Well as of today I have officially been here a week, which is incredibly hard to believe. Here’s a really quick breakdown of what’s already happened.
Friday:
Leaving was rough. I just felt unprepared right up until my plane left. Then, once I got on my first plane there were a few moments that the plane jumped or something and I thought I was going to die. I don’t think it was any worse than any of the other plane rides I’ve ever been on but since this whole trip was just so difficult to work out, I figured the plane crashing would have been pretty consistent with the way things had been going. Then, on the second plane from Newark to Barcelona, a woman had a panic attack (supposedly) so we had to turn around from the runway to let her off. An HOUR later, we were back on the runway. My second plane was actually a lot smaller than the first one, which had screens on every seat and plugs for your laptop. I think it was a 777? Something like that…a domestic plane with three rows of seats…huge. I got fed a lot too, so I guess Continental is doing alright these days. I remember when they quit serving meals altogether and just gave one snack. But I got a chicken enchilada (so random) which was probably 10x better than the hard as rock sandwiches they used to always give. The second plane didn’t have as good of a selection of movies as the first so I read my book and apparently the people I was sitting next to knew Khaled Hosseini, the author of the book I’m reading, which was pretty cool.
Saturday:
Since we were delayed an hour we didn’t land until about 10:15 Saturday morning, but Marcel was still waiting for us at the airport. The airport was so different than any American airport. It was a lot quieter, I think because no one was on a phone. Everyone’s luggage made it, thankfully, but we were missing a person. We all split taxis from the airport to our dorm, Resa, which is at the corner of what I thought were two pretty well-known streets but every taxi I’ve ever had here always has a confused look on their face when they hear where I need to go…which is real comforting, let me tell you. We all got settled in our rooms and met downstairs with Sam, who had arrived earlier in the week, and the Dallas plane people to get lunch. I actually didn’t eat…they went to a place close by in Rambla del Raval called Fish and Chips, but since I’m trying to save money AND I didn’t want my first meal in Spain to be non-Spanish cuisine, I didn't eat. After lunch, Sam took us through La Rambla and we got to experience the Metro for the first time. We saw Torre Agbar and shopped at the big Carrefour (Spain’s Walmart of sorts) for toiletries and electronics that people forgot to bring. I had to get a different cord for my laptop because I couldn’t fit the plug into my adapter…that whole three prong thing. But it actually worked out really well because I just use that cord for my laptop and I can use my adaptor (cause I only brought one…genius) for everything else. On the way back we stopped by Carrefour Express which is just right on La Rambla, really close to our dorm, for groceries. I got bread for my pb&js and milk (which they DON’T refrigerate in the store) and cereal for breakfast. All for only 4€! At this point I was really wishing I had brought a watch. It stays light so much longer here it’s REALLY hard to tell what time of the day it is. Marcel recommended that we try to stay up as late as we could on Saturday so we could get used to the time easiest and fight jetlag. I’m pretty sure I came back from our adventure, ate a sandwich, put a few things away in my room, and passed out at 9.
Sunday:
By this point everyone was here except for Danielle, the person we discovered was missing. We were told she came in Thursday night but no one had seen her or heard from her so we all thought that was strange. Later, we found out she was stuck in Atlanta of all places and she wouldn’t get in until Monday. So the 14 of us decided to go to the beach, which is about 15 minutes away from Resa. Molly’s College Station roommate May has been studying in Barcelona since January so she met us and took us to the beach. And conveniently she speaks Spanish so it was really easy to get around with her with us. Even though the people here speak Catalan, which is NOTHING like Spanish, but most of them know Spanish also, they just don’t like to speak it because of their history. We ate at a restaurant that overlooked the beach and most of us split a meal of the day--you get an appetizer, an entrée, a dessert, and a drink (lunch is the big meal of the day in Spain). Eating in Spain is nothing like eating in America…everyone takes their time. It also didn’t help that we had such a large group. So lunch took about 2 hours, then we finally made it to the beach, which is just breathtakingly beautiful. A few of us laid out on the beach and another group went walking around. Beaches in Spain..also very different from America. A lot of the women are topless, a lot of the men wear Speedos, and it’s not uncommon to see people on top of each other. A lot of people smoke pot on the beach and there are constant solicitors, which reminds me a lot of Cabo. Asian people trying to sell massages, Pakistani people trying to sell beer (that, according to our advisor, they store in sewers), and my favorite is the men walking by showing the tattoos they can do and the page is always open to the Playboy Bunny page. Because THAT’S what I want, how did they know?! We laid out for an hour or two then headed back to clean up for our first dinner with Marcel. We ate at La Fonda which is right across La Rambla near the plaza that Marcel lives in. We got there at 7:30 and literally were the only people in the restaurant. People started POURING in at around 9 though because that’s dinner time for them. I loved what I got except for the Carpaccio, but I had to try it. I got white wine to drink, which was delicious.
