Aventura en Alicante: Barcelona

Love from home

This was a quick week since I got back from Morocco on Tuesday and then left again for Barcelona on Thursday afternoon! Only 2 days of classes this last week! But I did have 3 nice surprises: an awesome care package from my best friend Sarah (she got me all my favorite goodies from the States), my grandmother arrived in Alicante (she’ll be visiting for 2 weeks) and she brought me goldfish that my mom sent me. All good things to have from home.

¡Obama ha ganado!

Obama won! It was great news to wake up to on Wednesday. All of my students and teachers told me he won and were also excited which cracked me up. I guess Romney said something bad about Spain's economy and now all the Spaniards hate him.

Llega mi abuela

My grandmother (dad’s mom) arrived on Wednesday all by herself to visit me in Spain! My host family actually invited her to stay and eat with us which is huge and not part of the deal. So I feel very special that my host family likes me enough to let one of my family members stay with us. My host family could not be sweeter. It’s quite the job though translating everything back and forth since my grandma doesn’t speak any Spanish and my host family speaks no English. It’s good practice but boy does my brain get confused. Everyone is very impressed that my grandma traveled to Spain by herself and wants to meet her. Even my program director Pepa, has now invited both of us over for tea and a snack next week.

Oficialmente vivo en España

On Thursday I picked up my official foreign exchange student card that permits me to be here for a year (an extension of my student visa that only lasts 90 days). The card says I’m registered as part of my host family and I officially live here! Pretty exciting!

Barcelona

Fountain at Plaza Cataluña

Like I said, my grandmother and I left for Barcelona on Thursday by train (takes approximately 5 hours). We got in around 10:00 p.m. and went out for tapas and sangria. On Friday we walked down La Rambla, a very famous street in Barcelona that links the main part of town (Plaza Cataluña—where we stayed) to the sea. La Rambla is full of shops, street performers, and restaurants. About half way down is a market on the right side called La Boqueria which has fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, sweets, bars, and restaurants. We ate at a restaurant behind the market for lunch that was phenomenal. We also went to the Pablo Picasso museum which was interesting because I hadn’t really seen much of his early stuff which is much different from what we think when we hear “Picasso.” For dinner we went to an excellent Catalán restaurant and ate delicious food once again. Catalán is the “dialect” they speak in Barcelona because Barcelona pertains to the province of Cataluña. Catalán is a mix between French and Spanish and I can understand it for the most part but reading it is a whole other story. Catalán food is similar to traditional Spanish food but has certain recipes and sauces that pertain to the region.

Miró statue

On Saturday we purchased tickets to ride the “hop on, hop off” tourist bus to be able to see the whole city since we were only there for the weekend. There are two routes (east part of the city and the west part of the city). We started with the west route that took us up by Montjuic (“Jew Mountain”) and to the Joan Miró museum, which I thought was fantastic. A lot of it was abstract art, which confuses the heck out of me…jumping through a piece of paper is museum-worthy art? I’m not kidding, that was an exhibit. I could do that. Anyways, the rest of the museum was mostly Miró’s work, which was phenomenal. He used so many mediums and textures and his work was so lively. I loved it, and highly recommend the museum. Later we saw the Batlló house, a famous landmark in Barcelona. Then we got off the bus and had lunch at another quaint Catalán restaurant before getting on the east route. On the east route we saw La Sagrada Familia, Antonio Gaudí’s famous unfinished church, which was such an amazing sight. We also got off at Gaudí Park where we saw his house, with handmade furniture by the artist and various sculptures throughout the park like the famous dragon. For dinner we had a wonderful three-course paella dinner. Pretty sure the food was my favorite part of Barcelona and I probably gained 3 pounds this weekend from all the eating. I also started drinking champagne at lunch...I could get used to that. ;) You only live once/visit Barcelona so many times in your life so I guess I can justify it all…

Casa de Batlló

Today (Sunday) we didn’t do very much since we had to head back to Alicante. We saw a smaller but charming cathedral, watched a protest pass by, wandered around some of the little streets, and my grandma bought some presents.