncle cooked, and then got ready to celebrate the new year. We brought in the new year with some champagne and a great show (or shows, rather) of fireworks all along the opposite coast, which was visible from my aunt and uncle's balcony. The next day, we were all invited to eat at my aunt and uncle's family friends place. They live in an old, old house from the 15th century! The house is huge and has all these great little nooks and places to explore, and it's filled with so much history. The man of the house cooked up a delicious paella, and we all ate and talked. [**Nerd alert**] Afterwards, he showed us his personal library with all these ancient looking books; part of me felt like I was walking through Dumbledore's office.

We got back to Barcelona, and I said bye to the parentals and headed over to Ricky's place. We had a pretty cozy little set-up: ten people in a 4-bedroom apartment with one toilet and one shower (which was by far the worst shower I have ever experienced). But we somehow made it work, and had a blast together! The first night, we went to this little cave bar called L'Ovella Negra; pretty famous for their cheap sangria, which was definitely delicious. The next day, we woke up early and took the train to the Torres vineyard, about 30 minutes outside of Barcelona in the beautiful Penedès region. We were all pretty wiped out from the lack of sleep from the night before, but once we got to the wine tasting, everyone seemed to perk up a little :) We got to try 5 different wines- 3 reds, 1 white, and 1 pink. They told us what foods they would taste good with, and showed us the proper way to smell the wine (don't swish it around, that oxygenates it and may make a not so great wine seem ok). A couple days later, we went to the Barcelona vs. Sevilla game at Camp Nou! Being inside the stadium was an awesome experience, and despite the rain and the loss, I really enjoyed it.

I loved hanging out with my cousin and all his friends, but was definitely excited to meet everyone on my program. So on Friday the 8th, I woke up early and packed all my things, then took an extended journey to the IES center in Plaça Catalunya (OK, it was an unintentional extended journey, I may have gone the wrong way on the metro and walked around the entire plaza before finding the correct street to turn on...) but at least I'm learning my way around the city! Rick and I took a taxi to my dorm with all of my luggage, which I somehow have added an entire suitcase worth of things since I got here, and I met my new roomie, Beata! The three of us went to IKEA, which will be my first of many trips, seeing as I had never been before and I LOVE IT, and got some towels, etc. When we got back, I met two of the three other American guys, Jay and Joe, and as the night went on, we decided to go out. The cool thing about my dorm is that the five of us are the only Americans- the rest are Spanish, German, French, Dutch, etc., and it's been really cool to meet them and talk to them. Anyway, it was the Russian guy Sergei (sp?)'s last night, so we all went to L'Ovella Negra to celebrate, and then to a dance club called Bikini. We were rolling pretty deep, with about 15 people with us. Not only were a handful of people from the dorm with us, but we were joined by some of his other friends, who came anywhere from Peru to Norway!  I would say our first night was a success.

Anyway, this post is way too long, so if you get through it, props to you! Basically, my language class starts tomorrow, my IES classes the next week, and my UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) courses the week after that. I'm looking forward to getting on a more regular schedule, and now that I have internet in my room, I plan on updating this more often so my posts aren't ridiculously long.

Ciao!

Sandy