Monday:
I woke up early to run with Vincent and DJ. We ran about 30 minutes to the W Hotel, which is just right at the end of La Barceloneta, and back. Our orientation was at 10 with Marcel for classes. We got our maps and little notepads and pens and then walked over to our classroom, which is about 5 minutes away from Resa. It’s the coolest building ever. Our class is actually held in a basement of a building that looks ancient. After our walk, Molly, Danielle and I went looking for shoes for Molly because she forgot her tennis shoes and needed something to wear for our walks. But Monday was a holiday in Spain so hardly any of the retail shops were open. Molly and I tried chocolate con churros though because they look delicious in pictures but they weren’t good. Our first class on Monday was our city class and I’m pretty sure everyone had a very difficult time staying awake. It was really cool learning about the structure of the city though but I think we were all still jetlagged that staying awake just wasn't an option. Class only lasted an hour instead of the two it was supposed to be. Later in the evening, after class, we all went out for dinner at a really cheap Turkish place on Nou de la Rambla and as good as it was…it made me sick later. After dinner we played around in a garden in the middle of a block and ooohed and ahhhed because we had just talked about public spaces in city class.
Tuesday:
We had our first walk with Marcel in the morning. We have morning walks Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10-2 and Marcel walks with purpose for sure. Our first stop was actually the gardens we had visited the night before. Then we stopped by La Boquiera, which is a market on La Rambla. The food there was incredible and it’s all so beautiful. Our walk ended at the Museu D’Historia De Barcelona, which was just all about the history of Barcelona and how it originated and whatnot. It was really cool because underneath they had all the Roman ruins still intact. Pretty much the only thing I took from it though was that they used urine to clean their clothes. After our walks, we have a break from 2-4, then we have photo class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In class, everyone was exhausted again and I’m pretty sure most people fell asleep again. I was paying attention though and I was the only one asking questions. So by the end it seemed like Marcel was purely talking to me, which got a little awkward. After class a group of us went and got gelato, which was delicious of course.
Wednesday:
I was supposed to meet DJ and Vincent to run again but when I got down there I thought they had left without me so I just went on my own. I ran towards the fish but turned around before I got too far because I didn’t want to be late for class. When I was halfway back I ran into DJ and Vincent, so I turned around and ran with them the rest of the way. Our walk was really cool because I was using the manual settings on my camera for the first time ever so even though I don’t have that many pictures, I feel like they’re cooler (maybe). We saw the Arc de Triomf and the Santa Maria del Mar cathedral and ended up at the Picasso Museum. Picasso seemed a little crazy…especially since he painted over 50 paintings of his interpretations of Las Meninas. We don’t have class on Wednesdays so a group of us had lunch at Pizza Del Born then went straight to the beach. We had to take the Metro and a Tram to get there but we did fine! I was proud of us. We laid out until like 5 or so then headed back to Resa. I had a pb&j then a group of us went to La Rambla and split a 2 liter pitcher of Sangria, which was great.
Thursday:
Our morning walk started at Casa Mila, which was designed by Gaudi. We were there for about an hour and it was really interesting all of the details that were so well thought out…even the door knobs were special. In the attic they had models of all of his buildings and all of the things that inspired him to do his arches, like the ribs of a python. The terrace was probably my favorite part. Then we went to Fundacion Antoni Tapies which was not my favorite place for sure. It all went over my head. Photo class was interesting again. We looked at examples of everything we had learned about on Tuesday. It was neat because they were pretty much all pictures taken by Marcel, so it was cool to see his interpretation of what makes a good picture. For dinner we met with the woman who arranged our excursions to Madrid and Balboa. Her office has a terrace that overlooks Mercat de Santa Caterina, which has the most beautiful roof I’ve ever seen. We had pan con tomate for dinner and just hung out until everyone got too cold and we had to go back.
Friday:
Our first day of shopping! We woke up late and had lunch…I got what seemed to be beef jerky on toasted bread. My jaw hurt so bad after chewing through it all, but it was good. It could have used some cheese. Then we hit up H&M…we were there for forever but it was HUGE so you had to stay for hours just to see everything. I got 2 shirts, a skirt, and a dress for about 30€. Then we tried Zara (I had to after learning about it in my Global Marketing class…because that’s the kind of stuff we talk about) but it was out of our price range for sure…and it wasn’t as cute. The trends here are definitely different. They wear Alladin-esque pants that look really comfortable but they’re odd looking. It’s like dressy sweat pants with a really low crotch. It’s hard to explain. We stopped by Corte Ingles so Katie could get an adaptor and then the Nike Store for Yvette, then we headed back to Resa. We had dinner in our rooms then we went to the Dow Jones Bar, which I’m in love with. We met some people from UT, go figure, and hung out with them most of the night. Danielle, Bridget and I ended up leaving right around 2 but Katie and Yvette stayed out until 5! I just don’t think I could handle that, haha.
Anyway, now you’re caught up! I’ll try to post more regularly.
